When will Rudd return?

Bligh: "That's him, that's Campbell Newman over there". Rudd: "You mean that little runt? I can play him on a break."

The recent Australia Day kerfuffle in Canberra was not Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s fault. I’m sure she had no prior knowledge of - nor did she authorise – her adviser to stir up the aboriginal tent embassy protestors into an ugly mob that resulted in some dramatic, if not outright bizarre & embarrassing, footage of the PM being dragged, manhandled and groped by an AFP ‘minder’, who thought he’d find his 15 minutes of fame by acting as though someone had pulled a gun on his boss. They hadn’t, and I suggest that the PM (and Tony Abbott) could have merely walked to their cars surrounded and flanked by security, instead of the rather unedifying manner in which they were forced to look like prized scaredy cats … to the whole world.

Anyway, the upshot of it all is that it did Gillard’s re-election prospects no favours whatsoever. By contrast, Abbott actually suffers no such blemish, as it has emerged that a PM staffer did ‘the dirty work’ and that Tony Abbott’s words had in no way inflamed the protestors . Julia Gillard just can’t take a trick and seems to stumble (literally in this latest incident) from one disaster to another. Rightly or wrongly she is increasingly perceived as ‘dead person walking’, in a purely political sense of course.

The other thing that is becoming increasingly obvious is that Kevin Rudd, the man she unceremoniously deposed as PM just prior to the 2010 election, will at some stage make a challenge for the leadership. It’s now a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ Rudd will seek to get his old job back. And he seems to have picked the perfect vehicle in joining Anna Bligh on her Queensland re-election campaign, as this Age article points out:
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Towards 500,000

In the words of Sally Fields, "So ... you DO like me!"

Some time tomorrow (Sunday 29th January 2012), the counter on this blog will click over to 500,000 views. Not that I’m a stats man or care very much, but it just surprises me that so many people would read the tripe I put out. Actually, the 500,000 would have come much earlier if I hadn’t gone into hiatus for about a year from mid 2010.

Anyway, for the record, that’s 500,000 views in just under 5 years since this version of AO started on about 1st April 2007. There was an earlier version from late 2005 on a different host & format. I.E. over 100,000 per year, or over 8,000 per month. It used to be well over 10,000 per month but it’s slowed down because I have slowed down, but I might ramp it up a bit this year. My thanks to the regulars.

Why is this newspaper trashing its own town?

Just another 'Bad News Day' in Albury-Wodonga? (click on image to enlarge)

This is a screen shot of today’s Border Mail website. The Border Mail is a very large regional daily newspaper published out of nearby Albury and is part of the Fairfax group. Look at the stories it constantly highlights – they’re all very negative and usually about crime, violence, bashings, knifings and vandalism. It’s something I’ve noticed over the years and it seems to be getting worse.

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Hot Rod ‘crisis’ meeting

I won’t be able to attend the forthcoming meeting between Bright tourism operators and the Northern Suburbs Hot Rod Club because I’ll be away at that time. There’s not much point anyway, as we are already fully booked for this year’s November event (as most holiday unit owners would be), so I don’t see how I can help Club President Ray McDonald achieve his objective of allowing entrants in the event preferential treatment over the “spectators”, as he stated in this week’s Bright Observer: 
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What, they’re not meant to blow up?

Best photo of a jet-ski I've seen yet.

The only thing wrong with this Border Mail story  is the headline, “Blast tosses jet-skier in air”. I would have gone for:

“Blast tosses tosser jet-skier in air” 

A MELBOURNE father has had a lucky escape after he was thrown 1.5 metres when a jet-ski exploded on the Murray River near Rutherglen yesterday.

…  a witness, Brad Huggins, of Wahgunyah, said he was emptying the water from his boat at the boat ramp when he heard the explosion about 100 metres away and rushed to the scene.

“I was told he was thrown about eight feet into the air with the main part of the jet-ski still lodged between his legs, (LMAO!)” Mr Huggins said.

(the 55 year old bogan jet-skier) was thrown into the river by the blast.

He was rescued from the water and taken to Corowa hospital with suspected lower back injuries but later allowed to leave.

Comment:

Honestly, what are jet-skis good for? You can’t exactly ski behind them, fish from them or take your friends on a leisurely river cruise. They’re for morons who like to make noise. Petrolheads on water. Bogans on the sea (or river or lake, as the case may be). If you own one of those things … well, there’s no hope for you.

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Our local Ned Kelly’s plan to ambush the Prime Minister

Our next Mayor?

Local legend Ray Dyer - of unknown occupation - was so nearly an Alpine councillor in 2008 when he campaigned in his faux Ned Kelly suit (made from cardboard, I believe) and with his goat … all over the bloody shire.

It didn’t matter that Dyer seemed to have no particular platform or a clue about the issues; he still polled very well after the huge amount of publicity his antics generated.

Well, that and because, let’s face it, there are enough dim wits around here to accidentally get a joke candidate elected – I mean, have a look at some of our current councillors!

Dyer narrowly missed out last time but since then he’s developed a taste for the campaign trail and he hasn’t got off it since.

Only this time he’s hitched himself to the Mt Buffalo Chalet issue, which he, um, articulates so clearly in the Bright Observer:
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A great investment !

The sign went up on Christmas eve - click on image to enlarge

After nearly 10 years in the business, and following the extensive renovations we commenced over 5 years ago (now finally completed!), Leanne and I have decided to place the GG holiday units up for sale. As they’re strata titled we’ve put them up for individual sale, not as a whole. We’re keeping the house and we’ll be doing the management at least until all the units are sold (could be years!). Then we’ll decide what to do from there. I think they’d make a great buy to use for your own holidays AND to let out for good returns the rest of the year. 

More details available at the Grevillea Gardens website.

Happy New year.

Own a piece of paradise in Beautiful Bright - click on image to enlarge

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Message for Mark

The headline from the front page lead story of the Bright Observer.

When you get elected to council your role is to listen to and consult the community. And, when you hold the so-called ‘portfolio’ of tourism & economic development - as Alpine councillor Mark Steven does - your role is especially to listen to and consult the tourism industry … and to represent their interests. Your role is not to come out with knee jerk opinions and ”recommendations” like Cr Steven has made on the front page of this week’s Bright Observer:

Bright Rod Run under threat … again!

Club wants accommodation owners to take a hit

For the second time in recent years the organisers of the enormously popular Bright Rod Run are threatening to take the event away from the town. This time the complaint is over concerns that entrants are being “ripped off” by accommodation providers. In his letter to last week’s Bright Observer (below), Club President Ray McDonald makes it quite clear that he wants Bright accommodation owners to reduce their minimum stay requirements from 3 nights to 2 nights or the club will either take the event elsewhere or cancel it altogether. My further comments are ‘over the fold’ (click on “more” below the article to continue reading):   

Mr McDonald spells out his demands - click on image to enlarge.

A cheap and disingenuous trick

This building looks like it incurs"higher servicing costs" - we better slug it with a differential!

“It’s a cheap and disingenuous trick. It’s time for council to acknowledge that economic development & tourism benefits ALL ratepayers, not just those it thinks it can slug with extra rates.”

The above is a quote from the summary of my submission to the Alpine council concerning the proposed introduction of a 30 to 40% surcharge on the annual rates of all properties deemed to be used for commercial purposes, regardless of their zonings. The council plans to introduce this new rate surcharge effective from 1 July 2012 to replace the highly discriminatory 48% special rate surcharge (that it has levied on the same properties for the past 15 years) on the pretext that it represents “a fairer distribution of the rate burden”.

However, as you may have already gathered, I strenuously disagree. The fundamentals have not changed – i.e. the council will still be slugging a very small group of property owners with the bulk of the funding of its economic development and (farcical) tourism promotion costs (i.e. employee’s salaries). After 15 years of this fiasco it’s about time it stopped doing that. And, as highlighted in my submission, for council to claim that ALL such properties incur “higher costs of servicing” is a total fallacy … a lie! 

My full submission follows. I wonder if anyone else bothered to make one?:

The bathroom renos

The bathroom will have a double-size shower with huge 600 x 300 mm tiles, a mixing tap and a massive bloody shower head (it'll be like standing in the rain). Click on image to enlarge.

The GG renovations that we started 5 years ago and finished in 2008 included fitting out 7 new bathrooms. I thought it might be about time we did up our own bathroom (and laundry and toilet) and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 3 weeks. My work is finished and now it’s up to the tiler who has started on the floor and should be completely finished this week. I never want to renovate another bathroom in my life – it’s bloody hard work. I’ll post photos of the finished job when … well, when it’s finished. More photos ‘over the fold’:

The ongoing saga of the Mt Buffalo Chalet

Why would you want to change this ….

To this?

Well, if you could get it for nothing, I guess you would!

I am not the slightest bit surprised (or upset) that the State Government has rejected the proposal put forward by local consortium Mt Buffalo Community Enterprise Ltd (MBCE) for a $51 million conversion of the Mt Buffalo Chalet into a rather uninspiring and over-ambitious 99-room hotel/resort. I think the plan was very flawed.

Seriously, have a look at the ‘commercial in confidence’ concept and business plans now fully on display at MCBE’s website. Make sure you click on the ‘fly through’ and I’m sure you’ll agree with me that this was basically a total rebuild with very little of the original chalet to be left intact. And, according to the business plan, MBCE was seeking to fund the $51 million of demolition and new works as follows:

Beatles trivia

Yet to be surpassed.

This will keep me up all night. We just switched over to Channel 7 to watch The Amazing Race (a show I actually enjoy) and caught the end of some stupid quiz show where the last question was this:

“How many Beatles’ songs have a woman’s name in the title?”

As if anyone would carry that information in their head. I’m a big Beatles fan too but that’s not something I’ve even thought about … until now. Apparently the correct answer is 18 but I’m buggered if I can think of more than a few including:

1. Anna (on the ‘B’ side of one of their earlier hits)
2. Julia (about John Lennon’s mother)
3. Lady Madonna
4. Lovely Rita Meter Maid (from Sargeant Pepper’s)
5. Dear Prudence *
6. Long Tall Sally * (###)
7. Eleanor Rigby *
8. Lucy in the sky with diamonds (about LSD) *
9. Michelle *
10. Sexy Sadie *
11. Polythene Pam *

Can anyone help? I’ll update this as more come to mind. Oh look, The Amazing Race is on.

(* = updates to original post)

(### Long Tall Sally is not a Beatles original, so I think the correct answer is 10  – as above)

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Forty seven reasons to dump Michael Clarke

For once, the headline doesn't go far enough.

How can a national cricket side like Australia that dismisses its opposition for just 96 runs and leads by nearly 200 on the first innings, end up getting belted by 8 wickets in less than 3 days?

I dunno, but maybe ask our ’boy’ captain Michael Clarke how his side only managed an embarrassing 47 runs in its 2nd innings.

What a bloody joke. Clarke is no leader.

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11.11.11

Remembrance Day 2011 – Nirvana for Nerds and Numerologists

The heading of this post – today’s date – is a once in a century event. It’s only in the 11th year of a century that there can be a line up of six identical numbers. According to some people out there this is apparently of some significance and has great meaning for world events:

“Eleven is a master number for us and when you get a day like tomorrow … you get incredible energy out there,” said Alain Baillon, a Queensland psychic and numerologist.

“It’ll be a new step up and forward in consciousness.”

But according to others it marks Armageddon, or something like that:

… in Egypt, the possibility of such rituals has forced the closure of the Great Pyramid of Giza, Atef Abu Zahab, head of the Department of Pharaonic Archaeology, told AFP. In ancient times, the number 11 took on a more sinister meaning, and was seen to represent evil, or sinners.

Then, of course, it’s also Remembrance Day, which is commemorated at 11 am. But I’m hanging out for when the clock reaches 11 minutes & 11 seconds past 11 o’clock (am or pm) when we’ll have this eery line up:

11.11.11 on 11.11.11

Yeah, I know, there’s not much else to blog about at the moment.

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