CityNews 191212

Good tidings we bring…

DECEMBER 12, 2019

Drought threatens animal sanctuary

DANIELLE NOHRA Wind howls as flames menace Queanbeyan

NICHOLE OVERALL

Surviving Christmas bites busy mums hard

KATE MEIKLE

Christmas wish for more trees, please

PAUL COSTIGAN

… to you and your kin, we wi sh you a Merry Chri stmas & a Happy New Year

COME OUT TO THE CANBERRA WALK IN AVIARY Friendly birds that can be fed and photographed See over 500 birds from 65 species from Australia & the world!

Open 7 days a week from 10am to 5pm

COME ALONG AND ENJOY A GREAT FAMILY DAY OUT! Unit 13 Federation Square, O’Hanlon Place, Nicholls • Phone 6230 2044 • canberrawalkinaviary.com.au

Do you suffer with pain?

We offer a suite of programs to physically and emotionally assist you with the impact of chronic pain

Services available: Hydrotherapy at locations across Canberra Exercise Physiology group classes and individual consultations GLA:D Physiotherapy program for hip and knee osteoarthritis Dietitian consultations for weight loss/gain and pain relief Occupational therapy to improve daily living challenges Individual counselling and health education Pain Support programs, seminars and support groups All programs can be incorporated into NDIS, DVA and My Aged Care We accept GP Referrals for Medicare funded allied health services

How else we can help you: Most chronic pain conditions respond to exercise and weight loss Hydrotherapy is proven to lead to reduction in many kinds of chronic pain People living with pain often suffer from being isolated and we have programs that will lessen this impact Mild depression and anxiety will significantly increase perceptions of pain and our counselling, support groups and exercise groups will help reduce this impact.

Join online at: www.arthritisact.org.au info@arthritisact.org.au or Contact Arthritis ACT on 1800 011 041

Programs held in Southside Visit us at SHOUT in Pearce

NEWS / Shannon’s cry for help

Drought takes a cruel toll on animal sanctuary

By Danielle

NOHRA WHISKER Woods, a once thriving animal sanctuary, with an abundance of grass to feed the animals, has turned into a dry, nightmare, and now its owner Shannon Mortlock urgently needs help.

When Shannon, 41, opened the notfor-profit animal sanctuary that rescues domestic and wild animals on 48 hectares in Williamsdale, just outside of Canberra, she never thought she would get to a point where she’d struggle to feed the animals.

A decade on and Shannon is living pay-check to pay-check, spending most of her income on feeding them.

“For years the sanctuary would run from my wages, but ever since the drought hit, it’s just not sustainable anymore,” she says.

Shannon’s been struggling for three years and although she hates asking for help, she’s found herself in a position where she desperately needs it so has set up a GoFundMe page calling for donations.

“We took in these animals to give them a safe and loving home and now I’m struggling to feed them,” she says.

Sanctuary owner Shannon Mortlock.

Whisker Woods’ dam before the drought (inset) and today.

“We’re not a farm so we can’t just send them off to slaughter. It’s just not an option. And we can’t rehome them because nobody’s taking animals in the drought. I’m getting asked every day to take in sheep, cows and horses because farmers can’t afford to keep them.

“I used to get asked once or twice a week but now it’s every day because of the drought.”

Shannon’s even been yelled at recently because she’s had to say “no” to taking in some animals, and says

she just can’t afford it, she’s only one person.

“When you rescue an animal, you rescue it forever. And unless you can find a really good home for them, there’s no way out,” she says.

“We just can’t keep going like this.

There’s only so far my pay goes.

“I remember thinking last summer that we made it through the summer but the drought just never seems to be ending and with these fires, the amount of wildlife we’ll get coming in

INDEX Arts & Entertainment 27-29 Canberra Matters 6 Cinema 28 Crosswords 30, 31 Dining 28 Gardening 26 Horoscopes 31 Letters 16 News 3-16 Politics 14 Socials 17

with burns, we just can’t say ‘no’.”

It was more than a decade ago, after volunteering in pounds and seeing lots of cats and dogs being put down, that Shannon became inspired to open a sanctuary.

“All they needed was more time,” she says.

“I thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be good to start up a sanctuary and give these animals some more time’.”

So Shannon did. And now she has about 180 animals that she supports

with her public service wages.

At minimum, Whisker Woods needs $600 a week to provide hay for the animals over the next six months. And then there’s the need for water. “[We’re not on town water], we only have rain water but there’s been no rain for three years so we have to get water trucked in now,” she says.

“We need about two truck loads per month, which is $250 per load to keep the place maintained. It’s not even going towards showers. I have to go to my mum’s or my partner’s house to have a shower.”

All together Shannon’s asking for almost $15,000 to get them through until about May. She just wants the animals fed and hydrated, and says the eight horses and four dairy cows cost about $600 a week alone.

“I’m worried about February because the produce just isn’t growing to keep up with the demand,” she says.

With no feed on the ground and a dried up dam, the sanctuary has become more costly than Shannon could have ever imagined when she started it.

“It makes you think: ‘Is this it now?

What if it doesn’t get back to what it used to be?’” she says.

“Unless people don’t start to help sanctuaries more, we’ll start closing.”

Donations to chuffed.org/project/ whiskerwoods

Since 1993: Volume 25, Number 48

Cover: Gardening columnist Cedric Bryant’s dreaming of a red Christmas. Story Page 30.

Well written, well read

Ph 02 6189 0777 Fax 02 6189 0778 9b/189 Flemington Rd, Mitchell 2911

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Ian Meikle, 9b/189 Flemington Road, Mitchell.

Managing Director: James Anderson, 0404 077605, james@citynews.com.au Director: Kate Meikle, kate@citynews.com.au Senior advertising account executive: David Cusack, 0435 380656 Advertising account executive: Damien Klemke, 0439 139001 Tim Rutherford, 0412 933150 Editor: Ian Meikle, editor@citynews.com.au Assistant editor: Danielle Nohra, danielle@citynews.com.au Journalist: Kathryn Vukovljak, kathryn@citynews.com.au; Arts editor: Helen Musa, 0400 043764, helen@citynews.com.au Production manager/graphic design: Janet Ewen Graphic designer: Karl Speller Proof reader: Glenda Anderson Accounts: accounts@citynews.com.au

WHEN IT MATTERS

When it matters Matthew Forshaw, Solicitor

It matters to us that your compensation claim is settled fairly and quickly.

Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers can win you compensation and secure your future.

Diana Farah, Partner

When it matters, contact Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers.

Martin Rowney, Solicitor

NO WIN. NO FEE. NO OBLIGATION. (c) Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers 2017. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

1800 059 278

enquiry@codea.com.au

David Tarrant, Partner

www.codea.com.au

RECRUITMENT HIVE TECH SPECIALISTS

CityNews December 12-18, 2019 3

SEVEN DAYS

When the cranky cockies tumbled into town THREE thousand frustrated Southern Riverina farmers poured into the capital demanding the Federal parliament scrap the controversial Murray Darling Basin Plan.

Under the bold “Can the Plan” banner they came, the young, the old, with their dogs, and in their trucks, Toyotas and even tractors.

In weather-beaten Akubras and lived-in Driza-Bones, the normally reserved or “quiet” Australians rallied enthusiastically among scores of creative and sometimes crude placards on the lawns of Parliament House in one of the biggest such protest events this year.

As a convoy of more than 200 horn-blasting trucks circled, speakers and entertainers warmed up the crowd before it marched on the forecourt. Organisers pleaded with the protesters to “behave”, but when a small group broke away and penetrated a line of almost 20 AFP officers, the entire group marched to the front doors.

With extra reinforcements protecting the building the mob chanted slogans aimed squarely at Water Minister David Littleproud and local MP, the member for Farrer, Sussan Ley. Among the first pollies brave enough to venture down was Bob Katter, but he was quickly elbowed out of the spotlight

by One Nation senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts. The One Nation

to change, with ABC cornflakes man Dan Bourchier on the move. Bourchier is to be replaced in 2020 by Lish Fejer who appears to be taking an intellectual approach, promising “to dive into that hive mind and have some fun” with the “switched on, generous, connected and considered” ABC Canberra audience.

THE Yarralumla Residents Association has returned tradition to the area by urging locals to become involved with decking local trees with bright red bows. No tree, no prob.

Decorated letterboxes are also acceptable.

The association can provide the fabric and instructions for $5.

Protesting farmers at Parliament House… the “quiet” Australians rallied among scores of creative and sometimes crude placards.

Photo: Mike Welsh pair swooped on the disenchanted cohort like seagulls on hot chips, keen to exploit angry farmers and regional small business operators, now clearly in the market for another political vehicle on which to hitch their considerable political clout.

THE bowels of motorists travelling along Belconnen Way near Bunnings on Wednesday were abruptly loosened by the disconcerting sight of eight police officers on the side of the road pointing speed guns directly at them. No, it wasn’t a heavy handed pre-Christmas, revenue-raising campaign, but what appeared to be a training exercise

involving young officers familiarising themselves with the instruments in time for the holiday blitz.

CANBERRA’S bus shelters continue to be senselessly trashed. The shelters on each side of Commonwealth Ave near Albert Hall have been disabled for weeks, with tape wrapped around shattered glass panels. In July police speculated that around 50 bus shelters had been targeted by slingshots.

The glass panels can cost up to $1000 apiece to replace.

AFTER more than two decades in the secondhand book caper, former Canberra public servant Ron Robertson is trading the romance of bricks and mortar and ceiling high piles of dusty tomes, for the detached world of the web. Sadly, Ron’s Hawker bookshop must close on December 31.

Hawker’s unofficial mayor says the old model of book selling is no longer viable and he will now do business exclusively on his laptop.

IT’S comforting to know I’m not the only pedant in the capital. Posted on twitter: “The Apostrophe Society closing its doors has inspired me to start a foundation for Not

Yarralumla trees festooned with Christmas bows.

Referring to Federal Parliament as Canberra (still working on a name). Its basic goal will be to stop people using ‘Canberra’ when they mean Federal parliament”.

AND the final reference to the bubble this year. As the pollies left town for the summer break, unmolested by a threat to block their exit by activist group Extinction Rebellion, two minor and trivial questions remain unanswered. Did Malcolm Turnbull’s bonk ban transfer to the ScoMo regime and if so has it remained intact? Asking for a friend.

THE local breakfast radio fare continues

If you or someone in your family have been injured in a motor vehicle accident that wasn’t your fault, new CTP laws will wreck your rights to fair compensation. These changes come into effect soon. Protect yourself.

Don't let your family end up in a financial scrapyard.

4 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

More than ever, don’t delay.

Call MEJ.

02 6257 2999 | mej.com.au

Personal Injury Lawyers

get it done IN spring!

Quality Landscape Supplies

Since 1 9 5 4

“Our friendly staff will advise you on the best suited products & quantities for your project�

Composts & Soils

Mulches

OPEN 7 DAYS

Sands

Gravels

Granites

Mugga Lane Depot Symonston

Mitchell Depot 33 Darling Street

6239 7200

6241 8860

Wall Rocks

Firewood

Please visit website for more details.

Deliveries available 6 days a week.

corkhillbros.com.au

CANBERRA MATTERS

A Christmas wish for a lot more trees, please IT’S Christmas! A time to be jolly.

A Christmas tree is such a positive symbol. No matter how crazy or plain, Christmas trees, like the real ones, bring joy. And we could do with a lot more fun in life.

Unfortunately, Canberra as the Bush Capital is under threat. This is not fun news. We have known it for a long time.

At this time of the year, the community sectors are near exhaustion. They have devoted so much time and energy trying to bring some sense to planning.

Yet the trees are still coming down.

The number of trees to be planted as announced during 2019 do not go anywhere near enough to replace those being lost, let alone get the city on a path to have ample trees to assist with the realities of climate change.

Canberra’s community groups are constantly challenging the stupid planning and development regimes of this Labor Greens coalition government.

A common factor in these challenges has been the ACT planning directorate’s

The trees are still coming down. The number to be planted as announced during 2019 don’t go anywhere near enough to replace those being lost, let alone ensure the city has ample trees to assist with the realities of climate change. ad hoc development approvals that deliver less biodiversity, fewer birds, fewer trees and harsher urban environments. There’s also the desire for better design, good architecture and more attention on community facilities – but that’s another whole piece. This column is about how green infrastructure should be a key focus for the ACT’s 2020 election.

Recently the government tried to sound as though it cared for the city’s green infrastructure. It was a sorry effort. They could not bring themselves to use the internationally recognised term for the policy area. The term they used was “Living Infrastructure”, which has no use in scientific circles.

That terminology avoided the realities that this government is decades behind on actions that should have enhanced, not diminished, Canberra’s green infrastructure.

When this government talks up environmental and green policies, for the most part it means that they are going to have more committee meetings to discuss something.

To counter this confused approach, Canberra’s well-organised community groups need to consider making green infrastructure, which includes trees and biodiversity, a top priority issue for candidates coming into the ACT’s 2020 election.

The symbol to be used should be a tree and what it represents – green infrastructure as integral to the city’s future as a liveable city for the future.

It will be a huge challenge in 2020 to have ACT political parties take this seriously – even though it is obvious and overdue to be a top priority. The so-called Labor Party is a hollowedout shell of what Labor used to stand for. The ACT Greens have become embedded with ACT Labor and are more a murky brown. And no-one knows what the Canberra Liberals stand for when it comes to climate, biodiversity and fundamentals such as increasing

Christmas trees, like the real ones, bring joy. And we could all do with a lot more fun. our green infrastructure.

The Canberra community deserves a lot better than the current muddled approach to green infrastructure by the ACT’s political and bureaucratic leadership across portfolios such as planning, urban development, housing, land use, conservation, heritage and environment. The National Capital Authority is no better given its developerdriven approach to how it administers the issues relevant to this city.

A fundamental change is required from the top down to change the culture of all levels of government and agencies that influence the city’s green infrastructure – including within established suburbs, to the more recent that are bereft of ample trees and the yet-to-be-built that are more likely to continue to be domi-

nated by hard surfaces with a scarcity of trees and biodiversity.

The lead up to the ACT’s 2020 elections should be a reality check on which candidates are committed to delivering (not just talking about) green infrastructure as a key to this city being an enjoyable place to live.

The community sector is ideally placed to change how a future ACT government of any colour deals with green infrastructure.

Merry Christmas to all the hardworking people in our community groups.

Paul Costigan is an independent commentator and consultant on the visual arts, photography, urban design, environmental issues and everyday matters.

TUITION BY KUMON 60 YEARS OF PROVEN RESULTS What a wonderful year it has been for Kumon in Canberra. Our Instructors from Kumon Gungahlin, Woden, North Canberra and Tuggeranong would like to extend their thanks to all the Kumon students and families enrolled at their Centres and wish everyone a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year.

How does Kumon work?

Kumon Maths and English programs cater for children from preschool to year 12 with a daily approach to developing excellent academic skills. The Kumon Instructor will tailor your child’s study program based on their specific needs. Students attend Kumon classes twice each week and receive homework to do every other day.

Do you want the ‘Kumon advantage’ for your child?

There are four Kumon Centres located in Canberra.

For almost 30 years, they have collectively helped thousands of students improve their maths and English abilities. Call your local Kumon Centre today to see how your child can get the ‘Kumon advantage’.

Enrol during December, January or February to secure a place for your child!

6 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

GUNGAHLIN Susan Davis 02 6242 0177

NTH CANBERRA Mikayla Wenn 02 6156 5119

WODEN Michael Lloyd 0488 088 239

TUGGERANONG Jane Hiatt 0419 134 078

YOU CAN’T PREDICT WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS. BUT YOU CAN PREDICT YOUR ENERGY RATES. A new low rate plan that keeps decreasing.

Lock in energy price certainty for three years, and watch your energy price go DOWN. It’s an easy and secure, set-and-forget plan for everyone.

Call 13 14 93 and speak to your local energy expert now.

actewagl.com.au/certainsaver ACT residential customers only, T&Cs apply – see website. ActewAGL Retail ABN 46 221 314 841 a partnership of AGL ACT Retail Investments Pty Ltd ABN 53 093 631 586 and Icon Retail Investments Limited ABN 23 074 371 207

NEWS / Lions Christmas cakes

Life’s a piece of cake for the Lions Queanbeyan has brought us many things, but who knew the nationally loved Lions Christmas cake got its start there? APRIL MARCH reports.

BORN in Queanbeyan, the Lions Christmas cake has become a staple at the table of many Australian homes.

Known for its taste, fruit content, and shelf life – the iconic cake has raised more than $50 million for local communities since its inception in Queanbeyan in 1967.

Long-standing Lions Club of Queanbeyan member Noel Reid, 95, was instrumental in the foundation of the “much loved” cake fundraiser, 52 years ago.

The past district governor, former club president and self-confessed sweet tooth ran the highly successful initiative out of Queanbeyan from 1967 until 1984.

“At one time…we strived for a million cake sales across Australia in 1975…and we did it,” says Noel.

Reid, a retired stock and station agent, served in Borneo during World War II.

In 1957 Noel married his wife Joan and joined the Lions Club of Queanbeyan.

The father of seven children and 16 grandchildren, Reid is the last remaining charter member of the Lions Club of Queanbeyan.

“I talked him into joining the club,” chuckled Joan.

“He always wanted to help… he always wants to help the person in need.”

Reid’s son in law, Greg Tarrant, is also involved in Lions.

He’s immensely proud of the role his family has played in the Christmas cake initiative.

“The idea came from a small club in America who were selling cakes as a fundraiser,” Greg said.

“Noel, along with other members Aub Rankin, Ern Smith and later Peter Stapleton were all part of getting the cakes fundraiser rolling here.

“For many years it was run out of Noel’s office at WJ Gibbs and Co in Queanbeyan… his office was always full of cakes.

“But the whole concept revolves around Helen Keller…”

In 1925, Helen Keller attended the Lions Clubs International Convention and challenged Lions to become

Queanbeyan Lions Club president Max Carrick with one of those Christmas cakes. “knights of the blind” in the crusade against darkness. The Lions accepted her challenge and its work ever since has included fundraising for sight programs.

Lions Club of Queanbeyan president Max Carrick said the “iconic” cake is still being baked using the original tried, tested, proven and unique Lions Christmas cake recipe.

“Everyone loves it,” he says.

“We never get any complaints, nobody has ever come back and said, ‘that was a dud cake’.

“The cakes have been a

fantastic fundraiser for clubs across Australia.

“We are all very proud of the fact that Queanbeyan is where it all started.”

In Lions, 100 per cent of the money raised from the public goes to support community projects.

“We support many worthwhile causes, projects and organisations such as Meals on Wheels, HOME In Queanbeyan, a local women’s refuge and Queanbeyan Special Needs Group,” Max said.

“Last year we raised $25,000

Cake hero… Noel Reid, 95, the last remaining charter member of the Lions Club of Queanbeyan. alone for local community projects through our Lions Club Bookshop on Monaro Street in Queanbeyan.”

Places to buy Lions Christmas cakes until Christmas from Lions volunteers include Queanbeyan’s Riverside Plaza, Jerrabomberra Shopping Village, the Lions Community Bookshop, 146 Monaro Street Queanbeyan, South Point (formerly Tuggeranong Hyperdome), Belconnen Mall and the Jamison shopping centre.

MY SUMMER This summer Australian former world champion marathon runner Robert de Castella plans to…

• M y favourite day of the year to run is Christmas morning. The only people out are kids playing with their new bikes and toys outside. There’s a great Christmas spirit in the air and community.

• Post big Christmas lunch is time for a family walk at Isaacs Ridge followed up by a short nap.

• T hen, toasted leftover ham sandwiches for breakfast on Boxing Day, on Deeks Health Foods’ quinoa bread, of course!

• A day ride on my motorbike, through the Alpine country and high plains, with lunch at Tumba-bloody-rumba (Tumbarumba).

• Read the latest Jack Reacher, or like, novel.

The only internationally compliant Green Builder in Australia Building ‘green’ with Green Homes Australia is the best choice when it comes to custom-built, energy efficient homes and renovations. Superior comfort levels, lower energy costs and great aesthetics are just some of the benefits of building with GHA. For an affordable build tailored to your specific needs contact GHA today. With less impact on your pocket and the environment it’s a win for you and the Earth.

Green Homes Australia (GHA) is the only builder in Australia who is in compliance with the International Standards Organisation for design and construction of energy efficient homes (ISO 50001) ISO 50001 Energy Efficient Home Certificate 8 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

Call 1300 724 661 or visit greenhomesaustralia.com.au

EAT RE R G FROM

TE! BA

GET A

PREVENT THE HORROR OF AN UNEXPECTED COLD SHOWER.

$750

*

Don’t let your old hot water system leave you in the cold.

Upgrade to a highly efficient hot water heat pump, perfect for Canberra’s climate. Plus, get a great rebate starting from $750*.

Save yourself the horror. Save yourself some money. actewagl.com.au/energysavingsolutions

ENERGY SAVING SOLUTIONS

*T&Cs apply - see website. ActewAGL Retail ABN 46 221 314 841 is a partnership of Icon Retail Investments Limited ABN 23 074 371 207 and AGL ACT Retail Investments Pty Ltd ABN 53 093 631 586.

CHRISTMAS / arguments

Many a slip twixt the Christmas cup and the lip Why is it that we’re more likely to say things we might later regret during Christmas? Researcher BRENT COKER has some tips for avoiding arguments over the festive period.

CHRISTMAS is a stressful time for many, so not surprisingly it’s also known as the season for arguments.

Some assume it’s because we share the time with family members, who we’re more likely to argue with because of bottled-up resentment or some other annoyance we’ve been secretly nurturing. Others put it down to alcohol.

But, in either case, under normal circumstances people are usually adept at keeping potentially hurtful comments to themselves. So why is it that we’re more likely to say things we might later regret during Christmas?

Over the past three years we’ve been studying why people say things they later regret. Released last month in the “Journal of Experimental Social Psychology”, our research discovered in eight experiments over three years the same variable consistently explains why people disclose things that cause them anguish.

From innocuous faux pas to more serious disclosures of secretive information, in each experiment we found “arousal” explains tendencies to disclose information that probably should have been concealed.

Christmas is stressful, and stress leads to chronic arousal. When people

are aroused, they’re more likely to say things they probably shouldn’t.

So what is arousal? And why does it cause people to say things they later regret?

Essentially, arousal is the degree to which an individual is awake and alert. You might assume being awake and alert would increase rather than decrease the accuracy of what we say – but this appears not to be the case.

The reason is because arousal uses up so-called “cognitive resources” – basically brain power. Because there are less conscious cognitive resources available for controlling what comes out of our mouths, our minds default to more automatic, and seemingly less considered, responses.

When we lose conscious control over what we say, it becomes more likely we’ll disclose information that we would otherwise keep to ourselves.

Our research finds that information we’re usually careful about concealing, such as secrets and very personal information, is more likely to be disclosed when we default to more automatic responses.

We found arousal makes people reveal more personal information, disclose secrets, reveal incriminating

information and share frowned-upon experiences with strangers.

In our first experiment, we asked participants to write dating profiles.

We evoked arousal with half the participants. They disclosed more embarrassing, emotional, intimate and even incriminating information on their dating profiles than those who were relatively relaxed.

A post-hoc study found those people who disclosed such information were less likely to be chosen for a date. The study suggests people who aren’t chilled out are viewed as less ideal partners.

In our second experiment, we found people were more likely to disclose times when they said mean or malicious things to others online, suggesting that arousal increases the disclosure of information that people do

not normally like to disclose. Relaxed people, it seems, are better at concealing information and keeping secrets.

In our third study, we evoked arousal by getting people to jog on the spot for 60 seconds. The results found participants were more likely to share embarrassing stories (open up to others) after physical exercise. Usually people might disclose personal information like this to friends and family, but it seems people are more likely to open up to strangers when aroused.

This finding suggests that doing physical exercise together might be a better way of getting to know someone than more docile pursuits such as sitting around.

It seems that lowering arousal is the key to gaining more control over what we say. The problem is that the times

when we ought to be careful – such as job interviews, media engagements, important work meetings, or romantic encounters – are often arousing, and it is not easy to remain calm and relaxed.

So what are some things people can do to minimise unintended disclosures and save the family from a memorable Christmas for the wrong reasons?

Some techniques are known to reduce daily stress levels and are useful for situations when we’re most riled up.

These approaches include consciously controlling your breathing and listening to chilled music. Other techniques for longer-term benefits mirror the advice of health professionals – reduce how much coffee you drink, eat a balanced diet and get enough sleep.

Not only do these steps make you healthier, they also reduce your stress levels and ultimately your control over what you say.

So when you’re opening your pressies or digging into your turkey this Christmas, try to chill out and relax.

Turn on the music, breathe deeply, and reduce the chance of saying something you might later regret.

Dr Brent Coker is a researcher and lecturer of Marketing at the University of Melbourne. He has a PhD in electronic commerce (“Predicting Internet Purchase Intention”).

This story first appeared in “The Conversation” (theconversation.com).

25% OFF

RENOVATION SALE

STYLE ARCADE MANUKA

6295 1763 WWW.CREATIONSJEWELLERS.COM.AU

10 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

@CREATIONSJEWELLERSCANBERRA

MUMMY

Why surviving Christmas bites busy mums hard HAVING lived through a handful of Christmases with two small children and written in previous years about some of the challenges that parents face, especially the pressure and sleeplessness of the silly season, believe me, I know what Christmas is like for families.

It amplifies hard-to-manage behaviours from little ones who are out of routine, high on sugar and over excited. And it’s not just the kids – let’s face it we grown ups are over tired, over committed and perhaps some of us (me) have over indulged in sugar and Christmas drinks.

I love Christmas, I really do. You’ll get no “bah, humbug” from me, but to be honest, Christmas has bitten me hard as a mum.

A lot of work, money and emotions go into making it a great time of year and a lot of expectations accompany it that the family will all share wonderfully happy, magical Christmas moments. As my fellow mum friend smiles, rolls her eyes and says in a sarcastic

When the Christmas happy hour kicks in and the kids are playing happily in the garden, time stretches on and dinner times are sometimes a last-minute realisation: “Oh crap! It’s almost seven o’clock, what are we going to feed the kids?” tone: “Ah, Christmas memories…”

Last Christmas, we consciously recognised that Christmas with little ones wouldn’t just organically be the relaxed affair we hoped for without some serious planning, so we came up with a survival strategy. Call out to distinguished Canberra paediatrician Dr Sue Packer, who inspired some of the strategy in her 2017 interview with “CityNews” that has resonated with me.

Our checklist was – are the kids hungry, tired or bored right now? The food strategy was to keep up the kids’ regular meal and snack times. Not always easy when visiting people’s homes, eating out and sometimes forgetting to pack a lunch box for the kids when we go out.

Yes, standards drop for our parenting over Christmas, we are only human! But we tried to make sure the kids had an apple or crackers and cheese available for a snack to help curb the “hangries”.

When the Christmas happy hour

kicks in and everyone is socialising and the kids are playing happily in the garden, enjoying the lovely, long, summer evenings, time stretches on and kids’ dinner times are sometimes a last-minute realisation: “Oh crap!

It’s almost seven o’clock, what are we going to feed the kids?”

I let go of expectations that my kids will suddenly decide to help me show off my amazing parenting skills to friends and family by suddenly eating broccoli without a fuss, so I stuck to familiar, easy foods. Spend the energy on creating delicious food that the grown-ups will appreciate and let the kids enjoy their favourite food – be it a sausage sandwich or fish fingers.

Tiredness is a big thing in our household. Always has been. Perhaps it’s my obsession (I love my sleep!) but I have found that to be the biggest factor for stress as a mum. Some families either have fixed bedtime routines (like ours) or are super relaxed for their kids to stay up later and their kids tend to sleep longer in the morning, and they don’t understand why my kids can’t sleep in, cause their kids do easily.

Sadly, try as I might, my kids are early birds and have never slept in despite what hour their bedtime is, and can’t manage a late night without completely stuffing up their sleep routine and being nightmares to manage the next day. That’s just where they are right now.

So I have just decided to give events such as carols by candlelight a miss this year and wait until the kids are older and can manage a later bedtime better. I have ended up saying no to events that are later at night as preserving the kids’ bedtime routine is important to us as a family.

Does that make me a “mean and inflexible” mum? Maybe. But I know what works for my family and if that means declining a couple of Christmas

events I now have the confidence to stick to my plan.

And lastly, with all the new toys and fun of the season, boredom doesn’t strike as hard as hunger and tiredness, but it’s a good reminder to check in with the kids – they might be playing beautifully with their siblings one moment, but when things start to get out of hand, and the silly behaviour leads to crazy and rough play, it’s time for us parents to step in and redirect the play.

Lego or craft have been a good choice for giving the kids some quiet play time to recharge batteries.

Nipping those squabbles before they become major meltdowns help keep us all in the happy Christmas spirit.

Good luck – and Merry Christmas!

‘THE RIGHT AGENT CAN MAKE A LIFE-CHANGING DIFFERENCE’

4.9/5 stars

RATE MY AGENT

‘Amazing beyond expectation’

Address 30 Bougainville Street Manuka ACT 2603 Phone

(02) 6162 1234 enquiries@mariaselleck.com.au

www.mariaselleck.com.au 12 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

YESTERDAYS / Queanbeyan’s ‘Black Friday’

Wind howls as flames threaten Queanbeyan AT first light on Friday, the flames rear. After weeks where rain’s been little more than an unfulfilled promise, the surrounding bush, for which the area’s so known, is parched.

Grass crackles underfoot and the boughs of non-native trees, withered and crisp. As temperatures push beyond 40C, the danger approaches from the west, aggravated by a “strong nor-west gale”.

It’s January 25, 1952: recorded as Queanbeyan’s “Black Friday”, when the town was “nearly destroyed” by fire.

It’s a time of timber buildings as the norm, few sealed roads and a patchy water supply – despite a river through its heart.

With one blaze put down, another springs up on the eastern side of the watercourse, behind the main street itself.

The smoke intensifies, closing workplaces; kids are sent home from school, pets and livestock rounded up.

Local fire-fighting units are bolstered by business and home owners, personnel from down the road at HMAS Harman and Duntroon military cadets.

The nerve-centre of operations, the manual telephone exchange, fields “nearly 5000 urgent calls”.

Canberra isn’t exempt; conflagrations swelling along its verges, two of its most “exclusive suburbs” under threat.

Near Narrabundah Road, a young farmhand making for the dam is overcome. His body won’t be found for three weeks.

Over the ensuing days, back southeast of Queanbeyan, a fire roars along an eight-kilometre front. Yet another races towards the forest-encrusted hamlet of Captains Flat. More than 200 of the trained and untrained eventually quell the threat.

Four days on, it’s the turn of the similarly rural Burra.

Old-timers recall the event of eight years before; a wildfire taking hold at Woolcara Station, also in the direction of the Flat. An employee from nearby Carwoola, killed in an overturned fire truck.

The recent Tallaganda bushfire seen from Mount Ainslie on the night of November 29. The light stripes on the right are from a plane taking off from Canberra Airport.

Photo: Andrew Campbell Days after that, more than 500 Canberra citizens rally to deal with another fire that descends on them from the west.

As the summer of 1952 ends, it’s declared “the worst bushfire season most people could remember”.

Of course, it wasn’t the last.

In early 1979, the capital is beset by fires “influenced by abnormally high fuel levels”, admits the Department of Territories and Local Government.

Some had been lit by children; at least four the work of arson.

Black Mountain and Tuggeranong Homestead are among the areas of heightened concern.

Similar conditions prevail at the

beginning of the 1984-85 season, which turns out to be worse still.

Captains Flat is again one of the primary worries with some 13,000 surrounding hectares destroyed.

By early March of ‘85 comes the addition of Canberra fire outbreaks, parting on two fronts – one towards Sutton, the other, south of Queanbeyan. A state of emergency is declared by the council areas ringing the ACT. Huge swathes of the Majura and Kowen pine plantations are left smouldering; numerous properties and stock lost. The naval base of Harman is in the fire’s path as it heads to Googong Dam. A 650-hectare property there, “Wellsvale”, is destroyed.

Volunteer Malcolm Allen, of Burra, loses his life combating a fire near the dam.

The inherent natural dangers were long a known quantity, though attendance to it a haphazard affair. It had taken almost 60 years for Queanbeyan to have anything resembling a fire brigade – and only after a conspicuous major blaze, right in the middle of the borough, in 1885.

By 1892, they’d boast 37 volunteers, a tin shed for a station and two fire engines.

Following a 1903 outbreak in the area that would be given over for the national capital, the Limestone Plains Bushfire Brigade was established.

The first of its kind in the wider

district, it was largely geared to selfpreservation: although boundaries were defined, whoever arrived first or had property the nearest, was in charge.

It was 1926 before they were really tested. In the same year, Queanbeyan’s “professional” firies faced their greatest challenge when the top floor of the Royal Hotel, of 1850, caught alight.

Notwithstanding the fact a new fire station had opened just down the way on Crawford Street in 1925, the damage was enough that a rebuild was required.

The next largescale fire was just a year later. With the subsequent happenings thereafter, conferences aimed at prevention became increasingly regular.

The ACT established a Bushfire Council and in 1977, the Queanbeyan City Bushfire Brigade was added to local firefighting resources.

After almost five decades with the only intervening event that of the mid-80’s, it would be the beginning of a new century before the area was subject to another.

Then came the Canberra firestorm

of 2003; four deaths, 490 injuries, 470 homes damaged or destroyed. Close to 70 per cent of its pastures, pine plantations and nature parks severely impacted.

The extent of the disaster deemed a result of lack of adequate preparedness for the “risk that exists as a consequence of the siting of the city in a bushland setting”.

Fourteen years later, February, 2017: an errant spark, again out in the area prone to the problem, 3500 hectares at Carwoola was burnt out and eight homes lost.

Now, with a horrendous beginning to the 2019-20 season in terms of sheer scale, we watch, wait, remain on alert – and hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

It had taken almost 60 years for Queanbeyan to have anything resembling a fire brigade – and only after a conspicuous major blaze, right in the middle of the borough, in 1885.

A 1926 photo of Queanbeyan firemen tackling a blaze at the rear of the council chambers (now the Visitor Information Centre).

CityNews December 12-18, 2019 13

POLITICS / the ‘Healthy Canberra Plan’

First steps, but no plan for a healthy Canberra ALTHOUGH the newly announced “Healthy Canberra Plan” provides a framework, it is not a plan. As a framework, it is an important step forward.

However, in terms of preventive health, there are some serious omissions.

According to ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, her government “wants all Canberrans to enjoy the highest standards of health at every stage of life and to participate fully in the opportunities our city has to offer”. A lofty ideal.

She continues: “The Healthy Canberra: ACT Preventive Health Plan 2020–2025 (the Healthy Canberra Plan) sets the foundations for achieving that goal”.

Former ACT chief planner Peter Harrison (after whom the suburb in Gungahlin is named) once explained that an effective plan identifies “how much, where and when”. The “Healthy Canberra Plan” does none of these. In its own words it is a “framework for action” with a “prevention focus”.

The framework is welcome. And it does largely set the foundations for a preventive health approach identifying “what we want to achieve”. The planning will come later. At the very end, the framework announces “Action Plans”. The “Action Plans”, that are intended to build on each of the areas identified earlier in the document, will be delivered in two stages: the first will be 2020-2022, and

And what of gambling? The impact on health is well recorded. Betting agencies and poker machine outlets overwhelmingly resist even the most modest of interventions (such as precommitments). Education has a place, but it is not enough. What is required is sensible regulation.

A preventive health plan is well overdue. Rachel Stephen-Smith has taken this on despite being recently appointed to the health portfolio.

Even though it has some gaps, this is a sensible framework. Addressing these gaps and moving quickly to “action plans” will establish the ACT as a leader in preventive health.

Preventive health planning puts the lie to all politics being simply focused on the next election. Working to ensure healthier people and a healthier community will not only reduce pain and suffering of Canberrans but will reduce health care expenditures. the second from 2023-2025.

Preventive health planning puts the lie to all politics being simply focused on the next election. Prevention is a long-term process to improve health with outcomes well into the future. Working to ensure healthier people and a healthier community will not only reduce pain and suffering of Canberrans but will reduce health care expenditures.

The “Healthy Canberra Plan” is established on four important guiding principles. The first is being evidence based, the second is health at every stage, third is equity and finally being innovative. So far so good.

This “framework” is aspirational. It identifies the importance of a population health approach to fitness and improving diet. The dietary goal is to make healthier food choices easier choices.

This includes empowering individuals with knowledge and understanding. Most of us understand the difference between healthy whole foods and discretionary foods. The greater, and more important chal-

lenge is changing the environment in which such decisions are made.

Aspirational targets such as “lower intakes of energy-dense, nutrient-poor (discretionary) foods and drinks” and “increased consumption of vegetables” are ideal. However, excessive marketing and ready availability dominate the market, making the healthier choice so much more difficult. This framework does not identify “how”, much less “where” and “when” these will be tackled.

There is a similar story with countering risky behaviours in areas such as tobacco, electronic cigarettes and alcohol. Individual knowledge and education are critical. However, government campaigns are most effective only when combined with other interventions such as regulation on access, availability and price.

There are some significant gaps in the framework.

Immunisation is an important preventive measure across the life course, but

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith. is not mentioned. Note, for example, the measles outbreak in Samoa with more than 65 people dead – mostly under five years old. Although early childhood vaccination is well understood and largely successful in Australia, vaccination of adults is less well understood.

Infections such as flu, pneumonia and shingles have a devastating impact on quality of life, they hospitalise and kill many older people. For each of these diseases there is a vaccine that can prevent or lessen the impact of the disease.

Climate change has a major impact on population health. It is being addressed generically by the ACT government but really should form part of a preventive health strategy.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health.

He was part of the early consultation of the “Healthy Canberra Plan” and was invited to the last session, but was away and unable to attend. He was president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (2016-2018).

Select from a range of specialist services from highly qualified stylists.

Indulge in luxurious hair and scalp treatments.

MONDAY: 9:30 AM TUESDAY: WEDNESDAY: 10:00 AM 10:00 AM THURSDAY: 9:00 AM FRIDAY: 8:00 AM SATURDAY: SUNDAY:

Call for an appointment

-

CLOSED 5:00 PM LATE LATE 5:30 PM 3:00 PM CLOSED

(02) 6251 1011

Clare Burton Cres, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

14 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

OPINION

Safer nuclear power offers carbon-free future Emeritus professor ERICH WEIGOLD, of the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering, says there is an argument for nuclear energy to support Australia’s ambitions for a carbon-free baseload power future.

THE Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, considers that de-carbonisation of Australia’s energy needs should be technology neutral. Nuclear energy should be part of that consideration.

When the ABC polled Australians for “Australia Talks”, 34 per cent of respondents named nuclear as the preferred energy source, after solar, wind and hydro, ahead of gas, biomass and coal in that order.

A reliable future electricity system needs dispatchable baseload power to back up the renewable energy sources.

When renewables are not delivering the necessary power, storage batteries are totally inadequate and far too expensive as replacements.

System stability needs large inertial power sources. Currently this means gas, coal or hydro power. Of these, only hydro is carbon neutral. But existing hydro power cannot adequately provide Australia’s baseload requirements if carbon-emitting power decreases.

The only other proven “carbon-free” baseline power source is nuclear. Currently some 30 countries use nuclear to provide some of their power needs.

In 2017, 13 countries produced at least one quarter of their electricity from nuclear. Bangladesh, Belarus, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are constructing their first nuclear power plants. More than 50 countries, including Australia, utilise nuclear energy in research reactors.

Public concern for the safety of nuclear reactors is understandable. The major nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima were caused by mistakes in safely closing reactors down.

At Chernobyl, a safety test was delayed by 10 hours by which time the operating shift that had been prepared for the test was not present. The test supervisor then failed to follow procedure, which combined with the intentional disabling of several nuclear safety systems and some faults in reactor design, led to the disaster.

The Fukushima disaster was triggered by a tsunami sweeping over the plant’s seawall and knocking out emergency generators needed to run pumps supplying cooling water to the reactors, which had been shut down automatically when the earthquake

American company NuScale Power’s small modular reactor. was detected.

TEPCO, the operator, had ignored warnings that the seawall might be inadequate protection from predictable tsunamis and that the back-up generators and electrical switching equipment needed to be located in a flood-proof environment. It has also been said that contributing factors to the accident were Japan’s rigid bureaucratic structure, the need to save face, a reluctance to send bad news upwards, and TEPCO’s very hierarchical management culture.

The probability of core damage or loss of structural integrity (CDF) for

OPENING HOURS Mon & Tue: Wed & Thurs: Fri: Sat: Sun:

11am - 9pm 11am - 10pm 11am - 11pm 10am - 11pm 10am - 9pm

modern nuclear reactors is close to one in a million years. Small Modular Reactors (SMR), which have safely powered submarines, aircraft carriers and icebreakers for several decades, are even safer. SMRs, built by American company NuScale Power Modules, have CDFs of only one in three billion years.

Built in a factory, SMRs cost less and are truckable to underground sites where they can be passively cooled in water. They do not need back-up power supply or proximity to a large water source. As demand for power increases further modules can be added. They can be designed for load-follow, making them suitable for use in power systems with significant variable renewable power.

NuScale power plant reactors are designed to hold up to 12 Modules each delivering 60 MWe. NuScale’s first SMR 720 MWe (gross) power plant is scheduled to begin commercial operation for the Utah Associated Municipal Power System in 2026. The target “levelized cost of electricity” of around $A95 per MWh compares with estimates of $A84-$A94 per MWh for conventional power stations burning supercritical black coal, not including any additional cost of managing the emitted carbon dioxide.

There is also public concern about disposing nuclear wastes in ways that safeguard human health and minimise

environmental impact. Many countries are already doing that safely.

Large geological radioactive sources have existed naturally for billions of years. In Gabon, about two billion years ago, a rich source of natural uranium deposit produced spontaneous large nuclear reactions which ran for many years. Since then the long-lived radiation produced by those naturally occurring nuclear reactors has migrated less than 10 metres despite thousands of centuries of tropical rain and groundwater exposure.

We should be able to ensure even better containment than that achieved by such a random natural event. To say that storage in stable geological deposits is unsafe for long term storage of radioactive waste is a fallacy.

We need to convince our elected political representatives that Australia’s future may well depend on amending the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999 to facilitate establishment of nuclear power using SMRs, as part of the next national energy strategy.

This is an abridged text of a submission by Emeritus Professor Erich Weigold, of the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering, to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy Inquiry into the Prerequisites for Nuclear Energy in Australia.

The things you need... and the things you want!

Open 7 days, 8am - 8pm

Stocking a range of everyday essentials and gourmet goodies to cater to the people who live, work and play at Kingston Foreshore.

More than “just” a bottle shop...

LOCAL PRODUCERS

ARTISAN PRODUCTS

FAMILY BUSINESS

Curated range of spirits and craft beers Extensive collection of Canberra Region products Plus all your regular favourites

FIND US AT THE FORESHORE PROHIBITION THE BOTTLE SHOP | 6295 0864 | 148 EASTLAKE PARADE, KINGSTON | @prohibitioncanberra KINGSTON CORNER STORE | 6260 8102 | 6/81 GILES STREET, KINGSTON | @kingstoncornerstore CityNews December 12-18, 2019 15

LETTERS

ICU nurses are under emotional pressure, too I REFER to the article regarding Prof Imogen Mitchell (“Breaking bad news can be bad news for doctors”, CN, November 28).

I was a registered nurse with two decades’ experience working in ICU, including a period as the charge nurse at the Canberra Hospital ICU, where I worked with Prof Mitchell during her tenure as medical director.

I was pleased to read her acknowledgement of the emotionally challenging and demanding personal costs when talking to relatives and family concerning the grave prognosis of their loved one.

Prof Mitchell’s increased awareness and sensitivity in this area has no doubt been influenced and enhanced by her interactions with the many experienced and skilled nurses she has worked with who care for such patients and families on a daily basis.

Although the article’s focus was on doctors and Prof Mitchell’s personal experience, I was disappointed that she failed to at least acknowledge the work of ICU nurses and that they face the same emotional impact as they, too, care for critically ill patients and their families.

Nurses are on the front line 24 hours a day, every day, providing direct care, monitoring and immediate response to any changes in the patient’s condition. Medical staff can leave the ICU confident that the patient is under the care of a nurse. ICU specialists work on rotation, as they did during Prof Mitchell’s tenure, where after a week they

were relieved of clinical responsibilities for a number of weeks.

Nurses provide support and comfort to families long after the demanding discussions Prof Mitchell so eloquently describes. Nurses, who also routinely attend these meetings, provide ongoing support to families as they try to come to terms with the news they have received.

During my time in ICU I was privileged to work with many exceptional nursing colleagues, highly skilled and experienced in both the clinical and emotional care of critically ill patients and their stressed and grieving families. This undoubtedly took a toll on them but, as with today’s nurses, it did not prevent them from coming to work each day and providing ongoing care and support.

The Canberra community can be very proud of these nurses, their many years of dedicated service and commitment, and of the legacy that today’s ICU nurses have inherited from them.

Anthony Noakes, Florey

We’re not fear mongers I SEEK to respond to Colliss Parrett’s comments in his letter (“Truth is the first casualty”, CN, November 28) concerning the Declaration of a Climate Emergency by more than 11,000 scientists published in the journal “Bio-Science” on November 4.

I have also done my homework upon reading Colliss’ letter. I have downloaded and printed the entire list of signatories,

their impacts, also give us the data to predict future developments in the earth’s changing climate and severe weather events that will impact us all, if we don’t curb our use of fossil fuels.

I have spent most of my working life, spanning half a century, in the study of weather and climate. I became aware from reading scientific studies that our climate, which is always changing, was now changing at an unprecedented rate.

Since 1985 I have devoted much of my spare time to the study of this phenomenon.

Now retired, I devote most of my time to this concern. I fear my grandchildren will bear the inevitable cost, if we do not act now!

Colliss Parrett, we scientists are not fear mongers. I strongly refute your inferences on behalf of my concerned colleagues.

dose of dorin

Gavin A O’Brien, Southside Weather Watch (ACT), Gilmore which runs to some 300 pages! I then took a random list of names and checked their affiliations. All were in some way involved in humankind’s relationship with the planet, including a vast number of climate and earth scientists, as well as geologists, atmospheric chemists, ecologists, plant biologists, animal species specialists and some medical doctors. There were also PHD students and other undergraduates. There was NO “Mickey Mouse” in the list! As I went through the lengthy process, I thought: “Why are these people putting their names, affiliations and possibly their careers/reputations on the line?”

I am sure readers are aware of the attempts to silence scientists in recent years who dare to speak out about “climate change”. Fortunately these experts care more for the planet than their positions.

The decline in deaths from natural disasters that Parrett mentions is, in most part, due to advances in our understanding of the physical processes that cause catastrophic natural events such as floods, cyclones and storm surges etcetera that impact civilisation.

The very same studies, programs and theories that enable science to warn of these events, so we can prepare for, or mitigate,

What’s the justification?

THE people and lobby groups wanting legalisation of illicit drugs readily admit that licit drugs kill more than illicit drugs.

So on what basis of reasoning, compassion, and social conscience can they even attempt to justify what can only mean more deaths?

Colliss Parrett, Barton

Write to us Let loose to: editor@citynews.com.au

PERMANENT AND RESPITE BEDS AVAILABLE • Nursing Care • Personal Care • Independence • Safe home-life environment • Multicultural • Friendly • Family orientated • Quality in-house kitchen • Variety of quality activities

Set amongst landscaped grounds, Adria Village is a warm and welcoming community of people from all around the world. We pride ourselves on cultural diversity and celebration, and offer a wide range of activities to cater for all interests. We provide care for Croatian and all other nationalities.

Adria Village fosters individuality and independence, providing support and assistance to enable residents to live in a comfortable and secure environment. Adria Village in Stirling offers residential care for 42 residents, incorporating 2 respite rooms, and Special Care. The Village also contains 36 independent living villas. All villas have 2 bedrooms, a courtyard and a garden, and residents enjoy a peaceful and welcoming community lifestyle.

Our aim is to provide a caring, safe, home-like atmosphere, reflecting your rights to dignity, respect, privacy, safety and the best quality of life.

Activities and care service employees are welcome to apply to join our wonderful team

Contact our friendly staff today to arrange a personal tour.

• Phone: (02) 6288 0198 • Fax: (02) 6288 7635 • Email: admin@adria.org.au • Website: www.adria.org.au • Address: 89 Fremantle Drive, Stirling, ACT 2611 16 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

SCENE / around canberra

invite us: scene@citynews.com.au

At the Property Council’s Christmas lunch, NGA

At the Menslink ‘Midweeker’, Griffith

David Sutton, Athol Chalmers, Julia Allen, Andrew Candle and Jane Hiatt

Kit Scally and Julie Finch-Scally

Ilona Purcell with Mia and Elizabeth Lee MLA

James Miller, Diana Pham and Mike Peters

Paul Buckley and Martin Brooker

Richard Wigley, Matthew Taylor and Des Linehan

Best Brands

Kate Thomas, Philippa Poole, Lucy Pittar and Daniel Masciantonio

Jacinta Johnstone and Mark Whithear

Nick Brown and Naoise Boden-Brown

Martin Fisk, Francis Owusu and Dan Kenny

Erinna Guarino, Fiona Chapman, Maree Harman and Mary O’Neill Neena Pollock and Karen Heldon

Andrew Parkinson and Kevin Earle

Best Advice

Our Qualified Mechanics specialise in: P Tyres, Wheels and Brakes P Suspension, Steering P Mechanical and Pink Slips

John Fergusson and ACT Property Council president Travis Doherty

Lachlan Fitzpatrick, Aretta Grebowski and Monica Muschialli

Best Service

Mitchell

Win a Car offer ends 14th March 2020. Pirelli offer ends 31st December 2019. See jax.com.au for details

10-12 Winchombe Court

Master Builders ACT CEO Michael Hopkins and ACT Property Council executive director Adina Cirson

David Pace and Kirstin Ojerholm

Nathan Morrison, Georgia Antos and Adam Peppinck

Best Price

6150 5568

Fyshwick 38 Gladstone Street 6228 1533 Phillip 58-60 Colbee Court 6213 9981 Tuggeranong 149-165 Soward Way 6293 2238

jax.com.au CityNews December 12-18, 2019 17

CHRISTMAS INSPIRATION

advertising feature

Clock’s ticking, time to get those presents sorted The gift of virtual flying EVER fancied being the captain of a commercial jet plane, cruising over the Swiss Alps or making a tricky landing in a major city airport? A virtual flight with Jet Flight Simulator Canberra makes a unique Christmas present, where people can “fly” around the world without leaving town, says owner Trevor Vickers.

It’s as close to the real thing as it gets, he says, with a cockpit of screens and indicators that need to be monitored and all real-life aircraft check-lists required.

People can pretty much go anywhere they like, with 22,000 airports in the database, he says.

“Some people want to do daredevil stunts and fly under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, or land in the old Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport, which closed in 1998 as it was so dangerous,” says Trevor.

“Others want to fly along the Thames or go to Paris.”

Trevor says they have just moved the business from Fyshwick to north Lyneham, where there’s plentiful parking and it’s more accessible, being on the ground floor.

The flight simulator is based on the Boeing 737-800NG and is run by professional pilots who, Trevor says, will show “captains” a few of the basic checks and relevant features needed to be ready for take-off. People can even choose the weather conditions for the flight, he says.

Jet Flight Simulator Canberra, 4 Montford Crescent, Lyneham.

Call 0438 834026 or visit jetflightsimulatorcanberra.com.au

The theatrical gift that brings lasting cheer

Mike’s got Christmas covered inside out WITH 300 different types of Christmas baubles, the Christmas Emporium has everything needed to decorate and celebrate Christmas in style, says owner Mike.

Having recently expanded to an exciting new location on Gladstone Street in Fyshwick, Mike says the shop is unlike any other Christmas store.

“This year, due to demand we have included a select range of outdoor lights and decorations,” says Mike.

This includes a new line of neon Christmas light strips, which Mike believes can’t be sourced in any other shop in the ACT. And, in popular festive shapes such

as a santa in a sleigh, the lights make attractive and sophisticated outdoor displays, says Mike.

“We have increased our range of outdoor lighting and also stock dual solar and electric outdoor lights, curtains and icicle-style lights, some with remote controls,” says Mike.

“We also have some lovely Canberra themed baubles and decorations that feature images of Canberra which are perfect gifts for visitors.”

Christmas Emporium at Hang Ups, 72 Gladstone Street, Fyshwick. Call 6280 0312 or email info@hangups.com.au

A GIFT certificate from “The Q” Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, is a great present for anyone at Christmas, with a range of performances to choose from its 2020 season, says a spokeswoman from The Q. “A gift certificate gives ongoing Christmas cheer and people can choose the show they want to see during the year,” she says.

“It’s just the ticket for those who are hard to buy for.”

From “Spice Night”, starring Singaporean YouTube star Hirzi Zulkiflie, and “The Divine Miss Bette Christmas “Playlist”, in which five young women Special”… December 18-21. talk about their favourite female pop “With lots of Miss Midler’s well stars, to a variety of immersive comedy known songs and well-presented patter, theatre, scripted plays and musicals, Catherine Alcorn’s show is guaranteed 2020 is set to be an exciting season, to warm the coldest of Christmas nuts she says. and her live band promises to jingle In the lead-up to Christmas, The Q your bells”, says The Q. says “The Divine Miss Bette Christmas Special” is a festive treat with Catherine “The Divine Miss Bette Christmas SpeAlcorn’s fabulous homage to Bette cial”, at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Midler revamped to be bigger, better Arts Centre, December 18-21. Bookings to and even more impressive as she oozes charm and charisma channelling her idol. theq.net.au or 6285 6290.

Christine’s retro ideas for the Christmas table MAKE the Christmas table more festive with antique or retro crockery, glass and silverware, says the owner of Down Memory Lane, Christine Lund.

“Vintage cutlery, glassware and china look wonderful on the festive table and can make great gifts too,” she says.

Located in Fyshwick, Christine says the family-run collectables store has Royal Doulton dinnerware sets in at the moment, which are perfect for adding that extra special twist to a festive gathering.

It also sells other collectables

Down Memory Lane Antiques - Vintage - Collectables

We buy. We sell.

such as kitchenalia, linen, lamps, pictures, mirrors, glass, silver, crystal, china, cameras, tools and radios, as well as furniture, clothes, jewellery, accessories, books and toys.

“We specialise in secondhand antiques that are usable as well as beautiful and unique,” she says.

“We also stock good quality new items that are useful or decorative.”

Christine says she grew up with her aunts having antique stores so it’s something she has always loved.

“It you’re downsizing, moving or cleaning up, and you have anything suitable, please give us a call,” Christine says.

“We can also make house calls.”

She says the store will be open every day until Christmas Eve, and will only close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Down Memory Lane, 34 Geelong Street, Fyshwick. Call 6228 1048 or visit downmemorylane.net.au

Facebook/downmemorylanecanberra

34 Geelong St, Fyshwick • (02) 6228 1048

Opening Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 10am - 4:30pm • Closed Monday & Tuesday

www.downmemorylane.net.au

18 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

ANOTHER FANTASTIC SEASON TO ENTERTAIN YOU IN 2020 GIFT VOUCHERS & SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS

THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT

SEE IT LIVE. SEE IT NOW.

THAT JUST KEEPS ON GIVING!

21 -22 FEB

23 FEB

LAUGH OUT LOUD COMEDY

HISTORY SURVIVAL DRAMA

LGBTIQ COMEDY AT ITS BEST!

HELL SHIP MASTER STORY-TELLER MICHAEL VEITCH TELLS A TAIL OF TRAGEDY AND LOVE AT SEA.

+ RNING

MO S MELODIE SHOWS

3 -5 APR

SPICE NIGHT

H.M.S. PINAFORE

A NIGHT OF TRAILBLAZING QUEER COMEDY FROM ACROSS ASIA.

IDENTITY, SISTERS, SAILORS AND THE TRICKIEST OF TONGUE TWISTERS AROUND!

REAL LIFE DRAMA

12 -24 MAY

YOU’LL LAUGH UNTIL IT HURTS.

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE WEAVES TOGETHER THE EXPERIENCES OF THE HEALTH PROFESSIONALS THAT LOOK AFTER US.

17 -27 JUN

25 -29 FEB

DON JUAN PLUS JEKYLL & HYDE HILARIOUS, RIOTOUS AND MISCHIEVOUS COMEDY SHOWS

21 -26 JUL

+

CHILD SHOWS TREN’S H LOVE! MOEY’LL DETAILS RE THEQ.NE AT T.AU

6 -15 AUG

CLASSIC DRAMA SMILIE FOR DAYS COMEDY, DRAMA

WOLF LULLABY

ROMEO AND JULIET THERE NEVER WAS A TALE OF MORE WOE, THAN THAT OF JULIET AND HER ROMEO.

GIFT RS VOUCHE ON S A E S D AN TIONS SUBSCRIPERFECT P ARE THE R THAT GIFT FO NE SOMEO !

SPECIAL

DRAMA YOU WON’T FORGET

MONTHER & SON

27 -29 AUG

A NOSTALGIC AND HILAROUS TRIP DOWN LOSS OF MEMORY LANE.

24 -25 OCT

WOW FACTOR TRIBUTE SHOW

WALLFLOWERING A DELIGHTFULLY AND AMUSING PLAY ABOUT THE NATURE OF MARRIAGE, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AND THE PERFECT FOXTROT!

LOVE STORY COMEDY, DRAMA

MORE DETAILS & TICKETS 02 6285 6290 v THEQ.NET.AU THE Q v 251 CRAWFORD STREET QUEANBEYAN

THE STORY & SONGS OF BILLY JOEL IF YOU ARE A FAN OF THE MAN HIMSELF, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED AS ANTHONY MARA PAYS TRIBUTE TO BILLY JOEL.

A SMALL COUNTRY TOWN. A HORRIBLE CRIME. AN UNIMAGINABLE SUSPECT. IS THERE INTRINSIC EVIL IN THE WORLD?

FOR THE 2020 SEAFULL LINE UP, SON SHOW D MORE E AND O TAILS BOOKINGNLINE S THEQ.NE VISIT T.AU

BIKES & SCOOTERS SALES & REPAIRS

CANBERRA’S LARGEST RANGE OF SCOOTERS FOR STREET & PARK 227 Flemington Road, Franklin 6242 0338 “Come in and test ride from our impressive range!”

canberraelectricbikes.com.au Now we’ve got…

FREE PUZZLES EVERY SINGLE DAY! citynews.com.au

CHRISTMAS INSPIRATION

advertising feature

Drought-hardy trees for a native Christmas

David’s got scooters to ‘envy’

THERE are lots of native plant alternatives for Christmas trees and plenty of drought-hardy gift ideas in store at Cool Country Natives in Pialligo, says owner Karen Brien.

Karen suggests Woolly Bush, NSW Christmas Bush or Grevillea (“Lady O”) as a native Christmas tree.

With a growing team of 10 knowledgeable staff, Karen says the whole team takes the time to happily talk to customers and help them with any queries.

Shoppers can find groundcovers, grasses, ferns, climbers and small-to-large shrubs and trees such as acacia, banksia, crowea, daisies, ferns and grevillea.

Cool Country Natives also stocks and propagates a range of locally endemic species to the Canberra region.

“Native plants are drought hardy and the choice is getting bigger every year with the increase of good wholesale growers,” she says.

Karen says they give a discount to members of the Australian Native Plant Society and Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

And if people can’t get to the nursery before Christmas, Cool Country Natives will be hosting markets in the New Year on the first Saturday of February, March, April and May.

COOKIES Cycles is making gift buying easy by offering shoppers the option to layby items from the store’s large range of skateboards, scooters and bikes, says owner David Cook.

And he says he can store any items on layby right up to Christmas Eve. “Now is the time to come in and layby for Christmas,” he says.

“We have the new ‘2020 Envy Prodigy Series 8’ scooters which are really popular.”

Cookies Cycles stocks everything from balance bikes and three-wheel scooters for the little ones, up to larger scooters to skateboards, mountain bikes, electric bikes and road bikes, BMX bikes for the racer as well as street and park riders.

“We’ve got folding electric bikes, low step and flat bar, and kits that you can use to convert your current bike into an electric bike,” says David, who’s been in the industry for 35 years, and opened the shop in September 2015 to cater for the family cyclist.

He says they also have a large range of parts and accessories for all the products they sell.

Cookies Cycles, 227 Flemington Road, Franklin. Call 6242 0338, email shop@cookiescycles.com.au or visit cookiescycles.com.au

Cool Country Natives, 5A Beltana Road, Pialligo. Call 6257 6666 or 0402 307275, email retail@coolcountrynatives.com.au or visit coolcountrynatives.com.au

Your source for natives in Canberra EXTENSIVE RANGE OF TUBES AND POTTED NATIVE PLANTS Grasses, ground covers, shrubs and trees suitable for cool climate gardens available year round.

A large range of unusual grafted plants and bush food plants also available.

Expert staff happy to advise or answer questions.

OPEN 7 DAYS

CHRISTMAS

TRADING HOURS 24th Dec............... 8.30am - 2pm 25th & 26th Dec............. CLOSED 27th - 31st Dec........ 10am - 4pm 1st Jan........................... CLOSED 2nd Jan............. Normal Trading

5A Beltana Road, Pialligo, ACT • 02 6257 6666 • www.coolcountrynatives.com.au 20 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

WE’VE MOVED - BIGGER & BETTER For Trees, Ornaments and all things C hristmas

Quality

at

6280 0312

72 Gladstone St, Fyshwick (Next to Bags 2 Go)

Open 7 days till C hristmas

SCHOOL HOLIDAY FUN Locals make learning fun over the long, hot summer SCHOOL’S out for the year and the long, hot summer holidays beckon. With plenty of time off, it’s a great opportunity to learn new skills for life, whether it’s learning a new language, playing with Lego, gaining drama and performance skills, exploring history, getting up close to birds or taking in some of the best kids’ theatre shows of the season.

This week “CityNews” speaks with locals who make learning fun.

22 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

The fun of learning French

Enjoy the best of birds

A FRENCH school holiday program is a great way to learn and have fun at the same time, says Nancy Waites, community engagement manager at the Alliance Française de Canberra.

Offering holiday programs for all ages, Alliance Française has classes for three years old up to teenagers and adults.

“We welcome all ages and abilities and our teachers are skilled at teaching different levels in one class,” Nancy says.

“We are passionate about teaching French to everyone.”

The holiday program has a focus on fun, with plenty of games, songs and cooking, according to Nancy, who says children also come away from the program having learned something.

“Games like Twister are great for learning colours and we’ll also learn a simple song or performance that we put on for parents,” says Nancy.

“We make madeleines, small sponge cakes with a shell-like shape, which we dip in chocolate, or other gâteaux.

“The kids learn a lot and it’s also a fantastic way for those who do French at school to immerse in the language again before term starts again.”

And, Nancy says all programs are run by native and experienced French teachers.

GET up close and personal with a range of birds at the Canberra Walk-in Aviary.

The aviary is a 1000sqm planted walk-in enclosure that has more than 500 birds from about 65 different species from Australia and the world.

“The aviary is great fun for all ages. You have the chance to get up close and personal with a range of birds,” says Mick Logan, owner and manager of the aviary.

“While not all birds will interact with you, you get the chance to observe, up close, species of birds that otherwise would be hard to see in the wild.

“We give you a small plate of food and a tub of mealworms and you can wander around and feed the birds.”

Mick says that people are welcome to take photos of the birds.

“Providing the weather is fine you can have a great time feeding the birds or just observing our feathered friends,” Mick says.

The aviary is operating its summer trading hours of 10am-5pm, with the last admission at 4.30pm. It will be open every day, including public holidays, except Christmas Day.

Alliance Française de Canberra, 66 McCaughey Street, Turner.

Call 6257 6696 or visit afcanberra.com.au

Canberra Walk-in Aviary, Federation Square, O’Hanlon Place, Nicholls. Call 6230 2044 or visit canberrawalkinaviary.com.au

Free exhibitions let kids be spies CHILDREN will be able to see genuine spy equipment and hear the stories of real intelligence officers at the National Archives of Australia this summer, says curator Emily Catt.

The stories of spies can be stranger than fiction and the archives’ new exhibition “Spy: Espionage in Australia” reveals the personal experiences of secret agents and the history of espionage and counter-espionage in Australia.

“We’re offering two interactive family trails for kids, one for five to eight-year-olds and another for older kids aged eight to 12,” Emily says.

“Kids can play the part of a secret agent in the trail and test their skills at codebreaking and reading invisible ink.

“The exhibition is free and the trails are self-guided so no bookings are needed.”

There is genuine spy equipment on display, as well as surveillance images and candid interviews with ASIO officers.

Also, Café Constitution has re-opened, Emily says, located in the gorgeous heritage-listed building in Parkes offering a unique dining experience by local operators TreeEightyThree.

National Archives of Australia, Kings Avenue, Parkes.

Call 6212 3600 or visit naa.gov.au

advertising feature

SUMMER AT THE NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE

©SEGA

Archive has unmissable events for gamers GAMING fans won’t want to miss out on the special events happening at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), says an NFSA spokesperson.

Older kids aged 15 and over can attend the NFSA’s “Friday Lates” event, “Local Heroes of Gaming”, from 6.30pm, Friday, January 17, hear from Canberra gaming legends, and learn the history and aesthetic of the Game Boy. “Indie Game: The Movie”, a documentary about making video games, will be showing in the Arc Cinema, too.

The Game Masters exhibition will be open daily from 10am-4pm until March 9 with school holiday family passes now available, with unlimited attendance during the summer holidays, and a “Pay What You Can Day” on December 21.

Christmas films “Home Alone”, “Die Hard” and the Frank Capra classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” will be showing from December 20-21, each one with a festive surprise.

And then Pixar films, which showcase the heroic power of kids, will be screening movies such as “Coco”, “Brave”, “Happy Feet”, “Up!”, “The Incredibles”, “The Neverending Story”, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, “Matilda” and “Where the Wild Things Are”. $8 per movie but underthrees are free.

National Film and Sound Archive, McCoy Circuit, Acton.

Call 6248 2000, email enquiries@nfsa.gov.au or visit nfsa.gov.au

Australia’s biggest video game arcade! Play your way through 40 years of gaming.

OPEN TILL 9 MAR 2020

NFSA ARC CINEMA

NOW AVAILABLE

Gift Vouchers and Holiday Family Passes.

TICKETS $12/$10

A VERY NFSA CHRISTMAS It’s a Wonderful Life + Secret Santa @ 10:30am

20 DEC

Die Hard (2 for the price of 1) @ 6pm

20 DEC

Home Alone + free gift for kids @ 2pm

21 DEC

HOLIDAY FUN WITH THE KIDS @ 10:30AM

ESPIONAGE IN AUSTRALIA

#NAASpy naa.gov.au

Coco

6 JAN

Brave

7 JAN

Happy Feet

8 JAN

Up!

9 JAN

The Incredibles

10 JAN

The Neverending Story

13 JAN

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

14 JAN

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

15 JAN

Matilda

16 JAN

Where the Wild Things Are

17 JAN

BOOK NOW!

Game Masters is an ACMI Touring Exhibition

NFSA.GOV.AU

MCCOY CIRCUIT, ACTON

CityNews December 12-18, 2019 23

SCHOOL HOLIDAY FUN

advertising feature

Lego program builds on creativity A LEGO brick-building school holiday program will keep children entertained, engaged and away from screens, says Bricks 4 Kidz director Mark Jeffries.

Each session is structured and themed, says Mark who co-runs the business with his wife Mary.

“We create several stations and rotate the kids through each one,” he says.

“It could be normal Lego bricks with our Bricks 4 Kidz instructions, motorised models, 3D models, free play where the kids can make whatever they want, or Lego mosaics of favourite superheroes, games characters and movie heroes.”

The days are screen-free, Mark says, with a focus on creativity, thinking, problem solving and working collaboratively.

The holiday programs will be held at four locations these holidays including Belconnen and Hughes from January 7-31, Forde from January 13-17, and Gungahlin from January 20-23.

Mark says the school holiday activities are designed for kids ages five to 11 and are staffed by trained Bricks 4 Kidz instructors.

Overall, Bricks 4 Kids say their programs provide a great atmosphere for students to build unique creations and have loads of fun using Lego bricks.

“Building models provides opportunities

‘Spectacular’ shows for the whole family THE Canberra Theatre Centre has entertainment for the whole family over the holidays, says the theatre’s assistant marketing manager and media buyer, Joe Gleeson.

“Before Christmas we have the amazing Cirque Stratosphere,” he says.

“It’s a spectacular new circus set in a futuristic spaceage utopia, featuring gravity-defying acts from a troupe of Olympic-standard acrobats and gymnasts.”

In Cirque Stratosphere, Joe says audiences will witness impressive stunts on roller skates, death-defying acrobatics on a Russian bar – where the performer is thrown in the air by two partners holding the bar – sky-high contortions in the aerial sphere and the Russian swing-to-swing.

From December 17-19 Joe says The Wiggles will be at the Playhouse in their new “Party Time! Big Show!”, with Emma, Lachy, Simon and Anthony being joined by Dorothy the Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword, Henry the Octopus and Wags the Dog, new wiggly friend Shirley Shawn the Unicorn, as well as Santa Claus and dancing reindeers.

And, created for children aged three and up, the Storytime Ballet is presenting a brand-new production of “The Nutcracker” from January 16-18.

Joe says it features a colourful cast of characters in a spellbinding, magical adventure that kids will love.

for problem-solving and helps kids develop an appreciation for how things work... in a non-competitive atmosphere,” say Bricks 4 Kids.

Bricks 4 Kidz, 125/99 Eastern Valley Way, Belconnen. Call 0422 083883 or visit bricks4kidz.com.au

An

Kirsty empowers kids through theatre

Canberra Theatre Centre, Civic Square, London Circuit, Civic.

Call 6275 2700 or visit canberratheatrecentre.com.au

DRAMA holiday programs provide a great introduction to theatre and are also ideal for performers who want to develop skills intensively, says owner and founder of Budding Theatre, Kirsty Budding.

Kirsty says Budding Theatre provides high-quality, themed holiday programs (and term courses) which encourage creativity, confidence and practical skill development and culminates in a performance for family and friends.

“Kids and teens love our theatre courses because we respond to the characters they want to play, the stories they love and the themes they are passionate about,” she says.

“If a young performer wants to play Thor, I write their role as Thor and provide range in the role for them to develop acting skills.”

Kirsty says the holiday program themes for this holiday are “The Greatest Showman”, “Comedy, Magic and Musicals”, “Harry Potter Parody” and “DC versus Marvel!”.

“The level of input from performers varies; for established works or my own plays [where] I write the scripts,” Kirsty says.

“For themed courses like ‘DC versus Marvel!’ or parody courses like ‘Harry Potter Parody’, performers bring their own ideas with them and I synthesise those ideas to write a new play.”

Kirsty says her programs use engaging themes to connect with young performers, foster teamwork, creative collaboration, confidence and self-esteem building.

“I enjoy seeing young performers feel empowered in their roles and develop a love of performing even if they were initially shy,” Kirsty says.

Toby Gosling-Dunlop, 10, as Loki and Harper Scott, nine, as Thor.

Photo: Greg Gould

Experience for Kids!

   

@

Belconnen 24 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

Hughes

Gungahlin

Weston

Playing Field Studio, 2 Kingsley Street, Acton. Email submissions @buddingtheatre.com or call 6153 0007.

A CIRCUS THAT’S

OUT OF THIS WORLD

dose of dorin

PRSPE IC CIA ES L AV FA AI MI L A LY BL E

E X H I L I R AT I N G E N T E R TA I N M E N T F R O M T H E P R O D U C E R S O F CIRCUS 1903 AND THE ILLUSIONISTS

10-21 DECEMBER

CHRISTMAS / relationships

Plan to give the kids a stress-free Christmas

By Danielle Nohra

541_CTC_Cirq_Strat_City_News_Quarter.indd 1

2019-12-05 12:42 PM

CHRISTMAS and the holiday period can be a complicated time for separated parents but Julia Tutty, of Relationships Australia, says planning ahead is key for a happy holiday.

Julia is the practice manager of post-separation services in the organisation’s national office in Deakin and says: “Christmas and the holidays can be one of the most anxious times for parents, especially if you don’t have any documents or parenting plans in place to focus on what the children need at the time.

“Emotions can run high over the Christmas period and if there’s nothing in place then that’s when things will escalate,” she says.

“Talk as early as possible and make sure you’re on the same page with the same plans for Christmas and the school holidays.”

Part of Julia’s role at Relationships Australia is providing mediation for separated parents and helping parents get a plan in place that they both agree on, that suits them.

“Christmas Day means dif- Julia Tutty. ferent things to different people,” she says.

“If it does mean a lot then it would be looking at coming to a compromise about what the day would look like.

“The difficult thing about Christmas Day is that traditionally people have a Christmas lunch.

“It’s important, whatever arrangement you’ve come to, that it’s one that’s agreed by both parents and it’s in the best interests of the children.”

If there’s a change over between parents during the day, Julia says it’s important to ensure that the change over is done in a calm

way so the children aren’t picking up on any tension.

“We want children to be children and if they pick up on that tension then they’ll be worried,” she says.

“Focus on the kids. Kids don’t want or need the conflict so don’t argue in front of the children, avoid uncertainty and don’t chop and change plans on the day.”

It really all comes down to communication, according to Julia, who says it’s good to ask questions such as: Are they doing joint Christmas presents?

“It’s about compromise. Don’t compete with each other but instead look for solutions,” she says.

“Arrange to meet the child’s other parent at a convenient time, in a neutral place.

“Keep to the topic at hand and be direct, clear, specific and non-blaming, and stay calm and listen without blaming.

“When the going gets too tough then that’s when mediation can help.

“Christmas can be a sad time and we have to acknowledge that. We don’t want children caught up in the conflict otherwise they might feel anxious, sad or confused.”

And, if a child or a parent ever feels unsafe, Julia urges the parent to contact the appropriate agencies or authorities.

“Safety is paramount. It might mean saying: ‘I can’t have this conversation’,” she says.

“It’s important that people access services if they need them and they look after themselves.

“There’s always counselling available. Lots of organisations like ours shut down over the period but there’s 24-hour lines that people can access if they need support.”

For parents thinking ahead to next year, Julia says have the conversations about the holidays early in the year and if that doesn’t work, consider mediation.

CityNews December 12-18, 2019 25

GARDENING

Dreaming of a red Christmas THE colour red is synonymous with Christmas, and real red flowers will look wonderful on the festive table this year.

Old-fashioned pinks, or dianthus, are flowering in many gardens at present, looking quite spectacular en masse. They also make a lovely border along the path to the front door.

I recommend two absolutely stunning, deep red dianthus, namely “Passion” and “Rebekah”.

Both grow to about 30 centimetres high with a 50-centimetre spread. After decorating the Christmas table with the pot wrapped in colourful paper, you can either plant in the garden or balcony and continue to enjoy them in pots.

Dianthus has been grown for many hundreds of years, made famous in Shakespeare’s plays as the gillyflower. They are renowned for their subtle fragrance.

The bright red bracts of poinsettia are popular around the world for the festive season, or for a true Aussie theme, try the red flowers of callistemon or bottle brush, one of the brightest reds being “Endeavour”.

Another option would be the gorgeous bright red and white flowers of feijoa.

Deep-red geraniums are also in flower and will continue so for the rest of summer.

GET OUT OF HOME & HAVE SOME FUN Do you want to get out of the house and meet new people?

We provide engaging mental, social and physical activities that help our Clients to stay in touch with the community including: reminiscing, current affairs, craft, music, games, exercises, visits by entertainers and places of interest.

We would love you to join us!

North Belconnen Day Centre is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health under the CHSP program.

0481 185 205 | nbdc.org.au 30 Conley Drive, Melba, ACT 2615

(located within the North Belconnen Uniting Church building)

Poinsettia, the colour of Christmas.

ANOTHER essential addition to the bookshelf is the Horticultural Society of Canberra’s popular “The Canberra Gardener”. It is written by longtime members of the society especially for our climate of four seasons. Available from bookshops and newsagents for $29.95.

without delay ahead of this long, hot summer and suggest using mushroom compost. It’s a combination of various items from horse manure to peat moss, with lime added to neutralise the acidity. The Mushroom Growers’ Association suggests avoiding using mushroom compost near acid-loving plants such as camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons and most natives.

I’VE BEEN urging gardeners to mulch

POTTED plants will almost certainly need daily watering. If left too long, the potting mix dries out and shrinks back from the sides of the pot.

SUPPORTING SENIORS

FOR ALL YOUR PRINTER NEEDS

• Refilled inkjet and laser cartridges • Genuine and compatible cartridges • Printers available • 100% guarantee FREE

DELIVERY TO THE ACT MIN. ORDERS APPLY – JUST ASK

Phone 6284 4344 Fax 6284 4233 E qbn@capitalcartridges.com.au Shop 6, Crawford Centre, 166 Crawford Street, Queanbeyan 26 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

“THE Waterwise Australian Native Garden” is a practical guide to garden design, plant selection and more. Written by Angus Stewart, one of Australia’s most knowledgeable native plant experts, and co-authored by AB Bishop, who was a researcher on the ABC’s “Gardening Australia” program for five years, this is an excellent Christmas gift for anyone starting their first garden.

Profusely illustrated with nearly 300 pages of text and photos, it costs $39.99. I’ve known Stewart for many years and cannot recommend this book highly enough.

North Belconnen Day Centre

COME INTO CAPITAL CARTRIDGES

Trading Hours: Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm

Dianthus Passion to brighten the Christmas table.

Capital Cartridges

Chris’ Trees • Tree pruning • Tree removal • Hedge trimming • Hedge lowering • Hedge restoration • Retaining walls

60p/h

$

Photo: Andy Mabbett

Deep red geraniums.

This means you may think you are watering the plant thoroughly as water runs out of the bottom of the pot. However, the water is simply running down in the gap between the inside pot edge and dry potting mix. Watering every day will prevent this.

LOOKING FOR A PAINTER? • Commercial Domestic • Special Finishes • Plastering • Custom Finishes

$200 minimum charge

“Quoting hundreds, not thousands” MAXIMUM IMPACT!

Text or call 0468 695 561 Email cgsact@gmail.com Find me on gumtree.com.au

Insured – AAMI Business Insurance

ABN 77 184 373 596

FOR YOUR OBLIGATION FREE QUOTE Call TIM RYAN on 0402 333 723 ASPINPAINTING.COM.AU

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrating all things fresh WENDY JOHNSON

Kirsty can’t get enough of Christmas

By Helen

MUSA DIRECTOR and scriptwriter Kirsty Budding is happy to admit that she just can’t get enough of Christmas.

She’s been staging silly season shows since 2013, making mincemeat of the season’s theatrical potential with shows such as “Unwrap Me”, short plays under the title “Santa Baby”, a straighter (more or less) version of “A Christmas Carol” played by children, and Budding’s own scripts “The Night Before Christmas” and “The Christmas Channel”.

Now it’s time for “A Christmas Carol Goes Horribly, Terribly Wrong”.

“This is my own script, too,” she says.

“I’ve seen quite a few of those plays, like ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’, and every time I thought to myself: ‘I could write this’.”

“In those commercial productions there’s always a big set falling apart, whereas the joke in this one is that we can’t afford a set, so have to improvise in all sorts of embarrassing ways.”

Actors and backstage crew miss cues or enter too early, set pieces and props end up in the wrong place, forcing inept performers to improvise and the technical operator plays the wrong sound files so that when a bell is supposed to toll to announce a ghost, the audience hears a Nokia ringtone.

Budding’s been having a lot of fun with this one, casting familiar locals as characters from “A Christmas Carol”, as well as a backstage team, technical operator, directors, producer, theatre judges and a reviewer.

Sue Gore Phillips, who in real life stagemanages for Canberra Rep productions, plays the hapless stage manager and Rep leading lady Kate Blackhurst is the over-the-top Mrs Cratchit.

“There are a few new faces, a few young people and quite a few people who have been in my shows before, like Rob Shiells and Matilda Saddington as the pair who’ve fallen in love backstage but have to play brother and sister on stage,” she explains.

You can never have enough ghosts in any stage version of Charles Dickens’

A leopard woodcut image by Omar Musa.

Omar’s escape to Leopard Beach

The cast of “A Christmas Carol Goes Horribly, Terribly Wrong”. novel, so we’ll see Marley’s Ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Future and the Ghost of Christmas Present as well as all the other Dickens characters and the supposedly diminutive Tiny Tim played by 28-year-old Jake Revill.

A familiar trope in all of these playsthat-go-wrong is the egotistical director.

Not content with just one, Budding has written two, played by Bertram O’Brien and Canadian newcomer Robert Karlen who, unaware that the audience are already in the theatre, are caught dressing down the cast by telling them that they just can’t act.

The actors in her script, she says, are

CONVERSION SERVICE Would you like to watch those old family videos once again, or listen to your favourite SLIDES TO records on CD? D NOW DV

We can take your AVAILABLE PRICE ON vinyl records or APPLICATION cassette tapes and put them onto CD and we transfer VHS tapes onto DVD.

OPEN 7 DAYS Cooleman Court, Weston Creek | 6293 4677 | songland.com.au

a mixed bunch, some with big egos but some who aren’t used to the stage at all. In the Cratchit family for instance, the mother and sister are over-actors, but the brother is only going on because his mum forced him, so he’s completely robotic.

One of her favourite characters is a stage mum who complains about her child not having enough lines and Budding reveals that she got the idea after a conversation on 2CC’s “CityNews Sunday Roast” a couple of months ago when the interviewer cut in: “You never know, the kid might want to do horticulture” – that had got her thinking about a new character.

Having put the boot into just about everyone in the Canberra theatre scene,

Photo: Greg Gould including theatre critics like me, Budding realised she had to let herself in on some ridicule too, so cast British actor Caitlin Addinell (Budding is noticeably English) as the drunken producer.

“That’s a joke on me, she comes in with a blonde wig,” she tells us. “I’d satirised a lot of things about Canberra theatre in the play, so I really had to make fun of me.”

Budding Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol Goes Horribly, Terribly Wrong”, Belconnen Theatre, December 11, 13, 15 at 8pm, and December 14 at 11am. Tickets at buddingtheatre.com or at the door. The show contains strong language and is suitable for teenagers and adults.

GELATO FACTORY OUTLET

OPEN TO PUBLIC – BUY DIRECT & SAVE AUSTRALIA’S MOST AWARDED GELATO

Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday 10am-4pm, closed Sunday & public holidays

OMAR Musa will explore longing and escapism in his one-night only exhibition and performance at M16 Artspace, “Welcome to Leopard Beach”.

Along with his 30-minute set of poetry and music, which Omar says will be “hopefully poetic, at times moving and mostly tonguein-cheek”, the exhibition will include Leopard Beach woodcuts, combining poetry and pop iconography with techniques he learned while visiting his homeland of Borneo, East Malaysia, where woodcuts are a popular art form, especially in the punk rock scene.

The author, poet and rapper says Leopard Beach is a place he once invented in his head to escape to when he was feeling depressed.

“In Leopard Beach, the weather is sweet as a kiss. It is plastic-free, hater-free and 100 per cent body positive!” Omar says.

“The endangered clouded leopard of Borneo flourishes here, the ocean is full of fish and the laksa is free-flowing.”

In “Welcome to Leopard Beach”, Omar asks whether escapism is merely a distraction, a suppressant, a fearful response to the brutal, banal reality of our lives. Or is it expansive, something that can be used to set the templates for social and environmental change and imagine worlds in the way they could be?

DJ Roshambo will play a tropical-themed music set, and there will be catering and piña coladas.

“Welcome to Leopard Beach”, M16 Artspace, Griffith. Wednesday, December 18, 6pm-9pm.

Tickets $15, bookings to eventbrite.com.au

Duratone Hi-Fi PTY LTD MUSIC FOR CHRISTMAS Trade-in or repair your old hi-fi Thousands of LP records to choose from

PURE GELATO ACT • Call: 02 6299 7995 Unit 4, 189 Flemington Road, Mitchell (access via Darling Street)

Phone 6282 1333 www.duratone.com.au Cnr of Botany Street & Altree Court, Phillip CityNews December 12-18, 2019 27

CINEMA

When two, old-bloke popes start talking morals “The Two Popes” (M) ANTHONY McCarten has written a convincing but largely fictional screenplay for Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles’s film about conversations that might have taken place between the German pope Benedict XVI and the Argentinean cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio who, after Benedict retired, succeeded him as Pope Francis.

Benedict is the first pope to have retired since the 15th century. In papal history, Francis represents a choice collection of “firsts” – Jesuit pope, from the Americas, from the southern hemisphere, from outside Europe since the 8th century (the Syrian Gregory III).

Whatever religion we profess (or not), the Pope is an important figure. If nothing else, he heads a tiny state that’s the world’s largest and probably wealthiest corporation.

But more than that, that state exercises moral guidance over more than 1.28 billion people (that’s a 2018 figure – latest trends say the number is falling, but that’s not the subject of the film, which tells about events in 2012-13).

A film about two old bachelors mulling over each other’s moral attitudes may not sound like much fun and jollity. But in the

Anthony Hopkins, as Benedict, and Jonathan Pryce, as Bergoglio – who became Francis, in “The Two Popes”. hands of Anthony Hopkins as Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as Bergoglio, who became Francis, they come across pretty convincingly.

They form what on screen looks like a quite genuine friendship. They debate the moral issues confronting the faithful, which is not surprising. What is surprising is how entertainingly the film delivers their debates and private conversations (fictitious though they may be). And it leaves it to filmgoers to form their own opinions about Vatican panoply in a world where poverty is rampant.

At Dendy

JUMBO SOLUTION

“The Addams Family” (PG) I OWN a folio-sized volume of some of “New Yorker” magazine cartoonist Charles Addams’ choicest imaginings of how things might have been in a household where macabre is the norm, cruelty is good, satire of contemporary society is the driving emotion.

Imitating Addams’ drawing style is a doddle for somebody with sketching skills.

What marks his work was not so much the drawing style but the message each frame was sending. And Matt Lieberman’s screen-

Puzzle on Page 30

play for Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon to bring to the screen just doesn’t cut it.

The family has moved to a new old mansion on top of a hill. In the valley below, real estate developer and local reality TV show host Margaux (screeched by Allison Janney) is stirring community opposition to the ugly building. Margaux’s daughter and Wednesday Addams become chums and oppose Margaux’s campaign.

Frankly, I can’t understand why any self-respecting cinema chain would bother with this movie. The basic plot avoids taking risks. Words like “hackneyed” and “dull” come readily to mind. The egregious eye might discern some cleverly distasteful moments and images, but they don’t endure.

Consequently it’s very bland and not really a reflection of Charles Addams’ style.

At Dendy, Palace Electric and Capitol

“The Good Liar” (MA) TO get the most from Bill Condon’s film adaptation of Nicholas Searle’s novel, it’s helpful to be aware that its denouement embodies a sort of reverse McGuffin (an object, device or event that serves to keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance).

All I’m prepared to tell you is that it’s a beaut and knowing that much about the story will be beneficial to watching it.

At least, that was what I was feeling as I watched conman Roy (Ian McKellen) prepar-

ing to swindle Betty (Helen Mirren) of all her funds and possessions.

I knew that Betty had a McGuffin up her sleeve, but not what form it was going to take. That knowledge sharpened the tensions growing in me as I waited for it to burst out and reveal itself. And I hope that knowing this much will do the same for you.

“The Good Liar” unfolds in 2009. It begins on an internet dating site. It starts to coalesce when Roy meets Betty for the first time in a restaurant. Both are in their seventies. The friendship grows. She’s not on for a sexual romp; he doesn’t press her. She allows him into her house after he falls over.

Stephen her grandson (Russell Tovey) doubts the wisdom of such a concession toward a stranger. As well he might, because Roy and his accountant pal Vincent (Jim Carter) are building a big swindle against a quartet of equally bent investors.

That much of the plot will, I hope, sharpen your appetite for what is a quite delightful, intense combination of thriller and romantic styles. You will be in the presence of two of British cinema’s greats each in top form.

McKellen is just on the credible side of seedy.

Approaching her mid-70s, Mirren is luminously lovely as a generous and mysteriously simple woman who asks little for herself.

Until…

“Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord” (Deuteronomy 32:35). And it’s a dish best served cold. Enjoy.

At all cinemas

DINING / terra, civic

Celebrating all things fresh

By Wendy

JOHNSON TERRA is smoking. It’s one of the city’s fave lunch hangouts, and it didn’t take long before diners were demanding Terra open for dinner too, which they did some time ago.

28 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

It was a balmy evening and we luckily landed a table outside watching city life flow by – a steady stream of pedestrians, buses, taxis, cyclists. Okay, it’s not downtown Sydney or Melbourne but there is a distinct city feel to the location.

While Terra’s fitout is schmick, there’s nothing pretentious about the place. The food is the focus, with smoked and charcoal meats top picks.

The menu changes to keep tastebuds on high alert and to celebrate what’s fresh at the markets, so what we ate you might not be able to eat.

That’s half the fun.

Sharing is the name of the game – snacks, small plates, a “smoke and fire” section, sides and desserts.

We started sharing the kingfish crudo, beautifully presented with black pepper oil and burnt scallion sauce ($19). It was a memorable beginning – the dish delicate but still a statement.

The fried octopus was divine –

Fried octopus… tender and packed a punch on flavour.

Photo: Wendy Johnson visually and with taste. It was super tender, packed a punch on flavour and we were delighted with the architectural looking crispy potato.

Pickled green tomatoes and aioli added colour and zing ($20).

Also exciting were the perfectly shaped square pig tail croquettes ($6 each) with tasty romesco and a scamorza custard (superb).

It was challenging to choose from the smoke-and-fire section which, on our visit, included five options ranging from $32 to $110. The top end is a one -kilogram, 450-day dry-aged tomahawk steak (retired eight-year breeder cattle). Smoked lamb ribs, spit-roast porchetta and wagyu rump are also on the line-up.

We couldn’t resist the jerk chicken with hot sauce made in-house ($19 for half and $33 for whole). The sauce wasn’t overly hot but tasty and the chicken super moist. There wasn’t a bit left.

For a salad it was the radicchio, one of our favourite leafy veggies – bittertasting, wine-red leaves that always look so gorgeous. This salad ($10) was dressed with creamy buttermilk, manchego (heaps of it) and egg.

The staff are efficient, knowledgeable, friendly and couldn’t do enough to please. The well thought through wine and beer list ensures no-one leaves thirsty.

Terra has a great possie in the No Name Lane precinct. It keeps good company with other eateries such as Baby Su and Mayfair Espresso. This area used to be fairly quiet but is now one of Canberra’s most dynamic wining and dining precincts.

Our only concern was a slightly disturbing exhaust smell. Not sure what that was about…

Shop G2, No Name Lane, 30 Marcus Clarke Street, Civic. Open seven days for lunch and dinner (times vary).

THEATRE / The Q’s new season

ARTS IN THE CITY

Salty, twisted, year of theatre

By Helen Musa

By Helen Musa

THE Q’s Stephen Pike has confirmed his position as the canniest and most imaginative theatre programmer in town with a mix of camp comedy, nights of song, musicals and hard-hitting drama for its 2020 program.

He’s also “finally cracked it” by snaring Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Company with a re-imagined, “gender-bending, hyper-theatrical and kinky” version of “HMS Pinafore”, directed by Kate Gaul and featuring our own Tobias Cole as The Captain.

As Pike explained to guests at his two showbiz-style previews, 2019 had been a daunting year, with unexpected cancellations common to many regional theatres.

However, it had come up trumps in a nationwide survey, proving a high rate of audience satisfaction and a preference for musical theatre and contemporary plays.

Pike is particularly proud of having snared “Spice Night”, starring Singaporean YouTube star Hirzi Zulkiflie, Malaysian comedy queen Joanne Kam, India’s only out, gay, stand-up Navin Noronha and Filipino-Australian Margot

Heavenly voices herald the season LUMINESCENCE Chamber Singers and Luminescence Children’s Choir are working hard to herald in the festive season with their heavenly voices. All Saints’ Anglican Church, 9 Cowper Street, Ainslie, 7pm, Friday, December 13 and Saturday, December 14. Book at eventbrite.com.au

Singaporean YouTube star Hirzi Zulkiflie.

Tanjutco in a salty style of comedy.

PYT Fairfield, who brought “Jump First, Ask Later” this year, will bring in “Playlist”, in which five young women talk about their favourite female pop stars and how these narratives inspire and shape their personal worlds.

A recurring motif this year is “immersive comedy theatre” to be seen in “Don Juan”, where actors with bad French accents take turns to play Don Juan in sunglasses and a baseball cap, and also a twisted version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Jekyll & Hyde” with more bad French accents.

Next year will see a serious move by The Q into sharing the two spaces that they have at hand – the purpose-built theatre itself and the adjoining Bicentennial Hall, transformed earlier this

Tobias Cole and Katherine Allen in “HMS Pinafore”. year from a barn into a performancefriendly space.

“The Hall” will be packed with variety shows, including Canadian singer Lisa Budin Price’s “Remembering the Carpenters” and Eddie Daniels’ “The Battle of the Voices”, where he pits Roy Orbison against Gene Pitney. It will also have Everyman Theatre’s acerbic version of “Romeo and Juliet” directed

by Chris Zuber.

The Q continues to feature local work, with both Everyman and Echo Theatre in the season.

Echo director Jordan Best this year presents Hilary Bell’s disturbing “Wolf Lullaby”, revolving around the murder of a small child in a bleak, remote town.

For those who love scripted plays, both serious and comic, it’s a feast.

In “Hell Ship”, author, actor and

broadcaster Michael Veitch recreates the tragic 1852 story of the emigrant vessel Ticonderoga.

“American Song”, written by Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, will be directed by Canberra-raised Tom Healey for Red Stitch Actors Theatre. Also from Red Stitch will be “Lamb”, in which playwright Jane Bodie and songwriter Mark Seymour tell the story of one family on an Australian sheep farm over generations.

“Grace under Pressure”, a verbatim work by David Williams and Paul Dwyer and staged by Sydney Arts & Health Collective reveals the hidden stories of health professionals.

The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre 2020 Season. Book at theq.net.au or 6285 6290.

IN “A Very NFSA Christmas” the National Film and Sound Archive will screen Christmas favourites “Home Alone”, “Die Hard” and the Frank Capra classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” on December 20-21.

As part of the festive mood, they’re also having a “Pay What You Can Day” for entry to the Archive’s big “Game Masters” show on December 21. Book at nfsa.gov.au ADHOC Baroque will celebrate the festive season with a concert of Baroque gems, and will be joined by bass Andrew Fysh in a cantata by Stradella portraying the angel appearing to the shepherds, as well as Christmas and Epiphany trios by Charpentier.

Guests include Bianca Porcheddu and Dan Russell on violin, Clara Teniswood on cello and Rachel Walker on viola da gamba. At the Chapel of the Annunciation, Canberra Girls Grammar School, 3pm, Sunday, December 15. Tickets at trybooking.com or at the door.

CANBERRA singer/songwriter Lucy Sugerman will be the first youth ambassador for the National Folk Festival. She’ll work with “The National” on its inaugural youth concert for the 2020 Easter festival’s opening night, featuring young performers from across the local region.

“ON Course” is QL2 Dance’s annual showcase of new contemporary dance works created by students at university or universitylevel courses from around Australia and NZ. This year there are 13 young choreographers at work, mentored by Alison Plevey and Steve Gow. QL2 Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, December 14-15.

Book at ql2.org.au or 6247 3103.

CLOSED FROM 4PM TUES 24TH DECEMBER TO SAT 4TH JANUARY CityNews December 12-18, 2019 29

JUMBO CROSSWORD

Solution Page 28

ACROSS 1 One owed money 14 Give medicine to 19 Praise 20 Rays 22 Give all particulars 24 Old-timer 25 Sinful 26 Kitchen utensils 27 Merciful 28 Cooking room 30 Whole scale 31 Nightclub entertainment 33 Gave sympathy to 36 Having feeling 38 Avoid 40 Dear 41 Gaol 43 Cormorant 46 A defeat 47 Hairy 48 Threw over 50 Rotten 52 Chide 57 Own up 60 Courage 61 Gives the news 63 Apple drink 64 A pamphlet 66 Brick carrier 67 A rod 68 Small insect 70 Food part 71 Sign of progress (4,4) 73 Drink container 74 Think about 78 Interfere 79 The final part 80 Not many 83 Sudden dash 86 Relate 88 Golfer’s warning 89 Rule 92 A moss-like plant 94 Excavating equipment 96 The edge 98 Set at rest 99 Powerful 100 Record 101 Thieve 103 A copy 104 Spikes 105 Anger 106 Timid 109 A digit 112 A colon disease 113 Soiled 114 Disagreed with 116 Make very angry 118 Keen 120 Not raining 122 Single time 123 Of regal blood 125 Pigpen 126 Metal fastener 128 Rubbed out

130 Arm joints 135 Needing much expense 138 Said again 139 Causes 141 Part of an egg 143 Stitch 144 A vehicle 146 Give approval for 147 Greek letter 149 Tanned skin 150 Neat (coll) 152 Heavy gunfire 156 Local language 157 Take by threats 159 Small pill 161 Workshop for artist

30 CityNews December 12-18, 2019

164 Group of three 167 Eject 168 Not finished 169 Type of tree 170 Take out 171 Think over 175 A type of firework 179 Type of ornament 182 Use a broom 184 Breaks up 188 Private room 189 S-shaped curve 190 Performance by two 191 Fought against 192 Private thought 193 Group of soldiers

194 Died out 195 Put off for a time 196 Strained

DOWN 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

A black bird The same again Brief in conversation Position in army Fair A track Sharpness Passed along Sudden thought Acting wisely Medicinal plant

13 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 23 29 32 34 35 36 37 39 42

A jetty Thaw Move to music Hilltop Name Exact Large Drunkard One greeting guests Inventor Roughened up Sound of distress First appearance Breaks suddenly Not moving Scouring Amazement

44 45 49 51 53 54 55 56 58 59 61 62 64 65 69 72 73

Ill-mannered Put something over Put on a ledge Remember Type of drum Unwanted messages Wave wildly Lack of hostility Leg tie Musical note A cad Lively dance A boy Border Foot lever Good to see Large ruminant

75 Break one’s word 76 Stop suddenly 77 A slope 79 Scales 81 Type of wine 82 Brave person 84 One expected to lose 85 Move to another position 87 Loses courage 89 Put on a list 90 To the inside 91 Pierced with horn 93 Unclothed 95 Relaxation 97 Break in hostilities 99 Farm building 102 Unaccompanied 104 Slight wind 106 Unexplained occurrence 107 Types of ovens 108 Rate of progress 110 A present 111 Tear apart 112 Stately home 115 Keep waiting 117 On a riverbank 119 Worn away 121 Eat greedily 124 Ocean delicacy 127 Of the ocean movements 129 Stock of weapons 131 A citrus fruit 132 Went away 133 Narrow water channel 134 Friend in games 136 Put in place 137 Born 140 Slight pain 142 A price label 143 Move furtively 145 Crazy 148 Dressed feathers 151 Ties up an animal 153 Fail to agree 154 Gives up 155 Kept in store 156 Sleep in the open 158 A sound frequency 160 Stair railing 162 Large stone 163 Part of saddle 165 Farmers 166 Lack of restraint 172 A nook 173 Childish 174 Burning coal 176 Scottish musician 177 Chances 178 Large spoon 179 Push rudely 180 Fasten down 181 Keenly wanting 182 Put in place 183 Young canine 185 High mountains 186 A deer 187 Lumps of wet dirt

PUZZLES PAGE

NOW FREE PUZZLES EVERY DAY AT citynews.com.au

Joanne Madeline Moore

General knowledge crossword No. 715

WESLEY UNITING CHURCH

Your week in the stars – December 16-22, 2019

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

Rams are natural entrepreneurs. Jupiter links up with Uranus, so it’s a wonderful week to initiate an exciting business venture or head off in a brand new direction.

Fortune favours the bold and the brave! It’s also the perfect time to celebrate the Wild Woman (or Man) within, as you connect with your inner daredevil and follow your ambitious and audacious dreams. You have the fiery energy to get a passion project off the ground. Now all you need is the persistence to finish it.

Christmas Eve 24th December 5pm (family) & 11pm

TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)

Hey Bulls… intrepid Uranus (which is transiting through your sign) is making a magical connection with adventurous Jupiter. So bust out of your comfort zone and do something daringly different as you travel, explore, experiment, kick up your heels (or should that be hooves?) and have some fun. Venus (your patron planet) shifts into your career zone on Friday. So fire up the festive charm as you party with work colleagues and improve relations with clients or customers.

Christmas Day 25th December 9.30am

22 National Cct, Forrest For more information visit

wesleycanberra.org.au

GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)

It’s time for Geminis to get cracking! When it comes to work, habits, health and fitness, the more proactive and organised you are, the better the results will be.

Friday looks tricky though, when a lack of focus, direction and discrimination could temporarily side-track and confuse you. And don’t let a dubious acquaintance lead you down the primrose path to trouble (romantically or professionally). Make sure you keep your trusty truth detector set on high.

CANCER (June 22 – July 23)

You can’t escape relationships this week! Don’t approach things with the same old attitude. A fresh approach is required. If there is a problem: fix it. If there is a misunderstanding: sort it out. If there is too much distance between you and a loved one: get closer. The more positive energy and hard work you pour into partnerships, the more beneficial they will be. So your motto is from Henry Ford: “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.”

LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)

Courtesy of Jupiter and Uranus, it’s a terrific week to make a brilliant business move or a positive professional decision. Big and bold brushstrokes are required at the moment. Plenty of entrepreneurial enthusiasm and Cat confidence will get you where you want to go! Venus visits your relationship zone (from Friday until January 13). So a problem with a loved one should start to improve, as you see things from their point-of-view and have a new appreciation of their perspective.

VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)

Early in the week an exciting friendship, creative project, sporting activity or spontaneous adventure will get your Virgo adrenaline going. But expect some drama and confusion in Virgo Love Land later in the week. If you’re attached – are you making erroneous assumptions about your partner? Singles – you’re drawn to someone special but are you seeing them clearly? It’s time to take off your rose-coloured glasses and take a second (more realistic) look.

LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)

The Jupiter/Uranus connection is fabulous for family life and spontaneous celebrations. Matters involving communication, travel and work are highlighted but – if you don’t check all the facts thoroughly – mistakes are likely. Venus (your ruling planet) shifts into your love zone on Friday, where it stays until January 13.

Attached Librans – plan something extra romantic with your sweetheart. Singles – look for lasting love with a lusty Leo or an amorous Aquarian.

Across

1 What is a place where miscellaneous goods are sold?

(6) 7 Mohawks and their like are members of which American Native confederacy. (8) 8 What is an area of shallow water separated from the sea by low banks? (6) 9 Who invented the safety-razor, King Camp ...? (8) 10 What are shoulder firearms? (6) 11 Which teeth in the anterior part of the jaw are adapted for cutting? (8) 14 Name dogs of mixed or uncertain breed. (8) 18 What is a sudden strong wind of brief duration? (6) 19 What is a decorative design used on the title page of a book? (8) 21 Which other term describes a pill? (6) 22 Name a person abandoned by society. (8) 23 How many players are there in a soccer team? (6)

Down

Solution next edition

1 Name an alternative term for a dance hall. (8) 2 Who was the god of light, healing, music, etc, etc? (6) 3 Which are the best seats in the house, at a boxing match? (8) 4 Name the fold of flesh hanging from the jaw of a fat person. (4) 5 What are potatoes also called? (6) 6 Name one who has defeated an adversary. (6) 12 What is a tape recording container known as? (8) 13 What is the bony framework of a body? (8) 15 Which Dickens orphan “asked for more”? (6) 16 Name the river that flows from India to the Bay of Bengal. (6) 17 What is a small globule called? (6) 20 Which term indicates a group of three? (4)

Christmas Services at All Saints Ainslie Christmas Eve • 24th December Children’s Pageant • 5pm Midnight Mass • 11pm Christmas Day • 25th December Solemn High Mass • 9am

FREE CROSSWORD EVERY DAY AT citynews.com.au

Sudoku hard No. 257 9-15 Cowper Street, Ainslie

SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)

The more proactive and productive you are on Thursday, the better the day will be. But, in the busy lead-up to Christmas, are you feeling tired and fragile? Pleasure planet Venus shifts into your domestic zone on Friday. So spend the weekend at home, complete with yummy food, comfy cushions, relaxing music and your favourite books or TV shows. Follow the sensible advice of writer (and birthday great) Jane Austen: “There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”

SCHOOL

DAYS

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)

Lucky Jupiter is still forming a fabulous aspect with entrepreneurial Uranus. So this week you need to be more adventurous, extend your horizons and experiment with innovative possibilities. Thursday is the time to tie up loose ends before you launch exciting new projects. The more energy and focus you put into financial, business and work matters, the more successful you’ll be. But you must do your homework and check all details thoroughly before you proceed.

SECOND CHILD

FREE ENTRY

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)

SPECIAL DEAL

You need to be extra adaptable because it will be a stop/start kind of week. Jump out of a conservative Capricorn rut on Monday, when Jupiter (which is in your sign) forms an auspicious aspect with Uranus. So it’s time to look to the future with innovative and adventurous new eyes. Whereas Thursday’s Mars/Saturn connection is good for working patiently towards your goals. If you double-check everything before you take action, then you’ll meet with success.

Solution next edition

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)

This week’s stars encourage you to bite the bullet and make some firm and focused decisions (especially involving your goals, hopes and dreams for the future). You’ll also shun superficial encounters with others, preferring serious and philosophical conversations with family, friends and colleagues. So your motto is from birthday great, writer Jane Austen: “My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.”

Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2019

ONE VOUCHER PER CUSTOMER

Solutions from last edition Sudoku medium No. 257

PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)

FREE SUDOKU EVERY DAY AT citynews.com.au

Crossword No. 714

The week starts well as lucky Jupiter links up with entrepreneurial Uranus. So some Aquarians will change jobs, start a home-based business or launch an online enterprise. Then Mars and Saturn encourage you to consolidate your strengths and work on your weaknesses. And don’t be too disappointed if you make messy blunders. Your motto is from birthday great, actress and activist Jane Fonda: “You only learn from wounds and scars and mistakes and failures.”

MUST PRESENT THIS VOUCHER ON ENTRY

NO SOCKS NO PLAY

0487 880 805

funlandcanberra.com.au 1/181 Flemington Road, Mitchell, ACT 2911 *Funland Canberra reserves the right to amend the conditions at any time.

CityNews December 12-18, 2019 31

$2000 OFF * purchase price

$2000

CREDIT*

on your ActewAGL electricity account

NOTHING BEATS A HOME WITH DUCTED REVERSE CYCLE AIR CONDITIONING. Get the ultimate in heating and cooling when you upgrade to a ducted reverse cycle air conditioner. It instantly heats or cools your home to your exact requirements and it’s efficient, all year long.

Save yourself from Canberra’s extremes. Save yourself some money. actewagl.com.au/energysavingsolutions

ENERGY SAVING SOLUTIONS

*T&Cs apply. See website for details. ActewAGL Retail ABN 46 221 314 841 is a partnership of Icon Retail Investments Limited ABN 23 074 371 207 and AGL ACT Retail Investments Pty Ltd ABN 53 093 631 586.