Christmas is coming, ready or not......

December 1st I opened my letter box and there it was. My first Christmas card. It's always the same person who's this efficient. I know for an absolute fact that he once went on holiday in a November and took his Christmas cards with him so he could get them done on time. Bah! Humbug!

But it is December already and if you celebrate Christmas then it's the silly season for you. Presents, food, parties, puddings, trees, lights, decorations. And cards. On your mark, get set. .

If you want a kick start or a helping hand with your Christmas, your local library can help. Check out our catalogue for ideas for that big meal or for food gifts, gift wrapping, making cards, and making decorations. We can even provide cds and the lyrics for a spot of carol singing.

Just quietly, it is my very firm belief that a very small number of people do a very great deal of work to make Christmas happen in a family. And they would be women. And yet it's Father Christmas who gets all the credit.

'Tis the season to be jolly.

Down under the ground

After the horrendous bush fires in Victoria last summer, the idea of bunkers began to be discussed in earnest. Would such shelters have made a difference? Could bunkers have saved lives when the recommended survival strategy of leave early or stay and defend your home became a death sentence?

In his highly acclaimed and often quoted (by us anyway!) essay "We have still not lived long enough" Tom Griffiths argues that " a 'stay and defend' option is only realistic in such places and conditions if every property has a secure fire refuge or bunker. A bunker at the shire hall or at the end of the street is not good enough – people will die getting to it. I welcome the prime minister’s promise to rebuild these communities 'brick by brick' – and I would like him to add: 'and bunker by bunker.'...... we know for certain that any secure bunkers built in these Victorian forest towns will be used in the next generation, and they will save lives. This is an appropriate challenge to the design and construction industries of the fire continent".

Now, Victorians who choose to build a bunker or private bushfire shelter on their property will be required to adhere to new - interim - regulations and an accreditation process. This process comes into effect immediately and should provide clarity for people until proposed new national regulations and accreditation are introduced next year.

Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden said, “It is absolutely vital that people considering building a bunker or private bushfire shelter are aware of the risks and requirements that they need to meet for such a bunker to be considered a safer place of last resort.

“Bunkers or shelters cannot be relied upon to save lives.

“Victorians living in bushfire-prone areas should have a Bushfire Survival Plan and be practising it.....

“That’s why we are putting in place interim regulations to provide Victorians who do decide to build a bunker or private bushfire shelter with a clear set of guidelines they need to adhere to. This is about ensuring people in bushfire-prone areas have all of the information and are aware of conditions they need to meet."

For more information, have a look at the Victorian Building Commission web pages.

Not going gently into that good night

In movies - and sometimes novels - the dying person always has a few very appropriate words to say right at the end. The gathered family and friends get weepy and grateful and inspired. Life, I've learned the hardest way, is not like that at all. It is the exception rather than the rule that the right things get said at the end of someone's life. That a life and its relationships are neatly packaged into that magic word "closure".

But what if you could script the end of your life? What would you want to say to your nearest and dearest? To the world in general?

On Tuesday 8th December at 6pm at the Lydiard St Uniting Church Ballarat, six women will get the opportunity to give the final speech of their life. Famous Last Words will surely be an entertaining and comical night, and it's a fundraiser for Ballarat’s Meals for Homeless People (Breezeway). Breezeway, at 105 Dana Street (on the Dana Street Hill) provides substantial, healthy midday meals for our homeless every single day of the year.

Women with the last words include author, columnist and comedian Catherine Deveny (pictured), Lisa Kendal from BREAZE, Deb Bain, Australian Rural Woman of the Year in 2007, and Bianca Sacco, a 16 year old student at Ballarat Secondary College.

The entry fee is $15, and $12 concession. But I'm sure if you offered a bit more in the season and spirit of Christmas no-one would say no.These people at Breezeway are looking after the people in our community who are homeless. Who don't have a kitchen or a fridge or a plasma screen telly or three bathrooms and a spa . And they need to fund raise to do so. That's not so funny.

Contact Chris Dennis cdennis@ucare.org.au 5337 2740 (W) .

Two up, one down.

Sebastopol Library (pictured) is up and running and completed and everybody is happy. Ballarat Library is up and running and not completed so nobody there is really happy yet. Things need finishing and that long anticipated and eagerly awaited desk needs to be installed. Soon.

Now we have Creswick Library closing for a few days so it can have a lick of paint and a bit of a shuffle around. Creswick will be closed from this Wednesday, November 25th until Saturday, December 5th when, if everything goes to schedule, it will be open for business again. It has been our most unfortunate experience that everything does not always go to schedule, so we'll keep you posted.

And keep our fingers crossed.