Gravy day and Australian Christmas songs

I have been a bit missing in action of late but just thought I would write a quick post acknowledging Gravy day – 21st December.

The closest thing we have to a grown up Australian Christmas song: Paul Kelly’s How to make Gravy. A great song: (a bit dodgy posting this video but lets go with common practice and acknowledge posting in the name of promoting a great piece of Australian song writing). The song has spawned a sort of Paul Kelly day – 21st of December – Gravy day.

As a university that has long specialised in distant and online education, it is not surprising that my employer, University of Southern Queensland has the highest number of incarcerated students of any university in Australia. Trying to study behind bars is not easy, especially in this online age. With no internet access, access to information is a bit of a challenge but meeting the needs of such students is one aspect of my job that I find especially rewarding.

Life is not black and white, it is a million shades of grey and I figure you never know what goes on in someone else’s life that led to incarceration. Study can give hope in what is a pretty bleak environment. It changes lives and can only ever be a force for good. Gravy day makes we think about those students who will be spending Christmas behind bars. University’s are incredibly diverse places, especially USQ. Education can change lives and no education is ever wasted.

On a lighter note Bronte told me that the once iconic Australian Christmas song; Six White Boomers came up on the playlist at work the other day and everyone in the store was looking a bit uncomfortable, so she joked; “what you don’t like the Christmas carol about the Australian government”. Apparently that did not go down well, not sure if it was too soon to joke about the Rolf Harris song or she had the wrong audience for any jokes about our government. In Christmas retail you have to find something to smile about somewhere.