This is my Happy Birthday Song and it isn't very long

Just when you thought I had gone away ......

It's Mrs Banks 3rd Birthday!!

Ohhh .... so you know those people who never quite finish anything? The finish line is in sight and we just wind down? I bet you are seeing Zontians at Club and District level doing it right now ... only a month to go ....

Aussie comedians Roy and H.G. would describe it as running a race and just in the last 10 metres the lead runner would get out the esky, big umbrella, fold up chair and sit back and watch everyone else cross the finish line.

Well - maybe, just maybe a bit of that maybe happening here on Mrs Banks ..... just maybe.

Only 2 months to go and we'll be together again in Orlando. Oh I have the excitement of grumpy cat ...

3 years I've been pumping out the posts - time to go for the big final push in our last few posts together.

Firstly, let's fire up the Google Analytics and see who's been doing what

Spaceship Earth

Readership Geographical Location

Still the case that the USA is just pipping ahead of our Aussie readers - but ..... no-one else?? O Canada ... why aren't you reading me?

But my Aussie readers win again in that they stay for double the time on the site (because of our super slow broadband speeds here??), they read 1/3 more pages, and 91% of them hit the site, stay and read. YAY!!

Post of the Year

After a 2 year stella run, my anti-Disney Princess rant only came in at No.3

This year, you were all about something else - Mary Poppins! Yes - this post about P.L. Travers and the writing of Mary Poppins from back in July 2011 was the most hit post. My only explanation is that I was probably ahead of my time and picking up collateral damage from the Saving Mr Banks movie.

And where is Zonta in all this? Post No. 6 - Announcing the dates of International Convention. The only Zonta post in the top 10.  My consolation is that people coming to look at my Disney posts are surreptitiously exposed to Zonta!


Finding Mrs. Banks

1/3 by organic searching. Well - Thank you Google - but they are looking for Disney Princesses or Capital Theatre Seating Maps. Oh well.

The red bit is referrals from other sites - and because there are no other Zonta blogs out there, all those referrals are from other Disney fan sites like: Mouse on the Mind, This Happy Place, the DISboards and Aussie Blog Chicks. This would be a direct boost from the new Kill, Refurb, Marry post series.

The green chunk is direct hits and google searches - people looking deliberately for me. Much like the the light blue which is Facebook - so a 1/3 actually DO want to be here!

so after all these stats and graphs, I think we deserve some birthday cake

Is it not magnificent?! (source: cake central)

It is my privilege to serve my readership. Some 16% of all hits are regular returns, and it is humbling to reflect that people give up some of their precious time to come to Mrs. Banks - and make sure I am still alive .... or not batshit crazy .... or whatever.

It's been like having a VERY long engagement. For 3 years we have been planning our trip to Orlando. It is now only a matter of weeks before Mrs. Banks reaches her ultimate purpose.

So what say you? Will you come join us at International Convention?

now - I have to go find the Ken Man and get that cup of tea....

Heats on your Feets in Orlando 2014

This is me

This week, in Australia, summer turned up the dial all the way to 11. And it will last another week!

It was 40 degrees C or 104F here in Canberra today - and forecast for tomorrow - and all weekend

Perfect weather to be in training for conditions in Orlando!!

I doubt it will be quite so scorching - maybe only 35C (95F) but I have the chance to work out my clothing (cotton voile / shorts / sun protection) and especially shoes.

You will need extra comfortable walking sandals. You will be WAY too hot in socks and sneakers.

Keen have been my footware of choice for many years.

They have a running shoe sole for comfort and a waterproof upper. For multiple rides on Kali River Rapids. That's one way to keep cool!

watch out for giant waterfall. (source: disneyride.com)

Many people also swear by Skechers Go Walk (although I have never tried them and don't know if they are waterproof)

better than Crocs

Whatever you choose for your feets, remember something that is not going to make you sweaty and stinky, not going to give you blisters, stays supportive after hours of walking on hot concrete, and can tolerate a bit of water from your day at Typhoon Lagoon water park.

Don't burn your feets on the scorcing concrete paths! (source: themainstreetmouse.com)

And it is not just the heat that makes the concrete painful for your tootsies - the pathways are covered in sand - making them abrasive! Hot and abrasive! sounds like me in the office - but I don't want that for my holiday.

Although of course, you could just join me in an air conditioned bar.

We covered some aspects of dealing with the heat back in winter - when I was wistfully remembering temperatures such as today's!  Go now and re-read that post to kick start your wardrobe planning for Convention.

p.s. go check out Sierra Trading Post for deep discounts on those Keen sandals and other tough footware.

Set free your Enviromentality

Urrgghhh .... here in Australia, we've just had a change of federal government, and with flip on a whole bunch of policies, including their environmental posture.

We're getting coal mines onshore from the Great Barrier Reef;  abolishing the carbon tax; and just today I read a story about a Council who were proposing building a highway through the middle of the a koala high traffic zone.

sigh

but our blog is not about bemoaning or activitism for Australia's environmental causes.

It is with much pleasure I remember that I can go on holiday and all around me eco - tourism activities are underway - in more ways than you'll ever be aware.

Disney, as the huge gorilla in the playground, recognise their responsibilities for social citizenship and leading the way. You'll be amazed at the lengths they go to be as enviro friendly as possible.

Physical America — the land itself — should be as dear to us all as our political heritage and our treasured way of life. Its preservation and the wise conservation of its renewable resources concerns every man, woman and child whose possession it is.
- Walt Disney

There are a vast array of green activities undertaken at WDW, some obvious, and some that you'll never know are going on.

Disney tell stories of annually:

• recycling enough paper to make a trail from Anaheim to WDW and back again, twice
• recycling 18 million plastic bottles - turning them into "red carpets"
• 200,000 + LED lights on Cinderella's castle, which are so energy efficient, each night only takes the same amount of electricity as 3 loads of washing in a dryer.

Uncle Walt had a soft spot for the big cats, and launched a slew of keen conservation programs.  I am not going to cover their conservation or community contribution activities today - that's a whole separate post.

This first video covers a whole range of activities - it is set in Disneyland, and all these things happen in WDW too.

I love how they use the french fry oil!! Although it still not enough to make me willing to eat Disney fries - blerghhhhh.

What is getting the big "thumbs up" from me is that our resort - Boardwalk Inn and Villas - has just had it's decade long "Green Lodgings" designation renewed from the Florida Dept of Environmental Protection.  You saw a lot of the ways they run the resorts in the videos - sorting your recycling, using recycled and biodegradable materials, water and electricity management.  (The Marriott also has this certification)

The ESPY's is a show produced by the Disney sports arm - ESPN, who have a HUGE Wide World of Sports at the WDW Resort (Where too much sport is barely enough!). Funnily enough, I've never visited....... hmmm ....I wonder why? Let's just go to the video - and see more eco stuffs at WDW

Don't scratch yourself on that recycled toilet paper.

Actually, in a slightly weird story, there are a slew of Disney fans who are unhappy about the new unbleached, uncoloured recycled napkins. Turns out they were collecting the old printed ones and are sad that not every single thing in their Disney holiday has been Disneyfied.

Say 'goodbye' to the precious printed napkin    (source: disneyblog)

But from where did the idea spring for all the scratchy recycled paper? From their expansive 5 year Paper Sourcing and Use Policy. This policy not just covers the paper they use, it also includes actions for supporting sustainable fibre sources, responsible forest management, moving from timber fibres to grass and bamboo, and minimising consumption of such products.


In 2012, Disney announced 50% achievement of its goal for zero net direct greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing electricity consumption by 10%. Just in October WDW was awarded Sustainable Florida's Best Practice Award for turning out the lights when they left the room.

Unlike the new Australian government about to dump our Carbon Tax, Disney have their own internal "carbon price" imposed on each of their divisions for their direct emissions footprint. The higher the footprint, the more that Division pays. They also support forestry carbon projects around the world, in deforested areas; and are corporate signatories to the Rio + 20 Conference Valuing Natural Capital

source: Valuing Natural Capital

And to close, my favourite eco-fact: Overhead winch motors used to raise and lower scenery for the Disney shows generate electricity during the lowering process which is fed back into the power grid. How cool is that?



So - I'm relaxed on a Disney holiday - knowing that I don't have to buy into the rampant consumerism, and have an enjoyable eco-holiday!

So have I convinced you yet? What do you do to support sustainability principles?

OMG! It's a Jolly Birthday with Mrs. Banks!

Mrs. Banks is now 2 years old!

 

 After all these posts, I need some chocolately english goodness. (source: sugarsnapnyc.com)

I am as surprised as anyone that I have persisted with this for 2 years now. Who'd have thought I'd  unload that much drivel, AND maintain the delusion to last this long?

Were you around for this?

Mrs. Banks 1st Birthday Celebration

or even perhaps this?

Mrs. Banks launches on to teh interwebs!

Actually no-one was around that far back.

Annual Wrap-up Time

Since Mrs. Banks 1st birthday, the world "hits" map has changed.

Australia has closed the gap with the USA! Over the past 12 months, only 300 clicks divided the two countries.

Oh - my dear Polish reader - where have you gone?

AND when Aussies do come to the site, they read more pages and stay longer!  Way to go, my Aussie friends!

Let's look at the top post for the year.

After last year's stella run, the anti-Disney Princess post came out the winner again this year!

I like to think that people enjoy a unique piece of content, drawing on the obvious problematic feminist theme facing Disney lovers.

But I am not that delusional.

It is because the post makes so many links to a wide range of content from others, that are then led to my post AND the photo of the Disney princesses AND the word "princess" in the title. It's an uphill battle, my fellow Zontians.

Whilst traffic is still predominately driven by 'Disney' and 'Orlando' theme keywords, this year a Zonta themed post made it into the top ten. The post announcing the International Convention dates is at No. 6, and the fixed page giving details for Zonta International is No. 13 and the Amelia Earhart Fellowship post came in at No.14 after having a mini-viral moment on Facebook!

I like to think that more Zontians are visiting Mrs. Banks, and perhaps more people are searching for Zonta online. But what, exactly, do I know about how people are finding Mrs. Banks?

This graph is a blogger's dream!

That big blue 38% wedge is organic google searches, which means Mrs. Banks comes up in keyword searches.

No. 2 at green 19% is where people are going straight to Mrs. Banks - either from their favourites, an RSS feed or just typing it straight into their URL address box. Which must mean that some of you come here deliberately - on purpose!

Encouraging is that Facebook referrals - which are predominately to other Zontians - is now No. 4 after not being countable last year.  Awww .... you guys!! You know, that just encourages me to keep producing this festival of the craptastic!

And guess what - there is still more than another year to go before we are all together in Orlando. Yes - another year of this random, braindumping, impulsive warblings to go before I even think about stopping!

Thanks to the international crowd whose "likes" spirit me to continue: Penny from Australia, Lily from Chile, Pam from Florida, Anna in Italy, Ana in Argentina, Rana from Pakistan. Along with everyone in the Facebook groups who are clicking along with me.

Big shout out to my own District 24 Board who have invited me to speak about my blogging experiences at the Area Meetings this year.

Mrs. Banks even scored a comment on the blog this year from ZI President Lynn McKenzie - that was a real highlight!

How did the Wellington sale go this year, Lynn?

My aim stays true:

• Integrate Zonta into the interwebs - have more people in more places find us; and
• Have you come join us in Orlando for the Zonta International Convention 2014 (bookmark the new website?)

To expand these aims, this year I have noticed more Zontians more involved in social media outlets, and I like to imagine that I have made a positive contribution.

Finally, without fail, The Ken Man deserves a huge thank you - the perfect cups of tea keep coming.

my 2013 brew - thank you man

 So - what about you?  Of what are you proud from the past 12 months?

In Finland, men can't be President.

My niece is about to sit the Higher School Certificate and finish school! Wow! Gee they grow up in the blink of an eye and she will be 18 this year. Over the years, it didn't matter what we were speaking about, she had no concept of an applied gender differential. 'Anyone can do anything' seemed to be the way she approached life.

But it hasn't always been this way for women in our world, and still isn't. Michelle Bachelet came to Canberra and reminded us how it isn't and in what ways.

So let's go back a step: Michelle Bachelet is the Executive Director of UN Women, and an Undersecretary of the UN. She has also been the first female President of Chile. She is truly global person, having lived several careers, has a mantle covered in awards - all whilst being a single mother of three children.

Michelle was meeting with the Australian Government and AusAID in preparation of attending the Pacific Island Forum with Julia Gillard and Hillary Clinton. Whilst in Canberra she snuck in a quick speech - probably the same one she presented at the Zonta International Convention.

"100 years ago only 3 countries allowed women the vote. Australia was one. Now in every country people continue to stand up for equality"

Michelle primarily spoke about two things:

1. How UN Women operates, and how it is different to the now defunct UNIFEM; and
2. Why UN Women is still needed, using lots and lots of stats and stories.

Basically UN Women was formed from UNIFEM and a couple of other parts of the UN to create a body which works quite differently. Instead of organising and supervising projects targeted for women and girls (the work of UNIFEM), UN Women uses a gender mainstreaming approach. It seeks to co-ordinate the other UN agencies to ensure all their policies and projects are gender neutral and do not generate perverse outcomes for women and girls. In this way, gender issues are no longer silo'd within one agency, but there is the opportunity to embed outcomes across the board.

This new agency has three priorities:

1. equal economic participation, including political participation and engagement of women in peace talks
2. more inclusive society
3. end violence against women and girls

Huge leap forward - as long as the other agencies agree to play along.

And so why is UN Women, and by extension Zonta, still needed?

According to Michelle, 1/3 of all women will experience domestic violence; women still do the vast majority of unpaid work; women on average earn less than men. Even though 125 countries now recognise domestic violence and have made it illegal, 600 million women live in countries where it is not recognised. And for those women neither do they have land rights, travel freedom, permission to sign a contract or borrow money, or receive an inheritance.

Even here in Australia where we have a wonderful life, still only earn roughly 85% of the average of men's salaries; only 1/3 of our pollies are female and women make up less than 10% of ASX top 200 company board members. How can balanced decisions be made in these circumstances? The Australian Government has a target of 40% female participation in government appointed boards, committees and panels - and we are not there yet.

In France they have a saying: "If a woman becomes involved in politics, she is changed. If lots of women become involved in politics, the policies are changed"

Michelle asks how can people make good decisions if participation is not 50/50? She points out that women's participation in peace talk negotiations has been less than 10% of the participants, and that peace talks, on average, fail within 5 years. And that research has shown that the most important success factor for a child is the education level of the mother. That when the economic status of women is advanced, women are more likely than men to put their money into their family and reduce hunger rates, reduce illness, increase education rates of children and this generates more jobs in the local economy.

So let's take a break and you can see this short video, filmed by AusAID, (with Canberra in the background). Michelle speaks of Australia's foreign aid program and support to UN Women, and some of the successes of the UN Women programs.


However, the picture is even worse in the South Pacific, where conditions for women are pretty much the worst in the world on every count. How bad? This AusAID poster summarises some stats:

So let's just check that again:

• 1/3 of Australia's women experience domestic violence, but in the South Pacific it is 2/3rds! And the UNHCR has pronouced that the Solomon Islands has a rate of domestic violence that is pretty much the highest in the world.
• In Australia, we average 1/3 of our pollies being female, the South Pacific is less than 5%, and in some countries it is 0%.

Michelle came to recognise Australia's foreign aid contribution to turning around this situation. Australia is one of only 2 countries in the world to be growing our foreign aid budget, to now $7.5 billion. And an increased chunk of it is heading towards the South Pacific women's projects, such as their "Women leading change" program, aimed at increasing the number of women as parliamentary representatives.

Take a look at this AusAID video:


So AusAID have increased their funding for South Pacific projects, expanding with projects for:

• Peace and security - helping more women to be involved in peace talks and anti-violence projects
• Women leading change - supporting women in the Solomons and PNG to enter parliament and step up their role as leaders in their communities

In closing her presentation, Michelle took a question from the floor about what inspires her to keep going:

"In Finland, A woman was head of state for over 12 years (Tarja Halonen), and she was visiting a kindergarten asking the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. She was getting the usual answers: a doctor, a teacher, a fireman. She asked one boy: "Would you like to be President one day?" and the boy replied "Men can't be president!".

Michelle closed by saying this story made her realise: in changing mindsets, role models help more than policy.

So gentle reader: who have been your role models for advancing the status of women & how have they changed your mindset and driven you to action?

The path more travelled

Orlando is not a holiday destination for those wanting to "get away from it all". Think of it more as a place where you can "get into it all!"

It is not really a place for "being one with nature", rather it's more like "being with everyone else".

Survey after survey will include Orlando as one the "most popular", "best", "top 10", "top 25", "most visited". If the estimates of over 50 million visitors annually are even half correct, that number will put Orlando among the 5 most visited cities in the world.

Disney certainly transformed Central Florida from mostly agricultural to tourism, and last Thursday, we saw just how much tourism is drawn by Disney with the release of AECOM Economics "2011 Theme Index: Global Attractions Attendance Report" .

Look at the lovely graphs after the jump: