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This is the age of modernist glaring white cabinets and tiles for every modern home. Imagine my surprise to stay at a recently renovated caravan park that is furnished in rustic federation shearer's quarters decor! Our mate OME has started a trend!

Why are we surprised? Trump admires dictators and despots. He has stripped the top level of administration of anyone with knowledge and brains, and replaced them with yes-men. The only required attribute is loyalty (and tribute). He has openly said that the American public won't have to vote again, and is actively dismantling democracy. He has used his position to gain him and his equally disgusting family billions - the most corrupt public figure, let alone president, ever. He supports and enables the worst white supremacists in the country, allows and encourages political violence when it's against his adversaries, and is racist himself. And we're surprised when something like this happens?

It's a bit cool here in Nyngan. We are camped by the river, enjoying a glass of red whilst dinner simmers on our little fire pot. Life's good.

So when my son and partner picked us up from the airport they were planning to go to their sea shanty at the pub club. They asked if we would like to come? We had a brilliant time drinking beer and singing shanties. Many obscure shanties. They also make up the verses for the crowd to join in at the chorus. They have written shanties about public transport and current political issues. The crowd varies in age from 10 to very old. Most people seem to be in their 20s or 30s They sang this shanty bellow in honour token Australian. We had an absolute ball and intend to find a club like this near us.

The Trump administration has just instructed the FBI not to investigate any incidents involving ICE anymore, saying that ICE will do that themselves. That’s not going to work out well. ICE is becoming Trump’s racist paramilitary wing like Hitler’s brownshirts.

All things considered, I find gravity somewhat attractive.. It creates an atmosphere all of it's own. Nev

Some guys formed a band they called 999 megabytes. Still haven't got a gig.

The Republicans wish he'd stop going on about the 2020 election because it's not helping their chances, but at the same time he's doing everything he can to rig the November election beforehand and scheming to disrupt the results if the Democrats look like winning. He's trying every trick in the book to assert his control over the States' ability to run their elections, but fortunately a large number of State governors, both Democrat and Republican are determined to keep him out of it and ensure their elections are run fairly. It's amazing how in Trump's world, elections are only free and fair when he and the Republicans win but rigged beyond recovery when they lose.

That's my excuse too. I'm really much younger than I look.

Well, a week has passed since I arrived on these fair shores.. I decided to travel up to Tocumwal today to look at some land that may feature in my retirement. But, a nice surprise - I reconnected with my ab initio flight instructor of over 30 years ago! It was fantastic to meet up We flapped the gums chatted about old times and of course our different journeys; and I happen to be in town of the evening of the local aero club meet. So, will do the three S's and trundle off shortly to meet the local aviation fraternity, Doesn't get much better than that!

We messaged our son in NZ to remind him of our flight details. My wife referred to us as FIFO workers. My son's message back was "f***ing Australians, coming here and taking all the jobs"😆

In similar news, because I was born with brown eyes I've never had a period.

I took an instructional flight from Moorabbin today. To be honest, there's a lot I could write in the gripes thread, particularly around a) the commerical properties that have gone up, and b) the introduction of landing fees. The urban sprawl is there - the training area has less and less open country. But, that is progress. But, the flight was quite a good one. Just practiced stalls and forced landings.. Didn't die, to that is a positive (for some, I guess not ;-)) The young instructor was very professional and a natural instructor.. sad that an airline or other jet career beckons.. The flight was in an Archer with full EFIS.. Took a bit of getting used to - to be honest would need a bit more time to get comfy with it (and a manual and some prep time). Weather played ball as well.

He's our resident cunning linguist.

Not sure if this is good, bad, or ugly, but preparing a pack to return to the motherland with: Just need cheezels

The use of WHOM is dying out, and who being considered acceptable more often. Your time is yet to come. "To WHOM it may concern" may hang on a while . Easy to look up. Nev

So the painting of my son's house continues. Unfortunately I am out due to walking out of a door at night to what I thought was a scaffold platform.. .. but wasn't

It's their modus operandi. Make the place sound bad and offer the snake oil elixir to fix it. Same for Chump and Farage

The way she's running down Auastralia while in England, she should stay there.

When I was a kid my Dad raised a few pigs as a side hustle. He used to buy 44 gallon drums of chocolates from Cadbury's - deformed, had fallen on the floor, etc. Pigs loved them. Us kids did too 😄 Not sure how much they cost but he was a tight arse so it would have been cheap.

He doesn't respect a free and fair vote anywhere IF a Socialist Government is elected. They supported Pinochet (mass murderer of his own People) in Chile even well before Trumps time. I don't think USA has Antitrust Laws any more. Making MONEY is ALL that Counts. No matter how many have to die. Winners are Grinners. Their Pentecostal (charismatic religion is designed for the greedy and ruthless. DOG wants you to be rich. (Like Hell, he/she/it does.) Nev

When Cadburys was sold to Mondelez the quality & taste went through the floor and they introduced horrible American flavours. I know in NZ people complained & stopped buying Cadburys which prompted an eventual reversal & return of original flavours though the chocolate quality is still not as good as it was & most likely has more sugar in it. Mondelez also closed the NZ factory & the only site left in Oceania is in Tassie. Hopefully they won't close that & get stuff made in China like everyone else.

He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his Mouth. He was selected by the Party and took them to one of the Most significant wins for ages. He has Plenty of well qualified and People to select for Ministerial Positions. .He's not a One Man Band. News all over the world acknowledge we are doing a Good job here but you won't get that Impression from and Newscorpse Monopoly or SKY. They want to be Pauline's Puppet-master because SHE will do their Bidding. She's for SALE. Nev

Yes. Solid 7/10 from me.

My friend Tony told me not to say his name backwards. I said, "Y not?"

I feel that Melbourne has a cultural feel about it, as opposed to Sydney's commercialism. One goes to Melbourne for the theatre and music. Sydney does not seem to have that vibe, despite having the architectural beauty of the Opera House. But it's just a building. As for multiculturalism, I think that the meeja consistently misreports on it. I was in a shopping centre in Dubbo yesterday. I saw people from India, Asia, Africa, Indigenous and European all carrying on with their shopping with no sign of conflict. I had the choice for my lunch of several differnt food types of food styles.

The town is noted for having one of the widest main streets in the country, at 60 metres. It was built as wide as this to accommodate turning bullock trains. In 2012, in the tradition of the Parkes Elvis Festival, Trundle launched its own tribute with the inaugural Trundle ABBA Festival. The town's annual festival, called "Bush Tucker Day", is held every September. There is also a golf course with sand-oil greens, a 25-metre swimming pool, tennis courts, horse-racing facilities and a sporting oval named Berryman Park. Who wouldn't want to include it on a grey nomad tour?

and execute on it.. Words are cheap.

Meanwhile, Poorline is sunning in Italy at a resort with her battler friend Gina.

The surveys are saying she is likely to lose Bendigo to Andrew Lethlean. I met him on Saturday, he is an impressive alternative.

Blimey! You are right.. The Mars here taste a lot worse than the UK, and the recipe in Aus was swapped from the UK to the USA recipe some years ago. I made the mistake of tarring Cadbury's with the same brush. I will get one tomorrow and check it out.. If better, I will defo take some back.

I did report a post from some "female" on my profile - but I didn't send a site email and a personal email would be from an account that does not have jerry_atrick as the sender. 9:45am seems a bit late, too. On that basis, I wouldn't click the llink - without hovering over it to check it is legit.

What a dreadful Place the USA has become under Trump. More and more resembling of Hitler's Germany in the Mid to late 30's. Rubio wants to dismantle the International Criminal Court brick by brick.. That would take care of the COURTHOUSE, but the Court itself is PEOPLE. A Legally Constituted Body.. Trump respects NO Rules. HE makes them up as he goes. Nev

Thanks Jerry, The ankle has made enormous progress in the last 24 hours. The mobilizing moon boot has really helped.

'for whom they were rather than whom they are'

I wouldn’t say survivor’s guilt but it certainly gets your attention when you start to remember more and more people for who they were rather than who they are.

I'm more worried about him flapping the guns in a pub.

Friday evening was a night flapping the guns with my mate, who is about 40, single, and lives in teh CBD. He works for an Aussie Bank. We were at the Harp and Hound, which used to be the Sports Tapp or some such establishment. It wasn't a bad pub; He was in Guinness and I was on lemon, lime and bitters I took the train in form East Camberwell to Flinders St, via the City Loop. The trains are a little bland, but quite nice and clean. And while the city is abound with graffiti, there wasn't much or any that I noticed - on the way in or out. Flinders Street has had an upgrade or two, but still, as it has always been IMHO, a bit of a crap station - the facade excepted. The toilets were a pit - much worse than anything I saw in London.. I am getting used to the trough style of urinals - in the UK, they are mainly individual tear-dropped porcelain urinals... But I don't mind either.. But the state of them i terms of cleanliness was bordering on unattended old footy ground dunnies.. I wallked down Elizabeth street to Collins Street; up Collins Street to Queen Street and then a right towards Bourke Street where the pub more or less is. I followed the same route back to Flinders Street for the train home. I passed a couple of night clubs t about 11:30pm, of which for some, queues were forming. There was not much to report - younger set mostly with smiles on their faces and talking seemed enjoying themselves. All seemed very well behaved - but it was early. The Flinders street end of that part ofthe world is still a bit grotty.. On the train at about 10 to midnight and it went via the loop. Again a lot of the younger set and very well behaved - many going home for their shift of partying or drinks after work. It was a pleasant atmosphere to be honest. Although for some reason, my prostate decided it would grow and I had an urgent urge to go to the loo, so I had to decamp at Richmond, praying they had toilets and they were open. They did, and they were, and they were a pleasant experience compared to Flinders Street. There were people coming and going through the station - the drum of a night club nearby was providing a steady stream of foot fall. But, the rail dunnies being open on what seemed an unattended inner suburban station at that time of night was a dream. Then I realised, I could have got a train home from Richmond at up to close to 1am.. This is about an hour and h half later than one from London (Tubes run a little later). So, Melbourne does cater much better for its revellers than London. Back to the pub they had an Irish folk band who were reasonable. My mate wanted to know what my impressions of Melnoiurne were on the basis he may now be acclimatised. I explained that it is a 20 year gap, because although I have been here a few times since, up until this one, they were all mercy dashes for a couple of days to handle th mercy. This mercy dash I decided to allow myself enough time to take some time out. He was particularly interested in whether or not I thought Melburnians seemed happy. I can't answer that without some sort of polling, but I mentioned they seemed more content wherever I have gone. There is an air of people who walk around with almost smiles on their faces and the pace is more relaxed. He mentioned that at his job, the work life balance is excellent and gave reasons why.. so much different to London, yet we work in much the same area. In the UK, people walk around with an almost grimace on their face and in London, everything is head-down, rushed, and almost elbows out. So Melbourne (and I guess, Australia), wins on that one.

He also played for South Australia in the early 60s and he helped them with the Sheffield Shield.

That's better than A cute angina. Nev

Australia The Good.... Good to see you are enjoying your visit. We are enjoying the great outdoors in Warambungles. A but chilly under canvas but it's one of those places I wanted to since .....

It's called makeup

You have to look for what you want in Melbourne. It won't jump out at you in Lights, in most circumstances but the Variety is there. It's best if someone with similar interests to yours , shows you around and it's ever changing in subtle ways . Also you don't have to be a Millionaire to live there. Traffic can be a bit harrowing at the Wrong time. It's growing a bit too fast. Trams are free in the central part of the City. I've now been here for 62 years but have seen most parts of this Country and a lot of Europe. I'm not a great lover of crowds and cities but they can offer a lot of facilities and variety nothing else does. . Nev

Hey, I object. I don't mind getting critical about USofA or Olde England or other 'shitole' countries..... But leave our Great Country out of it! (Nev, I'm being sarcastic)

She's losing favor as fast as she gained it - a real flash in the pan.

Is a person who is in their seventies the right sort of person to lead a country whose population is mainly less than 35 years old? Which political party is engaged in succession planning? Which of them is training the youngr generation to take over the reins of government?

The ABC has a very good and highly relevant article on the current death of democracy, brought about by a common failure to tax billionaires, which leads to autocracy, and therefore excessive concentration of important decision-making power, into a small number of unelected super-rich people. What the article fails to include, is the point that concentration of wealth in just a few peoples hands, leads to a constant cost squeeze on the middle class and working class, who end up bearing the brunt of the taxation payments. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/democracy-cannot-survive-trillionaires-gabriel-zucman-elon-musk/106798842