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62-year-old teacher arrested after classroom brawl

<p><strong><em>WARNING: This video contains footage some viewers may find distressing</em></strong></p> <p>Disturbing footage has surfaced online of a teacher appearing to physically attack a student at a NSW public school.</p> <p>The incident occurred at Maitland Grossmann High School, northwest of Newcastle on March 22.</p> <p>Footage filmed by students shows their classmates throwing paper balls at the teacher, 62, who then proceeded to throw the paper balls back at one boy.</p> <p>The situation escalated quickly as the teacher appeared to grab one boy by the collar and pulls him down onto one of the desks, causing other students to get involved.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">CONTENT WARNING: Some viewers may find the following story confronting.</p> <p>A teacher at a school in the New South Wales Hunter region has been charged with assault, after a classroom brawl with students. <a href="https://twitter.com/MaggieRaworth?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaggieRaworth</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/9News?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#9News</a> <a href="https://t.co/Gv5ZmpuYCT">pic.twitter.com/Gv5ZmpuYCT</a></p> <p>— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) <a href="https://twitter.com/9NewsSyd/status/1638341798761320449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p>One student can be seen in the video pushing the 62-year-old away, yelling “You wanna f***ing touch him again?”, to which the teacher responded by telling the teens to put their phones away.</p> <p>A desk is then thrown at the teacher and several concerned students rush to leave the classroom.</p> <p>The video appears to show the teacher striking the student while he is on the floor.</p> <p>“Are you f***ing stupid?” a student can be heard yelling.</p> <p>The evidently enraged teacher then stands in the doorway and says to the students, “Who wants to have a go?”</p> <p>NSW Police have confirmed the teacher was arrested and charged with common assault.</p> <p>“About 9.30pm, a 62-year-old man was arrested and taken to Belmont Police Station, where he was charged with common assault,” NSW Police told news.com.au.</p> <p>“The teenage boy was assessed at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics; however, was not physically injured.</p> <p>The teacher has been given conditional bail to appear before Maitland Local Court on April 6.</p> <p>A NSW Department of Education spokesperson said the department is aware of the incident and the school is now working with police.</p> <p><em>Image credit: YouTube/Twitter</em></p>

Legal

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Age gap love: The 25-year-old woman who is in love with a 62-year-old man

<p>A mother of two has fallen in love again. After being burned by her last relationship, Laura Wright, 25, wasn’t looking for love until she boarded a bus in Plymouth, southwest England.</p> <p>It was here she met Steve Churchward, 62, as she was travelling with her six-year-old son, Brayden.</p> <p>She was taking her son to kindergarten when she struck up a conversation with Steve in 2015.</p> <p>Steve was a bus driver for Plymouth, and it was coincidentally the bus that Wright had hopped onto. He asked for her name and then sent her a friend request on Facebook.</p> <p><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fphoto.php%3Ffbid%3D10216924835783521%26set%3Da.1518115363212%26type%3D3&amp;width=500" width="500" height="502" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe></p> <p>A month later, the pair admitted to having feelings for each other.</p> <p>They moved in together in November 2015 and the pair were engaged in December 2017.</p> <p>There are plans to marry this year.</p> <p>According to Laura, they’ve never noticed the 37-year age gap.</p> <p>“Steve’s age has never bothered us in the slightest, and it’s not something I notice,” she said.</p> <p>“I feel so lucky to have him by my side. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted.”</p> <p>Although it sounds sweet now, it wasn’t all roses at the beginning.</p> <p>“He was bald and wrinkly with a beer belly. He wasn’t my usual type, and I didn’t find him attractive at first,” she said.</p> <p>Despite the age gap, Laura maintains she can’t keep up with Steve, saying their sex life is “certainly busy”.</p> <p>“That’s despite the age gap,” she laughs.</p> <p>“And you’d never know Steve is in his 60s, I can’t keep up with him.”</p> <p>The relationship blossomed, although there were bumps with family members.</p> <p>“I discovered Steve was then 59 and had three children who were more than five years older than I was,” Laura said.</p> <p>“My dad is 10 years younger than Steve, so I worried they’d be upset,</p> <p>“But when I told them I loved him they were happy for us, and when they finally met Steve, they loved him too.”</p> <p>Steve is a loving father to Laura’s two children.</p> <p>“Steve would cook dinner for me and the kids or get them ready for school,” she said.</p> <p>“He treated them like his own children. Braydon even calls Steve ‘Daddy’.”</p> <p>With the wedding planned for June this year, Laura can’t wait.</p> <p>“It was the biggest shock. Now we’re planning our wedding day, and I can’t wait for us to be a proper family."</p> <p><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fphoto.php%3Ffbid%3D538898689806765%26set%3Dp.538898689806765%26type%3D3&amp;width=500" width="500" height="285" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe></p> <p>What do you think about age gap romances? Is there a big age gap between you and your partner? Tell us in the comments below. </p>

Relationships

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The man who has been living at an airport terminal for 62 days

<p>For the past 62 days, a man has been trapped in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport.</p> <p>The Syrian marketing manager, Hassan Al Kontar, spent the past decade working in the United Arab Emirates. </p> <p>Eventually, he was summoned to fight in Syria’s civil war and after he refused, the Syrian embassy in the UAE did not renew his passport in 2012.</p> <p>Without his passport, he could not renew his work permit, so he also lost his job. He went into hiding in the UAE for six years, but he was later detained by authorities and sent to Malaysia with a three-month work permit.</p> <p>After the three months ended, Hassan tried to fly to Ecuador, as the country allows Syrian nationals to enter visa-free.</p> <p>“I saved up enough money to buy a plane ticket on Turkish Airways. But for some reason, they did not allow me on the flight and I found myself back at square one,” he told the BBC.</p> <p>He then received a fine for “overstaying” in Malaysia and was “black-listed”, blocking him from legally entering the country.</p> <p>Hassan then tried to go to Cambodia, as Syrians can obtain a visa on arrival, but was refused entry. He was then flown back to Kuala Lumpur and has been stranded at the airport ever since.</p> <p>He sleeps under staircases and showers in the public bathrooms after midnight.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-video"> <p dir="ltr">What dose it mean to be a Syrian.. My story<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/airport_is_my_home?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#airport_is_my_home</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/syrian_stuck_at_airport?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#syrian_stuck_at_airport</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/tomhanks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@tomhanks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Syria?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Syria</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/guardian?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@guardian</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheEconomist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheEconomist</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TIME?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TIME</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@washingtonpost</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rampage?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Rampage</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Trump?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Trump</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KeerthySuresh?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KeerthySuresh</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackBuck?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackBuck</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AvengersInfinityWar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AvengersInfinityWar</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AvengersInfinityWar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AvengersInfinityWar</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MTVBRKPOPEXO?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MTVBRKPOPEXO</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mercury?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mercury</a> <a href="https://t.co/WiSWuuEZtS">pic.twitter.com/WiSWuuEZtS</a></p> — Hassan Al Kontar (@Kontar81) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kontar81/status/981925992481488896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2018</a></blockquote> <p>Hassan is reliant on airport staff for supplies and a generous airline gives him packets of rice and chicken.</p> <p>His savings are quickly running out, but occasionally he treats himself to McDonald’s at the airport food court.</p> <p>“I am just counting days here, with no hope,” he said in a video posted on March 23.</p> <p>“I don’t know why I keep doing these videos; maybe somewhere deep inside my feelings or my heart I need someone who cares, someone who may [be] able to help, [but] somewhere I know it’s hopeless. It’s a false hope.</p> <p>“I don’t know what to do. It seems like it will be my home for a while.</p> <p>“It’s a difficult situation. There’s no place to shower, there’s no place to sleep. I’m even sick but there is no medicine.”</p> <p>Recently, Hassan's situation is looking brighter. The United Nations Refugee Agency has been in contact with him and has been working with Malaysian officials to review his situation.</p> <p>However, a group of residents from Canada could really turn his situation around.</p> <p>After Canadian woman Laurie Cooper came across Hassan’s story on Twitter, she began to send him money for food. She also started researching his options.</p> <p>“Originally we were just trying to find a safe place for him to go,” said Laurie.</p> <p>“But when we started researching his options, there really weren’t any good [ones] and it occurred to us that probably the simplest thing to do was to sponsor him to come here.”</p> <p>Laurie and her friends have now raised enough money to sponsor Hassan and have him set up with a job and accommodation in Canada.</p> <p>The residents have sent a request to the Canadian immigration minister, asking him to allow Hassan to travel to Canada while his application for a temporary resident permit is processed.</p> <p>In the meantime, Hassan is waiting at terminal two at Kuala Lumpur hopefully awaiting a new home in Canada.</p> <p>“I am a highly-qualified professional, desperate for a place where I can be safe, legal, not looking over my shoulder or being on the run,” he said. </p> <p>“A place where I can work and prove myself.”</p>

International Travel

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How Telstra made $62 million by misleading 100,000 customers

<p>Telstra has misled 100,000 customers by overcharging them $62 million in digital content without their consent and knowledge.</p> <p>The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will take Telstra to Federal Court over claims it made false representation with its "Premium Direct Billing" service.</p> <p>Premium Direct Billing allowed customers to automatically add paid services such as apps, sports streams and games to their phone bill instead of paying instantly.</p> <p>However, Telstra has admitted between 2015 and 2016 the third-party billing service signed up thousands of customers to ringtone subscriptions or games without their knowledge and which they were not aware they had signed up to pay for.</p> <p>ACCC chairman Rod Sims said: "Telstra has admitted that it misled customers by charging them for digital content, such as games and ringtones, which they unknowingly purchased.</p> <p>"Many Telstra customers paid for content they did not want, did not use, and had difficulty unsubscribing from."</p> <p>Mr Sims said the service s saw Telstra gain a 'substantial revenue' of $62 million from 2.7 million customer mobile phones.</p> <p>"Telstra knew that the Premium Direct Billing service it operated led to large numbers of its customers being billed for purchases made without their knowledge or consent," Mr Sims said.</p> <p>"Despite this, Telstra continued to bill customers, making substantial revenue from the service at the expense of customers.</p> <p>"When customers contacted Telstra to complain many were directed to third parties, even though Telstra knew that they had difficulty getting a refund from third party suppliers, or cancelling their subscription. Customers were often left frustrated and out of pocket as a result of Telstra’s conduct."</p> <p>Telstra has refunded $5 million to affected customers and will contact other customers as they are identified. </p> <p>They have stopped their premium direct billing service with Telstra admitting they “did not get that right”.</p> <p>If you’re worried you have been overcharged, get in touch with Telstra.</p> <p> </p>

Technology

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Couple find each other by chance after 62 years apart

<p><span>Former sweethearts who were separated by war and circumstance have reunited after meeting by chance 62 years later.</span></p> <p><span>In 1939, Eric Tweedsdale, 96, and Enid Bradshaw, 94, first met at Merrylands RSL in Sydney, where they were both part of a youth group.</span></p> <p><span>The duo’s love blossomed, and the pair got engaged but during the war, Eric was sent away for four years to the navy and things cooled off.</span></p> <p><span>They each went their separate ways and went on to marry and have children.</span></p> <p><span>In 2004, Eric and Enid both received invitations to a youth group reunion by mutual friends held in the location where their love story first began, Merrylands RSL.</span></p> <p><span>“There were six of us left from the youth group and our friends organised for Enid to wait at the big clock at Central Station for someone to meet her to get the train into Merrylands RSL and I offered as I was travelling by train [from the Central Coast],” Eric told </span><a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/couple-find-each-other-by-chance-after-62-years-apart/news-story/9063db561e116ba807f00a371b8d1876" target="_blank"><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Daily Telegraph.</span></strong></em></a></p> <p><span>“We knew each other straight away even after 62 years. She was still a blonde — but a slightly different tone of blonde — and she still had those lovely big blue eyes.</span></p> <p><span>“She was a beautiful girl and I thought she looked even more beautiful at 80-odd years young.”</span></p> <p><span>“It was a complete surprise to see Eric after all those years of having no contact at all,” Enid said.</span></p> <p><span>“We had a cup of coffee, chatted about the time that had passed and ended up missing our train.</span></p> <p><span>“While we stayed in touch following the reunion, it was a few years down the track before we became close once again.”</span></p> <p><span>After years of staying in touch, their romance resurfaced when Enid moved to Cooinda Village retirement facility, not far from Eric’s home in Ettalong on the Central Coast of NSW.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span><img width="500" height="375" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7267329/1_500x375.jpg" alt="1 (80)"/></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Image credit: Mark Scott</em></p> <p><span>Now, Eric and Enid are making amends for all their lost time and living only 40 footsteps from one another in self-care units at Peninsula Village in Umina.</span></p> <p><span>“We are very thankful that they accommodated us here at the village so close to each other,” Enid said.</span></p> <p><span>“We’ve been here for just over six months and enjoy the fantastic activities and social side of being in a residential village, close to family and friends."</span></p> <p><span>Enid added, “We decided to have our own units, with our own things, but spend lots of valuable time with one another, talking about our time apart and the times we had together when we were young.</span></p> <p><span>“Ours is a most unusual story with a happy ending. We not only spend time reminiscing, but look forward to the days ahead with keen anticipation.”</span></p> <p><span>Eric concluded, “We both believe it was just meant to be."</span></p> <p><span>Eric enjoyed a successful sports career, now being the oldest living Australian Wallabies rugby union player.</span></p> <p><span>Enid established for herself a career as a published author and an award-winning artist. </span></p>

Caring

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New hope for elderly couple forced to separate after 62 years

<p><a href="/news/news/2016/08/couple-married-62-years-forced-to-separate/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Last week</span></strong></a> we brought you the story of 83-year-old dementia sufferer Wolf and 81-year-old Anita Gottschalk, a married couple of 62 years who were forced to live in separate aged care homes due to a lack of space for the two of them. You’ll be glad to hear we have a happy update to share.</p> <p><img width="498" height="245" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/26816/couple1_498x245.jpg" alt="Couple1" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p>Their story (as well as their heartbreaking farewell photo) went viral, receiving millions of views, shares and outraged comments, and it appears their appeal for help has finally been heard – Wolf has been placed at the top of the waitlist for Anita’s aged care facility.</p> <p>The couple’s granddaughter Ashley Bartyik, who organised the appeal, met with facility authorities to plan his move. “It has been decided that my Opi will be moved to Rosemary Heights and out of his transitional facility,” she wrote on Facebook. “He will still be the top of the list in waiting to be under the same roof as my Omi, but he is now only a couple blocks away in a complex care facility."</p> <p>“This way he is receiving great care while waiting to be with my Omi, and in close vicinity making it so much easier for our family.”</p> <p>We’re thrilled to hear the octogenarian lovebirds are on their way towards a happy conclusion to this sorry saga.</p> <p>What do you think of this story? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2016/08/couple-married-62-years-forced-to-separate/"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Couple married 62 years forced to separate</span></em></strong></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2016/09/couple-married-52-years-have-matched-outfits-every-day-for-18-months/"><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Couple celebrates 52 years of marriage with matching outfits</span></strong></em></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2016/08/war-veteran-first-millionaire-on-hot-seat/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>War veteran becomes first $1 million winner on Millionaire Hot Seat</strong></em></span></a></p>

News

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Couple married 62 years forced to separate

<p>Eighty-three-year-old Wolf Gottschalk and his wife Anita, 81, met and fell in love in Dusseldorf, Germany, when they were just teenagers. They have spent every day together for the last 62 years.</p> <p>After getting married, they settled down in Surrey in British Columbia, to provide a better life for their future children – a son and two girls. They led a full and happy life until recent tragedy struck and Wolf became ill. His condition eventually worsened to the point where Anita could no longer look after him by herself, and he was admitted to a care facility.</p> <p>Sadly, Anita also required assisted living, but there was no room for the couple within the same home.</p> <p>Granddaughter Ashley Bartyik spoke to <em>Dailymail.com</em> about her concerns for her mother’s condition.</p> <p>“The stress of this has taken control of her and she has a pace maker,” Ashley said. “She has become almost completely immobile and uses a walker wherever she goes and a wheelchair depending on how far the walk is.”</p> <p>Ashley has now quit her job so that every other day, she can drive Anita 30 minutes up the road, so that her and Wolf can be reunited. You can tell by the photos of this sweet couple together how much the power of love can affect your wellbeing.</p> <p><img width="499" height="363" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/26610/insert_499x363.jpg" alt="Insert (3)"/></p> <p>Wolf is on a waitlist to move into the nursing home where his wife is cared for, called The Residence at Morgan Heights. The Fraser Health Authority says it has been working to get the couple together but says that no care spaces have opened up since Anita moved in. </p> <p>Let’s hope that this story reaches its happy ending soon.</p> <p>Do you think that the residence should move another patient so that these two can be together? Let us know what you think in the comments below. </p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/caring/2016/08/rachael-wonderlin-memory-care-blue-harbour-senior-living-on-dementia/"><em>16 things I would want, if I get dementia</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="/health/caring/2016/07/4-tips-for-looking-after-an-injured-partner/">4 tips for looking after an injured partner</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/caring/2016/07/how-to-comfort-your-friend-in-any-situation/"><em>How to comfort your friend in any situation</em></a></strong></span></p> <p> </p>

News

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David Gest found dead in London hotel, aged 62

<p>David Gest, music producer and former husband of Liza Minnelli, has been found dead at the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Warf, London.</p> <p>The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “Police were called at 10.17am on 12 April to the Four Seasons hotel, in Westferry Circus, to reports of an unexplained death of a man in his 60s. At this stage, the cause of death remains unknown, however he recently fell ill whilst appearing in this year’s UK reality television show <em>Big Brother.</em></p> <p>Born in Los Angeles and raised in southern California, he was close friends with Michael Jackson as a child and had a relationship with Latoya Jackson as a teenager. One of the biggest successes during his career was producing the highest-rated special in US music history – 2001's <em>Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration.</em></p> <p>The entertainer was best known for his reality television appearances and his marriage to Minnelli. They were married in 2002 in a star-studded wedding at New York's St Regis hotel. Jackson acted as his best man and the couple’s guests included Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Ross. They officially separated in 2007 and agreed to get divorced without fault.</p> <p>Last month, Gest told the Hull Daily Mail: "I don't live the show business world in my private life. "I don't go to many openings, or many premieres – that's not what I'm about”.</p> <p>"I'm down to earth. People come up to me in the streets in York and I talk with everybody. I don't believe there's really a difference between any of us."</p> <p>For the last few years of his life Gest lived in York, shying away from his former lifestyle in LA. Police are not treating his death as suspicious at this time. </p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/music/2015/12/best-beatles-songs/">The 10 best Beatles songs, according to google</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/music/2015/11/best-george-harrison-songs/">The top 5 George Harrison songs of all time</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/music/2016/01/covers-of-your-favourite-80s-songs/">7 beautiful covers of your favourite 80s songs</a></em></strong></span></p>

News

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62-year-old survives 6 days in the outback by eating ants

<p>In a remarkable story of survival, a 62-year-old man in West Australia has survived being lost without food and water in the outback for almost a week, by lying underneath a tree and eating black ants.</p><p>Tactical Response Group (TRG) trackers found Reginald Foggerdy in the remote West Australian Goldfields on Tuesdays, having looked for the hunter for the previous six days.</p><p>Mr Foggerdy had reportedly been on a hunting trip 170kms east of Laverton, when he left a campsite he was sharing last Wednesday. When he didn’t return in morning the alarm was raised.</p><p><img width="497" height="305" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/9940/man-survives-outback-by-eating-ants-two_497x305.jpg" alt="Man Survives Outback By Eating Ants Two" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></p><p><em>Image credit: Facebook / WA Police</em></p><p>Superintendent Andy Greatwood told 702 ABC Perth of Mr Foggerdy’s impressive survival instincts, “[He was] extremely dehydrated, a bit delusional, but he's received treatment, first aid, on the ground and it's fair to say he's now sitting up and talking, so it's looking very positive. His last couple of days of survival were achieved by lying down under a tree and eating black ants, so that's the level of survival that Mr Foggerdy has gone to. [He had] no water whatsoever for six days.”</p><p>The breakthrough in the search was reportedly made when Mr Foggerdy lost one of his thongs, which made him leave more distinct footprints for trackers to follow. Mr Foggerdy was flown to a Kalgoorlie hospital by The Royal Flying Doctor service where he is currently in a stable condition.</p><p><strong>Related links:</strong></p><p><a href="/news/news/2015/09/koala-survives-car-collision/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Koala hit by car travelling 100kph and survives</strong></em></span></a></p><p><a href="/news/news/2015/09/drought-wedding-photo-charity/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Couple’s wedding photo raised $15000 for charity</strong></em></span></a></p><p><a href="/news/news/2015/03/heatwave-every-day-in-boulia/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>The Queensland town that endured a heatwave for 26 days straight</strong></em></span></a></p>

News

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62-year-old survives 6 days in the outback by eating ants

<p>In a remarkable story of survival, a 62-year-old man in West Australia has survived being lost without food and water in the outback for almost a week, by lying underneath a tree and eating black ants.</p><p>Tactical Response Group (TRG) trackers found Reginald Foggerdy in the remote West Australian Goldfields on Tuesdays, having looked for the hunter for the previous six days.</p><p>Mr Foggerdy had reportedly been on a hunting trip 170kms east of Laverton, when he left a campsite he was sharing last Wednesday. When he didn’t return in morning the alarm was raised.</p><p><img width="497" height="305" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/9940/man-survives-outback-by-eating-ants-two_497x305.jpg" alt="Man Survives Outback By Eating Ants Two" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></p><p><em>Image credit: Facebook / WA Police</em></p><p>Superintendent Andy Greatwood told 702 ABC Perth of Mr Foggerdy’s impressive survival instincts, “[He was] extremely dehydrated, a bit delusional, but he's received treatment, first aid, on the ground and it's fair to say he's now sitting up and talking, so it's looking very positive. His last couple of days of survival were achieved by lying down under a tree and eating black ants, so that's the level of survival that Mr Foggerdy has gone to. [He had] no water whatsoever for six days.”</p><p>The breakthrough in the search was reportedly made when Mr Foggerdy lost one of his thongs, which made him leave more distinct footprints for trackers to follow. Mr Foggerdy was flown to a Kalgoorlie hospital by The Royal Flying Doctor service where he is currently in a stable condition.</p><p><strong>Related links:</strong></p><p><a href="/news/news/2015/09/koala-survives-car-collision/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Koala hit by car travelling 100kph and survives</strong></em></span></a></p><p><a href="/news/news/2015/09/drought-wedding-photo-charity/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Couple’s wedding photo raised $15000 for charity</strong></em></span></a></p><p><a href="/news/news/2015/03/heatwave-every-day-in-boulia/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>The Queensland town that endured a heatwave for 26 days straight</strong></em></span></a></p>

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It took 630 contacts, 62 coffee dates and 5 relationships before I found my husband

<p><em><strong>Over60 community member Becky, 62, from the Gold Coast in Queensland, had to kiss a lot of frogs to find her perfect man – literally – through online dating. Here, she gives a funny, inspiring and detailed account of her happily ever after.</strong></em></p><p>“I am living proof of the power of optimism over experience. At 50, I had been married twice – the first was when I was young enough not to know better and the second, which was much later, was when I realised at the age of 34 that if I didn’t have children soon, it would be too late.</p><p>That marriage lasted 14 years and gave me two wonderful sons. The marriage fell apart as soon as they were old enough for it not to be a problem for them and now here I was, moving towards the dreaded 60 milestone (kicking and screaming I might add), financially secure (I had always been as lucky in my career choices as I had been unlucky in my personal relationships), but with a deep sense of loneliness and a feeling that I had to make a real effort before it was too late to find out if there was anything in this “true love” business.</p><p>It was around 2001 and I was working in the IT industry. This meant that I was not as uncomfortable looking online as I may have been if I had still been in some of the other careers which litter my past.</p><p>It was relatively early days for the online dating scene and I was reluctant to let anyone know what I was doing as it was still seen as somehow a bit “tacky”, although why it should be considered quite acceptable to meet some guy in a pub or at a conference rather than in a coffee shop after a series of emails and phone conversations, I can’t understand.</p><p>I started out with RSVP because it was the most high profile dating website at the time. I created the profile name of Becky and that name stuck with me even until today as this article shows. I was too afraid to post a public photo of myself but I had one available, which I could reveal with a password to any interested suitor if he seemed okay and I thought he was worth the chance.</p><p>At first, I started out with the complete truth with regards to my age. I was 51 at the time but I’ve always been a bit of a “hippy chick” and I’d aged well enough for most people to pick me as being several years younger, nevertheless, I went first of all with my true age.</p><p>However, this netted me a bunch of contacts from blokes who I just knew I would have nothing in common with. I guess I was looking for someone with the same ‘Peter Pan’ approach to life as myself. I wanted someone young at heart but not too different in age to myself – I definitely didn’t want a ‘toy boy’. So I knocked a couple of years off (something which my now husband has NEVER let me forget).</p><p>I was also not prepared for the sense of rejection I felt when I’d been chatting online to a bloke for a week or so, and he seemed nice. He asked to see my photo and I sent him the password only to have him immediately drop contact with me. That feeling wore off pretty quickly, I also changed the photo!</p><p>I don’t remember the first time I arranged to meet someone for coffee – I have no recollection of that person at all as I don’t think it went anywhere. This leads me to an observation I quickly made and which has been amply re-enforced over the years. The one business to make a killing out of the online dating market in my opinion is Coffee Club.</p><p>They are everywhere, you can usually park nearby and they are seen as safely anonymous. If my husband and I are ever at a Coffee Club, even today, we entertain ourselves by trying to pick out the people waiting to meet someone they have only, until that moment, ‘met’ online.</p><p>Over the following five years, when I dated online, I compiled the following set of results:</p><p>Contacts from interested dates (in RSVP these are known as ‘kisses’): 630</p><p>Contacts which led to coffee or something similar: 62</p><p>Contacts which led to dinner: 28</p><p>Contacts which led to second dates (dinner, movies, etc): 10</p><p>Relationships: 5</p><p>Marriages: 1&nbsp;</p><p>Over the years I have met and chatted to quite a few guys who have told me some awful (and sometimes quite funny) stories of their online dating experiences. I remember one chap saying he’d been chatting to a woman online for a couple of weeks and they had arranged to meet at (you guessed it) Coffee Club!</p><p>She apparently walked in, scanned the room, saw him and walked over, looked down at him and said, “Oh no, you won’t do at all” turned around and walked out. I liked him because he laughed when he told me even though he said he’d been shattered at the time.</p><p>One of my less memorable experiences was meeting a guy who told me he was in real estate, and that his marriage had broken down due to his constantly being at work. He then took a mobile call and spent the next 30 minutes trying to negotiate some real estate contract. I don’t know why I hung about but after 10 minutes I took out my book and started reading.</p><p>He didn’t really apologise when he finished but he told me that he was looking for a ‘girlfriend’ who could occupy his two children, who he had on alternate weekends while he went to work. I gathered he was after a babysitter with ‘benefits’. Needless to say, I wasn’t interested. The whole ‘date’ (and I struggle to call it that) felt like a job interview!</p><p>One of the other strange experiences I had was from a woman who wanted to meet because ‘I sounded like fun’ and she wanted to compare dating experiences. We did catch up a few times for a meal and a laugh but we fell afoul of each other when I started dating a bloke who (as she said) ‘she wasn’t finished with yet’.</p><p>I had an odd and rather unsettling experience with a man who claimed to be 54 (my age at the time) but who I doubt could have been any older than 34. I never really got a straight answer from him about anything and after a while it got too wearing and I dropped contact with him.</p><p>I had heard from other women who mentioned there were blokes out there who just like older women. Trouble was I didn’t feel like an ‘older woman’ and it was not a role I wanted to play – even for fun. Like I said, it was unsettling.&nbsp;</p><p>I ended up in a three-year on-again/off-again relationship with a man who suited my lifestyle. He was younger (by about five years) but had been retired on a disability pension due to depression.</p><p>He spent his time travelling around and camping in all sorts of places. I had never really gotten in to camping but I grew to enjoy these trips. We also did a lot of bush walking and photography. We remained friends for a number of years and he in fact came to my wedding with his new partner.&nbsp;</p><p>Perhaps the worst experience I had was with a man who told me his previous partner, some two years before, had committed suicide because she found she was suffering from some debilitating disease, which would eventually leave her wheelchair bound and in pain. He then said ‘but I never want to talk about it’.&nbsp;</p><p>I honoured this wish and never discussed it with him, but it turned out that he was far from over the experience and after a couple of months told me that he’d been ‘seeing her’ in his room when he woke at night alone. He broke up with me in a particularly brutal fashion which led me to suffer a great deal as I’d grown very fond of him.</p><p>It was after this that I knew I had to do something about myself as regards to the poor relationship choices I seemed to keep making. I started visiting a psychologist and he was pivotal in the next stage of my life. He said to me, ‘Becky, what is it that you really want in a relationship?’</p><p>I started babbling about finding ‘the love of my life’, someone to ‘take away my loneliness’ and on and on it went. He shook his head and said, ‘how can you find what it is you are looking for when you don’t even have a clear idea what it is?’</p><p>He sent me away to compile a list of all that I wanted in a man and told me to spend at least 10 minutes each night thinking about those attributes and who that person would be. A month after that, William walked into my life.</p><p>I say ‘walked’ but that wasn’t strictly true. He drove his new car to my house, parked outside the house next door and promptly backed up over the gutter scratching his brand new wheels. I was standing on my verandah, hidden by my garden, watching him, and I remember thinking, ‘minus five points for not being able to drive’.</p><p>Nevertheless, I watched him as he walked (oblivious to my gaze) down the footpath to my house. He was wearing green ‘slacks’ (he said they were jeans but in my opinion anything by Farrah is a slack, not a jean) and a pink shirt. I thought ‘oh no, he’s gay!’</p><p>But, when he walked up the stairs and we saw one another for the first time, I had this strange urge. As he leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek, I turned my head and kissed him full on the lips. I could see by the startled look in his eyes that this was not what he’d expected but he later told me that he found it very enticing and that it immediately piqued his interest. Fortunately, my concerns about his sexuality were unfounded.</p><p>Looking back, I’m surprised I invited him to my home without first meeting him. This is certainly not something I would recommend to anyone meeting someone for the first time. However, we had been emailing for a couple of weeks and had spoken on the phone at length for a few nights and I had felt a real connection with him. He was also in IT and knew the scripts to all the Monty Python sketches (I’m a big fan), so how could he be a threat? He also met two of the many ‘must haves’ on my wish list – he was six feet tall and a Virgo.&nbsp;</p><p>We dated a few times but each of us was wary after previous dating debacles, so it wasn’t until after my birthday at Christmas that we really started getting serious about each other. We both agreed to stop dating other people and he introduced me to his mother who was up for the holiday from Sydney.</p><p>I had the strangest feeling when I was with him of my blood fizzing in my veins. He was my Peter Pan. Full of fun, silly jokes, highly intelligent, well informed (he is an avid reader of the Economist) and very fit (ran marathons and rock climbed regularly). I couldn’t understand why he was still single! He is four years older than me and had also been married twice, but they had both ended badly. My sons approved of him and even my ex-husband who I kept in touch with regularly seemed to find him acceptable.</p><p>In April, of the following year, he proposed and despite having told my friends that if I ever looked like getting married again they were to take me outside and give me a good kicking, I said, ‘of course’.</p><p>We married in May 2007, having first made contact with each other online in November 2006. I can honestly say that true love is everything that the songs and the books say it is. I am sublimely happy and my only regret is that we didn’t meet 30 years ago, although as he says, ‘darling, I would probably have stuffed it up’.&nbsp;</p><p>We built a house together and now live on the Gold Coast. I’ve retired but he continues to works part time. In our spare time, we read, garden, bush walk, talk, talk, talk and laugh a hell of a lot. I think it’s a sign of a great relationship if you can put up 250 metres of fencing together without having a single argument, but having lots of giggles along the way!</p><p>To anyone out there at the age I am now (I’m 63 this year and he’s 67), who is alone and doesn’t want to be, I’d say, ‘Don’t be fearful! Go online and give it a go.’ You have complete control over the dating process. You don’t have to chat to anyone you don’t like the look or sound of, you can pick the location for the first date and you can remain as anonymous as you want to – you don’t even need to give your real name.</p><p>Unfortunately, sometimes you have to ‘kiss a lot of frogs’ before you find the one, but hang in there. There are a lot of people out there who are not what you want, but you only need to find one who is and your whole life can change into something wonderful. Mine did.”</p><p><em><strong>If you have a love story to share please get in touch at&nbsp;<em><a href="mailto:melody@oversixty.com.au">melody@oversixty.com.au</a> </em></strong><span><br></span></em></p>

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It took 630 contacts, 62 coffee dates and 5 relationships before I found my husband

<p><em><strong>Over60 community member Becky, 62, from the Gold Coast in Queensland, had to kiss a lot of frogs to find her perfect man – literally – through online dating. Here, she gives a funny, inspiring and detailed account of her happily ever after.</strong></em></p><p>“I am living proof of the power of optimism over experience. At 50, I had been married twice – the first was when I was young enough not to know better and the second, which was much later, was when I realised at the age of 34 that if I didn’t have children soon, it would be too late.</p><p>That marriage lasted 14 years and gave me two wonderful sons. The marriage fell apart as soon as they were old enough for it not to be a problem for them and now here I was, moving towards the dreaded 60 milestone (kicking and screaming I might add), financially secure (I had always been as lucky in my career choices as I had been unlucky in my personal relationships), but with a deep sense of loneliness and a feeling that I had to make a real effort before it was too late to find out if there was anything in this “true love” business.</p><p>It was around 2001 and I was working in the IT industry. This meant that I was not as uncomfortable looking online as I may have been if I had still been in some of the other careers which litter my past.</p><p>It was relatively early days for the online dating scene and I was reluctant to let anyone know what I was doing as it was still seen as somehow a bit “tacky”, although why it should be considered quite acceptable to meet some guy in a pub or at a conference rather than in a coffee shop after a series of emails and phone conversations, I can’t understand.</p><p>I started out with RSVP because it was the most high profile dating website at the time. I created the profile name of Becky and that name stuck with me even until today as this article shows. I was too afraid to post a public photo of myself but I had one available, which I could reveal with a password to any interested suitor if he seemed okay and I thought he was worth the chance.</p><p>At first, I started out with the complete truth with regards to my age. I was 51 at the time but I’ve always been a bit of a “hippy chick” and I’d aged well enough for most people to pick me as being several years younger, nevertheless, I went first of all with my true age.</p><p>However, this netted me a bunch of contacts from blokes who I just knew I would have nothing in common with. I guess I was looking for someone with the same ‘Peter Pan’ approach to life as myself. I wanted someone young at heart but not too different in age to myself – I definitely didn’t want a ‘toy boy’. So I knocked a couple of years off (something which my now husband has NEVER let me forget).</p><p>I was also not prepared for the sense of rejection I felt when I’d been chatting online to a bloke for a week or so, and he seemed nice. He asked to see my photo and I sent him the password only to have him immediately drop contact with me. That feeling wore off pretty quickly, I also changed the photo!</p><p>I don’t remember the first time I arranged to meet someone for coffee – I have no recollection of that person at all as I don’t think it went anywhere. This leads me to an observation I quickly made and which has been amply re-enforced over the years. The one business to make a killing out of the online dating market in my opinion is Coffee Club.</p><p>They are everywhere, you can usually park nearby and they are seen as safely anonymous. If my husband and I are ever at a Coffee Club, even today, we entertain ourselves by trying to pick out the people waiting to meet someone they have only, until that moment, ‘met’ online.</p><p>Over the following five years, when I dated online, I compiled the following set of results:</p><p>Contacts from interested dates (in RSVP these are known as ‘kisses’): 630</p><p>Contacts which led to coffee or something similar: 62</p><p>Contacts which led to dinner: 28</p><p>Contacts which led to second dates (dinner, movies, etc): 10</p><p>Relationships: 5</p><p>Marriages: 1&nbsp;</p><p>Over the years I have met and chatted to quite a few guys who have told me some awful (and sometimes quite funny) stories of their online dating experiences. I remember one chap saying he’d been chatting to a woman online for a couple of weeks and they had arranged to meet at (you guessed it) Coffee Club!</p><p>She apparently walked in, scanned the room, saw him and walked over, looked down at him and said, “Oh no, you won’t do at all” turned around and walked out. I liked him because he laughed when he told me even though he said he’d been shattered at the time.</p><p>One of my less memorable experiences was meeting a guy who told me he was in real estate, and that his marriage had broken down due to his constantly being at work. He then took a mobile call and spent the next 30 minutes trying to negotiate some real estate contract. I don’t know why I hung about but after 10 minutes I took out my book and started reading.</p><p>He didn’t really apologise when he finished but he told me that he was looking for a ‘girlfriend’ who could occupy his two children, who he had on alternate weekends while he went to work. I gathered he was after a babysitter with ‘benefits’. Needless to say, I wasn’t interested. The whole ‘date’ (and I struggle to call it that) felt like a job interview!</p><p>One of the other strange experiences I had was from a woman who wanted to meet because ‘I sounded like fun’ and she wanted to compare dating experiences. We did catch up a few times for a meal and a laugh but we fell afoul of each other when I started dating a bloke who (as she said) ‘she wasn’t finished with yet’.</p><p>I had an odd and rather unsettling experience with a man who claimed to be 54 (my age at the time) but who I doubt could have been any older than 34. I never really got a straight answer from him about anything and after a while it got too wearing and I dropped contact with him.</p><p>I had heard from other women who mentioned there were blokes out there who just like older women. Trouble was I didn’t feel like an ‘older woman’ and it was not a role I wanted to play – even for fun. Like I said, it was unsettling.&nbsp;</p><p>I ended up in a three-year on-again/off-again relationship with a man who suited my lifestyle. He was younger (by about five years) but had been retired on a disability pension due to depression.</p><p>He spent his time travelling around and camping in all sorts of places. I had never really gotten in to camping but I grew to enjoy these trips. We also did a lot of bush walking and photography. We remained friends for a number of years and he in fact came to my wedding with his new partner.&nbsp;</p><p>Perhaps the worst experience I had was with a man who told me his previous partner, some two years before, had committed suicide because she found she was suffering from some debilitating disease, which would eventually leave her wheelchair bound and in pain. He then said ‘but I never want to talk about it’.&nbsp;</p><p>I honoured this wish and never discussed it with him, but it turned out that he was far from over the experience and after a couple of months told me that he’d been ‘seeing her’ in his room when he woke at night alone. He broke up with me in a particularly brutal fashion which led me to suffer a great deal as I’d grown very fond of him.</p><p>It was after this that I knew I had to do something about myself as regards to the poor relationship choices I seemed to keep making. I started visiting a psychologist and he was pivotal in the next stage of my life. He said to me, ‘Becky, what is it that you really want in a relationship?’</p><p>I started babbling about finding ‘the love of my life’, someone to ‘take away my loneliness’ and on and on it went. He shook his head and said, ‘how can you find what it is you are looking for when you don’t even have a clear idea what it is?’</p><p>He sent me away to compile a list of all that I wanted in a man and told me to spend at least 10 minutes each night thinking about those attributes and who that person would be. A month after that, William walked into my life.</p><p>I say ‘walked’ but that wasn’t strictly true. He drove his new car to my house, parked outside the house next door and promptly backed up over the gutter scratching his brand new wheels. I was standing on my verandah, hidden by my garden, watching him, and I remember thinking, ‘minus five points for not being able to drive’.</p><p>Nevertheless, I watched him as he walked (oblivious to my gaze) down the footpath to my house. He was wearing green ‘slacks’ (he said they were jeans but in my opinion anything by Farrah is a slack, not a jean) and a pink shirt. I thought ‘oh no, he’s gay!’</p><p>But, when he walked up the stairs and we saw one another for the first time, I had this strange urge. As he leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek, I turned my head and kissed him full on the lips. I could see by the startled look in his eyes that this was not what he’d expected but he later told me that he found it very enticing and that it immediately piqued his interest. Fortunately, my concerns about his sexuality were unfounded.</p><p>Looking back, I’m surprised I invited him to my home without first meeting him. This is certainly not something I would recommend to anyone meeting someone for the first time. However, we had been emailing for a couple of weeks and had spoken on the phone at length for a few nights and I had felt a real connection with him. He was also in IT and knew the scripts to all the Monty Python sketches (I’m a big fan), so how could he be a threat? He also met two of the many ‘must haves’ on my wish list – he was six feet tall and a Virgo.&nbsp;</p><p>We dated a few times but each of us was wary after previous dating debacles, so it wasn’t until after my birthday at Christmas that we really started getting serious about each other. We both agreed to stop dating other people and he introduced me to his mother who was up for the holiday from Sydney.</p><p>I had the strangest feeling when I was with him of my blood fizzing in my veins. He was my Peter Pan. Full of fun, silly jokes, highly intelligent, well informed (he is an avid reader of the Economist) and very fit (ran marathons and rock climbed regularly). I couldn’t understand why he was still single! He is four years older than me and had also been married twice, but they had both ended badly. My sons approved of him and even my ex-husband who I kept in touch with regularly seemed to find him acceptable.</p><p>In April, of the following year, he proposed and despite having told my friends that if I ever looked like getting married again they were to take me outside and give me a good kicking, I said, ‘of course’.</p><p>We married in May 2007, having first made contact with each other online in November 2006. I can honestly say that true love is everything that the songs and the books say it is. I am sublimely happy and my only regret is that we didn’t meet 30 years ago, although as he says, ‘darling, I would probably have stuffed it up’.&nbsp;</p><p>We built a house together and now live on the Gold Coast. I’ve retired but he continues to works part time. In our spare time, we read, garden, bush walk, talk, talk, talk and laugh a hell of a lot. I think it’s a sign of a great relationship if you can put up 250 metres of fencing together without having a single argument, but having lots of giggles along the way!</p><p>To anyone out there at the age I am now (I’m 63 this year and he’s 67), who is alone and doesn’t want to be, I’d say, ‘Don’t be fearful! Go online and give it a go.’ You have complete control over the dating process. You don’t have to chat to anyone you don’t like the look or sound of, you can pick the location for the first date and you can remain as anonymous as you want to – you don’t even need to give your real name.</p><p>Unfortunately, sometimes you have to ‘kiss a lot of frogs’ before you find the one, but hang in there. There are a lot of people out there who are not what you want, but you only need to find one who is and your whole life can change into something wonderful. Mine did.”</p><p><em><strong>If you have a love story to share please get in touch at&nbsp;<em><a href="mailto:melody@oversixty.com.au">melody@oversixty.com.au</a> </em></strong><span><br></span></em></p>

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