Jerry_Atrick

That is true. But they would be French, and nuclear powered.. 🙂

I didn't say we shouldn't write off the "investment" and stop throwing good money after bad. I was merely stating we are already in loss territory. I owuld like us to buy nuclear subs form the French. The size is more appropriate to our waters.

When he realises it will cost him votes. Too late.. we have already spent $1.6bn under the bits that allow the US or Aus or the UK to kill the deal and we will not get refunded. He should have pulled out day 1 and negotiated a better deal.. For some reason that review when Albo took office was very uick and decided to continue. It would be a lot harder for them to mount that sort of raid in Aus.. And it would cost them a lot more than Cuba already has.

I have a question.. Once it is done, which of your helmets are you going to wear when riding it? 🙂 OK.. I'll get my hat and coat as well.. I'll shut the door quietly.

I only heard it for the first time in 2018. I led a sheltered life.

It's an image, so by definition, it is a real image... Just not everything in the image is real.

I know the military and the department of defence are always reviewing their property portfolio to optimise it for modern day use. A war machine costs money and requires modern amenities. However, I can't help but think there are brown paper bags passing about in the halls of our decision makers. Not for sall of the properties. But Victoria Barracks in both Melbourne and Sydney, for example, are historically significant and an essential part of the fabric of their area; they are architecurally and environmentally a part of the culture and provide a welcome relief from the many bland building around them. Of course, they and the land they are upon are a developer's nirvana. And developers have little regard for the quality of the environment of what they develop to the communities they affect. Yes, they will be expensive to maintain. But sometimes things are important enought to warrant the cost. Otherwise we end up with bland, faceless streetscapes with no acknowledgment of our past, nor the variety and space that can bring enjoyment to dull days.

Holy thread resurrection! I see it was started and up until today finished a day before I joined the forums! You fellas are into your 10th year suffering my rants and raves - more rants.. England has that effect on one.. Am I now a whinging pom?

Not only do you admit, but you show it with what you think is fake news from the ABC. If renewables are the reason for price rises, why is NSW, SA, and SE QLD getting free electricity because of solar? The reason for electricity price rises globally is the massive increase in gas price increases due to peak in demand of electricity post pandemic, severe supply chain issues, and the Russian invasion. I still don't know why, but that drove up coal prices, and guess what? John Howrards criminally short sighted policies of selling gas to the Chinese at even then knock-down prices and hold them for god knows how long at that price without indexation (must have been a very big brown paper bag involved somewhere) and successive governments allowing coal being liberalised to be traded on the open global market wthout reserving necessary supply domestically at cost of extraction plus decent profit margin (admittedly, when the price of coal is down, that would work against the consumer - but at least there would be certainty of what you have to pay), and - voilla! There you have your increasing electricity prices.. As with any new technology, there is a short term capital investment recovery built into the price, but in a fully competitive or well regulated market where structural impediments of entry and exit exist (take your pick), once that is recovered, the prices tend to stabilise near the cost of production + a margin for ongoing returns. We are starting to see it in solar. Renewables are cheaper longer term than any other form of generation. Remeber the price of colour TVs when they came out. More expesnive in absolute terms than you can buy them now. Imagine the real cost difference? Yeah, ABC don't get it right all the time and they do sometimes show bias, especially on one issue - in my opinion. But I have found when you dig into the facts, more often than not, they are far closer to objectivity than the others, willing to admit they make mistakes better than the others, and even on the area I think they are biased, they are no more so than most of the others (whether it fits my agenda or doesn't).

I have played at the course and I lived in Richmond for the first 20 years of my life here. I stay at my old local when in London (which I am in tonight). Although new to me, it is an oldie (literally) for the landlord/guvna, here.

Sorry.. couldn't resist. A later model flying Merkel: (Ignore the message)

We must have had a very inefficient evap ducted unit in the house I rented in Bendigo. It really did nothing discernable to the temperature, but we could feel the humidity. Refridgerant airconditioners seemed to get the temperature down to where it was needed. But, jeepers, it was expensive to run.

I got the humour, but the thought just saddens me.

It has been raining here for about three weeks. At least the Brit humour shines through on the sign in this article: https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/31/climate-crisis-flood-risk-britain

If you're not happy with the location and there are no buyers for it, check in on areas you may like to see if any sellers are willing to do a property swap to your area and cash out the difference either way. You will have to cover stamp duty at the valuer general's valuation, but a good lawyer can minimise it and while they will charge you to do it, it could still save you thousands. I couldn't find a site that handles property swaps, except for vacations, but an uncle of mine did it twice in the good ol' daze.

Genuine question - why is that? I have ridden both faired and naked bikes and I can't discern the difference in awareness. I started late with motorbikes - first learned in Vic when I was 27.. It was fun, but didn't grab me. Next time I took to a bike, learned all over again at 40 - yes 40. It wasn't a mid life crisis thing. I had returned from 2.5 years in Aus. I was working only two doors from the company I left in the UK to return to Aus. That was in Watford and I was in Richmond and there was no easy and safe public transport between them. The car journey was an hour each way (with the odd delay), but after I moved to Aus, the EU expanded to include a lot of Eastern European nations. They preferred to live in the Acton, Ealing, Wembley and surroindign areas right in the middle of my route. The congestion charge came in roughly at the same time causing tradies and the like to take circuitous routes, and my one hour drive became a 2 hour drive each way. It was more of a necessity than a desire at the time. But since, I wish I had taken it up earlier.. maybe not at 18 a I may not be here to tell the tale. I won't bother with wheelies, burnouts, and the like (such as this young woman), but I feel approaching biking at a more mature but fit enough age brough survival instincts further to the front of my mind, anyway: (sorry for the thread drift)

That looks like a modern prison

well, here is the vid of the road where the potholes are. There are a few of them: Nice to get on the bike again.

Yeah - I did build a lot on the question.. I could have let it go to the keeper as it is an innocuous comment at the end of the day. But these "simple" questions often (and I am not saying in this case) belie or at least allude to a deeper agenda. But, the other problem is, society is becoming ever more polarised because of transgressions passed that have no bearing on the people of today (except we are bound to learn from them and improve society). As a result, we aree seeing an increase in civil violence. None of us were directly involved with the taking of Australia from Aboriginals, and I sympathise with the concept of Invasion day, but rather than using it as a weapon to integrate better, it is being used as a weapon to divide the populations and now you have attempted or hoax bombs being thrown into the demonstations. While there has always been a hard core of Nazis since WWII, sadly, even in Australia, they are managing to attract more and more who were not Nazi sympathisers or hard core, and they are probably no more than disenfranchised with the way things are going, and possibly being sick of labelled eveything from a mysoginist to racial vilifier or some such stuff. Over here, division of society is being sewn from the slave trade over a hundred years ago, ironically when there were no slaves in the UK. Yes, the UK participated in it and yes, they profited from it, but the apologists are now calling for all sorts of stuff and no one is saying it was actually the UK (or England) that ended African slavery!" So, nowm you are getting more people fed up being labelled something they are not because of previous generations' transgressions, and resentment as well as moving the support base to the dodgier part of town (e.g. the more white supremacist part of town). You try speaking to many younger white males these days. Many are feeling they are victimised because they are protrayed as representing many of them don't represent.

Yes.. And that was over 900 years ago. Since then, there have been many wars in the name of religion, partiularly the Abrahamic ones - in Europe and the Middle-East, at least. Do any of those justify the same behviour today of the other side? With some exceptions, the global society could move on after WWII at an alarming rate - sometimes within the same generation, but after one or two generations - definitely. But is society not supposed to move on after 1,000 years (and religious wars peretrated by both sides of the Christian/Islam sides since)? The problems with the "they did it a thousand years ago, so we can't be the pot calling the ketttle black" mentality, particularly of events of around a millenia ago are two fold.. First, it sort of legitimises what is happening today bit and therefore emboldens those who use it to justify their stance to do it. That is never a good thing. Secondly, that legitimising of one side of the hate argument justifies and emboldens the other side of the hate argument as being persecuted for events long gone before they were twinkles in their parent's eyes. And the vicious circle intensifies and society polarises. Also on that logic, Jews have suffered at the hands of pertrators of religious wars for millenia, too. Therefore, they have many more wars to start before they sqaure the ledger. Do you agree that would be the right thing to do? I don't.

I didn't know whether to give a sad or like or a thanks to the post; I went with the thanks in the end because of the gist of the post, but hope SWMBO's op goes well and she gets better soon. Also, hope you have your hearing aid back by the time you read this! (And I usually find a new engine solves all my old engine issues - hope Perkins pistons come out soon).

I am not having a great run with vehicles lately. First the deer and the mini.. And on the weekend, the Volvo decided to emit clunky noises from its rear end. So off to the local mechanic, and since it is the only one around after their competitor retired, I am in for a wait as there is a solid pipeline of work to be done ahead of mine. No probs. Thought I would hire a car for a week. This evening, driving through the village down the road, I hit a massive pot hole at low speed but enough to cause some rumblings coming from its front end. FFS, another damaged vehicle. Thankkfully I took full fat insurance, but crickey, I have just had enough of cars at the moment. Have to be thankful of small mercies - although I got my medical, I am not flying yet.

That is not to say the vast majority of Muslims (or anyone in general) wants to perform the barbaric acts that have been performed in recent times, mainly my Islamic terrorists. But, to put in into perspective, we must remember, there have been a fair few perpatrators on barbaric killings by non Muslims as well. Every country, every race, every religion has them. An example is here: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/u-marshal-revisits-burial-most-154338909.html It seems more often we read of someone who has been stabbed many 10s if not hundreds of times, burned to death, tortured, etc.. and nary a Muslim in sight. I am sure if I do some research, I will find some non-Islamioc terrorist or oppressive government (e.g. Myanmar?) committing systematic barbarism - sadly they have graduated from hijacking planes. But at the moment, and it may be the media, the perception is most of the terrorist groups are Islamic. .