Jerry_Atrick

Not sure, but fujitice journo Shane Dowling is running with it. https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2025/11/23/kevin-rudd-pays-lawyers-to-cover-up-his-jeffrey-epstein-link/

You're not claiming to be a mining scumbag, are you?

Wilfully blind, ignorant and gullible in one. You don't play cricket for England, do you? The "man" has presided over defunding government departments designed and, in US terms, making the US clean and healthy, such as the FDA, Obamacare, the FAA, and the like. Maybe you should go over there and experience first hand what it is like. Many of my US based friends are telling me to stay away as it is turning more and more to shit Oh, and pardoning criminals to go out and murder again is also a positive in your mind, I guess?

It already has

Mate, I am not waiting for it. I bought at this time of year as a commuter, and I am going to use it as such. I didn't get my ride in today, but that is OK as the Ducati boy has said his Ducati i a little sensitive to rain and cold, and tomorrow is rainy and cold. So, I will go out then and hit those twisties. I got some of my planned items done today... To cut a very long story short, didn't go to Gloucester, but ended up at a main dealer in Exeter that had 20% off everything. BThe sales assistant was young, female, and blonde. And I thought great, a Saturday student workder. Holey moley, she knew her stuff.. well beyond blokes with 20 years riding experience. She was absolutely professional, and the lad was totally enamoured by her, professionally (though I doubt he would say no to a quick drink with her, even though he doesn't drink). @facthunter - goes to show, blondes do have brains! She would give most of us a run for our brainiac money.

Yes, although she made for great comedy, I have to admit. Also, isn't it funny how people switch from being great supporter to great critic of Chump... (or vice versa in the case of Graeme Lindsay and the Texan congressman whose name I can't remember at the moment.

Agree.. Trust me, if it made the real news, my partner would know about it. I just checked and she hasn't heard anything about it, so as the bellwhether of all shlock news, I would also call it fake. BTW, if it were true, I would agree with the purported kings response!

I did tell my son to wait until he got to Aus to learn to ride. He is starting to complain that 125CC - especially around rural areas is simply not enough power should he need to get out of a pickly - or get to 70 (for most bikes) on dual carriageways. My son is not the cavalier sort by any stretcy of the imagination and the chances of him voluntarily exceeding a speed limit, even on a Hyabusa, is about the same as someone willing first division lottery every Saturday in a row, for a month. I looked up Vicroads learner bike restrictions, and wow, was I shocked, If anything, I would have expected the restrictions to have come down unilaterally to below 250c, but can be up to 660cc if thei have a power to weight ratio of up to 150kw/tonne (actially Transport Vic lists it and not Vicroads): https://transport.vic.gov.au/road-and-active-transport/road-rules-and-safety/motorcycles/motorcycles-for-learner-and-restricted-riders#h2-e4cr8 If a bike is not on the approved list on that web page and it meets reuirements, you can apply to have the bike you want added to the list. 150kw/tonne seems massive, given the kw/tonne of a Hyabusa is about 570... So unless they have some dicky formula rather than sijmple kw/weight * factor to get weight to a tonne, it would seem just about every bike under 660cc counts. My son's desired steed, a Triumph Speed 400, would certainly fit the bill. Anyway, back to the blog: Day 5 (yesterday) of ownership saw it stand under the covers. It was a lovely sunny day and got to 9 degrees, but with this reno and needing to get stuff done, didn't get the time. I had whatsapped two of the local village riders to let them know I had a bike, but one didn't believe me. My partner and I decided to eat the the village pub last night (foor was unusually very good - I was on orange juice and sodas as the beers there aren't great and I didn't want to have wine on account of severly reducing alcohol intake). We took the dog, but he was playing up so after dinner, I took the mut home and partner stayed on. One of the riders I text arrived after I left, and my partner told me when she got home he thought I was pulling his leg. So, tomorrow - Day 7, have a small ride out planned with he who was a disbeliever. This is the route: For context, within England a slightly wider map: Day 6 (today): It started wet today and the cover did a good job of keeping the rain off. In front of the dilapidated garage is a build up of soil thanks to a blocked drain thanks to builders digging up some of the lawn dlose to the long driveway and rain washing the soil down to the drain. So, the plan today is: Gotta help prepare the cottage for this weekend's holiday let. Taking the lad to Glocester (about an hour and a half away) to get Helmet and boots (nothing much in Tauton nor Exeter; the mega store in Bristol doesn't have great deals on helmets at the moment. Back and clear the soils from the front of the garage and unblock the drain. Maybe take the bike out in the wet for a small confidence builder. Bike to be put in garage. Here is the bike today in the muck of weather we have today: A bit different to Marty's post on Celebrating Positives 😞

And it's a terrible/trajic joke of history both were put and kept democratically (and it looks like one will go as undemocratic as the other).

Looks like a lovely day for it! Sorry about my poost afterwards. For some reason your post didn't come up, nor was there a notification of replies to the thread.

Maybe a new thread? The NHS here is free at point of use. Goin to a GP costs nothing at the time. When I first came to the UK in 1996/97, I was amazed at how good it was and considering the public/private system in Australia, one was waiting longer at Aussie public hospitals, etc. But the NHS as a service has deterioriated sigfnificantly since then.. there were waits in A&E/Casualty/ER literally for days - I think 99 hours was reported at one stage! It wasn't the "Slow down, mate" attitude. The front line staff are generally (admittedly not always) conscientious and while they aren't running at break-neck speeds for 12 and beyind hours, they put in a decent amount of work. In addition, They are always on call, etc. One of the good things under TTony Blair was it was well fundedm a politics was as removed from the service as possible. You could get a GP appointment almost anyhere in the country same day, Even if you were privately insured (not very common at the time), you would go public for anything not elective. Private insurance was (and still is) very expensive. The problem is when the converatives came in, they played political football with it. Reform after reform, introducing more and more layers of management and administration, splitting them into trusts with an eye to prrivatising the system took more and more of the budget away from front line services and more and more in to management and admin. In addition, hell bent on ideology, they privatised services - some critical, which meant more of the budget to investors and more admin and even less of the budget to actual front line services., Of course, in private enterprise you tend to "innovate", which means in these sorts of situations, finding ways to extract more profit from a flat revenue.. and that rately results from captial investment. Of course, having a private/publoc model like Australia doesn't mean any of the above won't happen, either. The Howard reforms seems to have worked more for the insurance companies than the patient. I can recall before I left Australia, medical insruance was paid to Medibank Private, HBA, or a handful of others.. But the cover was almost limitless for what compared to today seems to be a very small premium. I have been researching medical insurance and it is now very expensive (of course, I was O/S when he introduced the changes, so I will have to pay the full loading when I return), and there are caps that mean once you really need the insurance you are pretty well SOL (ship outa luck). I am not against the loading per se, as it represents increased risk with age without previous contributions, but on my return to Aus, I may perpetually travel around (grey nomad???/) and use travel insurance - a lot cheaper.

For the CBT here, it is an 8am start - 2 hours in the classroom covreing the road laws, bike basics, riding basics, and safety. Then it is as long as you need on site until the instructor and student are both comfortable on the bike and confident that the road will be OK. Then a minimum of two hours on the road. There is no pass or fail per se. You either get the certificate or you don't. If you don't, it is not recorded as a fail. You keep going as and when until you do (or give up trying). Here is a not very well organised syllabus from the guvmint: https://www.gov.uk/search/all?keywords=element+&manual[]=%2Fguidance%2Fcompulsory-basic-training-cbt-syllabus-and-guidance-notes

It depends on where you align

Dat 4 of ownership - the bike tood under covers all day even though it was sunny and hit 5.5 degrees! Although, my son's jacket and gloves arrived today. He paid hommage to the roo that gave up its life for my son's safety... And he is booked in on Tuesday for the CBT (learners permit).