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"I miss her hugs": British acting legend shares heartbreaking loss

<p>Actor Warwick Davis has shared the heartbreaking news of his wife's death. </p> <p>The actor, known for his roles in <em>Harry Potter</em> and <em>Star Wars</em>, took to social media to share the news of his wife Samantha's death, who passed away at the age of 53. </p> <p>“Her passing has left a huge hole in our lives as a family. I miss her hugs”, Warwick, 54, said.</p> <p>He added, “She was a unique character, always seeing the sunny side of life she had a wicked sense of humour and always laughed at my bad jokes.</p> <p>“Without Sammy, there would have been no Tenable quiz show, no Willow series. No Idiot Abroad Series 3.”</p> <p>Warwick said Samantha was his “most trusted confidant and an ardent supporter of everything I did in my career”.</p> <p>The couple’s children, Harrison and Annabelle, added, “Mum is our best friend and we’re honoured to have received a love like hers</p> <p>“Her love and happiness carried us through our whole lives”.</p> <p>Warwick and Samantha met on the set of the movie Willow in 1988 and got married three years later. </p> <p>Samantha had achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder that causes disproportionate dwarfism.</p> <p>Warwick has previously opened up about his wife’s health after she was rushed to hospital with sepsis in 2018, and had to undergo several different surgeries to stabilise her condition. </p> <p>Warwick, co-founder of charity Little People UK, has often spoken out about the health battles related to his condition, as well his wife’s.</p> <p>He was born with Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED), an extremely rare genetic form of dwarfism, which has been inherited by both their daughter Annabelle and son Harrison.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p>

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"I almost cried": Mum shocked by stranger's random act of kindness

<p>A mother-of-two has almost been reduced to tears by a stranger's random act of kindness in a busy cafe. </p> <p>The mum, a woman named Tyne, was at a cafe in the Sunshine Coast suburb of Mooloolaba with her husband and two young sons, when she struck up a conversation with a woman reading a book nearby. </p> <p>She said she felt a wave of guilt that her rowdy children were disrupting the woman's peaceful morning, and leaned over to apologise. </p> <p>The woman assured the mother there was nothing to apologise for, with the woman's next act leaving the mum speechless. </p> <p>“A beautiful (and full on) weekend away with Mr 3.5y &amp; Mr 1.5y my husband and I sat with coffees at a beautiful cafe waiting for breakfast for us,” Tyne wrote in a Facebook group called The Kindness Pandemic, where people share stories of their heartwarming interactions with strangers. </p> <p>“I immediately apologised to the lovely lady sitting near us as she had a book and I was afraid the boys wouldn’t be too peaceful." </p> <p>“We were chatting for a little and then she left after her breakfast.”</p> <p>When the mum went to pay for her family’s bill, the cashier informed her that the stranger had “taken care of it” and handed her a heartwarming note.</p> <p>“It was such a pleasure sharing my brekkie space with you,” the note read.</p> <p>“Please keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve got a beautiful family.”</p> <p>Tyne said she “almost cried” when she realised that the stranger had paid for her family’s entire breakfast.</p> <p>The cafe was situated close to one of the Sunshine Coast’s most popular attractions, Sea Life Aquarium, where the family had planned to spend their day.</p> <p>“Hopefully you can splurge a little more at Sea Life today,” the stranger added in the note, before signing off, “Love Em.”</p> <p>The mum said she was overwhelmed by the stranger’s incredible act of kindness, saying she "almost cried".</p> <p>“She paid for us … And her kind words were what I needed to hear.”</p> <p>Tyne said the stranger was an “amazing soul” and vowed to pay it forward”.</p> <p>“If you are Em staying in Mooloolaba for work and went to a quirky local that’s your favourite … YOU ARE AN AMAZING SOUL!” she said.</p> <p>People in the comments also shared their reactions to the heartfelt gesture.</p> <p>“Lovely lady. Your children would be being just that, children. Don’t apologise about them,” one wrote.</p> <p>“What a beautiful person Em clearly is. This was so gorgeous to read.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Facebook</em></p>

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Woman’s outrageous act to catch cheating partner

<p dir="ltr">A woman has issued a desperate plea online for someone to help her catch her cheating boyfriend in the act. </p> <p dir="ltr">The Sydney woman, named Ariana, listed a job on the site Airtasker for someone to drive her to the suburb of Five Dock to catch her boyfriend, who she suspected was having an affair. </p> <p dir="ltr">She asked the potential driver to sit with her in the car for a few hours, in exchange for $350. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I need someone to drive me and a friend to Five Dock and sit in the car with us for a few hours so I can try and catch my cheating boyfriend,” she wrote. </p> <p dir="ltr">The ad, which was posted just before Valentine’s Day, quickly went viral and received mixed reactions. </p> <p dir="ltr">“The way I would do this for free,” one person said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Wow, who would've thought of putting it on Airtasker! This is genius,” another wrote. </p> <p dir="ltr">However, some people didn't see the point of going through so much trouble and wasting $350. </p> <p dir="ltr">“This never makes sense to me - if you don't trust him, just leave. The relationship is dead regardless of if he is cheating,” a woman said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite garnering massive attention online, it is not known if Ariana’s stealthy operation was a success, or if she is still in a relationship with her boyfriend. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images / Facebook</em></p>

Relationships

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“My sister-in-law announced she was pregnant at my child’s funeral”

<p dir="ltr">A woman has asked for advice on how to navigate her relationship with her sister-in-law, after the woman overheard an inappropriate conversation at her child’s funeral. </p> <p dir="ltr">The grieving mother, a 28-year-old named Melissa, took to Reddit to share the heartbreaking story of how her toddler passed away after a battle with cancer. </p> <p dir="ltr">Melissa described the time as the “hardest in my life”, explaining how she felt she lost “a part of herself” after the funeral.</p> <p dir="ltr">While Melissa expected her toddlers’ memorial service to be difficult, she never predicted a family member would make it even harder. </p> <p dir="ltr">The mother said that when she heard her sister-in-law telling people about her pregnancy, she thought the move was just cruel. </p> <p dir="ltr">“She didn't make a big announcement but more than ten people at the service 'heard' and it's what everyone was talking about. To understate it, I was livid,” Melissa wrote on Reddit.</p> <p dir="ltr">Melissa’s post then asked social media users for advice, as she was unsure how much of a relationship she wanted to have with her sister-in-law after the stunt. </p> <p dir="ltr">The 28-year-old shared that she had fallen pregnant herself, and was facing pressure to have a party in celebration, but she didn’t want her whole family in attendance. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I've been working on who I want to invite, and I really don't want my SIL there,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Besides what she did, she's a vindictive and mean person and I cannot stand her.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I mentioned it to my husband and he says he couldn't care less whether she's there or not. But for the sake of saving face, I want opinions before I do this.”</p> <p dir="ltr">She asked the online forum if she would be “an a**hole” for not inviting her, addin that she would still be inviting her husband's other sister and husband's brother's wife. </p> <p dir="ltr">“The original SIL will be the only one not invited,” she clarified.</p> <p dir="ltr">The post was flooded with comments as many backed up Melissa, slamming the sister-in-law for her selfish behaviour. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I wouldn't want someone like that around me. Announcing a pregnancy at a child's funeral is insane,” one said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Cut her off and ignore everyone close to her. You are right to have nothing to do with her. She's totally classless.”</p> <p dir="ltr">However, others encouraged her to have an adult conversation with her sister-in-law in an attempt to mend their relationship.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Please let it go,” one person began. “This happened on a terrible day during a bad time for you. It's possible that could be clouding how you're looking at this, she may not have been malicious at all.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p>

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Tourist arrested for disgusting act at sacred UNESCO World Heritage Site

<p>A tourist has been arrested after he committed this disgusting act on top of the Leshan Giant Buddha, a sacred UNESCO World Heritage Site in China. </p> <p>The man allegedly found a blind spot away from CCTV cameras, climbed over the security fence and on top of the statue. </p> <p>Once he reached the top of the monuments head, he proceeded to pull down his pants and urinate in front of horrified visitors who filmed the act. </p> <p>Security guards quickly removed the unidentified man and handed him over to police, after being informed of his actions. </p> <p>It is reported that the man was taken to a nearby hospital for psychiatric evaluation.</p> <p>The UNESCO World Heritage Site itself is a 71-metre-tall monument, which is considered to be the largest and tallest stone Buddha statue in the world. </p> <p>The Leshan Giant Buddha monument is located in the Sichuan Province of China, and was carved out of a cliff face between 713 and 803 AD. </p> <p>The statue and surrounding Mount Emei Scenic Area have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.</p> <p>This act is one of many incidences of tourists behaving badly across the world. </p> <p>In June 2023 a German tourist was detained after <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/travel-trouble/tourist-accused-of-causing-over-8-000-in-damages-to-iconic-roman-statue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climbing up</a> a 16th-century Fountain of Neptune, and was accused of causing over $8,000 in damages to the iconic statue. </p> <p>Prior to that, an Irish tourist landed himself into <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/finance/legal/tourist-busted-for-carving-name-into-world-s-most-famous-roman-relic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trouble in Rome</a> after carving his and his girlfriend's name onto the walls of the Colosseum. </p> <p><em>Images: News.com.au</em></p> <p> </p>

Travel Trouble

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Vale ‘sister suffragette’: how Glynis Johns became a pop-culture icon in the story of votes for women

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ana-stevenson-196768">Ana Stevenson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lindsay-helwig-1500979">Lindsay Helwig</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a></em></p> <p>Glynis Johns, most famous for her role as the suffragette mother Mrs Winifred Banks in Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964), passed away last week at the age of 100.</p> <p>A fourth-generation performer who made her <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-17-ca-126-story.html">stage debut</a> in London when she was only three weeks old, Johns inherited her Welsh father’s love of acting. She appeared with him in The Halfway House (1944) and The Sundowners (1960) and argued for the establishment of a Welsh National Theatre <a href="https://twitter.com/huwthomas/status/791367871242862592">as early as 1971</a>.</p> <p>Johns’s career spanned eight decades in Hollywood, Broadway and the British stage and screen. As Palm Springs’s Desert Sun <a href="https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&amp;d=DS19630426.2.50">reported</a> in 1962, her “husky voice and big blue eyes” were her hallmarks. But it was her portrayal of Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins which would make her a pop culture icon.</p> <h2>A childhood inspiration</h2> <p>Feminist activists and scholars often describe the Mrs Banks character as a childhood inspiration.</p> <p>As feminist communications scholar Amanda Firestone <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Resist_and_Persist/s5HiDwAAQBAJ">reflects</a> on the film: "I especially loved […] Mrs Banks (Glynis Johns), who marches around the family home, putting Votes for Women sashes onto the housekeeper, cook, and the (departing) nanny. Of course, as a kid, I had no idea that the people and events embedded in the song’s lyrics were actual parts of history, but I did find a kind of joy in a vague notion of women’s empowerment."</p> <p>Set in 1910, the symbolism associated with Mrs Banks references the history of the British suffragettes. Johns’ musical showstopper, Sister Suffragette, directly refers to <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-pankhursts-politics-protest-and-passion/">Emmeline Pankhurst</a>, who founded the militant Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903. In 1906 British newspapers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859007003239">coined</a> the moniker “suffragette” to mock the union.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K0SDECwO54E?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>This ambivalence continued into the 1960s. Historian Laura E. Nym Mayhall <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316653">argues</a> that American concern over the impact of women’s public roles on their domestic responsibilities influenced the film’s depiction of Mrs Banks, especially her movement from a public suffragette back into an involved mother at the film’s end.</p> <p>For Mayhall, the figure of the suffragette emerges in popular culture as “a symbol of modernity”: a harbinger of democracy and political progress whose characterisation would elide ongoing struggles such as the civil rights movement.</p> <figure class="align-right zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=949&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=949&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=949&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1193&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1193&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1193&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">This 1909 Dunston Weiler Lithograph Co. anti-suffrage postcard offers resonances of Mrs Banks and her household staff in Mary Poppins.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thesuffragepostcardproject.omeka.net/items/show/44">Catherine H. Palczewski Postcard Archive/The Suffrage Postcard Project</a></span></figcaption></figure> <p>While some see the character of the suffragette mother as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Mary_Poppins/BLujEAAAQBAJ">supporting</a> women’s votes during the 1910s and women’s liberation during the 1960s, other readings of the film suggest a more satirical representation of the suffrage movement. Some historians even find <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-6923118">resonances</a> of anti-suffrage propaganda in Mrs Banks, including in her usage of her Votes for Women sash as the tail of a kite in the film’s final scene.</p> <p>Looking back at film reviews offers insight into how audiences received this character – and, by extension, Johns as an actor. American studies scholar Lori Kenschaft <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Girls_Boys_Books_Toys.html?id=Or13vhnA_W4C">suggests</a> that film critics who saw Mrs Banks as a “nutty suffragette mother” reiterated popular stereotypes about suffragettes and feminists being “mentally unbalanced”.</p> <p>Such stereotypes may have been reinforced by the film’s depiction of motherhood and the nuclear family. Involved parenting emerged as the bedrock of the 1960s nuclear family, an idea both supported and actively promoted by Walt Disney in both his films and his theme parks, as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Children_Childhood_and_Musical_Theater/XHrRDwAAQBAJ">argued</a> by American musicologist William A. Everett.</p> <p>As Mrs Banks, Johns embodied the transition from the distant, uninvolved parenting of the British middle-class in the earlier 20th century to the involved mother who facilitated the stable nuclear family. As women’s studies scholar Anne McLeer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316893">argues</a>, Mary Poppins, through Johns’ portrayal of Mrs Banks, demonstrated the liberated woman of the 1960s could be contained within the nuclear family: the bedrock for a Western capitalist economy.</p> <h2>A long career</h2> <p>Beyond Mary Poppins, her most prominent role was in Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical A Little Night Music (1973).</p> <p>Johns originated the character of ageing actress Desiree Armfeldt, becoming the first to sing Send in the Clowns. As she <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-17-ca-126-story.html">reflected</a> of the classic in 1991: "It’s still part of me. And when you’ve got a song like Send in the Clowns, it’s timeless."</p> <p>Sondheim composed this song with Johns’s famously husky voice in mind. Yet some were less enamoured with her performance. One 1973 theatre critic <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3850619">described</a> Johns as “a now somewhat overage tomboy, kittenish and raspy-voiced, precise and amusing in her delivery of lines but utterly, utterly unseductive.”</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OAl-EawVobY?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>A veteran of stage and screen, Johns appeared in more than 60 films and 30 plays. In 1998, she was honoured with a Disney Legends Award for her role as Mrs Banks. Johns also received critical acclaim throughout her career, including a Laurel Award for Mary Poppins and a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for A Little Night Music.</p> <p>Regardless of how incongruous her status as a “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-05/glynis-johns-mary-poppins-send-in-the-clowns/103287036">Disney feminist icon</a>” may be, Johns’s extraordinary influence upon the 20th century’s cultural memory is a remarkable legacy. <!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220766/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ana-stevenson-196768"><em>Ana Stevenson</em></a><em>, Senior Lecturer, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lindsay-helwig-1500979">Lindsay Helwig</a>, Lecturer in Pathways, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Disney</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-sister-suffragette-how-glynis-johns-became-a-pop-culture-icon-in-the-story-of-votes-for-women-220766">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Tiny chihuahua saves 90-year-old woman with heroic act

<p>In the world of unlikely heroes, step aside Batman, move over Superman, because Minnie the Chihuahua cross is here to steal the spotlight.</p> <p>This petite pooch from Kingston, in the South Australia's southeast, has recently been showered with praise for her unexpected, life-saving antics.</p> <p>Picture this: Minnie, a little dog with a heart as big as her bark, not particularly keen on hugs, found herself in a situation that required more than just a wag of her tail.</p> <p>On that fateful Friday, December 1, Minnie noticed that her 90-year-old owner, Joyce Gibbs, was in a bit of a pickle – struggling to catch a breath. Now, most dogs might just tilt their heads in confusion (you can picture it) or fetch a chew toy, but not Minnie.</p> <p>Untrained in any form of medical assistance, Minnie decided to take matters into her own paws. Whether by sheer luck or by innate instinct, the canine prodigy leaped onto Joyce’s lap and – brace yourselves –  <em>pressed the medical alert device hanging around her neck</em>. Yes, you heard that right; she hit the SOS button, sending out a message that would make any emergency service scramble into action.</p> <p>Lyn Gibbs, Joyce’s daughter, expressed her astonishment, “Minnie never jumps up in that chair when mum is in it..." she <a href="https://7news.com.au/news/chihuahua-praised-for-saving-90-year-old-south-australian-owner-struggling-to-breathe-c-12821344" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told 7News</a>. "Minnie knew she needed help, so she jumped up, trying to help her.”</p> <p>A stroke of genius? An incredibly lucky accident? Either way, Minnie became the the hero of the moment, saving the day like a furry little Avenger.</p> <p>As Joyce found herself in the hospital grappling with Rhinovirus, Minnie continued to be her unwavering companion. Doctors predicted a three-week recovery period, but after only four days, Joyce was back home, thanks to the vigilant care of her four-legged saviour.</p> <p>Lyn couldn’t help but gush about Minnie’s dedication, “Minnie’s been so good from the day I got her... she’s the best dog... she doesn’t leave her side.” Move over Florence Nightingale; we’ve got Minnie, the dedicated dog nurse, taking care of business.</p> <p>This heartwarming tale isn’t just about Minnie’s heroics; it’s a reminder of the importance of those pesky but life-saving medical alert devices. As Lyn says: “The medical alert is just so important for old people... a lot of them won’t wear them. They put them on the cupboard or on the table, but you really need them at all times, especially in the shower.”</p> <p>So, take heed: wear your devices and maybe, just maybe, you'll have a four-legged hero by your side, ready to leap into action when you least expect it.</p> <p>In a world where a Chihuahua can be the difference between a close call and catastrophe, we salute you, Minnie, for proving that heroes come in all shapes and sizes.</p> <p><em>Images: 7News</em></p>

Caring

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"Absolutely insane": Dad's plane act goes viral

<p>A man has gone viral on TikTok after his daughter posted a video of him sleeping on the airplane floor during a long-haul flight. </p> <p>"More room for everybody," she captioned the video of her dad lying down wedged between two rows where their feet would normally go. </p> <p>In the video she also added an overlay text which said: "you have ur airport dad I have my Asian dad." </p> <p>The video has since racked up over 12.4 million views, and while most were impressed by the "hack" others were appalled. </p> <p>"This is so smart – never thought of that," one person wrote. </p> <p>"Smart but I'd lay a blanket down underneath. Thank you airport dad I will steal this idea," added another. </p> <p>"I been alive 25 years, ain't never seen this move before," commented a third. </p> <p>"They do [allow it] on long flights. As long as nobody complains then they don't bother you," added a fourth. </p> <div class="embed" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #323338; font-family: Figtree, Roboto, 'Noto Sans Hebrew', 'Noto Kufi Arabic', 'Noto Sans JP', sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff; outline: none !important;"><iframe class="embedly-embed" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; vertical-align: baseline; width: 580px; max-width: 100%; outline: none !important;" title="tiktok embed" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2Fembed%2Fv2%2F7290309715286904095&display_name=tiktok&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2F%40bynataliebright%2Fvideo%2F7290309715286904095&image=https%3A%2F%2Fp16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com%2Fobj%2Ftos-useast8-p-0068-tx2%2FoclABAhjhvzjImA6AdbRfwsiNEqBAyICYXEzX8%3Fx-expires%3D1700780400%26x-signature%3D8dYowfoSYD7T5QgGgwn53z%252B4BI8%253D&key=5b465a7e134d4f09b4e6901220de11f0&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=tiktok" width="340" height="700" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> <p>A few others were shocked and pointed out that airplane floors aren't exactly clean. </p> <p>"As a past flight attendant, you don't want to know what I have seen on those carpets," wrote one person. </p> <p>"When I was taking my flight attendant course one thing they said to us over and over was to never walk barefoot on the aircraft... nevertheless lay down," added another. </p> <p>"Man made his own trundle bed," joked a third. </p> <p>While another eagle-eyed commenter was shocked that he would voluntarily wear jeans for 15-hours, "jeans for 15 hours is absolutely insane," they wrote. </p> <p><em>Images: TikTok</em></p>

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Flight cancelled after passenger's sickening act

<p dir="ltr">A flight has been cancelled at the last minute after a passenger allegedly defecated on the floor of the airplane bathroom. <br />The EasyJet flight was due to depart from the Spanish island of Tenerife to London’s Gatwick airport, which had already been delayed by several hours when the incident took place. </p> <p dir="ltr">A passenger on board by the name of Aaran Gedhu told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/easyjet-flight-canceled-defecation-incident/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>CNN</em></a> that the problems began when the scheduled plane was switched out for a smaller aircraft. </p> <p dir="ltr">Passengers were turned away from boarding the plane while the switch took place, which stirred up a frustrated atmosphere amongst passengers. </p> <p dir="ltr">After travellers eventually made it onto the plane two hours after their scheduled departure, they had to wait for their luggage to be transferred to the new plane, which again took several hours. </p> <p dir="ltr">As the delay extended, the atmosphere on the packed flight was characterised by "suspense and anger," Gedhu said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"EasyJet planes, as they are, just aren't very comfortable – it's just a basic seat with okayish legroom room. So everyone was just a bit tense," he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Then, the pilot finally gave the all clear, and then he said that it will be about 20 minutes until departure," recalled Gedhu.</p> <p dir="ltr">"And that's when the incident happened with the defecation."</p> <p dir="ltr">Gedhu, who was seated in the middle of the aircraft, saw "two passengers" visit the front airplane bathroom with word quickly spreading that someone had defecated on the bathroom floor. </p> <p dir="ltr">As an unpleasant smell followed, passengers grew more irritated, but Gedhu says most people onboard believed the incident was an "accident".</p> <p dir="ltr">"Everyone was being polite to each other. There was no fighting amongst the passengers," he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It was just a very uncomfortable experience. Obviously, the plane was in an unsanitary state. So they had to get external cleaners out from the airport to clean it. So that's when the stairs reconnected, and the cleaners came on to deep clean the flooring."</p> <p dir="ltr">According to Gedhu, passengers remained in their seats during the cleaning process, and after the situation had been resolved, the captain of the aircraft told the plane's occupants they would have to disembark.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It was very frustrating," another passenger, Kitty Streek, told <em>CNN Travel</em>. </p> <p dir="ltr">"We obviously can't prove whether the person simply had an accident or if they had done this out of anger for the delayed flight but it was hard not to be angry either way as nobody wants to be stranded in another country."</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Travel Trouble

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Your choice of holiday destination is a political act

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brendan-canavan-228682">Brendan Canavan</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-huddersfield-1226">University of Huddersfield</a></em></p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCDd7hl3tLw">Tickets, money, passports!</a> We all know what to check for during that last minute packing panic. But preparing for your holidays is about more than what you squeeze into your suitcase. It is about making a political choice.</p> <p>Tourism is an industry tied up with national and international politics like no other. Tourists are a source of foreign exchange, governments promote themselves through visitors, and politicians quite often worry about the social freedom that tourism can nurture. For these reasons tourists are both courted and scapegoated.</p> <p>At the most basic level tourism counts as an export industry. It is a source of foreign currency and can help to prop up a nation financially.</p> <p>However, local people often see few of the benefits of hosting tourists. Large organisations tend to control much of the tourism industry. These frequently pay little in the way of <a href="https://www.taxjustice.net/2015/11/09/guest-blog-sun-sea-sand-tourism-and-fantasy-finance/">local taxes</a>. Meanwhile local people shoulder much of the burden of sharing their space and facilities with visitors.</p> <p>Some <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09669582.2016.1206112">indigenous people</a> have asked foreign tourists to stay away. They have argued that tourism is threatening their culture, damaging their land’s ecosystems, and is a form of colonialism. In <a href="http://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/visitor/sustainable-tourism-project/drafts/Native-Hawaiian-Impact-Report.pdf">Hawaii</a>, attempts are being made to reconcile some of the issues arising from the tourism industry over-exploiting an open and hospitable native culture.</p> <p>Where you spend your holiday money therefore contributes to legitimising particular politicians and their policies. However, tourists don’t just bring money into a destination. They also bring social and cultural inputs.</p> <p>Tourism has been associated with liberalising social values, empowering minorities, and even spreading democracy. In Spain, for example, the growth of tourism, initiated under the dictator, Francisco Franco, as a means of propping up an ailing economy, has been suggested as helping to usher in democratic change.</p> <p>Hosts and guests <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517715300224">exchange observations and ideas</a>. They form relationships. And they stimulate <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517705000865">mutual creativity</a>. It is only in the past 20 years that China began to allow its people to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/05/only-governments-can-stem-tide-of-tourism-sweeping-the-globe">freely travel abroad</a> after decades of forced isolation. Politicians are frequently fearful of the subversive ideas and awkward questions that travellers might bring back with them.</p> <p>A residual mistrust of tourists can see them scapegoated by politicians looking to place convenient blame. <a href="http://web.mit.edu/11.951/oldstuff/albacete/Course%20Reader/Culture%20and%20History/Tremlett%202006%20Chapter%204.pdf">In Barcelona</a>, a city dependent on tourism for its late 20th-century revival, tourists are being made increasingly unwelcome. They are blamed for increasing costs of living for residents, rather than the broader challenges of inequality and financial stagnation that raise uncomfortable questions about local political capacity.</p> <h2>Image control</h2> <p>Tourism is also a way for governments to assert their ideologies – internally and externally. Visitors to <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g147271-d147980-Reviews-Museum_of_the_Revolution_Museo_de_la_Revolucion-Havana_Ciudad_de_la_Habana_Provinc.html">Cuba</a> for example, can visit the Museum of the Revolution, reportedly one of the top things to do in Havana.</p> <p>Research has shown that the exhibits <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738399001152">sold as heritage</a> to tourists prioritise certain specific stories and can silence others. Over time the official narrative becomes established and other perspectives may be forgotten. <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/england-queer-history-recognised-recorded-celebrated">Historic England</a> has, for example, recently begun to try and include the often overlooked queer history of many heritage sites.</p> <p>Meanwhile tourism can be a means of raising and modifying a country’s image on the world stage. Israel has for many years used gay tourism to soften its international image by making the country seem progressive in a part of the world which generally is not. Dubai has established itself in the same region as a deluxe playground filled with sights and indulgence like nowhere else.</p> <p>However, the commitments of both of these destination’s governments to the touristic image they sell is debateable. LGBTQ people in Israel recently had restrictions placed upon their <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/protests-erupt-israel-lgbt-surrogacy-law-approved-1034931">right to surrogacy</a> by their parliament. Meanwhile Dubai is well known for its cases of people facing severe judicial sentences for acts as innocuous as accidentally <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/22/briton-jailed-for-three-months-in-dubai-for-touching-mans-hip">brushing another man’s bum</a>.</p> <h2>Having a better holiday</h2> <p>On the one hand the image sold to tourists is often not the same as the reality faced by like-minded people living within a country. On the other, tourists may themselves be expected to conform to regulations they would not agree with or accept back home.</p> <p>The power of tourism is not lost on political actors. Recently the Chinese government successfully put <a href="https://theconversation.com/taiwan-how-airlines-are-being-dragged-into-chinas-bitter-dispute-over-the-islands-sovereignty-100932">pressure on international airlines</a> to stop referring to Taiwan as a country or face retaliation.</p> <p>Tourists should not leave it up to politicians to exploit their desire for exploration for self-interested purposes. We need to appreciate our power as consumers; supporting destinations that celebrate tourism as a means of mutually rewarding host-guest exchanges and boycotting those which do not. Tourists have a lot of potential influence. They should use it to hold politicians to account.</p> <p>So there are a few things to consider when planning your holiday. Find out whether your travel provider committed to investing in local taxes, jobs and suppliers. Research the attitudes of local residents towards tourism beforehand in order that you can be a better guest. Bring back more than a nice tan by swapping ideas, stories and phone numbers. Check the public image of a destination matches its private one and don’t support hypocrites. And finally, be aware of politicians using tourism to bully those with whom they don’t agree – and be prepared to call them out.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100846/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brendan-canavan-228682"><em>Brendan Canavan</em></a><em>, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-huddersfield-1226">University of Huddersfield</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-choice-of-holiday-destination-is-a-political-act-100846">original article</a>.</em></p>

International Travel

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“How is this funny?”: Tourist slammed over “disrespectful” act at Graceland

<p dir="ltr">An arrogant traveller has been slammed online after blatantly disregarding signage at Graceland, and taking a dip in the pool. </p> <p dir="ltr">A woman posted a video from the late Elvis Presley’s iconic property in Memphis, Tennessee, as she travelled to the area with her husband.</p> <p dir="ltr">Capturing the moment and sharing it online as a joke, a video posted to the woman’s TikTok account shows her husband, dressed in shorts, shoes and socks climbing over a pool fence, marked 'RESTRICTED AREA'.</p> <p dir="ltr">The man is then seen walking towards the diving board as a security guard rushes towards him.</p> <p dir="ltr">After wobbling a bit on the diving board, he jumps into the water before the guard can stop him.</p> <p dir="ltr">The woman captured the video, "My husband jumped into Elvis pool", adding a laughing emoji.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite the couple’s jovial nature over the stunt, many people were quick to condemn the tourists and their video, which has been viewed over 14 million times. </p> <p dir="ltr">"How is this funny? People are so disrespectful and I hope he got arrested," one person commented.</p> <p dir="ltr">"As someone who has solid respect for Elvis Presley this is very disrespectful to him and his family," another agreed.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Travellers doing whatever they want as usual. Shame," another person commented.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite the overwhelming condemnation, there were some who defended the man’s actions, with one person writing, "I think Elvis would have done the same thing lol."</p> <p dir="ltr">The woman also responded to the accusations that her husband's actions were disrespectful in another video, saying, "Elvis caught someone jumping into his pool once and he never stopped them. He never got them arrested. Told them to stay in the pool. That's what a pool is meant for is to jump into."</p> <p dir="ltr">One person quickly responded, "Whether people think 'Elvis would be laughing' or not it's all down to respect. There's a reason as to why certain areas are roped off."</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: TikTok</em></p>

Travel Trouble

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Twin sisters give birth on the same day

<p dir="ltr">Identical twins Gillianne Gogas and Nicole Patrikakos have lived their whole lives in synchronicity after being born together 36 years ago. </p> <p dir="ltr">Now, the women have welcomed their own children into the world on the same day, in the same hospital. </p> <p dir="ltr">The extraordinary coincidence happened in Melborune’s Epworth Freemasons hospital, with both Nicole and Gillianne welcoming healthy baby boys just hours apart. </p> <p dir="ltr">Gillianne said they both felt a mix of emotions over their matching maternity experience.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The timing, you just can't plan something like that. So yeah, disbelief, shock, excitement, all of those emotions," Gillianne told 9News.</p> <p dir="ltr">Gillianne's son, Alexander, arrived on August 22 at 1:20pm, followed by sister Nicole's baby boy, William, a mere five hours later.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nicole said the sisters had the same due date, so the duplicate deliveries were no surprise to the identical twin sisters.</p> <p dir="ltr">"(We were) very close growing up. We have always done everything together so this is just another example of that," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Gillianne said they had nine months of pregnancy to process their "tandem" due date.</p> <p dir="ltr">"And yet it is still quite unbelievable," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">However, the synchronicity didn’t end there, as the babies were both delivered by the same obstetrician, Dr Joseph Sgroi, who said the births were a first for him during his time as a doctor. </p> <p dir="ltr">"It is not something that is common. It is not commonplace for even sisters to give birth on the same time or on the same day," he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">The newborns even had the same birth weight, a healthy 3.5 kilograms.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Oh yes that came as another surprise," Gillianne said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Exactly the same," Nicole said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Dr Sgroi said the babies would biologically be closer to brothers than cousins, with Nicole and Gillianne hoping they would share the same special relationship as their mothers. </p> <p dir="ltr">"Hopefully they will be as close as we are because it really is a special bond that we have," Nicole said.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Nine News</em></p>

Family & Pets

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Tina Turner's husband's loving act during her darkest hours

<p dir="ltr">When Tina Turner met Erwin Bach in 1985, it was love at first sight. </p> <p dir="ltr">The lasting kind, too, with the pair going on to enjoy nearly 40 years together - and 9 years of marriage after tying the knot in July 2013 - before <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/news/news/tributes-flow-for-tina-turner">the legendary singer passed away at 83</a>, in the home the couple shared. </p> <p dir="ltr">Tina had been battling various health issues in the years leading up to her passing, and had faced a particularly dark spot back in 2017 - but Erwin had been determined to help.</p> <p dir="ltr">The story of their relationship - and Erwin’s heartfelt gift - was covered in Tina’s 2018 memoir, with the star sharing that she had first met her future husband after landing at Cologne’s airport ahead of her Private Dancer tour. </p> <p dir="ltr">Bach, who at the time was the executive for EMI, had been there to collect her, along with a gift - a Mercedes Jeep. But as Tina noted, it wasn’t the car that caught her eye, but instead Bach. </p> <p dir="ltr">“My heart suddenly started to beat ‘BOOM, BOOM, BOOM’,” she recalled. “My hands were ice cold.</p> <p dir="ltr">“‘So this is what they call love at first sight’, I thought. ‘Oh my God, I am not ready for this’.”</p> <p dir="ltr">It was a far cry from Tina’s first marriage to her abusive first husband, Ike Turner, and the couple happily settled into their quiet life in Zurich. </p> <p dir="ltr">However, things took a challenging turn when - after 9 years of marriage - Tina’s health declined. </p> <p dir="ltr">As she shared in her autobiography, “I couldn’t eat. I was surviving but not living,” she shared in her autobiography.  I began to think about death.</p> <p dir="ltr">“If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was okay. When it’s time, it’s really time.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Things became so difficult that she even looked into assisted suicide, before Bach stepped in to do what he could for his wife, telling Tina that he “didn’t want another woman, or another life”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Then he shocked me,” she said. “He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The next step was to find out if they were a match - with tests confirming that they could go ahead with the donation - and the pair underwent surgery in 2017. </p> <p dir="ltr">It was, thankfully, a success, though Tina’s favourite part of it all was seeing “when Erwin came rolling into my room in his wheelchair.</p> <p dir="ltr">“He somehow managed to look good, even handsome, as he greeted me with an energetic ‘hi, darling!’ </p> <p dir="ltr">“I was so emotional - happy, overwhelmed, and relieved that we’d come through this alive.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Caring

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Even after his death, Rolf Harris’ artwork will stand as reminders of his criminal acts

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p>Australian entertainer and artist Rolf Harris has died at the age of 93.</p> <p>After a prominent career as an artist, particularly in the UK, in 2014 <a href="https://theconversation.com/rolf-harris-guilty-but-what-has-operation-yewtree-really-taught-us-about-sexual-abuse-28282">Harris was convicted</a> of 12 counts of indecent assault.</p> <p>For his victims, his death might help to close a painful chapter of their lives.</p> <p>However, what will become of the prodigious output of the disgraced artist?</p> <h2>Jack of all trades, master of none</h2> <p>Harris developed an interest in art from a young age. At the age of 15, one of his portraits was <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1946/">selected for showing</a> in the 1946 Archibald Prize. Three years later, he won the Claude Hotchin prize.</p> <p>These would be among the few accolades he would collect in the art world. In truth, he was never really recognised by his peers.</p> <p>The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, from where he hailed, never added any of his artworks to its collection.</p> <p>Harris rose to prominence primarily as a children’s entertainer and then later as an all-round television presenter. There is a generation of Australians and Britons who grew up transfixed to their TV sets as Harris transformed blank canvases into paintings and cartoons in the space of just 30 minutes.</p> <p>His creativity also extended to music. He played the didgeridoo and his own musical creation, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobble_board">the wobble board</a>”. He topped the British charts in 1969 with the single Two Little Boys. However, he is probably more famous for the song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.</p> <p>Perhaps the ultimate recognition came in 2005, when he was invited to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty_Queen_Elizabeth_II_%E2%80%93_An_80th_Birthday_Portrait">paint Queen Elizabeth II</a>. His audience with the queen was filmed for a BBC documentary starring Harris. His portrait of her majesty briefly adorned the walls of Buckingham Palace, before being displayed in prominent British and Australian galleries.</p> <h2>Criminal conviction and the quick retreat from his art</h2> <p>In 2014, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault against three complainants, aged 15, 16 and 19 years at the times of the crimes. These incidents occurred between 1978 and 1986.</p> <p>Before sentencing Harris to five years and nine months imprisonment, the sentencing judge <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/the-full-statement-from-the-judge-who-sentenced-rolf-harris-to-jail-20140704-3bee0.html">commented</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>You took advantage of the trust placed in you, because of your celebrity status, to commit the offences […] Your reputation now lies in ruins.</p> </blockquote> <p>What followed was a public retreat from his artwork.</p> <p>It is worth asking why this was the public response, when the subject matter of his artwork was innocuous and unremarkable. Among his visual artworks were portraits and landscapes. None of them depicted anything particularly offensive or controversial.</p> <p>Nevertheless, many of those who owned his works felt the need to dissociate themselves with Harris. His portrait of the queen <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28105318">seemed to vanish</a> into thin air. In the wake of his convictions, no one claimed to know of its whereabouts.</p> <p>Harris had also painted a number of permanent murals in Australia. Many these were <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/rolf-harris-mural-in-caulfield-to-be-painted-over-20140706-zsy3n.html">removed</a> or <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/rolf-harris-mural-on-theatre-survives-vote-for-destruction/9518358">permanently obscured</a>.</p> <h2>The roles of guilt and disgust</h2> <p>Guilt seems to play a <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:d3f7264">prominent role</a> in explaining why owners remove such artworks from display.</p> <p>Art is inherently subjective and so it necessarily forces the beholder to inquire into the artist’s meanings. When an artist is subsequently convicted of a crime, it is perhaps natural to wonder whether their art bore signs that there was something untoward about them.</p> <p>Some artists even promote this way of thinking. In fact, Harris authored a book entitled <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2883465-looking-at-pictures-with-rolf-harris">Looking at Pictures with Rolf Harris: A Children’s Introduction to Famous Paintings</a>.</p> <p>In it, he wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>You can find out a lot about the way an artist sees things when you look at his paintings. In fact, he is telling us a lot about himself, whether he wants to or not.</p> </blockquote> <p>When facing the artwork of a convicted criminal, our subjective feelings of guilt persist because we have, in some tiny way, shared a role in their rise and stay as an artist. This makes it difficult to overcome the feeling that the artwork contains clues to the artist’s criminality. We can also feel guilty deriving pleasure from a piece of art whose maker caused others great pain.</p> <p>Disgust also plays a central role in our retreat from the criminal’s artwork.</p> <p>Disgust is a powerful emotion that demands we withdraw from an object whose mere presence threatens to infect or invade our bodily integrity.</p> <p>Related to disgust is a anthropological theory known as the “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-xpm-2014-feb-24-la-sci-sn-price-of-fame-celebrity-contact-boosts-value-of-objects-20140222-story.html">magical law of contagion</a>”. An offensive person leaves behind an offensive trace that continues to threaten us. It is not based on reason but instinct.</p> <p>In essence, the criminal has left their “negative” traces on their artwork.</p> <p>This explains why Harris’ paintings, although of innocuous images, suddenly became eyesores and their market value dropped. Owners of such artwork might also feel compelled to show their disgust openly, to publicly extricate themselves from the artist.</p> <p>No one wants to be seen to condone the behaviour of a sexual offender.</p> <p>Even after his death, Harris’ artwork will continue to stand as reminders of his criminal acts.</p> <p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call <a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au">1800RESPECT</a> on 1800 737 732. In an emergency call 000.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206282/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></em></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, Lecturer, TC Beirne School of Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-after-his-death-rolf-harris-artwork-will-stand-as-reminders-of-his-criminal-acts-206282">original article</a>.</em></p>

Art

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"You're going to be a big sister": Serena Williams shares heart-warming family announcement

<p>Serena Williams has captured the heart-warming moment she told her five-year-old daughter she is soon to be a big sister. </p> <p>The 41-year-old tennis legend is pregnant with her second child, <a href="https://oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/family-pets/serena-williams-unveils-exciting-family-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcing her big news</a> on the Met Gala red carpet at the beginning of May. </p> <p>Serena and her husband Alexis decided to film the moment they told their daughter Olympia about the newest addition to their family, with the five-year-old's joyous reaction tugging at the heartstrings. </p> <p>In a video uploaded to Serena's YouTube channel, titled Olympia's Surprise, Williams revealed Olympia did not yet know about the pregnancy, adding her daughter noticed she had become “fat”.</p> <p>“Olympia does not know right now that I am pregnant, but she did call me fat and then she got really, like, stressed out,” Williams said as the video started.</p> <p>“She was like ‘Mummy, you’re fat’".</p> <p>“I tried not to take it personal, ‘cause I’m, like, super into fitness, but I’m, like, ‘Uhh, am I?’".</p> <p>“We’re going to tell her (about the pregnancy) and I’m really, really excited to see her reaction.”</p> <p>The video continues with the family sitting on the lounge as Williams prepares for the big announcement.</p> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LplhG2V1tho" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>“Remember how you’ve been praying for a little sister or brother?” Serena asked Olympia.</p> <p>“Well, we went to the doctor, and it turns out I’m not getting fat. But I have a baby in my belly.”</p> <p>Olympia’s face then lit up with joy and excitement as she replied: “What, are you kidding me?”</p> <p>“You’re going to be a big sister,” Ohanian and Williams both said.</p> <p>Olympia reacted with joy and reached out and hugged Williams in a beautiful family moment.</p> <p>The video continued as Williams unbuttoned her jeans and lifted her T-shirt to reveal her baby bump, with Olympia overcome with excitement as she jumped off the lounge and screamed with joy while running around the living room.</p> <p>The video has racked up over 40,000 videos in 24 hours, with many fans flooding the comment section with well wishes. </p> <p>One fan wrote, "I don't think there's anyone who deserves this happiness more than Serena. She has blessed us with 3 decades of amazing tennis... What a great way to live life now."</p> <p>Another said, "Olympia is so excited... You deserve it all, Serena."</p> <p><em>Image credits: YouTube</em></p>

Family & Pets

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"Holy crap that's rude": Inflight act sparks outrage

<p dir="ltr">A woman’s “selfish” act has sparked outrage online after a Reddit user shared a picture of her mid manicure on a three-hour flight.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Reddit user who posted the photo also claimed that the strong smell of nail polish remover filled the cabin and many other passengers had asked her to stop, but she refused.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The flight attendant asked her after four of us asked her to stop and she didn’t, because by the time the flight attendant got involved she was doing the top coat,” the Reddit user wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">Initially, the Reddit user said they did “the British thing” by glaring at the back of the woman’s head and “tutting loudly” in hopes that she would put it away.</p> <p dir="ltr">But eventually the passenger had enough of the overpowering smell of acetone and asked a flight attendant to intervene.</p> <p dir="ltr">Many other travellers replied to the Reddit post condemning the woman’s actions.</p> <p dir="ltr">“My brain can’t comprehend this level of entitlement and selfishness,” wrote one user.</p> <p dir="ltr">I love doing my nails, but I would never do them in such an enclosed space where people can't escape the fumes. Holy crap that's rude,” commented another user.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I would have been SEETHING. Imagine if people near her had asthma,” wrote a third.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I detest the smell of acetone and other chemicals used for the process of finger nail decoration. Headache within seconds,” commented a fourth.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Happened on a flight I was on; a flight attendant came over and shut that down within a minute for degrading the air quality,” commented another traveller.</p> <p dir="ltr">Another user questioned whether nail polish was even allowed in cabin luggage.</p> <p dir="ltr">“How is nail polish and nail polish remover allowed on a carry on bag??? Both are highly flammable and both give off ridiculous amounts of fumes,” they commented.</p> <p dir="ltr">A few other Reddit users didn’t see a problem with it and wondered why it would bother other people.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I didn’t see the issue at first ... I think nail varnish smells lovely, I’m just now learning that most people do not share my opinion,” commented one user.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I still don’t personally see the big deal, but I’m not particularly sensitive to chemical scents,” commented another.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Reddit</em></p>

Travel Trouble

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Madeleine McCann’s younger sister breaks her silence

<p>Amelie McCann has spoken out for the first time, 16 years after her sister Madeleine McCann went missing on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.</p> <p>The 18-year-old spoke at a vigil in the British family’s home village of Rothley in Leicestershire, marking the anniversary of Madeleine’s tragic disappearance.</p> <p>Madeline, aged three, disappeared in May 2007 when she and her siblings had been left asleep in the family’s hotel room while their parents and a group of friends had dinner at a nearby restaurant.</p> <p>Amelie and her twin brother Sean were two years old at the time.</p> <p>Amelie, now 18, was joined by her parents at the vigil, but Sean did not make an appearance.</p> <p>“It’s nice that everyone is here together but it’s a sad occasion,” she said as she lit a candle for her sister and other missing children.</p> <p>According to the Daily Mail, Fiona Payne, a friend of the family who joined them on the 2007 Portugal holiday, was also present at the vigil.</p> <p>Kate and Gerry McCann also <a href="https://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/family-pets/maddy-mccann-s-parents-heart-wrenching-post-on-16-year-anniversary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted a statement</a> on the Find Madeline website, marking the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.</p> <p>The police investigation is still ongoing.</p> <p>The anniversary comes two weeks after a German court declined to hear a sex offences case against a German man who is a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.</p> <p>Christian Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.</p> <p>The new charges relate to a string of separate cases involving sexual offences allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.</p> <p>Braunschweig state court denied responsibility for new charges against Brueckner due to evidence regarding his last known address in Germany.</p> <p>Brueckner’s last known German residence before moving to Portugal has been disputed, and the Braunschweig state court ruled there is evidence of an address in the neighbouring state of Saxony-Anhal.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty/Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

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Stranger’s “kind” act for a struggling single mum

<p dir="ltr">A struggling single mother has been moved to tears by a stranger’s random act of kindness while doing her grocery shopping. </p> <p dir="ltr">The mother, hailing from Ipswich in Queensland, was doing her shopping ahead of the school term starting up as she paced the aisles mentally tallying the cost of her groceries to not go over her strict budget. </p> <p dir="ltr">As she continued to add carefully selected items to her trolley, a young girl approached her with a gift. </p> <p dir="ltr">The girl handed her a $50 note saying it was a gift from her mother, in a random act of kindness that left her “shaking and crying”. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I had the most incredible thing happen to me today. I'm in Woolies Riverlink in Ipswich QLD getting a few things for back to school and I'm adding my shopping up on my calculator and checking the price of EVERYTHING,” the mum wrote in a Facebook post. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Next, a lovely little girl came up to me handing me a $50 and said 'My mummy wants to give you a gift', I said 'Thank you, have the wrong person, honey'.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The young girl assured the woman she was the person her mum wanted to give the $50 to and ran off before she could say anything else.  </p> <p dir="ltr">“I looked up at her mum shaking and in tears and she gave me a nod and a thumbs up,” the woman said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“She had no idea just how much I needed this right now. Her kindness meant the world to me.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Many applauded the stranger’s generosity as more families are feeling the pressure with sky-rocketing costs of living, with like-minded budgeting mothers sharing how they were touched by the sweet story. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Made me cry this lovely Sunday morning. Always gives hope to know there are some really wonderful people out there,” one person said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There are some truly wonderful people in the world! You don't have to give someone $50 to make their day - any small kind gesture can change the course of someone's life,” a second agreed.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There are some absolute angels out there for sure!” said another. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Caring

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“I love you! My King”: Christine Brown praises new boyfriend

<p dir="ltr">Christine Brown has taken to the internet to express just how much she loves her new boyfriend, David Woolley. </p> <p dir="ltr">Woolley shared on Instagram a snap of a mirror where the Sister Wives star, 50, had written, “I love you! My King.”</p> <p dir="ltr">"I love how thoughtful Christine is and all the little things she does for me ❤️#christinebrown #soulmate #myqueen #mylove," he captioned the image.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CpvTG5pOqpx/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CpvTG5pOqpx/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by David Woolley (@david__woolley)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">That same day Brown shared a sweet photo of the couple holding each other in a booth. </p> <p dir="ltr">Alongside the picture, Brown praised Woolley, captioning the post, "I can't express how amazing it's been to have David in my life," she wrote. "He's an incredible man and he treats me like his Queen.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CptKn9hvIsd/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CptKn9hvIsd/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Christine Brown (@christine_brownsw)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> Brown went public with Woolley on Valentine’s Day 2023 and has shared several photos of the pair.</p> <p dir="ltr">I finally found the love of my life, David," she shared on Instagram. "The first time he held me close, it felt like my soul took its first breath."</p> <p dir="ltr">Brown, "He's wonderful and kind, incredible with my children and an adorable grandpa. I never dreamed I could find a love like this.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Brown’s relationship with Woolley is her first since her divorce from her husband of 25 years, Kody Brown. Christine said it had been “awkward” dating again more than a year after the split. </p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b0444289-7fff-5055-3ec7-8ff94c90bef0"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Brown has certainly gotten past the awkwardness as she proudly praises her boyfriend online. It’s safe to say the pair are seriously smitten.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credit: Instagram</em></p>

Relationships

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Ticked off trekker exposes family’s selfish act

<p>Australian bushwalkers are bristling at one family’s claim over an entire viewing platform in Victoria.</p> <p>A picture, shared to Reddit, shows a family - of at least four - taking over at Wilsons Promontory National Park with their set up. Camp chairs, bags, and meal trays can be seen around them, blocking access to the viewing point for anyone else who might like to enjoy what the park has to offer.</p> <p>The area - well known for its stunning vistas and bountiful wildlife - is a popular weekend retreat for tourists and locals alike, and Parks Victoria have revealed that it gets “extremely busy over summer”.</p> <p>“This family [is] taking up an entire sightseeing platform so nobody else can take photos,” the poster stated.</p> <p>“It’s a long weekend,” he continued below, “so Wilsons Promontory was very busy. A lot of people missed out on great photos and views because these people wanted it for themselves.”</p> <p>One had a simple, if not entirely beneficial solution, declaring that “confrontation is not always wrong.”</p> <p>“As I walked past, a guy said ‘that's just f***ing rude’,” the individual behind the post responded.</p> <p>“Especially in the case of entitled twats, I feel sorry for the kids though, they have parents who convince them shit like this is ok,” agreed another.</p> <p>“This park have rangers?” enquired one. “I'd be getting them to get those a***oles outta there.”</p> <p>“Despite being 2hrs from civilisation, it was packed because it's a long weekend here,” the original poster responded. “There's a huge campground nearby that was completely full.</p> <p>“But I didn't see any rangers all day, just a bus driver shuttling people up a mountain because the car park at the top would have been overflowing if everyone drove up.”</p> <p>Another shared their past experience with the spot, noting that they’d seen the same thing happen before, and that they’d just gone over and taken pictures anyway.</p> <p>“They then realised they were in the way,” they said of their encounter, “apologised, moved a little, and we had a chat about the weather. People do dumb s*** all the time without taking into consideration other people.”</p> <p>“I’m wondering this too if maybe they didn’t connect that it was a specific overlook platform at the time of the pic,” mused one responder.</p> <p>Meanwhile, another only had “never assume malice when stupidity will suffice” to say.</p> <p>Some, however, had a little more compassion for the family in the picture, writing that there were a lot of people “describing how they'd solve this problem. How about ‘excuse me, can I take some photos here?’ like a normal person?”</p> <p>“Exactly. I cringed. Like what if they just thought they stumbled upon the spot and were like ‘let’s picnic real quick’ and didn’t know people were going out of their way to find that spot or just that it’s a viewpoint spot,” another offered in agreement. “I have to sympathise, we’re all humans and hopefully it was not malicious. Just parents trying to have fun with their children?”</p> <p>“Duuuude, seriously,” one more wrote. “The ‘perpetrators’ might not even know [that] what they’re doing isn’t cool. It looks like they hiked out there and saw a decent spot to chill.”</p> <p><em>Images: Reddit</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Over 60

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