Just Reviews

Her life obviously had a lot of highs but she also suffered many low points. 

Anna Nicole Smith seemed to have everything at her fingertips and yet her life was dogged with so many controversies from her marrying an 89 year old tycoon, to the death of her son in mysterious circumstances and the paternity row over her 5 month old daughter.

And now here once again there is controversy over the circumstances surrounding her own death  at 39 years of age.  An autopsy will be held on Friday in an attempt to determine the cause of her death.

She certainly called attention to herself with her bizaare behaviour at times and she generally gained media attention for all the wrong reasons.  She would readily disrobe and display her ample figure, which could be disconcerting to say the least.

 Rest in Peace Anna, your turmoil is now over.

We  have just spent a pleasant evening by lake Burley Griffin watching spectacular fireworks.

Parking as always was a bit of a problem, and we finally settled on a grassed area near the lake and only a short walk from where the fireworks were to go off.  We joined the many other Canberran’s who had arrived early to catch the concert prior to the fireworks.

Cedie was a little upset at the loud noise of the fireworks going off.  However, she was fascinated by the jet-skiers riding around the lake with pyrotechnics strapped on.

There were fireworks set up to create a “waterfall effect” on Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, and an in-air “dump and burn” (also known as an after burn) by a Royal Australian Air Force F-111.

The pyrotechnic extravaganz was provided by  Martin Brady of Fireworks Australia.  The barrage of fireworks were launched from a number of sites, including a barge on Lake Burley Griffin, the roof of Questacon and the carillon, and Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.

The display  took  five months of planning, and the fireworks were set to a specially commissioned Australia Day soundtrack, featuring the indigenous community, Australian poetry and Australian artists.

The crowd around us were all delighted with the spectacle and clapped enthusiastically as wave after wave of fantastic lights burst overhead.

Well done Canberra  – another triumph.
More fireworks

 Cedie waiting patiently, as you can see we arrived reasonably early.

My friend Paula and I took my two grandchildren, Demelza and Ce’Nedra to the Australia Day Live Concert and shared the excitement with 35000 other Australian’s on the lawns of Parliament House.

The concert opened with TV Rock and Demelza was beside herself to be so close to the action and franticly did the teenage girl thing, SMS’d everyone she knew. 

TV Rock set a cracking pace that unfortunately didn’t quite follow through with the majority of the songs after, being more ballad that rock.  Sick Puppies gave a credible performane and Renee Geyer belted out some classic rock.

Damien Leith showed why he won Australian Idol, he comes across as  a very unassuming and humble person.  Video was shown of him being sworn in as  an Australian Citizen by the Prime Minister, after 5 years of living in Australia,

‘Dicko’ was also at the concert and he and his family are also to become Australian citizens on Australia Day.

 The crowd was extremely well behaved and the sense of pride and patriotism was palpable.

We had a great night, and Cedie who is a 9 year old was more interested in eating her way through the chips, biscuits and chocolate.  Although she did love the ‘Pricilla – Queen of the Desert’ performers, especially the cupcake dancers. We all cheered with delight at their performance.

Many people sported the Aussie flag and had painted faces.

In all it was a great way to start the weekend celebrations.

Some people will do anything to win a competition and unfortunately in this case it led to the death of a 28 year old woman in Sacramento California.

What probably seemed like a harmless bit of fun, became a tragedy because the people involved hadn’t done their homework and understood the dire consequences of drinking too much water in one go.

For those who are unaware drinking large quantities of water rapidly can cause brain swelling and lead to seizures, coma and death. Which is exactly what happened in this case.

So instead of a Wii this young lady ended up dying.  This is a very sad outcome for what could have been avoided had the radio station employees just done a little research ahead of time.