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Blogs by Vena McGrath
Easter Saturday 2009 - 11.37 am 4/10/2009 5:27:54 PM
Another Easter and, surprise surprise, there have been showers this morning :) Good Friday has been and gone and it was good to see that our Government decided to do the right thing and not allow major retailers, and most minor, to trade yesterday. Australia was always a Christian society and I grew up with all the religious holidays of the Christian faith being adhered to as holy days. Sundays were always 'days of rest' when no shops were open and some traders, such as service stations for fuel, were allowed to trade in restricted hours. There was no sport of a Sunday and no hotels were open or clubs. The fact that over the years things have changed so that now everything is open 7 days a week, many for 24 hours a day, is not an indication of an enlightened society. It's more an enlightened view of a society ruled by the greed of minority groups that have, over the years, made it plain to Governments that if they want support at the right time, then they best come to the party the rest of the time.
I had to go to the local clinic today because I had run out of blood pressure tablets this morning. Imagine my amazement, seeing as how everyone is trading today, to find that the clinic is closed for 4 days. This has never happened before to my knowledge, and the clinic was always open, even if for less hours than normal days. I was under the impression that the clinics were allowed to open their doors because they took the strain off hospitals and they provided a service to local communities at times that worked in with working people primarily who couldn't visit a doctor during working hours.
A man was standing outside the doors of the clinic reading the opening hours sign, as I was, and he was totally at a loss. He had stitches in his foot and had been told apparently to go back to the clinic today to have the stitches removed. No doubt he will either go home and attempt to remove them himself or he will have to go to a hospital emergency and spend the day there waiting for someone to attend to him.
I drove to another clinic closer to home and found the same scenario. Doors closed - no one home! I had already visited the chemist next door to the clinic I attend further from home to try to obtain some tablets to carry me over until Tuesday, but because I don't have a consistent history of obtaining scripts there, they wouldn't give me any tablets. I found that totally discriminative as I have been spending my dollars, including those for prescriptions, at that chemist for as many years as it has been open. But of course, like so many other small businesses, this one has been taken over by a larger corporation and what went on before doesn't count anymore. They won't have any history on me now because I will go elsewhere to have my prescriptions filled and to spend any $'s I need to on other chemist supplies.
The chemist locally, again next door almost to a clinic that was shut, saw my plight and sold me a month's supply of the pills without any problems. I have a history there too with having prescriptions filled. But I don't have my scripts filled there every month either. So no prizes to guess where I will be going in future to have all my scripts filled.
I've always believed in spreading my money around and shopping for what I need at the stores closest to where I may be at any given time. Obviously this is a mistake and loyalty is what counts now.
Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, there will be little trading going on in Sydney. The markets no doubt will be open because they fall into a group that can obtain permission to trade. The majors and many minors applied for permission to trade today and their applications were denied. This is a great move on the part of the Government and not before time. On the one hand we scream in indignation that we are a Christian society in Australia and on the other hand we want to take the holidays and get paid for them but we want to carry on life the same as every other day in the year too and go shopping. No wonder there is so little family life left in our society. When I was a child these days were just that - family days. We either got together in one house or we all went on picnics together and didn't worry about shops being closed.
I'm spending a fair bit of Easter alone as my family have all got their own things to do. It's usually me that gets everyone together but now I believe it's time for them to do some organizing and to show some family togetherness. Obviously today's world has taken them over and they have, without my motivation to do the planning, decided to go their own ways and not make the effort. Ah well such is life.
Judging by how many people were at the shopping centres this morning, not that many have been able to go away for the weekend. Easter was usually a time when families would go camping but it's also a time of year when it often rains and spoils all those adventures. People today aren't willing to battle the elements and decide that staying home is the best option. Money is also tight for many in the economic gloom of 2009 so this is also impacting on what people do or don't do. I imagine many have decided to stay at home, spend their money on good food and perhaps a visit to the Sydney Royal Easter Show or perhaps to the movies.
I noticed that hot cross buns are over $1 each! What a rip-off that is. I heard on the radio last week that people are staying away from restaurants in droves but fast food outlets have increased traffic. If anyone bothered to work out what it costs to visit a fast food outlet for say 4 hamburgers and chips as compared to buying 4 buns, some hamburger meat and salad and a bag of spuds or frozen chips to cook, I'm sure they would see that cooking at home is the more economical option. I also believe that it's much better to know where the food came from and if the person preparing it bothered to wash their hands than to wonder how long it's been out of a refrigerator or sitting in a tray keeping hot and how fresh everything actually is. I know there is an element of the unknown even when purchasing food from a supermarket or butcher shop, but I believe that is a much lesser unknown. Once again it's a sign of family life disappearing.
I won't be visiting a church this weekend but that doesn't mean I don't believe in observing traditional days, religious or not. There is a lot about religion that is good and anyone that can find peace in their beliefs is probably blessed.
I wish everyone a safe and happy Easter. We, in Australia, should be extremely grateful that we do still live in a Christian society because if we didn't, then we wouldn't be having a 4 day weekend with 2 of those days being funded by our employers even though we aren't at work. If the day comes when the laws pertaining to trading hours on public holidays are changed, then we should lose those extra days' pay. We won't deserve them!
