Jerry_Atrick

I don't know whether to put this in the Gripes thread or start a new thread, Grapes. Admittedly, at least while living here, I occasionally had Jacobs Creek reserve varieties, and of course, Wolfie. But I took 6 months off drinking and am now only having the odd tipple, and ensuring I keep it with the growers/winemakers I know. The problem is, in the UK, there are fewer places to get more independent brands. Around here, Majestic, which is a big national chain, something akin to Dan Murphies but not quite on the same scale, has a small selection of Aussie wines. The old chains, Odd Bins and Unwins folded under debt mountains, but they had the best selection of Aussie wines.. There are some online order sellers, but given where I am wit the move back, I don't want to amass a collection before going and I don't drink enough to warrant sending all back to where it came from. I tried Jam Shed and 19 Crimes and between them, one of them gets. IMHO, the worst wine I have ever tasted and the other a close second.. And I have had a terrible tasting wine.

Agree.. But does someone have his email address and can give him a buzz to see.

I didn't know whether to sad or funny emoticon that one. Hope the latter

Most people knew he was bent when they voted him in. For some reason they didn't care then and I doubt they would care now... if they changed their minds about him, I bet that isn't a factor

Bloody typical. Beautiful morning.. forecast was a small chance of rain.. go and buy weedkiller and the moment I step out of the garden centre, it rains... reasonably heavily as well.

I was going to say Lycoming, but thought it would be too much of a "dad joke".

I love this vid: I just saw this today. I have never met the fella, but a long time ago, I was on the end of a little critique of his for some networking code I developed for Linux. I took it in my stride and sorted out the "shortcomings" in my code, which was adopted into I think it was release 0.94 of the kernel. In all honestly, he is a little narcissistic, but in a good way.

The fact it is still on the market means it is overpriced. I follow a few Aussie real estate and commercial real estate sites, and this popped up on those about a month ago. One I am looking at a few "doors down" has been on for a long while@ https://www.realestate.com.au/property-residential+land-nsw-tocumwal-203580220 Any of these properties on for more than a few weeks is overpriced. There is also a new subdivision on the airfield: https://www.realestate.com.au/property-residential+land-nsw-tocumwal-204059628 Geelong is a lovely place. I bought my laptop in Geelong in my last trip and the centre of the city has really been freshened up. I am not sure Octave would want me close to him 😉 And, although Ford has gone, the old factory looks fantastic and has a hotbed of tech startups. Tocumwal gets hot - I have spent many a summer for long times gliding there with my terry-towel hat on. But the heat is, by Melbourne standards, dry and very bearable.. As a young bloke, I much preferred the cold, but as I get older, I enjoy the heat much more. But one of the drawbacks is of course, it is a bloody long way from the coast.

Yes.. I quite like this shed (though a bit out of my league): https://www.realestate.com.au/property-warehouse-nsw-tocumwal-151477276

Or idiots and crazy

Yep.. My point was chains seem expensive compared to here.

I just love how they accuse everyone else of being exactly what they are... Except, they are also hypocrites.

Haven't updated this thread for a while. Most of the structural work has been done. We are fixing up the pointing on the outside of the house as well as the cracks in the cement and stone casings and sis )one of which was letting a lot of water in). That was all done yesterday. In addition, we had to remove a cast iron downpipe that was spit at the read and in a corner so we didn't notice it until it was too late and damp impregnated the walls. Behind it was pointing that was more like syrup, so that had to be removed and repointed. We are waiting a new cast iron downpipe (Grade 2 listed houses - can't replace with decent looking plastic stuff). I think I mentioned on another thread, the day I arrived back in Aus while back at the office (as it is closer to Heathrow, has great showers, etc), I got a call from the partney requesting me to get the sparky in for a power cut. That ended up with a rewire of the whole basement at what turned out in the end to be £5K (or close enough). Ouch... On the interior, we have had the downstairs boot room and dunny done; the living room done (except for the bay, where the new plaster doesn't seem to have been mixed properly and is flaking away.. so waiting for the plasterers to come back and fix it). We actually did the living room in a hurry for Christmas, so it needs some tidying up, but is passable. Same with the formal dining room.. although the fire surround and mantelpiece turned out to be black marble that was painted over, so we are painstakingly removing the paint. You wouldn't read about it. The study is now done (bar painting the segment of the wall that is damp from the leaking downpipe - which we are waiting to dry and using a dehumidifier to help). So, I have moved my desk and slowly moving by home office in there. It is lovely and affords a nice view to the village. Although the kitchen was done long ago, there have been cracks in the plaster (expected) and there was some outstanding painting. That is being worked on at the same time. The basement hallway is painted, which was a pain as we had all new pipe encasement boxes. We have opened iup the downstairs utility room and save for putting curtains (I have no idea why SWMBO wants them rather than doors) on the long sink unit, only the tiling is required. I will get some time on the weekend and try and put together before and after pictures.. Not promising anything as have a lot on this weekend. We are starting the clear out.. The place is full of stuff we have accumulated over the years and don't need. There will be tip runs and facebook marketplace listings. We have decided to go brutal as neither are wanting to move into a big house anymore. They are lovely, but f! they are a lot of work and expensive.

Well.. Not really... To be honest, in my case, it would be a godsend. Not a large enough payout to be life changing, but enough to buy me a good chunk of time to work on the property and get going myself. Time for me at the moment is precious - I have not much left over between work and some domestic items that have to be attended to. As I am 6 years at the firm, it would free up some time for me to get stuck in as well.. most of what has to be done now I can do; so it would be a life raft in the move back to Aus, which is now about a decade in the making. (And I know for some, they are thinking long may that continue ;-))