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[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The govt's reduction in the more expensive medications hasn't lasted long. Come the new year those medications have gone up again by $1.60. So another short term promise from a Fed govt. In another few years the reduction will be wiped out. The CPI did 2% at end of last year so pensioners will get a small increase in their pensions so another case of give and take.

Get my next pension increase this week with the first pension of the new year. Already got by birthday present before Christmas. Also saved some money on Boxing Day sales at the local DFO. Some very good bargains plus I finally found a place to get some good kitchenware at a reasonable price. Was surprised that some of the sales were not a generous as they have been in previous years. Will need to buy some new belts and discovered the best place price wise was Kmart and that was not a sale price, so will have to go back there.

Weather continues to be humid and stormy. We are getting more rain days than fine days. Temps have remained in the mid to high 20'sC but we have been getting more thunderstorms that we would normally get at the start of the year. Got out in the garden on Saturday while the weather was dry and hacked some stuff in the front garden. Still plenty of tree cover in the front to keep the house cool. Makes good shade on those hot sunny days. Only downside is that it requires higher maintenance during Summer. They only need heat and wet stuff to go nuts. Usually cut it all back just before Winter to let in more light.

The Aussie men got out of jail again in the cricket. Pakistan folded again and basically can't catch which means they will continue to lose test matches that they could of won. At that level, if your team can't catch it can't compete with India nor Australia which are the two top teams at the present time. South Africa isn't the team it was and the West Indies are far from their best but they have lots of talent but their domestic system is useless.

Was watching the National Road Championships yesterday in regional Victoria from Ballarat and saw all the rain that was coming to Melbourne. Ballarat is about 90 mins NW of Melbourne so it wasn't going to take long for that rain to get to my side of Melbourne and sure enough just before the end of the women's race the rain arrived. Ballarat is worth a day trip from Melbourne for anyone visiting Melbourne. Sovereign Hill is the main attraction which has been redone as a historic town with people in period costume. It is well done and not tacky. You can pan for gold and there is lots to do. The night show is a re-telling of the miners uprising against the corruption of the local British authorities and the story of the Eureka Southern Cross flag. Which is now the flag of unions. The Eureka uprising was the first time miners united to get better working conditions which was essentially the first union. The response from the British was to kill miners. A military force against civilians. Another bloody history in Australia caused by the British.

Continuing with rewatching the Game of Thrones series. Up to season 5. The TV shows are about to restart but still crap on TV. If the weather is as predicted for tomorrow will take a drive down the bay to Sorrento and have my birthday lunch, seafood is what I usually go for on my birthday. Found a spot and curious to see how the area has changed since I was down there last. Haven't done the ferry trip across the bay which takes you to Queenscliff on the other side of the bay. Not in the mood for a driving trip back around the bay and certainly not while there is chaos on the West Gate which will continue for the rest of this week. It's usually a nice drive down to Sorrento and also to Point Nepean. Been there before a few times.

Wet day timetable here in Melbourne today again. The sky is still dark this afternoon as it has been since morning. Had some thunder earlier but not close. The rain that arrived yesterday afternoon has been consistent and is still coming down. The regional east is already experiencing flooding from this morning and more to come for that part of Vic. Saw that the guttering on the garage needs a clean out but not a major problem as the water just flows onto the backyard and then just drains away. Have very good soil so water doesn't sit on the surface. Reports of flooding have been happening since yesterday. The rest of the week should be fine and we might even get a day above 30C before the end of the week. Will be our first this month. This Summer has been rather wet. Mid Jan is when we normally get a week of hot temps above 30C.

The Aussie Open starts next week on the Sunday for the first time. This is to counter the long matches in the men's game. Gives the players more rest time. So those matches that go till 3am shouldn't occur this time. It's a trial because of the complaints from players last year. The other option is to only play 5 sets for the final 16. Frankly I find 5 sets boring but I'm not a tennis nut. But if tennis doesn't make changes to grab an audience it may lose support and won't be able to fill seats. The purists of cricket thought one day cricket was a joke and now the joke is on them. So unless sports evolve, they will lose support the hence lose funding. If you can't fill a stadium your sport or your team will fold. We saw that in AFL where Vic clubs had to go north to survive because they were not cashed up. Fitzroy went to Brisbane to become the Brisbane Lions and South Melbourne went to Sydney to become the Swans. Without those players going north those two teams would not have won anything. So the lesson is rather simple, evolve or die.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Inflation is down by 0.6%, so what does that mean well it should ensure there is no increase in interest rates. The lib's are of course pissed off as they want to economy to tank so they can have a better time at the next election. They also want lots of people to lose their jobs to ensure the rich keep getting richer. Now keeping an eye on those RBA decisions due to the impacts on bank accounts. The good news so far is that my pension has gone up because the CPI did 2% in the FY to Dec. Every little bit helps.

Been catching up with more friends and family since Christmas and New Year's. Then everyone will get busy once the work year begins proper and you won't hear from them till next Christmas. Had a nice lunch for my birthday down the eastern side of the bay at Sorrento. Had a very nice lunch at the Italian restaurant near the beach. It was busy but not full which was good. Found a quiet table away from the masses. Been to Sorrento lots of times over the years and more so since I moved over to the SE suburbs. The bay is very close to me. After all the rain we had on the Sunday and Monday before my birthday, the Tuesday turned out to be a nice sunny day but was humid. Thankfully there was a nice bay breeze to cool things down. Saw all the new road works that has been done in that area. On the drive down I also saw all the updates that had been made to the train stations for those bay side suburbs. They even elevated the train tracks on a couple of those road crossings. Can certainly see where all that money has gone in upgrading the railways. The camping spots further down the bay from Rye onwards were full. Lots of people retire in Rosebud which is another bay side suburb. The vehicle ferry from Sorrento across the bay was doing good business as well. These days you can book a passenger ticket and just go for a ferry ride across the bay and back. They even have a tourist bus that travels on the ferry. Not much in Queenscliff on the other side of the bay where the ferry docks. From Queenscliff you can travel to Geelong which isn't far. Rounded off the day by going shopping and got some excellent bargains on t-shirts and had to buy a couple of new belts. Then got a takeaway curry for dinner. Glad I got the air con in the car fixed as the day just got more humid. I needed another shower by the time I got home. The shopping centre was so damn warm. It was cooler outside than inside.

Has been rather humid since my birthday. Got our first 30 degree day on the Friday. Got a cool change on the Saturday but no rain so the house took a while to cool down. Had to open the doors to let in the cooler breezes which were not very strong. Then the humidity came back for the Sunday and ramped up for Monday but not high temps. Was doing some cleaning in the house and started sweating. Then we got a very loud thunder and lightning show in the early hours of today and a lot of rain which was not predicted, and the heat is back again today with temps going up to 30. The lightning must have been close. It was like cracking a whip. The heat today has helped to dry the concrete and roads but the garden soil is still very damp. Not good for cutting grass. Has been a strange Summer thus far. The only thing similar to previous Summers is the humidity. Went outside earlier and just felt the heat. Wouldn't fancy sitting in that heat at the tennis without any shade. Expecting more rain tomorrow or may be tonight again like last night. It's certainly humid enough to get another Summer storm.

Well the scammers are back from their Christmas holidays, ok well they don't believe in Christmas as most of them are from non-Christian cultures, but they are catering to the people they want to rip off. The phone calls started on the 11th of Jan. They still haven't cracked the fake phone numbers. They get the area codes right but not the actual numbers. So easy to tell it's a fake call. Old people answer the phone without looking at the number so they get scammed more. That's just what you did in the previous century. If the phone rang you answered it as we didn't have message banks back then. And to call someone you had to make an effort since we didn't have automatic dialing. The rotary dial meant it took a while to call someone.

So Rump can't help himself with his speaking out in his trials. The judge in his latest trial shut him down which he is not used to. His own lawyers couldn't shut him up from making his case worse. It is funny. I mean he has already lost the case, so a wise man would just shut up. But Rump is not a wise man. People keep enabling him so he thinks he is untouchable. Making statements that anything he did as President is above the law is just dumb. That special council had the evidence to impeach him but didn't do it because Rump was President at the time. If he was guilty he should have been convicted. Can't have one rule for those in power and a separate rule for the rest of us. Otherwise why have laws. We don't prosecute pollies in this country when we should. Our laws allow them to resign and get their pensions even when they have committed fraud. If an average citizen committed fraud they would go to jail. In Rump's case fraud is the least of his problems. Not complying with the secrecy act is a much more serious charge. That is jail time every time. That trial is the one he really needs to fear. And will be fun to watch. Now he has told his supporters to go out in the freezing temps in Iowa even if they die, they should vote. The guy is a fuckwit.

Have been watching the NFL since yesterday. Getting to the business end of their season. At least I don't have to watch it at 3am. Will watch the Super Bowl as I do every year. Used to take a day off when I was working so I could watch it live.

Mary is now queen consort of Denmark. She has certainly come a long way from Tassie and the people seem to like her even more than their new King. Her kids have really grown up. Her son is now heir to the throne although he will be waiting a while. Good for her as she has worked hard to commit to her duties and learn Danish fluently which is supposed to be a hard language to master.

The Aussie Open is on again and their idea of starting on the Sunday hasn't really worked. The women's match didn't start till after 11pm and the match was watched by a half empty stadium. The scheduling of matches is still out because they make assumptions about the top players having an easy time in the early rounds so timings don't cater for a 5 set match in the early rounds. Which is why they should limit the early rounds to 3 sets for all players and only have a 5 set game for the final 16 match ups. Otherwise if every men's game goes to 5 sets then it will take three weeks to finish. Something needs to be done to not make tennis boring and allows fans to watch the game without having to decide to go home at a reasonable hour or stay till the early hours of the morning. They could also start earlier in the day, like at 9 am, rather at 11 am.

Finished re-watching Game of Thrones a couple of days ago and also decided to watch the commentary for the final season which showed the amount of work needed to put on the show. Didn't like the ending but now it makes more sense why they ended it the way they did. Still not wrapped up in it but it's growing on me. The Walking Dead is still my number one series.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[Tasman69]

Where are all the kinky Australian couples? All I want is a couple with a bi male to play with. Is that so hard? Man!

 

[darkelf9]

Where are all the kinky Australian couples? All I want is a couple with a bi male to play with. Is that so hard? Man!

Sounds like you're shopping for vegies in a chemist. I'd try one of the more specific threads like the Personals, as there are lots of Aussies spread throughout Lit. It's like going OS, we are in most places. Can always recognize that accent, even in a noisy room.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The pattern of the Summer thus far for Melbourne has been high humidity, medium temps and lots of rain. We came close to another day of 30C but that wasn't supposed to happen. Was very humid though. I was wondering why I was sweating doing the vacuuming. Had to use the fan to cool down. Not sure if this pattern will persist into Feb as it is usually hotter than Jan. Once again it's a different Summer to normal. We haven't had that week of temp's in the 30's like we used to get in Jan. Those at the tennis would be appreciating the lower temps but not the humidity. Last Summer we got short rain showers. This Summer we've had more rain and the showers hang around longer. So far we have doubled our normal rain for Jan.

Is it just me or is the dock workers getting screwed over by an org called 'DP World' a tad ironic. They are an international org based in the Emirates hence the Arab colours on it's logo. They don't do workers rights in those places as part of their business practices, just ask all the labour they hire from other countries that work in the UAE. They haven't remained rich by paying their workers properly. It must annoy them that they have to deal with unions in western countries.

Been watching bits of the tennis and noticed that once again the Russian flag has been banned for players from Russia who spend more time away from Russia. Can understand it being applied to a team as the admin in those cases are govt based, but Russian tennis players are their own entity.

They haven't banned the Palestinian flag for what Hamas did which the Palestinian govt clearly admit that Hamas is an integral part of their govt and they are yet to condemn the actions of Hamas. In fact yet more evidence has immerged that people in Gaza knew what Hamas was doing on Oct 7th. The Hamas fighters were calling family and friends in Gaza telling them they were killing Jews and the response for the those in Gaza was joy and telling those doing the killing how proud they were them killing and raping Jews. So how can those in Gaza now claim to be victims when their people started the conflict for which they are now paying a heavy price. Netanyahu will continue to do what he is doing because he feels justified. Even those in Israel who were supporting the rights of Palestinians, have turned away from that support. The younger generation in Israel is now turning away from a two-state solution because they were targeted by Hamas. Can't blame them for that sentiment. Whilst Palestine continues to hold those hostages, any form of peace is not going to happen.

Lots of sport on the TV to watch. Been watching the play off games in the NFL to determine the final two teams. The Chiefs are looking good again. At least I don't have to watch the matches at 3 am. I don't have Foxtel but aim to correct that in my next home.

Did some more clean out in the study while watching the cricket. The shredder got a good work out. Had to read thru everything before I decided whether or not to dispose of it. The shredded paper makes for good mulch in the garden.

Now people are being warned that Google Chrome can track them and what they look at. Good of Google to let us know only when they got caught out.

So the true nature of the LNP has shown itself with having secret meetings last year to speak against treaty for indigenous people here in Vic. And again it's the Nat's leading the charge as they did in the Fed Parliament. So it's quite clear that racism at the core of both the Nationals and Liberal parties. The Nat's are shit scared their mining mates will miss out of destroying traditional indigenous lands and the Lib's well they don't see any reason why indigenous people should have any rights pertaining to them and their culture. They expect indigenous people to give up their culture and follow the British culture which is one of removing anything trace of what was here before the white fella turned up. They are firm believers in the White Australia policy. So here we are in this so called enlightened time, where people are more educated than they were 100yrs ago. Seems the country has not learned a thing from it's past, so we continue to relive those racist times. Happy Australia Day!

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[Tasman69]

I have. Many times

Sounds like you're shopping for vegies in a chemist. I'd try one of the more specific threads like the Personals, as there are lots of Aussies spread throughout Lit. It's like going OS, we are in most places. Can always recognize that accent, even in a noisy room

 

[darkelf9]

I have. Many times

Sounds like you need to change the bait or the approach. Good luck

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The Republicans are zombie walking to Rump as their candidate for the next US presidential election which means they want someone who will be a felon by the time the election comes around as their leader. The Republican Party is in the status of being a cult now. All common sense has left them and the only reason they are backing Rump is because of their desire of power and to turn the US into a one party country which means it becomes a dictatorship. Given that only 40% of eligible voters actually vote, apathy to their own democracy means fascism has a chance of winning. If Rump gets back in, he will be out for revenge and will use the DoJ to jail all those who opposed him. People might scoff at that idea, but to Rump he believes that all govt departments personally work for him. He has already said he will use the military to go after those who resist. He will be in for a shock when the military refuses his request to use them as his personal army. It's ironic that Rump is losing his shit over Haley not conceding defeat given he still hasn't conceded defeat in losing the last presidential election. The Speaker of the House is also a nut job as he believes that dinosaurs were on the ark which is interesting given that humans and dinosaurs were never in the same point of history, plus if dinosaurs were on the ark they would of eaten all the humans as well as all the other animals. That guy is third in line to the presidency of the US. Shows how screwed up the entire political system is in the US. It's a political system for the rich as Americans in general believe they should be able to earn as much as they can without govt rules such as paying tax. And there are white people in the US who believe they should be allowed to kill any black person they want to. Now these same people want to start up a new civil war. The racism in the US has ramped up all due to Rump trying to get people to vote for him and using people who believe their status in society is being challenged by those who are not Christians and non-white. Which again is ironic given a lot of the US was in Spanish and French hands. They have even retained the Spanish and French names of places.

Our population is now up to 27 million which is not much given we are about the same size as Canada and their population is about 40 million and that country hasn't fallen over. Granted they don't have a massive desert as we do which can't sustain much human life, but we aren't full. We seem to lose our minds of increasing the population. Since Australians are not having enough babies to sustain all those govt funded programs, then immigration is the only way to garner enough tax to pay for stuff like childcare and pension payments. The other option is to raise the pension age to 80 as we won't be able to afford any form of pension including carers and disability pensions. So before there is any more outrage about immigration, if Aussies are not prepared to have more kids, then who the fuck is going to pay for those things we currently see as necessary without immigration.

Had a win with the local council after many years. It happened by chance rather than the council doing their job. One of their main arborists was driving by my place and noticed the state of the tree on the nature strip at the front of my place. That tree has been my nemesis since I purchased the house. Tried numerous times to get the council to take action as it had become a safety issue but they refused to do anything. So was surprised when this guy from the council knocks on my door asking about the tree then tells me he will ensure it is removed that very day. Sure enough 30mins later a crew turned up and the tree was gone within the hour. It was a very large tree. More daylight is coming into the front yard and I can see the sky thru the tree in the front rock garden. Gives a new look to the front of the house. Like getting a makeover. Feels like a new house. Previously I could only see some sky during Winter when the leaves on that tree would fall away. Now I can actually tackle the front hedge without the threat of hitting my head on tree limbs as has happened in the past. First time in a long time I've managed to trim the front hedge without those tree branches getting in the way. So since that tree is gone, this week I gave the front hedge a good trim which took a few hours. Filled up the garden bin again. Going to give that hedge another trim this month.

Mr Potato Head is losing his mind about Albo giving everyone a tax cut. The Lib's even before they saw the detail, they stated they will reverse the new tax cuts which would put more money in the pockets of their rich mates and take away money from those on lower wages. Not sure how that is a vote winner. Who the fuck is going to vote for that? Those earning between $90-120K will get more of a tax cut than under the previous plan put out by the LNP. That's what the govt calls middle income earners. However even those earning more than $20k get a tax cut. So in essence everyone earning an income gets a tax cut. Those earning above $150K are already reducing their tax either thru negative gearing or hiding their income thru shell companies. The Lib's are on the wrong track by trying to claim this is a broken promise, given people are getting more money back than under their plan. It shows that the Fed's are listening to people about cost of living. It's funny how the Lib's are now on the side of blue collar workers in the mining industry who earn $250k a year. Previously miners asked Labor what they were going to do for those mine workers earning over $200k a year. WTF do mine workers need given the extraordinary salaries they get? Can't call them Aussie battlers. Mining like any private industry is always subject to change hence why the wages are higher. Nothing in private industry is permanent. It can all change quickly. People in govt jobs are not safe either. Ever since the 90's govt jobs can be wiped out by any govt. Although govt jobs are safer, the pay is less than in private industry and they aren't as safe as they used to be. Govts both at the state and federal level build and break govt agencies all the time.

So the UN is now facing allegations of a UN agency staff supporting Hamas on Oct 7th. It seems funny that members of that agency were working against western countries while at the same time relying on funding from western countries. So the real question becomes can you trust any UN agency that operates in that part of the world? Palestine relies on funding from western countries yet continually works against these same countries. The review of this issue with the UNRWA should be done by an independent org not an internal review by the UN. Only an independent investigation will satisfy the countries that pulled their funding of the UNRWA. Then the ongoing question is can you trust people who work for that organisation to not support terrorist activities in the future? Just sacking those involved is not enough. The process of hiring locals needs to improve to include better background security checks.

The weather this week in Melbourne town has been pleasant but on the humid side, however the temps have been in the mid 20's all week which is unusual for Summer. No rain this week which is a nice change. Was out in the garden both front and back this week. It will be a hot one here in Melbourne town on the weekend and our first two days in a row of plus 30C temps. Will have to get the portable cooler up and running. First time I would of used it this Summer.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Had to make an unscheduled visit to the dentist on Monday after 2 weeks of pain. The overall result was good but have to go back to do another check up for the issue. It was an odd issue and one the dentist hasn't seen before. Nothing I could of done to prevent it. Seems as I'm getting older odd stuff is happening to the body. Have got used to pain since I turned 50 now some 12yrs ago. Still can't believe I'm in my 60's.

Monday turned into a chaotic day. The trains were ok by the weather was anything but as predicted. Last week rain was predicted for Monday this week, then they changed it and sure enough it rained on Monday which just slowed everything down on the road. And of course just when you need to get somewhere by a specific time is the day you get lots of traffic. Got to the station only to find they were still doing road works near the station so had to park further away, then a walk in the rain and just missed the next train. One of those days where one small thing going wrong had a bump on impact on everything else. There were also lots of people in the city on a Monday. I also discovered that the PT fares had gone up. Not by much but don't remember getting notification of the increase. One of those sneaky price increases. Only travel on the PT a few times a year mainly to go the dentist in the city so don't notice the small changes on the PT. The only upside to the day besides the positive news from the dentist was that I purchased a box of chocs from the Haigh's chocolate shop across the road from the dentist. Got home just before the rain came down again mid afternoon much to the annoyance of the next door neighbour who had just stated his whipper snipper. Had to laugh at that. All this week I've heard nothing but garden power tools. Right now someone is using a grass trimmer in the next street. Yesterday it was tradies and some dude with a wood chipper right outside my place.

There is a new thing in the neighbourhood of teenage boys knocking on doors in the late afternoon with garden equipment trying to get paid for doing basic mowing and trimming tasks. Never happened before. They are obviously still in school as they come around at about 5pm. They obviously haven't heard of the 'Do Not Knock' system established by the Vic govt to stop random people knocking on doors annoying people at all hours. It was implemented as a safety issue after people being assaulted by random people knocking on the door. The worst offenders of random knocking are real estate agents who don't respect anyone's privacy.

Have been watching the Nemesis series on the ABC, even though we all know the main stories about these three LNP PM's. What has been more interesting is the LNP politicians speaking about their own leaders in frank terms which would not have happened whilst those leaders were in power. Some continue to lie about their role in those events. It showed the LNP imploding and that narcissism is the leading quality in their leadership. Abbott was pussy whipped by his Chief of Staff who thought she was running the govt much to the annoyance of the other LNP MPs. There is a big difference being a strong woman in a leadership role and being the bitch in charge. I've seen that in my working life and that female didn't last long as with all people like that, their belief that they couldn't be touched was their undoing. For some reason we continue to equate being an arsehole with strong leadership when that is not what strong leadership means. Credlin went beyond her job description and it was clear she was in charge of Abbott which meant the office of the PM was compromised which is dangerous. It showed Abbott was a weak leader because of it and at times unhinged. The series has also shown the bullying that went on by Mr Potato Head and Slomo. Rather than putting Julie Bishop in the top job, the blokes in the LNP decided to chose Slomo, who they disliked but they disliked Mr Potato Head even more as they saw him as a dangerous leader. So it's ironic that Mr Potato Head is now the leader of the LNP. So why should anyone vote for him given his own party saw him as a threat to the country. This Nemesis series will do nothing for the LNP at the next election. In fact Labor will take away lots of ammo to use against Mr Potato Head at the next election. They know a lot more to the story than even the TV series can tell.

Apart from Monday which was a bit on the humid side, the rest of this week has been on the moderate side. Not your typical Summer in Feb in Melbourne town. It has been humid at times but nothing like the temps we normally get in Feb which is usually warmer than Jan. It feels more like Spring with a bit more humidity at times. Has been a nice couple of days and not expecting any rain for the rest of this week. The weather on the weekend was more like a normal Summer. Had to use the window shade to keep the kitchen cool during the weekend. Only had to use that once this Summer which again is not normal.

Having a couple of lazy days. Waiting for the garden bin to be emptied this week so I can get back to doing more work in the garden. Out again tomorrow doing the weekly shop and a couple of other tasks and more stuff to do on Friday. Continuing to play Red Dead Redemption2 again. It is a long game if you do all the side missions. Decided to get a full list of all the items on the main missions, so finally used the hints for the game. Don't usually use the hints for games as I feel like it's cheating. Like to find stuff naturally, but a couple of the items on the lists were annoying me. When I saw all the hints I realised there is no way I could of found everything without looking at the hints as you wouldn't look in those areas. Making things harder on purpose puts me off going on certain quests on these games, especially when the rewards don't add to any major advantage to your gear. What is the point if it doesn't add anything to capability.

Rump continues to lose his shit over a woman challenging him for the Republican vote. His demeaning commentary of Haley, who clearly has more knowledge of world affairs and is also smarter than Rump is losing him the female vote. Women will turn away from the Republican party. Haley is worrying him so much he is confusing her with Nancy. Rump has also instructed the speaker of house to reject the border plan which the Republicans wanted. Keep in mind this is plan the Republicans insisted on having and now that they have it, they are voting against their own plan. All because Rump wants to campaign on the border issue even though there is an agreed solution. The senior Republicans are just folding and kissing his arse. Which shows the Republican party is now a cult under the control of Rump who is totally crazy. It's funny that Rump keeps raising the cognitive test which is given to dementia patients to see how their dementia is progressing. Well I suppose that's appropriate because he talks like someone who has brain damage. Rump also wants the economy in the US to fail as he wants to claim he can fix that. Which again is ironic because he is a failed business man and the only owner of a casino who made it go broke because he was taking money out of the casino to fund his other businesses which were also losing money. Casinos never lose. You can't but help to make money if you own a casino. The mathematics is always on the side of the casino. They can't lose. Which shows Rump is a true loser. He can snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Doing the grocery shop last week I found Iced VoVo's in the form of a hot cross bun which is new. Wasn't sure about it but it turned out to be rather nice. Not fruity but sweet. Found it in Coles. Just one was enough as it is sweeter than a normal hot cross bun. The real Iced VoVo's are gone. I remember in my youth that the proper Iced VoVo biscuits had actual marshmallow on the sides and jam in the middle. These days what goes for an Iced VoVo biscuit is a flat hard imitation marshmallow on the biscuit base which is not very nice. I don't buy it now.

Had another earth tremor in Melbourne town in the early hours of Friday last week, just after midnight. It didn't last long, only a few seconds. Thought we were done with these tremors last year. Last year we got several tremors after an earthquake. This latest one was once again in the east of Vic in the Gippsland area which is a known region for earthquakes, but we don't get many large enough to be felt or even to cause damage. The weather in Melbourne town since the weekend has been more in line with Summer temps in the 30's for a few days in a row. It didn't happen in Jan which was rather mild. The thunderstorm and cool change swept thru mid afternoon yesterday with very heavy rain and we got some hail stones. It was a typical Summer thunderstorm followed by a cool change which at least cooled down the place enough that sleeping was not an issue. Has really cooled down today with a top temp of 20C compared to the 37C we had yesterday. Had to get out of the shorts and put the trakkie daks back on. That outage in Vic in the Geelong area as part of the storm, hasn't impacted most of Melbourne. The power in the city and on my side of Melbourne has not been impacted. By the way they are talking about it on the news, you'd be forgiven to think this outage is a major issue in Melbourne. It's not.

So Barnaby is at it again. Doing dumb shit which must be yet again embarrassing for his kids from his first marriage and also the Nat's. But they did bring him back as their leader when the LNP was in power as the govt. So you reap what you sow. Once again Barnaby is blaming something else for his behaviour. Now it's his "medication". Everyone who takes medication has had it with alcohol at some point. I did it last night with a beer. Never ended up on the floor babbling into my phone. Canberra is dead at night on a normal night, so Barnaby probably thought nobody would find him pissed and lying down on the street calling his latest wife to come get him. He is fuck up as a politician and as a man. The Nat's however don't seem to give a fuck so long as he gets the votes. They will take any loser so long as that person gets votes for the Nat's.

Lots being made of Joeb and his memory. No fucking kidding. The dude is in his 80's now so yep he is going to forget stuff and mix up people's names. Given how long he has been in politics he has met many politicians and leaders from numerous countries. Mum's mix up the names of their kids all the time. All of us have walked into a room then forgot why we were in the room. I usually walk back out to where I started then it comes back to me what I wanted to do. Usually happens when I'm thinking about several things at once. The real issue is can Joeb do his job which he doesn't seem to have any issue doing. It's like muscle memory for him. And yes he keeps telling people the same stories. Everyone old person does. On the other side when you hear Rump speak you'd swear the guy has a brain injury. He sounds like a stroke victim. Which is probably a slight against actual stroke victims. Not much of what he says is coherent or even on the topic he is speaking about. He can't put together one coherent sentence. The outburst about NATO is just stupid. The US is the author of numerous NATO standards so for Rump to indicate the US is going to pull out of or defund NATO is total bullshit, they can't because a number of the munitions that are used by various countries are based on those NATO standards which the US owns. It is yet again more waffle from Rump to get more votes from people who are basically too dumb to think for themselves. It's a bit like the vote on The Voice here. Educated people voted Yes, dumb people voted No.

Playing the second story in Red Dead Redemption 2 as John. Continuing to make better notes on the game and realised a couple of things I did at the wrong time. There are so many hidden things in the game some of which don't go anywhere. No matter how many times I've played this game I've never found everything but found all the main things and completed a majority of the side missions to get stuff. Each time I play it I find something new or a better way to do stuff. Looking to buy some new DVD's come Easter. Waiting to see if the sales will take some dollars off the one's I want. Also saw the new Walking Dead series is almost out with the main character. Looking forward to that one.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Watched the series about the UK post office software scandal. Heard about it on the BBC news before I watched the first part of the series. We now get on the BBC news daily on the TV during the morning. The ABC poaches stories from the BBC. Was down at my local post office last week and was chatting to the person at the counter and she told me that she was watching the series with interest. Turns out that Australia Post uses Fujitsu software as well. The same company behind the scandal in the UK post office. People were wrongly convicted and like our Robodebt scandal, people running these post offices were made to pay back money they didn't owe. Is another case of a company, in this case a govt organisation, telling lies to protect their brand. The fact that 700 people were being convicted of similar crimes didn't raise any issues for the post office in the UK is a case of not wanting to know. Same with out Robodebt. The LNP govt of the day didn't want to admit they fucked up. When so many people experience similar if not the same issue, then there is a common cause. It's not an individual doing the wrong thing. And again similar to the UK post office scandal, people part of the Robodebt scandal were told they were the only ones. Nobody from the British Post Office went to jail nor has any MP in the British Parliament been hauled of the coals for their part in the scandal. It seems amazing that none of them thought to ask the question of how can so many people who are not known to each other be convicted of the same crime for doing the exact same thing.

The Aussie women did an amazing job in the test cricket. All the talk about them not being as good any more is total rubbish. They aren't going to win every game, but there is still a big divide between them and the other women's teams. They keep winning all the titles. They are very talented. Women should be allowed to play more test cricket. The talk about the fact nobody will watch it, is again total rubbish. They said the same thing about women's AFL. Now they have to play on bigger grounds to fit in all the fans. What is clear is that playing cricket in Perth is not a money maker. Seems nobody in Perth wants to watch cricket. They may lose future cricket games to the eastern states if things don't improve.

So was doing my weekly grocery shop last week. Not a big activity day, so it was just a short trip to the local Woollies then back home. The drama unfolded at the checkout. I picked the wrong person to be behind. All her groceries were loaded on the conveyor. So far so good. Then she decided to make a call, which is when things took an annoying turn. She tried to load two slabs of water bottles with one hand and only managed to smash them on to the other grocery bags in the trolley. She then proceed to go on walkabout in the store while still on the phone and was getting in the way of other people, bumped in to the railing, then wandered into the trolley stack and almost headed out the main doors. She was totally unaware of where she was because she was so engrossed in her phone call. While all this carry on was happening the person on the checkout was watching and kept filling up the bags and had to call her back to pay for her groceries. Then she screwed around on the phone trying to make the payment which took several tries. Then instructed the checkout person to put the remaining bags in her trolley, as which point I had had enough of this. And told the woman to get off her phone and put her own bags in her trolley. She took one look at me, got of her phone and used both hands to load her trolley and then tried to steer the overflowing trolley with one hand while still carrying on the conversation. The checkout person didn't know what to do so I had to step in. The lack of respect and ignorance was more than I could tolerate. I have very little patience with fuckwits these days, especially when they are fucking around holding up everyone else. The woman on the checkout looked rather relieved that I stepped in and gave me a big smile as I left. She was young and not sure how to act.

Have been back in the garden for several days since last week. Gave the front hedge another trim to slim it down. It's a long hedge so will have to do several passes to get it down to the height I want otherwise it would look odd to have one side shorter than the other. Doesn't take long to fill up the large garden bin. Did some more work in the back yard getting rid of an ivy creeper in the driveway. Might not sound a difficult task but it has been there a long time and it developed large roots which as I discovered came from between the concrete. I ended up on the ground in the end using a hammer and chisel to get under the roots because of the concrete surrounding it. Managed to get it all cleaned up and the surrounding area now has a new fresh look. Only issue is that I got a strain in the back doing the job so I've been sitting it out since yesterday waiting for the back pain to go away. Lots of heat pack applications and rub downs, but in the end it's only time that will fix it as I've become used to in the last decade. Back issues are just part of life now.

Mr Potato Head is going off again, this time about boat arrivals. The fact is we cannot patrol our entire coast line because it's too big. Even though it's only the northern coast, but it is huge. Nobody is coming by boat on our southern coast unless it's penguins. We don't have enough manpower nor aircraft nor surface vessels to do the job on our northern coastline. We used to have Caribou aircraft patrolling the area but they kept breaking down as they are short haul aircraft not a surveillance aircraft. In fact we have never had enough of everything to patrol out northern coast because it is too vast. What continually goes unreported is the number of asylum seekers we get that come here via flights to Australia. There are thousands who come here on a visa then seek asylum. Nobody is talking about stopping flights into Australia. The LNP hasn't said anything about how they would combat people who come here on a visa then overstay and then seek asylum. The UK would love our problem of small numbers of people arriving illegally by boat. They get thousands and we bitch about a few dozen, then the media blow it up as a massive story. Nothing has changed in border protection since Labor has come to power. The LNP figures come from what they said they were going to do but never funded. Which is a theme with the LNP. They just made up expenditure that they were never going to fund and now blame the current govt for not funding their projections. Smoke and mirrors.

Another week and another pissed Nat's MP and of course Littleman defended her actions even before she confessed to drinking before she sat on the committee. The irony is that she put forward new rules for drinking in Parliament. It's a bit like Barnaby speaking out about the family unit then having an affair with his staffer. Hypocrites the both of them. No other workplace in the public service allows drinking during work hours unless it's a function which is then designated a free work period and anyone who has a drink has to clock off.

So Putin has killed off another opponent which is something Rump wants to be able to do if he gets into power again. He wants America to become like Russia where those in power can kill off any morals and opposition to his views. The man is clearly delusional. Rump admires Putin for his ability to commit murder without consequences although Putin is essentially a prisoner in his own country. He can only travel to other Russian supporting countries without fear of being arrested. In that sense Putin and Rump are the same. Both are fearing being arrested. Putin for killing his rivals, Rump for just about everything except murder, but that could all change if the American people are dumb enough to elect him again. He will seek retribution if elected again. He as already tried to get Joeb on false charges for which the Republicans admit they don't have any evidence. When pushed by one judge, the news outlet that supports Rump admitted they had no evidence of the lies they were spreading. Just another bunch of arse kissers who are all banking on Rump winning again so they can get into this favour if he wins the election.

The CEO of Woollies is now resigning which is due to his fuck up in the interview with Four Corners. Both Coles and Woollies can't explain their greed and screwing over farmers on all levels. It is hard to find an independent grocer. Some of the strip shopping centres still have a green grocer but their prices are higher. People still shop at these places because they want specific items. Will be interesting to see Coles and Woollies explain away their prices at the enquiry. Lets just hope the MP's are sober this time. I told a friend of mine of strip shops. She laughed. Apparently they don't have the term 'shopping strips' in Sydney. Backward people.

Warm few days in Melbourne town. Was in the high 20's yesterday and is in the 30's today and tomorrow. Then expecting a cool change with some rain on Friday. Had the fans going since yesterday afternoon. It suddenly got warm later in the afternoon. Was able to sleep last night so that is something. Saw that even Albany in WA had temps in the 40's which is highly unusual given it's probably the coolest place in WA a majority of the time. Even when it's in the 40's in Perth, Albany can be in the 20's.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Happy Birthday to all Leap Year babies who can actually celebrate their birthday on the day they were born.

With Summer officially ending today it went out with a bang. Had a couple of days in the 30's this week. The 37C predicted didn't really impact as it was a rather cloudy day then the rain came mid-afternoon which cooled things down. Even with Summer ending, bushfires are raging in the north west of Vic. The heat won't really leave Vic till early April so we have at least another month of possible high temps.

Not sure why it is a shock on the news that racism is entrenched in the NT police. No fucking kidding. The same can be said for the police forces in WA and Qld. Basically where ever Indigenous people have a high presence in regions their is racism in the local police force. This goes way back and is part of the police culture in these areas. We may live in a more civilised society these days but old biases have not changed. Indigenous people are still getting killed by police. Only difference now is that it is not a massacre as it was in the past when police would go hunting for Indigenous people cause some whitefella wanted their land. For all the stuff that has been thrown at Indigenous people they have endured and will continue to endure because their culture is strong. The Christen missions couldn't beat it out of them and nor can the current state and federal govt policies which are their to make white people comfortable. The thing that scares whitefellas in Australia is not govt policies, it's educated Indigenous people because they can argue their cases according to whitefella laws and can win. People like Prof Marcia Langton scare the shit out of whitefellas which is why LNP politicians have gone to great lengths to discredit her.

Slomo gave his last speech to Parliament and he won't be missed. What is annoying is that he was given reverence in his final appearance. It was a typical farewell where only positive things are said. Seen this so many times in real life where absolute fuckwits are then given a positive farewell and the truth is buried on the day. Slomo's kids will learn in time what an arsehole their dad is, if they chose to learn the truth.

Was able to leave the house on Monday without any back pain. Even as late as the weekend, couldn't walk down the driveway without pain. Walking was an issue for several days. Getting into and out of bed was painful as was any movement whilst in bed. Had similar back pain in the recent years after doing too much. Was surprised how many people were out at the local Woollies on Monday. Doesn't seem to matter which day I go out shopping, the car parks are rather full. Previously it was mostly pensioners that I would see out and about, but with the "working from home" thing, more people are out during the day. It's not just mum's doing the family shopping. It's all ages. The "working from home" thing always makes me laugh as we used to know that meant someone was just taking a day off without actually taking leave. It was basically a bludge day as you could never contact that person when they were supposedly "working from home".

Have gone back to playing the original Red Dead Redemption game as a follow up to finishing Red Dead Redemption 2 which is a prequel to the original game. Now there is talk about Red Dead 3 which looks like it is going back even further in the story. Still waiting for the next Elder Scrolls game but that isn't going to happen till the end of the current decade. They make you wait a long time.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Labor won the by-election but if you listen to the Lib's you would assume that the Lib's won it. They can't even acknowledge a loss. They are sounding very much like the Republicans in the US. Just deny the loss and say you won regardless of the facts. The Lib's are in danger of being as delusional as those fuckwits in the Republican party. Dunkley is largely a working class electorate with the more expensive suburbs further south towards what is normally the Summer holiday spot further down the bay. Places like Frankston has come up but it will always be a working class suburb. Given all the negativity about things like the cost of living which is nothing new, the Lib's should of won this by-election if their message was cutting thru. Their deputy leader with her inappropriate tweet was aimed at the white people in Dunkley and it fell flat. She hasn't been sanctioned which just goes to show white people can say anything without backlash. The same doesn't happen for non-whites.

The heating element in my oven gave out over the weekend so have to get that fixed which won't happen till next week. The last time this happened I purchased a small electric oven as a backup. It usually takes over a week to get the repair done. It needs replacing about every 5yrs now. Other than that haven't had any issues with the electric stove over the last 23yrs. Given our throw away society, that's rather good. Apparently if a stove is over 15yrs old it's considered ancient. That seems to be the tipping point when things go wrong.

The LNP is now bitching about the number of OS students coming to Australia. Previously they were bitching about the fact the lockdowns in the mainly Labor states were preventing OS students coming to Australia. They just want to bitch about the opposite for no reason. I'm sure all those Aussie uni's wouldn't be happy that the LNP is trying to discourage OS students from coming to Australia. The LNP doesn't have a plan. The main plan is just to ban everyone from coming to Australia. It's straight from the Republican playbook in the US. We cannot afford to stop migration. If we stop migration then women in this country will need to have more babies which isn't happening. We simply won't have enough taxes to pay for things which will drive up poverty. The other idea of wanting nuclear power rather than renewables is yet another idea just to be opposite to whatever Labor comes up with. The LNP is all about the free market driving the economy. Well they should listen to what was there base supporters in private industry. There is no money from private industry for nuclear power plants, plus the voting public doesn't want nuclear power. The last few years has shown what devastation can happen when nuclear goes wrong plus the fact those small nuclear reactors are just an idea. No prototype exists let alone the huge amount of money needed to start it up. All those people talking about the cost of living will not tolerate billions being spent on an idea.

That private law firm going to the ICC to charge Albo with genocide is total bullshit. Those groups in the community hiding behind that Aussie law firm should make themselves known. Protesting against the war in Gaza is not a problem. Everyone has the right to protest but to then go one step further to promote hate is going too far. Australia has bugger all influence on Netanyahu. The money we give to the UN agency in Gaza is also a small amount. Lets also not forget lots of western Christian countries are giving to the UN agencies in Gaza. The same cannot be said of the rich Arab countries. If the US chooses to not support Israel with munitions then the terrorist groups in Gaza, the West Bank, Iran and in Lebanon will attack Israel which will blow up into a major war which will involve western countries. All those terrorist groups want Israel gone and wants western countries to walk away from Israel. The key to end of this war is the release of the hostages which Hamas refuses to do. They are allowing Netanyahu to do what he is doing because of the hostages. So in a perverse way Hamas is supporting Netanyahu.

Was rather warm yesterday when I was out in the garden for a short time. Did the mowing and was mainly mowing weeds. The ground is very dry. Apart from the weeds the mower was throwing up lots of dust. Typically the front lawn dries out during Summer then comes back lush as we get closer to Winter. More heat coming to Melbourne town on the weekend with successive days in the 30's. Summer hasn't gone anywhere. It's quite normal to have temps in 30's in Melbourne in March and even early April. No rain till probably next week. So it will take more time for the house to cool down after the weekend.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Morning all,

The heat wave on the weekend and on Monday was the main talking point in Melbourne town. Having three days around 38C for three consecutive days was testing. Had to use the fan at night to sleep, but it didn't really cool off till after midnight each night so lots of people would of gone to work sleep deprived. The cool change was slow and lasted most of Tues. Not the normal big gusts of wind that accompany a typical cool change, but more of a light breeze. Had the doors and bedroom window open all day on Tues. It tried to rain but we got a few spots. The real rain didn't happen till the early hours of Wed morning. Woke me up and ihad to shut the window. Now having a couple of days of showers but nothing heavy. The heat is coming back for the weekend and into next week with temps in the 30's again to start off next week. So can't put away the shorts just yet. Summer hasn't gone anywhere.

Got the oven repaired on Tues. It only took a few minutes to change over the heating element. Took longer for the techie to get thru the company's computer system to process the payment than actually do the replacement. Same guy has been to my place on the previous visits to fix the same issue. He mentioned that the replacement parts now come from a different country so they don't last as long as they did in previous years. I totally forgot about the public holiday on Monday. I only notice the major public holidays these days. Easter is on at the end of this month.

The Moomba Parade which normally happens on the Labour Day, Monday public holiday was cancelled due to the heat. Not a normal thing. The Labour Day public holiday was removed by the previous Lib Vic govt and was brought back by Danny Boy as was the Moomba Parade. The Libs removed the parade as well. Basically anything that celebrated workers rights was killed off by the Lib govt, which was another reason they got kicked out and won't be coming back any time soon in Vic. Things improved for just about everyone when Labor came to power under Danny Boy. Whenever the Libs are in power they cut govt services and seek to privatise all govt services which is why things like utility bills suddenly doubled. The 8hr work day might not be of any importance to the younger generation but if not for that, they would not be going to school or uni, they would be forced to go to work. Kids as young as 10yrs old were sent off to work. Today that would be considered child abuse in western countries, but it still happens in some countries in the world.

Putin has now pissed off all the Vikings. With Sweden now part of NATO, Putin has increased NATO capability. The Swedes have more fire power than most NATO countries who have been asleep for many decades. Unlike the UN, NATO doesn't need the rather lack luster UN Security Council to act. The UN is nothing more than a charity organization now. How can it operate effectively when it has countries like China and Russia on the security council able to block actions. Both China and Russia is allowed to act without consequences. The UN are in some alternate reality where a country can wage war against other countries yet is allowed to sit on the decision making council to veto any actions to cease the invasion by that country. It is a crazy situation and makes no sense. The only thing the UN does is allow politicians a well paid job for doing fuck all. It's a pretty sweet gig to sit in the UN. It's a bit like a holiday camp for them. The rule should be is that if you invade another country you don't get to sit on any committee till you withdraw your troops. It's like inviting the people who killed a member of your family to a family birthday party. You wouldn't do it in real life, yet in the UN it's considered acceptable. Just nuts.

Lots of fuss over a photo of Cate and the kids. Really? Who cares. Ok so she isn't good at photoshop. You would think they have people for that given all the money the royals have. And of course that toxic place called social media is jumping all over it. If the people making all these comments had their own life put in the spot light they would find themselves hiding in a hole. The old "those without sin" thing. We have a social media environment made up of people that believe their opinion is so fucking important that the world must listen to them. You don't matter to the rest of the universe. This planet we live on doesn't give a flying fuck about you nor what you have to say, so get your head out of your arse and try to do some good before you die. Cause you are going to die and nobody is going to remember what you said on social media.

The house next door has been on the market nearly 4 months now. The asking price seems rather high which is why it hasn't sold yet. I certainly wouldn't be paying that much. There are several other properties in the neighbourhood for sale at a more reasonable price and properties in the area continue to sell well but have sold for far less. For this property it's probably a case of overbuilding for the area. Another trap people fall into if they want to sell a property, in that they put too much into it to get the money back. Knowing what the previous property on that site went for, the owner seems too greedy even in this market. The only people who will buy this property are those wanting to hide money, which is what investors do. There are lots of apartments in Melbourne which are not occupied because it's a legal way to hide money. You buy an expensive property just to not show how much money you actually have so it can't be taxed. Hold onto that property for 5yrs then you can sell it again without any suspicions from the ATO. Totally different if you are into property management in that your business is to flip properties. All that is visible to the ATO. Greed with catch you out every time.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Just found this thread....was starting to wonder if everyone was from the US or UK!!!

yes and yes, but most are from the US which makes posting in real time an issue. You always miss a post in sequence. It's like having a conversation using pigeons.

Oh by the way welcome to the thread. Just post stuff you find interesting or annoying.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Went to the dentist yesterday for a follow up of an issue I had last month. Things have improved so nothing further action was required. I wasn't even charged for the appointment which didn't last long. He is a good dentist which is why I keep going back to him. Sure he is expensive, after all he is a Collins St dentist, so the top end of town, but he is good. Even managed to get back on the PT within the 2 hr period so the trip into the CBD and back home only cost me $2.65. The PT fares went up as of Jan 1 this year. The Seniors Card gets me very few benefits mainly on the PT. But well I did spend nearly $70 on chocs yesterday from the choc shop across from the dentist. It is Haigh's so they aren't cheap.

Whilst I was in the city yesterday which was another warm day in the 30's, I saw a number of trees had shed their leaves due to the mini heatwave we have hot for the last 5 days. Temps have been around the 30C mark since Friday last week. Sure it is Autumn but the leaves don't normally start falling till later in the season. I've only seen this once before when we had a week of temps in the 40's during Feb. All the trees down St. Kilda Road, which is major road in the city, shed their leaves because of the heat and lack of rain. The trees were shedding their leaves because of the lack of water. When that heatwave finally broke and the rain came down, the trees started to grow new leaves. Never seen that before in Melbourne. That was over a decade ago. Just been watching the radar to see when the cool change is going to hit my side of Melbourne. Another day tipped to be in the 30's today before the cool change arrives, then lots of rain into tomorrow when I have to go out again for a medical appointment.

Seems Rump is attracting more crazy people to his side. Yet another crazy woman wants to join the ranks of the Republican politicians. This latest one previously has called for the execution of Obama. She actually came out and said Obama should be killed. This was only back in 2020 when Obama was well out of office. This follows on from that other crazy bitch who is actually a Senator that went on TV and mentioned a case of a woman who was sex trafficked then blamed JoeB for it. Turns out that the woman was sex trafficked by her boyfriend back when Bush Jr, a Republican, was president. When she was challenged on the facts, she made an excuse for getting the facts wrong. No apology for misleading the public. Yet another crazy women being attracted to the Rump cult. Add her to the wives of his two sons who are just as bat shit crazy as the other women attracted to Rump. The wife of son number two was introduced as someone who was not qualified for her job, but was qualified by God. Holly fuck! Wonder if her plastic surgeon was qualified by God. All these people think they have to say outlandish things and tell lies to get into Rump's good books. Lets be clear. The Republican party in the US is now Rump's Republican party. It has little resemblance of the true Republican party. Those who should know better have kowtowed to Rump to save their cushy jobs in Washington. They have put their jobs ahead of their own party morals. They are essentially sell outs to Rump. Even if Rump loses this election, he will retain control over the Republican party for years to come which means he will try again. By Rump's speeches he clearly has some mental impairment which seems to be getting worse. He can barely put together a coherent sentence. Most of what he says doesn't make sense unless you are a toddler. Then he virtually cums on stage when he mentions Putin. He really wants to give Putin a blowjob while being spanked by Poo Bear with a rolled up Time magazine with his face on the cover. Just like the fake one he had made up to put in his bedroom. Time magazine wouldn't put him on the front cover so his ego made him get a fake one printed. Which he tells people is real.

Had the radio on whilst doing stuff around the house and heard 'Stumbling in' by Suzi Quarto. Was curious why they would be playing that past hit. Turns out this guy Cyril has put it out as a dance track. The younger generation would have no clue that they are hearing a song that is over 45yrs old. It was a hit back in 1978. Not sure if this re-release is to do with the fact that Suzi Q is touring Australia at the moment. Anyway is was interesting to hear an old hit from my teenage years back on the radio.

Lots of fuss over Sam Kerr using a racial slur against a cop in England. Turns out she said "you stupid white bastard". That was it. Cops have been called worse. So this cop decided to make a name for themselves by arresting someone using that language. She was also supposedly drunk. Social media will eat this cop alive for being a sensitive flower. Kerr's fan club should get T-shirts made up using the SWB logo. Can't get fined for that. If we want example of SWB's look no further that the LNP. They are led by one and then there is Barnaby and the silly woman who is the deputy. She can't help herself making stupid statements. I reckon SWB T-shirts should be a new craze.

Putin won his election which wasn't an actual election, but the UN has not come out and declared the Russian election illegitimate. They are happy to declare elections in African countries as illegitimate and will send so called independent election observers. The UN didn't do this in Russia and everyone knows Putin has killed or jailed all his opposition yet his presidency is still recognised by the UN as legitimate. How can this be so? So if you are white dictator you are a legitimate govt but if you are a black dictator your govt is illegitimate. Makes no sense. How is Putin any different to the gang leader in Haiti? Putin has also killed Russians living in other countries who oppose his presidency, yet he is given legitimate status by the UN and Russia is on the security council. Again how can this be allowed? The UN are totally useless and it is not a safer world because of the UN. In fact the world is less safe.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Last week was busy with being out and about 3 out of 5 days. Felt like going back to work using the alarm. The weather also went from a very warm 32C at the start of the week to the end of the week being in the low 20's with winter type overnight temps. It was shorts and T-shirts at the start of the week and the trakkie dacks and a warm top by Friday. With all the heat we have had the last couple of weeks the rose creeper in the back yard has had a growth spurt. The roses continue to bloom on that creeper which produce large pink roses. There are now new rosebuds on that creeper so more roses are going to come thru in the next couple of weeks. Which is surprising. Most of the tea roses in the front garden are blooming as well. We are supposed to be in Autumn not rose blooming season. More heat coming our way for Easter which makes three weekends in a row we have had a mini heatwave.

Happy Easter for later in the week to all those chocolate lovers. Even though Easter eggs have been out for over a month now, I've resisted buying any till now. I only started buying hot cross buns the last couple of weeks. There has been a special on in Woollies the last couple of weeks. My preference is to heat them in the oven till they get crispy ends then add marg to them and have that with a cup of coffee. Haven't used butter for a long time, probably 20yrs. Of course there is that religious thing that happens at Easter, but it's mainly about the choc these days. I purchased my usual nougat Easter egg which these days is half an egg. When I was a kid it was a whole egg and it would last a long time. Darrell Lea has been in Melbourne for many decades and their first store was in Swanston Street which is where I remember going to get my Easter egg as a kid. These days you can get Darrell Lea in the supermarkets. Do like their rocklea road choc block.

When doing the grocery shopping in my local area I noticed that there are two more spaces being developed for more apartments near the station. Another two former house blocks which are being converted into apartments. Not sure how high these new ones are going to be. The irony of all these new apartments and higher volume of people in the area is that the local bank branch was removed because of what they said was a lack of volume of customers which was total bullshit at the time. We have now had a big increase in housing, mainly apartments and multiple dwellings in the local area. I have no doubt that any other houses sold in my area will turn into multi-dwelling living. The bus service in the area has not change, it is still shit which again seems nuts given there is a bus hub at the local Westfield. We only get a bus every 30mins and that is using two bus lines which is why people still use cars to get around the place. The bus service also stops at 7pm on a work day. Which is crap. Sure we get a train every 10mins but getting to the train station is the issue. The bus situation has not changed in the 23yrs I've been living here. Given the huge increase in people living in the area you would think the local bus service would improve.

Rump has claimed in his rallies that he very rich, now he claims he hasn't enough money to pay for his court bills. He doest want to pay the $500Million because he wants to use that money for his election run so he can pay he just doesn't want to. He as tried to raise the money with insurance companies and they have all told him to fuck off. They have been bitten by Rump before. Banks don't care as they can always take control of Rump's properties if he doesn't pay his loans. Now Rump is wanting his followers to pay his legal bills, but he is the one who is continually going to court. None of his so called products are available you have to buy them on faith he will keep his promise to send you the goods which he won't do. It's a scam to raise money. He has been in court litigation in his private business for decades. He keeps getting sued for not paying his bills. If he is not willing to pay then the court should just seize his properties and sell them off since he is unwilling to sell any of his properties to pay up.If it was anyone else, the courts would not be so lenient they would just take control of his properties and sell them. It would be fucking hilarious to see his properties being seize and sold off.

Now that Kate has revealed she is being treated for cancer, people should just leave her alone. Obviously she didn't want anyone to know but the unrelenting pressure from the press and the fuckwits in the media has forced her hand. Those on social media are now trying to walk back their comments, but there is a permanent record of their comments. These are people who are so desperate for attention they feel that if they say outrageous stuff it gets them attention. If the spotlight was put on their lives it would show pathetic people who's lives don't matter. If the mob turned on them, they would cry and say life is unfair. Surprisingly the UK press apologized. Why? Well purely for business reasons. Attacking a young mother undergoing cancer treatment is not good for business. What is does show is what a toxic environment social media is and that the UK press is based on attacking people and nothing to do with actually reporting the facts. Journalism is now mostly based on making the news not reporting the facts.

The Grand Prix was on in Melbourne this weekend. I watched it like I do every year. I went one year and wouldn't go again. You see far more on the TV. It usually takes a month to build up that area in Albert Park and another month to break it all down. It basically closes down that area for over 2 months. I've driven on that Grand Prix track many many times. Usually on a monthly basis and have taken visitors on it. It's a thing to do in Melbourne. It was an interesting race for a change. F1 has become predictable and becomes boring as a sport to watch because the outcome is sealed early on in the race.

Was just out in the backyard for a few hours today. Was bending the back mainly clearing out an area with smaller bits from the trees I've gotten rid off. So now it looks more like a proper backyard. Only the back area near the fence to clear and the backyard will look huge. Amazing how big a space can look when you clear away foliage and trees. I have an old fashioned property so I've got more land than a new home. Which seems very attractive to developers. The day started out much like for F1 on Sunday. Overcast and cool then the sun came out and it has gotten warm even though the temp is in the low 20's. Being out in the sun for a few hours also added to the heat. Built up quite a sweat. I'm sure my back will feel sore later on tonight and into tomorrow.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you. So looking forward to the end of daylight savings next week and people mowing their fucking lawns at 7pm.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Wet day timetable for the first half of the week here in Melbourne town. The rain has gone for now but apparently will be back later this afternoon. Melbourne was hit with two bands of rain the first from the NW and then from the SW which is where the current round of rain is coming from. Because of those two storms coming together last night parts of Melbourne was deluged. Not the worst storms we have had but enough to cause the footy to be stopped which doesn't stop for anything. In the old days they used to play thru lightning and thunderstorms. Now due to health and safety the only time the game stops is because of close lightning. Luckily they were playing on the MCG which has excellent drainage.

March has been a relatively dry month compared to the Summer. Mostly heatwaves in March. April is starting off with a deluge. Also the daylight hours are noticeably less in this past week. The mornings are dark and also getting colder. All signs that the weather is turning to cooler temps. The kiddies are also on school holidays so chaos reigns for all outings. No going to major shopping centres. Even just going to do the groceries will be hectic. Thankfully daylight savings ends this weekend. Spent a couple of hours this morning clearing out the last closet. Organized stuff into bags of stuff to keep short term and filled up a couple of more bags for the big rubbish collection. A few more tasks to do for the rubbish collection. The pile is growing slowly.

China has lifted its tariff on Aussie wine which it's linking to the court proceedings, which is interesting as China hasn't been scared to punish Australia before for our stance of China's actions in international waters. The Chinese govt is probably more scared of their middle class who have been banned from buying Aussie wine and beef. Also the Chinese economy has tanked so the middle class isn't making the money the govt promised them. China needs the western countries more than the west needs China who has decimated it's own fauna. China as basically killed off most of their species. It can't feed it's population without the imports from western countries. They can't rely on NK who's people are still starving since their leader is spending more money on weapons than his own people. Their is a lot more to the story of why China has chosen now to lift the tariff on Aussie wine.

The Lib's in Tassie look like they are going to form govt but still in minority so the election has been a complete waste of money. For all her talk it also looks like Jackie is going to back the Lib's. She talks tough but when it comes to holding people accountable she folds. She did it at the federal level and now is doing it in her home state. The Lib's lost the latest by-election but are still claiming victory. It's a theme now in Lib campaigns to not concede defeat even when they lose. They continue to model their speeches on the Republican party. It's a trend that they will take to the next election which is not a healthy attitude. They are just anti everything the govt stands for. It's a negative way to run a political party.

The Republicans are now asking potential new staff if they agree that the election was stolen and that Rump is the true President. If they answer truthfully, i.e. the claims are false, they don't get the job. Rump doesn't reward loyalty yet people still want to be on his side. He sacked the head of the RNC (who helped him spread his lies) and put in place his own daughter in-law who is a whack job with no political experience. This former head of the RNC was then given a job by NBC as a favour. It would of been a multi-million dollar deal. It was a secret deal which none of the reporters and senior journalists knew about, but when they found out they demanded her to be sacked which their management did but only after they were shamed on TV. This woman who ran the RNC touts herself as a strong independent woman which just goes to show just because a woman says she is strong and independent doesn't mean she can't be just as big a jackass as a man in the same job. Gender has nothing to do with it, only the desire for power which can corrupt all humans. It's about the morals of the person in power not their gender.

Been watching American Idol and comparing that to Aussie Idol. The main difference is the judges. We have the talent but the two shows are like chalk and cheese. The American version is much better as are the artists. Has nothing to do with the size of the population. We need three of Marcia. WTF is Kyle doing on there is a total mystery. Everyone keeps kissing his arse. Ok so the guy has some power in radio but he knows fuck all about being a performing artist. Compare our judges to those on American Idol who are massive stars in the music industry with one legend in the form of Lionel Ritchie. If you are going to get people to judge a category then get people who are experts in that field. It's not difficult but here in Australia we seem to want to put people on a judging panel who are celebrities rather than experts. No wonder Australian Idol lost an audience. We have a number of Aussie music stars who could sit on the panel. The Voice is a much better show because all the judges are artists in their own right and know the music industry very well.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Over the Easter week I looked at season 1 of Daryl Dixon - Walking Dead. It was one of the most favoured characters of the Walking Dead series and one character that could not be allowed to die unlike lots of other characters in that series. This new series is different but enjoyable. Will look out for the next season when Carol comes into the story. Not sure about the Dead City series, may wait till it gets cheaper. Waiting for the series with the main character Rick Grimes. Seen the trailer and it looks good. Have to wait till next year. Also saw the last of the Equalizer movie series. Denzel brought it again and harks back to the original movie. Didn't much like the second movie. He won't win any movie awards for this movie but it has a lot of fans. The twist at the end wasn't something anyone saw coming. I didn't connect Dakota Fanning with the Man on Fire movie but she did look familiar. Wasn't till I saw the extras on the DVD did I make the connection. Man on Fire also another fav Denzel movie.

Wet day timetable again for Melbourne town this week. Have had all week and more to come tomorrow but not as much as seen in Sydney. Not usual for Melbourne to get weather from the east. The rain we are getting now is coming from the SW and the south as per normal as the weather turns cooler. So, no work outside this week. Been doing some smaller tasks inside. Some replacements and more tidying up work. Stuff I would of done later. When doing the groceries this week I bought up some additional Easter chocs which are hugely discounted, but I wasn't the only one. The people in front of me only had Easter chocs in their shopping.

Have been looking at the house prices in my local area and noted the increase in prices since last year. All goes well for my sell up this year. Still think they are overpriced but if people want to pay those prices, then why not. A property is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Autumn has properly arrived in Melbourne town. The weather has turned cooler and that humidity we had only last week has gone which is typical for the second week in April. It's like switch has been flicked. The leaves are turning yellow and falling and the mornings are cooler. So, a normal start to Autumn. Whilst technically it started last month, it doesn't really start till this time in April. Decided to pack away the portable cooler and the fans. I don't plan on being here for the next Summer.

The first week of the end of daylight savings and thank goodness that idiotic time has ended. Does feel like the day lags now but that will change as we get further into this normal time. Daylight savings just messes with people's body clocks and doesn't make any sense to keep it. Now tends to get dark at 6pm that will change come the end of May to closer to 4pm. Which is typical Winter daylight. We get much less daylight in Winter that say Brisbane gets during Winter. The whole curvature of the earth thing.

All the talk about the solar eclipse in the US. If you were god fearing you could say it was a sign from god to the voters in the US that if Rump is elected president, the US will be in a perpetual solar eclipse where the birds stop singing and the country is plunged into darkness. It could also be seen as an omen that the eclipse started in the south of the US and went right thru Rump's heartland. The gods have spoken and they are not happy. The bible thumpers keep looking for signs from God, well they got one. That's if you believe in that sort of thing.

Rump can't help himself from threatening the judge and his family in that fraud case, to telling women he will support a nationwide ban on abortion which he only walked back after his minders said he will lose votes if he doesn't make up some other bullshit to reverse his comments. Arizona has taken Rump literally and taken that state back to the civil war with a law from 1864 banning abortion. That is what the Republicans want. To bring back the laws from slavery times to the modern US. If any woman votes for Rump in the US election she is letting down all the other women in the US. A lot of women are going to die because of this ruling in Arizona because they will either be denied medical treatment or be forced to use backyard abortions because they can't afford the medical fees for an abortion. Even if they leave to get an abortion in another state, they can still face criminal charges when they get back to Arizona. Their only other option is to have the baby then give it up so creating another generation of poverty. Not many kids given up for adoption live happy lives since lots of kids don't get adopted and are thrown out of the system when they turn 18yrs old and essentially chucked out on the street. The Lib's here in Australia want to follow the lead of the Republicans and ban abortions here.

Off to a family gathering on the weekend. I'll probably be the elder stateman since I'm now part of the oldest generation in the family. At least it won't be raining, hopefully.

Hope the weekend if good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Saw the Palestinian protesters outside a small parts manufacturer which is silly given those parts are for domestic use. Some idiot was interviewed claiming this manufacturer was supporting the war in Gaza which is total bullshit. Defence has been using small parts manufacturers for many decades even when we had govt military factories. Now it's all privatized. Israel is getting it's maintenance parts from the USA not us. Since these protestors say they care about human life, where were they when Hamas including men from Gaza attacked, killed and raped people in Israel. If you say you care about human life, you then can't be selective.

The attack on the Bondi Junction Westflield shopping centre is out of character for Australia. It was clear this guy had an issue with women as he wouldn't confront a man. He was obviously shunned by women because of his lack of social skills. Social media was used to show the bravery of people on the day. The stabbing of that Christian priest in a different part of Sydney shows how social media can be used for anti-social and violent behaviour including threatening the paramedics and cops who showed up to deal with the stabbing. Two completely opposite reactions on social media. The only difference is that the people who posted what happened in the church were encouraging violence. The cops and paramedics were just doing their job. The same job they did in the Westfield shopping centre.

The attack on Israel by Iran, Syria, Iraq and Yemen was just dumb. Even Jordan helped to defend Israel. It also showed that the main allies, the UK and US will defend Israel if it comes under attack. It only supports Netanyahu in that he can now justify his war in Gaza. The attack by Hamas on Oct 7th and this attack by Iran only helps Netanyahu to stay in power and justifying Israel's actions in Gaza. People in Israel who were moderate and don't like Netanyahu are turning into hardliners to defend themselves and Israel. None of these actions by Hamas and Iran is smart. It will only hurt themselves.

Well Brucey Boy was found to be a liar and he raped Brittany. He got away with the rape from his court trial being abandoned. So he thought he couldn't be touched which was a big mistake for him. The judge slammed him as a serial liar and nothing he said could be relied on. He targeted Brittany, got her drunk and raped her even, obviously not the first time he had done that. His second rape trial proves he is a serial rapist. He is a piece of trash. He lied to police about what happened so he might get charged with giving false testimony and you bet this will be used in his next rape trial. He also now has to pay $10 million in legal costs. He fucked himself. Nobody in govt is going to employ him in the future. He will get a job in private industry as they will take anyone. Lying and sexual assault is never a barrier to a job in private industry in fact it practiced by those at the top of these private companies.

Spent Monday out in the garden doing a lot of hand cutting and using the hand saw to cut up the larger branches. Hands were feeling a bit sore the day after. Was out there for 3hrs without a break. Not getting any younger. Garden bin is full again. Another job to tidy up the garden. More of those jobs to do. Stuff I haven't looked at for a while. But like every garden things die and new life emerges so it's an ongoing set of tasks. The rain predicted for most of this week didn't arrive till last night and it didn't last long. Currently it's overcast and on the cooler side. Decided today to make a service call for the space heater given the temps are now getting down to 10C overnight on some days. Since it has a motherboard on it, if I don't get it serviced every 2yrs the motherboard shuts done the heater. Similar to those continues flow hot water systems. They are all computer controlled these days for safety reasons.

Caught up the extended family on the weekend. Had all 4 generations represented. The youngest member was running around everywhere with no shoes on and loving life. It was a nice sunny day which was a big change from all the rain the day before. Not often for all the generations to get together outside the major holidays.

Have gone back to playing Skyrim mainly because I was curious about the big 40G update from a few weeks ago. Couldn't work out why after so long there would be such a big update to the game. Only realised it was new content when I fired up the disc. Then got on the internet to work out what this new content was all about. Since I have the SE version the upgrade was free. I'm guessing it's to keep the Skyrim fans happy since Bethesda made people annoyed by not realising the next Elder Scrolls when they said they would. Now there isn't a clear date. Some talk about it coming out with a PS6, others that it won't happen till 2030. It's a long time to keep people engaged with the game series. Much like Witcher 3 and it's additional DLC's you have to get up to a higher level in Skyrim to start most of the new quests. Both these games are huge so lots of value if you do purchase them. Will see how this new content plays out. Not too impressed with the fishing content. The actions are rather basic and you can't move. It needs to be more interactive like in Read Dead 2 and other games like Far Cry 5. The rest of the content thus far seems the same as the rest of the Skyrim world. Lots of new armour, weapons and loot to get.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Was a warm start to the week with rain predicted for the rest of it so decided to get out in the front garden and tidy up the driveway garden beds. But didn't count on being attacked by what was later identified as European wasps. Not sure what stirred them up, possibly the noise of the shovel on the concrete. Originally thought they were bees which I get a lot of in my gardens both front and back so didn't think much about them flying around. But whatever the reason they decided I was a threat and I got swarmed and stung. So downed tools walked around to the back garden to dump all the stuff I cleaned up in the driveway and then saw similar flying insects coming out of a small hole in the grass. I had no idea the second nest was larger than the one in the driveway. So decided to call the pest control company I've used before. The odd thing about these nests was that they were located at ground level. The pest tech was even surprised as he mentioned, wasps are smart and usually avoid human traffic areas and usually locate their nests up higher away from humans. Bees aren't that smart. These European wasps are very aggressive and even the pest tech backed away after the initially dusting and boy were these wasps pissed. The killing agent is eco-friendly powder that mimics pollen. Kills them in a few minutes. He also mentioned that these wasps came from two larger colonies located nearby in the neighbourhood north and south. So I've learned something new and now when I see a skinny bee, it's actually a European wasp. They're probably French, still pissed about the submarine project.

Bit the bullet and paid for the Skyrim Anniversary upgrade. Had come to the end of the main game. Did everything and upgraded all the weapons and gear so thought why not, but to get the full impact of the new content it would be best to start a fresh game before you play the new content. What did surprise me was the size of the game with the new content on the console. Was expecting it to be bigger. Only clocks in at 51G. Most of the new open world games are around 90G which makes it annoying that the new PS5 is only around 800G. The current PS4 is 1TB. So far the new stuff in the game is good. Putting the Dwarven horse together was a mistake. Horse riding in Skyrim is still very clunky and they don't have saddle bags for extra loot. Horse riding in Read Dead and Witcher 3 actually adds to the game. But the new armour and weapons look good but doesn't do much at my current level as my current gear is higher. Once I play thru the new content will need to start a new game and judge from there whether the new upgrade was actually worth it. Granted it's about half the price of the anniversary version but it's all about the game play. Frankly for those who have purchased previous versions of Skyrim all the new content should be free given Bethesda has made lots of money from people paying for all the additional content since Skyrim first came out.

Watched the ANZAC Day parade on the TV like I do every year. Here in Melbourne it was a cold rainy day with showers rolling thru. Not major rain but enough just to be annoying. If you were driving in the car, it was one of those wipers on wipers off day. Just enough rain to make driving annoying. Got a huge dump of rain Tuesday which started off the rain for the rest of this week. Would of been cold and wet at the dawn service yesterday at the shrine. The pattern of rain is following the last two weeks. Most days of the week are wet. The weekend is supposed to be dry then more rain to start next week. All this rain has killed of my plans to do tasks outside. Will see what next week brings. Don't normally do work on the weekends.

Tried to buy an ANZAC badge like I do every year to support the veterans but couldn't find one anywhere in the local area. They usually are found in all the major grocery stores and even in post offices and there is usually someone selling badges in local shopping strips, but not this year. Not sure why. Might try a local RSL next year. When I was working in the city there were always people selling these badges at the major train stations. Not sure if that even still happens or whether COVID stopped these activities and they may have moved to on-line which would seem silly just to buy a badge.

Elon has managed a rare thing in Australian politics which is to unite all the political parties whether large, small or independents. They are all pissed at Elon's remarks about the posting of the violent stabbings in Sydney. He has refused to take down the post of the priest that was stabbed claiming it is free speech. Now he has been taken to court by the Aussie govt. I'm sure the other countries will be looking on as to how things turn out. It's one thing to break social rules to get likes on social media, a whole other thing to promote violence. As with his bad idea to purchase Twitter, this is yet another one of his bad ideas. A case of a guy with too much money who things he is untouchable. You can get away with that shit in the USA, not so here in Australia.

Got up way too early this morning when it was still dark and cold. Now it's just chilly. It was so dark when I got up, I thought it was Saturday, but the sound of the garbo trucks reminded me it's still Friday. Been watching Youtube since there wasn't anything I could do outside. Found this American guy discovering Aussie stuff. Apparently is one of those people who comment on stuff they see on Youtube. That seems to be a thing. Just goes to show Americans in general are pretty dumb when it comes to Australia or it seems any country outside their own. Simple stuff like not realising we have proper universities here. That really hasn't changed much since when I first ventured to the US back in 90's. Even with the new social media culture, Americans don't know much about stuff outside the US. Their minds are still blown by the size of Australia. I got that same question back in 1991 when travelling across the US.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The week started off wet here in Melbourne town but unlike the last 3 weeks, it has been dry for most of the week, but it feels like Winter with chilly mornings and overcast days. Even when the sun comes out from behind the clouds there isn't much warmth in it. Probably a bit too early to say Winter has come early. Can still get a day in the low 20's.

Had the heater serviced this week and learned from the tech these new log fires are basically crap at heating a rooms. I was never a fan as it takes so long to get any heat from an open log fire, then you have to sit really close anyway and try not to get smoked out. There is a reason we have moved on. With the advent of home reno TV shows people are being suckered into buying these log heaters because they look good but are rather poor at heating a home because they have small fans to push the heat around a room. To counter this they then install exhaust fans to draw the heat thru the house but it only draws CO2 into the home rather than pushing the CO2 outside the home. Also these CO2 inspection companies are actually a front for selling split systems as these guys usually tell the home owner they need to replace the existing heater. So the best advice it to get a proper service company that do these CO2 checks as part of the service cost. I trust this tech as he has serviced my heater numerous times and he has always talked to me straight about any issues. I always quiz tradies and learn new stuff.

I'm learning European wasps are tenacious buggers. Had to get the pest control company to come back this week and give the wasp nest in the driveway another treatment. This second tech seemed to have more knowledge than the previous guy. He just ripped in to the job without any tools and pulled apart the rock garden bed hiding the main wasp nest and it seems these wasps have been tunnelling under the tree roots and they have been there a while. The second tech said it's not unusual for wasps to find cavities in rocks and they apparently also like ivy and meat. They are all business and more efficient than bees. So now have to wait till next week before I can get in there and remove any nesting material. Takes several days for the dust to break down. Will see what next week brings. He also mentioned that these European wasps are adapting to our climate change temps as he has had callouts for wasps even in Winter. The other tip I learned is that European wasps hate hornets and that you can buy fake hornet nests to hang around your house to deter wasps. Not sure if hornets prey on wasps. Did a quick search for these fake nests and it seems you can make your own. Not sure how the paper bag version will go with the rain. Still worth investigating. I purchased a fake owl hanging years ago to deter birds from shitting on my car and it works. With me being retired the car sits under the carport most days so the birds thought it was a good vantage point to checkout the rest of the garden. The fake owl keeps them away from under the carport and the car.

This week makes 10 yrs since I resigned from my last job and left the workforce. Still don't regret doing it. Financially it worked out to be a good move and has also been better for my health. The last 5yrs has been a test of resilience and just getting on with it during at times difficult circumstances. I'm still waiting for this retirement thing to kick in I keep seeing on TV. It may come after I move down to my forever place, but I have lots of stuff to do to get there including moving house twice. Will need to rent down there first before I find a place I like. Have noticed that house prices down the coast have dropped. They are ridiculously high. Young people in the country are facing the same house price issues as young people in the cities. The wages in these regional areas are also less than in the cities. The wave of people moving out of Melbourne may have cooled off.

With the leaves falling from the trees and especially the tree in front of my lounge room window, I'm getting a lot more light in the lounge. Will need sunnies if the sun does come out. I can now see the chimney and roof of the neighbours across the street. That was all obscured by that silly tree on the nature strip. Ever since that tree was removed there is a lot more light in my front lawn. I can actually see the sky again from my couch.

Rump just can't help himself with his latest court trial. He just can't shut up and is challenging the judge to jail him over his breaches of the gag orders. He also can't seem to stay awake. He has made lots of fun of JoeB as "sleepy joe", but he keeps falling asleep in court everyday and now he is farting all the time. Well I guess he doesn't have one of his Republican mates with their noses up his but to plug it. Rump can't cope when he doesn't control the room then goes in to a tantrum. Rump has threatened jury members, the judge, the prosecuting attorney, etc. They could charge him with just those offences. He was so pissed that his supporters didn't show up to his trial. He lied about the huge crowd outside the court. There wasn't anyone outside the court apart from the cops.

Played the new Skyrim anniversary edition content and found some of it good but didn't really engage with most of it as I was too advanced in the game and my much higher level made the quests not really a challenge more of a story to see what happens, so have decided to start a new game. Been a while since I played Skyrim from the start so with the new content it will be a new adventure. Just have to get used to dying a lot on the early lower levels. It's like hitting a dinosaur with a stick. You are outmatched and everything wants to kill you. The previous version of Elder Scroll, you were literately armed with a stick in the form of club that didn't do shit to protect you. Seen a number of new items right at the beginning of the game which wasn't mentioned as part of the new content. Not sure what other surprises I'll find with new weapons and armour. Lots of the early quests are familiar even though I haven't played that content for over 4yrs. The memory is still good. I'm now taking notes of what not to do. Still not impressed that quest items weigh so much, they should not weigh anything as you can't get rid of them till you finish that specific quest so you just carry this crap around for ever. Given the age of the game it still holds its own with a lot of the more modern games. Compared to God of War and Witcher 3, the graphics are older and you get that dead eye look from all the characters but you are never quite in which is good. Survival mode is all the rage with newer games and now with Skyrim. Don't see the point.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

Happy Mother's Day for Sunday to all the mothers out there. For those whose mum has passed away like mine, the cemeteries will be busy this weekend. To celebrate Mother's Day this weekend, the petrol companies have increased petrol prices to over $2. Whilst most people give flowers, petrol companies want you to pay more to go see your mum.

The weather this week has been dry but the mornings have been chilly and overcast. Doesn't get warm till close to midday. Did some work in the front garden today and whilst there hasn't been any rain this week, the ground was very damp as if had been raining. It looks very much like Winter's day out there today in my part of Melbourne town. Haven't seen the sun all day and it has been very overcast all day. May get some sun later this afternoon just before sunset.

Noticed that the price of medication has gone up again this month. Not much news about that. Not sure if this is a normal price increase of just that particular chemist chain. My previous pharmacist retired and sold the business to a large pharmacy chain.

Watched the opening stage of The Giro and had a cheese and wine night. Granted the cheese was Dutch and the wine was Aussie, but it's the intent that counts. The intent being to have cheese and wine while watching a bike race thru the Italian countryside. Not every stage is entertaining, but the shorter stages in the race this year makes for better viewing. Le Tour could learn from this and include more shorter stages in it. Unless you are bike racing geek, the longer stages can get boring.

Week 3 of me dealing with wasps. Have noticed a new bird show up after treatment of the wasp nest. Never seen this bird before and I see a lot birds in my garden because of the abundance of trees. Had to wait at least 4 days for the treatment dust to dissipate or at least that's what is recommended. So on Monday went to clean out the wasp nest only to discover the birds that already been digging thru it. Saw lots of dead wasps on the day of the latest treatment, but didn't see any on Monday. The wasps had found a gap in the stone border of the garden beds between the roots of two adjacent trees. Used several garden tools to dig it out and in the end I had get down and dig it out by hand because of the extensive tree roots. Can only dispose of the wasp nest in the garbage. Then had to fill in the large cavity. Luckily I have lots of garden soil and debris to fill it in. It looked like a quick job, but like everything that looks simple, it took a while to complete. If I was staying at the property I would look at investing in those fake hornet nests.

Yet another private school having issues with sexist behaviour from their boys. This behaviour is rampant in private boy's schools. It comes with the culture of being in a privileged environment where money buys you a licence to do dumb shit and not face any consequences. Let us not forget that from these private schools comes people who become judges, politicians and CEO's of large corporations. Any private school that allows this behaviour should have their govt funding suspended till they can demonstrate they are taking corrective action to eliminate this behaviour from their school culture. Whatever you learn as a kid you take into adult life. This won't be the last private school to have sexist behaviours which lead to violence against women. That fuckwit Tate needs to be shut down and made an example of to all boys and men that sexist behaviour towards women is not acceptable. We have become too soft on this type of behaviour thinking men will change their behaviour. Not going to happen without severe intervention. These idiots need to learn how to behave in society.

The 3G network being switched off is similar to when the 2G network was switched off. I had to upgrade my 3G phone to a 4G phone because of the same issues now being stated with removing 3G. The younger generation wouldn't have this issue because they get the latest mobiles and think nothing about purchasing a phone worth $2000 then complain about the cost of living. This cost of living thing is nothing new. What amuses me is that people think just because they are experiencing something, it's the first time in history it has impacted other humans. It's a bit like when a toddler tastes solid food for the first time. Social media is full of younger people talking about stuff they have experienced that they believe no one else has experienced. They all seem to believe that their parents had it easy which is such total bullshit.

For all the ranting about the cost of the new AFL stadium in Tassie, all those politicians who opposed it have now caved in and fallen silent. Jackie for all her bluster has remained quiet. The Labor opposition has given up because there aren't any votes in it. The cost of living is now supposedly not an issue in Tassie, which was the main reason to oppose the stadium. The rent-a-crowd people have moved on to the next protest. They were only there for the press coverage. The people of Tassie have voted back in the Lib govt who was ok with the cost of the new stadium, so they obviously don't have an issue with the money coming out of the state's budget.

So another week goes buy and yet another batshit crazy woman comes out from the Republican party in the US. This one is actually a Gov of an American state who proudly boasted about shooting her puppy which she didn't train , then shot a goat for smelling like goat. Then she lied about meeting that North Korean dictator and has been called out on her lies. She is married and has kids so those are going to be some fucked up kids that will need therapy for the rest of their lives. Now this crazy woman wants Republicans to nominate her as Rump's VP. There is a pattern happening here. It's like a fucked up bat signal that just draws the crazies to become Republican pollies.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The leaves on the Japanese Maple in the front yard are changing colour to oranges and red which is a sure sign that Winter is not far away. Haven't seen too much of the sun this week. Has been rather overcast with very cool mornings. Feels like it's going to rain any minute but all we get is the damp ground from the overnight dew. Thought I would cut the grass earlier in the week but everything is just so damp as if it had rained. Need some sun to dry things out a bit. Here in Melbourne town we are heading to Winter temps over the coming weekend with daily temps down to 14-15C and into the next week, then for the start of next week we are back to rain. The morning temps are now down to single figures. Was bin day today so going out to collect the bins the it felt very much like a Winter's day. Frost on the ground, overcast and chilly. The sun and warmth we had only yesterday is well gone.

Loosey Brucey now has to pay up and he doesn't look his normal cocky self. He was loose with the truth, well actually he just lied about everything so the truth is a concept he is not familiar with. Learned that working for pollies in Canberra. What he did learn is that a politician will always save themselves. When the heat got too much even the Lib party dumped him.

As I'm playing more of the new version of Skyrim I'm continually finding new stuff not mentioned in any of the update info so there are little surprises to discover. More of the open world games now have hidden quests and objects which are not part of the main story and which you will only find if you explore the environment and not just follow the main quests and side quests. Keeps things interesting. I'm slowly building up a bank of notes for future play throughs. Never done that before, but there is just so much to remember.

Since Rump couldn't get his rent a crowd to attend his court appearances he made the Republican party show their loyalty by sending a group of brown nosers to speak about stuff he could not. It was so obvious that Rump had ordered these Republican pollies to show up and even gave them a script of stuff to say. Since he couldn't verbally attack the judge, jury and witnesses, he called upon his minions to say those things. Given these pollies have their noses firmly stuck up Rump's arse the only benefit would be his farting in court might stop. His lawyers still can't keep him awake during the court sessions. He just keeps falling asleep. They need to wave a bucket of KFC under his orange nose to keep him awake or find a woman who looks likes his daughter to walk around in a bikini to keep him focused. He wanted to have sex with Stormy because she reminded him of his daughter. He openly said while he was president that he would marry his daughter if he could.

4K TV is still a new thing and most people don't have it, now they are wanting people to update again to 8K TV as the newest best thing. Yet another snake oil sales pitch from the technology sector. It wasn't all that long ago that 1080HD was the big and best thing on the market. Even when you view videos on Youtube, they aren't all 4K compatible also given these older videos haven't been remastered to give a clear picture which is why people hold on to old tech.

The federal budget has been published and normally there isn't anything in it for me, but like all tax payers we all get a tax cut in the new FY. The $300 electricity bill rebate is only $75 per quarter and is totally reliant on your elec retailer applying the rebate to your bill, so no doubt there will be stories of some elec retailers not passing this on. You can also bet that this rebate will be a signal of these elec retailers increasing their prices higher than normal. As usual not everyone is happy about the budget but it's better than what the Lib's would of come up with. It seems ironic that the Lib's are complaining about the rich getting extra money given their original tax cuts favoured mainly higher income earners. The rich were going to get a higher tax cut and those on low incomes weren't going to get anything.

Had a catch-up lunch with some ex-work colleagues this week. It turned out to be the warmest day of the week and was a nice sunny afternoon which made a pleasant change from earlier in the week. Had to get on the PT to go into the city for the lunch. The walk back to car was a nice stroll in the warm sunshine.

Hope the weekend is good for you.

 

[darkelf9]

Afternoon all,

The LNP again banging on about cutting migration numbers, this time they want to cut it by 120K. Their plan is not to build new houses but blame everything on migrants and temporary migrants studying and working in Australia which is so fucked up as a policy. So they are telling people if you can't buy a house in inner city suburbs, can't pay your bills, can't get a job well there is only thing to blame...migrants but only from countries where English is not the first language. The highest percentage of permanent migrants come from the UK, but no discussion about cutting those numbers. The 120K comes from OS students, family reunions and temporary visa holders who come here for work like from our Pacific neighbours who pick our fruit and vegies and working visa holders from Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, etc who make up a large percentage of our aged care workers. All the economists have said this strategy will harm the economy which means prices will only go up further. We have 13.6 million tax payers and if this number doesn't significantly increase we will have an aging population and won't be able to afford aged pensions which means increasing the aged pension age to 80 which is currently 67 yrs of age. In other words most people won't live long enough to get the aged pension and people will have to be in the work force for over 60yrs. If you are just starting off in the workforce, you won't be getting the aged pension till you get to 70yrs old. The pension age was suppose to increase to 70yrs old in a couple of years but that has now been put back, mainly because of voters sentiment. So if we aren't going to have more babies in this country the only option is to have a higher migration intake. There is plenty of land on which to build new houses. People need to get real and stop wanting to only live in the inner city suburbs. Most of that housing is already crammed in as those houses were built close together for the working class not the current middle class. States also need to get on board with building the infrastructure to support people living in new housing. No point building new houses on new land if you can't get access to public transport. So State Govts need to spend the money on proper infrastructure. Both the Federal and State Govts need to invest more on public infrastructure if we are going to get on top of the lack of affordable housing. We used to build social housing but then govt services became privatised thru Lib govt actions and once you take that money out of the system, it never comes back because you've lost the govt systems that used to run those enterprises plus you also lost a vast amount of experience and expertise which you will never get back because it took decades to get and keep that expertise in-house. Private industry will only do stuff if they can make a profit so we the tax payer now have to pay more to get less capability of once was govt services. We have lots of tax payers money, but it continually gets spent on buying votes rather than on what's needed in the community.

The CSIRO has dumped a steaming turd on Mr Potato Head's plan for nuclear. So you can expect that funding to the CSIRO will be cut when the LNP is next in power. They cut the funding to the ABC when the national broadcaster criticised the LNP govt. Cash ordered the raid on the ABC then she told reporters it was going to happen before the AFP turned up which is why we got the live footage of the raid. Why did Cash order the raid on the ABC? Simply because the ABC found out the LNP was doing dodgy stuff. The LNP are a party bent on revenge and they have a long memory of people and organizations who defied them. It seems ironic that the LNP are criticising the costing of the CSIRO for nuclear when they themselves have failed to cost their plan for nuclear.

Had my regular eye test this week and had to cough up for new specs. My eyesight has got better. It's now better than 20/20 with the specs. Haven't had the need for new specs for over 4yrs. Even with the discounts on the second pairs it was still relatively expensive. The new frames are a throw back to frames I had about 20yrs ago. The most expensive part of new specs are the lenses. I once tried the cheaper specs providers and their lenses were too easily scratched so went back to OPSM. Yes their specs cost more but the quality is far better and they last longer.

The forecast was for rain most of this week but then it was changed to no rain this week and of course it is Melbourne so the weather had other ideas. Whilst we haven't had any rain during daylight hours it has rained at night. The overnight rains and the heavy dew on the ground has meant everything has remained damp. It feels like you need to wear gumboots when in the garden. It has been a combination of clear cold crisp mornings and overcast mornings which looks like it is going to rain any moment. Have to wait till midday to get outside and do stuff in the garden. I don't see the point in freezing my arse off cut to hack some stuff in the garden.

Went to Target in my local Westfield and discovered it's all self-checkout. My total purchase was only $18 but had no option other than to pay with the card which is so annoying. If I was using eftpos it would of also incurred a bank fee. The younger generation sees no issue with paying on their phone for a coffee then getting a bank fee because it's all hidden. If they had to pay a fee on top of the actual price they would be pissed. It's like in the US when you pay the tax on top of the sale price so the price you see is never the actual price. Bank fees on digital transactions are very much like that. Banks are making millions just on bank fees for digital transactions. It's a fee you pay for accessing your own money. Something we all just seem to accept. Nobody knows how much they are paying in fees during a FY and the banks like it that way. They should tell you at the end of the FY as they do with your bank interest.

Rump had a reference to the Third Reich on his website then blamed a staffer for posting it, but then he didn't take it down until outrage prompted him to remove it. The staffer claimed no knowledge of the reference to the Third Reich which makes him either the dumbest American in US or a product of the American school system which skews history based on the American sense of their role in the world. I found several Youtube postings of dumb things Americans say which makes you wonder what young people and Americans in general are being taught in their schools and the knowledge of Americans in general of the world outside the US borders. At times they speak as if they don't realise there is a big world outside of their own borders. The rise of Rump and the new Republican party has made Americans dumber in general. Republicans are already saying they will not accept the outcome of the US elections in Nov unless Rump wins. This is the rhetoric you hear in dictatorships where its a one party country. Republicans want that for the US which shows they all carry the dumbstick and eagerly wave it at anyone who doesn't agree with their twisted view of the world. These are the same people who said they would rather vote for Putin than for any American who isn't a Republican.

Just spent a refreshing couple of hours hacking stuff in my driveway and front yard. At least it didn't rain and wasn't as chilly as a few days ago when I had to use the heater during the morning just to take the chill off. Left my coffee on the side bench in the kitchen for a few minutes and it was cold when I got back to it. If I feel cold well it's cold, others would say it's bloody freezing. Must be my Irish blood keeping me warm, plus my size given I'm built like a rugby player which everyone just assumes I used to play.

Hope the weekend is good for you.