Australians are more stressed than ever before but new research suggests that there is a simpler solution to help us stress less.

National Tree Day is Australia’s biggest community tree-planting event. Since Tree Day started in 1996 more than 1.5 million volunteers have planted over 11.5 million native trees and shrubs!

Cricket Australia has today announced that the historic Sheffield Shield will be returning as the Australian interstate first-class cricket trophy and will be presented by Weet-Bix.

Uplift Fiji, collects and distributes second-hand bras to Fiji.

So why do they collect bras, and why second-hand bras rather than new ones?

Mainly because disadvantaged Fijians get much of their clothing from second-hand Australian clothes shops, and bras are rare in these shops, particularly in sizes to suit the indigenous Fijian build. A new bra costs $40 in Fiji, and wages range from $1.50- $4.50/hour, for those indigenous people who have jobs.

One of the really good things about working in local government is you get to meet some very interesting people as part of your days work. Take yesterday for example. Your humble scribe joined up with our Bushland Project Officers Belinda Rowe and Stuart Chadwick to do a promotional story to satisfy one of the strings attached to the $90,000 we collect from the NSW Environmental Trust to help conserve native vegetation in the shire.

I was in The Rocks today around noon and had mixed feeling of all that I saw.  Seeing current servicemen and women in their uniforms and old ANZAC’s sitting having a quiet drink and chat filled me with such pride and gratitude for all that they have done to protect our freedom and country.

However on the flip side of the coin were the 20 and 30 something year olds dressed in their suits with their Grandfather’s medals on their chest leggless and falling over themselves in the street.  It wasn’t just 1 or 2 of them it was an endless number of them falling out of the pubs, running in front of cars and as mentioned before it was only midday.

Did anyone see the announcement outlining Skype’s new release ‘SKYPE ANNOUNCES UNLIMITED LONG-DISTANCE CALLS TO OVER A THIRD OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION’ basically offering more opportunities for people to call friends and family from their online skype account to fixed telephone lines overseas.  They had this in limited form before and now have expanded the countries you can call.  Great for keeping costs of calls down particularly when in rural areas.  Would be interested to know if others use skype and how they feel about this new offering.