All Activity

Sounds very Interesting. Nev

I always like (need) to have positive things to look forward to. Next week, Mrs Octave and I are headed off to NZ. This is nothing new, every year we do some kind of tour through and end up staying with our son, or we go on a road trip with our son. We are planning to do this later in the year or early next year; however, we have justified to ourselves an extra trip. My son and partner are having a new house built for them. They are painting the place themselves, and the builder has a quite detailed build schedule that they are adhering to strictly. My son and partner have 2 weeks to fully paint the interior, so we have (generously) offered to go over and help paint. We are really looking forward to inspecting the house because it is a little more high-tech than anything we have built or lived in. This house is a SIP build (structural insulated panel). The insulation rating is amazingly good. Another feature is that the house is amazingly airtight. The average Australian home is rated at 15.4; my son's house is 0.38. My initial question was, "Would not this mean that the air quickly became stale?" There is actually a ventilation system called an HRV (heat recovery ventilator), sometimes referred to as an ERV (energy recovery ventilator) Air is constantly pumped in. The air pumped out goes through a heat exchanger and scavenges the heat in the air going out. This place is so thermally efficient that they did calculations for the heat produced by their 2 desktop PCs (a plus in winter and a negative in summer). This house is being built on a jointly owned block that my son owns with is business partner and wife. They have lived in a huge house that is actually 2 houses in one for many years. The business partner couple already have a large house on this block. They are going to tie together their solar batteries and solar panels, which will equal an enormous 45Kw system. From this, they are planning to be at least partially energy independent. Charging 3 EVs has been factored in. Here is the site. The big house in the background has a bottom floor full of workshops for their joint projects. The engineering gear they have is mind- blowing. My son's partner Amazing double-glazed window facing the winter sun ( expensive, I imagine) Ventilation heat exchanger bits and pieces. This was the day they pressure-tested the house.

Don't start falling over. . It's a big set back. Nev

Eight months older than me.

I had a lot of time for Hinch and voted for him as he was prepared to go to Gaol rather that alter his story. He was 82. Nev

Da Vinci should have made more babies. His work was inspiring. Nev

She's better than Da Vinci who onoy wrote right to left. What a wonderfully respectful way to treat a client, especially a client who would no doubt be somewhat anxious.

Derryn Hinch, who referred to himself as the Human Headline because of his penchant for courting controversy, has died aged 82. The New Zealand-born radio host, who dabbled in acting and politics, died in his sleep on Friday morning. His former colleague and personal assistant Annette Philpott confirmed his death, attributing it to “old age”. “He’s had really tough times of late. He’s been in and out of hospital. I’m assuming his heart just gave out,” Philpott told the Daily Mail.

Finally had my Cochlear Assessment testing done today. The residual hearing in my left ear is so degraded, I would benefit from an implant in that ear. My right ear has more residual hearing than the implant would replace,so they would only implant one. Many people pair an implant with a normal amplifying aid. The young lady conducting the test was amazing. She sat one side of the desk and I was on the other. She placed a page of typed notes on the desk so I could read them, and wrote comments/notes UPSIDE DOWN perfectly clearly, as if she wrote that way all the time, ie., writing right to left and inverted. The report will be forwarded to the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist who will take things from there. It was a 70km round trip.

Bonnie Tyler has died aged 75. Had some hits in the 70s and 80s, most notably "Total eclipse of the heart".

Did you notice the Hostess seat appeared to be wobbling? Nev

I would have said bringing some of the good weather with me. As it was, the plane had more lateral movement on landing than I thought normal

Trump was sitting with Zelensky during the NATO meeting and talking with the press. Someone asked Trump about whether he thought Putin and Zelensky could resolve the war. After waffling a bit he turned to Zelensky and asked if he would travel to Moscow to talk with Putin. Zelensky didn’t take the bait but just said, “Well, that’s a bit difficult. There are lots of Ukrainian drones over there.” The press laughed but Trump wasn’t amused.

YEs . He's lost it, for sure. NOW how do they remove him from Office? It would blow his tiny Mind. Nev

Yeah . We arranged it specially for you. If your Plane had gone off the edge of the runway you'd know how wet it's been. Nev

Welcome back Jerry!

How can you fellas say its wet here. Today at tulla (Crappy phone camera)

When I hurl a brickbat, I do it in the nicest possible way.

So we have a written quote which states $1500 plus $150 GST. The company is licensed. It is perfectly legal to pay in cash. So here is the source of my displeasure. When I asked when we would get the bill he said, "it is cash only" The quote says this: Materials used to conform to current AS/NZS codes. • All material used are BHP Quality steel. • This quotation is firm for Thirty days. • All work completed is guaranteed for a period of 7 years. • 50% payment on commencement. • 25% during scope of works. • Full payment on completion. No money has been paid or asked for thus far, although we are not aware of what the neighbour has done. When I asked them, they said $1500 cash My and I stress "minor" annoyance is this. If they only accept cash, then tell me up front (this may have been complicated by sharing the tradie with the neighbour.) This company earlier in the week was fixing the roof of the local Bunnings. I would bet they don't ask Bunnings to pay in cash. So they seem to be a reputable company and they have done good work but demanding cash makes them look less than professional. I suspect they do a lot of commercial work and pad it ouit with a few off the books jobs. The other issue is will they offer a receipt (I will insist). My wider annoyance is tax avoidance (as opposed to tax minimisation, which is fine) The problem is if I pay $1650 will the $150 GST ever make it to the tax office? Back when I owner built there was a scheme you had to adhere to called the Prescribed Payments System. Every payment to a contractor had to be reported to ATO and you had to deduct tax from the payment. This scheme ended in 2000, and now it seems that for private builders, there are no obligations. The onus lies fully with the tradies.

Or did a bot post this?

But fair

In the event anything went awry with the job you would have to pick up the tab to make good. A contract designed to avoid paying CGT is an illegal contract and totally unenforceable. Yes, they do rob other taxpayers and as a result, things like income tax rates and even CGT itself theoretically has to be higher. Also my guess is should the taxman find out about it, you will have to cough up the GST + penalties + interest. Even if they charged you the CGT component as well. In fact it is likely the extra 10% you would have paid had you not questioned it will be calculated as the invoiced amount and then the 10% applied to determine how much GST you initially owed. I know this is something you wouldn't normally do, and as we all do, is a lapse.. but as they won't declare the job, they are increasing the casts they can offset against jobs they do put on the books, thereby reducing the tax they pay on those profits.. and by not putting that job on the books, they are also avoiding paying tax on the profits they make on that. It adds up to more than the GST saved in lost tax revenue

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/08/trump-spain-nato-trade-summit.html

Apart from resuming bombing of Iran, bringing the ceasefire to an end, now he has called for no dealings or speaking with Spain, and he has referred to the Islamic Republic of Japan. ????? Islamic Republic of Japan.mp4

Those plastic teeth look like the ones they sell on eBay.