GRIPES

[willedoo]

I had a pleasant surprise recently. A parcel from Belarus had to go via the US because of restrictions, but once it got to Sydney, only 2 days to Queensland. I must have got lucky as I've heard of long delays with domestic mail. In these Covid times, 2 weeks post time from Belarus is exceptional. From places like Ukraine, mail is taking 3-4 months instead of the usual 2 weeks. I think part of the holdup is on our end. I heard that a lot of parcels go in the hold of passenger aircraft. If that's the case, the smaller amount of flights might have a bearing on parcel delivery.

[onetrack]

Numerous passenger aircraft have been converted to carry freight and parcels, it's been taking a while, but the airlines have rapidly realised the air freight and air parcel market is unaffected by COVID-19, and that parcel delivery is actually booming.

 

The Chinese Govt is subsidising 80% of the cost of converting a passenger aircraft to a cargo aircraft, for Chinese airlines, to ensure their products can still reach their markets, and that their urgent supply chains are kept moving.

 

Boeing is surviving on freighter conversions. I'll wager a lot of the parked-up new 737 MAXes will be converted to freight carriers once they're re-certified for safe flight.

 

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3972278

[Jerry_Atrick]

Another reason why I try not to buy Chinese goods.. Their government distort the global market on a scale that is unfathomable..

[willedoo]

Here's my gripe for the day. The current trend to replace English with an abbreviated pigeon English form. It's being going on for a while now. Things like replacing First of July with the Yankee style One July or July One. With anything you can shorten, it's degenerated to the likes of Feb One (February 1st.). The latest one I heard today was on the Country Hour on the ABC radio. An agricultural industry representative was referring to the first quarter figures as the figures for "Jan, Feb, March". It's starting to sound like a dickhead language. Another couple of generations and we'll just be grunting at each other. Reverse evolution in the making.

Edited August 18, 2020 by willedoo

[red750]

OK. Here's one for you Willie. cu2moz. It means "See you tomorrow".

[old man emu]

The evolution of language is annoying to the older generation, but it is as natural the evolution of living things. Don't forget that the language of the older generation was a stage in the evolution of the language from that spoken by Shakespeare, Dickens and Hemingway. It's something we must accept, like COVID Stage 4 rules, for the continued existence of our native culture.

 

Do you know that this man  was once called a "costermonger"

[Subria]

Don't 4get the language of the legal & medical profession, you need to be able to read hieroglyphics (had to look that one up!) !

[pmccarthy]

Gripe for today. The power is out all day, we don't know why. Coldest day of the year. Last time it was out all day it was the hottest day of the year. 

[Subria]

1 hour ago, pmccarthy said:

Gripe for today. The power is out all day, we don't know why. Coldest day of the year. Last time it was out all day it was the hottest day of the year. 

Haha, now you are square with your utilities provider😉😉

This is Australia remember, third world country with a first world facade,😂

 

[willedoo]

19 hours ago, old man emu said:

The evolution of language is annoying to the older generation,

Problem is, the examples I gave in the above post are coming from the older generation and not just kids. The saving grace is that normal people don't generally speak like that. You mostly hear it from public speakers like pollies, media presenters, trade and industry spokespeople etc..

 

Here's another one; not a gripe but more just amusing. Lately there's a growing trend with people being interviewed on the ABC radio. What happens is, when they can't think quick enough to keep the conversation flowing, they pause and say "and yeah." About every sentence or two. So the conversation goes "Blah, blah, blah....and yeah, ...blah, blah, blah....and yeah" and on and on it goes. Sometimes "and yeah" is replaced with "but yeah". The thing is, "and yeah" and "but yeah" are not directly interchangeable. "and yeah" appears to be used for no reason other than to fill a gap when the brain goes blank. On the other hand, "but yeah" usually follows some interesting statement to emphasize how great it is. Occasionally, "but yeah" is used to start the next sentence.

 

It seems to be more prevalent with country people. I was wondering if it occurs in other states or is it just a Queensland thing.

Edited August 19, 2020 by willedoo

[onetrack]

Yeah, nah, yeah ..... 

 

Used to know a farmer who was a bit of a character. All the time he spoke, every second sentence was, "whatta mean to say is..."

 

It got a bit grating after a couple of minutes of talking, but I don't think he even knew he was actually saying the phrase so constantly, it had just become a bad habit with him.

[old man emu]

Most people are not used to speaking when a microphone is shoved in their face and the cameras are rolling. It actually takes a lot of skill to be coherent. It helps, too, if you have been briefed on the questions before the camera lights go on. The failure is very noticeable in football captains. One of their after-match comment pieces would be wordless if not for cliches.

 

SWMBO is always pulling me up when I am explaining something because I punctuate my explanations with "Right?". I say that there is not point going on if the listener has not understood what has been said.

[red750]

The one that always gets me is the one used by many sports people, particularly F1 drivers. Raikennen and Vettel are probably the worst.  The expression is "I mean"..

 

"That was a good race Kimi."

"yeah, I mean...."

Why don't they just say what they mean!

[pmccarthy]

Starting every sentence with 'so' drives me crazy.

[red750]

That's very Asian to do that.

[Jerry_Atrick]

So, what else bugs you? 😄

[old man emu]

Vermicious Knids

 

[Subria]

Really pisses me off our corrupt useless Govt have kept the borders shut, gunna miss the YWMC fly in this year....GRRRRR

[old man emu]

What gives me the gripes?

"Put the toilet seat down"

 

Now, I thought I'd do the right thing, and do the housework since SWMBO is crook in hospital. I got stuck into the loo with a variety of disinfectants and surfactants enough to destroy a Jumbo-sized virus and wash the corpse away. When I lifted the seat, there was that tell-tale yellow ring on the underside. Then I realised why women demand that the seat be put down. They go to the loo for some peace and quite, and don't like to be reminded that there's work to do.

[old man emu]

Yet another gripe today.

 

I went to Woolworths to buy some orange juice. When I had a look at the information label it said that  at least 9% (that's right, 9%) of the product were sourced in Australia. I wonder if that was just the container it was in.

 

So "The Fresh Food People" import even more of the foodstuffs they sell, while Australian producers root out their fruit trees, unhitch their rotary hoes and hand over the keys to the "Australian" banks. The only working class Australians who are doing OK in the food industry are the waterside workers unloading the ships.

[onetrack]

OME - The largest percentage of orange juice in our shops in Australia, comes from Brazil, as concentrate. It is then re-constituted with water to "approximate" regular, fresh orange juice.

 

Our orange production in Australia lags way behind the demand - and it is very seasonal. So the orange juice manufacturers need to get their supplies from overseas for at least 6 mths of the year.

 

What I don't like, is who knows what preservatives and chemicals the Brazilian producers are adding to the concentrate? 

 

The local orange juice producers have no legislated requirement to state what additives are in the concentrate, only what they put in here.

 

I try and buy fresh local orange juice as much as possible.

Edited September 8, 2020 by onetrack

[Bruce Tuncks]

This is only a repeat... Brazilian orange grove workers do not earn enough to buy their kids any orange juice.

[Marty_d]

One would think that it'd be cheaper to at least use Australian water to reconstitute.  Wouldn't it be more than 9% by weight if this were the case?

[Subria]

We are all guilty of buying non Aussie goods/devices. It's all about choice, we have little choice by way of Made in Oz these days and it's getting worse with virtually no manufacturing of any substance in our own country, & the way grubby Andrews is going we won't even have a viable coffee shop open in Melbourne!

[old man emu]

6 hours ago, onetrack said:

Our orange production in Australia lags way behind the demand - and it is very seasonal.

If Big Business didn't screw the farm gate prices so low, farmers wouldn't go broke and have to rip out their trees. Then we would have ample production to meet year-round demand.

 

Of course the thing that's scarcest is people willing to go out and pick the oranges. That's what Chinese funded educational facilities are for.