funny, gotta listen to it

I saw this elsewhere and its an interesting view from the outside looking in. Worth the read.

AUSTRALIA: AN AMERICAN VIEW...
Interesting set of observations from a visitor from the other side of the Pacific. ‘Value what you have and don't give it away.' There's a lot to admire about Australia, especially if you're a visiting American, says David Mason. More often than you might expect, Australian friends patiently listening to me enthuse about their country have said, ''We need outsiders like you to remind us what we have.'' So here it is - a small presumptuous list of what one foreigner admires in Oz.
1. Health care. I know the controversies, but basic national healthcare is a gift. In America, medical expenses are a leading cause of bankruptcy. The drug companies dominate politics and advertising.
Obama was crucified for taking halting baby steps towards sanity. You can't turn on the telly without hours of drug advertisements - something I have never yet seen here. And your emphasis on prevention - making cigarettes less accessible, for one - is a model.
2. Food. Yes, we have great food in America too, especially in the big cities. But your bread is less sweet, your lamb is cheaper, and your supermarket vegetables and fruits are fresher than ours.
Too often in my country an apple is a ball of pulp as big as your face.
The dainty Pink Lady apples of Oz are the juiciest I've had. And don't get me started on coffee.
In American small towns it tastes like water flavoured with burnt dirt, but the smallest shop in the smallest town in Oz can make a first-rate latte.
I love your ubiquitous bakeries, your hot-cross buns. Shall I go on?
3. Language. How do you do it?
The rhyming slang and Aboriginal place names like magic spells.
Words that seem vaguely English yet also resemble an argot from another planet.
I love the way institutional names get turned into diminutives - Vinnie's and Salvos - and absolutely nothing is sacred.
Everything's an opportunity for word games and everyone's a nickname.
Lingo makes the world go round.
It's the spontaneous wit of the people that tickles me most.
Late one night at a barbie my new mate Suds remarked, ''Nothing's the same since 24-7.'' Amen.
4. Free-to-air TV. In Oz, you buy a TV, plug it in and watch some of the best programming I have ever seen - uncensored.
In America, you can't get diddly-squat without paying a cable or satellite company heavy fees.
In Oz a few channels make it hard to choose.
In America, you've got 400 channels and nothing to watch.
5. Small shops. Outside the big cities in America corporations have nearly erased them.
Identical malls with identical restaurants serving inferior food.
Except for geography, it's hard to tell one American town from another.
The ''take-away'' culture here is wonderful.
Human encounters are real - stirring happens, stories get told.
The curries are to die for. And you don't have to tip!
6. Free camping. We used to have this too, and I guess it's still free when you backpack miles away from the roads.
But I love the fact that in Oz everyone owns the shore and in many places you can pull up a camper van and stare at the sea for weeks.
I love the ''primitive'' and independent campgrounds, the life outdoors.
The few idiots who leave their stubbies and rubbish behind in these pristine places ought to be transported in chains.
7. Religion. In America, it's everywhere - especially where it's not supposed to be, like politics.
I imagine you have your Pharisees too, making a big public show of devotion, but I have yet to meet one here.
8. Roads. Peak hour aside, I've found travel on your roads pure heaven.
My country's ''freeways'' are crowded, crumbling, insanely knotted with looping overpasses - it's like racing homicidal maniacs on fraying spaghetti.
I've taken the Hume without stress, and I love the Princes Highway when it's two lanes.
Ninety minutes south of Bateman's Bay I was sorry to see one billboard for a McDonald's. It's blocking a lovely paddock view. Someone should remove it.
9. Real multiculturalism. I know there are tensions, just like anywhere else, but I love the distinctiveness of your communities and the way you publicly acknowledge the Aboriginal past.
Recently, too, I spent quality time with Melbourne Greeks, and was gratified both by their devotion to their own great language and culture and their openness to an Afghan lunch.
10. Fewer guns. You had Port Arthur in 1996 and got real in response. America replicates such massacres several times a year and nothing changes.
Why?
Our religion of individual rights makes the good of the community an impossible dream.
Instead of mateship we have ''It's mine and nobody else's'.
We talk a great game about freedom, but too often live in fear.
There's more to say - your kaleidoscopic birds, your perfumed bush in springtime, your vast beaches.
These are just a few blessings that make Australia a rarity.
Of course, it's not paradise - nowhere is - but I love it here.
No need to wave flags like Americans and add to the world's windiness.
Just value what you have and don't give it away.
David Mason is a US writer and professor, and poet laureate of Colorado

So, the year is nearly over, thank fuck for that, surely it has to be better than the past 2 years, its gotta be, right??

For the most part of this year, we were locked down, unable to do much outside of your home or place of work if you were lucky enough to keep a job or have a job and the essential shopping which for some people was the only outlet to see the outside world, and it wasnt good mentally for alot of people. Tough times for sure.

This year hasn't all been bad for me, it bought a very unexpected, but a very welcomed, happening to me, I'm just sorry it didnt happen sooner, and it is one that I am grateful to have in my life now and hopefully long into the future as well.

This year has tho, put other personal things on the back burner. Bloody covid !!

Hoping that sooner, rather than later, I will get my surgery date and then once that happens, my health will improve and that I will be on this earth a wee bit longer .... that is the plan anyway. This world isnt getting rid of me that easily.

Its also more recently, made me see that some things just wont change, yes I know, I should know that by now but hey, sometimes you wish...hope.... wonder.... if things will change but nope, some just wont. Good thing is now, I have seen it and time to leave it in the past, where it will stay now.



Anyway, to all my friends and foes and anyone in between, I wish you all the best for the new year ahead in health and happiness the year through and dont let this little problem of a beer virus stop you enjoying life. Hell knows, we all could do with some fun in one form or another.


Happy New Year !!! Celebrate and have fun but be safe in what ever you do

xxx

ooops haha... I liked this one






xxx

Do you ever get that way where you want to say something but dont know how to say it or how to ask and when you finally do say something, or ask the question, and it comes out completely and utterly the wrong way and then you just think, why the fuck did I just say that and why did I not just keep it to myself .... ?

Yeah I thought so....

and then some of you think you are just perfect in everything you say and do and that you are better than everyone else.....

got a bit heated ....

Do not worry about people talking "behind your back", just means that you are one step ahead of them, and they are perfectly positioned to kiss your arse !

one of their many hits

We are in lockdown so, out with the camera in the backyard.




Not as many bees as there was last year either, maybe they are doing as they are told and staying home and not travelling around the country side.


Hope you are all staying well and safe out there.
xx

Hope all is well in your part of this crazy world
xx