News

Not news from my family this time, but the actual news.  I'm not a writer. I'm not much of a consumer of news.  But I listen to the ABC all the time.  We don't ever watch the evening news and I don't read the newspaper.  Channel 9 is on at work, so I get snippets of news there but essentially all of my news comes from the ABC.  This is the story of the the last week.

Sunday - It was an Extreme to Catastrophic Fire Warning Day.  Ever since Black Saturday in 2009, the way fires are discussed in Victoria has changed.  Phrases have new meaning that didn't make sense 5 years ago.
Emergency Warning - there is a fire that is very close, it is not safe for you to leave.  Shelter in place.
Watch and Act - there is a out of control fire nearby, if your fire plan was to leave you must leave now.
Advice - The fire is still close, you should take extreme precautions and listen to the radio, watch the CFA app etc.
These three phrases are now synonomous with Total Fire Ban days, they really don't need elaborating on, but they are.  The ABC went into emergency broadcasting on Sunday, which despite the danger is actually very interesting radio.  They bring their big guns in and lots of live crosses and callers talking about where the fire is up to.  THANKFULLY there were no lives lost in the fire, but over 40 homes have been destroyed and countless livestock.

Monday - what fire?  Schappelle Corby was released from her Balinese prison.  I'm still at a loss as to who cares about this woman (other than her family).  The media seem to care, the media seem to think we care.  The entire morning on channel nine was devoted to journalists trying to work out when Schappelle was coming out.  It was a very negative day.

Tuesday - More Schappelle and a little bit about fire - very smoky today.

Wednesday Evening came news that a young boy Luke Batty was killed after his cricket training from severe head injuries and his killer was soon after shot by police.  It turns out that the man was Luke's father and goodness knows why he killed him (it doesn't seem to be about not trying at cricket, rather a horrible family violence and separation issue)  All of Thursday was all about Luke and what can be done about Family Violence.  It made me so sad.  I'm still sad. 

Interesting how the media jumps from one topic to another!  Just like me.