Aussie Inventions

[Old Koreelah]

2 hours ago, onetrack said:

I've managed to survive for 74 years with no middle name. My parents weren't prepared enough to provide a middle name, so I never got one.

Just yesterday I discovered the middle name of a teenager to whom we are Godparents.

His parents were so upset when our son was stillborn that they used his name for their newborn.
Our stillborn daughter’s name lives on in another friend’s kid. Very thoughtful people!

2 hours ago, onetrack said:

… I've found at least 14 people in my State with my name.

I know a girl who often jets off overseas and has mobs of trouble at customs; an exact namesake of hers, of a similar age, is a convicted drug trafficker!

[nomadpete]

Thank you for sharing sensitive information with us. And touching to hear that you have such good friends.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes, Agree with nomadpete. It must be hard sometimes to share stuff like that, particularly on a forum where most of us have never met. But sharing these things brings back perspective and balance. 

[pmccarthy]

When I was about 16 my parents were told I was dead. It was someone with the same name about 5km away. Car accident.

[Old Koreelah]

5 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Yes, Agree with nomadpete. It must be hard sometimes to share stuff like that, particularly on a forum where most of us have never met. But sharing these things brings back perspective and balance. 

Thanks fellas for your thoughts. Most people never talk about their deepest hurts- but carrying it in silence can do untold damage to their lives. Most of us don’t know what to say to people who have lost someone; just remembering is often a comfort, rather than avoiding the issue. 

The kids we lost would have been nearly forty now. We still remember their birthdays and some people close to us do as well. A mother never forgets the loss, but we’ve been incredibly lucky to have one survive and thrive, then give us three grandies. Heaps of people never get to enjoy that.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Here's a real Australian invention...  the wine cask.

To those who say this is nothing much, i ask them if they would rather be hit on the head with a half-full flagon or a half-full coolie cask.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Maybe they will start gracing snobby restaurants soon: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-09/riverland-winemaker-pushes-cask-wine-over-glass-carbon-footprint/102804526

[facthunter]

The screw  top bottle is the best.   Nev

[old man emu]

Candy's dandy,

But a screw on top's better.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Candy's dandy,

But a screw on top's better.

What  IS this man talking about?

[facthunter]

I was hoping you'd tell me.  Nev

[old man emu]

6 hours ago, nomadpete said:

What  IS this man talking about?

Bruce praised the wine cask. facthunter praised the screw cap. 

 

I played on a quote from the American poet Ogden Nash, from his poem “Reflections on Ice Breaking” in the year 1931.

Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

[onetrack]

I can recall one employee I had in the mid-1970's, when I was contract earthmoving on a minesite. This bloke was a bit of a dope-smoking, sex-drugs-rock/n/roll sort of bloke, who shared a mates wife on a regular basis at the time.

 

He appeared wearing a T-shirt with the following screen-printed on it - "Candy is Dandy, but Sex doesn't Rot your Teeth". My elderly parents sighted it, and were absolutely appalled that anyone would wear such an outrageous outfit.

 

However, they were brought up in the Edwardian era, and were very staid in their outlook on that kind of thing. I dare not tell them what the bloke got up to in his spare time!

[Bruce Tuncks]

They tested the screw cap at the Adelaide wine show, with identical wines in both types ( stelvin screw-caps and corks). They got identical scores at first, which I always thought was a good test of the judges. Then the screw caps edged ahead and were never caught.

So nev is right, as usual. Screw caps are better. Personally, I am so old that I remember when good wine was always in corked bottles. Yaldara was the first to change away from corks, and it turned out to be a big mistake as their sales fell sharply. So they returned to corks, and much later, they were among the last to go to screw-caps.

 

[facthunter]

You lose too many bottles with Cork Faults and the corks are relatively expensive. . It's a no brainer.  I originally tried to have crown seals but the good screw on came along.   Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yep Nev, the crown seal would be fine and you could use it for sparkling wines too. One day we might see it....  apparently, 30 years ago, the "champagne closure" which consists of an elaborate cork, plus a wire cage, plus the metal covers, plus any other plastic, added up to over 50 cents a bottle, so we are paying 1 to 3 dollars for the fun of the closure, which technically could be replaced by a 2 cent crown seal.

I personally would like to pay less and have the crown seal. Many years ago, such a closure was found on "barossa pearl" a downmarket sparkling wine which I liked. Maybe if I drank more it would still be on the market...

[Old Koreelah]

3 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

…Yaldara was the first to change away from corks, and it turned out to be a big mistake as their sales fell sharply. So they returned to corks, and much later, they were among the last to go to screw-caps.

A lesson in marketing: it often requires costly advertising campaigns to overcome the conservatism of the consumer.

 

I fear the same will apply to the forthcoming Referendum, after which the public will gradually come to realisation that, once again, we were misled.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Quite right old K....what do you think will happen in the referendum? Personally, I think the "no" vote has been under-estimated. I don't think I would publicly admit to voting "no", not if it might cost me a job or something like that.

When filling out forms, I used to tick the " C of E" box for religion, as I had a suspicion that this would keep me out of trouble the best.

[facthunter]

The "Methode Champenoise"  or Mis en Bouteille is  where the fermentation takes place in the bottle and the bottles are stored facing cork downwards at about a 30 degree angle. Periodically  the bottle end is frozen and the lees  removed and the bottle topped up and resealed. This is labour intensive and therefore expensive but is far superior to adding CO2 under pressure. Bubbles are much smaller when the cork is removed and the wine poured than when the wine is carbonated like a soft drink is.  Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

I could never figure out why the bubbles were so much smaller in bottle fermented wine.But they sure are...   actually I choose not to afford this stuff.

[Old Koreelah]

 

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

…Bubbles are much smaller when the cork is removed and the wine poured than when the wine is carbonated like a soft drink is.  Nev

So that’s why good bubbly gets up your nose!

[Bruce Tuncks]

The reason c of e is good is that nobody there goes to church anyway. I was told by a priest that c of e stands for "christmas n easter" when anglicans might go to church. He also told me that there was a genetic trait towards short arms. This, combined with deep pockets, limited the church's  collections.

Catholics, now, had to go every Sunday or else a pair of nuns would conspicuously visit, ostensibly to ask if you were sick, but the whole town knew you were being told off for non-attendance. Gosh this was so long age that the nuns wore habits.

[facthunter]

Too many BAD things happen in  Churches. Marriages, Funerals and kids dunked in water. Long Boring sermons.   Nev

[Old Koreelah]