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The wife & I had a very quiet 63rd wedding anniversary. spacesailor

Alternative Energy and a islanded microgrid. Lord Howe Island put in a $12 million dollar solar + battery, 3 years ago. So far they saved 360,000 litres of imported diesel ($2.6 million). That makes it pay for itself in about 5 years. https://arena.gov.au/assets/2024/09/Lord-Howe-Island-Hybrid-Renewable-Project-Public-KS-Report.pdf

I have fond memories of Lord Howe Island. When I was a musician in the RAAF, we made many visits there. The landings and takeoffs in a C-130 were always exciting. These trips were in the 80s, and from memory, we used to perform at "Founders Day" events. Back then it was a big deal, and we seemed to have some celebrity status. We would be put up by the locals and shown a good time with boat trips, etc. On one occasion, I was able to get my wife on the RAAF flight. On another occasion, after takeoff, the crew put a cargo strap across the rear of the aircraft, and they opened the back ramp as we flew past Balls Pyramid.

He's been here before. He's in the process of bankrupting the biggest casino he's been able to get his hands on. Unfortunately the unwitting players and spectators are the American public.

A big positive for me. I lost my wallet in a park yesterday in the English Midlands and today I got it back with licence, credit cards and about $400 equivalent in cash. The girl who handed it in at the police station did not leave her name.

My wife used to compare me to Chris Hemsworth. She used to say, "You're no Chris Hemsworth."

Went for a snorkel off Coningham this morning (bloody freezing - 8 degrees on land and felt like not much more in the water) - and my wife got to try out our new waterproof camera. Despite the cold - hanging out with all the little fish was amazing. Schools and schools of them. Plus the occasional big wrasse.

If you judge a person by the company they keep, then check out who Dutton's best bud and paymaster is hanging out with. Just to join the dots: - Dutton wants to be PM - Dutton's party gets a huge amount of funding from Gina - Dutton and Gina are friends - Gina has previously made statements like working people should be paid $2 a day - Gina hangs out with Trump mega supporters - Trump has laid off thousands of public servants - Dutton wants to lay off thousands of public servants Blind Freddy can see that if you vote for Dutton, you're voting for the same craziness that's killing democracy in the US right now. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/31/a-female-donald-trump-how-gina-rinehart-is-pushing-trumps-message-australia-ntwnfb

When I broke my ankle on the motorcycle over here, I was amazed at the conditions under which dedicated staff worked. The doc asked if I minded having the thingy to attach the drip to inserted into my right hand. My response was I preferred not to know about it, as I am queasy (it took over a week for me to read the first chapter of Human Performances and Limitations for the PPL here - it wasn't a requirement in Aus when I got my license). His response was if he didnt tell people he was doing it, 99% of the time he could expect a right hook to his jaw. A week alter, I was readmitted to casualty (ER is another American import) with suspected compression syndrome.. they didn't fart around, but for the short period of time I had to wait on a stretcher (it was later on a Friday or Saturday evening) in the tick of the action, all I can say is it was a real eye opener of the continual stress and security threat they work under. At sone stage, they had this huge bloke - over 6'6" and full of muscle, coked off his head, threatening abusing the staff because they were trying to treat his badly cut up knees from glass of broken bottles. He wasn't letting them get near him and he was a real challenge to the numerous security staff on shift. Eventually, they got his mother in to calm him down, and I had to laugh - she was 4' nothinh and petite and diminutive as they come, but jeez she packed a ferocious bark... He eventually settled down... The doc came to see me and I remarked to him he is a better man that I and that if it we me, after his second intensive remonstration, I would have just let him get gangrene or have the issues of glass lodged in his body. These people generally deserve our respect and a bloody lot more money than most of the get.

Random Thought re: Australian manufacturing. This ABC article mentions a problem restarting manufacturing..... apart from trying to be competetive on price....there is a shortage of tradesmen with experience required for industry. They are literally a dying breed. I have long believed that our only hope is to initiate a group called Dinosaur Engineering. Gather up the remaining skilled old farts to work voluntarily to do the design, training and setup of each manufacturing project. There are many competent 'older' people languishing in a sea of retirement boredom, who would love to get their teeth into the challenge. Like Mens Sheds on steroids. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-28/tools-engineering-pattern-making-manufacturing-industry/105134026

My ungripe of the day..... I am sitting in Sydney domestic terminal awaiting a call to board a short Dash-8 to Lord Howe. A rare place of NO MOBILE PHONE COVERAGE.... AT ALL! I will enjoy a break from all the gloom & doom of constant news.

My wife & I posted off our votes today. 33 spots on the Senate paper, both of us marked 1-33. I see that the LNP have done a preference swap deal with Pauline Hanson now - so just consider where your preferences are going! It's why I always mark every spot. I don't want the political parties to decide where my preference is going - I'll choose that myself, thanks very much.

I thought I would give a quick review of some practical EV experience. As an EV enthusiast who doesn't own an EV, I can only go on what others tell me, but in this case, this is first-hand experience. We have just arrived back from a 3-week trip in NZ, visiting our "favourite" offspring (he is an only child). We spent a week driving around the South Island in petrol-driven rental cars. I have often been told by the anti EV crowd that it takes forever and it is impractical to go outside of the city coz it take a fortnight to charge - Bollocks! From my son's home we departed with around 90 something per cent charge. This was from his overnight charging, which due to a deal from the electricity company (they have to much power overnight, I think they sell it for about 10 cents a KWh). This electricity is generated from hydro. We had to make a stop in town because son and business partner had to pick up some merch to flog at the races. Mrs Octave and I opted to stay in the car rather than to go with them. Although it was not super hot, the sun was quite strong, so my son put the car into "dog mode", which kept the aircon running. Actually I am pretty sure you can do this some other way, but I think he thought "dog mod was humorous" We then drove for another hour and stopped at a supermarket which had a Tesla supercharger in the car park. He plugged it in and because it was a Tesla charger, there is no need to muck around with apps or credit cards, just plug it in and it charges the car and your credit card. From memory, the car was around 85ish %. We went into the supermarket to buy some nibbles for the journey and then located a cafe for the caffeine requirements. We probably would have been about 30 minutes. When we returned to the car, it was at 100%. We drove for a couple of hours and then needed to stop for a toilet break. We stopped at a Tesla supercharging site, plugged in and by the time we had all relieved ourselves, the Tesla was back to 100% ( charges about 280km per 15 minutes in ideal conditions). When we reached our destination, the power was down around the 20% level. The car directed us to a Tesla charger, and we plugged in and went to find somewhere for dinner. We found a pub with a rooftop dining area overlooking the lake. My son had one drink and then went to retrieve the car as it was approaching full. You can just leave it, but it is bad etiquette to leave a fully charged car taking up a charging spot. The next day the car was not needed by my son, so Mrs Octave and I went on a bit of a jaunt in it. We got back with 85% left. The car was plugged into the power point supplied by our accommodation with a 10 amp "granny lead" Next morning car at 100%. We drove from Taupo to Napier and stopped for a late breakfast. I was assuming the car would have been charged whilst we went to breakfast but this was not necessary. We later had a toilet stop at a golf club where the car was charged for a few minutes. A couple of hours later, we stopped at a town whose name I can't recall. We drove into a shopping mall car park and plugged the car into the Tesla charger whilst we went in search of more caffeine. I don't recall how much charge this gave us, but it took us the rest of the way home. It seems to me that at least with this car and in NZ, which is possibly ahead with charging infrastructure, road trips are incredibly easy. Now I imagine someone is going to say that in Australia we have much longer distances, and this is true. This is somewhat balanced out by the stupidly steep terrain in NZ and my son's shall we say, "enthusiastic" driving style.

I like the Dave Allan burial benediction - "In the Name of the Father, the Son, and in the Hole He Goes".

This is probably the best opinion I've seen yet on why people vote for idiots like Trump. (Or Clive for that matter). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/13/trump-populists-human-nature-economic-growth Basically it boils down to the ever-growing gap between the rich and poor, referenced in posts above. If you're disenfranchised and struggling to survive, and you see people around you doing a lot better, then you may just want to destroy the whole unfair system - and this is the feeling that right-wing populists latch onto. They're not ACTUALLY going to make your life any better, in fact they will likely make it a lot worse, but they'll also make other people's lives worse too. A type of self destructive desperation. So maybe we should be taxing the rich a LOT more. How can we do that? Start by getting the money out of politics so there's no incentive for parties to do special favours for them.

I wouldn’t trust Clive with Australia’s bank accounts.

someone will always find a way to corrupt it. Right to bear arms was written in a far more simpler time, I'm fairly certain it wasn't intended to give mentally unstable people access to modern automatic weapons. I'm also certain the founding fathers of America didn't think a convicted criminal would ever get voted into office, so didn't include it in their documents. Its a sham when a convicted felon can't vote, but can be voted in.

Just think who would Gina or Donald vote for? Now vote the opposite

Here's a partial list of Trump's achievements so far (apart from tariffs, getting rid of USAID and going after law firms he doesn't like): — Gutting the IRS so badly that the country will lose an estimated $500 billion to morbidly rich tax cheats — Killing off the EPA so polluters can run free and profit from giving us cancer — Disbanded the Public Integrity Section that once prosecuted corrupt politicians — Shut down the DOJ unit that was prosecuting violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — Moved the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) under Kash Patel’s overview with the goal of neutering it — Crippling the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) that stops big banks and insurance companies from ripping off average people — Taking a hatchet to NASA presumably to hand more power and money to SpaceX — Dismantling the Department of Education to create more demand for private for-profit schools — Paralysing the Department of Health and Human Services that protects us from disease and pandemics — Mutilating the National Labor Relations Board that protects workers’ rights — Proclaiming their intention to end FEMA, so Americans are on their own when climate-change-driven disasters strike — Tearing apart the Social Security Administration so seniors will have to rely on big banks for retirement options — Demolishing the National Institutes of Health that develops new drugs and cures for disease — Seizing control of the FCC so they can end net neutrality and dictate content of radio and TV programming — Stripping NOAA of its workers so we’ll have to rely on for-profit companies for our weather reports and storm warnings — Kneecapping the Department of Transportation to block new public transportation projects and deregulate big trucking companies and self-driving cars — Ripping up the Department of Energy so it can’t fund any more “green” energy projects — Wiping out the Department of Housing and Urban Development to prevent any new low-income housing projects — Attacking the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to leave Americans defenceless — Largely ending the ability of the Office of Civil Rights within the DOE to enforce anti-discrimination laws in education — Defunded the National Institute of Justice that works against terrorism and far-right extremism — Eviscerating the Department of Veterans Affairs and other programs that help our veterans (including shutting down the suicide prevention hotlines) — Defunding the Department of Agriculture to gut food stamps/SNAP, school lunch programs, and supports for small family farms — Paralysing the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) that oversees the executive branch to make sure anti-terrorism efforts don’t violate civil rights — Weakening the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) so it can’t do its job of protecting minority or disabled workers and job applicants — Firing scientists at the FDA, gutting oversight of drug manufacturers. — Snatching students off the streets and transporting them to a private for-profit prison in Louisiana with no due process and in clear defiance of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — Proposing changes to voting laws that will prevent tens of millions of married women from casting a ballot — Threatening to seize foreign, sovereign lands by force.

Give it up, I haven't met a nice lady at a polling booth yet.

When we choose where to live we have to weigh up the pros and cons. We lived in the bush for 21 years and enjoyed the good things and accepted the things that were inconvenient and above all we did not whinge. You can't have everything. If you enjoy your seclusion you just have to accept that it comes with disadvantages.

SWMBO has a friend who is - actually, was - a senior ER nurse, dealing with some pretty dramatic presentations. They deal mostly with angry, drugged or drunk people who have injured themselves - often badly. These injured patients abuse the nurses and doctors when they're trying to help them. They attack them, they punch them, they kick them, they even draw knives and other weapons on them, and threaten to kill them. They belittle the nurses and doctors, and threaten them when they don't get what THEY want - which is usually more drugs or more alcohol, other unreasonable demands. The nurses and doctors have to have security staff and orderlies who are expected to deal with violent and abusive patients on a constant basis. In between all this mayhem - genuine, ordinary people present with urgent medical problems, and expect immediate attention from overworked, abused, and tired nurses, doctors, receptionists, and other hospital staff. I'd like to see GON take up a job in the front line of the emergency entrance of a major hospital - preferably working in security. I'll wager he wouldn't last 5 mins. SWMBO's friend threw in her ER job, and now does gardening work. She says she had to do it, to preserve her sanity.

I'm not a gun nut. I don't own a gun, and see no reason to do so. I do, however, like guns as examples of ingenuity of design. I cannot wait to get my daily dose of https://www.youtube.com/@ForgottenWeapons The presenter is not some red-necked Second Amendment twit, but a person who has a deep love of the history of firearms. His access to many firearms museums and manufacturers worldwide is an indication of the esteem with which he is held in the field of firearms history. His presentations have a serious background, but are given with an air of a friendly chat. I have never heard him sprout any of that rabid Second Amendment stuff. At times he takes a firearm to a shooting range to demonstrate its action, and sometimes he will use a subject firearm in competitions. It is unfortunate that the rules for posting on YouTube prevent him from demonstrating firearms that can operate in fully automatic mode but, in his videos, that does not materially detract from what he is presenting.

Poor Ukraine. Having to put up with Trump's stupidity after being invaded by Putin is just adding insult to injury.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

They sure did, my second partners dad had the "luck" of been hit three different times by German subs. First time he escaped the engine room just in time. The second was on deck, the third in the wheel house. He was very lucky, each time he was rescued and only minor burns at worst. Most never had a chance or drowned. He was one extremely lucky engineer. They called him " hard to kill Bill" The British merchant navy was a far more deadly job then a war ship posting.

Gerard Kennedy. actor best known for his roles in early television series, in particular the espionage series including Hunter and the police procedural Division 4. Kennedy also appeared in film roles during a career that spanned 50 years in the industry, has passed away at the age of 93.

Somebody wrote that for him, I'll wager! It contains nothing about crooked judges, crooked Democrats, fraudulent elections, fake news, or even recommendations for Trump Hotels or golf courses.

Attitude matters, race doesn't - that's my philosophy anyway

That's the conventional wisdom but if true, it's a very hollow victory for some insecure individual.

Trumpet of patriots is coming dead last on my vote, and I'd suggest also anyone else's who is capable of coherent thought

I met Richard Clapton in the lift at St Margarets Hospital in Sydney the day my twins were born ,he was there to see his newborn child, had a chat seems like a nice bloke , went to viewing area and had a chat about being a Dad to him (scond time around for me )he was a bit stunned at this this (his child) being ,so tiny ,,his music is always good to listen to.

What are the chances the Justice Department or SEC will investigate this? Not good.

teknalb tew a hcus er'uoy. Nah sorry Peter, that one doesn't work.

Trump often complains that America is not respected any more. Respect is normally understood to be a feeling of admiration or regard for somebody or something. Trump has said he wants other countries to respect the US again, but what he means by respect is special attention or consideration. It's the kind of 'respect' a Mafia boss wants that is based on relative power and fear of consequences. There's nothing very noble it.

Interesting response: A circle, and hence a sphere, is a special type of ellipse (oval). Also, a square is a particular type of rectangle, and an equilateral triangle is a special type of isosceles triangle. My Dad had a near-feral tom cat which was a champion rodent catcher. Dad called it a ball-bearing rat trap.

I think the bronze is fine, it is the patina that has rubbed off. And maybe the novelty.

No. Shrinkflation is when your psychologist stops bulk billing and name their own price.

What a pack of imbecilic morons, putting tariffs on Heard Island and Macquarie Island! I bet someone wrote up an April 1st article about Macquarie Island exports, and they believed every word of it, as Gods Truth. A friend of SWMBO's who does marine/environmental research work says they've been ordered to remove any reference to "bio-diversity" in any marine or environmental research that is to be sent to America. What a pack of f****** idiots.

OAM to Mrs spacey. nev

My positive for this week is; SWMBO and I spent an enjoyable 3 days renting a coastal AirBnB house about 200kms North of Perth (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) to celebrate our 35th anniversary and to unwind a little, and get in some beach time. It's been a very hot and humid March, really unusual for this time of year. It's been around 34° - 36° for a couple of weeks now, and the nights are staying above 20°, which is very warm for this time of year. So, we took off on Saturday morning, up the Mitchell Fwy and onto Indian Ocean Drive for an enjoyable 200km drive on a very good road. We got there around 2:00PM, checked in and kicked back for a while, then went out looking for some dinner. We weren't all that hungry, so we grabbed a couple of chicken kebabs from a local cafe, and they turned out to be pretty ordinary. Ah well, can't have top quality food, all the time! Saturday was hot (34°), but there was a threat of a thunderstorm brewing. There was a trough just offshore down the West Coast (typical Summer weather pattern) and sure enough, we had a ripper of a storm during the night. The wind (Easterly/Nth. Easterly) picked up, and we had lightning and some very loud thunder, that even woke me up! But no rain where we were. Further down, Perth and N.E. of Perth got some rain (3.4mm in Perth). However, when we woke up Sunday morning, the wind was howling! - 35-40kmh, gusting to probably 50kmh. It was quite unpleasant, so we jumped in the car and took off for a drive to Jurien Bay, about 26kms further North. JB is quite a decent-size country town now, around 3000 people, and they have big-city subdivisions and suburbs! - a lot more than the last time we visited (a few years ago now). We toured around JB and checked out all the recent development, and then stopped at the Sandpiper Tavern for lunch. We shared a Greek Lamb pizza and a large Garden Salad, and it was very good. We went back to Cervantes in the afternoon and checked out Thetis Lake and the 3,500 yr old Stromatolites there. We drove on further down, and discovered a delightful beach called Hansen Bay beach, and decided we'd come back in the morning. We went back to the house, had afternoon tea, and I had a snooze for a while! All this touring is tiring! Come dinnertime, I fired up the house BBQ, and we cooked up some delicious Aldi Scotch Fillet steak, ate it with a nice garden salad (we made it before we left), fried onions, and thick potato slices fried on the BBQ. Delicious! After dinner, we kicked back by watching a fascinating doco on SBS about the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral! I highly recommend this doco, it's really eye-opening, from the carving of new Cathedral statues, the repair of many old damaged statues, the massive amount of woodwork and timber installation in the roof - right through to sand casting new lead sheeting (in the U.K.) for the Cathedral roof! Monday morning, the wind had totally abated, so we went down to Hansens Bay beach, and had an enjoyable nude swim, because there was no-one around! - we had kms of beach to ourselves! Late morning we headed back to the house. During Saturday night, a number of serious bushfires started up between Cervantes and Perth (mostly around Lancelin) and these fires resulted in both major highways back to Perth being closed for all Sunday, and into Monday afternoon, while the fires were fought by ground crews and water bombers. We were concerned that both highways were still closed at lunchtime Monday. Our AirBnB host was very good, and advised us we could have an extended checkout, and could stay for the rest of Monday if we wished, as it was obvious the highway closures were making it difficult for everyone, and making for a very long detour inland, to get back to Perth! There are virtually no other roads North and South in the region of the fires, because there's huge areas of Nature Reserves and original native vegetation in the fire areas. However, by 1:00PM, we found the Brand Hwy had been reopened, but this still meant a detour of probably 30 kms inland, as Indian Ocean Drive was still closed. Accordingly, we left Cervantes at 2:00PM, did the detour to the Brand Hwy, and we were back home by 4:30PM with no dramas. All in all, it was a very enjoyable break, but it would've been a lot better if the weather on Sunday had stayed the same as Saturday and Monday (warm and light winds). However, you can't alter the weather, you just have to take it as it comes. This is the place we stayed in. It's bigger than we really needed, but because we left it a bit late to book, everything else around town was booked out. It was a very nice place to camp, though. https://www.property.com.au/wa/cervantes-6511/drummond-crcs/30a-pid-14918743/

GON, No - I have no family, I went through a very difficult time after my return from Vietnam, and broke up with my then girlfriend, and effectively "went bush" for a long period of time, during which time I found it very hard to establish a relationship with any woman. However, I met a good woman when I was 41, and she was 39, and we clicked and "shacked up", and we just celebrated being together for 35 years yesterday. She was a divorcee who raised a girl and boy to adulthood, on her own, with outstanding results, as both her son and daughter are upstanding citizens. Perhaps being a Police Superintendents daughter and knowing right from wrong was a big help, but she has exceptional strength of character, and set strict boundaries for her kids. A major problem was, she got her reproductive system stitched up in her late 20's, deciding that she never wanted any more children. I tried to get her to reverse it, but that only produced a high level of stress in her, so I didn't push it. Her experience was that men just give you babies, and then abandon you, and it was an experience that affected her outlook for good. She had been married to a pretty useless drug-using musician initially, and her marriage barely lasted 5 years before she booted him for infidelity, and general uselessness. She never got a cent in child support from him over his entire life, and he died a couple of years ago with little by way of assets, and after suffering from multiple cancers for quite a number of years, from his mid-60's. He actually died in total squalor in a rented property, and despite treating his kids with disdain, and using them as a source of funding regularly, they still went and spent the effort to clean up his property and sort out his affairs - great credit due to them. The property was in such a state, they actually had to use breathing apparatus and pressure cleaners to clean the place up. It was full of rotten food, dog turds, uncollected waste and mounds of general rubbish. It took them 3 weeks to clean the property up! Abandoned cars from other people, knackered furniture items, the rubbish they had to clean up was mind-boggling. I've got a reasonably good relationship with my stepson and stepdaughter, despite a few rocky patches early on. Stepdaughter and SWMBO are like twins, they have a very strong bond, and my arrival caused a few problems there for a while, as SD tried everything she could, to get rid of me. But we established a relationship, that while not close, is a satisfactory one, and she accepts I'm part of the furniture now. Unfortunately, she has suffered from endometriosis since puberty, and has been unable to procreate, so that has been a bitter blow to her. Her brother insisted he was never going to have children for many years, as he spent 18 years with one partner - then that partner up and left him suddenly, for seemingly minor reasons - so he went on to find himself a divorcee who has two adult sons, and despite a late marriage, they had a son together in 2014 - and as he's an only grandchild, I think he's probably spoilt. There are many things I'd love to change if I had my life over again, but one has to accept what life dishes out, I know a lot of people have had some pretty shi**y lives, and ended up in dire straits when circumstances they had little control over, seriously affected their lives.

Good luck. Just don't talk about politics and don't complain about anything or you'll ruin your chances.

I have often been in hospital waiting rooms. In maybe a dozen different hospitals. I have never seen "First in - first served". It aint a coffee shop. I always saw "most in need - first served". That is what triage is all about.