**Season's Greetings for 2023 from NORTH COAST VOICES** Hope to see you all again in 2024 our 17th year of blog posting

Best wishes for the festive season to readers and browsers

from all at 

North Coast Voices

North Coast Voices will be on holiday until New Year's Eve

Animation from Google Images

*********Wishing Everyone A Happy Holiday Season*********

North North Voices

wishes

all its readers

a

             HAPPY  HOLIDAY  SEASON 

The blog will return from its annual break on 1 January 2023

 

*Season's Greetings From North Coast Voices, December 2021*

      

      As is the usual practice North Coast Voices will not be posting                 comment between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

We hope to see you all in 2022!

Stay Safe Stay Well

*Scarlet Robin photograph by Flock Wildlife found at Difficult Bird Research Group

Happy New Year 2020

shutterstock.com

*****Greetings from North Coast Voices*****

North Coast Voices 

hopes its regular readers and casual browsers 

have a safe and bushfire free Wednesday, 25th of December

After a short annual break the blog will return on 

New Year’s Day 1 January 2020

****Happy Festive Season 2018 From North Coast Voices****

Wishing  you  all  a  Happy Festive Season

and thankyou to all our readers - those who come 

straight to this blog & those that read us on Twitter

North Coast Voices takes an annual break at this time and will be begin posting again on New Year's Day

Pet care in the home at during the festive season

https://www.123rf.com

The Daily Examiner, 18 December 2018, p.7:

We’d like to make sure your pet stays happy and healthy this silly season. Here’s a list of potential pet hazards to watch out for:

1. Christmas dinner and leftovers are too rich for our pets and can cause nasty tummy upsets and even pancreatitis. Stick to “pet approved” treats.

2. Macadamia nuts are popular at Christmas and can be toxic for dogs, leading to muscle weakness, vomiting and tremors.

3. Sultanas and raisins can cause kidney failure in dogs.

4. Barbecue skewers can be catastrophic for pets so take care to ensure your pet doesn’t accidentally ingest a skewer (which falls on the ground for example) and never feed your pet cooked bones - both can lead to the need for emergency intestinal surgery.

5. Chocolate – dogs can’t metabolise the theobromine in chocolate, and ingestion can lead to an increased heart rate, tremors, seizures and even death. The darker the chocolate the more toxic and the size of the dog and amount ingested also plays a part in the severity of the symptoms.

6. Decorations such as tinsel and fairy lights are very attractive to pets but can lead to a gastric obstruction if eaten.

7. Ribbons from presents are super attractive to cats and if ingested can lead to a nasty gastric obstruction requiring emergency surgery.

8. The Christmas tree might be an attractive indoor “pee tree” but can also be a falling hazard.

9. Lots of guests can cause your pet to become stressed and even lead to them trying to escape – make sure they have a safe and quiet place to retreat to.

10. Christmas lilies can cause kidney failure in cats. The stamen, leaves and stems are all potentially toxic as is the water they are stored in, so it’s best not to have them in the first place.

11. Snakes are out and about and will be all summer so take care in long grass, around water or areas where there are rodents (grain sheds and chook pens).

12. Heatstroke – never leave your pet in the car during the warmer weather. Even on a mild day the temperature inside a car can reach a dangerous level in minutes. Leaving a window down will not help either, so don’t risk it! If you have any questions about the health/safety of your pet, we are always here to put your mind at ease.

CREDIT: Riverbank Animal Hospital

*Season's Greetings From North Coast Voices, December 2017*

As is our usual practice North Coast Voices will not be posting comment between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

We hope to see you all in 2018!

*Scarlet Robin photograph by Flock Wildlife found at Difficult Bird Research Group

Santa spotted arriving in Australia!

Spotted: Santa has arrived in Australia! Time to get ready for bed  #seeaustralia pic.twitter.com/rZUhMHHeKO

— Australia (@Australia) December 24, 2017

Clarence Valley Council strips local workers of penalty rates on 3 days this year

This turned up in the comments under a Daily Examiner story last week about Grafton’s Jacaranda Festival losing its very trad Thursday half day public holiday:

"Clarence Valley Public Holidays
Council has applied to NSW Industrial Relations for the following:
1.Event Day after noon on Wednesday 17 April 2013 - Maclean Show Day to be observed within the Police Patrol Districts of Maclean, Yamba and Iluka. A map showing the Police Patrol Districts is available by clicking here.
2.Public Holidays after noon till 5.00 pm on Wednesday 10 July 2013 - Ramornie Race Day - and on Thursday 11 July 2013 - Grafton Cup Day to be observed within the City of Grafton. A map of the City of Grafton is available by clicking here.
3.Event Day after noon on Thursday 31 October 2013 - Jacaranda Thursday to be observed within the City of Grafton. A map of the City of Grafton is available by clicking here.
.Council's application is awaiting the consideration of the Minister.
We expect the outcome by the end of February 2013.
Enquiries to Governance Coordinator, Brian Lane 6641 7203."

Come again? What’s this “events day”? Oh, that’s a day which is supposed to act like a public holiday, but one where workers don’t get penalty rates if they’re rostered on to work - because it’s legally NOT a public holiday.
Who said Work Choices is dead?
This comment sounds pretty near the mark, seeing this council is run by the North Coast Nats and the local let 'em get cake business community:

****Happy New Year To All from North Coast Voices****



Happy New Year 2012 from North Coast Voices

To all our friends and readers

including those who stumbled upon

North Coast Voices

for the first time in 2011

Graphic from Google Images

*****Happy Festive Season To All In 2011*****

North Coast Voices

wishes everyone

a happy festive season

Keep safe and well during the holidays

We will be back from our annual break

on 1 January 2012

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year
from all at
North Coast Voices

Image found at Oohm

Seasons Greeting from all at North Coast Voices in 2010

Season's Greetings

To all our readers

And to those Australian and overseas bloggers

we regularly read ourselves

From everyone here at

North Coast Voices

Have a happy and safe time during this year's festivities

As is our usual custom we will be taking a holiday break from

Christmas Day 2010 until New Year's Day 2011.

Animated image from fanpop!

Bob Brown and Co say have a brilliant summer

 

Senator Bob Brown, Federal Leader of The Greens, looks forward to the holidays in his latest media release…………

Dear friend,

What a fantastic 2010! And it will flow into 2011, not least with our four new senators increasing our team in the federal parliament to 10 on 1 July.

Three of the great policy challenges for 2011 will be saving the Kimberley's James Price Point from a gas hub, permanent protection for Tasmania's high conservation value forests and getting a decent carbon price for Australia.

But Christmas is coming first. Don't tell Paul, but I've been down to the outdoor gear shop to get him a decent sleeping bag so that we can head off to Tasmania's central plateau, careless about any summer blizzards. I don't need any present as there is a new footbridge over the Liffey River, which will be a boon for platypus watchers and walkers headed for Drys Bluff alike.

I and my fellow MPs, Christine, Rachel, Sarah, Scott and Adam, wish you and yours a brilliant summer with many happy times together.

Yours sincerely

Bob Brown

Some unexpected Christmas carolling

A big thank-you to Alphabet Photography

and You Tube.................

Vehicles and beaches are not a good mix

The Daily Examiner on 11 January 2010
Click on image to enlarge

It's the height of summer once more and families with children are flocking to North Coast beaches for a day of sun and surf. Older residents are also seeking a little relief from the heat with a beach walk at the end of the day.

As usual the issue of vehicles driving onto and along the beach surfaces at this time of year, as is shown by the above opinion piece.

It always amazes me to see obviously healthy and otherwise active men take a four-wheel drive onto the beach, just so that they don't have to walk a mere quarter mile to set up their rods and reels for a little beach fishing.

However, what actually offends me is the sight of a carload of young adults, too lazy to use their legs, pelting down the beach on a bit of a sightseeing spree.

Old people, children and in leash-free areas the family pet (as well as the unwary tourist) are all expected to quickly move out of the way of these driving bullies.

At Minnie Water the curiously legless folk have even taken to using the beach as a carpark before they enter the surf.

Like the regular users of Pippi Beach at Yamba, I also get tired of the broken glass and dangerous mess (left behind after night time beach parties) which I am sometimes forced to skirt around on an early morning walk along local beaches.

It's no wonder that residents are becoming wary of going onto certain Clarence Valley beaches and permanently banning vehicles is being quietly discussed around more than a few dinner tables.

Update:

The Daily Examiner online comment gives Clarence Valley Council a hint.

Posted by yambaman from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 7:26 a.m.
Can't understand why Stafford Sheldon thinks he'll be unpopular for suggesting Pippi Beach be closed to 4 wheel drive vehicles, most of Yamba would agree - who wants the drunken yobbos driving on our beaches and leaving a mess behind, if they had to walk they'd drink at the pub!
Posted by janelle from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 11:37 a.m.
I absolutely agree with Stafford Sheldon and the comment above. I don't see why they have to drive onto the beach at all, ever. We apparently have an obesity problem so make them walk!!! And as far as leaving behind all that rubbish, well how hard is it to clean up after yourself. Shouldn't be allowed thru the tick gate I say.....
Posted by cherylmcc from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 7:23 p.m.
The 4 wheel drives are hazardous to people enjoying that part of Pippie Beach when they are gather speed for the climb back off the beach. A lot of families now use that part of the beach especially with the holiday units just across the road, maybe when it was decided to allow access to these vehicles at this part of the beach it was not used as much then. There should be a review of who uses the beach by the council before someone is hurt . Plus it is not a very very long beach that they have access to so what is the point of them going down there.
Posted by Popeye from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 7:30 p.m.
I hate it when people leave rubbish behind. I'm always picking it up when I walk around so that Yamba doesn't get like the Gold Coast. Have a look at the mess left on Hickey Is at the far end of Whiting Beach where people appear to have been camping and drinking heavily.

Looking forward to Christmas because.......

Dancing Santa from Animation Buddy

This November tweet set me wondering about Christmas:
iPhoon
Looking forward to Christmas, a time when all families behave like the Liberal Party. #spill about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck Retweeted by LarvatusProdeo and 2 others

So here are a few more 'looking forwards' from around cyberspace.

• I'm looking forward to Christmas this year too. After the last few spent ill or in hospital, I am determined to be at home this year and to really enjoy it.
• Hi all, im here just because i cant resist anything Christmas! Am sooooo super excited. Even better, i finish work on Friday, and then am heading away with husband and bump for 2 1/2 weeks. Looking fwd to the break! Hope everyone has something nice planned to look fwd to!
• i've almost finished my xmas shopping yay no stress this year :)
• First of all, I want to say that I love the summer. I love it when it's warm outside, when you are greeted by the sun when you get up in the morning, and just lying outside in the park.
  However, those who know me for a while know that at a certain point during the summer, there always comes a time where I start looking forward to winter, and more specifically to Christmas.
  Yes, that time has come.
• Who is looking forward to Christmas? ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME..........................
• Who is looking forward to Christmas? I am, mind you, i'm just thinking of my stomach. Saw Harrods this evening all lit up in emerald green lights. That put me in the Christmas spirit.

The other side of the coin: Usually I don't mind Christmas, don't love it but I tolerate it and look time to spending time with family.
Last year I asked Santa for a baby, I wrote a note and put it on our tree hoping that we may get some kind of Xmas miracle. It didn't happen......

From the Bah, Humbug! brigade - a whole webpage: I Am Not Looking Forward To Christmas

With the Yeah Chrissie! cheer squad not doing too well at: I Am Looking Forward to Christmas: what is it you like about Christmas?

And a final word from a satirical post at Glossy News:

Oh yes, Christmas is coming, just around the corner in fact. The Festive Season of Peace on Earth and Good Will to all Men.
So, are we all prepared for an evening’s visit from our local Church group’s carol singers? Mince pies and mulled wine at the ready, along with a handful of shiny silver coins for the collection tin?
Er – actually no – the Spirit of Xmas, under new E-USSR ‘Scrooge’ legislation and personal household security guidelines, has gone the way of the dinosaur and is deader than the Dodo.
While the sound of carol singers at the door at Christmas is as traditional as stuffing the ubiquitous turkey, since the Treaty of Lisbon has now been ratified and the Brussels bully boys can impose their totalitarian iron will, carollers will be banned from approaching private houses anywhere in the European community.
Householders across the UK are being provided with posters by local council jobsworths that warn carol singers will not be welcome this Christmas because many residents are ‘uncomfortable’ with having groups of strangers knocking at the door of their manky mangers – even if they are posing as Wise Men and bearing gifts of gold, frankenstein and myrrh (WTF is myrrh?).
The posters are to be affixed to windows or garden gates – or hung from a Pit Bull’s collar – informing carol singers that their unsolicited ‘cold call’ intrusion is an assault on privacy and constitutes an act of gross harassment – and further advises that they f*ck off sharpish-like and ply their joyful hymns and festive spirit elsewhere..........

It's official - the editor's an ars#h@le

The Daily Examiner at Grafton celebrates 150 years of news publication this year.
It's circulation covers the Clarence Valley, with a supposed readership of around 28,000 from Monday to Saturday.
A somewhat unnatural number given that there are only about 50,000 people living in the Valley.
Still, it is to be congratulated for hanging in there when so many in the print media are living on what appears to be borrowed time as teh teev and teh net make inroads into 'audience' share.
So it's a real pity that in a year of celebration this local paper should be lumbered with such a tactless, insensitive tabloid hack like its johhny-come-lately editor, Peter Chapman.

His latest effort on Tuesday was to berate Yamba small business owners for taking either Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day off to be with their own family and friends.
Apparently everyone in Yamba should have been open comme la Gold Coast for the benefit of the editor, his extended family and friends (because not for one moment did I believe in the unnamed dissatisfied 'tourists' he was supposedly championing).
As an afterthought he also included Maclean and Grafton shopkeepers in his gripe - presumably the boofhead remembered that he currently resides in Yamba and has to face his neighbours once the paper hits the streets.

Map from APN