#ShortBusFlashBlog: Hola! Gracias! Dios mios!

Hello everyone.

Those of you who read Halfway up Rysy Peak and do not know Spanish - the headline means "Hello! Thank you! [oh] My God!"

Doing a free write on Barcelona.

That city had a van run through a major throughfare - Los Ramblos. The big place was the Catalonian Road.

13 people were killed - some 80 people were injured. It was 50 confirmed when I learnt about it an hour ago.

For some months Barcelona was not exactly welcoming to tourists and rentiers. A section of its people failed to be the accessible and inclusive city they knew they could be.

So quite naturally - advantage was taken; terror may have been executed. Some people inspired by Daesh have "taken responsibility"

Twenty-five years ago the Olympics were held here in 1992. Amigos Para Siempre as Sarah Brightman and Jose Carreras would sing. That song is a reflection of the friendship we need to show.

And then of course I go and think: what if a #shortbus - as a #tourbus or a #caravan or #recreationalvehicle - could be used as an article, an instrument, of terror?

Of course many people consider already access vehicles and emergency vehicles as torture and terror or may have had experiences there which closely correspond. These may have been crimes against humanity.

In Europe over the past 18 months we have had to think a lot about this.

And how vulnerable people are able to travel in the ways which suit them and benefit locally, globally and regionally.

It is also the time when lots of people - English and Welsh in particular - are receiving the results for their examinations and assessments and planning for the new year.

Malala is going to Oxford, for instance. She is 20 years old and has studied in Birmingham for the past few years. You can find out more about her education in He Named Me Malala.

A few of my relatives have been on a George Orwell kick - Homage to Catalonia is always welcome. You can read about the socialism and anarchism which was big in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

Now I will tell you what I am reading or have read a few weeks ago.

It is a crime novel by Mark Brandi about Wimmera. It concerns two eleven-year-olds in this region of Western Victoria. The book is set in the 1980s - 1989 for choice. Chapter 5 pages 39 and 40 is what we will talk about. It's these paragraphs which are widows and orphans that you may or may not notice if you are reading fast. And I was reading slowly. It is published by a French conglomerate - Hachette - who used to publish Enid Blyton books and who merged with several England-based publishers.

[Willow Farm, incidentally. I am thinking of Penny, the youngest girl, and the way she would not wait for adults to say "We'll see". Of course I never wanted to be that adult and I wanted children to see what they see and I see and we will meet together].

Another crime novel I have read recently which involves an I/DD character is The good daughter by Karin Slaughter. That character is Kelly and she went into a school to shoot the daughter of her teacher and another teacher at her school.

There is a crescent moon in the sky. Waning or waxing?

I have just read the Criminal justice response - it took me two days this week to do this from Monday to Thursday. This is part of the Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. I will use it as I talk about Ben and Fab and what applied to them back then. Both as victims and as offenders.

Delay is very important. So many reactions percolate and don't last until about 7 to 20 years later. Especially in this field, especially around here. We will talk about Ronnie and we will explore the lakes and maybe even do a bin night at Horsham Rural City - the councils weren't amalgamated until 15 December 1994. I do know the town/council of 1989 - and some of the places around it like Stawell and Ararat which are mentioned in the book.

And when Fab goes to the city and works in a supermarket. Afrikia is a really awesome character who I wish to talk about in the #shortbusflashblog.

Mark Brandi worked for the Department of Justice in Victoria as a project officer and policy advisor. He with his colleagues would probably have a role especially if the policies and projects were made in the early 2010s - this Royal commission has been going on from 2012 to the present.

Chapter Nine in the Criminal Justice Response is about juvenile offenders. And the chapter after that is about Policy Responses.

Another Victoria Police connection: Susan McLean who is a cyber-safety expert was visiting Barcelona and Los Ramblos with her husband. She did say she was "ex-law enforcement" so I had little difficulty identifying her as that Susan McLean.

And again - Hola! Gracias! Dios mios! Amigos para siempre!