Friday...

Friday!  A very busy weekend ahead, but a good one...

 

Weather pending, I'm playing my first full game of cricket in a month... with weddings and trips to Queensland, I havent been available, so I am looking forward to it.  For everyone's info, we're coming first this season so far!

 

Am looking forward to Sunday where we're having our annual Xmas BBQ with all my old mates from school / cricket days... now that were mid-30's married types with most of us having kids, its a bit of a treat to have all the kids together and one of us dresses up as Santa and hands out pressies.  Kate, being the oldest kid, picked Santa last year as Pete... but she "pretended for the sake of the others".  lol.

 

I really just want to get through today at work and get home... its been a long week!

Naval Gazing

Well, the election is over... I have been informed of who Amy Winehouse is (and I now dont care) and in the absence of any real political scandal I will take today to mull over what is happening in my world...

 

Well, for starters, work has been very busy.  I have been getting home very late at night the last couple of weeks with leaving the office at 6:30pm being "an early mark".  Got home after midnight the other night and last night was a 9:30pm home time... but once I reach this month end this week, the pace should slow down.

 

Between now and Xmas, work will remain busy.  My new company doesnt have a massive fancy dress Xmas Party and instead has a big in house lunch on the last day before we break up (Dec 21).  Seafood, hot food and heaps of beer & wine is apprently the go... and whilst I was initially disappointed there was no major alcohol fueled shin-dig, I am warming to that idea... besides, I am only newish here and I wouldnt consider myself drinking buddies with anyone yet...

 

Having said that my ex-drinking buddies at my old work are planning for a night out, so I may have the best of both worlds!

 

Xmas aside, work will still be busy.  I will probably be in Melbourne for 2-3 days in mid-December.  With my company having most of its physical operations in Victoria, I do have to get down there fairly often.  So, I will probably be down there Dec 17-18 and perhaps 19.

 

Outside of work, we're having a Xmas BBQ this weekend with my mates and as an indication of how old we are, we're hiring a jumping castle for the kids.

 

Xmas itself we're determined to alter last years disaster in which we had lunch at my sisters in Ryde and then dinner at our place for Niki's family.  We're doing the Xmas Lunch and the Boxing Day Lunch this year.  We'll be hosting the Boxing Day affair, so that should be more relaxing.

 

But before Xmas, its my birthday in early December and I am really unsure what I want... both Dad and Niki have asked me and I have drawn a blank... must be getting old :)

 

On the gaming front, CanCon preparations on Australia Day are heating up and I have had a stack of new miniatures arrive to paint.  So much so, that my friend PianoDan is going to paint me up a Chaos team.  Its $300 but money well spent in my opinion.  (Check out a sample of his work here)

 

Oh and little Brookie finished her 1000 piece puzzle and we have mounted it on some timber board and intend to hang it on the wall in her bedroom... but no rest for the wicked, she's helping to do Kate's now too... so again, our dining table is awash with puzzle pieces!

You know you're old when....

...the media keep banging on about someone and you have NO idea who someone is...

 

This is currently happening with me and the presses obsession with Amy Winehouse.

 

WHO THE FARK IS AMY WINEHOUSE???

 

All I know is she is a) scary looking b) married to some guy called Blake and c) Blake is in jail.

 

 

NFL Star Shot Dead

If you don't know already, I am a fan of American Football and in particular the Washington Redskins.  So it was a bit of a shock this morning to hear that Pro-Bowl Safety for the Redskins Sean Taylor was shot in his home overnight and died later in hospital.  ( story)

 

If you're following this story, it just doesnt make sense.  The guy plays for Washington, but lives in Miami, he was shot in the leg at around 2am in his bedroom and yet had to be airlifted to hospital in the wee small hours.  Surely an ambulance could have gotten there just as quick at 2am in the morning.  He was also shot in the leg and yet died.

 

Is this an indictment on US health standards or really is there something not being disclosed.

 

Nevertheless, it is a sad indictment on the US gun laws in which people can be shot - presumably execution style given the home invaders broke into his bedroom - at any time.

 

Another sad story arising out of the country that for some unknown reason we want to emulate.

 

Liberals Implode!

Well.... Costello goes, Vaile steps down, Downer is depressed, Abbot describes himself on the sound bite I saw last night of "having reasonable people skills" (LOL!) and the walking Cone Head Brendan Nelson (ex Labor Party Member) is also keen to step up...

 

Seriously, it is too comical to watch!  Particularly as Howard made such a huge pitch for Costello on his exit speech to see Costello go "thanks, but I'd rather do something else" it just shows how much Howard had lost touch.

 

Turnbull seems to be light on in experience and is already engaging on the dreaded "me-tooism" that Liberals laughed about pre-election by saying that he supports Rudd signing Kyoto...

 

Having said that if Turnbull had successfully swayed Howard to sign Kyoto and he had apologised to the Aboriginals AND he had some sort of human compassion, then maybe Howard wouldnt be down at Centrelink today getting his pension.

 

In the meantime, Rudd has turned up at a school, requested Treasury costings for his proposals of PC's in the schools and has requested ALL of his ministers to visit a private and public school in their respective electorates before this Thursday!  Nothing like Day 1 enthusiasm! Lets hope it carries on for the entire term...

 

PS - listening to my favourite radio shows on pod casts (SheBang, Get This, Spoonman) this morning, its amazing how many wowsers rang up on Monday morning and complained about the result and how its going to be the death of Australia.  Get over it people!  About 55-60% of us voted for a Labor or Green candidate.  Your Coalition of Liberal and National barely had an impact and it is clear that people want more than dollars in the bank!

Victory For Rudd

Well, I have been banging on about Howard and his cronies for many years now and its all a bit surreal that he isn't there to whinge about!  I think though that the election result is a great victory for the people who think that there is more to the world and our country than a budgetary surplus.  Yes, Howard did do a good job of managing the economy in the sense that we had heaps of coins in the coffers, but ultimately he and his party lacked some missing quality of humanity that you cant quite put your finger on, but you knew it was there.

 

Howard used human emotions and frailties to hold power for most of his eleven years, particularly since Sept 11 2001.  He had the fear of global terrorism behind him when he concocted up the "Children Overboard Affair" and he took Australia from a well respected peaceful country to one of association with a maniacal idiot in George Bush that led us into a virtually en-extractable position in the Middle East.  Our nation is cursed from Muslim nations such as Indonesia and is seen as a blundering Western nation sticking its nose into Asian and Middle East affairs...

 

I think Howard's term in office was best summed up in this article and in particular I quote: 

"Mr Howard, who almost certainly has lost his seat of Bennelong, said nothing publicly yesterday. His only duty was a private function for staff at Kirribilli House. As the Liberals drowned their sorrows on Saturday night, one former senior Liberal adviser blamed the result on "the f---ing Chinese", an apparent reference to Asian voters in Bennelong turning against Mr Howard"

 

The Australian Liberal party lost touch with the people of Australia.  We are multi-cultural and in many cases bi-lingual with Asian and Middle Eastern descendants now much more prominent than the post war immigrants from Europe.  The Liberal party failed to grasp that and I believe that it was a huge issue for them in what caused them to lose the plot.

 

The other issue that Howard refused to budge on was the whole concept of Climate Change.  The World, be it a natural cycle or be it one that we are exacerbating (my view is its a bit of both) is warming up and the world's patterns of climate are going through a major upheaval.  That is a fact.  They believe in less than one life time there will be no more ice at the North Pole.  The worlds oceans are changing and this effects the worlds wind patterns and that effects the rain fall patterns.  You cannot escape this.  Yet Howard refused to budge one iota and insisted that doing anything would disrupt the blessed economy.

 

Again, the economy.  It always came back to the dollars in the coffers.  Seriously, what is wrong with having a zero surplus?  What is wrong with the Federal government spending EVERY dollar they get in taxes.  I agree that you shouldnt overspend and have a debt, but whats wrong with using our taxes for the people?

 

I look forward to the new Labor government.  I think it will provide a refreshing change.  We will probably see Rudd apologise to the Stolen Generation.  I expect to see him and his government interacting at a more polite level with our Asian neighbours and build some good will between us and countries like the Phillipines and Thailand.  I expect our relationships with China to become even more important to us than the US as they are really the new economic powerhouse.

 

I expect us to sign Kyoto and become leaders in the subsequent phases of that process.

 

All in all, I think this is a change for the good.  People will have to realise that from a budgetary perspective things will be tougher, but lets not forget that money isnt everything.

The Time Is Nigh...

Well, tomorrow is polling day and I will be keen to get down to the local school, grab my sausage sandwich, barge past the pamphlet flingers without taking anything, walk in and have my say...

 

I think you all know who I am voting for...

 

But then the Senate... I may this year number all of the candidates... I must say I am not keen on the preferencial deals that are done and I want to have my say in who goes ahead of who... so I may take the time to work through the full list... can we have a punt on how long that piece of paper is?  I bet its close to 2 metres!!

 

Then after that, Saturday morning will be generally relaxing, I will go to cricket, but given my Queensland trip, I am not on the team sheet, so its a bit of a moral support and perhaps a field as a sub and then its a BBQ at home with the election coverage in the background.

 

I dont know why, I am normally not so keen, but I am really keen to catch a bit of the election coverage and watch Johnnies final speech live as opposed to the news feeds.

 

But what time will that be?  I think the election will be close, so I dont expect an early concession from either party... but I am putting it down that the concession will come at 11:30pm... some 3hrs after Perth closes its polls...