Five years ago I accidentally created the Diamond Harbour Community Facebook Page. What I was really trying to achieve was to group my Facebook friends together so that we could post about local things without getting our wider Facebook friends involved. It started off with about a dozen people and now has over 1500 members. Things can get a bit heated at times and sometimes I wonder what sort of monster I’ve created. Having said that, it’s also a very rewarding experience and an interesting insight into human nature. This year we had the usual niggles and dramas so I decide to write a poem about our year in 2018 …
The year is nearly over and what a year it’s been
On the Diamond Harbour Facebook page, this is what we’ve seen
We’ve had chlorine in our water and those pesky buzzing drones
Sheep that go a-wandering, that no-one knows who owns
The Fairway came to visit and dredged up all our silt
Is development in Church Bay ever likely to get built?
Cats have been a feature, mainly pets who’ve run away
Which turns the talk to ferals and cats that go astray
But Ollie Gale is on the case and cats who want to shag
May find their final resting place inside his hessian bag
Chickens going missing and dogs with all their poo
And we’ve even had a sighting of a flock of cockatoo!
There were crashes on the road going over Dyers Pass
And lycra wearing cycle riders landing on their arse
Supposedly we have a say in Council’s traffic plan
But “safety” must be realised the cheapest way they can
Reductions to our limits, the double yellow lines?
Yellow paint, some signage, and a few more traffic fines
Then we had a crime on a fairly major scale
Someone in the Harbour had been nicking all our mail!
Soon the car was spotted and the perpetrators too
And everything reported to the local Boys* in Blue
The thief was apprehended thanks to local information
Which is what we do in DH – we’re about co-operation!
Weasley has reminded me that bedtime’s drawing near
And said to tell you all to have a wonderful New Year
So I will do as I am told and stop my waffling here …
HAPPY NEW YEAR DIAMOND HARBOUR!
*Boys refers to the Girls in Blue also but it didn’t fit the rhyme unfortunately!
Claire Jewitt 