Jerry_Atrick

Great 4 corners report on the lead up to Bathurst and touring car racing

I'd be really surprised if there were that many undecided voters who were really not forming an opinion at this stage, except for apathy or intentionally not casting a ballot for anyone. But, I have been surprised before. If I were polled on who would get my primary, secondary, and tertiary vote, what would I say? I could say which parties (or independents) I intend to, or I could say undecided. That's because, I am fairly sure which way I would vote, but I am still amenable to changing it, based on anything matrertial coming up, which could happen. I would probably lean to say the way I intend at this stage, but that understates my undecidedness. Or I could say I am undecided, and that understates they way I vote. Politics has traditionally been rusted on, crusties, or whatever being the majority of voters. Sure, they will never change their mind so they should just vote whe in convenient to them in the voting window. Then there are those that will swing their votes - some with difficulty, and some with ease.

That tells us all you certainly are not a sausage man 🙂 I obviously can't vote in this election (Son was disappointed not to be there to vote), but I would like to leave it to polling day unless impossible. The reason is because, sort of like the QLD election, it would give me time for some crap to be uncovered, which may sway my vote. Although, there are elections wherer my mind woudl be made up well in advance (this is one of them) and it would take an awful lot of crap to come out before I would change my vote.

This popped up in my YT feed. He admits he is biased to Labor, but if you want a summary of all the policies thus far of ALP, LNP, and GRN, then it seems pretty unbiased, and take your own opinion on them.

Things are starting to unnravel, I would suggest https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/23/trump-administration-news-updates-today

I think for the vast majority of the electorate, their mind is rarely changed - takes someone like SFM to repulse people from their normal picks, and even then, many still hang on regardless. If people removed their conditioning and looked at the track records of each of the parties, you could be forgiven for thinking that the parties are not quite the stereotype they portray themselves to be. There was a write up in the FT today where an Egyptian billionaire is quitting the UK because of the removal of non-domiciled status which allows them to avoid paying taxes in the country they earned their income in, and then avoid paying taxes here. However, while the Labour treasurer, Rachel Reeves, is copping the blame for it, it was actually the conservatives that put in place the removal, and it was a vote carried forward by Labour. This billionaire attributed Britain's decline to the conservatives incompetence at handling the economy - which is the opposite of what they are stereotyped as.

Quite learned:

Has Chump inadvertently increased Aussie beef exports:

According to Google, Russia is 17.1m sq kms; Australia is 7.688m sq km.

I am not sure about the law in Australia, but in the UK, if you order something and it doesn't arrive, you are scammed, or the vendir doesn't properly deal with initial quality problems (i.e. refund or replace a faulty thing), then the credit card issuer is responsible for refunding your money. I had an issue where a bath supplier agreed they would send a bath by a certain date and I needed it so I could install it in time for guests. They delivered late, so I rejected it. The credit card company didn't want to pay up but when I pointed out they violated their own Ts & Cs, and they admitted they did, the card company refunded me the money. It is darned handy for buying airline tickets if the airlines bump you or they cancel a flight. The CC company have to refund if the airline doesn't.

And this vid is 7 years old... seemed OK then, too

Below is a vid of the costs going a scenic route from Sydney to Adelaide using almost exclusively Tesla fast chargers. He was comparing the infrastructure at the time of making the vid to 18 months prior doing a similar trip. In other vids, motels don't seem to have a problem. Overnight rates seem a lot lower. Origin energy kw/h off peak rate is 34.10c per kh/h. Most batteries are under 68kv, but a Volvo EX90 has 111 of them. For the Volvo, you are looking at around $38 to go form completely empty to 100%. How many will come in at completely empty? And if we say the average is 68kv, and say they are on average coming in at 30% charge, that is about $16.25 that it will cost to fill up the car. Don't forget, you can get better deals than the standard rate, although I understand businesses may pay a higher rate. In any case, a savvy motel operator wiil add a surcharge of, say $30 and you get the convenience of a fully charged car without having to go to the servo, and they make some money on the side. If I were operating a motel, I would be happy as I can increase my revenue. Although, servos may not like it one bit. You can also see from the vid that there are quite a few charging stations - many fast or superfast. But note, there seemed to be as many, if not more charging points per station than there are bowsers/pumps per petrol station. Yes, there are times when all of the pumps at a servo are in use, but often they aren't, and this may offset some of the longer charging times. Importantly, from the vid, at least anecdotally, it appears the charging infrastructure is developing nicely. Australia is also transitioning to renewables and one would hope, in building renewables, they are taking into account the uptick in BEVs and the like when planning capacity.

There already seems to be a decent swathe of charging stations across Australia: https://evpowerhouse.com.au/ev-charging-stations-australia-map/?srsltid=AfmBOoo8KnJj5IIvv-2Suz6bToi4xWEZhtN0giYILSNQtnfMjNFCtyWK If your going from Adelaide to Perth in a Nissan Leaf, you may find it a bit tricky, but I am sure I posted a few vids of a retired engineer driving across Australia (Sydney to Perth and back, I think) with no issues. Yes, the infrastructure and standards are still immature, as he had to take a plethora (about three) different types of charging cables. Yes, some recharging sites were slow, but many had supercharging facilities. Looking at the map, where most people more often drive, range anxiety should not be a big deal. Year, there are some areas where there are none, (north west of the country desert/outback east/west of the Stuart Hwy/ and a gap between what looks like Cooktown and Cape York, but looking at that map, I certainly wouldn't be too worried for most of my driving. There are other problems; if the recharging station is the only one for eons and it is faulty, you are kinda stuck for a while. But, as BEVs are less likely to breakdown in the same way ICE cars are, if you have a fault with your engine in an ICE in the middle of nowhere, especially with the technology today, you are likely to be kinda stuck for a while as well. Also, if you are travelling and staying overnight in motels or caravan park type campsites, you can still fill while you sleep. When I am back in Aus, a BEV will be high on the list - one with decent range. Tesla is off the wish list (and the best range with 857km, Model S Plaid, strangely is not available in the country most likely to benefit from it). The Polestar does 654km on a charge (of course, these are test conditions, but if I am getting 400kms @ 110kph, I am pretty happy). And yeah, I will look at second hand ones... There are diagnostic tools that can be used to check their health.

Name of the best flight instructor I have had

We all know, cumin is a spice, right?

I was reading on some boating site that the government will normally leave you alone if living on a boat in Vic, but it is technically not allowed.. I'll try and dig it up. Just for the record, I am not a Pom, but born and bred Aussie.. Plan was two years in the UK, two years in the US and decide. But, found woman, and then one starts thinking with the wrong head. Interesting anecdote, was on a train sitting opposite an English woman about my age, and next to me and her were two young ladies (about 21-ish years of age). This was about 10 years ago. Anyway, this woman was trying to impress or relate to the two younger girls, and was constantly ogling fellas and trying to get the two girls involved. It was on a table seat and I had my laptop open working and just kept digging my head further into work, but did have the odd giggle pop up at her shenannigans. Anyway, some young bloke walks past (it is summer, and he was in a pair of jeans and tight T-shirt), and she says to the girls something like, "oh, look at his arse - that is so tight or something... Bet his French because Englishmen don't have that sort of butt." Then she realised I was sitting opposite her and she looks at me and apologises for any offence. I looked up and said, "None taken, luv. I'm 'strayan" in my best Aussie accent. I know the animals that are dangerous in Aus, and yes, I know they prefer tourists 😉 Of course... Too far from the coast though.. But, at least the state taxes would be lower!

Well, the decoration is almost in full swing. We are starting to run low on funds, so we have to do more ourselves to get it over the line. However, there is progress. That bloody living room has been a pain, The lime plaster on the inside of the flank wall is pretty well stuffed, but at about £2k to replace, we decided we would go with a "breathable" filler, which you have to mix just right. That had been a pain. One of the partition walls plaster was pretty well stuffed, too. so it was big cut outs, and learninng to apply bog and then a skim over the top; but otherwise lots of filling. Finally it was all done; PVA over the top and then on with the base coat, which proceeded to rip out chinks op the wall that seemed OK So, more filler, and skim, and we have alomst the second application of base coat, but ran out, as did all of the stores around. So hopefully, more in today. And we aren't even perfecting the walls - we weant some imperfections in it to give it the rustic look. All this time, I have had a flu, too. .Still on the tail of it - have been for about 3 weeks - and now I look to have some ear infection. Have also been prepping the inside of the bay window surround, where I found they had painted lining paper and then just put some light coat of filler - not even skim plaster over the top of! FFS, Then, our boiler in the cottage died - and of course, it is some difficult one that plumbers hate working on - so finally got someone old school to come out, and he spent only 5 hours on a Sunday fixing it.. It is designed like a fancy European car.. looks nice, but so tightly packed, can't do anything but the simplest job without taking out the engine. And of course, the deeper we went, the more bits we found wrong that had to be replaced. £650 + VAT (20%) that you very much. Well, I will be taking another two weeks off shortly (we get 6 weeks a year off, and I carried forward 2 weeks from last year) to try another big push.

I am sure there are many that remember enough Welsh to claim knowing it, but from my visits to the South of Wales, hardly anyone spoke it at work or socially.. I can't recall overhearing anyone speaking it when I travelled there on work or play. In fact, most people I asked said they learned it and haven't spoken it since school and can't remember most of it. In the North, though, especially Wrexham and the like, people spoke it freely in the pubs, shopping centres, and occasionally in the office. I am sure there are people in the south that know it and speak it fluently and often, but where I worked, which covered Tintern in the east to Swansea; and when I expored the area as a tourist to Haverford West, I cannot recall one person openly speaking it.

Actually, funny you should mention that. The Atrick family has been discussing plans... and living in the city is not necessarily where we will be. We have to be close to decent amenities, but we have decided rather than do what we did last time (arrange job, place to live, etc) beefore we arrive, we would arrive first, buy a decent sized car, and travel around a bit to places we think we may want to settle. I guess, I will have to settle for somewhere on the coast, and yes, it is likely to be Victoria for now, but around 3 hours drive from Melbourne is doable (I will want to catch a few Hawks games when I am back!!) Son has been wanting to live on a boat for a long time, but I have told him the regs in Australia are a lot different to hear, and there are no real canal boats nor vessel carrying canal ways in Australia (I am sure there are a few). But, I recall, even last time I lived in Melbourne (2006 emigrated back), you could get a decent feed from Port Philip bay. Was thinking the Carrum/Chelsea area, but I recall around Seaford way it used to get very polluted. But all I need is a 4hp tinnie with some cover (and a trailer).

Only really the northern Welsh in numbers; In Wales, Welsh is a mandatory subject, but most southern Welsh people promptly forget it. Certainly that has been my expeience.

.. Had a response but decided it wasn't worth it.

Where is that darned envy emoji ??!???

As I was typing it, I was thinking a strange way, too. But the reality is, most of the pollution in these indexes in comprised of "made made" pollution to service people. The stats I presented above were not per capita, but per micrograms per cubic metre of air. In terms of what can reasonably be done given population density and the desire for modern accoutrements, industry, and natural features of the local environment inhibiting disbursing the pollution. It can also drive policy in remediating the air pollution levels in different ways to a sparser populated area that may have higher levels of pollution per capita. But, yeah, it's not by itself terribly useful in terms of how much pollutants everyone is breathing in at a particular time.

Someone sticking up for Aus in the US.