General Chat

I'm off to get some work done before my drive. Goodnight Poms - sleep well. Aussies - have a good day!

Tec, In Oz, passports can be applied for at major Post Offices, and there is an interview involved. Ironically the Postmaster at Bunbury is the same Postmaster who was at Leonora and he interviewd us there when we applied for Australian Citizenship.

To renew our uK passports every thing has to be sent to the British High Commission in Canberra. Up until a few years ago application could be made in Perth, but even that service was withdrawn.

Allan

Goodbye Berona.

Have a safe and enjoyable drive

Regards

Allan

Bye Berona, Have a good drive - no speeding, enjoy the fruit market,

Allan, Our passports have expired, but as it's unlikely they will be needed again, we won't bother renewing. Guess my wandering around the world is over. Still haven't been to Scotland, or Ireland.You need a passport to fly to Ireland, but not if you go by ferry.

Just a point of interest - the Planning Dept have rejected plans for the new loos at Betws y Coed as too futuristic and spaceage.

Tec

Tec, I'm not always a lover of Planning Depts (and I was manager of one) but some places are just too beautiful and iconic to have facilities that clash, rather than blend, with the environment.

Allan

The Snowdonia National Park Authority are often critised for their rigid planning rules, but having seen an artists impression of the proposed new loos, I can understand this descision - definately not in keeping with the area. More suitable for a new town, or swinging City Centre.
I'm with the Prince of Wales when it comes to architecture, some of the new buildings in our cities are an abomination - suppose I must be an old fashioned traditionalist when it comes to buildings.

Tec

Tec, that's why I prefer Fremantle to Perth: the character of the city has been retained.

In Perth nothing but skyscrapers and plaques that say" This is the site where such and such a bulding stood.

And when the old buldings such as the Anglican Cathedral have been retained, they are overshadowed by all the new ones

Allan

So many cities have lost their identity, which is a great shame. I realise there has to be progress, but everywhere seems to look the same. I can remember Sydney in the 70s, and had such a shock when I saw pictures recently on tv. All to do with the volume of population, but they all seem hellbent on who can build the highest skyscraper.

Well, now midnight, must go to bed. So have a good day down under, and a goodnight up top.

Goodnight
Tec.

Goodnight Tec, sleep well

Allan

Hi everyone - so sorry I disappeared this morning. I got a phone call that led to making 3 others and by the time I got back on everyone was gone and poor little Allan was left on his own:-(

We've got one of our grandsons staying overnight tonight as a treat. He's a quiet little boy and his younger brother tends to get a bit more attention because he's loud. So now and then we take the older one and he gets grandma and grandad to himself and he loves it. He helps grandad in the garden and then we cook some pikelets for morning tea Good fun.

Linda it's nice to have you posting again and you sound more like yourself again. You too Diane - you're back to your cheeky self and it's good to see.

Berona I hope you had a good drive out and picked up lots of fruit and veg. OH makes the best fruit salad and as our local market has fresh seasonal fruit we have fruit salad most days. I'm hoping to have lots of fresh salads from OH's garden.

Sue xx

Hello all, those on our side of the world and those not… Ah yes, Vicks. Vaseline with eucalyptus oil, camphor and other delights. Another remedy from the same period was Zambuk, which I suspect might have been English. It was made here for a while by Boots. When they made stuff here. My aunt (almost 76) still swears by it.
We didn’t really need cod liver oil here, due to the much stronger sunlight, but I can remember being dosed with castor oil. Fishers Phospherine, A “nerve tonic” that I suspect was over proof, something I would not have been given if my mother thought that was true.
Tec, you talk about Sydney in the 1970s. Having lived here all my life and commuting into and through the city regularly from when I went to Uni (1966) it is sometimes hard to remember when various things went up. Some are older of course, such as the apartment building at Blues Point, generally accepted as the ugliest building in Australia. The original AMP building was built in the late 1950s and I can remember when it was the tallest in the city.
Roads are issue here. The Cahill Expressway (1958?) across the face of Circular Quay and the Western distributor road are widely derided now as visually intrusive. Thank God we have them. I remember the city streets before the latter was built. The Warringah Expressway (1967) is now attacked because it tore the suburb of North Sydney apart. I remember the rat runs of roads off the northern end of the harbour bridge.
Some of the more recent motorway roads near the city were built underground. Saves a lot of money on property resumptions even though they cost more, but the government is attacked for its obsession with building tunnels. Of course, I use parts of the Sydney orbital (silly name, for a road that passes virtually under the CBD) regularly, as it is the quickest and most effective way to get from A to B, where A and B may be our office at Botany and various work sites or home.
Allan, I loved your joke about the sick squid. Do you know the one where the punch line is the sixth sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick? I can’t quite remember how it goes.
When I had a holiday in Perth many years ago, I flew over but went on tourist trips to Monkey Mia and to Kalgoorlie. To get to the latter we went by train. I was fascinated by the town/city, but will probably never get there again. Too far from the eastern states and I am probably not up to driving across the country. I could fly or train to Perth and go south, next time.
I guess I also qualify as an environmental consultant nowadays, but in the much more limited area of asbestos and to a lesser extent hazardous materials. It would be terrific to go to WA on a job although I can imagine trying to get cases of equipment onto a plane. I had a job 600 km away, but had half a station wagon load.
Sue, re Cosi: yes, the reviewer wanted the ending changed. The girls say that they were sorry for their infidelity, which they were not really, the boys being their fiances in disguise. They are accepted back and everyone lives happily ever after. The reviewer thought that they should all go their separate ways rather than endure such MCPs as the men were.
Another long rave.Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy yours. So much for an early night (again). It is now 10.30 pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time (9.30 in Queensland, 10.00 in SA, 9 in the Northern Territory and 7.30 in the West, as they say on ABC Newsradio). Colin.

No Aussies around, they must all be having a kie in

Good Morning/Evening Everyone,

Hope everyone is as fit as fiddles today.
Colin.....You reminded me of some old weird and wonderful potions I had forgotten about. When I started school aged four in 1945, we had to line up after lunch when the teacher would dispense a large spoonful of cod liver oil (everyone got the same spoon) then an iron tablet, and a vitamin tablet. This must have been a government scheme to counteract the poor diet we would have been raised on due to war time restrictions, and the lack of fresh fruit, eggs etc.
Talking of roads, I can remember when there wasn't one motorway in the UK, now we have a full network. Except that here in Wales, there still isn't a decent link between North and South Wales. South Wales is well served by motorway links from London and the English counties, but North Wales seems to be out on a limb. Maybe they think nobody lives here.

Sue....... Did your young overnight visitor enjoy himself, I hope you enjoyed having him. I have told you about my visits to my very strict and severe grandmother. She was so strict about everything, and never smiled, but would suddenly wink at me, much to my amazement. I often thought that somewhere inside that stern exterior, was a jolly lady trying to get out. She lived to be 96 yrs, and we became great friends after I had grown up. I wonder if she was afraid of small boys really?

Linda......Are you better? and still taking the tablets, like a good girl?

Tec

Good evening Tec, I am being good and taking the tablets, but am still coughing like a 60 a day smoker ( I don't smoke I hasten to add)

North Wales is certainly a difficult place to get to. We used to go camping there when the children were little, but the roads were so poor that it was quicker to go to France, plus a great deal warmer

Hello everyone! Seems like we are all having the same kind of weather, no matter which part of the globe!....To-day is clear sky, sunny, but a nip in the air and maximum temp only expected to be 18 - and we were having higher temps than that in winter!...Mid-October is mid-Spring here!

When I was at school, Australia boasted of having a population of five million - now it's twenty one million.

Tec - you wouldn't know Sydney now. Same as England. My OH was born in Liverpool and emigrated in 1950....I travelled in England 1953-55..but when we went together in 1989, we were both shocked at the changes! The only thing that hadn't changed is the attitude. City people were and still are always in a hurry - whereas, country folk like the pace to be slower and are more friendly. It's the same everywhere.

Hello Linda,
Sorry you are still coughing, that must have been some bug, anyway get better soon I hope.
Where in N.Wales did you go? There trouble is I suppose, you can't have your cake and eat it. If they start laying miles of concrete slabs, making it more accessible, and easier to get around, then the place will lose it's charm and quaintness that makes it so attractive to visitors.
I feel very sorry for the young people who have to leave to find work.
Businesses will not come here because of the road system.

Tec.

Goodevening/ morning all
Hi Tec
how's you today, neighbour's not to bad last night, just about to go into bedroom and realised door was shakeing because bed upstair's was banging on wall { say no more } went into kitchen and tidied a few thing's up till the coast was clear. Rest of night was quite except for me coughing half the night, got a bad sore throat and cold, caught it off employer and his mum so at work today it was a case of the 3 cough-fer's lol.

Sue, hope you enjoyed your grandson's visit, it's nice to spend time seperately with them. My eldest grand-daughter is comeing tomorrow to visit and bringing her new boyfriend, hope he's suitable and not what my son think's he look's like { a scally } his word's.

Linda, I hope your feeling much better today hun.

Hi Colin nice to hear from you

Hi to all other's

Diane

I'm here everyone - just looking after my grandson. Yes, Tec he is enjoying himself. He's just been talking on a toy phone and we've been in stitiches listening to him sound so like his mum. He even pauses to "listen" to the other person and then answers "yep, sure" before saying good bye.

Colin - when you look at Cosi from a modern point of view it is extremely sexist and no-one really points out that the young men in question played a really nasty trick on their fiancees but the beauty of old operas, books and plays is the insight into the society of the day. I like reading Jane Eyre because she was scathing about the hypocrisy of society at that time. I have to add that I'm not actually a great fan of opera but I love the stories behind them. I'm more inclined towards operettas such as the Pirates of Penzance. On the subject of roads - I hate driving around Sydney and if I go to Sydney I'm more inclined to drive to Sutherland and catch the train and then other public transport around the city.

Sue xx

Good morning Berona,

I like living in a small market town because everyone days good morning when you pass them in the street, even people you have never seen before.

Tec, we camped near St Davids a couple of times, and the Lleyn peninsula a few times, plus various other places with strange names

Oh hello Sue and Diane, you sneaked in there while I was playing on the 1911 census, I am looking for my Piggs - don't ask