darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
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What the...why pay for expensive water. A crown would be good. Haven't had a VB for long time. We could probably start a thread on Aussie beers past and present.Carlton Zero it is
Aussies! Check in here!
- Thread starter warrior queen
- Start date
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
The fallout from the vote on Saturday continues. Now it comes out that LNP ministers were using their tax payer funding to pay for the No campaign to produce false information including cold calling people telling them the UN would take their home if they voted Yes. That small business would have to pay more tax to fund The Voice. That indigenous people will get more rights than they do. Most of these lies are over 30yrs old. The are the same lies put out by the LNP when Mabo was established. And now Mr Potato Head said he will now not support another referendum for constitutional recognise of indigenous people. He just keeps telling lies to the Australian public. As an ex-Qld cop he never had any intention of recognising indigenous people in Australian society. I wouldn't be surprised if the LNP abolishes the Minister for Indigenous Affairs when next in govt. After all since we now disregard indigenous people in Australian society why do they need their own minister because colonisation obviously had no detrimental impact on indigenous people, in fact it was good for them according to the LNP. Much like slavery benefited black people in the US, it gave them a trade and education after all. What total and utter bullshit.
Was watching the ABC wrap up of the referendum and the breakdown of which electorates voted Yes and No. My electorate voted Yes with close to 60% voting Yes. Apparently electorates with educated people voted Yes and electorates with uneducated people voted No. Not my words. This is how the ABC reported it. Even the rich white electorates in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane voted Yes. So smart people voted Yes, dumb people voted No. That sounds bad, probably just stick to the official wording as it might upset the racists. They might tell me to get back to my own country, which would be rather ironic as I'm probably more Anglo than they are. In fact may be their ancestors were hired as servants to my ancestors. My family name goes way back. Has it's own Latin motto and everything. The whole racism thing is also rather stupid given we all came from Africa. The human race came from Africa so we all have African DNA. The racists are actually attacking their own ancestors which is why their arguments make no sense.
Had to laugh when watching the TV yesterday at the medical centre. Saw a bunch of white people trying to explain why the outcome of the referendum was not based on racism. They must have sent a call out to all white people in the area. Like a call to prayer only the call was coming from two white dudes with banjos, not teeth, playing The Camptown Races...Blazzing Saddles reference..look it up or as the Greens say..."google it mate".
Now that the circus has moved on. Littlefella has come out of his bunker (a white bunker with a nuclear plant) and taken back control of the Nat's. Price will be moved to the side. The Nat's voters would never allow an indigenous person as their leader, let alone a women. Mundine got his arse handed to him by Professor Langdon who remained calmed whilst Mundine became abusive. He has burned so many bridges with indigenous people. Was telling that his main photo op was with white people. Price and Mundine will find themselves in no mans land. Not wanted by the white fella and shunned by the black fella. They have served their purpose. In time they will come to realise they have been used by the LNP to the detriment of their fellow indigenous people. Price continues to tell lies when she claimed that most indigenous people voted No when the facts are that close to 80% of indigenous people voted Yes. A majority of regional indigenous communities in the NT voted Yes. So she doesn't even speak for a majority of indigenous people in her own territory.
Started my round of medical stuff this month. More of that to come next week. Oct will be an expensive month with also two of the major utility bills due. The weather yesterday was rather bad in Melbourne town. It was cold, wet and very windy. The rain came down in short heavy bursts. The only positive is that the car got a wash. Was out in the front garden earlier today to trim back the bushes and trees in the driveway. Found a few broken branches from the wind yesterday which normally doesn't happen. Didn't take long to fill the garden bin so I'm done with garden stuff for the week.
The war in Israel and Gaza doesn't need any comment. It's a tragedy for everyone. None of which needed to happen and it's a long way from being over.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
The fallout from the vote on Saturday continues. Now it comes out that LNP ministers were using their tax payer funding to pay for the No campaign to produce false information including cold calling people telling them the UN would take their home if they voted Yes. That small business would have to pay more tax to fund The Voice. That indigenous people will get more rights than they do. Most of these lies are over 30yrs old. The are the same lies put out by the LNP when Mabo was established. And now Mr Potato Head said he will now not support another referendum for constitutional recognise of indigenous people. He just keeps telling lies to the Australian public. As an ex-Qld cop he never had any intention of recognising indigenous people in Australian society. I wouldn't be surprised if the LNP abolishes the Minister for Indigenous Affairs when next in govt. After all since we now disregard indigenous people in Australian society why do they need their own minister because colonisation obviously had no detrimental impact on indigenous people, in fact it was good for them according to the LNP. Much like slavery benefited black people in the US, it gave them a trade and education after all. What total and utter bullshit.
Was watching the ABC wrap up of the referendum and the breakdown of which electorates voted Yes and No. My electorate voted Yes with close to 60% voting Yes. Apparently electorates with educated people voted Yes and electorates with uneducated people voted No. Not my words. This is how the ABC reported it. Even the rich white electorates in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane voted Yes. So smart people voted Yes, dumb people voted No. That sounds bad, probably just stick to the official wording as it might upset the racists. They might tell me to get back to my own country, which would be rather ironic as I'm probably more Anglo than they are. In fact may be their ancestors were hired as servants to my ancestors. My family name goes way back. Has it's own Latin motto and everything. The whole racism thing is also rather stupid given we all came from Africa. The human race came from Africa so we all have African DNA. The racists are actually attacking their own ancestors which is why their arguments make no sense.
Had to laugh when watching the TV yesterday at the medical centre. Saw a bunch of white people trying to explain why the outcome of the referendum was not based on racism. They must have sent a call out to all white people in the area. Like a call to prayer only the call was coming from two white dudes with banjos, not teeth, playing The Camptown Races...Blazzing Saddles reference..look it up or as the Greens say..."google it mate".
Now that the circus has moved on. Littlefella has come out of his bunker (a white bunker with a nuclear plant) and taken back control of the Nat's. Price will be moved to the side. The Nat's voters would never allow an indigenous person as their leader, let alone a women. Mundine got his arse handed to him by Professor Langdon who remained calmed whilst Mundine became abusive. He has burned so many bridges with indigenous people. Was telling that his main photo op was with white people. Price and Mundine will find themselves in no mans land. Not wanted by the white fella and shunned by the black fella. They have served their purpose. In time they will come to realise they have been used by the LNP to the detriment of their fellow indigenous people. Price continues to tell lies when she claimed that most indigenous people voted No when the facts are that close to 80% of indigenous people voted Yes. A majority of regional indigenous communities in the NT voted Yes. So she doesn't even speak for a majority of indigenous people in her own territory.
Started my round of medical stuff this month. More of that to come next week. Oct will be an expensive month with also two of the major utility bills due. The weather yesterday was rather bad in Melbourne town. It was cold, wet and very windy. The rain came down in short heavy bursts. The only positive is that the car got a wash. Was out in the front garden earlier today to trim back the bushes and trees in the driveway. Found a few broken branches from the wind yesterday which normally doesn't happen. Didn't take long to fill the garden bin so I'm done with garden stuff for the week.
The war in Israel and Gaza doesn't need any comment. It's a tragedy for everyone. None of which needed to happen and it's a long way from being over.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
Saw that Christmas treats were out two weeks ago and there was a higher volume out last week. Haven't seen the butter cookies yet. Might be there this week when I do the grocery shopping. Yesterday was a dry day in Melbourne town and today was supposed to be the same but had some heavy rain this morning and supposed to be warming up to the mid 20's before more rain tomorrow and a cool down. So we are having it all this week. Cool days, some warm stuff then some rain. Something for everyone.
So the LNP in Qld has now backed away from even supporting treaty and truth telling. Another fallout from the negative outcome of the referendum. We can now expect all LNP parties in all states to follow the LNP game plan of denying indigenous people any form of rights. And sure at shit they don't want truth telling as it will become uncomfortable for those descendants of white settlers and police who committed those crimes. Already there are indigenous people in some regional areas that are scared of reprisals from white people in those regional towns, so they don't even raise it. The open letter from indigenous people shows the actual sentiment in indigenous communities who are scared to say those things in public. It's like they are being enslaved all over again. Yes we did have slavery in this country, we just choose to ignore it happened. If those people who voted No feel annoyed or uncomfortable about the content in that letter, well good. That your own conscience telling you fucked up. Ignorance of the issue doesn't absolve you of your actions. For those 6 million Aussies who voted Yes, it is not surprising there is anger in that letter. Steve Price only showed his white privilege and total ignorance in his comments. This is the guy who thought he should be given special privilege to see his mum during lock down when nobody else was allowed to travel. Again white privilege on show.
Was watching the cricket in the early hours of Sunday when I felt a very slight tremor. Only lasted probably a few seconds in total. The earthquake was in the west of Vic which is different to the other earthquake we had during the lock down which was in the east of Vic. This latest one was near Colac then an after shock was near Apollo Bay today. People may not be familiar with Colac outside of Vic. It's north of the Great Ocean Road. Most tourists don't drive thru it but is used mainly by people who want to get west quickly. The Great Ocean Road is mainly the tourist route. Apollo Bay will be more familiar with tourists. Used to be mainly a holiday home place and a weekend get away for people from Melbourne. Now it's a very expensive place to live. Just as expensive as some inner city Melbourne suburbs. Didn't feel the latest tremor today. We certainly have had a lot of earthquake activity in Vic over the last 2 yrs. Something is going on, having so many tremors in such a short time. Normally we get about 100 per year but we usually don't feel them and usually decades between the ones we do feel. May be we are building up a large one in Vic somewhere.
EV drivers had a win in court but all the Vic govt will do is increase the rego for EV's, but so they can't be challenged in court again, they will just increase the rego for everyone. More than 50% of the rego goes to the TAC now. Got the latest house insurance last week. The GST and stamp duty takes up over $400 of that. So the govt is making lots of money from incidental costs to all of us.
The main part of the Spring Racing Carnival in Melbourne has kicked off with the Caulfield Cup on Saturday. The winner will start with the heaviest weight for the Melbourne Cup which always run on the first Tues in Nov. For the next few weekends lots of people will be dressing up to go to the races. All the major races in Melbourne are happening in these next few weeks. Generates lots of tourist money as well.
The house across the road continues to be demolished from the inside out. The skip bins keep coming and lots of beep beep beep happening as well. The house looks a bit like a whale carcass being eaten from the inside out. I have not doubt my place will follow the same fate when I sell up. The street will be unrecognizable when all the old timers die off or leave. Only a handful of houses left that were here when I moved in nearly 23yrs ago.
Why the fuck is break dancing in the Olympics? They are several decades too late. There are proper athletes who must be wandering what is going on. They train since they were kids and have to share the stage with break dancers. Is the Olympics that desperate? Yet they still don't let netball into the Olympics. Obviously someone's relative of an Olympic committee member wants to do break dancing so their mum has put pressure on a family member who sits on the Olympic committee. That's usually how this type of crap happens. It's about who you know and who you can bribe and who can afford a more expensive hooker.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you. Of to my last medical thing for the month at the end of the week.
Saw that Christmas treats were out two weeks ago and there was a higher volume out last week. Haven't seen the butter cookies yet. Might be there this week when I do the grocery shopping. Yesterday was a dry day in Melbourne town and today was supposed to be the same but had some heavy rain this morning and supposed to be warming up to the mid 20's before more rain tomorrow and a cool down. So we are having it all this week. Cool days, some warm stuff then some rain. Something for everyone.
So the LNP in Qld has now backed away from even supporting treaty and truth telling. Another fallout from the negative outcome of the referendum. We can now expect all LNP parties in all states to follow the LNP game plan of denying indigenous people any form of rights. And sure at shit they don't want truth telling as it will become uncomfortable for those descendants of white settlers and police who committed those crimes. Already there are indigenous people in some regional areas that are scared of reprisals from white people in those regional towns, so they don't even raise it. The open letter from indigenous people shows the actual sentiment in indigenous communities who are scared to say those things in public. It's like they are being enslaved all over again. Yes we did have slavery in this country, we just choose to ignore it happened. If those people who voted No feel annoyed or uncomfortable about the content in that letter, well good. That your own conscience telling you fucked up. Ignorance of the issue doesn't absolve you of your actions. For those 6 million Aussies who voted Yes, it is not surprising there is anger in that letter. Steve Price only showed his white privilege and total ignorance in his comments. This is the guy who thought he should be given special privilege to see his mum during lock down when nobody else was allowed to travel. Again white privilege on show.
Was watching the cricket in the early hours of Sunday when I felt a very slight tremor. Only lasted probably a few seconds in total. The earthquake was in the west of Vic which is different to the other earthquake we had during the lock down which was in the east of Vic. This latest one was near Colac then an after shock was near Apollo Bay today. People may not be familiar with Colac outside of Vic. It's north of the Great Ocean Road. Most tourists don't drive thru it but is used mainly by people who want to get west quickly. The Great Ocean Road is mainly the tourist route. Apollo Bay will be more familiar with tourists. Used to be mainly a holiday home place and a weekend get away for people from Melbourne. Now it's a very expensive place to live. Just as expensive as some inner city Melbourne suburbs. Didn't feel the latest tremor today. We certainly have had a lot of earthquake activity in Vic over the last 2 yrs. Something is going on, having so many tremors in such a short time. Normally we get about 100 per year but we usually don't feel them and usually decades between the ones we do feel. May be we are building up a large one in Vic somewhere.
EV drivers had a win in court but all the Vic govt will do is increase the rego for EV's, but so they can't be challenged in court again, they will just increase the rego for everyone. More than 50% of the rego goes to the TAC now. Got the latest house insurance last week. The GST and stamp duty takes up over $400 of that. So the govt is making lots of money from incidental costs to all of us.
The main part of the Spring Racing Carnival in Melbourne has kicked off with the Caulfield Cup on Saturday. The winner will start with the heaviest weight for the Melbourne Cup which always run on the first Tues in Nov. For the next few weekends lots of people will be dressing up to go to the races. All the major races in Melbourne are happening in these next few weeks. Generates lots of tourist money as well.
The house across the road continues to be demolished from the inside out. The skip bins keep coming and lots of beep beep beep happening as well. The house looks a bit like a whale carcass being eaten from the inside out. I have not doubt my place will follow the same fate when I sell up. The street will be unrecognizable when all the old timers die off or leave. Only a handful of houses left that were here when I moved in nearly 23yrs ago.
Why the fuck is break dancing in the Olympics? They are several decades too late. There are proper athletes who must be wandering what is going on. They train since they were kids and have to share the stage with break dancers. Is the Olympics that desperate? Yet they still don't let netball into the Olympics. Obviously someone's relative of an Olympic committee member wants to do break dancing so their mum has put pressure on a family member who sits on the Olympic committee. That's usually how this type of crap happens. It's about who you know and who you can bribe and who can afford a more expensive hooker.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you. Of to my last medical thing for the month at the end of the week.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
Had an interesting Saturday evening with the power going off and on and the lights flickering. No it wasn't ghosts, turns out it was a faulty connection on the street pole. So there was no need to call Ghost Busters. The crew that came out later that night picked up the issue right away. Turns out there are old connectors on all these power poles which they seem to only replace once they fail. They don't do any preventive maintenance. By waiting till these old connectors fail, the customer has to wear the impact even though we pay lots of money to power companies for supply of power. In fact most of the bill is for supply, not the usage so you would expect that these power companies do maintenance otherwise why are we paying the supply charge?
Lots of sport on the TV. The Aussies are doing well in the cricket world cup after their first two loses. They almost got it wrong against NZ. The pomes are cooked. They might as well pack up and head home. The Matildas were just too good for a Philippines side that is mainly made up of Americans since there isn't a soccer structure in the Philippines. Not sure how that works as in who pays for the Philippines team? I guess we don't care so long as the Matildas win.
The LNP as gone quiet on their support for Qatar since the Israeli war started. They look a bit foolish now given that Qatar is hosting the leaders of Hamas who have been sipping on tea while their fellow Palestinians are dying for a cause they didn't sign up for. The decision to stop Qatar expanding their flights into east coast, in hindsight was a positive move to send a message to Qatar about it's cosy relationship with a terrorist group. the LNP are taking the term 'opposition' literally. They always take the opposite stance to Labor regardless of the issue. Just keep saying No and divide society. Qatar could expel these terrorist leaders to help bring the war to an easier end. Whilst Hamas is determined to fight and keep hostages as a bargaining tool, Netanyahu will not stop. The previous prisoner swaps with Hamas freed the guy who planned the atrocities committed by Hamas last month, so why would Israel negotiate with a prisoner swap.
Did the mowing in the front yard and nature strip on Monday even though rain was predicted. Since the rain held off I then decided to bend the back and do some more clean up in the backyard which my back did not appreciate. So actually I could blame the weather for my back pain. If the rain came when predicted I wouldn't of injured my back. At least I can walk but takes a little while to walk without pain. Can't sit for too long in one spot. So now out of action for the rest of the week to do anything too physical. So video games it is. Make it so.
Went out yesterday to get a new power board after the power issues on Saturday. Discovered the surge protector on one of the power boards stop working. Still works as a power board though so it will now be a backup. No need to throw it out. Most people would just junk it since the power surge doesn't work. And of course got some of the wet stuff for the short time I was out. It was more like drizzle. Just enough to get the windscreen wipers working. The weather has been up and down. Back down to cooler temps today with warmer temps on the way for the start of next week. Nothing like the very warm temps seen in NSW and Qld these past few days. Vic fire crews are in Qld to help with the fires. We will get our turn as Summer gets closer. High fire season for Vic is usually in Jan and Feb.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
Had an interesting Saturday evening with the power going off and on and the lights flickering. No it wasn't ghosts, turns out it was a faulty connection on the street pole. So there was no need to call Ghost Busters. The crew that came out later that night picked up the issue right away. Turns out there are old connectors on all these power poles which they seem to only replace once they fail. They don't do any preventive maintenance. By waiting till these old connectors fail, the customer has to wear the impact even though we pay lots of money to power companies for supply of power. In fact most of the bill is for supply, not the usage so you would expect that these power companies do maintenance otherwise why are we paying the supply charge?
Lots of sport on the TV. The Aussies are doing well in the cricket world cup after their first two loses. They almost got it wrong against NZ. The pomes are cooked. They might as well pack up and head home. The Matildas were just too good for a Philippines side that is mainly made up of Americans since there isn't a soccer structure in the Philippines. Not sure how that works as in who pays for the Philippines team? I guess we don't care so long as the Matildas win.
The LNP as gone quiet on their support for Qatar since the Israeli war started. They look a bit foolish now given that Qatar is hosting the leaders of Hamas who have been sipping on tea while their fellow Palestinians are dying for a cause they didn't sign up for. The decision to stop Qatar expanding their flights into east coast, in hindsight was a positive move to send a message to Qatar about it's cosy relationship with a terrorist group. the LNP are taking the term 'opposition' literally. They always take the opposite stance to Labor regardless of the issue. Just keep saying No and divide society. Qatar could expel these terrorist leaders to help bring the war to an easier end. Whilst Hamas is determined to fight and keep hostages as a bargaining tool, Netanyahu will not stop. The previous prisoner swaps with Hamas freed the guy who planned the atrocities committed by Hamas last month, so why would Israel negotiate with a prisoner swap.
Did the mowing in the front yard and nature strip on Monday even though rain was predicted. Since the rain held off I then decided to bend the back and do some more clean up in the backyard which my back did not appreciate. So actually I could blame the weather for my back pain. If the rain came when predicted I wouldn't of injured my back. At least I can walk but takes a little while to walk without pain. Can't sit for too long in one spot. So now out of action for the rest of the week to do anything too physical. So video games it is. Make it so.
Went out yesterday to get a new power board after the power issues on Saturday. Discovered the surge protector on one of the power boards stop working. Still works as a power board though so it will now be a backup. No need to throw it out. Most people would just junk it since the power surge doesn't work. And of course got some of the wet stuff for the short time I was out. It was more like drizzle. Just enough to get the windscreen wipers working. The weather has been up and down. Back down to cooler temps today with warmer temps on the way for the start of next week. Nothing like the very warm temps seen in NSW and Qld these past few days. Vic fire crews are in Qld to help with the fires. We will get our turn as Summer gets closer. High fire season for Vic is usually in Jan and Feb.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Morning all,
Well like most people I gave up on the Aussies winning their cricket match against Afghanistan and went to bed plus I was feeling tired after a warm day sweating it out doing work around the house. But I guess this world cup we shouldn't give up on Maxwell. He is living up to his reputation in this tournament. Not sure how many records he broke but it will take a while till anyone breaks them. The Aussies have now confirmed their place in the finals. The top three are now set with the last spot up for grabs between NZ, Afghanistan and Pakistan. NZ and Pakistan have the easier matches plus their run rates are better.
Was a warmish night and a bit too warm to sleep in. Had to break out the fan last night after a rather warm day with typical Summer type temps even though we are still in Spring. Spent Melbourne Cup day yesterday cleaning out a few cupboards to see what I can throw out. Found some stuff at the back of the cupboards that I forgot I had. Mostly threw out lots of stuff for the recycle bin which is now full. More of that clean out to do to see what else I can get rid off but might wait till the temps cool off a bit. Spent Monday, another warm day, dismantling the last of the infrastructure in the backyard getting ready for a rubbish day. Backyard looks very clear now and much more open and shows how big it is. Much bigger than you get on a modern home property.
Expecting more heat today and more of the wet stuff. No rain for the Melbourne Cup race itself which came later in the evening with thunderstorms but it didn't last long. Also it wasn't wide spread in Melbourne either. Depended on which suburb you live in. Decided to get out early to do the shopping shortly before the next round of rain and thunderstorms come my way.
Woke up to a big news day with Maxwell's amazing batting performance to Optus failing and causing all sorts of chaos to the discussion about the RBA raising the cash rate again. There are no excuses for digital technology to fail so often given it is lorded as the bees knees and if you use cash you're a loser. Last time this happened I was able to pay for stuff because I was of the few people who had cash to pay for stuff. Frankly it's not acceptable for digital systems to fail since so much of our daily lives now rely on these fragile digital networks. Total chaos on the trains this morning in Melbourne due to the Optus failure. This outage is nation wide. Not good enough. They don't have back up systems and they don't invest in robust digital processes nor the software used on these digital networks. Something as simple as one corrupt file can bring down an entire system. Not sure now how the Optus outage will impact my day out paying for stuff.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
Well like most people I gave up on the Aussies winning their cricket match against Afghanistan and went to bed plus I was feeling tired after a warm day sweating it out doing work around the house. But I guess this world cup we shouldn't give up on Maxwell. He is living up to his reputation in this tournament. Not sure how many records he broke but it will take a while till anyone breaks them. The Aussies have now confirmed their place in the finals. The top three are now set with the last spot up for grabs between NZ, Afghanistan and Pakistan. NZ and Pakistan have the easier matches plus their run rates are better.
Was a warmish night and a bit too warm to sleep in. Had to break out the fan last night after a rather warm day with typical Summer type temps even though we are still in Spring. Spent Melbourne Cup day yesterday cleaning out a few cupboards to see what I can throw out. Found some stuff at the back of the cupboards that I forgot I had. Mostly threw out lots of stuff for the recycle bin which is now full. More of that clean out to do to see what else I can get rid off but might wait till the temps cool off a bit. Spent Monday, another warm day, dismantling the last of the infrastructure in the backyard getting ready for a rubbish day. Backyard looks very clear now and much more open and shows how big it is. Much bigger than you get on a modern home property.
Expecting more heat today and more of the wet stuff. No rain for the Melbourne Cup race itself which came later in the evening with thunderstorms but it didn't last long. Also it wasn't wide spread in Melbourne either. Depended on which suburb you live in. Decided to get out early to do the shopping shortly before the next round of rain and thunderstorms come my way.
Woke up to a big news day with Maxwell's amazing batting performance to Optus failing and causing all sorts of chaos to the discussion about the RBA raising the cash rate again. There are no excuses for digital technology to fail so often given it is lorded as the bees knees and if you use cash you're a loser. Last time this happened I was able to pay for stuff because I was of the few people who had cash to pay for stuff. Frankly it's not acceptable for digital systems to fail since so much of our daily lives now rely on these fragile digital networks. Total chaos on the trains this morning in Melbourne due to the Optus failure. This outage is nation wide. Not good enough. They don't have back up systems and they don't invest in robust digital processes nor the software used on these digital networks. Something as simple as one corrupt file can bring down an entire system. Not sure now how the Optus outage will impact my day out paying for stuff.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
sub_aussie_male
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2016
- Posts
- 138
afternoon everyone, long time reader dont remember if i've ever posted.
darkelf9, i have to hand it to you, a great summary of the recent news - really do appreciate your efforts.
Gotta love losing a whole telco to an undisclosed error, my personal bet is some sort of hack or something to that effect - or the work experiance kid turned off the wrong computer.
Life here in small town NSW is pretty stable, aside from cost of living and RBA making assine decisions about inflation - knowning the last 6 months of increases haven't rippled through the economey enough to of had an impact yet. I guess we just have to keep bending over and clentching our teeth for now.
darkelf9, i have to hand it to you, a great summary of the recent news - really do appreciate your efforts.
Gotta love losing a whole telco to an undisclosed error, my personal bet is some sort of hack or something to that effect - or the work experiance kid turned off the wrong computer.
Life here in small town NSW is pretty stable, aside from cost of living and RBA making assine decisions about inflation - knowning the last 6 months of increases haven't rippled through the economey enough to of had an impact yet. I guess we just have to keep bending over and clentching our teeth for now.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Welcome to the thread. Just dive in. No crocs apart from the ones on the feet of those who can't decide to wear shoes or sandals.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Morning all,
Had our little taste of Summer at the end of last week with a 32C day. Had to use the outside blind to keep the kitchen cool, but the cold water tap turned into the hot water tap. Even the fan got a run later in the day. The cool change arrived on the Saturday but no rain so had to open the doors to cool in the inside of house down. The tea roses are now in full bloom as are the bush roses which means Summer isn't at far away. The last splash of colour in the garden before the real heat arrives and kills of the grass in the front yard. Will see how the bush fires impact Vic this Summer. Having a wet day timetable in Melbourne today which was not forecast. Was hoping to get in the backyard today, but that's now not happening so an in day.
Looks like the noisy neighbours next door have moved out. How do I know, well he yelling has stopped for over a week now since just before Melbourne Cup Day. Thought they had gone on holidays. At least now I won't find kids toys in the backyard that have been thrown over the fence. Will see what the next lot of neighbours are like. Thought the owner has sold the unit, but turns out it was rented out. One of those non-advertised rentals.
Did the last of the clean out from inside the house and got rid of more stuff most of which is old tech and some more items for the recycle bin. Not much left now so it's back to the garage for a final clean up. The possum will not be happy when I have dismantle it's little home in the loft garage and get rid of stuff up there. Also fell of the short ladder but didn't do much damage apart from a bump on the shoulder blade. Missed the bottom rung. Still hurts a bit if I sleep on my right side. Luckily I fell mainly on my arse and missed all the nearby furniture in the room apart from one of the printers but it was fine. I got up and just kept going. Ladders are the main danger for blokes in their 60's. I rarely use ladders these days. Used to get up on the roof but rarely do that anymore.
Taking a short trip down the coast soon to look at houses and also take a short break. Was last down there in 2019. Lots has happened since then besides COVID. Seen that there is not much on offer in the rental market there either. The price of houses has gone gangbusters since COVID hit. The basic three bedroom house has gone up by $250K since 2019. A number of newer properties have been built as well with prices to rival prices in some suburbs in Melbourne. Will be interesting to see what has changed. It is a big tourist town so there are lots of shops and facilities. Looking forward to get some sea air and some peace with nothing but the sound of the ocean.
The protest by the Palestinian rent a crowd in Caulfield was meant to provoke a reaction. For those not familiar with Melbourne, Caulfield in an expensive eastern suburb with old money. The Jewish community is a large part of Caulfield going back many generations. I used to have Jewish neighbours when we first came to Melbourne, that was over 55yrs ago and everything was fine. We as migrants never had any issues there and were fully accepted. A majority of those protesters don't live in Caulfield so they were "bused" in by the organizers who knew exactly what would happen by protesting in front of a Jewish temple. This didn't happen by accident. It was meant to provoke a reaction and as was shown on the TV it ended in violence by those who came there to cause trouble. The apology by the organizers is rather hollow. We also have had a Muslim imam call for violence against Jews. Everyone needs to calm the fuck down. What is happening in Israel and Gaza doesn't have any physical impact on Australia. There has also been assaults in Caulfield on Jewish people by those who support the Palestinian protests and a war memorial was vandalized, again by those supporting Palestine. Protesting on armistices day was again another provocation. All these acts of aggression by those supporting the Palestinian cause will end up back firing. They will lose the PR war as nobody will accept violence as justification for a cause. You can have a discussion and be passionate about a cause without it always ending in violence.
Hamas is winning the social media war and the PR on the news. The Vietnam war was the first war broadcast on TV which essentially ended the US involvement in Vietnam. Where the actual truth is in the Israel & Gaza war we don't really know. Hamas controls what is shown on social media and Israel controls what their military can show. What we don't need is the war being fought on social media. As we saw with the PR stunt by Hamas in the so called bombing of that hospital which turned out to be an own goal by Hamas which killed their own people and which they incorrectly blamed on Israel. It was all lies. So we can't totally trust everything we are seeing on the TV and social media about this war. In time the truth will come out but not now. A cease fire means something different in military terms compared to what civilians thinks it means. The arm chair experts need give the mouth a rest. Anyone in Gaza that wants to leave should be allowed to leave and the UN needs to do their job and get that sorted. Otherwise what is the point of them. It shouldn't be up to Qatar to decide what happens in Gaza. The people who stopped that container ship from docking because it is linked to an Israeli company would also be bitching if Qatar airlines was stopped from flying into Australia because they are supporting the leaders of Hamas. Nobody is boycotting Qatar, so again those supporting Palestine and doing crazy shit need to consider the impacts of their actions. The govt will only be pushed so far. Lets not forget the barbaric act that kicked all this off which was being cheered on by those supporting the Palestinian cause as stated by one of their leaders.
The Aussies did well again in the cricket world cup and the final four are now set. Now the hard work begins. They will have to beat South Africa and India to win the cup, both of which they have done before and they have the team to do it. They just have to get their batting together and stop losing cheap wickets. Should be a good finals to watch.
Prawns were on specials last week so decided to make a prawn curry. Normally have it as a birthday lunch. Most of the time spent is in cleaning the prawns. Not a fan of cooking prawns whole and eating the shit tract. It won't kill you but not my thing. I always refuse the cooked prawns at any Christmas lunch unless they have been cleaned first. Will have to check with the bank to see how the new interest rate hike means for the accounts.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
Had our little taste of Summer at the end of last week with a 32C day. Had to use the outside blind to keep the kitchen cool, but the cold water tap turned into the hot water tap. Even the fan got a run later in the day. The cool change arrived on the Saturday but no rain so had to open the doors to cool in the inside of house down. The tea roses are now in full bloom as are the bush roses which means Summer isn't at far away. The last splash of colour in the garden before the real heat arrives and kills of the grass in the front yard. Will see how the bush fires impact Vic this Summer. Having a wet day timetable in Melbourne today which was not forecast. Was hoping to get in the backyard today, but that's now not happening so an in day.
Looks like the noisy neighbours next door have moved out. How do I know, well he yelling has stopped for over a week now since just before Melbourne Cup Day. Thought they had gone on holidays. At least now I won't find kids toys in the backyard that have been thrown over the fence. Will see what the next lot of neighbours are like. Thought the owner has sold the unit, but turns out it was rented out. One of those non-advertised rentals.
Did the last of the clean out from inside the house and got rid of more stuff most of which is old tech and some more items for the recycle bin. Not much left now so it's back to the garage for a final clean up. The possum will not be happy when I have dismantle it's little home in the loft garage and get rid of stuff up there. Also fell of the short ladder but didn't do much damage apart from a bump on the shoulder blade. Missed the bottom rung. Still hurts a bit if I sleep on my right side. Luckily I fell mainly on my arse and missed all the nearby furniture in the room apart from one of the printers but it was fine. I got up and just kept going. Ladders are the main danger for blokes in their 60's. I rarely use ladders these days. Used to get up on the roof but rarely do that anymore.
Taking a short trip down the coast soon to look at houses and also take a short break. Was last down there in 2019. Lots has happened since then besides COVID. Seen that there is not much on offer in the rental market there either. The price of houses has gone gangbusters since COVID hit. The basic three bedroom house has gone up by $250K since 2019. A number of newer properties have been built as well with prices to rival prices in some suburbs in Melbourne. Will be interesting to see what has changed. It is a big tourist town so there are lots of shops and facilities. Looking forward to get some sea air and some peace with nothing but the sound of the ocean.
The protest by the Palestinian rent a crowd in Caulfield was meant to provoke a reaction. For those not familiar with Melbourne, Caulfield in an expensive eastern suburb with old money. The Jewish community is a large part of Caulfield going back many generations. I used to have Jewish neighbours when we first came to Melbourne, that was over 55yrs ago and everything was fine. We as migrants never had any issues there and were fully accepted. A majority of those protesters don't live in Caulfield so they were "bused" in by the organizers who knew exactly what would happen by protesting in front of a Jewish temple. This didn't happen by accident. It was meant to provoke a reaction and as was shown on the TV it ended in violence by those who came there to cause trouble. The apology by the organizers is rather hollow. We also have had a Muslim imam call for violence against Jews. Everyone needs to calm the fuck down. What is happening in Israel and Gaza doesn't have any physical impact on Australia. There has also been assaults in Caulfield on Jewish people by those who support the Palestinian protests and a war memorial was vandalized, again by those supporting Palestine. Protesting on armistices day was again another provocation. All these acts of aggression by those supporting the Palestinian cause will end up back firing. They will lose the PR war as nobody will accept violence as justification for a cause. You can have a discussion and be passionate about a cause without it always ending in violence.
Hamas is winning the social media war and the PR on the news. The Vietnam war was the first war broadcast on TV which essentially ended the US involvement in Vietnam. Where the actual truth is in the Israel & Gaza war we don't really know. Hamas controls what is shown on social media and Israel controls what their military can show. What we don't need is the war being fought on social media. As we saw with the PR stunt by Hamas in the so called bombing of that hospital which turned out to be an own goal by Hamas which killed their own people and which they incorrectly blamed on Israel. It was all lies. So we can't totally trust everything we are seeing on the TV and social media about this war. In time the truth will come out but not now. A cease fire means something different in military terms compared to what civilians thinks it means. The arm chair experts need give the mouth a rest. Anyone in Gaza that wants to leave should be allowed to leave and the UN needs to do their job and get that sorted. Otherwise what is the point of them. It shouldn't be up to Qatar to decide what happens in Gaza. The people who stopped that container ship from docking because it is linked to an Israeli company would also be bitching if Qatar airlines was stopped from flying into Australia because they are supporting the leaders of Hamas. Nobody is boycotting Qatar, so again those supporting Palestine and doing crazy shit need to consider the impacts of their actions. The govt will only be pushed so far. Lets not forget the barbaric act that kicked all this off which was being cheered on by those supporting the Palestinian cause as stated by one of their leaders.
The Aussies did well again in the cricket world cup and the final four are now set. Now the hard work begins. They will have to beat South Africa and India to win the cup, both of which they have done before and they have the team to do it. They just have to get their batting together and stop losing cheap wickets. Should be a good finals to watch.
Prawns were on specials last week so decided to make a prawn curry. Normally have it as a birthday lunch. Most of the time spent is in cleaning the prawns. Not a fan of cooking prawns whole and eating the shit tract. It won't kill you but not my thing. I always refuse the cooked prawns at any Christmas lunch unless they have been cleaned first. Will have to check with the bank to see how the new interest rate hike means for the accounts.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
The week has ended better than it started. Had a medical appointment on Monday and after some tense days managed to get an appointment with a specialist for Monday. Pays to ring around before a referral is made. Seems it doesn't matter which specialist you go to, the initial consulting fee is around $340. The weather in the last couple of days has also not been as bad as predicted. Whilst it hasn't been above 20C, the wind is on the warmer side and we've had mostly a sunny week. Not much of the wet stuff to bother people. Also had a good day today with being able to get a haircut as a walk-in so I'm now wind proof and look less like a homeless dude. Even got a pensioner discount on the haircut and saved $20. Main reason to be out today was to purchase my favourite single malt scotch which was advertised at a member discounted price. Didn't know that as a member I was actually getting a double discount because I was purchasing it before Sunday. So was pleasantly surprised that when I got to the checkout I got $90 off the full price. Also had a nice spicy lunch. So rather happy with the day.
With Kohli now going past Tendulkar's record of the most 100's in the cricket one day format, the question people will be asking is whether Kohli is better than Tendulkar? Kohli sees Tendulkar as his hero. Tendulkar is a legend and is revered in India. Lots has changed since Tendulkar was playing one day cricket. The playing grounds are smaller on purpose to have higher scores. Large grounds are roped in on purpose to ensure there are more runs scored. Pitches are also different. They now use 2 balls so the age of the ball doesn't come into the game any more. Given that Tendulkar is considered only second to Bradman by saying Kohli is better than Tendulkar means he is close to Bradman which isn't the case. Kholi does not consider himself the equal of Tendulkar.
Stayed up till the end, into the early hours of this morning to watch the Aussies against South Africa and it was very close. To their credit Cummins and Starc kept their nerve and waited to get the right ball to hit to get to the winnings runs. It could of easily gone the way of South Africa. If they made another 30 runs the Aussies might not have made it. India would not be happy that the Aussies got thru to the final. They would of preferred to play South Africa because they know they can beat the Proteas. Looking forward to the game on Sunday night. The Aussies have the talent to beat India. I will come down to the batting and who can hold their nerve. The Aussies have a lot more experience of coming back from the death so are used to lots of pressure. India can fold if enough pressure it put on them. Might have to take another nap on Monday before my specialist appointment later that day.
Mr Potato Head had yet another dummy spit about Albo jetting off to another leaders conference. Albo is the rep for this country so why wouldn't he be jetting off to a conference with the top leaders in the world. He has had to do lots of travelling to undo the damage done by the Libs. As it turns out, we pissed off lots of countries whilst Slomo was in charge. The Pacific countries have mostly come back to the fold because of the Labor govt. They even got China back to the bargaining table and now at least China is taking some our produce but investment in China has not come back because of their actions. It goes both ways. For all it's tough talking, China needs foreign investment and is now trying to win that back. They made the basic mistake of taking the hand that feeds them for granted.
The Optus show at the Senate enquiry was lots of crocodile tears. Seems all a woman has to do is start crying as a way of getting out of doing dumb shit. The fact that the senior execs at Optus thought they didn't need to talk to their customers shows how disconnected they are from not only their staff but also their customers. They also blamed others for the fact that emergency calls couldn't be made. They basically played dumb. What is clear is that these large corporates don't have any regard for their customers who they treat as cattle to be farmed for money. The execs don't take the blame and when confronted they claim stupidity as a defence. These are people who are getting paid millions to act like children. Not good enough. What is clear is that you shouldn't use the same provider for your internet and mobile phone. It is the only way to ensure you don't get disconnected for the digital world. Even the CEO of Optus uses a Telstra phone as a backup. Also carry cash. Given how fragile our digital systems are, cash is the only fail safe option. We need more robust digital systems and companies that offer these services need to consider them as essential services not just a nice to have for social media content.
Hope the weekend is good for you.
The week has ended better than it started. Had a medical appointment on Monday and after some tense days managed to get an appointment with a specialist for Monday. Pays to ring around before a referral is made. Seems it doesn't matter which specialist you go to, the initial consulting fee is around $340. The weather in the last couple of days has also not been as bad as predicted. Whilst it hasn't been above 20C, the wind is on the warmer side and we've had mostly a sunny week. Not much of the wet stuff to bother people. Also had a good day today with being able to get a haircut as a walk-in so I'm now wind proof and look less like a homeless dude. Even got a pensioner discount on the haircut and saved $20. Main reason to be out today was to purchase my favourite single malt scotch which was advertised at a member discounted price. Didn't know that as a member I was actually getting a double discount because I was purchasing it before Sunday. So was pleasantly surprised that when I got to the checkout I got $90 off the full price. Also had a nice spicy lunch. So rather happy with the day.
With Kohli now going past Tendulkar's record of the most 100's in the cricket one day format, the question people will be asking is whether Kohli is better than Tendulkar? Kohli sees Tendulkar as his hero. Tendulkar is a legend and is revered in India. Lots has changed since Tendulkar was playing one day cricket. The playing grounds are smaller on purpose to have higher scores. Large grounds are roped in on purpose to ensure there are more runs scored. Pitches are also different. They now use 2 balls so the age of the ball doesn't come into the game any more. Given that Tendulkar is considered only second to Bradman by saying Kohli is better than Tendulkar means he is close to Bradman which isn't the case. Kholi does not consider himself the equal of Tendulkar.
Stayed up till the end, into the early hours of this morning to watch the Aussies against South Africa and it was very close. To their credit Cummins and Starc kept their nerve and waited to get the right ball to hit to get to the winnings runs. It could of easily gone the way of South Africa. If they made another 30 runs the Aussies might not have made it. India would not be happy that the Aussies got thru to the final. They would of preferred to play South Africa because they know they can beat the Proteas. Looking forward to the game on Sunday night. The Aussies have the talent to beat India. I will come down to the batting and who can hold their nerve. The Aussies have a lot more experience of coming back from the death so are used to lots of pressure. India can fold if enough pressure it put on them. Might have to take another nap on Monday before my specialist appointment later that day.
Mr Potato Head had yet another dummy spit about Albo jetting off to another leaders conference. Albo is the rep for this country so why wouldn't he be jetting off to a conference with the top leaders in the world. He has had to do lots of travelling to undo the damage done by the Libs. As it turns out, we pissed off lots of countries whilst Slomo was in charge. The Pacific countries have mostly come back to the fold because of the Labor govt. They even got China back to the bargaining table and now at least China is taking some our produce but investment in China has not come back because of their actions. It goes both ways. For all it's tough talking, China needs foreign investment and is now trying to win that back. They made the basic mistake of taking the hand that feeds them for granted.
The Optus show at the Senate enquiry was lots of crocodile tears. Seems all a woman has to do is start crying as a way of getting out of doing dumb shit. The fact that the senior execs at Optus thought they didn't need to talk to their customers shows how disconnected they are from not only their staff but also their customers. They also blamed others for the fact that emergency calls couldn't be made. They basically played dumb. What is clear is that these large corporates don't have any regard for their customers who they treat as cattle to be farmed for money. The execs don't take the blame and when confronted they claim stupidity as a defence. These are people who are getting paid millions to act like children. Not good enough. What is clear is that you shouldn't use the same provider for your internet and mobile phone. It is the only way to ensure you don't get disconnected for the digital world. Even the CEO of Optus uses a Telstra phone as a backup. Also carry cash. Given how fragile our digital systems are, cash is the only fail safe option. We need more robust digital systems and companies that offer these services need to consider them as essential services not just a nice to have for social media content.
Hope the weekend is good for you.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Morning all,
The Aussies did very well in the one day cricket world cup to win it. They planned very well for each batsman knowing India doesn't bat deep and Capt Cummins out thought the Indian batsmen. The Aussies played almost the perfect match if they hadn't lost those early wickets when batting. They had the harder run to the final and as a team they are used to pressure and winning tight games. Cummins as capt has now won the three major trophies in world cricket. And still he has his critics. The Summer of cricket coming up will have expectation of the Aussies to keep winning.
The house across the street looks like it's being remodelled rather than being demolished. The ground floor has been gutted. Either way the tradies are filling up the car park spaces in my street and the adjacent streets. The duplex townhouse next door is now up for sale. The owner must have had enough of the ever increases in interest rates. Will be interesting to see how much it goes for as a 4 bedroom place. Not much by way of a backyard so doesn't suit a family. For all the bravado of the previous neighbours, they were only renting but carried on as if they owned the place. No doubt they are annoying someone else now with the yelling.
So yet another scan required after the specialist appointment yesterday. A new type of scan. Will need to remove the neck chain just in case. I remember having a CT scan years ago and they were big on telling people to ensure they remove all jewelry before the scan then got annoyed at the medication I was taking even though I already informed them prior. What has changed is the quick appointment times. Used to take weeks to get an appointment. Seems I'll be delaying my move out of Melbourne again due to the latest medical stuff. I can't get a break with this move. Seems the house doesn't want me to leave. Had a lot of obstacles this year stopping my progress to sell the house. But rather get this latest medical issue dealt with while still in Melbourne. I've become very used to seeing specialists and how they work.
Was up very early this morning before daylight so was watching Youtube music and came across the Jerusalema dance challenge. I know I'm coming late to this as it was a thing a couple of years ago. Now before people lose their nut, it has nothing to do with the war in Israel. It was started by a DJ in South Africa as a response to COVID lock downs and the woman who sings it, Nomcebo Zikode is very good and well known in Africa. After watching all the groups around the world taking the challenge, it's obvious white people got no rhythm. Even the people of Bhutan have more rhythm than the Anglo's. The best at this dance are the African kids. If people my age tried to move like that, we'd either break a hip or strain something. If it wasn't for those African rhythms we wouldn't have Jazz, Blues or Rock'n'Roll. Even the banjo comes from Africa. This month we've had Black Friday now they are calling Nov black month. Seems the only times during the year where being black is a positive.
The weather this week in Melbourne is forecast to be moderate and rather stable and dry, so some time in the garden is called for. Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
The Aussies did very well in the one day cricket world cup to win it. They planned very well for each batsman knowing India doesn't bat deep and Capt Cummins out thought the Indian batsmen. The Aussies played almost the perfect match if they hadn't lost those early wickets when batting. They had the harder run to the final and as a team they are used to pressure and winning tight games. Cummins as capt has now won the three major trophies in world cricket. And still he has his critics. The Summer of cricket coming up will have expectation of the Aussies to keep winning.
The house across the street looks like it's being remodelled rather than being demolished. The ground floor has been gutted. Either way the tradies are filling up the car park spaces in my street and the adjacent streets. The duplex townhouse next door is now up for sale. The owner must have had enough of the ever increases in interest rates. Will be interesting to see how much it goes for as a 4 bedroom place. Not much by way of a backyard so doesn't suit a family. For all the bravado of the previous neighbours, they were only renting but carried on as if they owned the place. No doubt they are annoying someone else now with the yelling.
So yet another scan required after the specialist appointment yesterday. A new type of scan. Will need to remove the neck chain just in case. I remember having a CT scan years ago and they were big on telling people to ensure they remove all jewelry before the scan then got annoyed at the medication I was taking even though I already informed them prior. What has changed is the quick appointment times. Used to take weeks to get an appointment. Seems I'll be delaying my move out of Melbourne again due to the latest medical stuff. I can't get a break with this move. Seems the house doesn't want me to leave. Had a lot of obstacles this year stopping my progress to sell the house. But rather get this latest medical issue dealt with while still in Melbourne. I've become very used to seeing specialists and how they work.
Was up very early this morning before daylight so was watching Youtube music and came across the Jerusalema dance challenge. I know I'm coming late to this as it was a thing a couple of years ago. Now before people lose their nut, it has nothing to do with the war in Israel. It was started by a DJ in South Africa as a response to COVID lock downs and the woman who sings it, Nomcebo Zikode is very good and well known in Africa. After watching all the groups around the world taking the challenge, it's obvious white people got no rhythm. Even the people of Bhutan have more rhythm than the Anglo's. The best at this dance are the African kids. If people my age tried to move like that, we'd either break a hip or strain something. If it wasn't for those African rhythms we wouldn't have Jazz, Blues or Rock'n'Roll. Even the banjo comes from Africa. This month we've had Black Friday now they are calling Nov black month. Seems the only times during the year where being black is a positive.
The weather this week in Melbourne is forecast to be moderate and rather stable and dry, so some time in the garden is called for. Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
Razzyricho
Man
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2023
- Posts
- 603
proud croc wearer here! Comfort over fashion. I’m always wearing crocs when I’m not wearing work boots. If it’s fresh outside, crocs and socks…
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Yep, I've come to enjoy crocs around the house or in the garden when dry. Not too good in the wet with all those holes.
Razzyricho
Man
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2023
- Posts
- 603
Yeah I’ve found them to be a disappointment to walk in after swimming in the ocean. That’s where the sock combo comes up trumps
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Morning all,
So the kids decided to wag school to support the kids in Gaza. Given how many kids attend school the crowd wasn't that big. Not a problem with them protesting, but it was driven by two girls who only looked at social media to get their news and that is a one sided view point. Didn't see any kids protesting in the days after Hamas butchered Jewish kids in front of their parents and executed entire families and burned other families alive in their homes. Hamas is winning the social media war. Israel has images that they took from Hamas fighters and others that were live streamed to social media as they did these killings. Israel has chosen not to show these images and news media will not show these images but they are happy to show the images Hamas pushes thru social media. Nothing gets posted from Gaza without the permission of Hamas. We have gone astray when we favour the news promoted from a terrorist group which all western media is lapping up. When the other side of that story is shown and told, those who are protesting now might have a rethink. Those who support Palestine are yet to denounce the actions of Hamas in butchering civilians one on one. They find it hard to utter the words. Given the social media posts by Hamas, it's clear that not all those who invaded Israel were Hamas fighters. There were lots of civilians from Gaza as well who weren't carrying weapons. After the families in the respective kibbutz were killed, their homes were looted. So there is a lot more to the story of what happened on Oct 7th in Israel. Until the entire story is known, it seems a bit early to pick a side. Being naive about an issue is not a excuse if you're going to protest. If you don't know find out. Your GPS requires three different satellites to show you one point on a map as a single point of truth, yet people only look at one point of view to decide what is true. One thing is clear Hamas underestimated how far Netanyahu would go. With the hostage exchanges now Hamas admits it doesn't know where all the hostages are and does not have control over the other groups who took hostages. It's notable that none of the hostages are the young women who were taken. Also noting that young women were raped by those who crossed the border and in one case the naked body of one young woman was paraded around Gaza on the back of a pickup. Her remains were found by Israeli solders. So why were so many young women taken yet most of the men were shot? None of that is making the news and is largely ignored by western media because it doesn't show suffering which is a big rating winner.
Lots of rain happening in Melbourne this week so a rainy day timetable for most of the week. Heavy at times but not raining all day. None of those large hail stones predicted for regional Vic in the east. More medical stuff happening today. Won't get the results till the next specialist appointment next week. Then see where to from there. Have changed my strategy to deal with the issue and thus far it's working. I get to see two specialist next week, lucky me. Back to seeing three different specialists.
Mr Potato Head has done his nut again this time about the visas for those fleeing Gaza who have family here. They are not just random people from Gaza. You either trust the Australian visa system or you don't. It's one of the more strict compared to other countries. He didn't have an issue with Israelis being given a visa for the same reasons which doubled those from Gaza. Neither of these groups are Christians. People of Gaza who wish to leave should be allowed to leave and they should in the first instance be taken to the surrounding Muslim countries but that's not happening because these countries don't want them as they are not fans of Hamas. Watching the scenes of the prisoner swap it's clear that Hamas is using this as a PR campaign so they are getting more recruits as a result of the actions on 7th Oct. The message is that butchering Israelis in their homes is the way to get what you want and so Hamas will do this again. Violence is their only tool and the people of Gaza are seeing that it's the only way. Nobody in Gaza denounces Hamas. None of the video coming from Gaza blames Hamas for the loss of life in Gaza. People in Gaza are afraid to speak out against Hamas because they know they will be killed by Hamas if they speak out. None of those people from Gaza who have been given visas to come to Australia will speak out against Hamas. However if any of them speak out in favour of Hamas, public opinion will turn.
So Lehrmann is having his arse handed to him. He lied to the AFP, he lied to the security at Parliament House, he lied about trying to get Higgins drunk and it clearly shows she trusted him. Their was lots of politics involved to support Lehrmann because of protecting the Liberal Party brand. That Lib minister now looks like a fool. Lehrmann is now regretting his decision to go to court. He is a smartass who should of walked away when he got a free pass from the court. His other trial about the other rape is now not looking good as his character will be questioned at that next trial given what he has said at this court. You can bet your arse the cops will use the events surrounding the Higgins testimony in that next rape trial.
Played one of those games on the PC and of course couldn't quit till I got to the end. Don't normally go for PC games apart from things like Solitaire which I used to play during my lunch time at work. Only usually took 30mins for lunch. Not a fan of those PC games that require you to purchase items to progress in the game. It's like blackmail.
Once again the RBA has foot in mouth. Blaming people who go to the dentist and getting haircuts for inflation shows they are poor communicators. The RBA didn't blame the corporates for pushing up prices nor did they go after petrol companies for price gouging. Again they were attacking wages for workers when they know the inflation numbers are being driven by big business not by workers wages. People need to go to the dentist for their health. I got a haircut last week and it cost me $30 and that's with the seniors discount. Compared to when I last went for a haircut the cost has gone up by $5. Not much compared to the rise of costs of most other things. This is the free market the Lib's keep supporting. We can't have a society where those who can afford to pay for basics get the services and those who can't, miss out which leads to more disease and more mental health issues. The economists need to be re-schooled. They way we determine what is good economics is out of date and needs a fundamental change away from wages as the enemy of good economics. Keeping people poor is not good economics.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
So the kids decided to wag school to support the kids in Gaza. Given how many kids attend school the crowd wasn't that big. Not a problem with them protesting, but it was driven by two girls who only looked at social media to get their news and that is a one sided view point. Didn't see any kids protesting in the days after Hamas butchered Jewish kids in front of their parents and executed entire families and burned other families alive in their homes. Hamas is winning the social media war. Israel has images that they took from Hamas fighters and others that were live streamed to social media as they did these killings. Israel has chosen not to show these images and news media will not show these images but they are happy to show the images Hamas pushes thru social media. Nothing gets posted from Gaza without the permission of Hamas. We have gone astray when we favour the news promoted from a terrorist group which all western media is lapping up. When the other side of that story is shown and told, those who are protesting now might have a rethink. Those who support Palestine are yet to denounce the actions of Hamas in butchering civilians one on one. They find it hard to utter the words. Given the social media posts by Hamas, it's clear that not all those who invaded Israel were Hamas fighters. There were lots of civilians from Gaza as well who weren't carrying weapons. After the families in the respective kibbutz were killed, their homes were looted. So there is a lot more to the story of what happened on Oct 7th in Israel. Until the entire story is known, it seems a bit early to pick a side. Being naive about an issue is not a excuse if you're going to protest. If you don't know find out. Your GPS requires three different satellites to show you one point on a map as a single point of truth, yet people only look at one point of view to decide what is true. One thing is clear Hamas underestimated how far Netanyahu would go. With the hostage exchanges now Hamas admits it doesn't know where all the hostages are and does not have control over the other groups who took hostages. It's notable that none of the hostages are the young women who were taken. Also noting that young women were raped by those who crossed the border and in one case the naked body of one young woman was paraded around Gaza on the back of a pickup. Her remains were found by Israeli solders. So why were so many young women taken yet most of the men were shot? None of that is making the news and is largely ignored by western media because it doesn't show suffering which is a big rating winner.
Lots of rain happening in Melbourne this week so a rainy day timetable for most of the week. Heavy at times but not raining all day. None of those large hail stones predicted for regional Vic in the east. More medical stuff happening today. Won't get the results till the next specialist appointment next week. Then see where to from there. Have changed my strategy to deal with the issue and thus far it's working. I get to see two specialist next week, lucky me. Back to seeing three different specialists.
Mr Potato Head has done his nut again this time about the visas for those fleeing Gaza who have family here. They are not just random people from Gaza. You either trust the Australian visa system or you don't. It's one of the more strict compared to other countries. He didn't have an issue with Israelis being given a visa for the same reasons which doubled those from Gaza. Neither of these groups are Christians. People of Gaza who wish to leave should be allowed to leave and they should in the first instance be taken to the surrounding Muslim countries but that's not happening because these countries don't want them as they are not fans of Hamas. Watching the scenes of the prisoner swap it's clear that Hamas is using this as a PR campaign so they are getting more recruits as a result of the actions on 7th Oct. The message is that butchering Israelis in their homes is the way to get what you want and so Hamas will do this again. Violence is their only tool and the people of Gaza are seeing that it's the only way. Nobody in Gaza denounces Hamas. None of the video coming from Gaza blames Hamas for the loss of life in Gaza. People in Gaza are afraid to speak out against Hamas because they know they will be killed by Hamas if they speak out. None of those people from Gaza who have been given visas to come to Australia will speak out against Hamas. However if any of them speak out in favour of Hamas, public opinion will turn.
So Lehrmann is having his arse handed to him. He lied to the AFP, he lied to the security at Parliament House, he lied about trying to get Higgins drunk and it clearly shows she trusted him. Their was lots of politics involved to support Lehrmann because of protecting the Liberal Party brand. That Lib minister now looks like a fool. Lehrmann is now regretting his decision to go to court. He is a smartass who should of walked away when he got a free pass from the court. His other trial about the other rape is now not looking good as his character will be questioned at that next trial given what he has said at this court. You can bet your arse the cops will use the events surrounding the Higgins testimony in that next rape trial.
Played one of those games on the PC and of course couldn't quit till I got to the end. Don't normally go for PC games apart from things like Solitaire which I used to play during my lunch time at work. Only usually took 30mins for lunch. Not a fan of those PC games that require you to purchase items to progress in the game. It's like blackmail.
Once again the RBA has foot in mouth. Blaming people who go to the dentist and getting haircuts for inflation shows they are poor communicators. The RBA didn't blame the corporates for pushing up prices nor did they go after petrol companies for price gouging. Again they were attacking wages for workers when they know the inflation numbers are being driven by big business not by workers wages. People need to go to the dentist for their health. I got a haircut last week and it cost me $30 and that's with the seniors discount. Compared to when I last went for a haircut the cost has gone up by $5. Not much compared to the rise of costs of most other things. This is the free market the Lib's keep supporting. We can't have a society where those who can afford to pay for basics get the services and those who can't, miss out which leads to more disease and more mental health issues. The economists need to be re-schooled. They way we determine what is good economics is out of date and needs a fundamental change away from wages as the enemy of good economics. Keeping people poor is not good economics.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
Ladybird
Tart with a heart
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2001
- Posts
- 29,801
Hey Elfie, its been a long time since I last visited here, do you remember me?
T'was a very interesting post. As time has passed I've become more & more interested in politics & current affairs, so really enjoyed your take on things.
Lehrmann v's Higgins, I don't think either are squeaky clean, but the outcome is one is playing victim while the other is defensive. Will we ever know the truth? Probably not, but on the scale of things it's not a biggie.
Mr Potato Head, in my opinion will argue against anything proposed by the Labor Party, just because. I see him as an angry man looking for a cause.
That's enough for now from perfect Perth, where the sun shines and Coldplay play.
Hope everyone here is safe, healthy & happy
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Howdy and yep I remember you although I have to ask are you a sweet tart with a heart or a savory one?
Yep I call it as I see it. I used to have to curb my words in my professional capacity but still had a way of calling someone an idiot. Was dubbed the poisoned pen and guys would love to read my evaluations on stuff. Lets just say I had a way with words that nobody could dispute even though they might not like what I wrote. I even managed to get a stamp thru the system with the acronym NFG. Made up the words to make it look legit. Guys didn't know I managed to get away with it.
Hope Perth doesn't get too hot over the Summer or you just might have to go naked. I mean with climate change getting worse we will all have to change how we do what we do.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
Has been an eventful couple of weeks. Saw an ENT surgeon, got a CT scan, went house hunting, got a tan and now have to get the air con in the car serviced. Was not impressed with the air con failing yesterday on that 30C day which just seemed to get hotter. Drove back from Warrnambool yesterday then had to go to another specialist appointment as soon as I got back. Had to miss out on my normal stop off at Cheeseworld where I usually get a milkshake. Best milkshakes since the dairy is just across the road. The warm weather we are currently having in Melbourne will only last another day before we get some wet stuff towards the end of the week and into the weekend. Expecting 20mm on Sat when I have to take the car out to get the air con checked out. Will do some Christmas shopping as well mainly for me but will get some stuff for the younger generations. Will see if the Christmas stuff is properly out or not. The last couple of years there hasn't been much on the shelves to choose from.
Managed to look at a few properties on Sat down the coast. Most of the houses I saw were overpriced given they are 3hrs from Melbourne with Melbourne type prices you would normally see in the outer parts of Melbourne. Even saw some places they priced at over $1million which I would never pay. For what I'm looking for I could of purchased a house for around $380-400K back in 2019 which is now selling for 650-700K which is ridiculous. Was talking to one of young service staff at one of the cafes and she was hoping prices would drop. Had to give her the bad news. Not sure how the younger generation in country towns can afford a house. What was also obvious is the inside of the places I looked at were smaller than that how they look on the internet so you have to visit in person. Can't even trust those walk thru videos. Also realised the website I used only made it harder to book an inspection. The way houses are advertised is different depending on what option you choose. Best to contact the agent directly rather than to rely on Domain. Tried realestate.com as well and it didn't give me all the options. They seem to work fine for city locations but suck when you look at property in regional areas. It was far easier when you looked at inspections in the paper and just rocked up. Technology has put another layer of complexity which it doesn't need. We seem to just put up with poorly designed technology. I know how websites should work as I've designed a couple so it's not an oldie thing it's poorly designed websites that's the issue.
On the Sunday I was in tourist mode and went to a couple of my fav spots and got lots of sea breezes. Didn't mind the cool breezes. Felt refreshing. What surprised me is that people took the time to get to these areas but then just took a selfie then turned around and went back. None of them took the time to take in the scenery. What the fuck is the point of that! I don't get it. I always sit and take in the views and just watch nature for awhile. You are on holidays. Nothing is urgent. Just chill for a while.
Saw lots of wildlife on this trip down the coast. Mainly birds but also saw a couple of wallabies whilst walking down a dirt track. Managed to get a photo but as usual heard some noisy tourists thumping down the track which scared the wallabies away. Then some old white dude decided to be a smart ass. Would of decked him in my youth, but I don't do that any more unless someone really pisses me off. Everyone has their limits and my tolerance for fuckwits has greatly diminished as I've got older. As the saying goes "spare the rod and spoil the idiot".
Saw that Eskimo Pies are now Polar Pies. Thought they removed them from sale due to the PC issues. Doubt whether the native Inuit people complained about the name. Anyway the now Polar Pies taste the same and they don't look any smaller but it has been a few years since I've had one. I don't remember seeing them in Coles or Woollies but they are probably there. They were nice to have on such a warm day as yesterday.
Driving across the West Gate over the weekend was a complete pain in the butt. With all the road works it's a complete mess and bloody confusing to know where to go and which lanes go where. I ended up being diverted to where I didn't want to go and had to loop around to get back on track. The trip back towards the West Gate was not much better. If I didn't know where things were, I would of been totally lost. In short it's a fuck up. Not as bad as the clusterfuck in Sydney where they completed the road works and made the issue worse. I mean did not someone see the new bottleneck they were creating before they finished it. Surely they can't be that dumb. Now they have to redo the road works to add another lane which it seems won't fix the issue either. The roads around Sydney are useless at the best of times. Whomever designed the roads thru the city should of been shot. The whole place is fucked when it comes to driving thru it. I avoid driving in Sydney whenever I visit.
Managed to get a booking to get the car air con serviced. Had to ring around. It's a bad time of the year to get a car serviced so close to Christmas shut down. Then again things don't fail when it's a good time to get things fixed. Kind of like getting the heating serviced. If you wait till May you probably won't get it serviced till after Winter. Everyone waits till the last minute. Will see how things go with the air con. It could be very costly but cheaper than buying another car. The car is 19yrs old and I haven't had any issues with the air con before so that's not bad. No plans to do any long trips over the Summer so worse case is that I might have to wait till late Jan to get it fixed properly.
The place next door that's for sale is not good timing. Anyone putting their house on the market now is not clever. Having it on the market over the Christmas break will only drive down the price. Won't be putting my place on the market till early new year. Hopefully I'll be leaving Melbourne in the first half of 2024 and it will be a much less chaotic year. Will be a year older in Jan so not getting any younger to get this retirement thing happening. Still waiting for all this leisure time to happen that I keep hearing about. Thus far the glossy brochure isn't working out.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
Has been an eventful couple of weeks. Saw an ENT surgeon, got a CT scan, went house hunting, got a tan and now have to get the air con in the car serviced. Was not impressed with the air con failing yesterday on that 30C day which just seemed to get hotter. Drove back from Warrnambool yesterday then had to go to another specialist appointment as soon as I got back. Had to miss out on my normal stop off at Cheeseworld where I usually get a milkshake. Best milkshakes since the dairy is just across the road. The warm weather we are currently having in Melbourne will only last another day before we get some wet stuff towards the end of the week and into the weekend. Expecting 20mm on Sat when I have to take the car out to get the air con checked out. Will do some Christmas shopping as well mainly for me but will get some stuff for the younger generations. Will see if the Christmas stuff is properly out or not. The last couple of years there hasn't been much on the shelves to choose from.
Managed to look at a few properties on Sat down the coast. Most of the houses I saw were overpriced given they are 3hrs from Melbourne with Melbourne type prices you would normally see in the outer parts of Melbourne. Even saw some places they priced at over $1million which I would never pay. For what I'm looking for I could of purchased a house for around $380-400K back in 2019 which is now selling for 650-700K which is ridiculous. Was talking to one of young service staff at one of the cafes and she was hoping prices would drop. Had to give her the bad news. Not sure how the younger generation in country towns can afford a house. What was also obvious is the inside of the places I looked at were smaller than that how they look on the internet so you have to visit in person. Can't even trust those walk thru videos. Also realised the website I used only made it harder to book an inspection. The way houses are advertised is different depending on what option you choose. Best to contact the agent directly rather than to rely on Domain. Tried realestate.com as well and it didn't give me all the options. They seem to work fine for city locations but suck when you look at property in regional areas. It was far easier when you looked at inspections in the paper and just rocked up. Technology has put another layer of complexity which it doesn't need. We seem to just put up with poorly designed technology. I know how websites should work as I've designed a couple so it's not an oldie thing it's poorly designed websites that's the issue.
On the Sunday I was in tourist mode and went to a couple of my fav spots and got lots of sea breezes. Didn't mind the cool breezes. Felt refreshing. What surprised me is that people took the time to get to these areas but then just took a selfie then turned around and went back. None of them took the time to take in the scenery. What the fuck is the point of that! I don't get it. I always sit and take in the views and just watch nature for awhile. You are on holidays. Nothing is urgent. Just chill for a while.
Saw lots of wildlife on this trip down the coast. Mainly birds but also saw a couple of wallabies whilst walking down a dirt track. Managed to get a photo but as usual heard some noisy tourists thumping down the track which scared the wallabies away. Then some old white dude decided to be a smart ass. Would of decked him in my youth, but I don't do that any more unless someone really pisses me off. Everyone has their limits and my tolerance for fuckwits has greatly diminished as I've got older. As the saying goes "spare the rod and spoil the idiot".
Saw that Eskimo Pies are now Polar Pies. Thought they removed them from sale due to the PC issues. Doubt whether the native Inuit people complained about the name. Anyway the now Polar Pies taste the same and they don't look any smaller but it has been a few years since I've had one. I don't remember seeing them in Coles or Woollies but they are probably there. They were nice to have on such a warm day as yesterday.
Driving across the West Gate over the weekend was a complete pain in the butt. With all the road works it's a complete mess and bloody confusing to know where to go and which lanes go where. I ended up being diverted to where I didn't want to go and had to loop around to get back on track. The trip back towards the West Gate was not much better. If I didn't know where things were, I would of been totally lost. In short it's a fuck up. Not as bad as the clusterfuck in Sydney where they completed the road works and made the issue worse. I mean did not someone see the new bottleneck they were creating before they finished it. Surely they can't be that dumb. Now they have to redo the road works to add another lane which it seems won't fix the issue either. The roads around Sydney are useless at the best of times. Whomever designed the roads thru the city should of been shot. The whole place is fucked when it comes to driving thru it. I avoid driving in Sydney whenever I visit.
Managed to get a booking to get the car air con serviced. Had to ring around. It's a bad time of the year to get a car serviced so close to Christmas shut down. Then again things don't fail when it's a good time to get things fixed. Kind of like getting the heating serviced. If you wait till May you probably won't get it serviced till after Winter. Everyone waits till the last minute. Will see how things go with the air con. It could be very costly but cheaper than buying another car. The car is 19yrs old and I haven't had any issues with the air con before so that's not bad. No plans to do any long trips over the Summer so worse case is that I might have to wait till late Jan to get it fixed properly.
The place next door that's for sale is not good timing. Anyone putting their house on the market now is not clever. Having it on the market over the Christmas break will only drive down the price. Won't be putting my place on the market till early new year. Hopefully I'll be leaving Melbourne in the first half of 2024 and it will be a much less chaotic year. Will be a year older in Jan so not getting any younger to get this retirement thing happening. Still waiting for all this leisure time to happen that I keep hearing about. Thus far the glossy brochure isn't working out.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
Seems the senior public service has an issue both at the state and fed level with these 5yr contracts which means they can be terminated at any time without the same justification required to dismiss a permanent public servant. It means these senior public servants on these contracts can be paid more which is above the pay structure in the regular public service. The money for these contracts comes out of a separate bucket of money but in the end it's all money from taxes. To keep their contracts it means people have to suck up to politicians which means they won't provide fearless and frank advice as the saying goes. It also means they won't document things the politicians don't like. Once something is documented in either the state or Fed system it can't be deleted or destroyed without approval which again has to be documented so it leaves a trail. Previously senior public servants were the same as the rest of the public service in regard their employment. The contract system has bred a culture of yes people who care more about their employment than doing their jobs to provide factual solutions and advice which is provided regardless of the political climate. Whilst politicians are in charge of public service agencies they should have no sway on the duty of the public service which is in the interests of the public not the interests of a political party otherwise we have a dictatorship and not a democracy.
The yet to be fully documented sexual assault and gang rapes of women in Israel on Oct 7th has not got any traction on western media. There was one initial story by the BBC soon after the attack but since then the western media has ignored the violence against women on that day. The UN has also largely ignored the rapes and burning of women's bodies in an attempt to cover up the crimes to leave no forensic evidence however as with all mass murder, they are survivors who are eye witnesses to the violence by Hamas and other men from Gaza against women on Oct 7th. The women here in Australia that marched in support of women in Gaza have remained silent on this violence against the women in Israel. They haven't been marching in the street in support of the women who were raped in Israel. If you are against the violence perpetrated towards women then you can't be selective based on their religion otherwise you're a hypocrite. Hamas was even dumb enough to video and take pics of these rapes and took other women back to Gaza as trophies. Yet no outrage from anyone in the west. The Koran apparently states women are to be protected so the men who participated in these rapes went against the teaching of their own religion. You can't be a martyr if you disobey the rules of your own religion. A number of the men who did these rapes would be married which under Muslim law grants them no mercy. In some Arab countries they still cut of the hands of thieves. No Muslim country has come out to condemn the violence against women on Oct 7th. These barbaric acts were planned by Hamas and they were systematic. None of the violence against women on Oct 7th were random acts nor were they crimes of opportunity. It was meant to dehumanize Jewish women and came from a place of pure hate. There is no justification for violence against women.
As for what's going on in Gaza, it's very very tragic and the people of Gaza are paying the price for the actions by Hamas and men from Gaza who participated in those atrocities. Netanyahu will not stop. He has never supported the existence of Gaza nor the West Bank. The UN can't stop him nor the EU and certainly no Arab country with all their influence on the UN. Money talks at the end of the day. The only group that can stop Netanyahu is the US. If JoeB pulls his support for Netanyahu then he will use that as a way out. Netanyahu is a political animal at the end of the day and he will blame the US when he has to retreat from Gaza before he gets what he wants. At this stage the end game for Netanyahu is hard to see. He will not stop unless he is stopped.
When I was in Warrnambool being a tourist for the second half of my trip down there, I visited the old Fletcher Jones factory that is now a trash and treasure market which is huge. Good place to go on a rainy day. They don't have coffee though. The gardens out the front are lovely on a sunny day. My first business trousers and suits were from Fletcher Jones back when they still made clothes here in Victoria. It was a huge employer in Warrnambool. There is also a New & Used Market in the what they call the CBD of Warrnambool just off Timor St which is also worth a look. Free parking on a Sunday. Stay away from Pinky's pizza place unless you want the Macca's version of pizza. They can't make a pizza to save themselves and they are expensive.
The Feds didn't have a plan B if the High Court ruling went against them. To be fair to the govt, under the current laws they couldn't just keep people locked up without a charge. What they should of done was have legislation ready to go in case they lost in the High Court. Now the Lib's are making lots of noise about the release of all those detainees as if all them are criminals which is not true. The cops must be really pissed they now have to do extra work to cope with this lack of planning by the Feds. This situation was created by Slomo and a law that had been in place for over two decades that has never been challenged. It is a total mess and will take time to resolve which the Lib's seem unwilling to help resolve. They want the chaos to continue to score political points.
Ticked off another issue that occurred in the past few weeks. Resolved the issue with the air con in the car. It just needed a re-gas but of course there was a delay in getting that simple job done, but did manage to so some Christmas shopping. Again there wasn't much on offer on the shelves but there were lots of people at the shopping centre being a Sat morning. The rain that we have been having since last night didn't bother me as I was under cover all morning. The car did get a bit of a wash. Was happy the air con issue was a simple resolution. Couldn't wait to escape the masses at the shopping centre. Found a Asian grocery place at the shopping centre which I haven't been to for most of this year. Found that my fav muffin shop had closed down and my normal Indian takeway place at the shopping centre had changed hands. Re-bought the original Red Dead Redemption video game which has extra content in the form of the DLC. Apparently their is also additional original story content. It does show it's age though compared to the 2018 prequel Redemption II, still it was the game that showcased new animations. Still haven't found a PS5 game worth buying which can wait a while longer. Also discovered that I've gone down another size in jeans. Tried the next size down in belts and it fits. So will look for new jeans come the Boxing Day sales. Christmas is coming on faster now that we are only a couple of weeks away.
Hope the weekend is good for you.
Seems the senior public service has an issue both at the state and fed level with these 5yr contracts which means they can be terminated at any time without the same justification required to dismiss a permanent public servant. It means these senior public servants on these contracts can be paid more which is above the pay structure in the regular public service. The money for these contracts comes out of a separate bucket of money but in the end it's all money from taxes. To keep their contracts it means people have to suck up to politicians which means they won't provide fearless and frank advice as the saying goes. It also means they won't document things the politicians don't like. Once something is documented in either the state or Fed system it can't be deleted or destroyed without approval which again has to be documented so it leaves a trail. Previously senior public servants were the same as the rest of the public service in regard their employment. The contract system has bred a culture of yes people who care more about their employment than doing their jobs to provide factual solutions and advice which is provided regardless of the political climate. Whilst politicians are in charge of public service agencies they should have no sway on the duty of the public service which is in the interests of the public not the interests of a political party otherwise we have a dictatorship and not a democracy.
The yet to be fully documented sexual assault and gang rapes of women in Israel on Oct 7th has not got any traction on western media. There was one initial story by the BBC soon after the attack but since then the western media has ignored the violence against women on that day. The UN has also largely ignored the rapes and burning of women's bodies in an attempt to cover up the crimes to leave no forensic evidence however as with all mass murder, they are survivors who are eye witnesses to the violence by Hamas and other men from Gaza against women on Oct 7th. The women here in Australia that marched in support of women in Gaza have remained silent on this violence against the women in Israel. They haven't been marching in the street in support of the women who were raped in Israel. If you are against the violence perpetrated towards women then you can't be selective based on their religion otherwise you're a hypocrite. Hamas was even dumb enough to video and take pics of these rapes and took other women back to Gaza as trophies. Yet no outrage from anyone in the west. The Koran apparently states women are to be protected so the men who participated in these rapes went against the teaching of their own religion. You can't be a martyr if you disobey the rules of your own religion. A number of the men who did these rapes would be married which under Muslim law grants them no mercy. In some Arab countries they still cut of the hands of thieves. No Muslim country has come out to condemn the violence against women on Oct 7th. These barbaric acts were planned by Hamas and they were systematic. None of the violence against women on Oct 7th were random acts nor were they crimes of opportunity. It was meant to dehumanize Jewish women and came from a place of pure hate. There is no justification for violence against women.
As for what's going on in Gaza, it's very very tragic and the people of Gaza are paying the price for the actions by Hamas and men from Gaza who participated in those atrocities. Netanyahu will not stop. He has never supported the existence of Gaza nor the West Bank. The UN can't stop him nor the EU and certainly no Arab country with all their influence on the UN. Money talks at the end of the day. The only group that can stop Netanyahu is the US. If JoeB pulls his support for Netanyahu then he will use that as a way out. Netanyahu is a political animal at the end of the day and he will blame the US when he has to retreat from Gaza before he gets what he wants. At this stage the end game for Netanyahu is hard to see. He will not stop unless he is stopped.
When I was in Warrnambool being a tourist for the second half of my trip down there, I visited the old Fletcher Jones factory that is now a trash and treasure market which is huge. Good place to go on a rainy day. They don't have coffee though. The gardens out the front are lovely on a sunny day. My first business trousers and suits were from Fletcher Jones back when they still made clothes here in Victoria. It was a huge employer in Warrnambool. There is also a New & Used Market in the what they call the CBD of Warrnambool just off Timor St which is also worth a look. Free parking on a Sunday. Stay away from Pinky's pizza place unless you want the Macca's version of pizza. They can't make a pizza to save themselves and they are expensive.
The Feds didn't have a plan B if the High Court ruling went against them. To be fair to the govt, under the current laws they couldn't just keep people locked up without a charge. What they should of done was have legislation ready to go in case they lost in the High Court. Now the Lib's are making lots of noise about the release of all those detainees as if all them are criminals which is not true. The cops must be really pissed they now have to do extra work to cope with this lack of planning by the Feds. This situation was created by Slomo and a law that had been in place for over two decades that has never been challenged. It is a total mess and will take time to resolve which the Lib's seem unwilling to help resolve. They want the chaos to continue to score political points.
Ticked off another issue that occurred in the past few weeks. Resolved the issue with the air con in the car. It just needed a re-gas but of course there was a delay in getting that simple job done, but did manage to so some Christmas shopping. Again there wasn't much on offer on the shelves but there were lots of people at the shopping centre being a Sat morning. The rain that we have been having since last night didn't bother me as I was under cover all morning. The car did get a bit of a wash. Was happy the air con issue was a simple resolution. Couldn't wait to escape the masses at the shopping centre. Found a Asian grocery place at the shopping centre which I haven't been to for most of this year. Found that my fav muffin shop had closed down and my normal Indian takeway place at the shopping centre had changed hands. Re-bought the original Red Dead Redemption video game which has extra content in the form of the DLC. Apparently their is also additional original story content. It does show it's age though compared to the 2018 prequel Redemption II, still it was the game that showcased new animations. Still haven't found a PS5 game worth buying which can wait a while longer. Also discovered that I've gone down another size in jeans. Tried the next size down in belts and it fits. So will look for new jeans come the Boxing Day sales. Christmas is coming on faster now that we are only a couple of weeks away.
Hope the weekend is good for you.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
It seems ironic that an oil rich nation who sells fossil fuels to the west is hosting a climate change summit. They want to control the narrative but most countries are calling them out on their BS that fossil fuels are not to blame for climate change. These COP's are more like COP OUTs for lots of countries. We were one of those countries until the current govt came to power. When we get another Lib govt in power it will happen again and they will reverse whatever Labor puts in place. It's clear we are not getting to clean energy any time soon. The Lib's will cut funding just as they did with the NBN which is why it is such a clusterfuck of a system. My area is now always having NBN outages. It could be because of the new housing developments, but outages are now common place. The last NBN outage didn't impact me because I wasn't home for it. On the international stage countries are even more divided now. The UN is in a dream world of ideal solutions ignoring practical solutions which requires countries to make hard decisions. It allows dictatorships to sit on the security council thus vetoing any chance at peace in the world. As a collective the UN has no real power and is ineffective to stop any conflict between nations. It can't even deal with crimes committed by their own peace keepers. Seems little point in them existing. It was supposed to ensure that another world war would not happen, but we are closer now than we have ever been since the end of WWII.
Anastasia has called it quits and she went on her own terms. She broke new ground in that like Danny Boy she managed to keep winning and grow numbers in her party. Like all pollies she will be fine with her govt pension and high paying jobs in private industry. They all do well after their term in govt. She won't need to go to Centrelink.
The Palestinian authority has finally admitted that they support Hamas in all it's forms. Their hand was forced by Israel's unrelenting actions in Gaza to eliminate Hamas which Palestine now admits can't be done without the destruction of Gaza, in an attempt to say that Netanyahu's actions are futile since Hamas and Palestine are a homogeneous entity. However in admitting that they support Hamas they are also admitting they support the actions of Hamas on Oct 7th, something they have denied in the past few months. The tragedy in Gaza can stop tomorrow if Hamas gives up. In doing that Netanyahu will no longer have any reason to be in Gaza. He will be forced to stop, but Hamas will not give itself up to save the people of Gaza. Hamas was already gaining supporters before it committed those atrocities on Oct 7th. It showed the people of Gaza that Israel was not invulnerable with all it's military might. So to say that the IDF is only gaining more supporters for Hamas, that was already there. What has really increased support for Hamas in Gaza is the release of Palestinian prisoners rather than the IDF actions. Hamas has shown that the only way to get Palestinians back from Israel is to murder more Jews and sexually assault Jewish women. All of which is supported by the Palestinian authority as they have not had any remorse to date about those atrocities against Jewish women. The two state solution is yet another dream. In reality neither govt wants it. They want the others gone and whilst that is the position of ongoing generations of both sides there can never be peace in that region. For that to happen both sides have to give something up. Israel has the military might to crush both Gaza and the West Bank. The surrounding countries don't have the military to defeat Israel. If they attack Israel the US will get involved and none of those countries can match the US if the US is allowed to fight without any restrictions. Wars these days is not WWII. There are too many rules to comply with. This Disney view point of how wars happen is ridiculous. Innocent people always die in any war which is why it should always be the last resort. The UN gets involved which restricts what western countries can do yet does not nor can they can control what nations in other parts of the world can do. Govt's in the ME don't play by the rules stated by the UN. There is no such thing as a clean war and smart weapons does not mean there are no other casualties other than the targets. It has never happened in the human history of war.
Well it's now official I've gone down one size in jeans. Even using a size smaller belt. Will have to buy new belts now. I knew the jeans I have were loose as I need a belt to keep them up. These jeans were the tight jeans a couple of years ago are now they are the loose jeans. I have lost some weight in the last couple of months but nothing major. Hard to find just normal jeans, not stretch, not slim, just normal jeans. I've never paid $100 for jeans and never will. Had to drive for a bit to find the store, but was out anyway looking for a halogen replacement bulb and to fill up the car. Got a pleasant surprise that the pump price was 15c/L less than the advertised price. All up was a good outing. Saved money and took the re-gassed car air con for a run as well and it worked much better. The cooling was actually doing its job. Was rather humid and sticky out there even though the morning temps were not that warm. Today it's rather muggy again but the thunder and rain keeps rolling thru. It's a typical Summer thunderstorm. Got a great lightning show last night. Expecting more of those Summer thunderstorms and some more rain this week and at the start of next week. Need to go into the city next week for a dentist appointment and of course get my biannual chocs box, so will see if they have finally completed the works on that zone 1 station and if the car parking is back to normal or not. The works on that station has been going since last year. It's part of the Vic govt's push to remove all street railway crossings. It has taken several years and will probably take a few more. There will also be the normal chaos on the roads during the school holidays in early Jan across the city and the West Gate will be essentially shut. There is so much chaos there now. So if I want to get down the west coast at that time, I will take the long way around thru the inner western suburbs.
With Australia Post now cutting down on letter delivery, the kids won't get their letters to Santa on time. At some point letters to Santa will be abolished. Using just emails to get and send correspondence is not 100%. I've had instances where I had to call the utility service providers to resend the bills on email. There is a set and forget system. With the bills in the mail, I've only had one issue and that was because the postie put the mail in the wrong letter box and rather than the neighbour walk the mail to may letter box as I do when I get someone else's mail, they sent it back so the service provider assumed I had moved. They never checked even though my postal address was in their system. They just don't check. Again there is no secondary check in these processes. I still receive important correspondence via the postal system and even if I get important correspondence via email I print it out. Why? Well in talking with several IT experts over the years, that's what they recommended because even they admitted that digital files are subject to corruption and they heavily rely on the software version they are based on. I've lost emails in the past because of the upgrading of OS's and software. None of that stuff is backwards compatible because that costs money. Nobody exports their emails to CSV files. Even govt agencies don't keep records long term. The current policy is to keep govt records for 7 yrs. It used to be 20yrs. Most private companies only keep records for 3 yrs. Digital memory is rather cheap these days but most organizations choose to not spend the dollars. It is surprising that some govt agencies and even the law courts still require hard copies to be produced for security purposes. The requirement for paper documents has not diminished. We were all told when computers became a thing, that paper documents would be phased out. This was back in the late 80's. Over 3 decades later we are using more paper than we did before computers became common place. I was working in the BC times, Before Computers.
Hope the rest of the weeks is good for you. Can hear the thunder rumbling in the background at the moment.
It seems ironic that an oil rich nation who sells fossil fuels to the west is hosting a climate change summit. They want to control the narrative but most countries are calling them out on their BS that fossil fuels are not to blame for climate change. These COP's are more like COP OUTs for lots of countries. We were one of those countries until the current govt came to power. When we get another Lib govt in power it will happen again and they will reverse whatever Labor puts in place. It's clear we are not getting to clean energy any time soon. The Lib's will cut funding just as they did with the NBN which is why it is such a clusterfuck of a system. My area is now always having NBN outages. It could be because of the new housing developments, but outages are now common place. The last NBN outage didn't impact me because I wasn't home for it. On the international stage countries are even more divided now. The UN is in a dream world of ideal solutions ignoring practical solutions which requires countries to make hard decisions. It allows dictatorships to sit on the security council thus vetoing any chance at peace in the world. As a collective the UN has no real power and is ineffective to stop any conflict between nations. It can't even deal with crimes committed by their own peace keepers. Seems little point in them existing. It was supposed to ensure that another world war would not happen, but we are closer now than we have ever been since the end of WWII.
Anastasia has called it quits and she went on her own terms. She broke new ground in that like Danny Boy she managed to keep winning and grow numbers in her party. Like all pollies she will be fine with her govt pension and high paying jobs in private industry. They all do well after their term in govt. She won't need to go to Centrelink.
The Palestinian authority has finally admitted that they support Hamas in all it's forms. Their hand was forced by Israel's unrelenting actions in Gaza to eliminate Hamas which Palestine now admits can't be done without the destruction of Gaza, in an attempt to say that Netanyahu's actions are futile since Hamas and Palestine are a homogeneous entity. However in admitting that they support Hamas they are also admitting they support the actions of Hamas on Oct 7th, something they have denied in the past few months. The tragedy in Gaza can stop tomorrow if Hamas gives up. In doing that Netanyahu will no longer have any reason to be in Gaza. He will be forced to stop, but Hamas will not give itself up to save the people of Gaza. Hamas was already gaining supporters before it committed those atrocities on Oct 7th. It showed the people of Gaza that Israel was not invulnerable with all it's military might. So to say that the IDF is only gaining more supporters for Hamas, that was already there. What has really increased support for Hamas in Gaza is the release of Palestinian prisoners rather than the IDF actions. Hamas has shown that the only way to get Palestinians back from Israel is to murder more Jews and sexually assault Jewish women. All of which is supported by the Palestinian authority as they have not had any remorse to date about those atrocities against Jewish women. The two state solution is yet another dream. In reality neither govt wants it. They want the others gone and whilst that is the position of ongoing generations of both sides there can never be peace in that region. For that to happen both sides have to give something up. Israel has the military might to crush both Gaza and the West Bank. The surrounding countries don't have the military to defeat Israel. If they attack Israel the US will get involved and none of those countries can match the US if the US is allowed to fight without any restrictions. Wars these days is not WWII. There are too many rules to comply with. This Disney view point of how wars happen is ridiculous. Innocent people always die in any war which is why it should always be the last resort. The UN gets involved which restricts what western countries can do yet does not nor can they can control what nations in other parts of the world can do. Govt's in the ME don't play by the rules stated by the UN. There is no such thing as a clean war and smart weapons does not mean there are no other casualties other than the targets. It has never happened in the human history of war.
Well it's now official I've gone down one size in jeans. Even using a size smaller belt. Will have to buy new belts now. I knew the jeans I have were loose as I need a belt to keep them up. These jeans were the tight jeans a couple of years ago are now they are the loose jeans. I have lost some weight in the last couple of months but nothing major. Hard to find just normal jeans, not stretch, not slim, just normal jeans. I've never paid $100 for jeans and never will. Had to drive for a bit to find the store, but was out anyway looking for a halogen replacement bulb and to fill up the car. Got a pleasant surprise that the pump price was 15c/L less than the advertised price. All up was a good outing. Saved money and took the re-gassed car air con for a run as well and it worked much better. The cooling was actually doing its job. Was rather humid and sticky out there even though the morning temps were not that warm. Today it's rather muggy again but the thunder and rain keeps rolling thru. It's a typical Summer thunderstorm. Got a great lightning show last night. Expecting more of those Summer thunderstorms and some more rain this week and at the start of next week. Need to go into the city next week for a dentist appointment and of course get my biannual chocs box, so will see if they have finally completed the works on that zone 1 station and if the car parking is back to normal or not. The works on that station has been going since last year. It's part of the Vic govt's push to remove all street railway crossings. It has taken several years and will probably take a few more. There will also be the normal chaos on the roads during the school holidays in early Jan across the city and the West Gate will be essentially shut. There is so much chaos there now. So if I want to get down the west coast at that time, I will take the long way around thru the inner western suburbs.
With Australia Post now cutting down on letter delivery, the kids won't get their letters to Santa on time. At some point letters to Santa will be abolished. Using just emails to get and send correspondence is not 100%. I've had instances where I had to call the utility service providers to resend the bills on email. There is a set and forget system. With the bills in the mail, I've only had one issue and that was because the postie put the mail in the wrong letter box and rather than the neighbour walk the mail to may letter box as I do when I get someone else's mail, they sent it back so the service provider assumed I had moved. They never checked even though my postal address was in their system. They just don't check. Again there is no secondary check in these processes. I still receive important correspondence via the postal system and even if I get important correspondence via email I print it out. Why? Well in talking with several IT experts over the years, that's what they recommended because even they admitted that digital files are subject to corruption and they heavily rely on the software version they are based on. I've lost emails in the past because of the upgrading of OS's and software. None of that stuff is backwards compatible because that costs money. Nobody exports their emails to CSV files. Even govt agencies don't keep records long term. The current policy is to keep govt records for 7 yrs. It used to be 20yrs. Most private companies only keep records for 3 yrs. Digital memory is rather cheap these days but most organizations choose to not spend the dollars. It is surprising that some govt agencies and even the law courts still require hard copies to be produced for security purposes. The requirement for paper documents has not diminished. We were all told when computers became a thing, that paper documents would be phased out. This was back in the late 80's. Over 3 decades later we are using more paper than we did before computers became common place. I was working in the BC times, Before Computers.
Hope the rest of the weeks is good for you. Can hear the thunder rumbling in the background at the moment.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
Found rocky road as a trail mix which is different. Not sure if I like that or not. May need to sprinkle it on something. Like ice cream.
So it seems the young Muslims in the US want to now vote against JoeB in favour of Rump because of the US govt backing of Israel, which is just stupid given Rump imposed a ban on Muslims entering the US plus he fully backs Israel against Palestine by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Sure if the young want to protest against what Israel is doing in Gaza that's ok, but backing a guy who basically dislikes Muslims is nuts. Given the US loves guns. Putting that in a gun analogy....it would be like giving a gun to a guy who wants to shoot you, then blaming him for pulling the trigger. WTF did you think he was going to do. The younger generation needs to consider it's actions when voting. Being young and dumb is not an exuse, which for some reason we consider as ok. We give young people in their 20's a free pass. Didn't happen when I was in my 20's. I had a major responsibility and if I fucked up people would jump on my mistakes not just wave them away. The young people in the 60's thought they had all the answers, well they are now being blamed for where the world is at now including climate change.
Santa and his three Ho's are warming up although depending on where they land they are going to either be drenched in a cyclone, have their sled catch on fire or just sweat in the humidity and possibly hit by a thunderstorm. Another Christmas getting closer and having a nice quiet one. Just chilling out on Christmas Day. After a couple of decades doing long car trips on Christmas Day, relaxing on Christmas Day is still a new thing for me. Visiting family before Christmas Day and a trip to my usual Christmas indulgence which I only do once a year and need to travel so I'll be both west and east side of the city before Christmas. Again was surprised as to how bare the shelves are this Christmas. The quantity and variety is just not there again this year. It could be COVID or stores not willing to commit to stock the shelves. Would of thought by now that things would of returned to pre-COVID times, seems not. The petrol prices this week are still on the low side at $1.70. Expecting that to surge come Wed afternoon. I already filled up at the cheaper price, so I'm good till the new year. Only travelling locally.
The Aussies did well in the cricket although the new stadium in Perth looked mostly empty. Would of expected more people at the cricket. The average daily crowds was about 15K. That won't be the case at the next test on Boxing Day. Pakistan doesn't draw a huge crowd unlike India or England, but still it will be larger than what we saw in Perth. Will be watching it with a cold beer and some snacks or might even make some bacon and eggs which was my typical breakfast on Boxing Day many years ago.
Went to the dentist yesterday and it was rather humid but thankfully overcast. Woke to the sound of rain on the roof which wasn't supposed to happen according to the weather forecast. By the time I got in the car it was a drizzle so took the compact umbrella from the car for the walk to the station and by the time I got there, only a 1 minute walk, the drizzle stopped. Then coming home the drizzle restarted and it seems I was the only one with an umbrella. Since then we have had some rain all night and into this morning and the wind has turned cooler coming from the south. A typical Summer type day after a cool change. Thoughts are with the people impacted by the tropical cyclone in FNQ. It's another one of those big events that most locals in that area has never seen before and it won't be last of that type of cyclone. They will come by more frequently. We give the FNQ a lot of stick which they deserve but at the end of the day we are all Aussies. Saw that there is also a massive bush fire in northern NSW near the NSW/Qld border with ash falling a couple of hundred k's away from the bushfire. And only last week we had massive wind gusts in SA causing damage. There are so many different severe weather conditions around the county which shows how big Australia is as a land mass.
After I went to the dentist I did my normal trip across the road to Haigh's choc shop and bought $85 worth of chocs. It was busy and they only complicated things by introducing a new queuing system which nobody understood so there was a bit of chaos as it's not a big shop. Anybody visiting Melbourne, the Haigh choc shops scattered around the CBD is worth a visit. Lots of choice. Even when living down the coast, it will be one of my go to places when visiting the city. Also there is a hole in the wall shop on Swanston St called Uncle Tetsu which has nice cakes. Their cakes are not too sweet.
Used the new train station where I park the car to travel into the city. It was out of action since early 2022. It looks good and very modern. The previous station car park has also been upgraded and extended which is good. The only issue now being the road has been narrowed with new tram platforms so getting in the car park will be tricky at a busy time. The car parking around the station has reduced so had to park the car a little further way, but not a real problem. Just means I got a bit of exercise but would be annoyed if the weather was on the wet side. Not sure what the point of the bicycle path is. I've never seen anyone ride a bike in that area, plus the bike path starts and ends in busy roads so don't get it as it doesn't flow into a road. They must have not known what to do with the extra land from putting the train line below street level. Overall the station looks flash but the way down to the station is odd. Lots of steps that lead to the end of the platform so everyone has to walk a bit. Even the lifts are all down one end. There was plenty of space to put in a ramp as there is a large mezzanine area. Not sure what the point of that is. They obviously didn't canvas views from the public.
Just got a notification that the CPI did 2% so will get a small increase to the pension in Jan. All those on the aged pension will also get an increase. Most super funds work on a 2.6% increase so 2% is not bad. The last few years has been good for pension increases.
Booked in to get the next COVID booster tomorrow which was rather easy at my regular chemist. Tried the clinic I go to but it was lots of uncertainty. Was told by them to call yesterday which I did then they said I had to ring back on Wed. Whereas at the chemist it was just book a time thru their website and all done. Too easy. Seems chemists are getting a majority of the booster stocks. GP's are very hit and miss. Have to go the chemist anyway so might as well get both things done at the one time.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you and that Christmas is an enjoyable time for you and your family. Now that all my medical stuff is done and no need to do any more blood tests for several months, I intend to indulge between now and the end of the year. Bring on 2024, I'm done this year.
Found rocky road as a trail mix which is different. Not sure if I like that or not. May need to sprinkle it on something. Like ice cream.
So it seems the young Muslims in the US want to now vote against JoeB in favour of Rump because of the US govt backing of Israel, which is just stupid given Rump imposed a ban on Muslims entering the US plus he fully backs Israel against Palestine by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Sure if the young want to protest against what Israel is doing in Gaza that's ok, but backing a guy who basically dislikes Muslims is nuts. Given the US loves guns. Putting that in a gun analogy....it would be like giving a gun to a guy who wants to shoot you, then blaming him for pulling the trigger. WTF did you think he was going to do. The younger generation needs to consider it's actions when voting. Being young and dumb is not an exuse, which for some reason we consider as ok. We give young people in their 20's a free pass. Didn't happen when I was in my 20's. I had a major responsibility and if I fucked up people would jump on my mistakes not just wave them away. The young people in the 60's thought they had all the answers, well they are now being blamed for where the world is at now including climate change.
Santa and his three Ho's are warming up although depending on where they land they are going to either be drenched in a cyclone, have their sled catch on fire or just sweat in the humidity and possibly hit by a thunderstorm. Another Christmas getting closer and having a nice quiet one. Just chilling out on Christmas Day. After a couple of decades doing long car trips on Christmas Day, relaxing on Christmas Day is still a new thing for me. Visiting family before Christmas Day and a trip to my usual Christmas indulgence which I only do once a year and need to travel so I'll be both west and east side of the city before Christmas. Again was surprised as to how bare the shelves are this Christmas. The quantity and variety is just not there again this year. It could be COVID or stores not willing to commit to stock the shelves. Would of thought by now that things would of returned to pre-COVID times, seems not. The petrol prices this week are still on the low side at $1.70. Expecting that to surge come Wed afternoon. I already filled up at the cheaper price, so I'm good till the new year. Only travelling locally.
The Aussies did well in the cricket although the new stadium in Perth looked mostly empty. Would of expected more people at the cricket. The average daily crowds was about 15K. That won't be the case at the next test on Boxing Day. Pakistan doesn't draw a huge crowd unlike India or England, but still it will be larger than what we saw in Perth. Will be watching it with a cold beer and some snacks or might even make some bacon and eggs which was my typical breakfast on Boxing Day many years ago.
Went to the dentist yesterday and it was rather humid but thankfully overcast. Woke to the sound of rain on the roof which wasn't supposed to happen according to the weather forecast. By the time I got in the car it was a drizzle so took the compact umbrella from the car for the walk to the station and by the time I got there, only a 1 minute walk, the drizzle stopped. Then coming home the drizzle restarted and it seems I was the only one with an umbrella. Since then we have had some rain all night and into this morning and the wind has turned cooler coming from the south. A typical Summer type day after a cool change. Thoughts are with the people impacted by the tropical cyclone in FNQ. It's another one of those big events that most locals in that area has never seen before and it won't be last of that type of cyclone. They will come by more frequently. We give the FNQ a lot of stick which they deserve but at the end of the day we are all Aussies. Saw that there is also a massive bush fire in northern NSW near the NSW/Qld border with ash falling a couple of hundred k's away from the bushfire. And only last week we had massive wind gusts in SA causing damage. There are so many different severe weather conditions around the county which shows how big Australia is as a land mass.
After I went to the dentist I did my normal trip across the road to Haigh's choc shop and bought $85 worth of chocs. It was busy and they only complicated things by introducing a new queuing system which nobody understood so there was a bit of chaos as it's not a big shop. Anybody visiting Melbourne, the Haigh choc shops scattered around the CBD is worth a visit. Lots of choice. Even when living down the coast, it will be one of my go to places when visiting the city. Also there is a hole in the wall shop on Swanston St called Uncle Tetsu which has nice cakes. Their cakes are not too sweet.
Used the new train station where I park the car to travel into the city. It was out of action since early 2022. It looks good and very modern. The previous station car park has also been upgraded and extended which is good. The only issue now being the road has been narrowed with new tram platforms so getting in the car park will be tricky at a busy time. The car parking around the station has reduced so had to park the car a little further way, but not a real problem. Just means I got a bit of exercise but would be annoyed if the weather was on the wet side. Not sure what the point of the bicycle path is. I've never seen anyone ride a bike in that area, plus the bike path starts and ends in busy roads so don't get it as it doesn't flow into a road. They must have not known what to do with the extra land from putting the train line below street level. Overall the station looks flash but the way down to the station is odd. Lots of steps that lead to the end of the platform so everyone has to walk a bit. Even the lifts are all down one end. There was plenty of space to put in a ramp as there is a large mezzanine area. Not sure what the point of that is. They obviously didn't canvas views from the public.
Just got a notification that the CPI did 2% so will get a small increase to the pension in Jan. All those on the aged pension will also get an increase. Most super funds work on a 2.6% increase so 2% is not bad. The last few years has been good for pension increases.
Booked in to get the next COVID booster tomorrow which was rather easy at my regular chemist. Tried the clinic I go to but it was lots of uncertainty. Was told by them to call yesterday which I did then they said I had to ring back on Wed. Whereas at the chemist it was just book a time thru their website and all done. Too easy. Seems chemists are getting a majority of the booster stocks. GP's are very hit and miss. Have to go the chemist anyway so might as well get both things done at the one time.
Hope the rest of the week is good for you and that Christmas is an enjoyable time for you and your family. Now that all my medical stuff is done and no need to do any more blood tests for several months, I intend to indulge between now and the end of the year. Bring on 2024, I'm done this year.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all,
Petrol prices for Christmas were at $2.15 here in Melbourne town which is a 45c mark up from earlier last week. Was out on the Monday last week and the petrol prices were $1.70. Two days later it went up by 45c. How can the petrol companies justify such a massive increase a few days before Christmas. Even when I was out Christmas Eve, the prices hadn't changed much. Was driving thru a few suburbs and the cheapest I saw was $2.09, still outrageous. I didn't need to fill up but for those that did who have the standard 4WD it would of been expensive. Merry fucking Christmas.
The weather on Christmas Day here in Melbourne town was very wet but not as bad as what was predicted but the BOM did say it would be very hit and miss on the severity. Didn't get any thunderstorms in my area. Was wet again for the Boxing Day test but was surprised how much cricket was played given again what was predicted for the day. Different day today but still wet outside and still on the humid side but it's not a dry heat. You can feel the wetness in it. More tropical than a dry heat which is what we normally get during Summer. Must have rained earlier in the morning as the ground is still wet. Sunny at the moment and once again the weather forecast for the week has changed to now not having any more rain for the week. More rain coming in the new year but New Year's Eve is supposed to be dry and pleasant temps in the 20's.
Watching the cricket at the moment and the Aussies have done well to recover. Pitch is still good. The drop in pitches at the MCG have made all the difference given how much footy is played on that square. It is after all the home of Aussie rules footy. Used to have a bad reputation for slow low pitches because of the wear and tear of the footy. Lots has changed due to the drop in pitches. The crowd on Boxing Day even with the rain was more than all days for the test in Perth. The rain would of put some people off but the crowd stayed even when there was that heavy downpour. There were still over 60k people at the ground when the game recommenced. If Perth is going to continue to get test matches then more people need to attend them as it is a financial loss for the cricket. They might need a smaller venue. Saw that the Mayor of Perth got his nickers in a twist because the crowd at the MCG was not higher which is just sour grapes. It was in fact the second highest test crowd on Boxing Day. He didn't like the criticism of the poor attendance for the Perth test so to deflect that he lashed out at the Melbourne crowd. Which means he is feeling the heat from the lack of attendance at their test match. If the weather was going to be better on Boxing Day there would of been a higher crowd. It's not uncommon for the first day of the Boxing Day test to be around the 80k mark. If India or England were playing then you could guarantee a higher crowd size. The financial side of Aussie cricket will get back on track as the Boxing Day test continues especially if it goes for all five days. These days it's all about the money. Perth may miss out on future test matches for certain teams if they don't get their act together over there. They did build it and almost nobody came. That wouldn't happen in Melbourne as we are a sports mad city.
Not doing work around the house before the new year. Just chilling doing normal house stuff if I feel like it. Come the new year I'll get back to the tasks to get the house on the market. The fridge was full for Christmas so I'm eating my way thru it to make some space for the groceries this week. Don't like to throw away food. Got my usual box of Indian sweets I get every Christmas. Will see how that works for next year when I'm not in Melbourne. Already got one Boxing Day sales item before Christmas. Might go out again before New Year's to see what is on offer. See lots of sales for on-line purchases compared to in-store purchases. One of the items I wanted was out of stock even though I received the email on the same day. Not sure how that works. Since I've now lost another size in jeans, will need new belts.
Off to get some bubbly tomorrow for New Year's Eve as I normally do. Don't normally drink the stuff but it is a New Year's tradition. Still have all those OS beers I purchased for Christmas. Need to get some nibbles for New Year's Eve. Already have the cheese. At least I can get a proper drink since I'm not driving. I'm liking the fact I don't have to go anywhere for Christmas Day or New Year's Eve. Makes a nice change. Just chilling.
Hope your New Year's Eve is a good one no matter how you do it. Doesn't need to be a big one. Might just be sitting on a beach watching the fireworks in the distance. Doesn't need to be in a big crowd. Always feel let down after the fireworks is done. There is just an abrupt end to things. The end of one thing and the start of something else which is uncertain.
Petrol prices for Christmas were at $2.15 here in Melbourne town which is a 45c mark up from earlier last week. Was out on the Monday last week and the petrol prices were $1.70. Two days later it went up by 45c. How can the petrol companies justify such a massive increase a few days before Christmas. Even when I was out Christmas Eve, the prices hadn't changed much. Was driving thru a few suburbs and the cheapest I saw was $2.09, still outrageous. I didn't need to fill up but for those that did who have the standard 4WD it would of been expensive. Merry fucking Christmas.
The weather on Christmas Day here in Melbourne town was very wet but not as bad as what was predicted but the BOM did say it would be very hit and miss on the severity. Didn't get any thunderstorms in my area. Was wet again for the Boxing Day test but was surprised how much cricket was played given again what was predicted for the day. Different day today but still wet outside and still on the humid side but it's not a dry heat. You can feel the wetness in it. More tropical than a dry heat which is what we normally get during Summer. Must have rained earlier in the morning as the ground is still wet. Sunny at the moment and once again the weather forecast for the week has changed to now not having any more rain for the week. More rain coming in the new year but New Year's Eve is supposed to be dry and pleasant temps in the 20's.
Watching the cricket at the moment and the Aussies have done well to recover. Pitch is still good. The drop in pitches at the MCG have made all the difference given how much footy is played on that square. It is after all the home of Aussie rules footy. Used to have a bad reputation for slow low pitches because of the wear and tear of the footy. Lots has changed due to the drop in pitches. The crowd on Boxing Day even with the rain was more than all days for the test in Perth. The rain would of put some people off but the crowd stayed even when there was that heavy downpour. There were still over 60k people at the ground when the game recommenced. If Perth is going to continue to get test matches then more people need to attend them as it is a financial loss for the cricket. They might need a smaller venue. Saw that the Mayor of Perth got his nickers in a twist because the crowd at the MCG was not higher which is just sour grapes. It was in fact the second highest test crowd on Boxing Day. He didn't like the criticism of the poor attendance for the Perth test so to deflect that he lashed out at the Melbourne crowd. Which means he is feeling the heat from the lack of attendance at their test match. If the weather was going to be better on Boxing Day there would of been a higher crowd. It's not uncommon for the first day of the Boxing Day test to be around the 80k mark. If India or England were playing then you could guarantee a higher crowd size. The financial side of Aussie cricket will get back on track as the Boxing Day test continues especially if it goes for all five days. These days it's all about the money. Perth may miss out on future test matches for certain teams if they don't get their act together over there. They did build it and almost nobody came. That wouldn't happen in Melbourne as we are a sports mad city.
Not doing work around the house before the new year. Just chilling doing normal house stuff if I feel like it. Come the new year I'll get back to the tasks to get the house on the market. The fridge was full for Christmas so I'm eating my way thru it to make some space for the groceries this week. Don't like to throw away food. Got my usual box of Indian sweets I get every Christmas. Will see how that works for next year when I'm not in Melbourne. Already got one Boxing Day sales item before Christmas. Might go out again before New Year's to see what is on offer. See lots of sales for on-line purchases compared to in-store purchases. One of the items I wanted was out of stock even though I received the email on the same day. Not sure how that works. Since I've now lost another size in jeans, will need new belts.
Off to get some bubbly tomorrow for New Year's Eve as I normally do. Don't normally drink the stuff but it is a New Year's tradition. Still have all those OS beers I purchased for Christmas. Need to get some nibbles for New Year's Eve. Already have the cheese. At least I can get a proper drink since I'm not driving. I'm liking the fact I don't have to go anywhere for Christmas Day or New Year's Eve. Makes a nice change. Just chilling.
Hope your New Year's Eve is a good one no matter how you do it. Doesn't need to be a big one. Might just be sitting on a beach watching the fireworks in the distance. Doesn't need to be in a big crowd. Always feel let down after the fireworks is done. There is just an abrupt end to things. The end of one thing and the start of something else which is uncertain.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
Afternoon all and a happy new year,
So it's a new year and hoping it will be more positive than 2023. Will be a year of change for me. Hopefully will be moving down the coast before mid year. Still have lots of food and drink left over from Christmas and New Year's Eve less the Prosecco. Don't normally drink the stuff but usually have some bubbly for New Year's Eve at midnight while watching the fireworks. Did the Prosecco this year to support our local producers who are battling the EU for keeping the name in the Aussie product. Like the French the EU are pissed our wines are challenging their wines. The French are still pissed at us for making better red wine than they do. And one of our wine makers in charge of one of their larger wineries. Us Aussies are everywhere. They even laughed at our invention of the twist cap wine bottle which is now everywhere and no spoilage due to corking.
To start off the new year decided to do the vaccuming so the carpets are smelling nice to begin a new year. Got myself organized with the new calendar to mark off all the pension days for the rest of the FY and marked up the new diary with the future medical appointments for this year. So I'm set. Also sent out all my new year's greeting to friends and family. Still have some Christmas pudding left over with sticky date sauce and having that with Bundy (rum) custard. Would prefer the Jamaican dark rum but can't that in a custard.
The rain is falling at the moment with thunder booming in the background. Been watching that on the radar coming towards Melbourne and it got here rather quickly. Sky has gone really dark now and have to use the lights. The forecast is for the rain to hang around for the next few days. Tomorrow expected to be worse than now.
Will be watching the Sydney test match starting tomorrow. Will be doing other stuff as well around the house. Not much of a tennis fan. Can't watch too much of it as I get bored. Rewatching the Game of Thrones series as there is crap on TV at the moment.
Hope the start of the new year is good for you.
So it's a new year and hoping it will be more positive than 2023. Will be a year of change for me. Hopefully will be moving down the coast before mid year. Still have lots of food and drink left over from Christmas and New Year's Eve less the Prosecco. Don't normally drink the stuff but usually have some bubbly for New Year's Eve at midnight while watching the fireworks. Did the Prosecco this year to support our local producers who are battling the EU for keeping the name in the Aussie product. Like the French the EU are pissed our wines are challenging their wines. The French are still pissed at us for making better red wine than they do. And one of our wine makers in charge of one of their larger wineries. Us Aussies are everywhere. They even laughed at our invention of the twist cap wine bottle which is now everywhere and no spoilage due to corking.
To start off the new year decided to do the vaccuming so the carpets are smelling nice to begin a new year. Got myself organized with the new calendar to mark off all the pension days for the rest of the FY and marked up the new diary with the future medical appointments for this year. So I'm set. Also sent out all my new year's greeting to friends and family. Still have some Christmas pudding left over with sticky date sauce and having that with Bundy (rum) custard. Would prefer the Jamaican dark rum but can't that in a custard.
The rain is falling at the moment with thunder booming in the background. Been watching that on the radar coming towards Melbourne and it got here rather quickly. Sky has gone really dark now and have to use the lights. The forecast is for the rain to hang around for the next few days. Tomorrow expected to be worse than now.
Will be watching the Sydney test match starting tomorrow. Will be doing other stuff as well around the house. Not much of a tennis fan. Can't watch too much of it as I get bored. Rewatching the Game of Thrones series as there is crap on TV at the moment.
Hope the start of the new year is good for you.
aussie_cityboy
Experienced
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2010
- Posts
- 53
G’day Randy Phil, central west NSW here. Welcome.
darkelf9
Pie Man
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2004
- Posts
- 4,280
G'Day and welcome to the thread. Just post stuff to get people to know you. Anything really. Like what pissed you off or what was fun. The more people who post the more life the thread has. Have a safe day.G'day
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