Recently, i was at a major supermarket in Brisbane and I overheard an employee who was stocking milk say to his colleague, "There's not much here. Are we ordering less, or what?" His friend groaned and replied, "Ummm, did you miss the floods? The major dairies are all gone."

My Husband works in a fruit and vegetable shop in the city, and he has been getting customers angry at him, because the shop doesn't have a certain type of lettuce, or snow peas. Most of the stock in the shop was coming round about routes to get past closed roads, and the major Brisbane fruit market has stopped functioning. The retailers and wholesalers have figured out a temporary, but inconvenient system.

It has been covered by the all the news outlets. How can people be surprised? And how on earth can they blame the retailer for not being able to source stock?

The freaky weather that is impacting our (MY) food supply is a strong La Nina event. For the last few decades we have had regular La Nina events, but they have been considered moderate. the last strong one was 1988/1989. So we've had dry years, interspersed with moderate years. Now, we are finally having a wet year. Incidentally, 1974 floods occurred during a La Nina event.

No one of my generation (i'm 28) or possibly even my mother's generation has ever experienced widespread food shortages. (I've been hungry before, but because I was broke, not because there was nothing to buy.) This year is going to be a hungry one. Queensland's main food regions (vegetables, grain and beef and dairy cattle) were hit by flooding, and now the rest of the state, where much of our fruit is grown, is going to be flattened.

Straight after the floods in Brisbane, I had the eerie experience of walking into a major supermarket and the shelves were empty.

We all found ourselves self rationing. We didn't want to buy more than our fair share.
If there is only a bit of something, you didn't want to be the one to take the last bit.

My sister was shopping for her house warming dinner and wanted to make bbq ribs with salads. There were hardly any salad veg, and definitely no meat, milk or bread. Any thing that the shops rely on regular deliveries of was gone. She changed the menu and we had a lovely sit down roast dinner. When food is scarce then old fashioned food is the answer. We had silver-side with roast potatoes, pumpkin and onions. There was also a vegie cous cous for the strange vegetarian. Peasant fare, cheap to buy, stores well and easy to cook.

I feel an anxiety, like I need to get out there and start planting more food in my garden. I feel like I should be stockpiling. Is this intuition? irrational anxiety? or a reasonable reaction?

wibble wednesday

My family is in the news again, and not for anything good.
I really don't like the way the media is treating this.
I don't feel like anyone is treating her like a person, it's creepy to read/watch about things that are so painful and so much a a part of me, talked about on tv and th internet by complete strangers. Like my life is a side show.
Even though it's a long time ago, to me and my family it isn't.
I've been making a scrapbook/memory page, but i'm not sure i can do it anymore.

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I need to unload some brain lint

Its 2am, I should be sleeping.

I was wondering whether it is easier to deal with the death of a loved one, if it is sudden as opposed to being given advance notice.

I was leaning towards sudden death. It's not nice being given updates on a loved one's waning health via social networking, in fact it sucks. Also I am really not good at dealing with grieving in front of the person you are grieving for. Its vulgar. And then there is the perceived obligation to "tie up loose ends", "make your peace" and all that gaff. I am really more of a sweep it under the carpet and let's never speak of that upsetting/embarrassing/my life-is-a-disappointment-to-you moment again.

How do you act? what can you say that doesn't seem over dramatic or too flippant? I don't want to talk about my grades, or the weather, or your latest bad medical news, I just want you to stop dying.

Then I realised, yes, I'm self absorbed, "Oh my God you're dying? This is really affecting me". Yes, I am uncomfortable faced with mortality, my own and anyone elses. BUT... So is the rest of society.

Go into any newsagent's, there is the get well soon card, and the condolence card, and nothing in between. Where is the "I'm sorry you won't be here for christmas" Card? Or "So your doctor just changed your prognosis from six weeks to two days?" There is no Larson cartoon for the occasion.

Hallmark has failed me.

World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really like these books. The paranormal subplots kind of threw me, though. I guess having only read his non-fiction work and his blog, I wasn't expecting a fantasy book.

The first time I read this book I was a little disappointed, I had just watched "Collapse" directed by Chris Smith. I wanted JHK to give me a blow by blow account of events we can expect and how to survive them. Instead, World Made By Hand shoves you a decade or so after all the "Long Emergncy"/teotwawki stuff has happened, and straight into the "new normal".

The second time I read it, I was able to just read the story, and I found I liked it, even the paranormal freaky bits. Although I found it hard to suspend my judgement on the anti-religion viewpoint. JHK has these characters he calls Christian, but their version of christianity and the Bible is so twisted and freaky, that it made me feel ill. I wish JHK had named the "New Faith" deity something other than Jesus.

A lot of people have problems with the role of women in this book. I would like to point out the book is in first person, narrated by a male character, who lives alone, in a society where the female population is limited. Of course the only women he interacts with sleep with him or mother him, (or both). This is just an extrapolated version of the way the sexes interact in reality. Even though we apparently have equality, women tend to do the larger portion of domestic duties, even if they have a job outside the home. It stands to reason,that if you take away the desk job, electricity, the suv, hot running water, the washer/dryer, fast food and law and order, women will be spending more time at home, and less time in the public sphere. I'm fairly certain women are not "forbidden" to be in on council meetings as some people have written. The women are just so busy they couldn't be bothered to go.

Another point brought up is the unresolved ending. Kunstler mentioned in a podcast interview, kunstlercast.com, that his idea was to write 4 books, one for each season. So there are 2 more to come.

Overall, this was a nice story. Robert Earle is an apocalyptic version of Pa Ingalls. Much, much easier to read than McCarthy's "The Road". The premise of a post carbon society, while not an earth shattering concept to Transitioners, serves as a good vehicle for peak oil discussion out in the wider McWorld, always a good thing. Mostly though, I get the feeling that JHK just had fun writing this. A world where all his economic/environmental/political predictions have occured, but "stuff" still happens.



View all my reviews

Why the Global financial crisis isn't over

http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/10/second-leg-down-of-americas-death.html

Elizabeth Warren The coming collapse of the middle class