High Seas

This is an interesting video from our ABC. Note the mention of tide height. I've never seen the presenter before but he does a well enough job.

At 12 metres/49' I thought we had the highest tides in the world but no. For that you must visit the east coast of Canada, to the Bay of Fundy (thanks Jackie) with its shores being in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provinces where tides can be up to 17 metres/56'.

Check out this video with commentary and time lapse video.

Or this purely visual and luscious video. 

I don't know if I should continue to occasionally publish posts like this. They take time to get things right, and find the right clips, let alone that I am using the work others.  

The good, the bad and the fugly.

I am not sure where this cartoon came from but it inspired this post. 

I recently learnt about trucks, lorries if you like, world wide. Flat faced trucks are the standard in the UK and Europe. The driver has good visibility in front of them.

American trucks have a big engine sticking out in front of the cab and very poor visibility immediately in front of the driver's cab. With advent of cameras, radar and auto braking, this is probably not a huge issue now with new American trucks but it certainly was in the past when the drivers couldn't see immediately in front of them.

As Australia does, at times in picks up on the best from overseas, and the worst. We have a mix of both types of trucks but our inland long distance trucks are certainly like the one above. But we do also have long European style trucks.

On our outback roads, this style dominates.

GM is the US has made some horribly aggressive looking SUVs.

Now Japan has taken on the look, as you can in my parking garage. What is making cars look aggressive all about? We already know they are killing machines. Now they are looking more the part of a killing machine.

There's a whole lot more of these aggressive looking cars than these two in the car park.

The cult of celebrity

As I observe from afar:

It is funny that all I can remember about former PM John Major is that he tucked his shirt tails into his underwear. Former English PM Boris Johnston had lots of charisma, until he became too absurd and too broken. He had taken over from the rather dull May, solid and dependable but hardly exciting. Former PM Cameron dressed smartly and had something about him, rather like former PM Blair.  Nowt to say about the Truss disaster. The exotic Sunak was not a rich old white bloke but a younger rich brown bloke. I struggle to remember anything he did.

Then came Sir Keef Stammer, with a landslide victory, which was not won but by a decisive rejection of the governing Tory party. Sir Keir was not inspirational, and while not Scottish, he came across as a dour leader, without any charisma whatsoever, perhaps like Gordon Brown. He speaks with a posh accent, and I don't really know how this goes down with those who don't speak thus, but it must be a disconnect. But I can't remember leading political figure in the UK with a regional accent.

I really don't think anyone would be electable in Australia now if they spoke was such an accent. It is too loaded with wealth and privilege. 

Sir Keir, I'm sure a decent and honourable person, who did get some some good legislation through to improve the lives of the English citizens. But no one could say he was inspirational. If only he attacked the rich...practically and verbally, which is what a Labour leader should do. 

Which brings us to his replacement, Andy Burnham who does seem to be inspirational, with good political credentials. I've yet to hear him speak, so that will be something interesting. Burnham picks up the huge majority of parliamentary seats from Starmer's Labour Party, and he really must take advantage of this to improve the lives of the average English citizen in an obviously public manner. A bleeding heart about immigrants will not cut to the chase. The loud citizens of England have made this clear, and I think it goes deeper.

This is rather like Australia. Most people know we need immigration to sustain our country, but it needs to be very controlled. The perfect example was immediately post Covid when there weren't enough workers in the country to staff businesses, and then there was a flood of migrants. In my opinion, too many refugees from one country doesn't work. Take in refugees from all over the world but not huge numbers from one country. Apparently assimilate is a bad word, so I suggest less numbers from one part of the world with a careful monitoring of numbers, will mean better integration into Australia. 

A very happy divisive day

Happy Australia Day, and as is my wont most years, also happy Indian Republic Day. Thankfully the overt jingoism that occured in Australia for several years seems to have toned down since Covid lockdowns. The genuine celebrations of our country's achievements and what it is to be Australian are wonderful, but protests become louder. I've long thought the date should change to reduce friction.

It's not such a happy Invasion Day for Australia's indigenous population.

The new ABC tv programme Always Was Tonight is quite challenging satire to watch, and it's been a while since the ABC has made anything that upsets conservative types. 

Those usual types are on the warpath, aided and abetted by the the conservative Murdoch media, The Australian and Daily Mail.  

The white head coverings in this clip are called spit hoods, and I don't necessarily agree with not using them. Staff who work in these places don't deserve to be spat upon, unless their own behaviour has been bad.

Ain't nothing like a dame

Sir and dame titles were removed from our honours in 1986, however they were briefly restored in 2014. 

Superior titled people is an anathema to most Australians. Nevertheless from my unextensive research, we still have 25 sirs in Australia, and 7 dames.

Dame Marie Bashir, once a Governor of the State of New South Wales and Dame Quentin Bryce, once Governor General of Australia, were given their honours in 2014.  

But just because Australia no longer has the processes of making sirs and dames, that does not mean we don't still award them, and do so at the request of what I assume are limited to Commonwealth countries. Of the remaining women for example, three were on the recommendation of the UK government, one on the recommendation of the Papua New Guinea and one on the recommendation of New Zealand.

It is similar for males, a couple in the 2014 period by Australia, but mostly requests by the UK government, one by the Queen (Sir William Hesseltine, for my UK readers), a couple by Papua New Guinea and a couple by Solomon Islands. 

Perhaps this is not of great interest to many of you, and it has shattered my hopes of outliving all sirs and dames in Australia. The last was appointed in 2022, and the youngest born is 65.

Dame Quentin Bryce being invested in 2014, after her term as Governor General 2008 - 2014.

 Me? I don't bend me knee to no one, comrade.

Death comes more often

Death of family, partners, friends, contemporaries, and now along with blog mates is inevitable when you reach older years. It is what happens. I've experienced enough deaths in the last few years. 

A week ago my step mother was buried at Moe Cemetery in the regional area of the state known as the Latrobe Valley in Gippsland. I had never been to Moe Cemetery and it was beautiful, with stunning views.

The mountains are part of Australia's Great Dividing Range, which runs from western Victoria in an easterly direction and then turns north along the east coast, through New South Wales and eventually reaching the far north of Queensland.  It's a major Australian watershed and the weather can be dramatically different on either side of the range. Our mountains are very old, well weathered and very rounded down. In the faint distance is the ski resort, Mount Baw Baw. The farm of my childhood was in the foothills of Mount Baw Baw. Closer at the far right I will guess as being Mount Erica. 

Step Mother Thelma has a lovely resting place.

Scandals

It is remarkable how similar the English Post Office scandal is to our own Robodebt scandal.

I've just watched the first of a series of a tv programme The People versus Robodebt. It is probably geoblocked if you are a foreign type. As I understand it our social welfare government department, Centrelink, took payment beneficiary information from the tax department of annual income, whereas Centrelink payments are based on fortnightly income. 

In both situations, it soon became apparent that there were issues. The Murdoch media in both England and Australia both ignored it, both supporters of the conservative governments of the time. It was left to other media to tell the story in Australia, as pure logical information came spewing out. Yet, no one acted. The government buried its head in the sand, only occasionally popping up to say welfare cheating was wrong and it was committed to stop it.

Some media kept fighting, along with advocates for social security recipients, legal people, and those within the system, who would bob their heads up, to have them quickly cut down by their seniors.

Even now with hindsight, like the Post Office scandal, it is hard to understand how long it went on when it was clearly wrong. In both cases, there were suicides by some of those affected. Houses were lost, marriages and partnerships broke. 

I am angry that I didn't do more. I am angry that our media didn't do more. I am angry that our common garden variety politicians didn't act. I am most of all angry with then Prime Minister Scott Morrison's conservative government. 

And in another parallel, no one has had their head chopped off, and someone's damned well should have been severely punished, in both cases. 

Let's see what happens with extraordinary Grenfell Tower inquiry, still ongoing eight years after 70 odd people died in the fire, in one of the most important and richest cities in the world, one that couldn't provide people with basic building fire protection. 

The big waters in the centre

I can't guarantee the accuracy of this but I've heard that soon one sixth of Australia is soon to be underwater as South Australia's Lake Eyre fills with water from flooding rains in Queensland. If you combine the land area of France, Germany and Italy, you will have the approximate size of the Lake Eyre Basin. Or for you less European types, five times the size of the UK.

Australia is a large country and it is hard to imagine 1/6th of the area underwater.

The lake receives water once in how ever many years or even decades and only after large and often destructive flooding.  

On average the lake fills completely only three times a century, so it is quite a remarkable event. The last filling of the lake was in 1974, although it has received quite a bit more than usual water this century. Meanwhile in my state of Victoria and much of South Australia, parts are close to drought conditions.  

The main tributaries are the innocuously named Cooper Creek, the Diamantina River, the Georgina River, the Bulloo River and the Paroo River, all flowing from the north east and turning the normally dry salt flats into a green oasis. Along the way it fills many natural water reservoirs and helps to replenish Australia's underground Great Artesian Basin.

This map by ABC Australia shows the extent of Lake Eyre Basin.

Don't think of the water as fast flowing rivers, rather wide expanses of flooding water creeping slowly along and downhill to the lake sitting 17 metres below sea level. This photo clearly shows how the water progresses from Queensland to the lake over a number of months. The rains that fell in Queensland in March are just reaching the lake bed now, in late June.

Over spring the waters will begin to evaporate and will almost disappear in summer with temperatures up to 50/122 degrees.

The creatures hidden away in dried mud for years come alive and birds locally and from overseas somehow know the lake is full of water and visit. And you know what happens when conditions are so good and food aplenty for creatures great and small? Yes, breeding. Some birds fly in from as far away as Siberia. How do they know it is flooded? I don't know. Get your Google busy.

It is a truly remarkable event in Australia, but certainly not a new one.

A laugh

At least the 10% tax on the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands has given us a laugh in the extraordinary world within we live.

Jackie in the threatened country Canada's city of Toronto posted a great collection of memes about Australia's territory islands. The more stupid the US administration is made to look, the better, and to use American words, boy is it looking pretty damn stupid. 

https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2025/04/penguins-rule.html

Outraged Penguins

The almost sole inhabitants of Australia's territories, McDonald and Heard Islands, are outraged and mystified about why their exports to the US have had a 10% tariff imposed.  The penguins have a hard life in the extreme cold and are very busy surviving. They don't understand why their non exports have been hit with a 10% tariff.

I think it was back in the 1700s when it was established that the tall and straight trunk of a Norfolk Island Pine tree was unsuitable for use as a ship mast, in spite of the tree's appearance. 

The trunks just broke when used as a mast. Aside from the  proven failure as ship masts, and not demanded by any country, the Australian territory Norfolk Island has been slapped with a 29% tariff, quite a bit more than the general 10% tariff for Australia. No one can imagine what the 2,000 people who live on the island can be exporting to the US to have such a penalty imposed. 

Not only is #47 incompetent in his role, so it seems is his administration. 

Could #47 run for a third term? I understand not by law, but #47 has little respect for the law. Aside from a courage of a few, the Democrats seem fairly silent. This may be a good idea politically, let #47 destroy himself. But you know, I don't even know who the Democrat leader is? 

Ok, Hakeem Jeffries. Youngish, not bad looking but I've never heard of him. Is he the person put in place before a proper leader of the Democrats is found? 

It is sad that such a competent person, Kamala Harris, was not elected. Fuckin' rich old white men are such a problem in the world. 

We have free trade with the US

Yep, in 2005 Australia and the US signed a free trade agreement, that seems was not worth the paper it was written upon. 

#47 slapped a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imported from Australia. While that will affect Australia, we are not paying. The citizens of the US will ultimately pay. In the US, people on the street seem to have no understanding of this. They think Australia will be paying. No, it is US companies who import steel and aluminium that will pay, and US citizens will ultimately pay. 

The is a day coming soon where Australia can expect more tariffs over some rather tenuous matters.

He does not like the ban, as I believe is also in place in Europe and Great Britain, on the importation of American beef. Given we export beef to the US, this is puzzling. The reason we and the aforesaid areas of the world won't import US beef is that it is full of anti biotics and growth hormones, with the cattle often grown in an intensive farming manner. Nah, we don't want that. Aim for clean and green. 

Prescribed medical drug prescriptions are subsidised in Australia. At the moment the cost can not exceed around $31 and if the current government is re-elected, this will drop to $25. For poor old age pensioners like me, it is capped at around $7. I don't understand what the issue is here, but I guess it is about US drug company profits. The drug companies are lobbying the US government very hard to punish Australia. 

Our government is pressing for pay to view companies like Netflix to include some local content. I don't think that is unreasonable, but again, it is problematic for the US. 

Nor is it unreasonable for Meta and other large US tech companies to pay the content producers for direct copies and links to their sites. Will be hear of a tariff slapped on us for that? 

Where there are joint US and Australian research facilities here, #47 wants to know effectively about Australia's diversity policies etc. I assume funding would be cut if the expectations are not met. 

Many of the above are direct interference in Australian domestic policies. 

I read somewhere today that the world needs to show a bit more appreciation for the money US has spent around the world, more than compared to say Europe. Bah, America has only spent money where it sees there is an advantage in funding countries, people and organisations, so save me from 'What we have done for the world'. That is just what countries, including my own, do. 

Let's end with a laugh. 

Listen to the Stentophone

Stentophone is a new word to me, and apparently a new word to spellchecker.  How about you?

I found this a great read,

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the-birth-of-stand-on-the-right-how-londons-first-recorded-escalator-announcement-shaped-tube-etiquette-79638/

It has always seemed a queer thing to me that while British drive on the left, I think generally walk on the left, and trains mostly run on the left, on an escalator you pass by on the left and those standing on the escalator, stand on the right. As far as I know, convention around the world follows the side of the road you drive on; you overtake on the right of a left travelling vehicle, or person. I note for Japan, it varies from area to area.

In Melbourne I am always interested in guessing about those who stand on the right of the escalator, clearly ignorant of the stand on the left custom. At some underground railway stations, it does say stand to the left. Department stores are even worse. Such people will not be regular users of escalators, and so I can mentally place them in a box. "You aren't folk from around here then?", to quote a line from something. 

Public Holidays

I always have to take care when I type the word public. 

Someone on the www mentioned the number of public holidays Australia has, and he was wrong. I won't publicly shame him by naming him, especially as he is rarely wrong. I thought to check myself as I knew it was more than he suggested. The first site that came up when I searched was australia.com It too is wrong. It's not a government website. If it was, the url would end in .gov.au or .vic.gov.au 

In the list there there seemed to be one extra holiday I didn't know about and one left out. I am also not sure if it is true for Northern Territory that it has the national King's Birthday holiday and a local Queen's Birthday holiday on a different date. Perhaps this is Camilla's day in the sunshine. 

Yes, what I saw does give weight to the phrase, I read it on the internet, so it must be true. I went to a government website, and here is a list.

National:

New Year's Day, January 1st

Australia Day, January 26th (Invasion Day for some)

Labour Day (variable state to state), March in Victoria

Good Friday, March or April

The Saturday before Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday

Easter Monday

Anzac Day (war commemorative), April 25th. That day will be long remembered by me.

King's Birthday (variable state to state), June in Victoria

Christmas Day

Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day)

In addition there are Victorian state holidays and other states and territories have their own:

The Australian Football League grand final match eve, September. What a joke, but which worker will knock back a public holiday or the extra pay for working? 

Melbourne Cup Day. Yes a public holiday for a horse race. This varies across the state, dependant on local event horse racing Cup Days. 

So in my State of Victoria, there are thirteen public holidays each year and most states are similar, give or take one. Eleven national public holidays, and two state public holidays. 

Quiz Answers

1. The capital city of Australia is Canberra. Anyone who thought Sydney deserves a slapping. 

2. Our island state is Tasmania.

3. Our largest territory is Northern Territory, larger than most of our states. 

4. Wombats burrow holes into the ground for shelter and to breed. If their pouches faced the same way as kangaroos, their pouches would fill with dug out soil. Well done Roentare for a concise answer. 

5. Again Roentare knew of the Goyder Line. From memory, a surveyor named Goyder explored South Australia and drew a line on a map which was the limit for land that could support agriculture and livestock. He was quite correct and those who breached the Goyder Line had their livelihoods destroyed by drought and long periods of low rainfall. 

6. My city, Melbourne has the largest tram system in the world. I think it is described as a legacy system, as Melbourne has had trams continuously since the 1890s. It is now a quite modern system, built on the old.

7. Again referring to Roentare, I have to disagree. The King on the advice of the Governor General of Australia can dismiss our Prime Minister, as Queen Elizabeth II dismissed our Prime Minister in 1975. I don't know if our monarch can dismiss an Australian Prime Minister without the advice of our Governor General, but I suspect that could happen. 

Rule Britannia, marmalade and jam. Five Chinese crackers...... bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

8. Melbourne has recently overtaken Sydney as the largest Australian city.

9. When I was young, from books I always thought swans were white. No, Australian swans are black. 

10. I was wrong. PNG gained independence from Australia in 1975, not 1972. Maybe I should have fact checked my questions?

Extra question. A Winnie, Winfield, is a brand of cigarettes. Rough men use to tuck a packet up under the sleeves of their tee shirts. They were advertised on tv by Paul Hogan, once a Sydney Harbour Bridge painter who went on to world wide fame in the film I've never seen, Crocodile Dundee. The spoken by Hogan advertising slogan was, "Anyhow, have a Winfield".

Hmm, maybe I should have slipped in a question about our indigenous people. Bad Andrew.

Aussie Quiz

Yorkshire Pudding writes a weekly quiz, that often makes me feel poorly educated. However, it is a bit of fun. Obviously Australians will do well at an Aussie quiz, but how about the rest of you? Here we go.

1. An easy one. What is the capital city of Australia?

2. What is the name of our island state? 

3. Australia has six states and many territories. Which is the largest territory? 

4. Kangaroos and wombats both rear their young in pouches. Why would the wombat pouch face the opposite direction to a kangaroo?

5. This one is for Australians as I am sure few people overseas would know. What is the Goyder Line?

6. What city in the world has the largest tram (street car or trolley) system?

7. Does the Australian Prime Minister have more power over Australia than the King of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, Australia being a Commonwealth country.

8. What is the largest city in Australia?

9. What colour are Australian swans?

10. Papua New Guinea is the largest Pacific island. No Cloudia, it ain't yours. In what year did PNG gain independence from Australia? 

10 extra. I couldn't answer the last question, aside from a guess at 1972 and I am fairly sure my educated guess is correct. 

So a bonus question, what is a Winnie which might be tucked up under the sleeve of your tee shirt and what does it have to do with a former Sydney Harbour Bridge painter?

Answers in 24 hours...hopefully.  

 

Bumping another car

I once had a bit of an inappropriate laugh when I read in the online Fiji Live electric newspaper that someone in Fiji was killed after two cars bumped together. 

Aside from the important King Street thoroughfare, motor cars have been strongly restricted within the bounds of Melbourne's Central Business District boundaries. It is fair to say it is a nightmare to drive within the city boundaries and that is how it should be. The area is abundantly served by trains, trams and buses. Most Melbournians are spoilt for choice to get to town by public transport, even more so when the new underground train line soon opens. Some of course will have to catch a bus or drive to their nearest railway station. 

Within the city the speed limit is 40 km/h, 25 mph and there are cameras to check your speed, quite a few of them. The fines are high, as is the demerit points against your driving licence. 

I expect this figure may apply to 2023. 'Research by Monash University found the crash rate was down 46% and bike traffic up by 22% in the CBD'. This is primarily the result of the speed limit being reduced and proper protected bike lanes. 

Also the speed limit in the small streets with lots of pedestrians has been reduced to 20 km/h, 12 mph.

So crashes within the CBD are down by nearly half. The statistics don't lie. 

I think mostly related to a lot more traffic after the lifting of Covid travel restrictions, in 2023 the Australian road toll rose by 7.3%. Comparing my experience of driving and observations in England, Australian drivers are quite bad. By my calculations, and I am notorious for getting simple arithmetic wrong, our road deaths per million figure is 48. That isn't great by world standards. 

But not as bad as some first world countries. Australia would be coloured the light green colour. For someone who knows more about American demographics than I do, what is it about the dark and red states with very high death rates? Poor states? #45 voters? Gun toting? 

Is the law an ass?

Maybe it was just as well as yesterday's post was lost as things have changed.

Someone has been taken into custody related to the missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy, a 22 year old male. He is the son of a former Australian Rules football player. The judge slapped a suppression order on naming him as he is in danger of self harm. 

Later Edit: The suppression order was lifted the next day and the suspect above has now been named. The alleged murderer was named on International Women's Day. It shows just how far we still have to go with safety for alone women in public spaces. Reassure yourselves, at least in Australia, that such crimes are extremely rare and so make the news for days and days.

I doubt anyone would doubt that the New South Wales policeman is not in danger of self harm. The gay man accused of murdering two men, who cosied up to celebrities, stalked the  minor celebrity man of his desire, one Jessie Baird and killed him with a police pistol as is alleged, and Jessie's partner, the Australian Rules Football umpire Luke Davies. It is such a sad case, and if he is found guilty, I would judge it was a crime of passion by a mentally unstable man. It is puzzling how this wasn't picked at some time during his police service. Could it be that employment diversity went a bit too far? Or are the NSW police force so desperate to increase and retain police force numbers? 

Beaumont Lamarre-Condon seems as mad as a meat axe, yet he has been well and truly named. Photo from the Star Observer.

Climate change protestors parked a hire van across three of four lanes, leaving only one lane open on a major bridge linking the western suburbs to the City over the Yarra River. They were eventually moved by police, charged and the next day two were sentenced to 21 days in gaol in spite of pleading not guilty. That's speedy justice, whether deserved or not. 

I am not saying this case would be any more speedily dealt with in Australia, but how about what is happened with the Australian soccer star Sam Kerr? She plays for Chelsea in England and from what I read and read into it she was in a taxi, threw up, refused to pay the cleaning charge for the cab, police were called and now it is unclear what she called him. It could have been 'stupid white cop', rather than 'stupid white bastard'.

Nevertheless, neither phrase is nice and not decent public behaviour, and she has lost a lot of respect. But get this. It has taken one year after the incident for her to be charged and it will be another year before the case goes to trial! 

I am sure members of  the English police force get called much worse to their faces. I am not sure why she was charged. Famous Aussie football star married dyke with darkish skin getting a bit lippy? Take her down a peg or two.

Whatever, Sam has disappointed us greatly.  

Mr Bates and the Post Office

If you don't know about it, Post Masters (and Mistresses) were we found to be defrauding the British Post Office of thousands of pounds after the implantation of a computer system in the early 2000s. There were hundreds of them. They lost businesses, they had make up thousands of pounds in discrepancies, some were sent to gaol, some suicided. 

They were not guilty. Like our Robodebt system in Australia, it was an absolute disgrace. The good people of Australia did not speak out loudly enough about the very obvious wrongs of Robodebt. 

A commercial tv station picked up the three part made for tv series of Mr Bates versus the Post Office. I can't say I thought it was a quality production, but R recorded it through our Fetch box and he is an expert at skipping through ads.  I kind of knew the story already.

What I thought was much better was the subsequent documentary called Mr Bates, the Post Office and the Real Story. If you aren't in the UK, it is probably not available to watch online. I found it much more satisfying. For Australians I think you can find it on Channel 7 catch up tv. 

Nothing of the above really illustrates the disgraceful behaviour of the British Post Office. The CEO of the Post Office at the time, one  should be stripped of her CBE and in my opinion should go to gaol for what she oversaw.

Ah, she has now handed back her CBE, but as I read it, she did so before King Charles took it away from her. Wait, a correction. The King has taken the award from her. 

Hopefully now Mr Bates who tirelessly fought against the injustices perpetrated by the British Post Office will accept his CBE for his two decades of work to seek justice for himself and many others.

The Post Office is paying out bigtime in compensation. Unfortunately this is British taxpayers' money and I can't see a cent or penny coming from the company responsible for the failed system, Fujitsu. 

It is always good to criticise corruption and wrongs in the world, but it is far preferable to do so when your own doorstep is clean. First world countries need to be beyond reproach, and they aren't.    

Divisive Day

Well, I am supposed to  say Happy Australia Day I guess, but I really don't feel like it. The day no longer instills any pride in me for my country on the day I may have once quietly be very glad to be born in. It has become such a divisive day, I just don't want to hear any more about it. 

Without doubt it needs to be moved to a day that's agreeable to most of our indigenous population To those who will never accept a celebration of the day, I don't blame you. It was an invasion, the general mistreatment, the massacres, yes, I know all about it but it was quite a long time ago now and now I can only say, tough titties. We are here and we don't belong anywhere else.

I am certainly not going to speak to my jingoistic Tradie Brother today. He may well be hosting a barbeque to celebrate, where people will drink too much. 

Thankfully I've only heard of two of the deplorables on the radio, and the second one was a conservative politician, declaring we are the greatest country in world. The former who said the same may be ignorant and needs to travel more to see what the rest of the world does better than we in Australia do, and the politician was just being a politician.

Happy Republic Day to India.

Meanwhile in Melbourne some have made there displeasure at the day of 'celebrations known by public vandalism.

Queen Vicky's visage must have been extra grumpy looking after she was spray painted with metaphorical blood. 

It was quite an achievement to chop down Captain Cook at the ankles with an angle grinder, even if they had the wrong culprit. Blame Governor Phillip of the Colony of New South Wales who led the First Fleet from England with ships full of Prisoners of His/Her Majesty.

And as one wag described it on Twitter, what could be more Australian on Australian Day than being passed out and flat on your face in a public park   

Would you like a little Aussie music on this day? There are a few I could choose from but this'll do. 

Austria v Australia

In Austria we came across keyrings and 'fridge magnets with the slogan no No Kangaroos in Austria. 

I think it is better now, especially as there is so little mail, but it wasn't unusual for our mail to arrive after being misdirected to Austria. It was probably the case that the same happened to Austrian bound mail, arriving via Australia. 

But with absolutely minimal geographic knowledge, surely people know they are two very different countries. 

It seems not. What an absolute idiot tosser tv presenter. Does anyone know who he is? Or her for that matter. Respect to her for calling him an effing idiot, which he clearly is.