Latest news with #TumbiUmbi
The Age
08-07-2025
- General
- The Age
Seductive sounds are for the birds
Granny thought the best person to confirm that Geoff Turnbull's visiting brush turkey (C8) shared his taste in music was our favourite instrumentalist, Susan Bradley of Eltham (Vic), but she has concerns: 'I fear Geoff is being fooled by the brush turkey. It's either sizing him up as a mate or as dinner.' 'Reading of music experiences reminds me of my journey home on the XPT from Sydney last week, on the last leg of an exhausting return from London,' writes Steve Hulbert of West Kempsey. 'My carriage was half-filled with young Fijians, and just outside Kempsey, they burst into song, and serenaded the passengers. When I thanked them for their beautiful harmonies, and asked if they were a choir heading to a competition, they said no, they were heading to a netball competition!' 'The recent article in Lifestyle regarding incontinence, brought to mind my own introduction to this sometimes distressing condition,' recounts Viv Munter of Tumbi Umbi. 'Following the birth of my first child, I was to undertake pelvic floor exercises. I naively asked one of the nurses if I should bring my sneakers. She nearly wet herself.' 'In Notes From a Small Island, Bill Bryson relates his first stay in Britain in a boarding house in his youth,' says Andrew Taubman of Queens Park. 'The landlady had an obsession with the state of his room's counterpane (C8), a term he'd not come across in his childhood in rural USA. He thought it had something to do with the window but couldn't work out if she wanted it open or closed.' Jack Dikian of Mosman also finds comforters much easier to bed down. 'Otherwise, you've got to locate the corners of the doona, locate the corners of the cover and then somehow find a way to smooth out the 5th corner.' 'After readers rearranged the body parts of our new tennis prodigy, I wondered if the AI department of WADA had pricked its ears to Maya Joint (C8),' offers David Pyke of Wagga Wagga. Well, she was playing on grass. Still on sport, Leo Corbin of Rockdale thought the Windies were in with a chance in the second Test: 'They needed 274 runs in its 2nd innings. At 4-40, it didn't look promising, but with Chase and Hope at the wicket anything was possible. But they lost Hope and with Greaves next in, the loss came soon enough.'
Sydney Morning Herald
08-07-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Seductive sounds are for the birds
Granny thought the best person to confirm that Geoff Turnbull's visiting brush turkey (C8) shared his taste in music was our favourite instrumentalist, Susan Bradley of Eltham (Vic), but she has concerns: 'I fear Geoff is being fooled by the brush turkey. It's either sizing him up as a mate or as dinner.' 'Reading of music experiences reminds me of my journey home on the XPT from Sydney last week, on the last leg of an exhausting return from London,' writes Steve Hulbert of West Kempsey. 'My carriage was half-filled with young Fijians, and just outside Kempsey, they burst into song, and serenaded the passengers. When I thanked them for their beautiful harmonies, and asked if they were a choir heading to a competition, they said no, they were heading to a netball competition!' 'The recent article in Lifestyle regarding incontinence, brought to mind my own introduction to this sometimes distressing condition,' recounts Viv Munter of Tumbi Umbi. 'Following the birth of my first child, I was to undertake pelvic floor exercises. I naively asked one of the nurses if I should bring my sneakers. She nearly wet herself.' 'In Notes From a Small Island, Bill Bryson relates his first stay in Britain in a boarding house in his youth,' says Andrew Taubman of Queens Park. 'The landlady had an obsession with the state of his room's counterpane (C8), a term he'd not come across in his childhood in rural USA. He thought it had something to do with the window but couldn't work out if she wanted it open or closed.' Jack Dikian of Mosman also finds comforters much easier to bed down. 'Otherwise, you've got to locate the corners of the doona, locate the corners of the cover and then somehow find a way to smooth out the 5th corner.' 'After readers rearranged the body parts of our new tennis prodigy, I wondered if the AI department of WADA had pricked its ears to Maya Joint (C8),' offers David Pyke of Wagga Wagga. Well, she was playing on grass. Still on sport, Leo Corbin of Rockdale thought the Windies were in with a chance in the second Test: 'They needed 274 runs in its 2nd innings. At 4-40, it didn't look promising, but with Chase and Hope at the wicket anything was possible. But they lost Hope and with Greaves next in, the loss came soon enough.'
ABC News
29-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Man who murdered his elderly mother with 15kg pot plant sentenced to 21 years jail
A man who murdered his elderly mother with a pot plant before selling her belongings for drug money has been jailed for at least 21 years. David Andrew Mapp, 59, killed hits 82-year-old mother Colleen Wilson when he threw a 15-kilogram pot plant at her inside her home at Tumbi Umbi on the New South Wales Central Coast in April 2022. Mapp lived at nearby Watanobbi but had been staying with his mother because he was sick with COVID-19. The jury in his trial last October reached a guilty verdict in less than a day. In the NSW Supreme Court today, Mapp was sentenced to 21 years' jail with a non-parole period of 15 years. A victim impact statement from Ms Wilson's sister Janice Fowler was read out in court detailing the difficult relationship that her sister shared with Mapp. She described the relationship as being full of "harassment, begging, pleading, promises and lies". The trial heard Mapp had a longstanding drug addiction and regularly argued with his mother, usually as a result of him asking for money. In body cam police footage tendered in court, Mapp said he threw the pot plant in self defence, claiming his mother had threatened him with a kitchen knife. A short time after the murder, Mapp was seen on surveillance footage entering a pawn shop in nearby Long Jetty where he sold Ms Wilson's television and whipper snipper for $200, which he used to buy drugs. It was not until several hours later that Mapp called triple-0 to report a death. "I'm at mums and we had a bad argument … things got pretty bad and we had an argument … fell down, and I tried to revive her," he said to the emergency operator. He also told the operator he had been conducting CPR on his mother "all day, hoping she'd come to". In handing down Mapp's sentence Justice Ian Harrison concluded that even though Ms Wilson's death was the result of an intentional act, it was an unintended consequence of what Mapp did. "It is clear Mr Mapp lost his self-control as a result of the build-up of emotional toil associated with his longstanding anxiety," Justice Harrison said. A report prepared by psychiatrist Yvonne Skinner stated Mapp's anxiety disorder was a result of suffering from institutionalised abuse in his early years and domestic violence perpetuated by his father. Dr Skinner's opinion was that Mapp's actions were a culmination of mental health issues, stating that drug withdrawal during his bout of COVID-19 and continued arguing with his mother could be described as "the straw that broke the camel's back". Justice Harrison accepted Dr Skinner's assessment that Mapp had "a very limited risk of reoffending". Mapp will be eligible for parole in July 2037.
News.com.au
29-05-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Covid partly to blame for Central Coast NSW pot plant murder, judge rules
A man who killed his elderly mother by throwing a 15-kilogram pot plant at her head partly did so due to Covid-19, a judge has ruled. David Andrew Mapp, 59, was sentenced to 21 years in jail for the murder of his 82-year-old mother, Colleen Wilson, in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday. Ms Wilson was killed after the pair got into an argument, which ended in Mapp throwing a pot plant at her head inside her home at Tumbi Umbi on the NSW Central Coast in July 2022. In handing down the sentence, NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison said Mapp was withdrawing from drugs and suffering from Covid-19, which had affected the offender's decision-making. 'At the time of the offence, Mr Mapp had severe generalised anxiety disorder, which was aggravated by his state of drug withdrawal and the effects of Covid,' Justice Harrison said. 'That condition substantially impaired his decision-making and capacity to control himself at the time of the offence.' Justice Harrison ruled that Mapp did not intend to kill his mother, but that her death was an 'unintended consequence' of a dispute which escalated into 'a brief but fatal confrontation'. 'The offence was unplanned, unexpected and a spontaneous reaction to a unique situation,' Justice Harrison said. 'It is clear that Mr Mapp lost his self-control as a result of the build-up of emotional turmoil associated largely with his longstanding anxiety.' The court heard that the pot plant included soil, a plant, and a part of a brick, which Mapp threw at Ms Wilson in the dining area of the home. The attack caused a 40 millimetre laceration to the back of Ms Wilson's head, causing bleeding on the surface of her brain. The court also heard Mapp took at least eight hours to call emergency services after killing his mother. 'Mr Mapp had put a red blanket over his mother,' Justice Harrison said in his decision. 'She had red congealed blood pooled around her head, and there was a pile of soil around her and on her body. 'Paramedics confirmed that Ms Wilson was dead and they did not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation.' In body-worn footage, Mapp admitted to throwing the pot plant at his mother. The courts previously heard how after Ms Wilson's death, Mapp was seen on CCTV pawning her television and whipper-snipper for $200, which he used to buy heroin. His lawyer had previously argued Mapp was in heroin withdrawal at the time and did not intend to murder her in a failed attempt to have the charge reduced to manslaughter. Mapp suffered long-term heroin addiction. Mapp was sentenced to 21 years in jail, dating back to when he was first taken into custody on July 28 2022. He was given a non-parole period of 15 years and will be first eligible for parole on 27 July 2037.
The Age
22-05-2025
- General
- The Age
Waiting for my pal
'Mike Fogarty (C8) first saw colour TV in San Diego in 1967,' notes Mike Honey of Wentworth Falls. 'This would have been broadcast in NTSC (National Television Standards Committee), a system developed in America in the 1940s. Fortunately, when colour was introduced to Australia in the 1970s, the PAL (Phase Alternate Lines) system was chosen instead, producing a much higher quality colour image. When American shows had to be broadcast here, however, a PAL copy sadly did nothing to enhance the poor picture quality. Many of us who worked in the television industry at that time would claim, therefore, that NTSC actually stood for 'Never The Same Colour'.' 'Since the introduction of colour television in Australia, we have, in fact, become more black and white,' reckons Rob McPaul of Thirroul. 'Where are the canary yellow and lime green cars? Likewise, with houses, red brick has given way to shades of grey and painted houses are shades of white. With this loss of colour in our environment, have we benefited from colour television? What do other C8-ers think?' 'Regarding colour in the world and children as thinkers, I recall taking a group of year 9 students from the city to a dairy farm near Bathurst,' writes Lis Alarab of Hornsby. 'The farmer was explaining the different breeds of cattle and pointing them out to the students when one kid very seriously asked: 'So, which cows produce the chocolate milk?'' 'I recently passed an old, dark-fronted microwave getting a second chance at life doubling as a mailbox,' says Viv Munter of Tumbi Umbi. 'It got me thinking about other creative mailbox ideas. Perhaps fellow C8-ers can share?' Roderick van Gelder of Hunters Hill flicks the switch: 'At this point I am happy to pay more for appliances with zero 'smart' features (C8) and just physical knobs, buttons and controls for everything.' 'Your recent items on products from the 1950s and earlier (C8) stirred in my memory stuff called Dr Thar's Ointment,' says Lindsay Cook of Castle Hill. 'It came in a round tin and seemed to be applied by my mother to many childhood injuries. I had no idea what was in it, or whether it really did any good. I understood at the time that it was a 'drawing ointment', whatever that is. However, Dr Google indicates that the current version is an antiseptic and is still available. Wonders never cease.'
