Despite being a Labor state, Victoria has a preference for outsourcing public services- especially in the security sector. Highest rate of private prisons in the country if not the world- 30%

Isn’t this really about the difference between online/social media chat and face-to-face get togethers? I have the same problem with some groups that I joined of old school friends from the UK (I’m now in […]

I was kind of half joking. The friends I have made here are from places like Malaysia, Serbia, Turkey, Fijian-Indian and New Zealand Maori. I suppose we are all Aussies (I’ve been here 2 decades) but none of us […]

Yes but it doesn’t really work when I’m trying to order ham at the deli and the lady can’t hear what my muffled voice is saying, so have to take it off … I think they may work as a public health measure but ‘m […]

I haven’t and I live in Sydney.

Strange times here in Sydney where I’m now working from home (not really a problem, I’m a journalist). But it seems to be business as usual in the inner city area (Newtown) near where I live. I biked down to Bondi […]

I seemed to have dodged a coronavirus bullet after just being in China. I left in mid January, just before it all became public, but presumably the virus was already circulating, in Wuhan at least. I won’t make […]

Son has just come back from a sabbatical uni term in Dublin, where he was able to study due to EU tuition fee rates. That window of opportunity has now closed. As the French friend he made on the course said; […]

Entertaining film due to the ‘single shot’ thing but I had to suspend all my critical faculties while watching it. Of course the Germans were terrible shots and it’s possible to run through artillery shell […]

I lived in Liverpool in the 80s as a student and had no interest in the Beatles (and neither did anyone else back then, it seems). I only recently found out that our student friends’ flat on Gambier Terrace was […]

I recently asked my wife to get two spare wheel nuts from the Auto Parts store. When she came back she said they were very expensive and had bought two complete wheel lugs sets. How we laughed when she realised […]

Here in Sydney, my son is in prison, and many of the young guys he is in with are in a repeat cycle of homelessness/drug use/arrest/prison. Some of them even welcome going back to prison for a short sentence […]

Not scary at all. It’s non-ionising radiation, there is no plausible mechanism by which it might cause cancer. Likewise 1-4G phones, no evidence at all of causal relationship with cancer. I’ve just been at the […]

Have just finished reading the Lynda (Oxo Mum) Bellingham’s autobiography. She was married to the guy who conceived and produced the Confessions series, and he was – by her telling – simply a hustler who saw the […]

I was going to say Ian McCulloch vs Julian Cope, but after thinking about it, they both hated lots of other people too. Mac described Paddy McAloon as having the most insincere voice in music. Cope said something […]

As a former NZ resident I can imagine what a horrific impact this is having, particularly in a place like Chch with its small population still not recovered from devastating earthquake 8 yrs ago. One thing I […]

Good documentary on them here including his classic “don’t gob on me, 1-2-3-4” intro at the Electric Ballroom and the bit where he stuffed eight quid in his pocket to gazump Loadsamoney on Everybody’s Happy […]

In Australia there are multiple meanings for mate depending on what tone is used.
Long, draw out maaaate = matey. Abrupt, accusative tone = Oi!
Someone on the ABC equated it to the four tones of Mandarin: