MORE FACBOOK ABUSE
The number of people using Facebook for the wrong reasons is a worry for society. Celebrities are attacked, young people are bullied, and business and hard workers get slandered. The problem is that Facebook does not police their own regulations which say that the site cannot be used for these purposes, but it is. Recently, a person on Macleay Island contacted an island business and wanted them to get involved with a ‘venture’ that he was proposing; they declined. Shortly after notices started to appear on Facebook criticising the business in clearly a campaign to disrupt and cause harm. This is not the first time this has happened. It is hard to understand why Facebook isn’t subject to the same regulations when it comes to defamatory statements.The party concerned is a notorious trouble maker and verbal bully. If you know of people like this on the internet, call them out when you know they are saying untruths about people you know. The consequences of their actions can often be horrific.
THE DARK IS IN MY EYES - LILAH
You may remember the little girl, Lilah Grant, who featured on the front cover of our December 2015 and 2017 editions. Like all little ones, she is growing up fast and learning, among other things, how to speak. Now just two, she is already attending dance lessons and is into literally everything. Last week, after attending an evening function and taken out into the dark of the night by her mother on their way home, instead of saying “It is dark”, she came up with “The Dark is in My Eyes” - out of the mouths of babes; precious indeed
THANK YOU BARGE AND FERRY CREWS
The ferry and barge crews that service our islands rarely get a pat on the back. However, in recent times we had occasion to notice some of the ‘good things’ they often do for island travellers. Every month when we deliver the Friendly Bay Islander to all the islands, it is a fair bit of coordination to get to our deliverers on all the islands. One of the drop-off points is via the barges at Lamb Island. Because a quick drop-off is required, we have to offload several boxes in a hurry. It certainly helps when the barge hands give us a ‘helping hand’ to take the boxes ashore - quickly! Also, recently someone we know left a phone in their car and rushed to get it before departure. The ferry, in the meantime, started to head off and our party thought he was stuck with items on board and him on the mainland. Lo and behold, the deck crew and the driver noticed the dilemma and returned to the wharf and collected our distressed passenger. A nice thing to do!
MARA’S PROGRESS
Our young island star Mara Stransky continues to go from strength to strength in her goal to represent Australia in Laser sailing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Her mum, Carolyn tells us that because of the FBI support, Mara is getting quite a following via our updates. People are enjoying her success. Mara is training with the Laser radial women’s squad and headed off for Europe a couple of weeks ago. Mara has also been training in Western Australia and, to raise her profile, sailed from Coast to Coast - 85 miles on the open sea in her Laser, from Gold Coast Seaway (Southport) to Mooloolaba. She was hoping this effort would help her gain some sponsorship and more financial support. Some of the island clubs have indicated they will run some special fund-raising events in the near future to help Mara and her cause to represent her country at the Olympics. Let us know if you help Mara in any way and we will assist to help make any fund-raising events a success.
HELPING HERSELF!
Also on the ferries, an incident occurred as the ferry pulled into Macleay Island. A school student, a girl in her teens, noticed a packet of chocolate biscuits sticking out of a trolley in the storage area. She decided to snatch them quickly and put them under her arm, probably for an afternoon ‘snack’. What she didn’t know was the owner of the trolley was seated alongside and saw the ‘transaction’ take place. The owner of the trolley, a woman, grabbed the back of the girl’s back pack and pulled her back, confronting her about her ‘light hands’, snatching the biscuits back. The girl involved said nothing and ‘bolted’ for the door.
VERY FEW SAY THANK YOU
Over the course of time, we have written quite a few lovely stories about island people and events. And it is nice when people bother to say ‘thank you’. This month we have a had quite a few ’thank you’s’ particularly in relation to our front cover story and pix about Street Libraries on our Islands. Ian Kirk sent us a message to say that he and Robbie had received some outstanding compliments from people. Michele Newton told us that the May edition was the ‘best one yet’. Full of praise for just about everything we did concluding: “Postivity shining through on every page’. Also received a lovely message from singer Elly Hart who now lives on our island who sent us a message: “Thanks for the article. You did an excellent job.” Thank you for the nice words!