Tuesday 11 November 2014

The G20 arrives Down Under to my sleepy little city of Brisbane.

Hello there!

The things you do to procrastinate when you're taking part in the NaNo challenge. I've been meaning to change my blog URL to something more sensible like my name and it just couldn't wait. So now I've botched up everything until the FeedBurner redirection kicks in. 


If you are sweet enough to have me on your blogroll, please change the old URL to the new one. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I don't want to miss your visits (I know, I should have thought of that before I started messing around).


Denise Covey - My Writing Blog


OLD blog URL: http://laussieswritingblog.blogspot.com.au
NEW URL for same blog : http://dencovey.blogspot.com

I lost my whole blogroll when I made the change. Too silly of me! So if you don't see your name on my blogroll, I am in the business of reinstating you. Give me a nudge if you wish.


G20 INVASION BEGINS – 7 DAYS TO GO








My city Brisbane is just a big country town of two million+ people. So why all the big guns are coming Down Under for their G20 meeting is beyond most of us. It's rather unsettling having images like this on the front covers of our local newspapers. We've already noticed a few changes to our laid-back lifestyle and on Monday we go into G20 lockdown. 


I live in the Red Zone, only a few hundred metres from the Exhibition Centre where the meetings are taking place. All sorts of restrictions are in place. Roads are closed. Barricades are up. Getting into the Inner City will be a pain.


Seeing the face can only be covered for religious reasons, protesters are dressing in black burqas as they demonstrate against capitalism seeing that 80% of the world's economy is represented at the G20. So they will be using their smart phones, iPads etc, all products of capitalism to record events.


Lawyers are going to be everywhere on the lookout for any unfair treatment of protesters. Not sure what good that will do as police and military have been granted special powers during the summit.


Of course egos will be through the roof. As you may/may not know our, um, rather silly Prime Minister Tony Abbot didn't want Putin here as he believes he's behind the shooting down of the MH17 Malaysian Airlines plane (I agree with Abbot on this one point and so do most Australians). 


Of course, more powerful politicians than Abbot have said Mr Putin must come and Abbot must desist in his threats to 'shirt-front' Putin, whatever that means. 




So dear, sweet little Brisbane has had to import police from all over Australia and even New Zealand for the event as there's not usually that much criminal activity taking place. Police numbers will be complemented by the Army. They will be needed as we're told that if we drive into the Inner City (which I have to do Sunday night) our car will be searched by 6 police or military and if we have any of the banned items on the 'restricted' list, we will be in big trouble. So I'd better leave the eggs and cans of food at home.

So, this week will be different for me and a lot of other citizens. I will be teaching from home as the State Library is closed as it's practically next door to the power centre. But there are some positives--lots of shows and light displays. Must get out and take some pictures, maybe for next post. The city is always lovely at night. Now it's even lovelier.


  • What's on your agenda this week? Any excitement your way?
  • How's NaNo going if you're in? I'm limping along.











31 comments:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Denise - oh crumbs .. I can imagine that would be inconvenient - they're all in Asia at the moment aren't they ...

I'll love to see the lights and shows ... 2 million population .. Eastbourne is only 80,000 ... !! Now I know I must see what other cities have 2m - must be a good climate etc ...

Putin lives in his own world .. and I hate to think what's going to happen - despots should be cleared out .. we live in interesting times ... but I thought we'd be creatively happy improving our world by now - not seriously worrying about Cold War Days .. Ukraine, Middle East, Ebola et al ...

Not easy - but will love your take on the invasion of G20 members .. cheers Hilary PS I expect the blog is covered too?!

Denise Covey said...

Hi Hilary

So glad you commented. Looks like no one else is receiving my updates. Ah, goes to show you're never really missed in the blogosphere! Or maybe everyone is afraid to comment because it's political. Haha. I love that about Aussies--we don't care. Haven't been locked up for speaking up yet,

Even though we are 2 million, it never seems that busy.

Once again thanks for being my only comment. Now I have no excuse but to hit the NaNo story again...!!

Denise :)

Trisha said...

Found you! changed my link on my blogroll :) I did this as well, probably over a year ago now, and some people still have my old blog on their blogroll. :P Oh well, what can you do?

Denise Covey said...

Ha Ha Trish. Bad idea to change your URL, but I was assured it was easy. Funny!! Thanks for responding so quickly and for changing your link. I know business will be slow for awhile. :(

dolorah said...

Its possible you should be out of the city this week. Don't panic, and don't get overrun by politicians. Poor Dear.

I've been working hard at getting you added to my blog roll in proper sequence - as in, in order of latest post. Its not updating. I'll keep at it for you. good luck with the move, and the excitement.

Denise Covey said...

Hi D. Yes, I'm outta here on Thursday night to Saturday night so will miss some of the fuss.
Let me know when the updates are working properly Donna. It's very frustrating. i shouldn't have done it, but it's too late to turn back now, as they say.

Denise :)

Nilanjana Bose said...

Kolkata my hometown is roughly 14 million :) Not sleepy...Cairo is 83 million, insomniac...Bahrain 1.3 million..mostly sleepy..But a lockdown is uncomfortable whatever be the sleepiness quotient..

As far as the blogroll problem goes, I am in the same boat as Donna, it's not updating. But I will be coming around a little more circuitously, (is that a word even) from time to time anyways and bashing away at the problem too..

Denise Covey said...

I wonder why it won't update if you've changed the URL. Maybe you have to add.au at the end.

I can't get my head around 83 million people!

Lisa said...

I don't envy you the lock down. I used to live seven miles from GW Bush's ranch and we could always tell every time he was in residence, even when the news didn't tell us, because of the copters, constant fly overs by jets, and all that. A total pain, but yours sound much worse!

Crystal Collier said...

Oh man! The whole transition is such a tedious process. A couple years back I debated switching over to a custom url for my blog, but just thinking about all the work that would go into transitioning over... Scary stuff.

Politicians...bullies with armies behind them. No love here.

Unleashing the Dreamworld

Denise Covey said...

Yep, those helicopters are driving me crazy. Not to mention the 10 police rapid response unit who are camping at our front door. I should feel safe. Instead, I am heading off to the coast as soon as I finish work today. Peace and quiet, here we come.

And the latest is the 4 Russian warships that are just outside Australian waters ready to defend Mr Putin if Mr Abbot and he get into a fight. LOL!!

Denise Covey said...

Yeah the custom name comes next but that will be separate. Gah, changing anything on your blog is so ridiculous.

Vesper said...

Yes, these people are quite scary... I guess that's why they are in the position they are... :-)
I've changed your blog address on my blogroll. :-)

Michael Di Gesu said...

Hi, Denise,

WOW, some scary pics there. I guess all that security is needed to keep everything under control.

Drive safely. Take care of yourself during all this. There will be LOTS of additional people there with all kinds of emotions flying....

I added your new ULR to my blog role, but for some odd reason it's at the end of my list and THREE YEAR'S old. I'm hoping with your next post it will jump up to where it needs to be.

Denise Covey said...

Scary indeed. As i said in my email, looks like you have to add the .au/ at end...

Denise Covey said...

I'm outta there now and enjoying the peace and quiet of the coast. Beautiful...

Tammy Theriault said...

next thing you know little flying droids will be hovering with them!

D.G. Hudson said...

http://dencovey.blogspot.ca/ (this is what my URL for your site shows and I'm getting here okay). BTW - I don't see my name on your blogroll, but I was on the now kaput WEP list. so. . . just thought I'd mention it.

I copied your URL, but it doesn't show that way, even though I entered it that way. Perhaps it's something to do with our country's protocol for Google. . .

Trisha said...

Doesn't seem to be working for me even after I added the .au :/ Maybe it takes some time to go through after the change?

Trisha said...

Hang on, I made it work! I had to remove the old link, then save my blog roll, then go back in & add your blog. It's working now :)

Trisha said...

Aaaand now it's not working again. Boo :(

Nilanjana Bose said...

I tried copying the url too, and it's still not working for me, the gadget just freezes up, it's not updating. No thumbnail, no snippet. Anyways, I'll be here on my regular rounds till this is sorted. Hope it's sorted soon.

Yolanda Renée said...

Wonderful! 12,000 + words, congrats, and changing things here, tough, but hey Putin's coming to town. LOL

Good luck!

Vesper said...

Hi Denise,
I changed the address as you suggested but it's not working. It's not getting the feed. I'll just come by anyway to see what's new :-)

DMS said...

Good luck sorting everything out with your new blog address. I do think it is cool that you have a shorter address with your name. :) Sounds like NaNo is going well! Happy writing!
~Jess

Denise Covey said...

Vesper, you are so sweet.

Trisha said...

Changing blog URLs can be such a pain - but it's worth it if you get it right and never change it ever again :O

hehe

Shannon Lawrence said...

That sounds absolutely insane! Good luck! With both the G20 and the blog address.

Vanessa Morgan said...

Apparently you still show up on my Bloglovin feed. I should check if it stays that way.

VR Barkowski said...

After a month and half of craziness, peace and quiet sound exciting. They're at the top of my agenda.

Blogspot hasn't allowed me update my blogroll ever since I deleted my blogspot blog a few years back and started with Wordpress. I'll just fumble around until I get here. I have plenty of fumbling experience. I'm here, aren't I? :)

The G20 reminds me of the WTO protests in Seattle in '99. Stay safe, Denise!

VR Barkowski

A Cuban In London said...

Well, those are some odd visitors you have, especially Vlad the Impaler! :-)

Greetings from London.