Australia: about to join the modern era on paid parental leave?

Australia is one of only two developed nations in the world that doesn't have mandatory paid maternity/paternity leave. Barely a step ahead of that shining example of good human rights, the USofA, women and men in Australia may access up to 12 months of unpaid leave (only after they've worked somewhere for a year) when they give birth to or adopt a child. However only about 40% of Australians have access to paid parental leave: and most of those people are high income earners and professionals.

In the UK, by comparison, men can take up to 2 weeks on full pay, while women may take 14 weeks on 90% of their normal pay and then 34 weeks at a fixed rate (about £120, or $300 a week). Other countries that offer at least 14 weeks on 100% salary include Cameroon, Botswana, Madagascar and Senegal. Brazil offers 6 months on 100% salary. New Zealand women may take 14 weeks paid a minimum wage only ($407 per week). In France, it's 16 weeks on full pay for a first child, rising to 26 weeks on full pay for a third or subsequent child. Finnish women and men can both access close to a year (split between them) on 80% wages.

Lack of paid maternity leave is a huge issue for Australian women. Women are considered medically unfit for work for at least two weeks before a birth and six weeks after: even if the baby is healthy and the delivery straightforward. It's illegal to work during that time, but there's no compensation for being forced out of the workforce (unless you have sick pay or holiday pay available to you).

All that may be about to change: http://www.theage.com.au/national/commission-calls-for-18-weeks-paid-parental-leave-20080929-4q43.html

So the downside is that it's paid at minimum wage, but that's a huge improvement for all thos parents on low incomes who currently get no paid leave at all. It woudl be in addition to any paid leave you can access at work, and unless you're already a stay at home mum, it would replace the baby bonus unless you're already , so it's spread out over time (loads of studies show that giving someone 5 grand all at one just encourages them to blow it on a new telly, and not baby stuff - surprise!)

Best of all, they've realised that giving paid leave only to women is just going to encourage discrimination against women in the workforce, so other than the mandatory bit, it's open to men and women. I don't want kids, but it's about bloody time the government realised that without kids, the next generation of workforce just ain't gonna be there. Watch this space for next steps...

Spiers and Boden and the meaning of Ballads

Seeing lots of live music gives you two really cool things:
1/ An excellent night out listening to brilliant music, usually involving pints of cider and jolly good company
2/ A chance to learn from the best.

Tonight's return to the Nettlebed Folk Club to see the most excellent John Spiers (rhymes with 'pliers') and Jon Boden provided an abundance of all the above.

First, I teamed up again with the lovely Ela and two of her friends visiting from Poland (her fiance, Stephen, dutifully eschewed the event so that he could attend his first Polish lesson - he reckons everyone in the class is there because they have a Polish girlfriend, as there's only one chick in the class!). It was my turn to drive, but there was still time for a cider.

Second, both Spiers & Boden and their big-band, Bellowhead, have new albums out, so there was lots to listen to both onstage and on my two new CDs. The more you listen to this stuff, the more you hear songs, or fragments of song, crafted differently. Things get put together with different tunes or lyrics, are connected up with other pieces of music, or played slower, faster, simpler, more trickily, so they don't sound like the same music at all. As long as you can say whose work you learned it from, or what fragment of manuscript it came from...

But my best bit of learning came from some of the lads' witty onstage banter. For years I've been shunning some of the older ballads as being super mawkish and, well, kinda cringeworthy. Until Jon Boden helped me understand: they're not supposed to be taken seriously.

"It might help," he says, "to understand a bit of what this ballad is about. A knight is riding through the woods on his horse. Past his girlfriend's house.
He says 'hi'.
She says 'hi. Fancy coming in for a bit?'.
He says 'no thanks. Think I'd best get home. To my wife.'
So she kills him.
And gets ratted on by a talking bird. As you do. And she gets hung for her sins. The end'

I get it now! Ballads are supposed to be comedies....

My niece is beautiful!

Well, here she is: Chloe Ann Stickels was born yesterday (Tuesday) evening Melbourne time, and this is herself just a few hours old. She was 7lb 10oz at birth and looks at this stage as though she'll have her mother's auburn hair. When I rang the hospital about 10 mins after her arrival I could hear her in the background - a fine set of lungs indeed! - and she seems alert and responsive in all the right ways.

My brother Justin was on hand right through Sue's long and tricky labour (there were forceps in the end - ouch!) and cut the baby's cord. Both parents are pretty knackered but resting comfortably at the Royal Women's in Melbourne. Because of the special needs of both Jus and Sue, they're living in at the hospital in a special unit for new parents, for at least 5 days. Mum says the place is excellent, and they have round the clock access to people to help them learn stuff. Then they'll go to my Mum's for 2 weeks before a further week of residential support - and then we'll see.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support through this slightly anxious pregnancy, and for your good wishes.

We're all a bit blown away that our 'baby' Jus is now a daddy himself. I'm wishing like mad I was home in Melbourne. But so far so good in these first couple of days.

Georgi is 'swimming the English Channel'

(Image reproduced from the Oxford Mail)

Okay, not literally. But, along with my friend Lorraine, over the next couple of months I'm aiming to swim the distance from Dover to Calais - that's 22 miles, or 35.4km - to raise money and awareness for the UK charity Aspire.

Aspire provides support to people with spinal injuries, and as some of you know, I have some experience of spinal injury myself. In my case, way back in 1993, recovery was at first only a 50:50 proposition, but ultimately the permanent damage has been minimal. Many other people (40,000 in the UK alone) just aren't that lucky, and their lives are forever changed.

But the human spirit doesn't want any less just because the body won't do as it's told. In the years since my accident, I've met people with quadriplegia (limited movement in arms, torso as well as legs) who can drive a car; who have borne children; completed post-graduate study; run companies. I even met a chap who, determined that a broken neck would not end his ballet career, now performs inspirational 'wheelchair dance' and moving spoken word shows.

For these people, and others like them, getting on with life requires extra support - during rehab and, often, in every day tasks the rest of us take for granted, from getting out of bed to the proverbial "shower-sh!t-and-shave" so you can get to the office. ASPIRE helps people in the UK with all sorts of tricks, tips and modifications.

As an Aussie, I can't remeber ever not knowing how to swim, and it stood me in good stead when I came to start rehab. Thre months after my accident, my physio said the best thing I could do for my healing body was get in the pool, so I did: 6 days a week for a year, aided and abetted by my uni mate Dave, who was recovering after a snapped Achilles tendon. Through weeks and months when I couldn't walk unaided and always felt clumsy on land, to get in the water where I was nearly weightless and so agile felt just like heaven.

For all these reasons, to get back in the pool to raise money for such an awesome cause feels especially appropriate.

Please support me if you can. I have a page set up through Just Giving: www.justgiving.com/georginastickels. Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me, whether you're at home or abroad. And, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

I'm going to keep posting updates through my blog, and on my facebook page, as well as at Just Giving... my first swim will be today!

So watch this space for further updates, and thanks for helping me make a difference!

Impromptu gig-ly goodness

Ants and I went to check out a band at the new(ish) local, the New Inn, tonight. Hullabaloo play loads of Irish favourites, definitely one of the best bands the landlord has put on since we've been there.

Evening wasn't without its laughs though: Ants and I were nattering out the back when Martin (the landlord) popped his head out... "Georg, d'you know the words to 'Fairytale of New York?"

"Um. Yeah. Why"

"Good. Hey fellas, gotcha one!"

Apparently, someone had put in a request, which the band said they couldn't play cos they had no female vocalist. I can't say I did it proud, but for something completely unrehearsed, it was alright. The punters seemed to like it too: check out this review!

My big fat folky weekend

Ooh ooh ooh! I'm all abuzz - it's been the folkiest weekend in, well, weeks!

Graham and Lucinde Metcalfe are back in town, after emigrating to Canada 6 months or so ago. Theirs has gotta be one of the best grownup love stories ever - high school sweethearts who met up 40 years on and found that a whole lot of life circumstances hadn't changed them that much after all - they were married last year.

I first met Graham as one third of GMW - or Giles Metcalfe and Woods, but he's loads before that on the folk scene. If there's a song from up north that man doesn't know, I'd be amazed. So it was a matter of course that he'd be asked to take a spot at the Oxford Folk Club. Amazing to hear his ringing baritone filling the room again. Best of all, Giles and Woods were persuaded up on stage: we thought we'd seen their last gigs together, but we was wrong! Graham had special words of praise for Woodsy's songwriting: something about deserving to be much better known for it than he is. So true.

Sunday night was, of course, the Half Moon session and it hadn't seen so many singers in ages: as well as the Metcalfes, Ian Giles roped in the other two of his new trio, Vinegar Tom. And Ants came down - we hardly ever get there together any more... cracking good night.

The adventure continued tonight: I teamed up with Stephen and Ela from the Half Moon to hit the Nettlebed folk club, where a cold ridden, moderately pregnant but absolutely amazing Eliza Carthy was playing stuff from her new album. Wow oh wow. Her new five piece band is just amazing. I'm still jealous of anyone who can fiddle that fast, and sing so gorgeously - and do both at the same time. She even hauled out an accordion - throwing down the gauntlet to players everywhere to 'try this on one leg, in high heels, while pregnant'!

I don't care that it's midnight on a Monday and I've only just got home... I'd do it all again (in fact, I am, cos Spiers and Boden are here in 2 weeks!)

Ant Dee comes to stay!

I've been counting down the days 'til my Aunt Denise comes to stay. Dee's partner Chris lost his battle with cancer earlier this year, but this gutsy woman decided that she would go on and fulfill their dream of cruising the Mediterranean. Flanked by a couple of friends from high school, she's had an amazing adventure in Thailand and Lao with by cousin Sammy, before heading off to the med and travels through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain and France. Now she's in Blighty for a few days before heading home, staying first with my cousin Sarah's inlaws, who live in Coventry, not far from here, and then with me and Ants, in the cosy little cottage we're minding for our friends Paula and Adam. We've had such a lovely time!! The weather was pure English summer - grey and drizzly - so we headed for the Trout, a cracking posh pub with amazing food and lovely ambience beside the Thames. Some gentle pushing of the staff got us a window seat overlooking the river. The poor buggers had to work hard for their tip - we were so busy talking they had to come back 3 times to see if we were ready to order. But such food, washed down with cider, and capped off by a walk (in the rain) past one of the locks on the river. Evening time we hit the Half Moon for more cider and some serious singsong, and Dee spent Monday checking out Oxford while I was at work, before more foodie goodness and endless chatter at my new favourite place to eat out, the Fleece in Witney. Yum, yum, yum. And so good to be able to show off Witney to family from home. If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was threatening homesickness... All too soon it was Tuesday morning and she was off to heathrow on the bus, hoping to stop off in Thailand to see our cousin in hospital there (the chap who miraculously survived 12 days in the jungle after getting lost on the way to a waterfall... to meet up with Decie and Sam!). Once she's home, we've plans afoot to return Paula and Adam's hospitality and have them to stay in Bairnsdale, and maybe even go sailing on Decie's gorgeous 36 foot boat! Oh I hope it works!