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The simple, over-riding feature of getting older is that the old body starts playing up, and needs regular repair and maintenance. And if you're 50 or 100 kms from medical care, docs, specialists, even ambulances - life gets a lot harder than it need be. I lived all through the wheatbelt of W.A. and the W.A. Goldfields all my working life, living in everything from rented farmhouses to dongas to caravans, and even old railway fettlers huts. I've never actually owned a house in my own name, I didn't place enough importance on that feature of life - much to my regret. I have no ability to purchase a house today. I part-owned various industrial properties, a mining lease, a farm, and a couple of houses, that I never ever lived in much, because they were largely occupied by my brother and his wife, while I was out in the boonies, working. But when I got together with SWMBO in my early 40's, she owned a house! - and she lets me live in it, and shares it with me - because she loves me, she likes looking after me - and because I fix anything to do with the house, or the car, or whatever else requires attention. We live in the city only about 5 kays from the CBD in a nice leafy, sought-after, quiet suburb - and we're close to 3 shopping centres, a number of major arterial roads, heaps of docs, dentists, medical centres and medical facilities, all within a few kays - and we've been here since 1990, and we don't look like moving until we get really fragile with age, or the bikies move in next door (highly unlikely). I could easily live anywhere in the country again, but SWMBO is a city girl and likes shops and theatres, and being close to where her daughter lives. Generally, most people select their living location according to how far away, or how close, they want to live to relatives (including children). Most parents want to live within a reasonable distance of children, but some don't want them close at all. Not having any children myself, and getting on O.K. with SWMBO's girl and boy from her previous marriage, makes any living area decision, easier. Of course, if we won lotto, we'd move to a nice mansion by the coast, but that's only a dream. I don't think I'd ever move into a high-rise apartment, even though that's the result for people many today - simply because I don't like living above other people, and not knowing what they're getting up to - by way of drugs, starting fires, and other aggravating risks. Good neighbours generally make people stay where they live. No neighbours often suits a lot of people.

Definitely agree with the good neighbours thing. We're lucky enough to live on 5 acres, 20 minutes from Hobart, and can't see any neighbours from our place. Mind you, we get on really well with our neighbours - about 5 other families we've known over 10 years, our kids caught the same bus to school together, and we still get together a few times a year for parties. If someone needs something they put it on the group chat and usually within 5 minutes someone is offering to help.

Mrs and I bought in Central Vic 30 years ago, 40 acres. It was good until I got crook and couldn't look after the olive trees and sheep. Now living in "town" with a pub and post office, 20 minutes from the shops. Its good because she likes going to town most days. On my own I would probably starve.

I got a black eye from trying to slide on a G-string.

At the trough only

We're lucky here, too. Our first foray into regional life was not the best. We took 12.75 acres between a hamlet and a village. I don't think I ever saw anyone from the hamlet in the 3 years we were there. Through the kids school, we knew and got on well with the patriarchal farming family in the village, but somehow never felt welcome or fit in. So we sold uo to a large farmer from West Sussex who was looking to downgrade in retirement. They lasted the same amount of time and despite putting a lot into the community (they were retired, after all), also felt they were not welcome. As it turns out these small inter-generational farming villages are social fortresses and newbies take a very long time before the are welcomed. Our next move to rural village life was between the village my partner mostly grew up in - a tight knit intergenerational farming village, and where we are now. We visited the village occasionally after we moved here and SWMBO caught up with old friends. We looked at a property there ready made (i.e. not a bit of work needed) and this one, which we are still finishing. I noticed that while those that were left in the village (a lot moved out and visited for festivals and gatherings) were friendly enough, they weren't warm in ther welcomes. They were more interested in catching up to compare lives than rekindling any serious friendships. We selected this village, which although about the same size, is not an intergenerational farming village, and has a good mix of local and newbies. We also knew two families from the kids schools and we got on with them well. The day we moved the furniture in, we were stuffed and had dinner at the village pub. The villagers were warm. welcoming and basically said they are very happy for us to be there and intergrate with the village or live our own lives. We chose the former and it has been an excellent experience. Yep, there is the village politics, which can be downright entertaining, and despite there being some grudges between people, it is generally an excellent vibe. It is also a good mix of young families and retirees. I am in a real quandry. We are getting closer to selling and moving on.. I am not sure I want to sell, as it owuld be good to have a long distance bolt hole. Or, if for some reason, Australia doesn't pan out.

Did the elastic snap? Maybe you need a bigger size. Next time try sliding on a bigger pair.

I think only Noddy and Big Ears would believe the world could happily tick along without major power dominance. Back to what I said earlier, the three choices to be dominated by are Russia, China and the U.S. Every power has it's pros and cons, but I'd still prefer to be under the domination of the U.S. than the other two. The Americans have their faults, but Putin and Xi don't really demonstrate any sort of society I'd like to live under. The Europeans will never get their act together to compete with the top three for power, not in your dreams.

I get the feeling this person is not a fan.

Pretty hard to do, when the rest of their(at least northern hemipshere) allies rely on and come running to the US to dig them out of their "shit"

I read that the jets downed in the friendly fire incidents were two seater F-15E Strike Eagles and all six crewmembers ejected ok.

I'm more curious about the black bits.

Well the Middle East is a great success for USA. Haven't seen a headline about Epstein Files for ages! But a with little digging...... https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-questions-dea-over-mystery-epstein-investigation Seems that "Newly Uncovered, Heavily-Redacted Memorandum Reveals Epstein Was Targeted in a Major DEA Investigation into Possible Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering; Wyden Seeks Unredacted Memo and Details About the Investigation’s Conclusion........ Senator Wyden also requested a complete, unredacted copy of the document that revealed the existence of the investigation, a 69-page memorandum prepared in 2015 by the then-director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces’ (OCDETF) Fusion Center. (The OCDETF, a specialized Department of Justice unit tasked with identifying and dismantling transnational organized crime and drug trafficking networks, was shut down by the Trump administration in 2025.) A heavily-redacted version of the memorandum was among the documents released following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act." The names of fouteen persons of interest are redacted (note none were victims of sex offences), and hundreds of millions were alleged to have been shuffled, that should have raised money laundering flags.

The inmates have been running the asylum since 2016, with a 4 year break

Who said that it was me wearing it?

It shows they aren't that clever in winning the Battle of the Minds. Nev

Yer a Bunch of crusty old Pervs. Nev

America gives them plenty of reasons to call Death to America. Look at it from their point of view.. Nev

It's not about continually targeting and taking out each new leader. The Americans have to deal with 50,000 hardened, dedicated, Revolutionary Guard troops, 1000's of ruthless Religious Police, and a multitude of Imams who are telling their adherents that America is Satan and coming to kill them all. Unless you have an extensive, well-thought-out, long-term plan to deal with those relentless threats, then a pile of "targeted bombing" without troops on the ground, and subversives and spies within Iran - all working seamlessly to ensure a total overthrow of the religious nutters running the place - then all the Americans will end up doing is setting the stage for "Iran-run-by-religious-nutters, MK 2". Israel has great success in neutralising opposition to them, because they use all of the above - and MOSSAD has spies everywhere, and utilises cutting-edge electronic technologies, to ensure success.

I saw where they were able to plan the attacks which took out the Ayatollah and his cohorts because Israel had hacked the Ayatollah's phone and the CCTV's around the headquarters so they knew the plans and could watch the leaders arrive. And they had a spy on the ground. If they could manage that, maybe they can tag the new leader and take him out as well.

Like Vietnam - 95% of 20yr/old Aussie conscripts knew nothing about the North's determination to win at all costs. The North soundly whipped the French at Dien Bien Phu. Then they chased Australia and US military away for good. Robert McNamara visited Vietnam after the war and said to them: "We didn't know who you were, what you were like." After the deaths of 56 thousand US soldiers, and 500 Aussie troops, we see McNamara laughing and smiling with the Communists.

Ah man, l've seen the development, they do not mess around it's incredible, bit sad to. You've probably had it many times already but one day someone's gonna knock on your door with a very big number $ , begging you to sell. Thank God your thinking of habitat too, if only more would instead eh. You must feel like a fox coming out of his den and into all that just out the gate must admit though if that happened here in the next 6mths ha ha, l'd be wrapped. Incredible property though and must be pretty bizarre now . Ain;t gonna happen here though no way unfortunately , a bit of development we need in this place.

A lot of people believe that it was entirely a CIA coup taking down Mosaddegh, but that isn't the entire story. The CIA certainly played a role for sure, but it was British MI6 that initiated the coup because England was going to lose billions of dollars worth of oil machinery and oil contracts under Mosaddegh. It gets even more nuanced from there. Mosaddegh reneged on the deal it had for years with the AOIC and was going to take over the oil fields under the guise of nationalization. England protested to the International court. The International court (ICJ) sided with Iran on the oil fields because they stated that the AOIC was made up of civilian companies with no standing. The British government actually owned a controlling 51% of the AOIC and said "screw that". Britain was bankrupt at the time due to WWII, and it was losing the last of its empire as well. The country was deeply in debt and trying to claw its way out of bankruptcy. They were determined that there was no way that Iran was going renege on their deal with the oil fields and machinery. The oil was basically a life saver for their economy at the time. Meanwhile, the Soviets were waiting in the wings wanting to make a deal with Iran so they could buy into their oil. That was not going to happen if the USA had anything to do with it. The USA, Britain, and a lot of other European countries were in a panic about the Soviets back then. In the end........A lot of countries didn't cry all that loudly over the coup because of the Soviets and the creep of communism. And as a side note........some countries still resented Iran because they were a huge supplier raw materials to Hitler's Germany before and during the early parts of WWII.

I finished reading my copy in the airport on Sunday. i learnt a fair bit I didn’t know about how mining operations worked in the past. later I google earthed the area and found the remains of those mines that can still be seen, the road names make sense now. Tried imagining the area with the native forests back in place. They made a huge difference to the landscape.

My entire point was that the Euro's have been constantly calling the USA warmongers for the past 50 years, but they are always the first ones to call the US President whenever there is a situation in the world that might affect their economies. They have been been neglecting their own militaries knowing that the Americans are stupid enough to keep bailing them out. The Euro's had a royal meltdown when Trump called them out for not keeping their pledge of committing a few percentage points of their GDP to military spending. The EU should be its own power. There are 29 countries in the EU and there is no excuse for them not making a joint effort to protect their economies and sovereignties. The US has done 75% of the heavy lifting in keeping the Persian Gulf open to world trade while Europeans and many other countries reap the benefits. Then the Europeans turn right around and bash Americans to appease their left wing voters. As far as my fellow Americans go, we should not be trusted any longer because there there is no continuity in foreign policy from one election cycle to the next. On top of it all, we are in a non shooting civil war right now. Might sound crazy to some but it's very true. We used to be country first.........but now days we are party first.

The mere idea of this discussion is silly. Religion is a absurd abstract.

Does that make the scriptures more like a "Goatherders guide to the Galaxy" ? I was trying to address the high probability the any document (dare I call it that?) or book is unlikely to resemble whatever was originally recorded by the authors. This applies to any reliance upon the book for historic 'facts'. Just because a few paragraphs align with other authors does not automatically make all the stories 'factual'. So many revisions (authorised by a god, of course). So many language translations. Unless a god actually signs off on all the inevetible changes, how can the "word" be trusted? Any god who can create a universe in less than a week might find the time to verify their follower's guide book. He has had a couple of billion years to address this issue.

Jerry, Dibley kept flashing through my mind reading that post.

WTF am I talking about? Well, yeah, I got the Airbus thing wrong as before them, Europe relied on the US (and lately, I see US tankers refuelling European aircraft.. so not sure why). But the rest? Are you saying that is all BS? Yeah, Biden, who did live up to his nickname of sleeepy Joe when it came to Ukraine vetoed jets and other equipment. But Ukraine. a European country, still did ask for help - and still got over $20Bn of direct support from the USA. And finally, but too late, did get some old jets allowed to be transferred to them. Or did that minor fact - and the rest of the post get missed?

From who's pont of view, exactly?

Dennis Cometti has passed away at 76. Vale Dennis.

I have always wondered why nobody was invrstigating the money trail. Turns out they were. But that was kept quiet. And although there were suggestions that the results in likely successful prosecutions, nothing came of it. This is the 69 page memo I mentioned. Some curious un black bits. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet 9/EFTA00173953.pdf

Absolute idiot morons. So they've just added another few 1000 to people looking for homes. Why not leave them use them and build whatever they are on other land Gov has oodles of it.

Was yer a bit rough? Ya get the finest music from a gentler touch.

Back to British Passports. What advantage would one of those be, to an Australian? BTW, I never heard anyone complain about cutting a finger, sliding it in a G string chord. Try a lower chord, Will.

Play it regularly Willie, and the skin on your fingertips will toughen up. Do you remember when you first picked up a guitar? Bet your fingertips hurt then too.

Gavin Newsome was being interviewed recently by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. He recounted being in a meeting with Trump and Jarrad Kushner when Trump said Ivanka should have married Tom Brady. It was an interesting interview, worth watching:

Soft fingetips due to not enough practice + over ambitious sliding on the B string. It would make a good garrotte. Forgot to mention another contributing factor, electric guitar with light gauge strings. I hadn't played it for a fair while and forgot how sharp those strings could be. One of those irritating bloodless cuts like a paper cut, just enough to sting when you put pressure on it, like clicking the mouse button and stuff like that.

Also the older you get, the less body there seems to be in the fingertips. I think that saggy fingertip effect make them more prone to an injury like that.

Weird really. Never felt it like this anywhere, although l've been married or partnered up so but you are right though nonetheless. Yep, ex in in Sydney safe enough 12hrs drive from me 🤣 . Been thinking about a dog but yeah l'm def on my own too much. Not much l can do about it though go out as much as l can and get around people.

The Rainbow serpent Is Not Mentioned. Don't meddle with that Bugga. Nev

There is Plenty of History going back more than BC. The Old Testament has some really scary stuff in it, so to believe everything there would BLOW your Mind , somewhat. Religion considers the Universe to be about 6200 Years old and WAS created in 6 days. Science has a much more likely suggestion.. FAITH requires you Believe a lot of things, one being that not ONE hair of your Head will be Harmed without God Knowing about it. That Would make He/her/ IT a very BUSY entity. He is god of the Universe and HE MADE us in his own Image but we turned out Imperfect so that Christ, his only son who was conceived with Mary (the Virgin no less).had to DIE on the cross with 2 common criminals so that we could Live forever AND He is coming back to be with the faithful and they go to heaven where there ARE many Mansions. IF you don't believe all of that you are Godless and a HEATHEN and going to a Place CALLED HELL. where there WILL be Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of teeth. Ronnie Raygun believed "WE are in the Last days" and therefore Have no need to do a lot of things to Help the Planet/. GW Bush was a reformed Born again drug addict, who falsified the reason for attacking IRAQ (It wasn't ABOUT OIL. Not much it wasn't). Nev

Leave your ex in Sydney, stay where you are, extend your place and get a dog. 😊

God'll GET you If you aren't careful. I wish there was a God some times as the BAD guys would get what they deserve. Nev

Some say the Bible is the ABSOLUTE Word of God. I consider that Impossible to take seriously considering it was compiled by Humans and then modified selectively. Nev

Do Jews accept the New Testament? Islam accepts Christ as a prophet. The 3 religions are Abrahamic.. Nev

If one does not profess a belief in the deity described in what we call "The Bible", one can reasonably describe the Bible a compendium of the Hebrew culture. A compendium is a comprehensive collection of something. One can also use the word compendium to describe a collection of written works. If one gathers all of the anecdotes, rules for religious practice and religious songs of the Hebrew faith one will have created a compendium of the Hebrew culture. The historical anecdotes as presented most likely are embellishments of actual events, with the embellishments aimed at indicating the influence of the deity on the outcome of the event. This is commoon. Consider the acceptance of Christianity by the Roman Emperor, Constantine. This is supposed to have resulted from his seeing a cross in the sky in association with his winning a battle. The vision was interpreted as being the helping hand of teh deity.

Hegseth is as extreme as anyone I've EVER heard of. Bat $#!t CRAZY. With THINKING like this, there is no Hope. Nev.