rgmwa

It burned down.

I circled Mt Connor on the way to Uluṟu. Approached it from the south east after leaving Kulgera. It’s spectacular from that side jutting straight up out of the flat country, but the back looks a lot less steep and would be easy to climb. When I first saw it in the distance I thought for a moment that my navigation must have been out and I was looking at Uluṟu.

My dad was in the Dutch army when the Germans invaded. He was an anti-tank gunner. In their first action his crew shot up and derailed one of the returning troop trains that took the first German troops into Holland, although they didn’t know that at the time. They fought non-stop for five days until Holland capitulated. He then spent the rest of the war as a forced labourer (chemical engineer) in the Austrian oil fields, before that area was over-run by the Russians. The Germans on the field had left overnight. Although they suspected him of being a German in civilian clothes they eventually let him go and he spent the next months trying to get back home by whatever means he could, finally returning almost a year after the war ended and his family had given him up as lost. He was 26 at the time. He was always proud of his war service and in later years regularly marched on Anzac Day, despite still being Dutch and knowing many of the other marchers. He justified that by saying “I was an Allied soldier, so why shouldn’t I?”. Nobody seemed to mind.

I'm not sure that would go down at all well with Macron, although it would seem to make good sense. I believe the design we were buying was a nuclear sub that they had to re-design to use diesels, just for us.

Lucky? Hah! You’ve only got one keyboard!

Limited by bomb shelter capacity ... it's a bit sad isn't it.

But Marty, although your two blokes are definitely sons they are not necessarily fathers. We only have your word that they are family men.

Yes, but those somebody’s aren’t fishing, or.if they are, they aren’t in the same boat.

Three

They’ve obviously been watching Mad Max re-runs.

They don't care what the wider world believes as long as their own population either believes it or is too scared to tell anyone if they don't.

A decade ago a group of us spent five weeks travelling through China. Driving through an industrial suburb on the outskirts of one city, Li Jiang I think, we passed the local equivalent of Coates Hire and saw great bundles of bamboo of different diameters and lengths stacked up in the yard. Obviously the local scaffolding suppliers. It hadn’t occurred to me until then that there would be such a place, but of course it made perfect sense.

There’s a part of the virus that doesn’t change as the virus mutates. That may allow a vaccine to be developed that will be effective against all forms of the virus. Nothing guaranteed at this stage.

In that case the rush of disturbed air left by the fleeing mourners at the appearance of the deceased would also be a wake.

Judging by his self-righteous and self-serving press conference today he has no intention of resigning.

He obviously didn't even trust his own government.

For many years there was a magpie in our neighbourhood that I recognised by his/her distinctive early morning song. Never saw it but every year it was back. Sometimes very close by and other times further away but always obviously the same bird. It had two variations on the melody and the complexity evolved over time. Sadly, I haven’t heard it for the last couple of years. The last time it was sounding rather weak compared to previous fifteen or more years, so age must have been finally catching up.

Eva Cassidy.too.

What a waste of timber!

My parents came to Australia from Holland when I was about 15 months old, and I'm still a permanent resident after all these years. I kept my Dutch nationality mainly because it allowed my kids to have dual nationality later on. It makes no difference to anything except that I can't join the police force, the armed services, parliament or vote in any State or Federal elections. (Luckily getting Morrison tossed out didn't depend on my vote). What I did find a bit ludicrous was that although I couldn't volunteer to join the army, I still had to register for the Vietnam call-up, which I did. My number didn't come up so I didn't go, but they got me a couple of years later when I went to Holland for a visit and promptly got called up for the Dutch army as part of NATO. Leaving Holland to go to England, the police picked me up as an IRA suspect and eighteen months later I got questioned by Special Branch for being a suspected people smuggler (after being traced by Interpol since I was driving a Dutch registered car). I'm probably lucky to be here at all!

It gets even worse, Red. By starting your post with ‘Why me Lord?’, you also inadvertently identified yourself as not only not a Muslim’ but clearly also a one-eyed religious exclusivist.

Finally! A practical long distance pilot’s seat.

I don’t have a problem with the idea of a Voice to Parliament, but I can’t see how it will achieve anything useful if Parliament only has to listen but not necessarily take any notice of what is said.

Dutton, for example.

This is pretty extraordinary, coming from the recently departed leader of the government, although he didn't take much responsibility for anything then anyway, so maybe it isn't that surprising: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/scott-morrison-says-put-faith-in-god-not-governments/101250118 Good riddance.