General chat with Bobi – Election-free zone

(Over to Bobi – thank you. If you want to chat about the election check out the previous general chat thread -Juz)

Read the heading, guys, and when in doubt, read it again.

This has been a long, really long, in the spirit of America (Trump throws a long shadow) election, and we are all exhausted in my house. I hope this is not a sign of times to come.

There are four exceptions to the above:
. Barrie Cassidy’s impending retirement and how sad that makes me.
. Clive, because he’s an expensive joke.
. Tony Abbott because he’s not in politics any more and I am not sad.
. And how much Peter Dutton looks like a thumb.

And to be absolutely clear, because I am the writer-in-charge here and can break the rules, no to discussions on Anning and Pauline. These people are not a joke, and the fact that their hate speech (not freedom of speech) has a platform in the media is shame on us.


Which is why the Eurovision was so glorious to watch. How uplifting is this show. I am wallowing in the joy of the costumes, the dancing and the light show. How much money must this thing have cost? I thought Kate’s performance was amazing. It’s hard to say where I sit on the song itself. I’ve heard it a number of times now, whereas the other songs were new to me.

I am not loving Joel and Myf as commentators. I think I preferred the previous two. They were more across all the other countries and contestants, and Joel is trying to imitate Graham Norton, very poorly. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for IMACGMOOH-gate.

Is there a real reason for Madonna’s eyepatch? Was it my imagination but did she sound a little pitchy to you? And they auto tuned the heck out of her new song which I am sure will still sell well. The audience looked bored. It takes real personal insight to know when to retire (as I pat myself in my back).

I watched The Repair Shop (ABC). It’s a nice gentle show. I don’t think I could watch it often. It’s a bit like meditation.

What I am most looking forward to (see how I mangled my grammar there, Daisy? Just for you. ) is Season 2 of The Letdown (ABC). I am almost as excited about this as I was while I was waiting for Masterchef to return. I loved, loved, loved Season 1. Why is it so hard to get Australian content on TV? Compare this show to some of the American drivel that we are forced to tolerate because it’s cheap.

So in that vein, just a reminder that Sisters in on Netflix just in case you missed it when it came out on FTA. It was a bit of fun and I am all for more of that. Much more. Bring it on.

Bobi



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72 Comments

  1. I didn’t know Barrie Cassidy is going to retire. That is very sad news.

    It’s been a pretty shitty weekend so far. I may watch a few episodes of Bluey to cheer myself up.

  2. I woke up a little despondant, today, but I’m looking on the bright side. Some good things came out of all that. Small things, maybe, but baby steps.

    I did de-stress, today, by hanging out with my nerdy friends. There’s a group of us, usually about 10 to 20 or so, and we spend two Sundays a month, hanging out all day and playing board games. It’s good to see people, catch up, find out what’s going on in everybody’s lives. Somebody’s been in hospital for something, someone just came back from climbing the Great Wall. I’m terrible at board games, but I do enjoy spending the day with them. My new favourite game is “Dice Forge”, and we played that, this morning. I scored the highest, both times we played, and I was stoked because I never win anything. So that was a tick.

    I’m enjoying “House Rules”, at the moment, but I feel like nobody else is watching it. It’s a shame, because it’s not a bad season. There’s no obviously-telegraphed villains (just a couple of whiny and dramatic dance teachers), everyone is generally pleasant (teams of two brothers, and two sisters, are getting on hilariously well. It makes for uplifting television), although Jamie Durie is a bit bleh. We still haven’t got to the team from my home town, I hope they get to them.

    Last ever episode of “Game of Thrones” airs tomorrow (I have a doctor’s appointment, but I’ve figured out how to get my Foxtel box to record things, so I can watch them later). The last season hasn’t impressed people at all, in fact, there’s been a lot of criticism for their story-telling choices (and huge editing mistakes. A cup of Starbucks coffee appeared on a dining table, in one scene. They had two years, to make this current season. Didn’t they hire an editor to actually watch the darn show, at some point during all those months?). I always had a sneaking suspicion that “GoT” would end with some serious “How I Met Your Mother”-inspired blow-back. I think people will look back on the show, and look past the production values (the gorgeous locations, the set design … and all the sex and murder) and realise that the show always had serious story-telling flaws, and looking back? They’ve become far more glaring in hindsight. And I think a big problem was that the show was making promises that it had no intention of keeping, if this is how it was all going to nut-out. It’ll be interesting to see how it all ends, regardless.

    At some point this week, I’m going to go and see “Detective Pikachu”. I never knew how much I wanted and needed a live-action Pokemon movie, until I saw the trailer for this one.

  3. Glad your feeling better, Windsong.
    I love a board game but I must admit that I like the oldie but goodies: monopoly, Careers, Cluedo (?).
    I am watching House Rules on and off but I’ve been a bit distracted lately. I took on too much and it caught up with me. Things should loosen up now that winter has arrived and we settle in after dark.
    The shorts for Pikachu look good but I’ve decided to go see Top End Wedding instead. I suspect it may be a chick-flick but I just need non-thinking stuff.
    And speaking of finales that crash and burn, I have never got over How I Met Your Mother. What a way to destroy 9 seasons of devoted watching. Crushing. Surely someone must have said something? So I feel your pain.

      • I’ve played Dixit and enjoyed it thoroughly.

        If I had to list my favourite games, I’d say Ticket to Ride (I really like the dynamic), Dice Forge (it’s easy to play, it’s quick, and everyone’s involved all the time), Seven Wonders (a really good game about building an ancient civilisation), Libertalia (a pirate game, but you pit your pirate crew against other players’ pirate crews, and how the characters interact is wonderful), and in terms of card games, I absolutely love “Exploding Kittens”. It’s hilarious inappropriate, but real boys’ humour.

        I tell you what, I also love the “Forbidden” series of family games. I’ve played Forbidden Desert (Loved it), but there’s also Forbidden Island, and a new one, Forbidden Sky. They’re co-operative games. You have to work together, because the game is trying to kill you. The game itself gets a turn, and it can — and it will — kill you, if it has half a chance. But it makes for exciting gameplay.

        I like Monopoly, but I’m not allowed to play it anymore after the train-station-incident of 2003.

        • If you like cryptic crossword puzzles (I do), and even if you don’t you might like Codewords. As with dixit, it doesn’t have the usual ‘around the board’ format.

          I will check out the other games that you mentioned.

          • Oooh, I do like Codewords.

            Ticket to Ride and Seven Wonders look complicated, and it’ll take you one or two goes to really get the hang of them, but I love them. Same with Liberalia (and that’s hard to find. I’m not even sure it’s available in Australia).

            Dice Forge is complicated to set up, but easy as hell to play. And it’s quick, too.

          • Windsong, I will pass your list on to my kids too. They introduced me to dixit and codewords.

        • I’m. Cryptic fan but I struggle. They are hard, so hard. I buy books on the subject and put them under my pillow hoping to wake up clever.
          Can I put in a bid here for Bridge. No, no, bear with me a moment. This is a seriously addictive game. You start by saying, “I’ve got this”, and end up with, “Run that by me again?”.

          • I’ve grown up doing them so I love them. But I love them that you do have to wait for them to give up the answer. It’s like a boeing 747 coming in to land; you have to get the direction and angle right. Your brain has to look at it the right way. There are easy cryptics, eg Lovett’s but I don’t do them. They are boring. The newspapers have good ones. I have been getting a cryptic book for years but it recently stopped, so now I have to go on line to find one. I want a paper book version.

  4. At least the Big Bang Theory finale was good according the my friends. How I met your Mother was really one if the worst finales, same with Dexter…

    Madonna was awful last night. She is no Cher. But well, congratz to the Netherlands!

  5. I need to vent.
    A girl I know, supposed dog lover, wants to breed Schnauzers. In this…..
    Wouldn’t that be a puppy farm. Anyway. It’s horrible to keep a dog for nothing but breeding like that. It seems cruel to me and I don’t even call myself a dog lover.

    • Horrible.
      But then again, I speak as the owner of a rescue. I’m a little biased.
      My SIL grew up on a farm. She has zero tolerance for dogs inside and both my dogs know it and follow her around.
      I know the RSPCA is trying to bring in legislation that makes it more difficult to operate these places. Maybe you could sign her up to the newsletters?
      Or you could leave anonymous and unfortunate reviews on her website. Every puppy farmer would have a website, don’t you think?
      I’m assuming that she’s not a friend, otherwise you would just say “eww”.

      • I know her, but “friend” no. I did comment on her fb when she asked where to buy these. I asked if it wasn’t cruel. Which was a message to her and to the people with the original post.

      • “She has zero tolerance for dogs inside and both my dogs know it and follow her around.”

        I can’t get my dog outside if I lure her out there with treats. She’s a cattle dog, right? She comes in for breakfast and then goes outside about 9-ish, and then hangs out in the yard for a couple of hours, until she gets tired of that and scratches on the door until we let her back in.

        I’d be happy if my dog had a tolerance for being outside. Alas…

        • Ha ha. Harry and Maggie like to stay close to us and each other. Sometimes, when I decide they need to go outside and play, they stand looking at us longingly through the glass doors, then as we move from room to room, they move around the outside of the house, staring through the windows.

          Occasionally, they are off, playing in the fort that Woolif made for the grandkids. They can climb the ladder. The grandkids taught them to do that.

    • Anonymously send the photo to the RSPCA. Maybe it’s not illegal (it seems like it should be), but that would at least put this person in their radar, wouldn’t it?

      • I just had a reply from the people who posted and who sell those cages. It was like, “Why is it cruel?”

      • Sadly, it’s an us vs them issue.
        You can’t explain this.
        You are either the sort of person who thinks of dogs as part of the family, or they are a thing.
        The tragedy is that the law says they are a thing.

    • Daisy, contact the RSPCA with the photo and what you were told those enclosures are going to be used for, with the address. You don’t have to do it anonymously, RSPCA won’t tell who contacted them. Ask if they are allowed to contact the owner and ask her what’s her plan, so at least she knows she is being checked on. They may not be able to do anything until there is a breeding set-up there, they are, unfortunately restricted in some areas.

      Also, contact the schnauzer breeders’ association, there must be one, and ask them what are the criteria for establishing a breeding place. That I would do anonymously, but it’s up to you. There are responsible breeders. But those enclosures look like they’re only for one breeding pair. I’d hate to think of one poor bitch being bred over and over again.

      • Thankyou, Von. I will take your advice. She has never bred before so it might help her to know what is and isn’t approved.
        And I have an awful feeling that yes, she is only going to get a couple of females. How can she think she’s a dog lover?

      • It’s worth it just to hear an actual mental health doctor refer to MAFS as, “the psychological sewer of Australian television”.

        I watched it myself.

        The story rang a bit hollow, though. As much fun as it was hearing actual professionals have their say on the bullshit that is Australia’s reality TV and dating shows … nobody mentioned MKR (the most scripted, contrived and edited show of the lot of them), nobody mentioned 7’s “Seven Year Switch” or whatever it is, nobody mentioned any show that had any connection to channel 7 at all. And that made the whole thing smell, just a little bit.

          • John whatshisface was actually threatened with legal action about calling himself a “relationship councillor” or something, so from that point on, the show just calls him one of the “experts”. I thought that was telling.

        • I thought it was hypercritical of Ch7 to not include any comment re their shows which are just as bad as those discussed.

  6. I have mixed thoughts about the entrants complaining about being criticized. It’s not like it’s a new thing.
    I had the opportunity once to speak to someone who had been on rtv. He told me how brutal it had been and how the girl had cut him as soon as the show folded. I said, “…….., don’t you watch rtv?”.
    As for the producers, well they are whatever bacteria or lice might grow on a snake’s belly. I agree with Billy’s mum. There is a difference between ppl on sm making comments, and producers knowingly throwing people well and truly….well not “truly” under the bus. Billy’s mum is bang on. That was abuse. I was disgusted by what Billy was put through.

  7. What’s interesting is that the entrants on the rtv show IACGMOOH, don’t suffer the same horrible fate but end up with jobs on The Studio or the Bachette. 🤔🤔🤔Now why isthat???? 🤔

    • I think it’s because it’s more difficult to hide in the jungle. Oh, I’m funny today. 🤣🤣🤣
      No but seriously. I think it’s more difficult to manipulate the editing, especially as everyone is a “celebrity” and has an already established platform to support (or not), if something is out of kilter.
      Newbies are just hung out to dry.
      Plus, of course, “celebrities” are paid a bucket load of money which makes it a different type of show.

  8. Now I am sucked in by SUNDAY part 2. I always thought falling in love with an object just couldn’t be true…although I did develop a romance with a few cakes in Paris.

  9. Jodi married a bridge. Difficult taking it home to meet your parents, but no problem with birth control.
    Now this could be a lot easier than marrying a person. Divorce would be a breeze….especially if you fell in love with a windchime.

  10. I finally got around to watching eurovision (hence the 2.30 post). Netherlands seemed a fair outcome. There weren’t any songs I really liked.

    But what the hell with Madonna. She was all over the shop. She was so off key. I googled about the eye patch but got no info. I assume something is wrong with one of her eyes.

  11. I don’t like either, but Penny Wong over Tania P, please. I think Penny Wong would be less annoying popping up on my tv screen. I will need to turn off ABC.

    • If you’re talking about putting a hand up for Labour leadership, you have to be in the House of Reps, and Penny is in the Senate so not eligible. She’s also Leader of the Opposition in the Senate which i imagine would be a less stressful job. And she has a very young family.
      As does Tanya.
      I know, men can and do do it and have wives, etc, etc. but why put the added stress on your family if you don’t have to.

      • Agree. I left Woolif to take care of cooking some chicken schnitzel. What could go wrong? He deep fried it. Then he asked me how he should removed the oil from the cooked chicked. I called out for him to wrap it in some paper towel. When I went into the kitchen, it had all been wrapped up in a teatowel. At least it was a clean one. Or had been. It was soaked in oil from the chicken. I have to watch him like a hawk. (Trite but too accurate).

  12. The brunette on Studio 10; “She would of”. Journalist. 🤐
    She would ‘have’.
    Thank goodness I won’t live to see journalism and tv presenters get too much worse. Well, I probably will.

    • My pet hate is “journalists” using emotive language.
      Like, “Labour is scrambling to find a new leader”. No they’re not. They are following a process that will take some time to complete.
      It’s a journalist job to give me the facts, not to manipulate my thoughts. It just makes me spit chips.

    • I honestly didn’t mind it. I wasn’t expecting anything grand of climactic (they’d already hit those notes twice this season, once against the Night King, and again, last episode with the burning of Kings Landing), plus, they needed the time to wrap up 10 years worth of story-telling.

      On that note, while I was disappointed at Dany’s fate, I generally liked how it ended for all the surviving characters. Bitter-sweet, yes, but most of them survived and wound up a lot better off than where they were, and there was a note of hopefulness for the future of Westeros (which is more than the place had before).

      I also liked Drogon’s final contribution, taking one look at that iron thing that had caused so many problems, melting it to slag, and then getting the hell out of there.

      • I was disappointed. It felt rushed and the choice of king was bizarre.
        Best parts for me were the scene between Dany and Jon with support by Drogon and then Ghost and Jon meeting up again.
        Funniest thing: the plastic water bottles left near Samwell Tarly and Ser Davos. https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/20/18632198/game-of-thrones-season-8-finale-the-iron-throne-water-bottle-coffee-cup-sam-tarly

        Guess Bran three eyed his way into the future and brought back the means for creating bottled water and plastic bottles.

        • Yeah. That irks me as well. They had two years to make, what, six episodes? But nobody noticed a Starbucks cup on the table, and a plastic bottle under someone’s chair? Really?

        • Yeah. The book probably has some complicated logic for why she named her three dragons the way she did (two of them were named after the brothers), but Drogon’s name? Not sure about that one. He was the main dragon, too, like, he showed up a lot. He was always very dramatic, but like I said, I enjoyed his final contribution to proceedings. It was like he was saying, “screw this. I’m gonna melt this bastard thing down to scrap, and get the hell out of dodge.”

      • The ending was fine – just not mind blowing. I wish they had chucked in a few more episodes to show more of Dany’s mindset. I was half thinking Drogon might fly over Arya’s ship. Or seek Jon out in the North. The best bit was seeing Sansa crowned. And Brienne write in the book. Tyrion has always been a terrible hand – someone else should have got that job.

        • I don’t know, I thought Tyrion made a find hand for Joffrey, but he kinda screwed it up for Dany. I liked Brienne and Davos (two of the few decent human beings to live in Westeros) actually now in a position of power to make some healthy changes. Same with Tyrion in the rebuilding of King’s Landing.

          I was expecting Jon on the throne, at the end, but part of me thought it would be fitting if they just nuked that bloody thing (given all the horrors that have been perpetuated by people wanting to sit on it), so it was helpful for Drogon to oblige.

  13. Maybe Drogon should have nuked Jon also. The Dothraki were strangely absent. Would they not have gone all pillaged with Dany dead? They should team up with the Greyjoys. Love Davos.

    • Drogon sensed that Jon was a Targaryen so he wouldn’t have torched him.
      Interesting that nothing was discussed regarding Jon’s right to the throne.
      Dany was crazed and crazy at the end. She wanted to choose everyone’s fate. She wanted everyone to bend to her beliefs. Liberating people but choosing for them…very conflicted. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Her mindset and actions were reminiscent of the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen II.

      • Yeah, that was the thing about Dany, and Tyrion himself pointed this out, at the start of the episode. Dany’s go-to solution for any problem has been, “Drogon, set them on fire” for about 6 seasons now. And nobody cared because the people she was fighting against were awful people. But — and this began with the Tarlys, last season — suddenly, she’s up against people who haven’t really done a lot of things wrong. She’s still solving problems the same way, but it’s not a good thing anymore.

  14. I’m still watching “Five Bedrooms” and enjoying it. 10’s dramas tend to be hit and miss, but I’m sticking with this one.

    I will say, though, that last night I had something of an … explicit dream about the character who’s the gay Indian doctor, and Stephen Peacocke’s tradie character. It was like, phew, where did that come from?

    At least I’m not having erotic dreams about evil Thomas Forrester and his evil nipples.

  15. Had to skip most of MChef tonight as the second season of The Rain dropped on Netflix. Anyone else watched it? It’s dubbed but bearable

  16. So … are we allowed to talk about other countries and their politics? Because tonight, Theresa May finally decided to resign. I actually think it’s kind of a damning indictment that one of the most powerful people in their country was stuck in a such a hopelessly impossible, no-win situation, that the only option she was eventually left with was, “Screw you all, I’m outta here.”

    • Sadly, I see this as symptomatic of what’s happening in politics around the world. The British people voted for Brexit. It doesn’t matter who agrees or disagrees. That’s what happened. End of.
      But all those who didn’t get what they wanted are now being as disruptive, destructive and obstructive as possible, no matter the outcome or the chaos that ensues. It’s like the new way of the world is to throw a tantrum if they don’t get their way. I blame their parents.
      I so admire Theresa May for her endurance and her commitment to trying to see this thing through and I hope history treats her kindly.
      And may the UK sink into the abyss of apathy, only to occasionally emerge to make an excellent, and funny, tv series on the subject.

      • I don’t think history will be that kind to her. Every single online friend I have from the UK is either happy or outrightly joyful that she’s gone. It sounds like she did a lot of very bad things for the country that the country itself wasn’t too happy about, and I’ll listen to people rather than a politician’s self-satisfying retirement speech.

      • I’m not liking her because she gave a lovely exit speech (actually I haven’t heard it so I can’t comment either way) but because she is listening to the people.
        I’m liking her because she was not in favour of Brexit and yet, because 52% of the population said yes, she tried to implement (as she should) and that goose Cameron walked away.
        She was never going to please 48% of the people who just could not accept the decision of the majority. And btw, like Australia, a huge chunk of that 52% people in favour are silent.
        I don’t like much about the American system but one of the things I do agree with is that some decisions need to have 60%. A line ball decision was always going to be problematic.
        Implementing Brexit was a poison chalice. She could have included a cure for cancer and all options would still be shouted down.
        My point is, the minority of people can’t keep demanding referendum after referendum until they get what they want. It’s not the way anything in life works. Accept/make the best of it/move on.

  17. I just sat and watched 3 episodes in a row of The Name Game with Grant Denyer and enjoyed them all.
    How bizarre is that?
    I feel so old.

    • Twilight Zone. Your body has been taken over.
      Or “Drill” made you do it. (Reference: the Whispers).

    • Funny. You read my mind.
      Is there something in the format that presses the addiction button – like Tetris? Or pocker machines?
      Have the Russians infiltrated our TVs? Are we accidentally going try to vote for Trump in 2020? Or Clive?
      Am I going to start worshipping at the alter of the Kardashians?
      ….

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