GRIPES

[willedoo]

21 hours ago, red750 said:

I wish someone would tip a barrowload of sand on each of those Trevago guys.

Those plastic teeth look like the ones they sell on eBay.

[old man emu]

Is this a sign of the effects of Trump's excursion? Have you noticed empty shelves in tthe supermarkets? There are vacancies in all the supermarkets. I went to ALDI today to buy some Chateau de Carton. There wasn't any there a fortnight ago, and none today. If you want a good selection of Arnott's biscuits, good luck! ALDI was even out of the really good shaving cream that I have been using for ages.

[facthunter]

I even had a friend stuck at Abu Dhabi. This event is no small deal. . Trump promised not to start more never-ending wars. He's done for. Nev

[ClintonB]

if i was a family member of the deceased US soldiers being returned i would have been disgusted to have 2 non serving tossers who caused the deaths stand there and salute. It is a disgrace to anyone who has served for their country.

 

[facthunter]

HE has always referred to Service People as "Suckers and Losers". Nev

[old man emu]

Here's a literary gripe.

 

I'm reading, and enjoying, a series of fiction books set in modern Edinburgh about the lives of people living in a small, middle class area of the city. The writing is good and make for good bedtime reading. However my gripe concerns the practice of the author to have his characters include either Latin or foreign phrases in their speches. Sometimes I know the phrase, but very often I have no idea. Of course, since the characters are Scots and the setting is Scotland, some of those unique Gaelic words sometime appear, but that is what is called "atmosphere'.

 

What gripes me is that these phrases cause me to stumble, losing the otherwise free flow of the writing. I have to pause and wonder if my interpretation of the phrase makes sense. Frotunately, the words are printed in Bold, so I can see them coming and can decisde whether to pause at them, or ignore them and leap over them like a gazelle. 

[rgmwa]

I never knew they had gazelles in Scotland until now.

[Marty_d]

Can we have some video of OME leaping like a gazelle?

[pmccarthy]

He means a BUBALUS (Latin for gazelle)

[rgmwa]

1 minute ago, pmccarthy said:

He means a BUBALUS (Latin for gazelle)

Much more appropriate to the `atmosphere'.

[old man emu]

Bubba-Loo????

 

Isn't that what Ricky Ricardo sang?

[octave]

Here is a bit of red tape that is hard to understand the reasoning for.   This came to my attention in a conversation with my son when we were visiting him in NZ.   There are some either new rules or old rules now being enforced regarding passports that seem absolutely crazy to me.    

 

So my wife and I are Australian citizens, but by virtue of the fact we were both born in the UK we retain British citizenship.  This now means that if we were to travel to the UK the UK government now requires that we have British passports.

 

UK passport changes leave Australians with dual citizenship scrambling before border rules kick in

 

That is inconvenient enough, but it gets worse for my son.  My son was born in Australia, but by virtue of the fact that both his parents are British citizens, he also is considered to be a British citizen.   My son moved permanently to NZ and is a citizen of NZ.  The rules that apply to travelling into the UK also apply to travelling into Australia.  This means that if my son were to travel to the UK via a stopover in  Australia, he would need an Australian passport (because he retains Aus citizenship),  a British passport because he retains British citizenship, and to get back home to NZ he needs an NZ passport.

Here is an AI summary of the situation:

 

"Because you and his other parent were Australian citizens at the time of his birth, your son is automatically an Australian citizen by birth. Since he also holds British citizenship (from you) and New Zealand citizenship (by naturalisation), he is a triple citizen. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

This status changes the passport requirements for his travels:

Document Requirements by Destination

• Traveling to Australia: He must enter on an Australian passport. The Australian Government requires all citizens to enter and leave the country using an Australian passport. He cannot use his New Zealand passport to get a Special Category Visa anymore, as visas cannot be granted to people who already hold Australian citizenship. []
• Traveling to Britain: He must enter on a British passport. As a British citizen, he cannot use an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) or a foreign passport alone to clear UK border control. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Traveling back to New Zealand: He must use his New Zealand passport to seamlessly re-enter his home country."

 

 

[pmccarthy]

That is crazy!

[Marty_d]

I can see customs getting a bit suss as he's shuffling his passports looking for the right one...

[Jerry_Atrick]

It's mountain out of molehill stuff..

 

Australia has, for as long as I can remember had this requirement. 

 

For the automatic UK citizenship issue, there is virtually no chance of coming a cropper because of it. They have no idea if your grandparents are British, and if you have no idea you become a citizen as a result, and don't declare it on your ETA application, you will enter as an Aussie citizen.

[old man emu]

To get an Ausie passport, my grandson who was born in 2012 had to supply my birth certificate to show that I was born in Australia. My kids could get British passports becasue thier mother was born in Blighty. I suppose that applies to their kids as well.

[octave]

51 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

It's mountain out of molehill stuff..

I guess the thing is that being detected is maybe unlikely, but people have been caught. The rules in Britain have changed recently (25 Feb 2026) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2d9yk2kpjo

 

The fact is that by the letter of the law my son would need 3 passports to travel from  NZ to Australia and Britain. Concealing his British citizenship is not really a satisfactory answer. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I didn't suggest concealing it.. but if people honestly didn't know they are unwittingly a British citizen, it will be a non issue.. 

 

Apparently Aussies now need a UK ETA or similar  as when I presented my Aus passport at the Melbourne check in, the airline rep asked for my right to travel to the UK and informed me the rules had changed.

 

So, on applying foe the ETA, a refusal would be provided if they knew one was a citizen if the applicant did not.

 

Australia has had this requirement for time immemorial so I don't see the issue. It is a cost of multiple citizenship.

[old man emu]

Seems that a passport is no loinger ameans of identification, but a tool to restrict entry into a country.

[red750]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

My kids could get British passports becasue thier mother was born in Blighty.

I guess you're not talking about here.    

 

[red750]

I am having a battle with an insurance company who are robbing me blind.

 

About 45 years ago, just after moving from Sydney to Melbourne and buying a house, my sons were about to start school and my daughter was born. My wife suggested that I should get life insurance to protect her and the kids if anything happened to me. There was a company in Gippsland that offered a Private Pilot's Insurance product, as most companies steered away from PPL holders. I took out a policy which covered whole of life, ie, payable only on death.

 

After paying premiums for over 45 years, and my kids over 40, and mortgage paid off, my wife and I decided that it was getting too expensive to keep increasing the policy in line with CPI and froze the payout at the figure at the time.  However, despite a fixed payout, the premiums continued to increase. Then my wife passed away in 2022, so the beneficiaries are the kids. But the monthly premium is now 25% of my monthly pension, and I will get nothing back myself. I worked out that  if I ceased paying the premiums and banked the amount with no annual increase, I would save the payout amount in 7.25  years, even less with interest.

 

I explained this to the insurance company, saying I have only the pension as income and rely on it to live. They said they had to keep increasing the premium to pay for additional costs due to my aging. I told them that was utter bullshit as they acknowledged that the payout was frozen. They said I could cancel the policy, but I have asked them to confirm this would result in forfeiting any payout and I am waiting on their reply. I told them that while what they are doing may technically be legal, it is morally unacceptable. I said they had worse morals than an online scammer. 

[facthunter]

You have had the benefit of the cover and that's NOT nothing.  It would not be reasonable to expect a refund of payments. That's how insurance works.  Nev

[Marty_d]

I have always considered life insurance a scam.

As you say Peter, if you've been paying premiums for 45 years and you've worked out you could still save the amount of the payout in 7 years, imagine how much you would have now if you'd never paid them anything.

[rgmwa]

If the payout is only payable on your death, your kids are adults now and presumably looking after themselves, and your wife has passed away, then I can't see the point of continuing to spending 25% of your pension on this product anymore. Far better to walk away, accept the loss of a payout you will never benefit from, keep the money and spend it on yourself now while you're alive. 

[Marty_d]

54 minutes ago, rgmwa said:

If the payout is only payable on your death, your kids are adults now and presumably looking after themselves, and your wife has passed away, then I can't see the point of continuing to spending 25% of your pension on this product anymore. Far better to walk away, accept the loss of a payout you will never benefit from, keep the money and spend it on yourself now while you're alive. 

Or, give your kids the choice. If they want to keep the policy going, they pay the premiums.