Jerry_Atrick

Yes, this is a common tactic... even in Aus, where it is not so much about whether or not to turn up, but who to cast your vote for (e.g. look, he is leading by so much that unless you vote for us, they weill be an elected dictatorship). Or, they rely on donkey votes, etc. This is a sobering and worrying article: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-election-pennsylvania-special-rep/special-report-why-the-pennsylvania-vote-count-might-throw-u-s-into-political-crisis-idUKKBN2781FQ?il=0 America is a dangerous place...

I saw Sylvania and put one and one together to get 4. I can see its on Shag Point, right across the bridge from Tom Ugly's point... Hmm... An Oxford Street type place?? 😉

@old man emu - that rental isn't too bad... Although Sylvania Waters does evoke cisions based on a famous reality/documentary series. And I have also heard cycling in Sydney is not for people wanting to live long.. But I am hoping a 5am start may see me through (the run back, though, would be interesting). I had an email today it will be up to two weeks before I hear anything... @willedoo - glad to hear RM is coming back to Aus ownership. Funny story - I had a gig with Ralph Lauren and for a time, I was wearing their clothes. I bumped into a yank who was dolled up head to toe in RM Williams and I remarked the irony of an Aussie in American clothes and an American in Aussie clothes. He ran their US operation form memory... I still have a pair of boots from 25 years ago.. and I have a red moleskin shirt from about 12 years ago. But when they moved a lot of their manufacturing to China, after expensive shirts tore in no time and the poor way the company gave customer service in response to the shoddy workmanship, I stopped buying anything other than what was made in Aus - which is a couple of moleskin jeans which don't seem to have increased in price in a few years.

Union Hotel - remember now - won't forget it... Of course, I will let the forum know when I am heading out to Aus and then, Melb... And I may take a shot of your avatar and stick on on the front of a peak cap that I will wear when I go (which is almost a contravention of my morals, as, I am sorry to say, I was a Holden man...) Unf, I don't think pubs and other hospitality businesses are in the immediate easing of the lockdown. I was watching an interview with an AFR journo/editor (not sure which), where she was scathing of DA not allowing more loosening.. Although I don't agree with some of her reasoning (which was tangential to the discussion), she was right in that NSW has more cases the Vic, and they are managing with trace and track. Although, I sort of don't blame DA.. Once bitten, twice shy.. he will be wanting to minimise the risk of another stuff up... It is really sad.. but I believe DA (and all state premiers) have the best interests of their constituents at heart...

And, here is the show of Badgerys...

Thanks OME... For the controlled airfield SW of Sydney, I thought you were talking Badgerys Creek (not sure of the uncontrolled airfield).. but Google Maps points me to to somewhere that decidely does not look like an airfield (see below).. Unf, SWMBO would, in the absence at being able to be in a hipster/CBD-ish location, prefer to be near the coast, so if you canlet me know some north/south fringes that would be appropriate - that would be greatr.. BTW, I have no issues beating sparrows farts up.. they stink.. If it is within about 30 - 35km of the city, I will cycle three times a week there, anyway (which is why I am up before sparrows fart and wake everyone else up)!

When I lived in Melb, flake was the common fish in Fish and Chip shops. Flake is shark, usually gummy, but others are used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flake_(fish). I can't recall what was in NSW or QLD F&C shops, but I never recall basa being on the menu boards. And this article is a worry: https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/a-field-guide-to-australia-s-best-fish-and-chips-20190118-p50s6r.html. Mind you, while the article says F&Cs have to lift their game, for some reason they don't cast aspertions about the quality of basa. Needless to say, it is a fish I will stter clear of next time in Aus. Good to hear Hoki is next (in the scheme of things), but why we can't do our own stuff is beyond me. Mind you, on the occasion I would go for something better than flake - such as grenadier or dory, it didn't seem much better and I did wonder whether I was simply paying more for flake. Be that as it may, and the fact that cod here is better than flake in Aus F&Cs, I miss Aus F&Cs, cooked prior to served instead of from heat warmers, burgers are (or were) miles better (hamburger with the lot and pineapple... yum), lots of variety... A quick check seems to indicate it has got better... Now, no telling.. but I am trying to engineer a return of the Atricks back to Aus... We were almost there about 3 - 4 years ago, but SWMBO put the brakes on at the last minute... Things have changed and it is an uphill battle, but I am encountering less resistance than I thought.. so stay tuned on that one.. .However, one of the allures for me (except for Aussie rules, better flying weather, and the wine - too old to worry about women these days), is.. fishing.. My pastimes in Aus before I moved here were flying, fishing (saltwater - at the time no licence fees), and 4x4ing - er... and the fairer sex.. On coming out here, I was pleasantly surprised with the fairer sex.. but flying weather wasn't what I was used to and a couple of tracks over a mound hardly added up to 4x4-ing.. And for some reason, dunking a line off the south coast in the hope for a mackrel wasn't going to do it for me. Especially on cold grey winter days (actually, usually the best time to go). So, I have checked with my brother, and for now, 23 years, he still has my four fishing rods, tackle and the whole kit. So, if you want good seafood (or fish), get a rod or two, give Rexie Hunt a call for advice, and.... go fishing.. OK, you may live a fair way from the coast, in which case: Look for a suitable freshwater fishing spot and go for it. Get a porta-fridge/freezer, rods, et al, and head to the coast for a couple of days; grab you bag limits and head home - drop them into the freezer You live too far away to get decent fish without mortgaging the station, so you only eat meat, anyway... don't worry about it... The fish you get will be much better, you know where it has come from, you will appreciate it more as you caught it, killed it, gutted it and prepared it... No mekong river gunk in it, either... You guys have some of the best fishing in the world on your doorstep.. Gives you a perfect, lower cost excuse to avoid SWMBO as well 😉. BTW... I am in talks at the moment with another company in Sydney.. if it comes off, I will need advice on a modestly priced area nearer prime fishing coastline (don't care about beaches) within commutable distance of Sydney CBD.. by road or rail - sadly not enough in it for air...

Red, your son really has been through the ringer with this, so please extend to him that he is in our thoughts, despite the little value it may convey that random strangers are wishing him the best. And let him know that when things open up sufficiently and I can get to Melbourne, I will be making a bee line for his pub (Ascot Vale Hotel, from memory). I hope the government is providing sufficient support for him and the co-owners to survive and for the staff to get by. I sort of know how he is feeling. Although now forced, this year was the only time for many years where I was planning to take a break of about 3 months (no long service leave here - but in my last perm role, I was on 6 weeks holiday a year -not to be taken all at once, of course). In fact, back in November, the plan was to finish the contract, a couple of weeks at home to catch up on a few things, out to Aus by myself for a couple of weeks to catch up on a few things and people, back home and catching up on some neglected family things while the kids were at school, and a few other things on top of that. None, except a break from work, which has not really been a break, has come to fruition. Dog died to boot, couple of injuries, and other things have not gone as planned. But, I am lucky in that I am with my family and we have a bit of space. Financially, I am staring down the barrell of a tortuous year, and staying in the UK without a massive change to what I do (which I am trying, but so is everyone else in my boat), the future is looking at significantly reduced income. I am not complaining, as it will still be survivable, but our plans are going to take a massive re-adjustment. But, while flying has stopped (and even when the income comes back, it will be a lot different and less than it was), my planned trips to Aus and business I was looking to start have gone up in a puff of smoke (well, for now, anyway). While things haven't gone anywhere near as planned, I know it will either go back to normal or we will adjust to a new normal. We are lucky in that we have tech today that, while is not a perfect replacement for in-person, affords us better than the simple phone call.. As with everything, consequences follow actions or inactions. DA should, as leader, ultimately bear responsibility for the stuff up.. The use of a private firm is not prima facie the issue, but of course, the execution by that firm and the lack of supervision/controls/checks and balances, were.. and that, in a pandemic the responsibility for the lack of a proper control situation goes to the top. The question of what consequence to DT would also be how it was handled after that. I think DT may have dug himself a hole by having the inquiry prior to getting over the second wave and simultaneously not being open and cathartic about it.. Hindsight is great, he should have either said let's sort this out and then see why it went wrong after we get over it, or let's have an open and cathartic inquidy but only after getting guarantees from the other parties that it would not be a political witch hunt an ponts scoring exercise - but like ATSB reports - finding stuff to learn from. But, his actions/inactions should be judged accordingly, which means a full and frank investigation, which doesn't appeasr to have happened quite yet. Everyone makes mistakes - if we forget the inquiry and some of the lies (or, at best ignorant comments) told about the military not being available when they were, DA moved swiftly to contain it again. It has been tough - I do know. But, the light at the end of the tunnel is there and the rates are fantastic. So, he has shown leadership and this may mitigate the consequence - or not? Over here, it is a complete mess. They have ignored the science, which called for a circuit breaker nationwide lockdown weeks ago. They have now come up with a three tier categorisation, of which a lot of the country is on the lowest tier restrictions - the same restrictions prior to this new classification that are shown not to contain the spread, to have R at 1.3 and science is saying is inadequate. The few regions that have the highest restrictions are not consistent; I think one region, which has 485 infections/100K is allowed to have gyms open, while another region which has 200 fewer infection rate cannot have gyms open. Young people are saying, "Hang on.. we can go to a pub with only 6 friends, but mingle with as many strangers as we like." The rate of infection is hovers between 12,000 and 17,000/day and the deaths and rate are rising, one hospital in the north has no more ICU nor hospital beds.. So, despite the hard time Victoria has been suffering, it looks like, compared to other countries, you are coming out a lot better from this (also, look at Europe)... I think most of us on this forum are in the medium to high risk category in terms of this virus... While we all will be under some mental and in some cases physical strain, the alternatives have far starker consequences.

The Chinese (or, in more generic terms, foreign) ownership of our fishing/lobster processing facilities is a fact that was unknown to me, although, after selling the lease to Port Dawrin to a foreign interest, nothing surprises me. What not only the government, but the people of Australia have to realise is that it is not OK that any foreign interests have control over mission critical industries - utilities, food processing, etc. Unfortunately, Australian government and to an extent, Australian culture (like many other Western European cultures) are shorter-sighted and more risk averse; We aren't prepared to suffer short term pain for long term pain (unless the pain is thrust upon us); as long as we can excessively fill our guts and our homes with unneccesary material wants NOW, we are happy... This is of course a generalisation, but I just think about the many opportunities we have thrown away because of that mentality; rewneables technology, software developmeent (I was involved in the industry in the late 80s onwards and after coming to Europe, I realised how we were advanced and didn't know it; the Europeans (SAP, Software AG and others) and Americans took advantage - we were happy to get paid a salary..., and many others (there is a paid for paper in 2017: Australia, A Land of Missed Opportunities? that I would like to get hold of). That is not to be pessimistic - Australia has had great innovations - the problem is we end up selling out.. that is again a cultrual thing.. e.g. the GA Airvan - seems to have done reasonably well and the founders should rightly look for payback. But as it was not in itself big enough to float, where are the forward thinking Aussie companies and fund managers? Mahindra decided it could utilise it, and it seems to have done OK. Also, given where we are, we could still be smart about it. Although this sounds counterintuitive as such grants/subsisdies are about saving jobs, could such support be restricted to majority domestically owned companies or where there will be a minimum of x (say, 100) jobs supported, with the amount available proprtional to both? At least that would direct most/higher proprtion of the benefit locally. As an aside, according to https://www.foodprocessing.com.au/content/business-solutions/news/top-100-australian-manufacturers-revealed-1363531184. the following are the top 10 manufacturers; I have added the country of ownership eother based on domicile or shareholding data easily obtained. Most are refined resources products (oil, steel, etc)... # Manufacturer Ownership 1 Caltex Australia 2 Fonterra Co-Op Group New Zealand 3 BP Australia British 4 Perth Mint Australian 5 Viva Energy Group Australian 6 ExxonMobil Australia USA 7 Amcor British 8 BlueScope Steel Australia 9 CSL Australia 10 Visy Australia 11 Sims Metal Management Australia 12 Alcoa of Australia USA (Majority), Australian (Minority) 13 JBS Australia Brasil 14 Orica Australia 15 Boral Australia 16 Coca-Cola Amatil USA (largest minority), UK (next largest minority), various foreign and local instiutional investors. 17 Orora Australia 18 Aristocrat Leisure Australia 19 Lion Japan 20 Incitec Pivot Australia Also, we rank last in the OECD for manufacturing self-sufficiency - for a country our size, arguably more important that outright manufacturing size: https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/australia-ranks-last-on-oecd-manufacturing-self-sufficiency-measure-20200727-p55fuj I agree, we have to pivot both our supply chain and customer base.. China will not want over reliance on any country for anything for too long.. I also think we have to change our habits; maybe consume less, but higher quality so, as a whole, pay the same or a little more... And the government should be leading by the front foot in using the resources available to it and including appropriate institutions/companies to foster necessary changes - Australia will be much better off as a result. BTW - the barley ban is a retaliation step - other countries have done the same to Australia and other countries - e.g. the USA slapped massive tarrifs on Scotch Whiskey and I think Scottish wool/cashmere products because the UK favoured Jamaican banannas over the cheaper US ones, citing US farmers wouldn't go broke but Jamaicans would... I think it sorted itself out (and it was either GW or Obama, for the record). We have relied too much on a single customer for most of out business for too long... Need to look further afield.

I am going to play devils advocate here.. Unfortunately, Australia produces little more than natural resources (of which food with little processing I am lumping into the same category). Exports bring in vital foreign currency and profits higher than domestic spending will provide for. This in turn means the businesses can run fatter, employ more people, invest in further innovation, etc. If we turned off those taps, we would have less employment and less innovation, etc. Now, granted, some of the innovation is imported but some is developed locally. And so, assuming the carp improted is cheaper than the good stuff exported, there is a net benefit to the economy.. So, we (well, you.. I may be the recipient of some of the Aussie's nice stuff and I actively do my bit to support the Aussie economy, although still waiting for the really decent Aussie wines to return, though) - may not be getting the best stuff to choose from, but could you afford it if you did, or would you still take the cheaper stuff on offer (after all, if an importer sees an opportunity, they will take it)? I think I know the answers to most of the forum, but think of the bloke on a single income of something like $60K year, supporting wife and two kids with a mortgage, mobile phones, two cars, and probably a dog to support - his missus doing the shopping will probably take the cheaper stuff and - I don't know the prices of Fish and Chips in Aus at the moment, but we pay around £5 for a large cod (Frozen) or £6 for a large cod (fresh).. the size of one feeds myself and my daughter comfortably with a few chips and peas. We get local and Nordic species, but say to get the local it was twice as much as the Nordic, then we would be opting for the Nordic. So Fish and Chips and low-to-middle end restaurants/eateries/other take aways would probably go for the imports. Yes, there is questionable food safety standards... that somehow our Aussie (or respective state) government are alleged to turn a blind eye to.. That is not the fault of the importers, is it? That is the fault of the government, which let's face it, amongst the world is probably the most vocal about it's role of protecting the population from their own selves.. seems not so, when there are business interests involved. But, also, the nature of the global socio-economic model went from a close balance where ultimately we developed a strong economy to support the people; to the people sacricifing everything to support the economy. I can't put my finger on it, but global (aka US led) capitalisation, where the latter socio-economic model has been prevalent for a very long time, and where there is an increasing concentration of global wealth in relatively few (mainly but no only US) corporations and tieing our pensions to that seem to be the trigger point of the transfer of the socio-economic model of being slaves to the economy - and long-term population health is a diminishing consideration. I read a few weeks ago (and may have posted) an artice in the SMH or The Age about how a big winner from COVID was the domestic fine cheese market because the increase in cargo costs meant imported European Cheese was a lot more expensive rather than the same price (to the consumer). The article did mention that cheesemaking was subsised in the EU (which is why Aussie supermarket cheese pales into insiginifcance compared to that gained in the UK or Western Europe).. But this to me, is dumping, and Australia should complain to the WTO and/or put up tarrifs.. Note, all EU agriculture is subsidised (I know a farmer that receives over £300K/year - at least until the end of this year). If Aussies were made to pay the correct amount of improted food (and even from the low-wage countries where people have no need to have lower wages as their economies are strong and the wealth is even more concentrated than western economies), Australians may create a better market for the better locally produced food. But the cost of living would go up and people would complain and/or have to go without at all (for some things). It's a difficult balance for the Aussie government; in the current climate, maybe it is best to keep the export business and markets going, but adopt a longer term strategy for the better of the economy and population...

Not sure if I have already posted this... An Aussie is travelling through a rural area of NZ and sees a farmer doing something that looks unusual. He stops his car and walks towards the farmer, when he notices amongst the long grass, the farmer having sex with a sheep. "Oi! Mate!" The Aussie yells.. "What are you doing?? Back in Oz, we don't do that, we shear our sheep!".. The NZ farmer gave the Aussie a suspicous look and replied, "Ey, fella - I aint shearing my sheep with anyone!!"

Be careful, Marty... After COVID, we may be beating a path to your front door! [edit] I have only had butter chicken once - in Hyderabad, and it was darned good [/edit]

I would hop trained professional food manufacturing staff wouldn't cut corners on hygiene because professional chelfs make TV show for people who cook at home.. I don't blame the TV chefs at all.. they aren't instructional videos about food manufacture or professional kitchens.. Professional people have to be responsible for their own actions.. (Otherwise, I agree with the rest of your post!)