AN EXPANDING LANGUAGE FINANCE with

The English language is comprised of 1,022,000 words. It expands by 8,500 words each year with nearly half the new words either slang or jargon. Since 1950, the language has grown by more than 70 per cent. Over the previous 50 years, it had expanded by only 10 per cent. The addition of new words comes in waves. There was a peak in Shakespeare’s time, another during the Industrial Revolution and a third wave in the current electronic age. People in Elizabethan England used about 150,000 words although Shakespeare’s plays contain only about 18,000, some of his own making.

Most intelligent people now know about 75,000 words, 50,000 of which they use regularly. We coo and gurgle during the first three months of our lives and between three and six months, we make vocal noises to attract attention. Between six and twelve months, we understand repeated words such as ‘bye-bye’. We can speak about ten words between twelve and fifteen months and over the following three months, that increases to twenty and we can understand short sentences.

By the age of two, we have about fifty words and start putting them together to ask questions. Between the ages of two and three, we add another 250 words and between the ages of three and four we can make up sentences of four to six words. By the age of five, we construct well-formed sentences.

By the time we reach eighteen, we recognise about 60,000 words although that is not to say that they are all used. Teenagers monitored while on the phone were found to use 1,000 words or fewer.

This compares with 250,000 words in the French language, 200,000 Latin words and 100,000 Spanish words. However, the German language uses nine million words and compound words. The German compound words can be as long as you like as they simply keep adding words until they have a compound word that explains the entire situation. There is a German word, which is far too long to print here, that stands for The Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services.

- Source: ‘Many A True Word’ by Richard Baker

Lynette

Things you should consider when selecting a home loan.

Home loans are not created equal, but neither are the priorities of all borrowers. A proportion of property buyers prefer a flexible home loan, while others want a product that ensures their long-term peace of mind and some just really want to pay off their loan as quickly as possible. Once we discuss your circumstances, we look at over 60 banks and lenders to size them up and see which product best suits your scenario. Choosing an interest rate type - variable or fixed?

Variable interest rates: The most popular loan type in Australia because of its financial versatility. Variable interest rates will shift many times during the lifetime of a loan, which will lower and increase your repayments. Many variable rate products offer flexible options to maximise your savings and minimise how much interest you pay.

Fixed interest rates: Fixed interest rate loans let you lock in an interest rate so you know exactly what your monthly repayments will be. A fixed rate home loan is great for anyone who wants certainty about their monthly repayments.

A fixed rate home loan gives you the confidence to budget for your lifestyle and plan your finances for a set period of time but it’s important to know and understand the benefits and disadvantages of a fixed interest rate. You can also split your loan - almost all lenders will let you split your home loan between a fixed and a variable interest rate. This lets you adjust your financial strategy and take advantage of market conditions.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all the above types of home loans, your broker will be able to explain these to you.

- Lynette Melis, Finance Broker

Salon Trading Hours:

Monday - Closed Tuesday to Friday - 9am to 6pm; Fridays - Late Nights

Saturday - from 8.30am

You don’t know what you’ve got… There are two young fish swimming along. They happen to meet an older fish. The older fish nods at them and says: ‘Morning boys. How’s the water?’ The two young fish swim on for a bit and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and asks: ‘What the hell is water?’

— David Foster Wallace. When something is so pervasive and normal it becomes invisible. There is much truth in the saying that ‘We don’t know what we’ve got ‘til it’s gone.’ The message of the fish joke is that the most obvious and important realities are the hardest to see and appreciate.

One of the joys of our region at this time of year are the vast yellow fields of Canola and the vivid green fields of wheat and barley crops that create a patchwork quilt across the landscape. It’s hard not to notice them and many people, apart from the hayfever sufferers, take great pleasure in living where we do, but would you pay for the pleasure?

Many visitors to the region are overwhelmed by the beauty of the Canola fields and often stop by the side of the road, or, to the farmers’ displeasure, jump the fence and trample the crop. Thinking about this I came up with an idea. What if instead of warning people off, we invited them in, and charged them for the experience?

Despite many locals laughing at the thought of this, and some pretty sceptical comments from others, I started planning for the ‘Canola Walk’ on our property at Colbinabbin.

We bought an old Bedford truck with a good tray which we set up as a viewing platform, positioned it in the middle of the paddock and as the Canola grew we mowed a walking track to the platform. We created a Facebook page and started publicising it. In the first 4 weeks since opening the walk we have had over 550 visitors from all over Melbourne and Bendigo come to walk among the yellow, take photos and create a memorable experience with their friends and family. They in turn post their photos onto Facebook and Instagram and the experience grows as over 20,000 people a week see the photos they post.

Wallace’s joke about the fish never explains how the older fish knows what water is whereas the young fish don’t. We can infer that it is because of his experience, that is, the older fish only knows about water because he’s been outside the dam.

Maybe one day he was swimming around and maybe he got a little startled or saw a juicy dragon-fly hovering above the water and he jumped up out of the dam and onto the bank and he was flopping around, and he was like, “What the hell is this?” This is air. And, near suffocation, labouring for every breath, and every minute a little closer to death, he managed to flip himself back into the dam.

“Ohhh wow!” the older fish thinks: “This is water!”

There are so many good things in our lives that we can take for granted until they are gone. When we are young we feel bullet-proof and it’s not until we are older that we appreciate our health, mostly because we can no longer run or jump, and a simple fall can leave us incapacitated for weeks.

I feel for those who lose a life’s partner after 40 or 60 years of marriage. Particularly if they have worked together on a farm or in a business where the other’s presence and love and support is like the air they breathe.

Queen Elizabeth II died last week and after 70 years as monarch most of us have known nothing else. As a Republican I have mixed feelings about her role as Queen of Australia but only time will help us appreciate what we have lost.

The pandemic has made us all feel like a fish out of water. “Long ago”, but in reality back in 2019, we were all living very different lives, which we thought would simply carry on, or even get better.

We weren’t exactly carefree, as we did have problems “back then” but in “those days,” we could shop whenever and wherever we wished for or needed available groceries and goods. We worked out or played sports, gathered for church and social occasions with family and friends, and attended work meetings, performances, and games. I even “remember” sitting close to other people, communing, and enjoying discussions about all kinds of topics. We long for “normal” to return. Maybe it never will return but hopefully we better appreciate all those good things that were so pervasive and ever-present that we could take them for granted.

We have learned to appreciate the non-material (spiritual?) things in our life - small acts of kindness, caring, help, co-operation and empathy. Let’s resolve to be more grateful for the wonderful bounty of our lives. Let’s resolve to spend more quality time with our loved ones, parents, siblings, children, and friends.

And yes, we can be more appreciative of the natural beauty of our region, especially the Canola.

“Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing… Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

Luke 12: 23-28

This is the gospel and it’s good news.

Brian Spencer, Minister, Waranga Uniting Churches

Gv Tree Group

September heralds a new sowing season for the volunteers at the GVTG. As with most things, what looks like a pretty simple procedure actually requires a considerable amount of planning, research, preparation and a healthy dose of luck.

We purchase seeds from several seed suppliers across the country as well as gathering some seeds ourselves. It’s important for us to ensure the seed we collect is from verified trees to guarantee the species are correct.

Seed is usually sold on a per gram basis. They currently cost between 30 cents and $14 per gram of seed. Some seeds are quite large and are sold per seed. The fresher the seed is the better the germination so trying to order the correct amount can be tricky.

Some seeds need to be released from their pods and this can be a laborious process. Some need to be heated and others cooled. Some need to be scarified and some soaked. We use a native seed raising mix to sow into and some seed requires a smoked vermiculite to mimic a bushfire. And then we require good spring heat and water to optimise the germination. Even with all the care in the world some trays just don’t germinate.

Although we close to the public over August this year there seems to have been more activity than ever over our “break”. We have installed a new hot house which we hope will improve our germination. We have also replaced a large section of shade cloth and added some small garden beds.

We hope that the hard work we put in over the off season will be seen in next years crop. Good

QUIZ answers

Tatura Community House

• committee of management members

Booth's

1c – Tony Lockett

2a – Andes, South America

3b – Ottawa

4d – George Orwell

5a – Emerald

What a relief and great news! The Victorian Government just secured ongoing funding for neighbourhood and community houses in Victoria. Bet you didn’t know that funding for our community house was fixed-term only until the end of the financial year 2023/2024. Our income for the financial year 2021/2022: Our expenses for the last financial were $297,070 which means we had a net loss of $28,963.

6b – Vines

7c – Tchaikovsky

8c – Signs and Symbols

9c – 2 (Phobos and Deimos)

10b – Baby

Scoring.

The Tatura Community House is an incorporated association and a not-for profit organisation that is registered as a charity. We are a small business providing services to the Tatura community that include, but are not limited to:

• facilitators for our program activities

• reception and admin support

• baristas

• photographers

• chefs