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Morning all,

On my second play thru of Ghost of Yotei on PS5. There was a nod to Ghost of Tsushima but he wasn't named apart from being credited as the original Ghost or Shinobi as they call it. Now that I have some more knowledge of the game, I'm doing things differently to get to the various weapons and throwables quicker. The start of the combat in the game hasn't got any easier, you still die a lot cause you can't do all the moves. Simple stuff like dodging is basically not possible until you find your first alter, which was the same in the previous game. Takes a while to get to all the weapons so it requires you to revisit areas to take advantage of these as the story progresses. Managed to complete all the puzzles bar one, but couldn't find a way to get to it. Might have to look this up on the internet. Most of the game is intuitive so not much by way of taking notes. Now taking notes for games I'm keeping. No matter which level of difficulty you play this game on, it's still a challenge which is good. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima you get a longer life bar which you will need as the story progresses, but you get less what they call Spirit and the hits you get loses more life. You have to keep killing to recover health and you really need those throwable weapons in combat and with the different types of weapons you have to use, combat in this game is more complex so if you don't have good hand and eye co-ordination you will struggle with this game. Also like the previous Ghost game climbing is a big feature in the game so if you don't like heights then this is not the game for you. You also realise the white markings that show the climbing routes are actually bird shit on all those grip points. The game designers have a sense of humour. Overall it's a very good game and the story and the characters are done well in that you get invested in the characters. The only issue I had was to find a proper combat set of armour. They all have enough weaknesses that you will still die long into the game. Would of liked more slots for charms to help with the complex combat as you can't choose all your strongest charms, so have to sacrifice something. The positive change is that you can upgrade from minor to major charms. Changing armour in combat is at least an option. Not all games give you that option, whereas in this game it is necessary if you want to survive. Still don't understand how the number of armour sets increases apart from getting to certain stages in the game. Some you get by meeting new people others you get by defeating enemy via a bounty. It's not obvious when this increase in amour loadouts happens. Ghost of Yotei, is one of those games that has things to explore you might not of found the first time thru. It's definitely worth a second play thru even you don't keep the game. The next PS5 game on my list to purchase is out later this week. Seems these releases are always on a Thursday.

We've had a week of lots of rain and a few thunderstorms over a few days but the main issue on a few days was the heavy wind which caused down trees and power outages in various parts of Victoria. Nothing happened at my place but things did rattle. My timing to get those trees trimmed that are in the driveway was a good one. Did some more tree trimming in the front rock garden as the warmer weather has encouraged other trees to go nuts. The rose creeper in the backyard now needs another trim because of the warmer weather we had these past couple of weeks. I don't want to buy a new frame for it since I'm not staying. Waiting for some of those roses to fade before I give it a haircut.

Decided I'm due for another haircut as I'm getting close to that homeless guy look, need to trim the beard as well. I've warn my hair long for most of my life but with getting older, losing hair, plus the beard now, the longer hair makes me look like a old homeless guy. So I go from that look to the bushranger look but with less hair on top. For those who don't know what I mean by the bushranger look, well..."google it mate" as an Aussie politician once said.

Apparently there is lots of talk about Tim Tams costing more here than in other countries. Well the answer is simple, buy Tim Tams when they are on special which they often are. I've only bought Tim Tams when they are on sale. I don't really eat them myself but mainly to send OS. So rather than complain about the price of Tim Tams just be smart and buy them when they are on sale and buy a couple of packets. You can get Tim Tams in double packets. I sent a double pack to a friend in Canada and she was very happy.

The 'No Kings' rallies in the US were in all 50 states and the Republicans were losing their tiny minds about this. Apparently there were going to be lots of Marxists and crazy people, but in the end there was lots of white people and others in animal costumes dancing and others singing a Woodie Guthrie folk song. Wow that is fucking radical. The Republican response was Rump posting an AI video of him shitting on Americans practicing their democratic right to protest. Even people in Republican states protested against Rump. Rump keeps acting like a dictator with his latest action to demolish the East Wing of the White House without telling anyone. He also doesn't have a building permit to do what he has done. He lied to everyone when he said he wouldn't touch the existing building which has now gone and with it American history. Rump has done to that East Wing what he is doing the American democracy. It's a visual representation of how America has changed. His new ballroom will be larger than the White House itself. Took a long time to build the White House, doesn't take long to demolish it. Just needs an apathetic citizenship which is how America has got itself in this mess and the damage will live on well past Rump is gone. Nobody now trusts America which is why all America's so called allies are now making plans to live without American support.

Albo's meeting with Rump went better than people thought it would go. Rump was muted and was joking and why wouldn't he when Australia is gifting the US over $360 billion with no guarantee of subs, plus Australia is spending several more billion to upgrade and build new submarine facilities for American subs to use in the short term. Even UK nuclear subs will take advantage of these new facilities all with Aussie taxpayer dollars. What does Australia get for all these billions, well we don't actually know. Only a promise from the US for nuclear subs in a couple of decades. The Republicans don't want to give us these nuclear subs even though we are paying for them. They just want to keep the money as protection money but no promise America will come to Australia's aid in time of conflict.

The Aussie women's cricket team are unbeatable in their world cup competition. The Aussie netball team also dominated the NZ netball team. You wouldn't know it but there is international cricket happening in Australia but it's only available on pay TV. It's doesn't get much air time because these pay for view services don't allow images to be shown. You get a few seconds of viewing on the news but that's about it. The people who miss out big time are the kids unless their parents pay for a streaming service. More and more sport is put behind pay walls so only those who can afford it get to see it.

The Melbourne Cup is on next week which is always on the first Tues in Nov. If you live in Melbourne you get the public holiday but not if you are in regional Victoria, so it's not a state wide public holiday. Most people take the Monday off as well. For those industries that have rostered days off, they will put a rostered day on the Monday. This has only happened because people would take a sickie on the Monday or apply for leave. Some people take the entire week off due to the other horse races that happen in that week. Melbourne Cup is on the Tues, then Thurs is Oaks Day otherwise known as Ladies Day, then the Sat is the people's day. People who don't normally gamble on the horse races will bet in that week. The Melbourne Cup is known as the race that stops the nation, mainly because people will take time out during their work day to watch the race. Most offices and other work areas have Melbourne Cup sweeps usually run by the social club or the person who runs the tea club in the office. In my family like most Aussie families my dad would take everyone's bet and walk down to the local TAB to put on the bet only for that race. I usually won. I would bet some of my pocket money. It's the one day in the year when betting was allowed for us kids. It's an Aussie tradition. Of course you would spend your winnings on lollies.

Got my latest house insurance which has gone up by an extra $300 but the insured value has gone up by $40k. So building costs have obviously gone up again. Not sure what has caused the increase in building costs but everything got more expensive after COVID. There are also some Aussie homes that are uninsurable for fires and flood or the cost is just so high that people don't ensure their houses. When insurance companies put the cost of insurance up to $20-40k, then they are telling you they don't want to ensure your house.

It's too funny that ICE in the US is having trouble recruiting because their new recruits can't pass the physical. Seems these new recruits just thought they would be given guns to legally shoot so called illegals. Apparently a quarter of those who apply for these jobs seem to think that breathing is all the fitness they needed. Even if you join the cops you need to pass a physical fitness test. Given how overweight a lot of Americans are, it's not much of a stretch to believe they can't pass a fitness test. The abuses by ICE continue to happen totally unchecked.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

It's a public holiday in Melbourne today due to the Melbourne Cup. Only those of us who live in the Melbourne city boundary including all the suburbs, get this public holiday. So for those who live just outside this boundary don't get the public holiday. It is one of those unique public holidays that doesn't apply to the entire state. The heavy rain we had yesterday has reduced to just normal rain. It has been raining in Melbourne since Sunday evening and hasn't stopped. I did my eye test yesterday at my local Westfield and there were kids everywhere, so the schools obviously had the day off. Didn't need new specs so I got some cakes and tried a new takeaway place in the food court which was very good value. Have passed that one previously so thought I would try them and I will go back on my next visit, whenever that will be. With the crowds at the shopping centre it was like Christmas shopping time. The retailers must have done good business. The food court was packed with people. I even had to line up which I never do.

Purchased a new video game, Outerworlds 2, late last week. Played the first one and thought it was a weird game but interesting. It was a smaller game so not much interest once you had played it. This new one is thus far more interesting. Not sure how big this new game actually is. The creatures so far look the same but this game is harder from what I remember from the original. Still early days in the game but so far it has kept my interest. Will see if I do another play thru. There is another game I have on my list but will see how this one goes. Outerworlds is not quite Fallout nor Bio Shock but has the feel of both. Bio Shock is a darker game with lots of crazies but very enjoyable. This new Outerworlds game has it's own groups of people who on the surface seem nuts with corporates running the respective colonies. It's what happens when private industry becomes the govt so back stabbing, murder and the demand of ultimate loyalty is part of society. Any disloyalty is not tolerated leading to either death or retraining to be a loyal employee. So very much like private industry which are dictatorships wrapped in the facade of democracy. What it does do is that you can't feel sympathy for any one faction so it's easier to do your own thing.

The Victorian Govt has signed the first treaty of a state govt with indigenous peoples. It passed the upper house late last week and whilst the state of Victoria is made up of various indigenous nations, they all now have their own council to make representation to the state govt. Treaty is one thing our indigenous peoples were never given because the British didn't want to admit they existed after they declared Australia was void of people even though Cook met indigenous people when he arrived and if it wasn't for them, those British people in the first colony would of all died. Yet the British govt said these indigenous people didn't exist. Funny how white people just make shit up. I guess nothing has changed.

The cost of sending a letter has gone up by another 20 cents to $1.70. We used to get notifications of these price rises but now you just have to search on the Australia Post website before you post anything. The only reason I found out was that I had to send something by mail. I'm also noticing that any mail I receive is taking longer given the reduced postage delivery which varies each week. So one week you get three delivery days the next week you get two, so that isn't even consistent because of the every second day delivery system which also counts Saturdays even though we don't get mail on a weekend. It's a dumb way of counting. Mail should be consistent each week with three delivery days.

Microsoft has been caught out ripping off Aussie customers with their Office 365 software packages. What I find annoying is that software companies put you on auto-opt in schemes without telling you. The first time you know is when you see the charge on your credit card. When I upgraded to Win 11, Microsoft puts Office 365, Cloud, etc are on the auto list and you have to choose to not sign up. Most people just click on the 'next' button so get auto signed up. You have to make the effort to read everything and make the decision to not opt-in. I haven't used Office since I left the workforce. I found a free open source software package that does the same job as Office. Even some large private companies use these free open source software packages because an Office license is expensive. Now Microsoft has to revert people back to the previous package and refund their money for the difference.

It seems ironic that Barnaby keeps talking about slicing salami, given his party is the anti-immigrant party. If it wasn't for immigrants he wouldn't have the salami he keeps slicing. Barnaby makes the news because he makes noise and that is what makes the news. He is a clusterfuck but keeps winning his seat because people who vote for him like the fact he is out there. He also will say anything to have people vote for him. He is a fake farmer who wears a costume to fool people into thinking he is one of them and well we do have our own stupid people here in Australia who get fooled. Barnaby only cares about himself. He put himself up as a family man who cares about family values and at the same time he was cheating on his wife by fucking his staffer who is now his second wife. She is now entitled to his very good govt pension.

Halloween in my street is not a bid deal. There are a lot more families in my street now, but not many houses participate including mine. I've never been a big Halloween fan because it is an import from America. They have been celebrating Halloween or All Hallows Eve as the British call it, in England for 600 yrs, so it was not invented by the Americans as much as they would like to claim it. They did commercialise it but they didn't invent it. In my street, with the kids from surrounding streets going to the various houses, the noise level went up but that was also due to all the dogs in the street going off at all the strangers in the street. Then the younger kids would scream which would set off the other dogs. It was an hour of dogs barking, kids screaming and just noise. As for it being for the kids well that's just something parents say who want to shame other people in to participating. The parents deny it's about them but it is. For those houses who don't participate, these same parents gossip about them in a negative way. It's all about the peer pressure driven by a few mothers in the respect streets. The kids get lots of holidays and also lots of chances to dress up during the year. We don't need Halloween which again was started by retailers in the US to sell sweets which has grown to now be about retail in general. If you were a conspiracy theorists you would say the retailers are in league with the dentists, as both generate business from the day. As a kid, the big day for me for sweets was the Royal Melbourne Show and the show bags. I would go for the ones with the most sweets and other stuff you could eat like chips and frozen ice blocks. I would combine all that stuff into one bag and I had sweets and food for months. Halloween was never a big thing for me as a kid.

Rump continues to show he is quite a sensitive. Any criticism of him he takes personally which is not a good trait in any politician. He doesn't have a thick skin, but does have the skin of a dead person who hasn't been preserved. He didn't like that photo of himself on the front cover of Time magazine, nor did he like that advert put out by that Canadian province. Rump continues to show other govts can get to him. His meeting with Poo-Bear showed his is a pussy. China got everything they wanted and America had to back down. The only people hurt by Rump's actions against China has been the American people. China holds the upper hand and has no issue in just stopping imports from America. Rump is not a good negotiator and only knows one way which is to threaten people and countries. Now he wants to invade Nigeria on some Christian crusade. Since when has Rump cared about black people, given he is a racist? There has to be a business concern he as in Nigeria. He has threatened to invade Venezuela and change the govt, then he threatened another govt with sanctions if they didn't elect the right wing party. These are not the actions of someone who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Also he wants to build an arch to himself that looks very much the one Hitler wanted to build. Even the eagle on top of Rump's arch looks similar to the Nazi party eagle which they stole from the Roman Empire's eagle. And just to prove Rump is a dictator, he is the only one talking about running for a third term. His new ballroom won't be ready till his current term is up so he has no intention of leaving office. The Republicans are already changing laws to give them more seats in Republican states and removing Democratic seats. So this is all moving America to become a dictatorship by the time Rump's current term is up to stop any further elections and Rump has all the law agencies on his side plus he has the Supreme Court on his side. It is all set up for America to become a dictatorship with Rump as their new king and his family to rule the USA into the future and Americans will let this happen. By the time Americans figure out what is actually going on, it will be too late.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Republicans are using the govt shut down to stop the Epstein files from being released by not confirming the nomination of that Democrat who won her seat. In previous shut downs in Rump's first term, Republicans confirmed several new Republican appointees. So they have done this in the past but not now because they are scared of what the Epstein files say about Rump. Seems that Johnston, a man who claims to be a Christian, is protecting sex predators including his own King. There are women in the Republican party who are part of this cover up. These women are protecting men who sexually abused girls, so where is their sister solidarity. If women are going to defend sex predators then how are things going to change by having women in charge? So those women in the Republican party helping to protect these sex predators are no different to the men who are protecting these same sex predators. The USA claims to be a Christian country, but it is very far from the true teachings of Jesus, it has more similarity to Sodom and Gomorrah and we know what happened to that place.

The National Party has dumped nett zero and finally the mask has fallen off. Now they just have to admit they are a racist party as well. When the LNP was in govt, Littleproud was all for renewable energy, now he says climate change is not real. So was he lying before or is he lying now. You knew where this was going when they nominated Canavan to conduct a report on nett zero. It was a case of going to the conclusion then making the discussion paper meet the pre-determined goal. So for those who vote for the National Party and believe climate change is not a thing, they should not ask the govt for help when their farms are hit with floods or fire. People who don't believe climate change is real and caused by humans, belong with the flat earth crazies. We are all paying for climate change thru our house insurance costs. Floods and fires in one part of Australia impacts the costs of house insurance all over the country as these insurance companies want to recoup their costs of paying out, it's just that simple. What people in the regions need to realise, it's the people in the cities who hold the power of what happens in the country. If a political party can't win urban voters, they don't have any chance of winning govt. Again its that simple. Doesn't mean people can't vote for these other parties but they will remain fringe political parties with no real power to make changes. The Liberal and National parties are on the verge of being fringe political parties that will never be elected back into govt. It is political suicide to think you can run on an anti-climate change agenda. The younger generations now make up a higher majority of the voting public and they will not vote for a political party that doesn't listen to them. The Liberals and Nationals are tone deaf to the younger generations.

So with Halloween done, now we are being harangued with yet another American thing, Black Friday which is about the sales after Thanksgiving which again has fuck to do with Australia. It's a just an excuse for retailers to put out fake sales just prior to the Christmas sales. More and more of these sales are fake in that they aren't actual discounts. Retailers falsely inflate prices then wait for a sales period to bring the price down to what it should be. They are still making money at those sale prices. The two big supermarkets do this all the time. It's just a way for them to separate you and your money giving you the illusion of saving money.

ASIO has come out now and clearly stated that 3 main foreign govts are sending their agents to assassinate Aussies here in Australia. We know that these three countries are China, Russia and Iran. The Chinese govt has been sending their agents to Australia for several decades to stop Aussies of Chinese heritage speaking out against the Chinese govt. There is also video of Chinese agents attacking Aussies with Chinese heritage on Aussie streets then catching a flight back to China. These agents come here either on diplomatic passports or as tourists to commit these crimes in Australia. ASIO and the AFP know all this already. The Chinese govt has also bribed some local councils and councilors to favour Chinese developers and get their people voted onto councils here in Australia. This again is well known. It wasn't that long ago that the Chinese govt would send Chinese uni students to Australia to spy for them on local organizations. This is probably still happening. The Russians are not so subtle. The just send their agents to other countries to kill people. The Iranian govt is following the lead of the Chinese govt by getting locals here in Australia to carry out crimes. There are clear links between Aussie criminals and the Iranian govt. So the warnings from ASIO is not just an over the top reaction. We need to be aware that the govt's of other countries are actively trying to disrupt Australian society and curtail our freedom of speech against these countries.

The Republicans got an arse kicking at the latest elections in the US. Rump stated he would cut the funding to these states if they elected these Democrats. Rump is scared that he is losing his influence on the US public. The wins by these Democrats were huge which the polls got wrong. The prediction was they would win by only a couple of % points, but their wins were in double digits. Some are saying this is only the start of the backlash against Rump. There are more of these elections to come next year and the Republicans who back Rump are looking down the barrel of losing their seats when it's their turn for an election. If this trend continues not only could the Republicans lose the House but also the Senate in next year's mid term elections. In which case Rump will be up for yet another impeachment and he won't have the numbers.

This week marks 50yrs since the infamous actions by the then Governor General Kerr sacked the then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. For his part Frazer and the Liberal opposition had blocked supply which kicked all this off. Kerr wanted to make history and asked Fraser if he wanted to be Prime Minister to which Fraser eagerly agreed so they came up with a plan to sack Whitlam. Later in life Gough forgave Fraser because he blamed Kerr who had the power. Fraser sitting in opposition didn't have any power. Kerr for his part had to flee Australia and went to England to seek protection from the British govt. The voting public were really pissed off that Kerr had sacked Whitlam and he became part of Australian folk law. Fraser won the next election and faded whereas Whitlam became a hero. I remember seeing all this play out on the TV. I was in my early years of high school. Because Fraser had blocked supply the govt was running out of money to pay public servants and interest rates at the time had gone up to 18% so people were finding it tough to pay their mortgages. Fraser wanted to have an election even though Labor was in office less than 12 months. If an election was held rather than Gough being sacked by Kerr, Whitlam would of probably lost that election because of the high interest rates and the lack of money in the system. Whitlam would not of been celebrated as he was. Kerr became the most hated man in Australia.

It's Remembrance Day today where we pay tribute to the end of WWI which has become a day to pay tribute to the end of all wars. I usually buy a poppy to support veterans, but this year I did something different and purchased a slouch hat badge with a poppy on it. The slouch hat is usually linked to ANZAC Day. My grandfather fought in WWI and he survived without any major issues. Like most men who signed up to go to war in those days, he was young and probably like most men, not ready for what the were walking into. 60,000 Aussies lost their lives in WWI. Which is a lot of people given Australia's population at the time was just under 5 million people, less than the population of Melbourne. Whilst millions of Americans believe they were the only country to fight in WWI and win, all Commonwealth countries honour those of their respective countries who fought and those who died in WWI. Here in Melbourne, The Shrine of Remembrance or The Shrine as we locals call it, has an opening on one side of the ceiling that lets a ray of sunlight to pass over a large metal tablet at the exact time of the end of WWI which is the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. To mimic this, visitors to The Shrine are shown a simulation using a spot light that traces the path of the ray of sunlight takes across that metal tablet. If anyone is coming to Melbourne then a visit to The Shrine is a must do even if you don't know anything about the military. The newer entrance is at ground level around to the left as you face The Shrine. It used to be up the steps, but the newer entrance is much more people friendly. Entrance to The Shrine is free and you get a guided tour every hour. Especially a good place to take the kids to learn about our military history and the sacrifices Aussies made to ensure we still have a democracy, which we take for granted these days.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

So I've been playing Outerworlds 2 for a couple of weeks now and I'm in two minds of whether it's worth another play thru. A number of the side quests are not worth doing for the rewards you get. Some require multiple stages yet there is no clue as to where stuff is. I found that just exploring without side quests gets you better gear faster. The scaling up of health is also hit and miss. You can't do much about it and the skill tree takes a long time before you get anything approaching something decent to work with. You just die a lot in this game sometimes just because you don't have enough health or because your gear sucks. Thankfully you don't have to repeat many areas if you die. Just keep saving even though it has autosave, but you can't adjust that either. At times I've found it a tedious game just wandering around lost most of the time. There isn't a compass on the HUD so there is a lot of stopping to bring up the map option. Most of the time you don't have any clue which direction you are travelling and the maps don't have any terrain scaling so you can see objectives but can't get to them in any logically way. You can at least carry lots of weapons and there isn't a weight limit. You need lots of different weapons to choose from because of their effectiveness against respective enemies. The weapon slots are very annoying as they keep disappearing depending on what armour you are wearing and you have to keep changing weapons to suit. As with some other games you can't mix and match armour and only have two options of head and full body armour which means you can never choose your most effective armour to battle all enemies. Unlike a game like Elder Scrolls were you can mix and match all armour on the body to come up with the best combo. Like Ghost of Yotei you have to have several armour suits to fight the right enemy whether it be humans, creatures or mechanical so you are constantly changing armour if you don't want to die, which again you do a lot in this game. I'm most of the way thru the game and if you explore it's one of those games that takes a long time to get anywhere and with the restricted terrain you just have to walk a long way as the fast travel spots are rather sparse. There is lots of just nothing when you are exploring so it can get boring just wandering around not really knowing where the fuck you are going for most of the time. So this not a keeper for me, but I wanted to play it to see how it compared to the original and whilst it seems to have more content, it still doesn't grab me as a game I want to keep.

Looks like the Aussie F1 driver Piastri is another victim of a European team playing favourites. It seems a bit odd that his car was suddenly not reliable after him winning lots of races. Talk around the F1 garages is that Norris is being given priority by the British team because he is a British driver so Piastri's car is not being tuned to the same conditions and not getting first pick of the parts. Not the first time this has happened to an Aussie F1 driver. Same thing happened to Webber. European teams favour their own drivers so it's very hard for an Aussie to get the support from these teams. It's not that our drivers are not good enough, they are thought of as outsiders and therefore should not be in the sport. F1 is a European sport and the Europeans don't like outsiders beating their own drivers. If we compare F1 to our touring car drivers, our guys are better than Nascar or anything the Europeans have. Motorsport is as Aussie as meat pies. The Europeans will always favour their own drivers which is discrimination but that is how the Europeans like it. Most of their drivers wouldn't make it in our local competition. Bathurst would make them shit themselves.

The Lib's have followed the Nat's down the rabbit hole of denying that climate change is real. They were never believers because they have been big into coal for many decades. The second mask has now fallen and the LNP's true nature is out in the open for all to see. They continue to cater to the Boomers who now don't have the numbers to vote in a govt. This power now lies with the children of Boomers and their grand kids. The kids that are currently in years 10-12 of high school will be voting at the next election. They will not be voting for the LNP because of their now anti-climate change stance which is just political suicide for any political party. It is a gift to Labor for the next couple of elections and Albo count break the record for the longest serving PM. Labor has another decade in power as it stands today and possibly the next 4 elections given our election cycle is every 3yrs. Lets also remember that is was the Fed govts of the day that built all this infrastructure for utilities. Private industry didn't build any of it but it was handed over by the govt agencies that managed all these utilities. In fact here in Victoria if you look closely at the street covers for the electricity grid you will still see the SEC logo which was the govt run electricity provider. The coal fired power stations were built by the govt not private industry. The SEC used to manage both the electricity supply as well the street poles and wires. Under privatisation that was split up. The poles and wires companies have a sole monopoly on this infrastructure. You can't choose a cheaper option. The only part of your electricity bill you can change is your use. The supply portion of your electricity bill is passed on from prices charged by the companies who control the poles and wires. They are similar to water companies. You don't get a choice of water companies. It depends on where you live. AGL as it's known now was the old SEC which is why AGL is the largest power company in Victoria and controls most of the market. Nuclear is just a talking point for the LNP to avoid admitting that renewable energy is the way ahead. Nobody wants nuclear plants in their area and nobody wants a nuclear waste dump in their communities which is always some remote country town. The cost of installing nuclear power plants is outlandish and those new small nuclear reactors don't work. Some countries like Germany are now getting rid of nuclear because of the environmental damage.

Rump's two recent peace deals have failed. Thailand and Cambodia are back attacking each other again. Rump was there to claim he brought peace to that conflict even though America had fuck all to do with these two countries striking a deal to end hostilities. Same as with the recent conflict between India and Pakistan which has flared up again with the recent bombings in both countries. Each are accusing the other of working with a terrorist group. So that peace deal Rump claimed was his idea has also fallen apart. Both India and Pakistan said Rump and America had no influence in their peace deal and pushed back that Rump was involved at all. Both countries essentially said Rump lied about that. So if Rump claims he was the reason these conflicts were stopped, it shows he is shit at negotiating any deal. He needs to read that book he didn't write but claimed he did. Yet another lie from Rump. Rump doesn't read, let alone a book.

Due to the loses to the Democrats in recent local US elections, Rump has now removed all tariffs on food imports. Due to the high price of beef from closer countries to the US, America has become more reliant on Aussie beef because our tariff has been at 10% which is the lowest Rump imposed on all other countries America gets it's beef from. He will claim he is bringing down the high food prices which he has caused with all his tariffs. Rump has caused the high cost of the basics in the US and the people are pushing back on his bullshit claims. The release of the Epstein files is another thing Rump is running scared from and the American people want all the Epstein files to be released. But rather than do that, Rump has told his Blondi woman, who he thinks is still his personal lawyer, to launch an investigation into only Democrats who knew Epstein but none of his rich mates who have donated to Rump and no potential Republicans including politicians and judges. This is the act of dictator, to use the law agencies and courts to punish his political rivals. This is what happens in countries run by a dictatorship. Americans are apathetic towards these actions as they believe all politicians are basically corrupt, but they voted for a criminal and were happy for a criminal to become President.

Well those who vote Democrat in the US must be wondering what the fuck all the shut down was about when their politicians caved in on their stance to stop higher costs of people's health care premiums. So what was the point of taking that stance if they kowtowed to Rump. Democrats need to get rid of their old people and bring the fight to Republicans thru their younger politicians. Republicans don't give a shit about their own people who have been hurt by Rump's tariffs so why would they care about people's health care costs. Democrats continue to play by a set a rules that don't exist in American politics. Every time Democrats turn the other cheek, Rump kicks them in the balls and they still don't get it. The Democrats need to give people something to vote for.

The Ashes starts on Friday this week in Perth which I'll be watching. With the time zones changes between Perth and Melbourne being now 3hrs with daylight savings, I can do some work in the morning and sit on the couch in the afternoon and watch the cricket into the evening.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

The Lib's here in Victoria are a basket case and now they have knifed their latest leader in the back. That's three leaders in less than 12 months. Not a political party that have got their shit together. To top it off they have elected a newbie as they don't see a way they can win the next state election to be held next year. The current Vic state govt has a massive lead on numbers from the last two elections so Labor would be expected to lose some of that big number of seats.

Thankfully that pain in the arse expansion of the underground rail system is over. It caused so much chaos over several years which started all the way back in 2017 and it seemed it would never end. It was supposed to take 5yrs to complete but here we at the end of Nov 2025 and it's due to open at the end of next week. But it wouldn't be Melbourne without some new road project and the endless fucking road works which has cost the state budget a lot of money and caused the state debt to balloon, most of which was the new underground stations which also include new above ground access areas which has meant road changes to traffic. It was done to future proof the rail network with the increase in the population that was forecast to get to 8 million people in the coming decade. Also due to more apartments in the CBD area of the city, the sewerage in various parts of the city had to be upgraded which yet meant even more road works. The replacement of the street railway crossings is continuing although there isn't as much chaos on the rail system as there has been in the last couple of years. So things are calming down. Even the new West Gate road works chaos is coming to and end. There is a new way to get across to the other side of the bay. I'm used to the old way so just have to be more vigilant to make sure I get on the correct lanes. I don't drive across the West Gate too often and during the new West Gate tunnel works they kept changing the lanes so that was a pain in the butt.

Australia has deferred to Turkey or Tukiye as they now want to call themselves. Similar to Timor now being called Timor Leste or Burma being now called Myanmar, yet their precious gems are still called Burmese gems. Old people are just going to get confused and be told off by the younger generation who don't know their history. Albo did a bit of a dance step to give Turkiye the next COP. Australia getting the chair for the next COP is a major coup which elevated Australia's position in COP. Also there is the saving of the $2 Billion it was going to cost Australia and the Pacific Island nations also get a higher profile at the next COP. At the next budget the Fed's will find a way pay for the future COP to be held here in Australia.

Got the car serviced last week and got the car back rather quickly. Must have been a slow day for them. Whilst my car is over 20yrs old it's still in good nick and rarely has issues apart from getting older. It sits under the carport most of the week these days. The service cost went up by $15 but also needed to get a wheel balance which goes for about $150 these days but I got a discount as a previous customer, but you can bet even the discount price makes them a profit, so the term "discount" is relative.

So Rump is still Poo-tin's bitch with the US taking Russia's plan to Ukraine to force Zelenskyy to bend to Russia's will. The plan the US is pushing is just madness which includes Ukraine to give up all the land Russia now occupies and other land which Russia does not currently occupy, plus to reduce Ukraine's military and they have to give up their missiles and not have any foreign troops in Ukraine, which means Ukraine will not be allowed to join the EU. No mention of Russia returning all those kids they kidnapped from Ukraine that are still in Russia. By putting out this long Russian wish list, I'd say Americans are the dumbest fucking people on the planet. This so called US plan is Russia's plan for the next war after this one is concluded. It will soften up Ukraine for Russia to take over the rest of the country which is what Poo-tin has wanted from the start but he didn't think Ukraine would fight back, nor did he think the EU would support Ukraine given Rump has threatened to stop weapons to the EU. It was Rumps first term which gave Poo-tin the idea that America would not stop him. You would never think that America would be Russia's rent boy, then again Poo-tin has been fucking Rump in the arse from Rump's first term and Rump likes it. He is a fan boy of tough men and will do anything for them to like him. Rump is infatuated with powerful men and once again Rump is backing Russia and stating they will not support Ukraine against Russia as if Ukraine was the aggressor.

Rump's threat is kill Democrats for them just reminding the US military that they should not follow any unlawful order given to them by Rump. No political leader in a democracy would get away with saying that their political opponents should be hanged. They would have to resign their leadership, but not in America. It's called free speech in that fucked up so called democracy. Only in a dictatorship can the leader of that country get away with saying his/her political rivals should be killed. Whilst Rump might be immune to any prosecution under US law, which is just a fucked up principle, the US military members are not immune to prosecution if they follow an unlawful order. The military is required to follow the US constitution not the desire of the President. They swear an oath to US Constitution not the President and that includes all public servants which includes that Blondi woman and all those civilians appointed by Rump. The fuck up by that Blondi woman in going after Comey could see her disbarred. They made up a fake indictment to prosecute Comey, used a lawyer with no court experience to be the lead prosecutor who couldn't even file the correct paperwork. The Republican party is a fucking clown show, led by a criminal, confirmed rapist and sex pest. Now he is leading America into a recession so things for Americans are going to get even tougher with the US dollar going further down the S bend. America is a fucking joke at this point in his history. It betrays it's allies, brings confirmed Nazi's into the tent and is now doing the bidding of Russia. It is a fucked country run by dangerous amateurs.

The Aussie cricketers pulled their arses out of the fire and are falling over laughing at England fumbling their path to winning the first test. I didn't get to see day 2 as I was visiting with family and thought I'd get Sunday to watch day 3 of the test match. I watched day 1 and thought well the Aussies will have to battle hard to save the test. I got home on the Saturday and caught the last 10 mins of second day of the test match to watch the winning runs being hit by the Aussies. Boland came good in the second innings and Starc was the match winner. Head played one of his blinders and known for taking apart any bowling attack. Putting him in as opener was not something the England team was ready for, so an amazing tactic by the Aussies. Archer did fuck all in the second innings for England and played the wrong line as did Woods and they got smashed all over the ground. It was a humiliating loss by England given they were on track to win the game, but they got too cocky and paid the price. They aren't going to find the ground in Brisbane as easy to bowl on as Perth, which has gone to more a bowlers pitch which leads to short games. At no point did that pitch calm down and was probably a couple of days away from being a proper test match pitch. But it was an amazing win by the Aussies which now puts England back on their heels with a lot to prove.

Finished my play thru of Outerworlds 2 and won't be doing another play thru. As I progressed to the last parts of the game it just got annoying, mainly because you level out at level 30 and can't increase your skills as you can't earn any more XP, yet to access certain closed areas you need a higher skill level of certain skills. So unless you pick the correct skills early in the game you can't access these locked areas you encounter later in the game which makes no fucking sense. Fallout did this in one of those games but it was corrected in a later game as it was a major complaint. I can see the same issue with players of Outerworlds 2. The choices you make thru the game all turns to shit by the end of the game so you might as well kill everything and piss off all the factions because you die in the end and the world goes back to chaos as if you were never there. None of your tactical choices makes any difference by the end of the game. When doing side quests for the respective factions, in the end means nothing and with levelling out early there is no point in doing any more side quests as it doesn't lead to further XP so you can't increase your skills yet you encounter more enemies and tougher enemies. A flaw in the game which will turn off players wanting to play it again. In a game like Fallout your choices actually makes a difference later in the game, but not in Outerworlds 2. The ending was the final nail in the coffin to make me not want to play the game again. The combat is good and the graphics are good and the weapons choices are very good, but story lines leaves you feeling like what is the point of the game as you aren't even remembered for your actions. I'm onto the next game this week and trading in Outerworlds 2. The other game has reduced in price. So far I remain overall unimpressed with PS5 games. I've been playing console games since PS One, so PS5 games make me want to go back to PS4. That might change next year with better games on offer hopefully.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Onto the next PS5 game 'Hell is Us' which is a different type of game in that there is no map nor any quests. The price of the game came down by $20 and with my trade-in of $25, I got the game for 50% off the ticket price. The game itself is not an open world game and the areas push you down pre-determined paths, but without a map you just round around a lot relying on your memory. Since there are no actual quests you need a note pad to jot down possible quest items. Because there is not a quest list you have to try and remember which conversations might lead to quests. The rewards for quests are not immediate. You have to travel to a particular area to get your reward so there is a lot of backwards and forwards travel via the APC. There isn't any fast travel from point to point within areas so there is a lot of dead time just running around and you need to revisit areas. The travel in the APC is always a cut scene and that can tend to get old. It is a game which requires patience an I can see the younger generation who have short attention spans and want immediate rewards, not liking this game, plus with the lack of fast travel is can get boring which is not what you want in a game. You want to engage the player at all times. The graphics are well done but it is a dark game so you don't get to see all that detail because it is so dark. The other annoying thing is that the character cannot jump nor climb so you end up in a lot areas where you can see the objective but can't get up there unless you find the right path which means a lot more of just running around going down blind paths. As with all these type of games it pays to upgrade you weapons and gear as soon as possible, but unlike other games you can't upgrade you gear as their isn't any armour just the weapons and the only way to find these is just by wandering around. And again you have to go to a specific person to upgrade your weapons so yet another trip in at APC and yet another cut scene which could of done better with just a fast travel option. Seems bad game design. The lack of a quest list and no fast travel are a couple of reasons I won't be keeping this game and might not do another play thru due to the endless just running around aimlessly not knowing where you are going because of no map. You also need to take notes as you go. I've taken notes for other games like Elder Scrolls and Red Dead but that was mainly for treasure spots not quests. It is an interesting game with a solid story and lots of puzzles. There aren't any throwing weapons and you can only engage with the white creatures in combat but not the humans as they cannot hurt you even if you try to engage the other humans in combat which is odd. You are essentially a creature hunter only. When I first saw the game with the title 'Hell is US' it wouldn't take much to change that to 'Hell is the US', given what is going on in the US with the white mindless creatures being the republicans which feed off the violence in society which is why these white creatures are in the game. They have been called out via a time loop, which again is what is happening in the US with Rump as the time loop trying to bring back an America that used to exist where white people ruled everything in society and only white people got to vote and were counted as Americans. The Republicans want to bring that back where only white people are counted as American citizens which is why the Republicans are doomed to fail.

Lots of rain in Melbourne this past week which really started mid week. The previous weekend started off warm then a storm came thru on the Sat night which went into the Sunday. Then the heat came back with temps in the high 20's. I had to break out the fans again. Since mid last week it has been raining in Melbourne which continued in the weekend and also into the start of this week. Have a friend from interstate visiting Melbourne this week so I'm playing tourist guide for a few days. She is loving Melbourne seeing all the stuff she is missing out living in another state. Even though we have had lots of rain, for a tourist it has been good in that the rain has mainly happened at night. It's going to warm up in Melbourne for the rest of this week with 29C tomorrow and 33C on Thursday which is a long way from the chilly start to the week of 12-15C. It's a typical Spring type temp range but not usually something that happens in Dec. The massive swings in temps usually settles down by the end of Nov.

To celebrate the new underground train stations here in Melbourne the state govt has declared free travel on weekends which started on Sunday and it goes till Feb 1 next year. So if anyone is coming to Melbourne over the Summer/Christmas holidays then travel on all public transport on those weekends will be free for you. You don't need to be a local to take advantage of this free travel. We have free weekend travel for Seniors on weekends all year round and going all the way back to the when we had paper tickets, you would get free weekend travel on all of the PT if you purchased a weekly or monthly ticket. So free PT is nothing new to Melbourne. The state Lib party likes to talk about the state Labor govt having a massive debt due to the underground station project, but it was the former Fed Lib govt that removed $3 billion from that budget when they were in govt so the Vic govt had to fund it from Vic tax payers. Not the first time Vic tax payers had to self fund govt projects. Both the Morrison and Dutton Fed govts had an issue with Danny Boy when he was in charge here in Vic so they punished Vic's for having a Labor govt and denied funding to Victoria. Slomo did that during COVID when he refused to providing funding to Vic's during those early days of COVID. He only agreed to provide assistance when he saw those long lines of people in front of Centrelink offices and realised the Lib govt was losing votes. Mr Potato Head when he was in govt once again refused funding to Vic because we had a Labor govt, they not only called Danny Boy a Nazi but also lied about African gangs making streets unsafe in Melbourne which was total bullshit but they repeated these lies in Fed Parliament live on TV. So I find it laughable when the current Victorian Lib party talks about the budget deficit when it was their Fed Lib party that refused funding to Vic for most of their 9 yrs in office. Yet at the same time they gave NSW under Gladys everything she wanted including more COVID vaccines under secret deals. No wonder Vic's gave the Fed Lib party an arse kicking at the Fed election to increase Albo's numbers. The new underground stations aren't going to be of use to me as my train line doesn't benefit from the underground stations. I might try the new underground stations but will have to change trains. I remember when the first underground stations were built in Melbourne. Queen Liz even came to Melbourne to open it back in 1981. I was across the road at the RMIT at the time and we looked out the window to see Queen Liz arrive for the opening. That was the same year I started in the work force.

Albo got married and in a private ceremony mainly because he was told it was not safe for him to have a wedding in the open which is a sad state of affairs in Australia when the Prime Minister of Australia could be targeted at his own wedding by the right of politics and those protesters who are prone to violence. The higher level of security required would of been criticized by the right of politics and the mainly right wing media we have in Australia. The wedding was paid for by the couple which again had to be emphasized in news reports, why? We have always had people struggling to pay bills, but it gets more air time because it's the middle class complaining. When working class people were the saying the same thing over several decades, it never made the news and the middle class couldn't give a fuck.

The AFL season has officially ended with the women's grand final and a dominant performance by the Roos, North Melbourne. Brisbane was supposed to put on a better performance but the Roos have been the dominant team all season and they are now back to back AFLW champions which is rare in this modern era of AFL. It used to be that teams would dominate a decade like the Hawks did, but with the change in selections rules where the teams that finish towards the bottom on the ladder one year get the first picks of the better players the next year. So where having a large budget would mean your team got the best players, now the budget of a team is not the main factor to getting new players. It is a much more even AFL comp. The next cricket test kicks off on Thursday from Brisbane and it is a day night game which the English don't play so the Aussies would be favoured to win this one plus England doesn't do well in Brisbane and rarely wins. The last time England won at Brisbane was back in 1986 and prior to that it was even further back in 1933 so the poms don't do well at the Gabba.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Things are so bad in America that the raccoons are now breaking into liquor stores and getting drunk just to cope with their lives in Rump's America. Keep in mind raccoons search in rubbish bins for food and in some parts of the US they are still hunted for food. Not sure if that is strictly legal these days, but what happens in the swamps and mountains in the US pretty much stays there. Next the raccoons will be breaking into the White House to get some of Don Jr's white powder to get high as well as drunk. Still things could be worse, as least they aren't on boats being blown up in international waters by the US military. Any fast boat is now considered a drug boat by the US.

Melania does not like doing Christmas decorations. Her latest video is like a death march thru the halls of the White House flanked by Christmas trees she didn't have anything to do with. It was like some dream sequence for a funeral add and she attempted to touch one of the Christmas balls on a tree but doesn't quite make contact. Then again she comes from a country that if you can't eat it, then it's a waste of money.

This last week in Melbourne we went thru the entire gamit of temps. It started off cool in the low teens and lots of rain, then it went up to 34C in a couple of days then the cool change kicked and we were back to rain on the weekend. The saying we have in Melbourne is that if you don't like the weather just wait a while and it will change to something you do like. Had a friend visiting from Canada years ago and he couldn't get over how quickly the weather can change in Melbourne. That is mainly due to the winds that flow thru Melbourne. It is rarely still in Melbourne. Usually happens in the middle of Summer when the humidity really kicks in. But when the cool change comes thru you might of been in shorts during the day but then back in winter clothes when that cold wind blows thru. The good thing about Melbourne even in the Summer is that it doesn't stay very hot for long, usually for about 3 days in a row then it cools down and when that cool change comes thru, you'll be out of the shorts and back on with the trakkie daks and shut the doors. By the weekend the rain came back and I was back to the warmer clothes.

Been watching a bit of Youtube and keep seeing Americans posting stuff calling Australian shopping centres "the mall". I've been to the US and know what they call a "mall" is what we call a shopping centre. So for any Americans or Canadians coming to Australia make sure you get the terminology right otherwise if you ask an Aussie to direct you to a "mall", they will direct you to a street that is closed off to traffic which is what we call a mall. We take after the British term for a street closed to traffic. Here in Melbourne in the CBD, Bourke St Mall is the place you will directed to if you say "mall". There is a tram that runs thru it mainly because the tram was there before the mall was created. I'm old enough to remember when it was just a normal street. I was in my early 20's when it was opened as a mall and the controversy about closing the street to passing traffic for the traders in that part of Bourke St. Same was said about Swanston Street when it was closed off to thru traffic apart from the tram. Since the side walks have been widened to accommodate the newer tram platforms it now attracts more people just walking down from the town hall which has increased foot traffic for all the traders along Swanston St. Good Asian food further up Swanston St near China Town. So if you are coming to Melbourne for the Summer check out Swanston St. Whilst you can take the free tram up Swanston St, I would suggest you walk up the street which will take you past Bourke St Mall and up to the State Library then check out Melbourne Central on the opposite side of the street to the State Library. A quick walk in to the State Library to check out the beautiful dome ceiling and you can take the lift up to the balconies, but you will need to line up for the lift or take the stairs. Don't forget to take advantage of the free tram zone in the CBD, better than walking everywhere.

Had to laugh at the FIFA draw video of Rump getting a fake medal from an arse kissing head of FIFA. So from one corrupt body to a corrupt US President, which is why they like each other. It was so funny to see how happy Rump was to get his fake medal, like a kid showing off his participation medal for coming last. FIFA has to make a fake peace medal to bribe Rump into allowing the World Cup in the US, however the tournament is not entirely in the US as it's being spread over the US, Mexico and Canada which are two countries Rump has had issues with and went on rants against these countries. Rump keeps thinking he is tough, but countries know how to get around Rump, just appeal to his ego and his greed. He is a puppy dog if countries do that which shows how easy it is deal with the US which is now much weaker under Rump. The soccer World Cup will be a shit show in the US next year and it will be all about Rump and he will expect a lot of praise and will expect another medal or bribe at the end the World Cup.

If anyone was in doubt whether or not the US is a racist country, just watch Rump and his arse kissing white people in the White House Oval Office when he is talking about people from Somalia and that American Somalian politician. Not only does he racially abuse her but also further abuse because she is a woman, then goes on a tangent about people from Somalia. Not the first time a US president has made racist comments about people from Africa. Reagan did something similar when discussing Africa with Nixon, but that was in private not out in the public. But it does show that the Republican party has been a racist political party for many decades and probably all the way back to when it was founded. Under Rump the racism in the US has become more overt and now quite acceptable on American TV once again and of course it's all over social media in the US but again is being justified by influencers on social media. The irony of this is American white women want the features of black women such as more curves, larger bums, breasts and plumper lips and darker skin, yet these same white women don't want black and brown people in the US, but they want BBC. White people these days live in their own world of irony and define themselves on what they at not. They are the hole in the doughnut or bagel.

The poms were out played by the Aussies in the second test in Brisbane. The English can't seem to play to the conditions and can't read the game and know when to play conventionally and when to be aggressive. Archer which was supposed to be the big threat but seems to be a spoilt kid. He didn't want to chase the ball and was told several times to go get the ball. He is also easily put off his game. If things don't go his way he sulks and doesn't want to play any more and can't bowl more than 6 overs with any venom. He is 30yrs old and should be at the prime of his life as a fast bowler which is between 28 to 32 yrs old, but he hardly plays any test cricket. Yes he is fast but he wouldn't get a spot in the Aussie team with his lack of effort and poor attitude in the field. The English cricket team has been out played in these first two test matches and that is without the other three key Aussie players in Cummins, Lyon and Hazlewood. Cummings and Lyon will be back for the test in Adelaide and you would expect Lyon to stay for the rest of the series given that Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney pitches all take spin. Not looking good for the poms. They must win in Adelaide to have any hope.

The day/night test match using the pink ball doesn't work in Brisbane as the humidity continues in to the night which is not conducive to swing bowling at night. It didn't swing for either team at night and after 3 days it became a dead pitch so the ball didn't do shit apart from hitting a crack and moving away. So there is no point playing a day/night test if their isn't any dew on the ground which requires hot days and cool nights which is when the ball swings at night which is what happens in Adelaide at night. So if the ACA is going to persist with a day/night test match it needs to go back to Adelaide. The only reason they moved it to Brisbane is because of the larger seating capacity, so money over the game was the reason.

That South African Nazi that got kicked out of Australia was hassled by local reporters when he landed back in South Africa and was worried about death threats. Well don't show up in Australia at the front of a Nazi group parading in front of a parliament building. I mean how fucking stupid are you to go to another country and do that thinking nobody will see you. Obviously he isn't well known in South Africa as a Nazi otherwise he wouldn't of got the visa to Australia in the first place. So now all of South Africa knows he is a Nazi and they have seen his family as well. His wife knew all about his involvement with Nazi's so she can't claim she didn't know. His extended family is going to get some grief over this as well back in South Africa, then again he is Afrikaans so it kinda explains why he became a Nazi. They still haven't lived down the Apatite thing. The Afrikaans implemented it in South Africa and killed a lot of black of people. They would of still been banned from world sport if they still had it.

Barnaby has now officially said he is joining One Nation but gets a free ride for the next couple of years as he doesn't need to give up his position in Parliament. So he gets paid his high salary by the Aussie tax payer for doing fuck all. Nice work if you can get it. Not sure how he fits in a burka. Pauline might need to one be custom fitted. Although you would know it was Barnaby with his fake farmer's hat on top of it.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Morning all,

Sent the Christmas cards out last week, which these days is only about half a dozen. Only the older people send Christmas cards. The younger generations prefer to use technology but you can't hold on to those things long term. Humans are tangible creatures. We rely on physical things and it's those things we look back on when we get older. I'm using technology this year for the younger generations rather than cards as they prefer this method. Was surprised that the cost of sending a Christmas card OS is now $3. It wasn't that long ago it used to cost 95c. The cost of sending a Christmas card locally is still 65c so I guess that's good. I can see in the near future that sending a Christmas card OS will become a thing of the past due to the cost. Have a friend in Canada who loves getting a Christmas card with an Aussie theme, like scenes from the Aussie countryside as ours is unique. With the younger generation they would prefer to use social media but as technology moves on they won't have anything to look back on. If everything you send your family for major family occasions is on a social media platform, you will lose it in time. Every time software is upgraded you lose digital files because the new software doesn't support those files. I asked an IT expert how to deal with this potential loss of files, he told me to print them out which sounds like reverse logic. Kinda same thing with WiFi. If you want your files to download faster, get a cable to speed up the transfer.

Had to get a new alarm clock as mine died in respect to the alarm bit. It has had issues with keeping the proper time as in it kept increasing the actually time, but I've adjusted to that. When the alarm stopped working, well that was the final nail. I was surprised that most alarm clocks only have a battery operation with no plug in option apart from using a USB connection, which again doesn't make sense. Not sure why that is, but did manage to find one with a mains power option and the battery back up. If you are travelling, you will use your mobile as your alarm, but why would you have a battery only option for an alarm clock at home. Makes no sense, plus the fact you have to keep replacing the batteries. Now I have the issue of how to dispose of the old electronics since you can't just throw the smaller items in the rubbish as it's now illegal to throw any of those items in your rubbish bin. Frankly for small electrical items, I don't see why we can't just throw them in your recycling bin given how much we pay in rates now. But no, you have to find a dedicated recycling place for small electrical appliances. These are in between items which don't fit into any type of computer or TV item recycling. I would usually just keep the stuff in a box and wait for the hard rubbish collection, but these days you have to call the local council and make a date for the free hard rubbish. Seems silly to call a truck around to pick a couple of small electrical items. They tell you to recycle electrical items, then make it difficult for you to actually do what is required.

So I'm progressing thru the PS5 game 'Hell is US' and I've figured the game out. It is essentially a puzzle game with some combat thrown in. So to progress thru the crucial points in the game you don't need to defeat a boss but solve a cryptic puzzle which if you can't solve it, you don't progress in the game. At least with a boss fight you can learn their weaknesses, but with a cryptic puzzle you can't learn how to solve it. You either use a cheat or spend endless hours just trying different codes which can get frustrating. I would of preferred a boss fight. I don't mind clever puzzles but when the clues are obscure it will cause people to just rage quit and give up. It will only attract players with a narrow style of game play. Nerds will love this stuff. Your average player won't. You need to take lots of notes since there aren't any quest lists nor quest markers. So you don't know which are actual quests and which are just what they call rewards which doesn't really do much as in most cases the items you get as rewards don't really improve your capability as most are just temporary boosts. I keep picking up these boots but haven't had any real reason to use them, so I don't understand the reason to keep them. Have managed to defeat the white dancing creatures without using them. This is another game with a stamina bar so once again you have to run away and let your stamina bar refill. Even doing something as simple performing a block uses stamina, this is before you actually attack the enemy. I tried the game on the easy level and well it was too easy and very repetitive combat. The combat itself is solid but very basic with only two buttons. The glyphs you get to attach to weapons are only good for a temporary attack so good for one hit, then you can't use them which is why I rarely used them. The weapon boost heavy attack takes too long to be effective in a fight against multiple enemies, so most of the time I only use the one button in combat. The lack of a jump or climb function is very annoying. You can only climb if there is a ladder or a slope which requires lots of running around for no reason. I found this lack of a climb function become frustrating as the game has gone on. The lack of a map is not really an issue as the areas are small, but with the lack of any form of a directional pointer you just end up running around aimlessly getting lost which gets annoying and boring as there isn't any fast travel within an area. You can only fast travel back to the APC which is fine when completing an area, but fucking useless when travelling within an area. There isn't any way point option either so you just run around a lot having to use your memory or your notes within an area. All the areas you travel thru are linked by quests, but without a quest list you can't remember all these links without extensive notes. There is a compass but you have keep selecting that option which seems poor game design. It seems that the designers of this game have left out all these things just to extend the time you spend in the game which doesn't add to the enjoyment of the game. It is not an open world game and forget about collecting any loot as you can't spend it. It's not a game I want to play again due to all these issues. So far I've only found one blacksmith to upgrade my weapons and other gear, but no armour upgrades. So even when you find new weapons within an area, you have to travel back to that one town to upgrade your weapons, then travel back to the area you were just in if you want to use an upgraded weapon, which seems nuts. It seems in trying to create a game where you need to think and puzzle solve as the main aspect of the game, they have instead created a game with lots of padding for no reason. So unless you like spending hours trying to solve one cryptic puzzle after another, this isn't the game for you. The story line is solid as are the graphics, but I don't think the younger generation would have the patience to play this game all the way thru, unless you are a nerd. If you like doing cryptic crosswords then you might find this game your thing as the combat is very basic and you can't interact with most of the world you are experiencing. This game is not a keeper for me. Already looking at another game, but will finish this one first as I don't like to quite a game even at times when I get bored without any fast travel.

No more bills for this year. Paid the last of those by the first week of this month. Did the last of the medical appointments for the year last week, so can now look forward to Christmas and all the food related to that. It's the one time of the year where I indulge in all the things I shouldn't eat. Had my first taste of Bundy Egg Nogg, although I would add more rum. Might have to buy some rum for Christmas. Usually get some international beers for Christmas. Dan Murphy's is my go to place for OS booze. It always surprises people how fast Christmas comes along once we get into Dec.

Interest rates are set to go back up next year possibly as soon as Feb so that will be a shock for the new year for those with a mortgage. Might as well spend up big now as next year is looking like another year of counting the pennies, not that we have pennies. Would sound weird if I said counting the 5c pieces. When people try to avoid getting change by using their cards they are then charged a fee so you pay more by using a card than cash. When they stop charging you a surcharge for using a card, I'll go cashless. Till then I'll keep using the folding stuff, with our plastic money that you can actually wash. Trying doing that with American money. Rather backward country that one.

The mass shooting in Bondi is something Aussies are not used to given our big shift on gun laws after the Port Arthur mass shooting. I'm old enough to remember that. Lots of questions will be asked as how the father was able to get high powered rifles. The shotgun the father had is within the rules. The son is known to police as a radical, but it seems the father enabled his son rather than trying to address his son's actions. This was a planned attack so the whole lone wolf thing is crap. The war in Gaza has fueled a lot of this ramping up of anti-Jewish sentiment in all countries, so it seems ironic that Netanyahu blames Australia and is a rather cheap shot as Australia all because Australia now recognizes a Palestinian State. The Feds should have done more but Universities also have allowed the anti-Jewish hate speech to fester on their campuses and make Jewish students feel unsafe. Free speech comes with responsibility. So there is lots of blame to go around for what has happened in Bondi. No doubt the gun laws will be looked at once again.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Morning all,

America continues to call itself the land of the free, well not if you are tourist to America. The US Govt is introducing new rules for tourists and those on business trips to the US to provide not only access to your social media accounts for the last 5yrs but also all your email accounts as well for the last 10yrs. But wait it gets even better, they also want access to your family's social media including your kids, just in case your child or sibling or any other relative like your third cousin had posted anything negative about Rump. So you essentially have to provide your family tree as well when applying for a visa to the US even for a 90 day short stay. This sounds like a dictatorship and something Russia would do, not something a democratic country would do. If you committed a serious crime then sure, but then you also have rights to go along with that and your family members are not responsible for your crimes, but under US law they will be if you visit there. An American definition of a crime is anything they say it is. Calling Rump a fat fuck is a now a crime in the US for which you could go to jail or be deported or refused entry. The American tourist industry has already taken a massive hit due to Rump being in office. These latest draconian measures by the US will make more people rethink their holiday plans to visit the US. However if you are a Republican suck up, then you will be fine. There are a some Aussies who love Rump and moved to the US to live in the new America. All you have to do is give up your soul. I've been to the US 5 times and never had an issue, however in the US of today with my skin tone I would probably be arrested by ICE. The only thing that might save me is my Aussie accent, but I would probably be deported anyway. My advice to anyone thinking of going to the US is just don't. Go to Canada instead. It has very beautiful scenery, and very friendly people who don't want to shoot you. So just stay in the airport lounge when you stop in the US and get back on the plane to go to Canada and spend your money there. You really really really have to piss off a Canadian for them to shoot you and then they will apologize and ask if you are ok.

For the LNP to personally blame Ablo for the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach is such bullshit. No politician could have prevented what happened at Bondi. The failure was that of the security agencies that failed to pick up the activities of the father and son shooters in the months leading up to that attack. The fact the son was known to police, yet the father suddenly getting a gun license a couple of years ago didn't alert the local police. Nor when the father purchased several guns, one of which was a high powered quick load rifle also didn't seem odd to police. Police are required to make regular gun checks for those who have licensed guns. So the NSW police didn't pick this up. The AFP also didn't have the father and son on their radar. ASIO didn't see the pair as a threat even though they interviewed family members when they caught wind of the son's activities. Nobody picked up the fact these two were capable of such a shocking crime. The Jewish communities whilst signaling something was going to happen, had no idea it would happen in Bondi. So to say they knew this would happen is just frustration and anger on their part. Jewish people in Australia have every right to feel angry that their calls for better protection were largely ignored by police. Politicians can make all the laws they like, but if the law enforcement agencies fail to prosecute those laws, then they are useless laws. In this PC world we live in, it allows these forms of violence to occur because the rights of the potential perpetrator are favoured over the rights of the potential victims. We see this already in domestic violence cases. Let's all not forget this uptake of anti-Jewish hate speech only occurred because Netanyahu failed to protest Israeli citizens which led to the Oct 7th atrocities. Netanyahu never thought Hamas would cross the border because Israel has a strong military. The military border posts manned by all female troops were not given weapons and they were ignored by the Israeli military when warned that something was about to happen on the border as they were seeing Hamas activity on the border. So people forget that all this increase in anti-Jewish sentiment around the world happened due to a failure by Netanyhu to take the threat of Hamas seriously. It hasn't occurred because Albo won the election. That is the LNP trying to inject politics into what has been an act of violence which even the LNP could not of prevented as politicians take their advice from the respective law enforcement agencies at the Federal and State level. There is also blame for the local Muslim communities that allow radical imams to preach at their local mosques. Bankstown in Sydney has been in the news a lot for allowing radical religious leaders to preach in the local community and radicalize young Muslim men to commit acts of violence. So there have been failures throughout society in Australia to stop these acts of violence from happening. It's not just one thing that caused the shootings in Bondi. There is plenty of blame to go around. Local councils also have a role to play here. We need to rethink this whole thing about the rights of the individual vs the rights of society. We keep going easy on the individuals and forget about the rights of everyone else to live in a safe society.

Mass shootings are uncommon in Australia so nobody thought this would happen. Port Arthur is one mass shooting that everyone remembers but that was a nutjob with a gun, who is still in prison and isn't getting out. We had our own mass shooting here in Melbourne with the Hoddle St shooter. But he was yet another nutjob with a gun. Neither of these were political nor religiously motivated. Just individuals who had issues with their place in society and couldn't cope with their own realities. I won't mention the names of either of these guys as they don't deserve to be talked about. Most of the gun crime in Australia is gang on gang shootings. We have our own home grown nutjobs, like we saw recently with those sovereign citizens couple that killed those two cops who were on the property to do a routine gun check. That couple were dispatched by the cops as they were not going to surrender so they gave the cops little choice. Albo has been quick to look at tightening gun ownership and it has been done without mass protests in the streets. If this was America there would be dipshit Americans protesting about their gun rights. Aussies want better gun control. We don't have an issue with gun ownership but it needs to fit the need. So farmers or game hunters can still have their guns, it's about the number and type of firearm. There are gun collectors but those guns are rendered inert so they can't be used. I've used many guns but don't own any as I don't have a need to own a gun. I don't see owning a gun as a hobby as I know what damage they can do in the wrong hands. I play what some could consider violent video games, but I don't have an urge to shoot someone. Australia is not anti-gun, we just want them properly controlled.

The DRS technology has been shown to have flaws and also that the ICC has washed it's hands of controlling this technology because of cost. They expect the respective host country to pay for it rather than dictate a standard which seems crazy. The umpires are all ICC accredited yet the technology umpires must use is not. The umpires have been removed from the process which has shown confusion amongst the players who expect the umpire on the field to make the decision. But under ICC rules the soft signal with the umpire making a call on the field, has been eliminated and all faith instead has been put in the technology which is not subject to ICC management. DRS has shown it cannot capture the actual point of impact. The digital signal of a nick or not a nick does not match the visual which shows the time of impact. The digital read out and the visual are not in sync due to frame rate so the third umpire has to make a guess which is nuts. The on field umpire is in the best position to make the decision then use the technology to either confirm the umpire's call or refute it. As the rules now stand the players on the field are not believing DRS. An incident when the ball was shown to clearly hit the gloves, the digital signature did not show up till a frame later when the ball passed by the helmet, therefore the third umpire was left with no clear decision of the whether the ball hit the gloves, so the doubt went to the batsman. They don't go off the visual and cannot over rule the digital signature. This issue needs to be fixed otherwise players around the world will not use DRS. India for example doesn't trust the technology and will only play with the on field umpires making the decisions. So either the ICC takes control of the DRS technology or bring back the soft signal and allow the on-field umpire to make the call first. The current process doesn't work and if they leave it the way it is, countries will not use it, which they all have the option to do.

Just received my next pension update for Jan and the CPI did about 2% so a modest increase in the pension for me per fortnight. Off this week to do the final Christmas activity with a trip across the city to the cemetery which is something I do every Christmas. Then an easy Christmas Day and watching the Melbourne test match on Boxing Day, which is a tradition. Going to spend some time in the garden today to do a tidy up for Christmas.

Hope everyone has a happy Christmas and a safe festive season. As the saying goes...."don't let the bastards get you down"...when someone comes at you get a bit of mongrel in ya.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Purchased my last PS5 game for the year titled 'Cronos The New Dawn'. It is supposed to be a cross between Dead Space and Silent Hill which is what peeked my interest. I've played both and enjoyed both. Traded-in the previous game 'Hell is Us'. The ending was rather flat and was wondering once again what was actually achieved apart from the son finding his mum, which I guess was the point to the story but all those quests didn't seem to link to the end story apart from getting the main keys. Wasn't sure the point of getting a weapon right at the end when you couldn't upgrade it. Was talking to the guy in JB HiFi who was curious about the game and I mentioned it didn't have a map, which put him off the game. As I've previously said the developers of 'Hell is US' has missed a trick with several things they have left out to attract a wider audience and those things that are missing will put off a lot of gamers. I'm sure the people who provide reviews for these types of games are paid by the developers for better reviews to generate interest and get people to buy these types of games. Cronos is a game with limited ammo and with an autosave as the main save option. You will die a lot so will need to repeat areas and also recoup loot you lose by dying, so that is annoying. I don't see why game developers can't just give the option to save as you go. What is really achieved by having to go back to a save point? It doesn't encourage exploration and it is just time wasting. It adds nothing to the game and doesn't increase skill levels. It does encourage rage quits. For me a game developer should be encouraging gamers to stick with a game, rather than give players a reason to walk away. Cronos also doesn't have a difficulty level so it is very hard early as you will die a lot just repeating the same combat. Since you can't save outside dedicated save points, any loot you found you lose when you die so often which is annoying. So not only do you have to do battle over and over again to get past a section, you also have to remember to retrace your steps to pick up the loot you found previously which you lose when you die. Don't see the point of this. I'm not enjoying the game thus far and can't see anything that is similar to either Dead Space nor Silent Hill so it seems the reviewers have done a con job on players thinking they are going to get a similar experience. I've played games before with limited resources and got thru them, but Cronos I find is not my thing as I hate to just repeat the same thing over and over again hoping for luck to save me. There is a melee option in the combat but it doesn't help with the creatures who seem untouched by it and since you have limited ammo it takes an entire clip to kill just one of these creatures. Upgrades are limited due to the limited resources. I don't understand whey you need to spend resources to upgrade a weapon's reload capability. That just doesn't make sense. Seen this before in games and clearly the designers don't know how guns work. With other similar types of games I've played, at least the melee gives you a good combat option till you can restock your ammo. Not in Cronos. Melee sucks and does fuck all. Anyone buying this game thinking they are going to get a similar experience to Dead Space or Silent Hill, well that is a lie. The price for Cronos dropped twice and with my trade-in it only cost me $34 so not a big loss. Hoping that 2026 will bring better game options and that developers stop trying to make every action game as a copy of Demon Souls and Bloodborne. Only Catholics like those games as they believe punishment in this world will give them a heavenly afterlife. Have I got news for them! Game reviewers need to be more honest with their reviews and stop trying to con people into buying games that are not what they seem. I have not been impressed with most of the PS5 games I've played this year. Only kept two which are Doom:The Dark Ages and Ghost of Yotei. I've played every Doom game that has come out but always traded them in but this latest Doom has just enough difficulty to keep me engaged. Ghost of Yotei is excellent and again has enough difficulty in it to keep you engaged. Both have been worth the money. The rest of the games I've purchased in 2025 have been a waste of money. I could of purchased a bottle of single malt scotch instead. I did save money however with doing those trade-ins but you have to trade-in games a few months after you buy them otherwise the most you get is $5 as a trade-in which is yet another con job by retailers as they encourage trade-ins only so they can sell your traded games for 10 times the cost of the trade-in. The most you will get for a trade-in is $25, even a top rated game.

So gun makers OS are getting around the Aussie gun categories by gun retailers importing these new quick load rifles and shot guns. The new mechanism gets around the pump action and auto -reload semi-automatic rifles categories by using these altered rifles. Purists would not use these modified rifles and shot guns. People who buy these have other reasons to have these weapons than what you would consider traditional reasons. Quick loading rifles would not be used by hunters nor farmers. It is a very American attitude to guns. These modified weapons would not be allowed in competition shooting. So there is no reason for these modified rifles and shot guns to be imported into Australia and should be banned. This might be met with resistance from some gun owners, but then you really have to ask why these gun owners want to own these modified guns and what is their purpose in owning such guns. Especially if they are not registered hunters or farmers. There is no reason for someone living in a city in Australia to have such modified weapons. Gun clubs offer the experience of using a gun without the need for ownership and it is done under supervision. A vast majority of Aussies will never use a gun nor have any desire to own one. Self protection doesn't get you a gun in Australia, unlike the US where you can buy a gun with your groceries without any license nor background checks. And sure that is not the rule everywhere in the US but it is possible to travel to another American state where the guns laws basically don't exist then travel back to your home state and kill people with that very gun and nobody knows you have it. That is what Americans call freedom and American rights. Here in Australia you don't have any right to own a gun. You have to prove why you want one. The gun culture is Nordic countries is completely different. They want the ability to raise a local militia to defend their country which is why Russia doesn't want to fuck with Nordic countries. Nobody is going to invade the US.

Christmas Day here in Melbourne was on the chilly side and we got some rain on Christmas Eve late at night. A typical Christmas temp here in Melbourne is around the mid 20'sC although we have had Christmas Days in the mid 30'sC as well. This year Christmas Day and Boxing Day was on the chilly side, but well it is Melbourne so it doesn't stay the same temp for long. It was more like Spring than Summer. Now we are back up into the low 30's for a few days. Today is tipped to be 33C and tomorrow is still going to be warm close to 30C. We are expecting a cool change in the afternoon tomorrow but without any rain. So like Christmas, New Year's Eve will on the cool side so comfortable to see the fireworks and might even get chilly as the night progresses. These days I'm quite happy to watch the fireworks at home, which means I can have a several drinks as in a bottle of the bubbly stuff. Don't normally drink champagne or as we are forced to call these days Sparkling Wine. New Year's Eve in the one time I will drink champagne. More of a tradition than anything else.

Australia has retained the Ashes after the win in Adelaide, but the poms made a come back with the win in Melbourne on a dodgy pitch. They were expecting hotter weather which is why there was so much grass on the pitch, but the weather stayed cool so it gave the bowlers too much of an advantage. The same curator was praised with his previous pitches. So he got it wrong this time which he has owned up to with no excuses. But also the batsman have a role to play in having longer test matches. Nobody wants boring cricket but with the rise of white ball cricket the younger cricketers think they can play the same way in test matches which doesn't work. This is leading to lower scores on any pitch that is not dead flat. Those T20 or 20/20 cricket games as some call it, are played on dead wickets which highly favour the batters. I don't watch T20 for that very reason, unless it's a World Cup where you get several games in the one day. That is more about supporting the Aussies than watching the cricket for the type of game. So the Aussies are 3-1 up on the Ashes and only the Sydney test to go which will take spin, but the poms don't have a proper spinner. Will be watching that match.

Hope 2026 starts off on a positive note for most of you. Obviously not everyone cause well that doesn't happen. Got to keep it real. I mean you could start off the year dead. Not considered a positive, apart from your kids or family that now can get their hands on your money and stuff in your house that you didn't want that specific person to have. But well you'll be dead so not like you can do anything about it. So spend your money while you can enjoy it and give your stuff to the person you want to have it, before you die. If your kids don't like that, they can't do anything about it, well cause you'll be dead and beyond caring.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Well here we are in 2026. So a happy New Year to all. There is always those first few days of a new year where things are in limbo. You are in post celebrations and not yet thinking about the tasks you need to do in the coming weeks before work starts, the next round of medical appointments or you have to think about the new school year if you have kids. But let's face it not all of you are going to have a happy new year, it's just something we say, like Hello or G'Day if you're an Aussie. Will see what the new year will bring, but it's mainly up to each of us to make that happen. If you fucked up in the previous year and didn't learn from it. A very good chance you're going to fuck up again in the new year. Also as we get older we don't know healthwise what could happen to us. Can't do much about those things, unless you caused it to happen by not learning from what you know you shouldn't do. You keep smoking and drinking heavily, don't blame others and the universe for your medical condition. Resolutions only work if you want to take the steps to achieve them. So don't make any big goals if you aren't prepared to do the work to get there. Less chance you will be disappointed in yourself. Instead make small goals that you know you can achieve to build confidence. I would laugh at organizations that would put out there 5 and 10yr goals so they sounded good but had fuck all idea on how to measure these motherhood statements which meant they were clueless on how to achieve these long terms plans. Then they would change them in less than 12 months cause their KPI's were not going to be met and didn't want to look stupid. So if you don't want to look like a failure in the new year, set smaller goals you can achieve, otherwise you will look stupid. You aren't going to come close to perfection which is an illusion. So get real with your decision making. If you aren't up for the challenge don't set challenging goals.

It hasn't taken long for the bills to arrive. Got my first two bills of the year on New Year's Day. The real world just reminding me that it was lurking in the background waiting for me to relax. Could be the start of an expensive month, but it's only money right?

Spent a nice New Year's Eve. Had a bottle of Proseco which is the closet we now get to champagne in Australia unless you want to buy the very expensive champagne like Monet. The Proseco only cost me $10 an after a couple of glasses you wouldn't taste the difference anyway. Went back to the old favs of cabana and cheese cut up in cubes. Can't get the chilli hot cabana unless I go to the right deli, so settled for the regular cabana. For Christmas dinner I made a curry and for New Year's Eve dinner I made a stir fry, sweet and sour beef with rice. It was a very multi-cultural festive season feasting. Not a meat pie in sight. I did see prawns on special but couldn't be bothered standing at the sink cleaning a kg of prawns. I really have to be in the mood to do all that work for a prawn curry. Will make up for that when I get my seafood birthday lunch. Will be another year older by the end of this week.

There is a lot of emotion surrounding the calls for a Federal Royal Commission into the Bondi attack. As we have seen before these Royal Commissions can become a talkfest with no powers to implement the outcomes. We saw that the banking Royal Commission led to nothing. It turned into a report that has just sat on a shelf with no penalties for those who committed that fraud. The Robodebt Royal Commission also led to nothing. Nobody to this day has been prosecuted over the deaths of those people nor for the lives that have been ruined because of what the LNP govt at the time did to ordinary Aussies. It is totally understandable that the Jewish community is still lashing out at anyone that didn't do as they asked and that they are still fearful about their safety. It's now the job of all levels of govt including local councils to assure the Jewish communities that they are safe and take all the steps necessary to do that, but calls from the Jewish community to call out the military onto Australian streets is frankly something we should never see. The military are not and should never be a policing force for domestic circumstances, that only happens if the domestic situation has got so bad that law enforcement has broken down. That is not the case in Australia. The police both state and federal have enough different organizations to deal with an escalation of law enforcement. The military are only there as a response to external threats to the country, not domestic threats. There was a failure of security agencies so any review or investigation needs to be done with the lens of law enforcement as the main consideration not comments from society. None of us know exactly what the policing forces knew and some of that will never be published. The LNP are trying to make calls for a Royal Commission as an aim to attack the Labor Govt. This is not a political issue. It's about the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment in the community and what went wrong in keeping Jewish people safe. Everyone in Australian society has the right to live in peace and safety. Anything that threatens society needs to be addressed aggressively to weed out anyone or any organizations wanting to destroy that peace and safety. Unlike the past, most radicalisation is happening in Australia not via the internet. As we have seen in the UK. Those young men were radicalised in the UK by locals to commit those crimes. We need to be less tolerant of any of organization that promotes harm to others even if that is a religious group. Religion has been twisted to be a weapon regardless of the faith. Those who promote those agendas need to be stopped and not given any leniency because they are a leader in that faith.

With the heat we had here in Melbourne just before New Year's Eve, the roses in my gardens were in full bloom for New Year's and continue to bloom. Also some of the other hedging bloomed again as well. You would think it's Spring again. So lots of colour at my place to bring in the new year, which of course means I'll have to out there cutting things back again in a few days.

Was watching the news leading up to New Year's and heard the term "long arms" when referring to the carbine rifles the cops had patrolling the MCG for the test match. Now I haven't heard the term "long arms" since it referred to the old smooth bore rifles like Matchlock and Flintlock rifles, which were technically not rifles since their barrels did not contain rifling. Nobody uses the term "long arms" if you are in know. Again the fact that cops at the MCG had carbines still wouldn't be effective against a shooter with a high powered rifle which can hit a target at a longer distance. So I had a bit of a laugh when watching these news conferences where every speaker used the term "long arms" which they repeated parrot fashion without really knowing what they were talking about. The irony of all this talk of "long arms" is that ammo used in these weapons is called small arms ammo. Which I'm sure is going to fuck with people's minds, but then again if you are familiar with guns, you would know this. I'm just waiting for a reporter to refer to hand guns as "short arms". I've found over the years when reporters talk about weapons used in shootings they often get it wrong when describing the weapon. And in this day of social media working on misheard or made up info, that stuff goes viral quickly with people just repeating what someone else said without checking any facts.

So America is now officially a dictatorship run by a thug. The USA spent 20yrs in the Middle East which only resulted in billions of US dollars spent and the death of lots of Americans with no result. Now the US has invaded Venezuela and captured the President and his wife and Rump says America will take control of Venezuela and essentially make it a colony of the US. Rump has trashed international law and not followed the US constitution. He is in all senses a dictator and America is now a threat to all other countries on the planet. Even Russia condemned this attack by the US, which says a lot given Russia invaded Ukraine. Being an ally of America means nothing and Rump has no chance of getting that Nobel Peace Prize now. Dictators don't get the Nobel Peace Prize. America is not the land of the free, it's the land of arseholes. If you have something the US wants, they will just invade your country and take it. It's all about the oil and nothing to do with bringing democracy to Venezuela. America has decided that the oil in Venezuela now belongs to the USA. So they are taking a resource from another country by military force not by trade negotiations. As for the drugs, well most drugs coming into America come from Colombia thru Mexico, not Venezuela. So this invasion of Venezuela is once again based on American lies, just like the WMD's in Iraq. Republicans wanted the US out of Iraq, well now Rump has put them back to invading another country. How fucking dumb are Republicans?

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Happy new year to all the Aussies. 5 years since my last post here I think. I was OzDave back then but thanks to some hackers, that account is no longer accessible to me. I'm still living in Thailand with a beautiful Thai wife who makes life constantly exciting in many ways.
 
OzyDave said:
Happy new year to all the Aussies. 5 years since my last post here I think. I was OzDave back then but thanks to some hackers, that account is no longer accessible to me. I'm still living in Thailand with a beautiful Thai wife who makes life constantly exciting in many ways.
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Well I guess that makes you a born again virgin in this new year. Welcome back to this little island of sanity in all the chaos. Well I should say an Aussie island, which doesn't tolerate dickheads.

Lots of fires still burning here in Victoria, but thankfully the weather is cooler by nearly 20C, no rain though to quell the fires still burning and not much rain in the coming week either.
 
Afternoon all,

It's Summer here in Australia and people are drowning around the coastline, mainly tourists who don't know how dangerous our beaches can be. We have rips that will take you out to sea and most people panic and then drown. So if you are caught in a rip don't try to swim against it as you will tire yourself out then drown. Just float when it finally stops moving you out to sea, then swim across it either left or right of the rip, then back to the beach. People die when they try to swim against it. That never works. So for anyone coming to Australia for the Summer, make sure you swim between the flags and if the locals are not going in the water then you don't either, it could save your life. Up in Queensland this time of year is when jellyfish are in big numbers as well as other nasty stuff in the water apart from sharks. So it might look nice with the sun out, but if the locals in Queensland are not getting in the water and you as a tourist are wondering why, it's because there are things in the water that can do you some serious harm. Down here in Victoria we are not immune either as like along the NSW coast, we get Blue Bottle jellyfish, "Blue Bottles" as they are known locally that wash up on the sand which you don't know about till you step on one as they are small and not easy to distinguish from other stuff on the beach. The nerds will say they are not jellyfish. Their other name is the 'Pacific Man of War', and like the well known Man of War, the Blue Bottles also have long stingers that trail underneath them in the water, so it's not just the blue body you have to look out for when walking on the beach or in the water. They are dangerous and not only do they have a very bad sting, for some people it could mean a trip to the hospital. Each Summer thousands of people get stung by Blue Bottles which for most is just a very nasty sting, so it is a common occurrence during Summer. When in the water at the beach, be smart and obey the warnings on our beaches during the Summer and do as the locals do when at the beach. We take beach safety very seriously in this country because of the dangers. The surf life savers in their yellow and red uniforms are not there for show, they do have to save people from themselves, mostly tourists. So if you are a tourist to Australia coming here for the beaches and the sun, look for the people in the yellow and red uniforms on the beach and ask them where it's safe to swim. If the beach is not patrolled then be careful where you swim and look to what the locals are doing.

Another initiative from the Labor govt here in Victoria is that kids now travel free on the PT all the time. The only cost is $5 for what they are calling a Youth Myki. In my day to get a student discount on the PT you needed to show your school ID which only lasted 1 yr which needed renewal at the start of the new year which meant another trip to the train station to get the form stamped plus a stamp from the school. This new Youth Myki shows that PT should be free as it costs more money to administer the fares than the money recouped from the fares. The Qld state govt can get away with 50c fares because you don't need as many staff to do admin on the fares. The Youth Myki is a good idea for kids. Under the old system you paid an adult fare once you turned 13yrs old. The student fare was only open to high school kids but you had to have the pass on you at all times to prove you qualified for the student fare. Under the Youth Myki it applies to all kids up to 17yrs old, but if you happen to still be in high school at 18yrs old during the year, you have to use an adult myki, so some kids are going to get caught out on that one. Obviously kids under 5yrs old are free. So overall the Youth Myki is a good idea. Can tell we are in an election year here in Victoria in November.

I'm now 64yrs old. Will have to remember that when asked. Still can't believe I'm in my 60's. Went down to Warrnambool for my birthday last week. Whilst the temps here in Melbourne were in the 40's and very humid, it was very nice and cool down along that part of the coast. It was the only part of Victoria that was cool. That strip from Portland to Port Fairy to Warrnambool remained cool whilst the rest of the stated was sweltering and being impacted by bush fires. So many bushfires in Vic that it felt the entire state was on fire. Left a lovely cool area and got back to a humid Melbourne. The cool change was already down there on the coast. It was a slow moving cool front. Didn't get to my part of Melbourne till later in the afternoon. It was very humid at my place before the cool change arrived and with the cool change we got the smell of smoke. Probably from the bushfires near Colac as the cooler winds were coming from that direction from a SW direction. Drove thru the outskirts of those fires. No issues on the highway but did see the watch and act warnings flashing near the Colac area. The bushfries closed parts of the Hume Hwy leading north and a part of the Calder Hwy leading to Bendigo was also closed. These are two major hwys in Victoria that usually has lots of traffic on it. Last week was one of the worst bushfires periods in Victorian history with the huge amount of fires burning at the same time. Some people lost everything including their houses, farms and businesses. Fires are still burning.

The digital mobile networks failed again due to the bushfires. Not that they burned down, but due to the smoke from the fires the digital signals failed. This happens every Summer now. Once again shows that digital communications are crap when dealing with cloud cover due to smoke from fires. Radio signals are the only thing that works in those situations which is why aircraft use radio signals to get through heavy cloud cover. Digital signals cannot penetrate those weather conditions. This loss of phone and internet signals happens each Summer due to the rather crap digital network in regional parts of Australia. Fire crews here in Victoria couldn't communicate with each other due to the lack of digital signals because of the smoke and nearly blackout conditions. The phone and internet infrastructure in regional areas is shit. It's fine for people in a big city like Melbourne and Sydney sitting in a cafe watching make up or food vlogs on their phones, totally fucking useless in regional areas of the country. These digital networks are only designed for cities not country areas. Whilst the sun is out and little to no clouds in the sky then digital signals work. The moment you get overcast or heavy cloud cover, the digital phone networks fail and there is little to no signal. With the lack of analogue phone lines these days, once the power goes out so does your internet and your modems, including your phone connection dies in your local area. As we have also seen, people can't dial 000 even in our big cities due to the failure of digital signals. They need to bring back the old independent phone and internet lines rather than this bullshit system where all your communications comes through the power lines. When the mobile phone networks couldn't connect to 000 the only phone lines that worked were the landline system. With all this emphasis on digital networks and pushing people away from landlines, the govts have created a less safe environment and are putting more people at risk of dying because they can't call emergency services. Previously where you could call an ambulance on the old phone lines, these days you are at more risk of dying at home because you can't call an ambulance due to these crap digital networks. The solution is easy, but politicians would have to admit they fucked up by getting rid of the old fixed line phone networks because they didn't want to spend the money. The telecommunication companies will never take the blame. As we have seen they blamed the public for not buying their most expensive and latest phones and then again they still blamed those people for not updating their phones with the latest OS updates. Nobody seems to want to admit that digital phone networks are crap and can't be relied on in an emergency. Not only do we now just throw digital technology away every year, we are now throwing away people's lives just like all e-waste.

So the murders by ICE officers continues in the US. The they have killed now about 9 people and who knows how many have been injured by ICE grabbing people and throwing them to the ground let alone who has been treated during their detention away from the cameras. People have died whilst in ICE custody. Criminals are safer when in prison. The identify of that ICE officer who murdered that mother was quickly published by keen observers. This guy has had issues in the past with violence against the public. Everyone has seen the footage and it was obvious he came late to the party and his first response was to raise his firearm. The first ICE agent to get to the women's car, went for the car door handle. His gun was still in it's holster. The US govt was quick to tell people they didn't what they saw. That young mother, who's only weapons were a couple of plush toys on the dashboard was driving away, not towards anyone. She was targeted because she was filming what the ICE were doing to people they had grabbed. Everyone from the US govt including that dumb fuck Rump, then went on TV and just told lies about what happened to defend a murderer. Now they are not providing any evidence to the local state govt who want to press charges against ICE. The DOJ, FBI and all other federal law enforcement agencies are covering up this blatant murder of a US citizen who was practicing her freedoms under the US Constitution which seems to mean fuck all in the US under the current govt. Republicans are once again enforcing a dictatorship on US citizens.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Morning all,

US oil companies don't want anything to do with going into Venezuela and taking over their oil industry. So how is Rump going to get the oil out of the ground without any company willing to reset-up in Venezuela? The Maduro regime is still in power so nothing has changed there. Rump is not supporting the opposition leader who won the election for the simple reason is that she won the Nobel Peace Prize and he is still pissed about. Then he went on a rant that Norway didn't give him the "Noble"(Nobel) Peace Prize, which shows how fucking dumb Rump is because the Nobel Peace Prize committee is not part of the Norwegian govt. They are an independent civilian organization who are funded by the sales of the Dynamet-Nobel company which not only has IP for dynamite but also the IP for percussion caps which is in every cartridge of ammo used in all small arms, i.e. handguns, rifles, shot guns, semi-automatic and fully automatic guns, etc. They are the device that makes the gun go boom. So they will never run out of money and also why they can afford the prize money awarded to each recipient. Nobel might have invented dynamite but he got really rich on the invention of the percussion cap for ammo. Given how many guns Americans have, Republicans are helping to fund the very peace prize Rump didn't get. How fucking ironic. They have essentially voted against their king and they have no fucking clue. As I've said before, Republicans are the dumbest people on the planet. If they truly believe in the ideals of the Republican party they would kick Rump out of office. If you are a Republican in the US these days you are either for fascism and condone the murdering of US citizens by the govt and the US govt invading peaceful countries like Greenland, or you quit the Republican party and vote against Republicans at the mid terms this year to remove Republicans from power in the House and Senate. Republicans talked a lot about draining the swam, however they have only created a cesspool in the US Govt with Rump as the biggest floating turd in it. If they don't want the stink to spread and go to war with other NATO countries, then they need to think about their country not their loyalty to Rump. Sitting on the sidelines and saying nothing means you as a Republican are complicit with what is happening to your country and the damage being done to US relations around the world.

More people hate America now than during WWII and there are more people on the planet now than there was in WWII. Americans are largely unaware of the damage Rump is doing to US relations in regard to the rest of the world. There are over 8 billion people on the planet and most now hate America. Also let's not forget that the US has closed USAID so people in various countries have died because of these actions, not that Republicans give a fuck. At the same time the US is now looking at attacking a NATO country. Whilst America has the strongest military and could blow up the planet but that would be like killing yourself as America relies more now than ever before on imported goods to survive and feed their people. And if it wasn't for America turning a blind eye to Nazi scientists and giving them US citizenship, America would not have nuclear weapons nor ballistic missiles. Americans brag a lot about their nuclear capabilities which was built on ignoring the fact they used Nazi scientists and Nazi technology to create their arsenal of nuclear weapons a fact Americans seem to just ignore. America wouldn't of got to the moon if not for the same Nazi technology. So when you think about it, America has kept the Nazi dream alive with Nazi's also now part of the Republican party working for Republican politicians. America is filled with irony. With the amount of food America imports from other countries, Americans would starve and have nothing to wear if they declared war on the rest of the world. Their economy would collapse and they wouldn't be able to repair their infrastructure. So Americans might boast they are better than other people in the world, but they are totally reliant of the rest of the world to keep their society going. Waging war on the rest of the world is such a fucking dumb idea, but given most Republicans have never left their respective states in the US let alone travelled outside the US, their view of the world is thru a pin hole and they have no fucking perspective of the rest of the world. Just fucking brain dead. We are all global citizens these days because of dependencies we have created with global trade. If you live in a democracy then you are responsible for the actions of your govt, cause you voted them in even if you didn't vote for that govt. They represent you so vote as you are a global citizen, otherwise the chaos you see in the US could happen to your country and no democracy wants to be the next America right now.

The roads driving down the coast have become worse to drive on. I've travelled a lot on that highway down to the coast and it seems to be getting worse to drive on with a normal car. Numerous parts of that highway were patched up and rather than fix those sections, they have reduced the speed limit in various areas. The shoulders of these roads are too soft for the amount of trucks that use it. You end up having to drive down the middle of the road to avoid the depressions so it doesn't fuck up your suspension. Going over those depressions in the road at 100km/hr gives a jolt to your car and can send you off the road. I did see along part of the highway where they are widening the road. I wouldn't want to be driving on those roads at night as you can't see those depressions to avoid them. There are plenty of places and small towns to stop and take a break along that highway and these small towns do a good trade with passing traffic on the highway. So the govt needs to put more money into road maintenance to keep tourists using those roads.

Now that my short birthday holiday is over, I'm back to doing stuff to sell the place. Not looking forward to all that cleaning but am looking forward to moving down the coast. Will be renting initially before I buy down there. The locals told me that people are still buying houses down there straight off the internet without going for an inspection. Obviously investors. Been to open house inspections down there and just about every property I saw, the rooms were smaller than what you see on the internet. So if I was going to live down there, I would actually visit. During COVID because people couldn't travel outside of Melbourne, there was a lot of purchasing houses via the internet, but I'm surprised it is still happening. Obviously these investors are looking to Air BnB rather than renting to locals. Young people down the coast cannot afford now to buy a house in their home town because of all these investors buying up properties causing the local housing market to be more expensive. That shit needs to stop or at least restricted otherwise these country towns will lose their charm and be replaced with just city people doing dumb shit away from home. These holiday rental places have become known for young people having raging parties everyday and then trashing the place, and generally pissing off everyone else. The owners of these holiday rentals don't give a shit and neither do companies like Air BnB. More people should take them to court as they only understand when they have to pay out.

Thankfully the weather this week has not been a repeat of the previous one. Humidity is still around but the temps are under 30C. There has been some rain in the eastern parts of Victoria coming from the east, which is not normal, but bushfires in those eastern areas are still burning as the rain hasn't been enough to put out those fires. The flash flooding on parts of the Great Ocean Road caught everyone unawares even the BOM as rain was not their forecast for the SW part of the the Victorian coast. Seems it was a massive dump of rain about 140mm in several hours further not of the coast up river that has flowed down to the sea and flooded those rivers. Eastern parts of Victoria are getting that heavy rain from the east which rarely happens in Victoria. Despite that massive downpour in the eastern part of the state, bushfires are still burning in those eastern areas. That rain was very localised so of no use to put out those fires in the east. No rain here in Melbourne. Was expecting some rain for the second half of this week but none has arrived no rain on the 7 day forecast either. Temps will stay in the high 20'sC during that forecast period.

The Aussie Open officially starts on Sunday, but this week the pre-lim round has been happening for those who didn't automatically qualify. It has become the unofficial third week of the tournament which never was a big thing but now has a higher profile to extend the tournament and sell more tickets. There are different types of tourists in Melbourne right now, those that are here for the tennis and others here because it's Summer in Australia and they are in Melbourne for the coffee and food and doing touristy stuff. Melbourne is a foodie's paradise and the best coffee in the country. We love our coffee in Melbourne and there are plenty of coffee shops everywhere not just in the city. Can't go past a train station in the suburbs without passing a coffee shop with people lining up to get their morning coffee before going to work. What you shouldn't do unless you are a Youtuber is go to those places they talk about on social media. There are plenty of good coffee shops in Melbourne if you want to sit and enjoy a coffee. You don't need to line up to get a seat, only morons and young people influenced by social media to that. So my tip is try any coffee shop in Melbourne they are all good.

Hope the weekend is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

So ICE is now actively recruiting members of the Proud Boys because they can't get enough normal people to join ICE. The guy behind these Gestapo tactics by ICE in the US is a guy by the name of Greg Bovino. He joined border patrol after watching a movie, not his desire to serve his country. He essentially wanted to play tough guy hiding behind a uniform and carrying a gun. He has a haircut like he is in the military which tells you a lot about this fuckwit. He is not a veteran but it seems he wants to play soldier and has framed his persona as if he was serving in the military. He was a small fry till Rump promoted him to his current position. He has been caught on camera actively encouraging his uniformed officers to be aggressive with people as if ICE were at war with the American people. He had to appear in front of a judge then lied about what was caught on camera and about what he told his officers. He is nothing but a small man who wears a gun so he thinks he has immunity to the law. We now have US veterans saying ICE is like ISIS they saw in the M.E. This guy Greg Bovino will be on a long list of people sent to jail once the Republicans lose power. Until then Rump is giving him a free hand to kill US citizens. If Republicans think Democrats will forget about all this when they are back in power, Republicans have shit for brains. Payback is coming to Republicans and all those currently abusing their power within the US govt. 32 people died in ICE detention last year. More will die this year. ICE needs to be disbanded and all those serving in ICE need to be sacked and then investigated for criminal charges. They are a danger to Americans and American society. These types of organizations don't belong in a proper democracy.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff is the only branch of the US govt that has resisted Rump as Rump now wants to invade Greenland. The question is how long will the US military continue to allow Rump to trash the US Constitution. The Congress has torn up the US Constitution. None of the law enforcement agencies which are the other branch of govt to ensure the law is followed, have defended the US Constitution. The US Supreme Court has refused to stop Rump and have in fact given Rump the green light to trash the US Constitution. Now the head of their Reserve Bank is facing criminal charges for not obeying Rump. It is a well trodden path that when politicians take control of the currency in that economy, it fails and their currency becomes worthless. Rump is set to install his own stooge as head of the federal reserve at which point not only will the US go into recession and the US dollar will tank, America will go into a second period of depression and mimic the banking collapse of 1929 which went on for a decade. There is a very good reason for the Federal Reserve Bank to be independent of political influence. Every country which allowed their political leader to mess with their currency has ended in disaster for everyone in the country apart for the politicians who then increase their corruption to hide the truth. America is following down that same path. Rump will ruin the US economy and is able to do it because all US govt agencies are enabling Rump to trash the US Constitution which they swore an oath to. They are loyal to only Rump which will lead to the destruction of America. If the American people don't come to their senses to save their country, the only hope America will have is their military who swore an oath to the US Constitution not the US President. Americans seem to be oblivious to the reality of the potential collapse of their society. They still believe in the Disney movie version of America and not the reality the rest of the world sees. Americans in Venezuela have now been warned that gangs in that country are hunting Americans for either retribution or for ransom to the US govt. If Rump continues to make war on the rest of the world including other NATO and allied countries, Americans will not be safe outside the US.

Albo brought back the Parliament to pass legislation on hate speech and gun laws. The LNP soon after the Bondi shooting called for these reforms, but when Albo widened the proposed legislation to include all Australians, the LNP said they would vote against it. The LNP only wanted these new laws to apply to Muslims not white people, because of course white people don't commit crimes it's all those immigrants right? After all Christians have never committed religious crimes. I mean you just have to look at history to see Christians never practiced hate speech. The crusades never happened obviously and the mass killings between Catholics and Protestants also never happened right?. Once again the LNP is showing it's deep culture of engaging in racism. The LNP want to bring back the White Australia policy or at least parts of it. When the LNP leadership was quizzed as to why they didn't now support the very legislation they were calling for, they fumbled for their words but were very animated when talking about Muslims which is when their mask fell. They doubled down on this in their speeches to Parliament in these two days of the Parliament being recalled. Once again they said these new laws should only apply to Muslims including restrictions on Muslims owning guns. They then were not opposed to non-citizens owning or using guns because these white farmers employ non-citizens on their farms so they don't have to pay proper wages as per white people working on their farms. The LNP is losing ground to One Nation so they are trying to show they are more racist to some how attracts votes. Which is so fucking dumb.

With Kevin 07 now leaving his post as the Ambassador to the USA early, Albo will have to find a replacement before March when the position becomes vacant. You can't send a moderate to deal with Rump so we need a foil who Rump can't deal with. My vote is for Russell Coight. Rump wouldn't have a clue how to deal with this Aussie icon. If anyone outside of Australia doesn't know who Russell Coight is, just look him up on Youtube. If Russell isn't available then any bogan will do. Rock up to the White House in a singlet, shorts and thongs(flip flops) with that typical bogan greeting..."how ya going ya cunt".

The ridiculous position by the USA to take Greenland by force since they can't buy the place, has put NATO in the position that NATO countries have stated they will defend Greenland and now several NATO countries have sent troops to Greenland. So if the USA attacks Greenland, they will be fighting against friendly NATO countries which will be the end of NATO and the USA will be seen as the enemy which means all Americans living in these NATO countries will be targeted to be either detained or thrown out of these NATO countries. Americans around the world will be expelled from these respective countries including their embassies. Lets not forget America had a much larger military presence in Greenland and over the years have reduced that footprint mainly due to cost and the need to put troops in other parts of the world. So if America is really worried about China and Russia sending ships to the waters around Greenland which is not happening, then America could simply increase the number of troops they already have stationed in Greenland. Denmark and NATO would be ok with that. Rump and the US govt continues to spread lies that Chinese and Russian warships are circling Greenland. That is total bullshit. So all this talk from America about protecting Greenland from China and Russia is total bullshit. It's all about the natural resources that Rump wants so he can get yet another bribe from US companies. Rump also has now made it clear America will only defend a country if they own it, which means all those military agreements America has with other countries are worthless. The 5 eyes agreement is now worthless as America will not come to the aid of the other countries. Which means the USA will not defend it's allies. Essentially the USA is now a predator country who will take what they want from any country apart from China and Russia who will fight back and attack the USA where Americans live. We are closer than ever to yet another World War all thanks to Republicans who are so fucking dumb, they will now blow up the world to hang on to power in the US. If the USA attacks Greenland, countries around the world need to cancel visas for Americans and send them back to their fucked country.

The World Cup is set to be a disaster. People have cancelled plans to visit the USA, and with the current aggression by the USA to a lot of countries, I wouldn't put it past the US govt to stop certain countries who qualify for the competition to be denied entry. There is no guarantee that those ICE thugs will not detain soccer fans in the US for the World Cup, because ICE has shown they employ thugs and fucking dumb people who are grabbing anyone who looks Latino or African, so any supporters of South American or African teams will end up in ICE detention. It will be a fucking diplomatic nightmare. Republicans will cheer this on, cause they are the fucking dumbest people on the planet and Republicans are trying to recreate a white nationalist country where only white people have rights. That is the aim of Project 2025 and that is the play book Rump is using because at his core, Rump is a racist.

Purchased my first PS5 game for 2026. A game I've played before on Xbox, Gears of War, but this is the remastered version. With my birthday voucher from EB games and another voucher discount and a trade-in, the game only coast me $23 rather than the sticker price of $60. It's a filler game till March when the new games are released that are on the list I want to play this year. The trade-in value won't be much but it was a cheap game to buy so not fussed.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Morning all,

With the Summer weather the trees in my backyard are blooming with their flowers again, I've noticed several butterfly species flying around contesting the same flowers with the bees. I try not to cut back the trees when they are in bloom. The grass is trying to grow but with the humidity and lack of rain, it's not having much luck. The lawn is mainly weeds which are thriving in this heat. Going up to the 40'sC again tomorrow again then it cools off a bit then back up to the 40's for the start of next week. We aren't getting rain with the cool changes when they arrive so temps are higher for longer and the humidity hangs around for longer so even in the low 20's it is very humid. Was working the back yard when it got cooler this week, but with the high humidity I was sweating within 15mins out there cutting back a tree. As for going to a shopping centre on these very hot days, well it's cooler in the car park than in the shopping centre as they don't keep them cool enough on hot days. When walking in these shopping centres on very hot days, you end up sweating because it so warm in these places. They used to keep them cooler, but are cost saving rather than caring about their customers.

The bushfires in Victoria are still burning and with the temps going back up 40C in Melbourne tomorrow it will only give rise to allow these bushfires to keep burning or spark new bushfires. On the Vic/NSW border it will get up to 45C by mid next week. The school holidays are still on so lots of people are out camping or in tourist areas. People who thought they were safe on the coast here in Victoria found out they weren't when we had a massive dump of rain last week saw cars being washed out to sea. This week it has been safe enough to haul those cars out by helicopter all of which are right-offs. This is an ongoing clean up on the south west coast on the Great Ocean Road which is still closed in that section south of Lorne. Further down the coast the Great Ocean Road is open so you can get there buy using the M1 further north then travelling south to the Great Ocean Road.

We have been told for a long time that WWIII would be started by either China or Russia against the USA. Old Nostra said a world war would be due to religion starting in the Middle East, in other words started by Muslims against Christians. Never would we have thought that the USA would be the instigator of WWIII not because of any threat of invasion of that country, but purely due to the greed of one man empowered by ten's of millions of American citizens due to ignorance and pure stupidity. Not a clever reason to start a world war, then again it was the greed of one man who started WWII who believed the new culture he started should be the ruler of the world. The new king of the USA has similar ambitions but not for his country, it's about his self importance. Americans like to compare themselves to the Roman Empire in that Americans believe they are superior to the Romans. It took 400 years for the Roman Empire to collapse. It has taken Rump to do the same in the USA in just 12 months. Also the Roman Empire claimed more territory than the Americans have now or ever had. The Roman Empire was founded in 753 BC and lasted till about 565 AD, that's about 1300yrs. The American "empire" has only been in existence for a little over 250yrs and now is in decline. In other words the USA is a pimple on the arse of history. For Americans to compare themselves to the Roman Empire is laughable and it seems they are determined to ensure the USA doesn't last for too much longer. The world will move on. The lesson of history is that empires come and go, but given Americans know fuck all about history and most of what they are taught about their own history is based on fables, they won't see it coming.

It's the Australia Day long weekend this weekend with the public holiday on Monday. The day itself would confuse people from other countries as it doesn't celebrate the nationhood of Australia which was on Jan 1st 1901 so until then Australia was not Australia as we know it today. Jan 26th celebrates the arrival of the first fleet in 1788 when Australia was a British colony, not a nation and the colony was only in one small part of what is now New South Wales. So the date itself celebrates a British thing not an Australian thing. Lots of calls to change the date as it also signaled the colonization of indigenous people where the British decided to take land belonging to the indigenous people by force. In other words indigenous people were slaughtered so the British could take land that didn't belong to them by declaring that nobody lived in Australia. What they meant was that no white people lived on this land, hence why the wide spread killing and bounty hunting of indigenous people was acceptable in British society. The British even chopped off the heads of indigenous people to take back to England to study. The British even today say what they did to the local indigenous people was a good thing, after all they gave them religion and taught them to read and write. All the indigenous people of Australia had to do in return was give up their language and culture and be pressed into servitude against their will. White people have a very skewed view of the world and their place in history which they largely wrote, so they were always the good guys. A myth that persists even today in western societies and this is from people who tell you that they are educated.

Purchased Season 2 of the Walking Dead, Dead City series. Forgot to get this late last year when it came out. Waiting till next month to purchase the third season of the Darryl Dixon, Walking Dead series. Might be the last. At some point I'm going to do a Walking Dead marathon with all the respective series back to back. Want another series of the other two main characters but don't think that will happen. Would be good to see them all back together in a final series to wrap up the entire story from where they all started. Right now it just seems like an unfinished story.

Of course there is this little sports tournament still going on here in Melbourne called the Australian Open. I'm not a tennis fan so not really watching it. I'll tune in at the finals, but watching 5 sets of tennis for me is rather boring. Have one friend in Sydney who thinks I'm nuts not going to the Aussie Open since I live in Melbourne, but I don't see the sense in going to see a sport I'm not interested in nor pay all that money when I can watch it on the TV for free.

Received notification about the changes to train lines in the eastern suburbs now having to go thru the new Metro Tunnel stations. I live in the SE so my train line is not impacted but now even my train line will have to go thru the other underground stations known as The Loop more often. The new underground stations are below The Loop stations. We now have two levels of underground stations in the city. The free travel on the Metro Tunnels is ending next week. So people coming to Melbourne just have to be aware that when you see signs for the Metro Tunnel that it is not the entire underground rail network, otherwise you will get on the wrong train and won't have access to the other underground stations from the new Metro Tunnel stations.

So Rump has invited a number of world leaders to form his Board of Peace which includes Russia. But to be on that board you have to give Rump a billion US dollars. So in other words world leaders would have to give 1 billion US dollars from their respective tax payers money to Rump. The veil has fallen and now Rump admits his Board of Peace is actually his replacement for the UN run by him. He is trying to lure countries away from the UN to set up his Board of Peace which will morph into a wider agenda. He also has invited the Pope to join his Board of Peace. This is fucking insane. The Pope on a board with politicians. How dumb are Americans? This board with Rump as chairman where the US calls the shots and other countries have to tow the line or be either attacked by the US with military force or be the subjected to tariffs if the don't obey Rump. A board with so many people on it, currently set at over 20 countries being invited to join, can never come to an agreement on anything. Any country that signs up to the US lead bullshit board will quickly discover they don't get a say in anything and Rump just wants their money. Question is will these world leaders wise up or still try to placate Rump as they have done up to now?

Albo has taken more scalps with his new bills. He has managed to break up the LNP once again. He might look like a nerd but his is a smart operator and has once again just ensured that Labor will win the next election and the one after that. The Lib's nor the Nat's have enough numbers individually to form any future govt which is why they have to be a coalition to ever win govt again. This just gives Labor a free ride and we now don't have a proper opposition to Labor. Seems both the Lib's and Nat's are racing One Nation to the racist right where most Aussies don't vote. The only place this race to the right works is Qld which has had a long history with racism, from Chinese immigrants to "blackbirding" to indigenous people. Won't see that on the tourist brochures nor ads.

Hope the weekend is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Here in Melbourne we are in yet another heatwave for the Summer, although they aren't quite calling it that cause we had a dip in the temp on Sunday. We had 40C on Saturday then Sunday it only got to 25, then the temp went back up to 30C yesterday and today it's going to be 45C, plus those main fires will get worse in these temps. Places up to Mildura in the NW of Victoria are going for close to 50C. Still no rain forecasted for Melbourne which means nearly two weeks without any rain which is why things haven't really cooled in between these high spikes in temp. The house still stays warm since the bricks retain the heat and the ground remains warm so that main water pipe leading into the house keeps the water warm. The cold water tap in the kitchen puts out warm water so you have to run it for several seconds to get any cold water. Feels like you have turned on the hot water tap. That side of my house gets the afternoon sun and the closer you get to the kitchen window you feel the heat. Have had to keep the external shade down for the last few days in a row in an attempt to keep the kitchen cooler, but still need the air con to really keep things cooler in the kitchen otherwise the microwave doesn't work properly and every time you open the fridge you get the heat warning alarm. Seems odd that a microwave would be impacted by heat, but I learned this last year during in one of our extreme heatwaves in Melbourne. Thought the microwave was on the way out, but it came good as soon as the temp dropped. It seems every Summer now we get longer and longer heatwave conditions and no rain with any cool change. This is the second year in a row where rain hasn't accompanied a cool change. This latest run of high temps makes it four times now we have had temps in the 40'sC this month and Feb is usually hotter than Jan. Plus those extreme temps are accompanied with very warm days in the 30'sC leading up to those extreme temps. Some people say, well it's Summer so these temps are normal. Those people are ignorant of the changes to our normal Summers and denying that climate change is causing these longer and hotter Summers with more extreme temps as part of this change to our Summers. This stuff is not a normal Summer. We even get bushfires in what is supposed to be our Winter. That is not a normal Winter, but has now become a pattern of the changes to our seasons.

Went to chemist to get my next round of medication and was surprised about the drop in price. The expensive medication has dropped to $25 a script and that's for a 2 pack of medication as well. Forgot that the price had dropped as of Jan 1st as part of the govt's budget announcements last year. This is the second price drop of the more expensive medication by the Fed govt. They dropped the meds that cost $40 to $30 which then went up to about $32 with increases. I'm sure this $25 price will increase by mid year, but this price drop is good for those who have to take multiple medications like me. Seems the older you get the more pills they want you take. Certainly will be a vote winner in the next election.

The gun reforms proposed by Ablo has passed parliament, which is something that would never happen in the US. Then again we are Aussies so if we see a threat to our society, we don't fuck around in implementing new laws to combat those threats, especially on gun violence or terrorist threats. That doesn't happen in the US and won't happen in the US cause American society is unwilling to change so it is stuck in the past and can't progress because Americans don't trust each other enough to compromise and fix what is broken, they just like to complain about it. The gun reforms that have happened in Australia over the decades can never happen in the US because of their Constitution which is a very flawed document created by flawed men that allows it to be either ignored or manipulated by politicians. You can't have a working constitution if it can be ignored by the residing govt, law enforcement agencies and the courts. Might as well wipe your arse with it.

Well Rump showed he is Mr TACO Man when faced with the EU threatening to put 93 billion Euro's worth of tariffs on US goods. Then mobilising small groups from several militaries. When Rump leaves the US he gets a reality check about how the rest of world responds to him. It's as if America is a sheltered workshop were nothing outside of it exists. Rump's inner circle haven't got any insight of how the rest of world has reacted to Rump and this fascist America. He has to step outside America to get the truth. It's like America is living in it's own fantasy world out of touch with reality. Of course there was that totally unhinged speech in Davos, Switzerland telling them firstly he wants Iceland confusing that with Greenland and he said this multiple times, then he said America won WWII and if it wasn't for America everyone in the room would be speaking German. I mean I know Rump is American so not well schooled in other countries, but does he not know that Switzerland was neutral in WWII. Nazi's fled to Switzerland during WWII while they were losing the war. Also people in Switzerland already spoke German and is the most wide spread spoken language in Switzerland. It was also clear that the Canadian PM got to him. Again he does know that the Canadians fought back against incursions from Americans and remained a British territory at the time. What the fuck are they teaching Americans in their schools? Rump reminds me of a kid who lost a fight but still says he won even though he got the shit kicked out of him. If countries outside the US want to hurt the US all they have to do is sell their US bonds. The Superannuation funds around the world have invested in the US stock market and govts outside the US have purchased US bonds. To tank the US economy all countries have to do is sell off their US bonds like they did before which meant that the US Reserve Bank had to buy US bonds to keep the US dollar afloat. It cost US taxpayers millions in this buy back.

So Rump has once again trashed the US reputation in the western world. His lies about the contribution of allied forces in Afghanistan have pissed off all allied countries. When the USA asked NATO and other allied forces to help them in the M.E including the Gulf Wars, all these allied forces sent troops and allied soldiers died in that theatre of war because of America and their false claims about WMD's. Every time the USA has asked allied forces for their help, these countries have sent troops to fight along side the Americans. Aussie diggers fought in the Korean War and Aussie lives were lost in that conflict. I worked with an digger who served in the Air Force in Korea and it nearly cost him his life. Aussies also fought in Vietnam and died there answering the call from America. My brother fought in the Army in Vietnam and nearly lost his life in a war that had fuck all to do with Australia, yet we answered the call from the USA to send troops. Aussies fought alongside US troops in various theatres in the M.E and Aussies were killed in yet another war that had fuck all do with us. It was a war America started but other allied countries paid the price with the loss of their troops, not to mention the many ex-soldiers that have life altering injuries as a result. The USA would not have had wins in the M.E without these allied troops. So when that fuckwit Rump says allied soldiers from various allied countries including Scandinavian countries did not fight on the frontlines it shows how fucking idiotic and ungrateful the USA has become. Aussies died in all these theatres of war fighting alongside Americans yet I doubt millions of Americans would even be aware of that or care. The next time the USA asks for help to fight any future wars, the allied countries might not respond. If Americans think they don't need other allied countries in wars, they have shit for brains and shows how far out of touch ten's of millions of Americans are with the rest of the world. Right now in America Fox news is spreading lies about what actually happened in Davos. None of which is true, but because America has millions of fucking dumb people, they will believe it and will mock all allied countries for their response to Rump's insane comments. Americans continue to believe that once Rump is gone, all their allies will just forget what is happening right now. Americans are fucking delusional if they think their allies will forget this. America has shown it cannot be trusted. There is no guarantee another insane president will not be elected by a country that is out of touch with the rest of the world. In that respect the USA is fucked and in fact they have fucked themselves. Americans need to understand we won't forget this and if Americans think they are untouchable, I'll use an American term...." FAFO".

Cathy Freeman has been awarded our highest award as Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day honours. She is a humble champion and she hasn't changed with all her fame. When she won the 400m at the Olympics people started referring her as Our Cathy. Everyone who was around in 2000 remember her lighting the Olympic flame in the Sydney Olympics and that magical run in that skin suit to win the 400m. She used to have to run scratch because she was that good. Had to give everyone else a start. Was watching Goolagong last week, another amazing indigenous woman who did amazing things on the world stage winning Wimbledon twice, once as a mum and won the Aussie Open several times and the French Open, also has an AC and MBE. Both women are humble champions. Much rather see these ordinary Aussies receive these honours than politicians.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Since this is the Aussie thread I thought I would do some posts for our American friends coming to Australia to escape the chaos happening in the US at the moment. Since I have posted so much content about the US I thought it would be only be fair to help any of our American friends coming to Australia, navigate their way thru our country. I'll do this in a series of short posts in the form of tips so that the info doesn't get lost in a long post.

Tips for Americans visiting Australia - Part 1


Tip 1 - We are big on biosecurity in Australia so you must declare all food you are bringing to Australia any opened food such as fruit you got on the flight needs to be binned or eat it before you get to customs. Sealed food packets are fine such as sealed biscuits, sweets, etc but even those must declared and tick the food option on the customs form. When going up to the Customs check, Americans can follow the Aussies, no need to go to the sign marked Foreign Passports. Due to the 5 eyes pact, just present your American passport and it won't be an issue.

Tip 2 - If you are hiring a car at the airport, just show the hire car company your American passport and they will show you a list of left hand drive cars you can hire. You still need to drive on the wrong side of the road as in the left not right. Roundabouts can be tricky for Americans driving in Australia so don't forget to ask for a roundabout detector when hiring your car and it will show you how to go around a roundabout. There will be an extra charge for this but it's worth the extra money to avoid the hassle of navigating a roundabout.

Tip 3 - Distance is an issue when driving in Australia, but we do have high speed rail in certain parts of the country which shortens the trip. They also allow cars on these trains. So if you hire a car in Sydney and want to go to see the Barrier Reef for example you can book you car on a train called the Barrier Reef Express which leaves from Central Station in Sydney. You will need to book this in person as this is a new service. And like some of our regional train networks, they still rely on a paper ticket. So if you are from America where you guys don't have much leave from work, these high speed rail options are your best option. The only exception is the trip from Sydney or Melbourne to Perth. You can still put your car on the train but it takes longer to get there and back so, you might need an overnight stay.

Tip 4 - Americans might not know we have our own currency, but your US dollars can be used in retail and hospitality in Australia. The ATM's only dispense Aussie currency, but if you pay for everything on card or your phone then you won't need to get any Aussie currency if you find using Aussie currency confusing. Only thing for you Americans is that your bank back home will charge the surcharge when using your card since it's considered an international transaction. When using US currency here in Australia, the retail and hospitality will do the conversion for you but the change you get will be in Aussie currency, not US dollars. So that is something to watch out for.

Tip 5 - Lots of Americans are amazed about Aussies walking around in cities in bare feet. It's more a thing in warmer parts of Australia. Down here in the south it's not that widespread, but mainly at the beachside suburbs and along the coast but mainly during Summer. With the number of trams we have in the CBD in Melbourne bare feet become a health and safety issue, plus getting on an escalator in bare feet can be dangerous. So in cities like Darwin, Cairns and Brisbane walking bare foot is more acceptable because they don't have much in the way of infrastructure that could cause foot injuries. So you will see people walking bare foot in the CBD in these cities. Even in these cities some retail stores doesn't allow bare foot entry due to insurance issues which is their right. Aussie know this so we know when it's ok for bare foot entry to stores or whether you need flip flops as a minimum. So to counter that you Americans can buy a thong(flip flop) bag from tourist outlets mainly as they are only for tourists. They are essentially a string bag that you can put on your wrist or belt to keep your hands free for you phone so you can still pay for things. Don't forget to ask for these when visiting cities in Australia.
 
Afternoon all,

Mark Carney's speech at Davos was epic and went over the heads of most Americans, who only found about it thru their socials or thru Fox News who misreported it. The speech itself was a turning point for the rest of the world towards America. Carney was articulate and it was a speech which in the past would of come from an American president, but that time has passed. It was a warning to Americans that they are no longer the leader of the free world. Americans have caused the world to turn away from them and their country. This attempt to get rid of the UN by the US will only leave America alone and put a full stop to the American demise which is of their own making. The American dollar will be overtaken by the Euro as the new stable currency.

So Republicans have tied themselves in knots just like the Libs and Nat's here in Australia who got fucked on their own actions. Republicans have now come out to say the reason that ICU nurse was shot multiple times by ICE officers was because he was exercising his second amendment rights by carrying a gun. The Republicans kept repeating their justification for ICE killing this ICU nurse was because was he carrying a gun which under the US Constitution is legal. So Republicans are admitting guns are the issue which has pissed off the NRA. Seems amazing for the Republicans to admit guns are the problem and that Americans should not carry guns to a protest even though those on the right take guns to rallies on a regular basis. Just have to look on the internet. So under the new rules established by ICE all those Republicans taking their guns to right wing rallies are now domestic terrorists. Looking at the vision of that murder by ICE, they had that nurse on the ground face down with six ICE officers on him so he wasn't resisting, then he was shot in the back 10 times until he stopped moving. It was an execution on the streets of America by the US govt, which has been sanctioned by the US govt as none of those ICE officers have been charged and evidence was removed by ICE agents so they tampered with a crime scene. Then those ICE agents that did the murder were quietly sent out of the state back to their homes, by the US govt. If ICE can execute a US citizen in broad daylight which has been captured on video, how are they treating people behind closed doors when there aren't any cameras or mobile phones to record what actually goes in ICE facilities? This has led to the deaths of 32 people in ICE detention last year for which there hasn't been an investigation by the DOJ. Republicans are rather stupid so they can't see their own contradiction. Their brains lack any form of logic and are just making shit up all the time to justify any of their actions which is how fascism works.

I'll be watching the Super Bowl on Feb 8th. I just ignore the part where Americans call Super Bowl champions, world champions. The rest of the world has always seen this as laughable where a country can hold a domestic sports league championship and call the winner a world champion. Then when you see what is happening in the US now and how the true ethos of America has now come to the fore with the rise of Rump, it starts to make sense as to why Americans see it as a world championship as they believe only their country counts in the world. Whilst the rest of the world has always seen this as a joke, it's clear now, Americans actually believe it and that mindset has led to Rump being elected. The same people are amazed that soccer is a bigger game around the world than NFL. Cricket which is what we play in Australia during Summer is a much bigger game than NFL with more fans than the NFL. The AFL rivals the NFL with teams around the world that have their own AFL leagues. That is something Americans will not believe because again of the American mindset. They cannot conceive that sports leagues outside the US have a larger fan base and that the NFL is quite small when compared to other sports in other countries. Our average AFL ground is much larger than any NFL ground. Things are bigger outside the US.

Being an Aussie we give things nickames such as David is Davo, James if Jimbo and we also shorten surnames like Richardson is Richo, Gibson is Gibbo. So I thought it would be only right to give the new Board of Peace a nickname such as..."Board of Piss". As in taking the piss which means you are kidding me right. Also we know how Rump likes golden showers.

It's a little known fact that women inspired a man to invent the electric vehicle....cause women never know when to fill up a car but know how to plug things in.

In another move to prove America is now a dictatorship, the US govt is removing passport records from govt databases of American citizens who in the US govt's opinion are against Rump. The removal of these passport records is being done in secret and the first people know about it is when they go thru Customs to either go OS or when arriving back in the US. These US citizens are then arrested because the US govt claims their passport is fake and they are travelling on false documents. The US govt goes thru people's social media to identify people who speak out against Rump, then look up their passport info then delete these records. All the govt agencies that hold citizen's sensitive data are complying in these false arrests. So not only do you have law enforcement in the US being complicit in this fascism so are public service departments. Now the good news is that when you delete a record from a database it is not deleted just the link to that record is removed, so those records can be retrieved. This latest secret tactic from the US govt against it's own citizens is just the latest in a long list of actions taken in what is now a US dictatorship.

When govt's publish their reasons for their actions I look for the logic in their reasons. So the US govt said that many years ago a US ship landed in Greenland therefore that land belonged to the USA due to that ship landing on that island. I'm not going to look up the history of this, I'm purely going off the logic used by the US govt which believes Greenland once belonged to them. If we look at that logic therefore, the US govt should give back the USA to Spain as it was a Spanish ship that landed on what is now the USA in Florida, so Florida belongs to the Spanish govt not the US govt. Again I'm using the logic of the current US govt here. When the British also sent a ship to what is now America they started a colony in America so again by the logic used by the US govt in their claim to Greenland, Plymouth belongs to the British govt not the US govt, so they should partition that part of the USA and cede it back to the UK govt. The Americans can keep that fake Plymouth Rock thing which is a fake rock as the pilgrims never landed on Plymouth Rock, it was put their after the fact to give the story more plausibility, but Americans have never corrected that lie so it persists to this day. There are American movies about it, even Thanksgiving is a fake story in that the native tribes were never invited to that dinner Americans celebrate each year. It's a Hallmark card not a true event. Yet more fables that make up US history which is tainted with lots of lies and fables. So in summary the US should give back the USA to Spain and the UK can now lay claim to that part of the US the Spanish don't want.

So Melania's new doco/movie/propaganda tape isn't selling tickets. She seems bored when even talking about it and she has the enthusiasm of a corpse. Rump's rich mate Bazos is having to spend almost as much money on advertising to promote this crap as he did making it, all up $75millionUS dollars. Bazos will have to spend more money buying out movie theatres to show how well it's doing to Rump. Even theatres in the UK are not selling tickets to this piece of propaganda. No matter where they show this thing, people aren't going that includes theatres in other countries.

They say it's cheaper to keep her, which I find rather sexist. It's actually cheaper not to do her in the first place and if you do her mum, well that's now two houses now you have to buy.

The argument America has made about it paying for the defence of NATO and EU countries comes from successive US govts telling both the EU and NATO countries that the US would defend them when needed. This created a dependency on the US military which the US was ok with because that bought influence in both the EU and with NATO which led to trade deals between the US and these respective countries. Without this the US wouldn't have trade deals with any of these countries. So when Americans get pissed that US tax dollars have been used in the defence of EU and NATO countries, it was Americans that caused these dependencies. So Republicans should be mad with the US govt that rather than spending money on their healthcare, successive US govt's spent that money on buying US influence in the rest of the world. Americans seem to be ignorant of their own history. It was American companies that sent those American jobs overseas to China, it had nothing to do with China. The Americans gifted those American jobs to China. China didn't take them. So getting pissed at China for producing most of what Americans use, is just stupid. Blame your own fucking companies in your country, not a foreign govt.

Women should appreciate men more, cause if it wasn't for men inventing cleaning tools, women would find cleaning the house to be more difficult.

America is sending ICE agents to the Winter Olympics. It's ironic that America is sending fascism to Italy. I mean the last guy who was a fascist leader in Italy was hung upside down by the locals and they beat the shit out of him. Seems Americans are once again ignorant of history in Europe.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Tips for Americans visiting Australia - Part 2

Tip 6 - The food in Australia is richer than in the US and lots of Americans comment on the higher quality of food here in Australia which can cause Americans to go into food shock as their bodies adjust to our higher quality of food. Also Americans complain about the lack of sugar in our food as they are used to a high sugar content in their food. This is not the case for Europeans and Asians who visit Australia cause they are used to the higher quality of food and a normal amount of sugar. Europeans are known for their cured meats and Asians are known for their need for fresh food, neither are not fans of processed food. American food is highly processed. So for Americans to get over their food shock quicker, just order double your choice of food. Aussie portions are smaller which Americans also complain about so to get used to this, ordering double your choice of food will help with this until you get used to the food here in Australia. Being ill when on holidays is not fun. Plus by ordering double, Americans can sate their sugar cravings.

Tip 7 - The drinking water in Australia contains fluoride which I know people from Republican states don't like to drink. The water in Australia is safe to drink, but for those Americans who don't want to drink fluoride water as we call it, then you will need to boil it first or just buy bottled water but some of the bottled water also has fluoride in it so check the labels. If you're not sure ask the staff at the local supermarket for which brands don't have fluoride in it. Just say you don't want fluoride water. Some of these bottled water companies just pass off tap water as pure spring water. For Europeans this is not an issue and most developed countries have fluoride in the drinking water for the health of the population and we know Americans don't like govt sponsored healthcare, after all they voted to get rid of their healthcare or Obamacare as the Republicans call it.

Tip 8 - Tipping is something we don't have in Australia but if you as an American want to tip your server, that is not an issue. Also just be aware like in Europe if you eat outside rather than inside there is a surcharge for sitting outside. However since America is part of the 5 eyes, just show them your US passport and they will remove the surcharge. Unlike in the US you don't need to calculate the additional tax, that is already calculated for you and is part of the cost of the surcharge.

Tip 9- If you have hired a car as an American you might be confused when filling up the car at a service station or servo as we call them here. You pay by the Litre not Gallon like in the US and you fill up first then go and pay. Only at night do you need to pay first with a credit card at the pump in certain areas. If you want to ensure that you can fill up your car in busy times, you can use the MyPump app to reserve a petrol pump and pay on your phone. You can also see how many cars are at the petrol station on the app. To pump up your tyres (tires), the compressed air is complimentary when you fill up. You can even wash your windscreen at the petrol pump for free. If you just need to pump up your tires without filling up then you need to purchase something inside the store at the petrol station and also quote the air compressor number where you are pumping up your tyres. They have numbers similar to the numbers on the petrol pumps.

Tip 10 - Using our power outlets are different to the US so for our American friends don't forget to bring the right adaptor either before leaving the US or you can buy one at the airport when you get to Australia. You can use the same adapter in New Zealand if you are going there as well. We also have a higher voltage than in the US. Our power outlets run from 220-240Volts, where as in the US it's half that, hence why you guys can't have electric kettles. Another thing that confuses Americans is our light switches. So to turn a light on in your hotel room, flick the switch down and to turn it off flick it up. So down is on and up is off, which is the opposite in the US. Also all our power outlets have switches on them including most of our power boards. So for power outlets, their switches have a red dot at the top of the switch to show you the outlet is live. So flick it down you will see the red dot. If you don't see the red dot when flicking the switch down, don't use it. Call reception and report the fault. If you try to use it to say recharge your phone it could cause damage to your phone. If you don't see red dots on any of the switches on the power outlets it means there is an issue in your hotel room so ask the front desk to get you anther room and report the issue.
 
Afternoon all,

With us being in the hight of Summer and also with daylight savings here in Melbourne, it freaks out tourists that it's still daylight at 9pm, and depending on the day it could still have daylight later than that. Went to Canada one year and had dinner with some friends in Edmonton, and I couldn't get over the fact we were sitting outside in the daylight at 11pm. That took some getting used to whilst I was there. Not high temps in Melbourne in recent days but high humidity which makes it feel hotter. Was re-arranging stuff in a cupboard on the weekend and due to the humidity I was sweating within 15mins. The temp was in the mid 20'sC.

With the new Metro Tunnel now open properly, my train line now goes thru the loop going into the city which adds 10mins to my train trip if I want to get off at Flinders Street Station. It has reverted to what it used to be years ago which is good for those office workers who work in the CBD offices. The original loop stations were designed so that office workers could get off the train closer to their work place. It also reduced the number of people who had to exit thru Flinders Street Station then make their way up the respective streets of the CBD to get to work as most of the office work spaces start a block up from the train station. It was like a swarm of bees coming out of Flinders Street going north up thru the city centre. The Loop stations reduced congestion and was a good idea. The new Metro Tunnel stations are aimed at doing the same thing for outer eastern suburbs which has had a steady increased growth in housing. Areas that were sparse and semi-rural are now built up suburban areas. Housing in those areas was cheap, but even those areas are now more expensive.

Alcaraz won the Aussie Open and is the youngest to do so. This month Melbourne will be setting up for the Aussie Grand Prix. Albert Park will be shut for most of this month to set up for the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix track is an open road around the lake and anyone who lives in Melbourne has driven on it especially if you live in the S.E. suburbs. I travel on it every time I have drive across the city centre. But during the lead up to the Grand Prix it is closed to local traffic which is annoying so we have to go the long way around.

With the latest release of the Epstein docs it's clear once again that the US govt is going after anyone who opposes Rump. The further release of stuff involving the former Prince Andrew is a direct attack on the UK govt. The US govt also has tried to implicate Kevin O7 because of his comments about Rump. Even though Rump laughed it off at the time, he holds a grudge, so this was an attempt to have a go at the Australian govt. So it's clear the US govt is using the Epstein docs to not only go after Rump's political enemies, but also govts around the world who oppose him. It is telling that none of Rump's rich mates nor himself have been implicated in this new release of the Epstein files. They also released the name of more victims which was supposed to be safeguarded under the rules of their testimony. The FBI has allowed the names of these victims to be published against the wishes of the victims. The redactions of these documents is once again not in line with the court order. The US govt is protecting the names of Rump's rich mates and anyone connected to Rump who was involved with the sexual assault of under age girls and women who were forced to have sex with these men by Epstein. The Democrats will republish these docs when Republicans are out of govt or when Rump dies.

I've heard Americans in the past and even now say that Americans and Australians are the same. As one well known American said..."Australians are just like us, we're both white and speak English". Americans who come to Australia think it's going to be like America then arrive and are stunned it's not. Then they have to post on social media how shocked they are that Australia is not like America and have to tell all those Americans back home the differences they have found. Like just look on Youtube dickhead before you come here. There is more info now than when I was travelling OS back in the '80's and 90's. The only thing I had to rely on was a tourist guide book that you could only get from a newsagent or a book store. Nothing else. There is no reason now that people travelling to Australia should be surprised by anything as it's all out there on the internet. All people have to do is spend some time and do some research on Australia before they leave America. Not fucking hard. Now it might come as a shock to Americans, but Aussies and Americans are total opposites and Aussies are nothing like Americans. That would be an insult to us. Even people in England, which we are the closest to us in our politics and rules in society, don't think people from the UK and Australia are the same. They aren't that fucking stupid, even though Aussies and English people speak English, we even take our spelling from the way the English spell words. So how the fuck did Americans ever think Aussies and Americans are the same? If anything Aussies and Canadians are more similar than we are with Americans. I've been on a number of trips OS with Canadians and we always got along. Aussies and Canadians get on very well and are both Commonwealth countries. I've been to both the USA and Canada multiple times and out of the two countries preferred Canada. For me Canadians are like our relationship with Kiwis. I would never say the same about Americans. So for any American who thinks we are like you, you're fucking delusional.

Our Parliament is back officially. The Nat's looked like they are in the naughty corner having to sit on the cross bench because they were not part of the shadow cabinet. Apparently they have patched things up but who knows how long that will last. Ley has backed down about accepting the resignations of those 3 Nat's who broke the rules. So the Nat's win again and will push the LNP even further to the right and getting closer to the far right. You can be sure there will be other issues that will cause tension and yet another split. The Nat's don't want a woman leading the LNP as do some Lib's so they won't be fully back together unless a man leads the Lib's. The next step for the Nat's is to remove the only woman who has ever led the Lib's which will kill off more of the female vote and bring to the party more white nationalists who believe women belong in the home.

The Aussie dollar has risen to US70c which is all down to Rump and the drop in the value of the US dollar. Prior to Rump taking office in this second term the Aussie dollar was US64c. The rise in the price of gold is due to Rump devaluing the US dollar. Rump is sending money away from the US market and investment away from America as well. Countries don't want to invest in a dictatorship. Rump is only getting more radical so the Aussie dollar could get close to US80c by the end of this year. If that happens it will confirm that the US dollar is on the way out as a stable currency and prices in the US will skyrocket and more Americans will look to leave the US as economic refugees. It would of been unthinkable only a few years ago that Americans would be considered as refugees, but it is happening.

The selling of Defence properties is nothing new. A lot of Defence properties were sold back in the early '90's, most of which have now become housing which gave a huge boost to the budgets of local councils. Here in Melbourne if you travel on Tram 82 which runs from Footscray to Moonee Ponds, you pass what are former Defence properties. That tram line was put in to service all those Defence properties. You wouldn't know they were Defence properties if you didn't know the history or lived or worked in those areas at the time. The comments by the RSL that this sell off will hurt recruitment of military personnel is total bullshit. A number of the sites mentioned are heritage sites so they cannot be demolished or redeveloped to remove this heritage. Other sites are nothing more than office buildings of no historical or heritage value. The biggest issue to retention of military personnel are the working conditions such as posting cycles and the movement of personnel especially when military personnel have families with school age children. Defence changed those rules in response to military personnel complaining about the short posting cycles requiring to move house every 2 yrs. Also this sell off of Defence properties has nothing to do with selling military bases. That is not happening. The big winner in this sell off of Defence properties are the local councils in those areas. There are some of these sites that local govt's can turn into tourist attractions for their historical value. So tourism wins as well and it creates jobs for small businesses in those areas. Here in Melbourne they used to run public tours of the Victoria Barracks on St. Kilda Road on a weekly bases which included the war room used during WWII and you could get a cup of coffee/tea as part of the price of the ticket. With the higher security level they shut down those tours. These type of areas should be available to the public for people to learn about the military history of our country and especially good for school tours so kids can see the actual buildings where stuff happened. Albert Park Barracks here in Melbourne that was still used by Defence in the '90's has now been demolished without any fanfare. It played it's role during WWII. It's demolition hasn't caused any influence in military recruitment, in fact most people living today wouldn't even know it existed. Defence getting rid of either military or Defence properties is nothing new, so it's not the big story the media has made it out to be.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

When a woman says a man has to "work for it", she turns their relationship into a transaction, then gets annoyed when the man looks for a better deal.

"I came home the other day and I discovered that my cleaner has stopped working and she said I had to get my own dinner, so I phoned her single girlfriend and asked if she wanted to go to dinner...the cleaner started working again. It was a miracle...Praise the Lord."

Watched the second season of The Walking Dead series Dead City. Initially I wasn't too interested in buying the first series, but thought why not as I kept seeing scenes from it. This second series is better and there are a lot of twists in the story and Maggie's son is going thru his rebellious phase and is now working against his mum who he blames for how things are. That kid is screwed up and once again a young person puts everyone else's lives in danger. I don't buy into the whole thing about young people rebelling against the norms as a right of passage especially in that environment where their own internal issues are getting other people killed. It's seems even in an apocalypse young people care about their own issues than what is actually going on in the wider world. I mean if you can't get your shit together until you caused someone to die, that's on you and you are one fucked up person. I thought it was the adults that are supposed to have the hangups and want to rule the world. They keep saying young people are the future, well not on this show if anything they are the bringers of chaos and working against their allies. Kinda like America is currently doing to their allies. The ending means there has to be a third season and the dynamic between Maggie and Negan is the only thing that keeps this series alive. Funny how Negan is now the sane one after being the villain in the main series and you are actually on his side after hating his character in the original series. He is the most enduring character of a villain turned good guy that you now want on your side in a fight. You would never have seen that coming in the original series. You always thought he will relapse back to his old ways, like an alcoholic who is one incident away of relapsing back to the bottle.

Saw that JBHiFi is having a 50% sale on boxed TV series if you buy a second one. Might have to do some research on that. Don't really have my eye on anything just yet. Purchased the third season of The Walking Dead series Daryl Dixon when it came out the other week. Daryl and Carol are another pair of enduring characters that work well together and are very watchable and believable. Both are tough and Carol keeps playing that mum that bakes pies but cross her and she will kill you. Seems they will continue with the series and are keeping the series in Europe and from where this third season has left off they are going to stick with Spain as the location as there is more of that story to conclude. They may never get back to US with the Daryl Dixon story. Hints that he wants to settle down in one area and that could be in Europe. Not sure where this is going but am along for the ride. Prefer this to the other spin offs.

If there was any doubt that the USA is a racist country, you only had to see the latest racist posting by Rump showing the Obama's as apes and him as a lion. He in fact doubled down when questioned about this and said he didn't see anything wrong with the video posted, then claimed he didn't see it all including the bit that caused the outrage. Rump has removed security details for not only the Obama's but also the Biden's, yet when Biden took office he allowed Rump to keep his security detail. This now sets a precedent that when Democrats win back office, they can remove Rumps security detail, which shouldn't be an issue cause he will be in jail or dead or locked up in a dementia ward. Only white Americans keep defending their country as not being racist, even when confronted with the truth that their President is a racist who keeps posting racist content. When you are shown the truth and refuse to see it, that makes you complicit in the actions and the consequences. When it comes to accepting the truth about their country, Americans refuse to see it or even acknowledge it which is why they are in the situation they are in. The saw the truth, yet still elected Rump and are still just going about their daily lives as if nothing is happening. In France when Macron raised the pension age by 2yrs to 64, the French people rioted in the street and set stuff on fire. That was in response to raising the pension age. Americans have elected a fascist and all they can do is calming march down a street and wave some cardboard signs, why the rest of the free world just laughs at Americans now cause Americans still don't get that the rules have changed.

Saw an American Youtuber comment that the mandatory voting we have in Australia is crazy because how do we stop uninformed people voting. Which I find fucking ironic given over 74 million uninformed Americans voted for a criminal, rapist and racist and they reckon our voting system is crazy? Once again a totally clueless American making a comment on stuff they don't have a clue about. Mandatory voting means that people vote in the centre whether that be to the centre left or centre right. It eliminates the election of what the US has done which is just fucking stupid. They saw the danger but still voted for it. Also our preference voting is a smarter system than what the US has where your vote doesn't count for who you voted for due to the electoral college system. The electoral college voting system is no longer relevant and cancels outs other people's votes. It also allows the smallest population in the country to determine who wins govt which is just fucking nuts and a fucked up system where your vote is given to the other guy who you didn't vote for. No true democracy would have such a stupid system. Thirdly our elections are not run by any of the political parties but a public service run independent organization which is guaranteed funding by law regardless of which political party is in power at the time. The AEC runs elections for federal, state and even local council elections. No political party has control of the electoral system at any level. This is something the US is lacking in their system where corruption by political interference can easily happen by political parties changing voting roles and doing things like reducing voting booths in areas that vote for the other party. That shit cannot happen in Australia because the AEC controls all polling booths and determines the redistribution of seats based on population. Political parties cannot redraw voting districts like they can do in the US. So when an American says our voting system is crazy, they fail to realise theirs is not democratic and they will not even think to change it so all Americans get a say in their society. Another reason the US is fucked as a country and a society.

I don't see the point of people travelling to another country only to say that things are different and they can't get what they have back home. Well why the fuck do you want to travel then? The point of travelling to another country is to experience different things to what you have in your own country. So if you are only going to complain about everything you can't get that you get in your own country then don't travel outside your country. If you don't want to experience new things then stay home, but travelling to another country then complaining about everything in that country, makes you an idiot.

Pam Blondi went full blond mode when quizzed about her actions regrading the Epstein files and the reluctance to prosecute men who are sexual predators of young girls and young women. She is going to jail in the future and Rump won't save her. She purgered herself. She had another blond moment.

The Lib's have gone for a retread in the form of Angus and Jane. Angus was a failure last time and these two were the architects of the Lib's doing so badly at the last election so not sure how they are going to get voters back given they have stabbed the first and only female Lib leader. Voters are not interested in this. Even on Sky, the people who tune in to that racist, far right channel who are constantly angry about the plight of white people, didn't give a shit about this leadership battle. I mean when the far right don't have an opinion on a topic, well things are not good for those involved. It shows how tolerant we are that our society still allows a racist network to exist. Sky after dark is just old white men bleating about how white people are losing their position at the top of society. They are massive supporters of the LNP and One Nation. With Angus now in charge of the LNP the Lib's will move even further to the right. Labor is going to have lot of fun with Angus given his dismal history in politics. He was the guy who hid the truth about the economy when the LNP was in power. He shelved the economic report and refused to release it because it showed the economy in decline. So Albo and his team has a lot of ammo to use on Angus and no doubt he will put his foot in his mouth again and the LNP will be back doing this leadership spill in less than 12 months. The LNP is the gift that keeps giving Albo more ammo to use against them. It's stupidity at the highest level and not politically smart. All this talk of the rise of One Nation is just smoke and mirrors as it won't suddenly result in a windfall of seats for One Nation. It never does. A vast majority of voters, vote in the middle not out in the extremes. So unlike America, we could never have a Rump winning govt. We aren't brain dead like Americans are.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

When a man and a woman go on a date they are looking for different things. The man is looking at the woman's tits, the woman is looking to see if the man will pay the bill. Only one of them is looking to the future.

The difference between a man and a woman...a man never has to ask a woman what she is thinking.

Now Rump is having a fight with a bridge that Canada paid for which also gave jobs to American construction companies, so the US didn't have to pay a cent of tax payers money for it's construction, and the US has joint ownership of this new bridge. One of Rump's donors owns the current bridge where tolls are charged. This new bridge would see his bridge being used less. So this guy sent a bribe to Rump on the same day Rump said the US side of the bridge will not be open to traffic. Once again a clear case of Rump receiving a bribe from his rich donors, yet the DOJ doesn't see an issue with this and nobody on the American side is willing to investigate this sudden turn around from Rump, given when he was last in power, he liked the new bridge and endorsed it. Another case of the current US govt being the most corrupt in US history and the so called law enforcement agencies are part of this corruption.

A friend of mine had a massive argument with his wife and she didn't talk to him for two days. He's hoping for another argument next weekend, he wants to go for a golfing weekend.

When a group of women tell their female friend "you do you", do they provide the batteries?

Have been watching bits of the Winter Olympics. As Aussies we have to watch most sports happening in the northern hemisphere either late at night or in the early hours of the morning, if we want to see it live. There is a replay of events during the day, but that's only for people who aren't working. I found it funny that Americans were complaining on-line that they couldn't watch the Aussie Open during their normal viewing hours and said us Aussies need to change the time so Americans can watch it during their normal peak hour viewing times in their evening. Another example of clueless Americans. This is the best Winter Olympics for the Aussies. Given we are not a Winter sports nation, it's amazing that we win any medals. All our athletes have to base themselves in the northern hemisphere and rarely get back home for Christmas. Plus all that travelling even for a short trip back home. It's also very expensive for their families to travel to see them at the various tournaments held in the northern hemisphere. Americans complain about travelling from the US to England which is only about a 8-9hr flight. It takes over 4 hrs to fly from Melbourne to Perth and we are still in Australia. I managed so see some of the events live on TV. If I wasn't doing work around the house to sell up, I would of probably changed my day to be awake during my normal sleep time. The finals for most events tend to be at night time in Italy which for us is somewhere around 4-5am. All Aussies should be proud of what our athletes have achieved, even those who make the cut but had injuries in training which meant they couldn't compete in their one event.

Had been watching the re-runs of Grimm the TV series. I forgot the ending to the series so watched these re-runs. It's one of my fav TV series and have watched it multiple times. Saw the DVD's when I was buying that Daryl Dixon series. I've packed away the PS5 as part of the tasks to get things ready to sell up. Just having to adjust to not having your stuff around you and make the house look a bit empty, but it does look more spacious which is the point.

So occasionally on Youtube you find a gem. Found this Youtuber/Tik Toker called Laura Ramosa. Her comedy about her German mother is hilarious. Only found her by accident whilst looking at the shorts. Each of her Tik Toks hits the mark and makes me laugh every time. Very funny content. Makes a nice change from the other stuff that is staged to look real.

Did a small masonry repair on the back steps. Tried something new for that task and sealed it with some older mortar I had in a tube from a previous job. So that was the last of the repair tasks outside that I'm willing to do. Not concerned about the other stuff as it will not make any difference to the sell price of the home, especially since the place is very likely to be torn down by the new owner. Have started on cleaning the big bay size windows, so have been up and down the ladder at bit. The external cleaning are the last tasks to do. The garden is pretty much there, just the usual mowing and trimming stuff to do on days when the heat fucks off. Already some sweating on the hotter days doing stuff around the house. Started on the inside cleaning tasks on the weekend. Cleaned one of the lace curtains a different way and it worked so will do that for the others. Doesn't involve any drying time and no chance of damaging the lace. It was more manual work but the result was good. Have more stuff to pack away. We had a few days in the mid 30's last week and on the weekend. Not the days to be doing manual labour.

Private industry in the US has sold out their democracy. Most of the media in the US like here in Australia is in private hands. The owners of these private media companies have been arse kissing politicians for decades to ensure favours in the form of either freedom of mergers to make billions of dollars or to acquire more market share and reduce or eliminate any form of regulation. Nobody would begrudge any private company from making money, but when those private companies eliminate freedom of speech in order to suck up to politicians then we have a problem in that society. A majority of these private media companies are owned by rich old white men who believe they should have all the power in society to dictate what people see and what people can say. They don't like criticism in any form because a majority of these old white men feel threatened by any dissenting opinion especially ones that show their corruption. CBS in the US made the extraordinary move to tell Colbert he was not allowed to broadcast an interview with a Democratic candidate to ensure they, CBS, would not offend Rump. Like WTF is going on the US, they are the so called land of the free and home of the brave? They have totally trashed that. It's now the land of the fascist and home of the arse kisser. By CBS doing what it did, it only increased the viewership of Colbert and made a simple interview into a political talking point and has levelled yet more criticism at Rump and the White House. This will only push more votes away from Republicans.

So the Epstein files keeps taking scalps outside the US with Andrew being arrested in the UK not for anything related to sexual assault, but for him passing on classified documents related to UK trade deals with other countries on to Epstein so he could make money. That is a crime for anyone in the public service and those who have access to these classified docs which would of been Commercial-in-Confidence at the time. Andrew was passing on the actual reports to Esptein which were not for general publication. Rump's name appears in the Epstein files more times than God's name appears in the bible also more times than the name Harry Potters appears in all of the Harry Potter books of which there were seven and in both of those examples those books had those names as the main subject matter. It's also ironic that the only person the DOI has prosecuted as a result of the Epstein files is a woman. Granted she was a sex trafficker for Epstein, a man, but still funny how the DOJ hasn't wanted to prosecute any of the men who participated in the sexual crimes against young women and under age girls of which there are about 1,000 victims. Could it be that their dictator-in-chief is the link to all the other men's prosecutions? If they are taken down, they will spill the beans on Rump? It's what Americans like to call the "mutual destruction" clause.

Saw that some of the Aussies at the Winter Olympics were doing 'The Nutbush' which totally confused the locals and other tourists at the Winter Olympics. Any Aussies passing by just joined in as if it was a call to arms. When I was in school in the '70's 'The Nutbush' was the go too song several times a night if things would slow down at school dances. It was also the final song for the night telling all the kids that the dance was over. Even if you couldn't dance or were shy, 'The Nutbush' was the once dance you could do and finally dance near that girl you were wanting to dance with all night. It was a dance after all designed for kids to get them active which then took off and made it's way into disco's. Since then it has been passed down the generations and it is still done. Disco might be dead but 'The Nutbush' endures as an Aussie tradition for parents to teach their kids, how to do the dance. There is even a tutorial on-line now. The thing that you have to get right is which way to turn and also it's usually a dance started by the girls and women in any group. Not a dance guys start, never was.

The MotoGP is going to Adelaide from next year. The owners of the MotoGP tried to bully the Vic govt and it didn't work. So now it's going from a dedicated race track to a street circuit which is the touring car circuit with it's concrete barriers. Once again money wins out over the safety of the riders. These European motorsports have tried to bully the Vic govt previously and forced changes to race times to fit the European time zones. They always threaten to not schedule races in Australia if their demands are not met. Big money wins again over safety.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
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