General chat: August

By Daisy
I’m not really a hippie, although there is a bit of that influence in me. I have never been into New Age stuff: crystals and purple medieval velvet dresses, although I have always had a mostly casual wardrobe.

But I have navigated through The Age of Aquarius, wearing jeans, raising children and enjoying country living. 

The Age of Aquarius didn’t quite happen the way they sang about it in Hair, and then perhaps people discovered they wanted to move on from a beautiful,  $20-per-week, 100-year-old farm house on a dairy farm by a river, to town to complete their degrees and find fulfilling, well-paying work.

So, now many of us have found that maturity and even old age have taken hold, and life has given us scars and baggage. When Neil Young sang Old Man Look at My Life, we sang along and enjoyed it from the hippie, happy garden of youth, never thinking how soon we would become that old man ourselves. 
Now we find ourselves with regrets, sorrows and good and bad memories. Even worse, sometimes we find we have no memories …”Why did I come into this room?”
Maybe we are re-evaluating our perspective and goals. Some may have spent a life achieving goals, and now wonder what to do when they no longer need goals, then there is a sense of lack of purpose, point and direction.
Perhaps we have lost the ability to be selfish. Sometimes baby boomers are accused of selfishness, yet we have probably spent our lives looking after others, and being responsible. For me, I recall a time, when in spite of the usual teen troubles and dramas, (and some not so usual), I enjoyed myself. I didn’t care about goals.

I didn’t care about career, getting dinner on the table, being responsible. Those were the kind of things that got in the way of my real goal; enjoying life and hanging out with friends.
So now that I am staring down the barrel of … mmmm … however many years, I have decided that it’s time for me to bring back some of that hedonism and selfishness into my life.

It won’t be easy. We baby boomer girls have been trained to worry and have a hard time saying, “No”. But I am in training for a life of hedonism now. It was a decision I made in January 2020, then we had Coronavirus, but perhaps it’s still achievable.

So that’s my ramblings on looking back at life, and looking forward. It’s a season for all of us to re-evaluate. How about you?



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112 Comments

  1. I was a hippie back in the day. Long hair, long skirts, and flowers in my hair. I used to go to folk festivals and march against logging and the Vietnam War. The whole kit and caboodle.
    I then went public service and followed by corporate – suits and all. My mother used to complain that I had too much black in my wardrobe. Could I not wear a bit of colour?
    I have now gone full circle. Ukulele lessons, painting and contributions to obscure charities. If I was allowed out of the house, I would be marching for climate change and BLM.
    I am enjoying an existential crisis.

    • I wore beautifully embroidered Indian and Rumanian skirts and blouses, Bobi, because that was what was in the shops and they were so well made back then, but I was a surfie chick, although girls didn’t surf in those days. Our job was to wear little bikinis, frolick in the sea and lay on the beach, then hang out with the boys when they came out from the surf, put their boards onto their kombies, panel vans or Holden station wagons and peeled off their wet suits.

      Mmmmm.

      I did a couple of protests. Probably the Vietnam war. The last time I protested it was Woolif trying to kiss me after he had been at work. 🤪

      Actually, it wasn’t long ago that Woolif and I were protesting the clearing of forest.

  2. Played guitar, still do., hitched around Australia a couple of times, Roxby, Iraq protests. Took every drug I could get my hands on. Swimming naked across The Murray twice a day. Fit , long hair beard .Beautiful hippie girls from all over the world travelling.

    With the benefit of hindsight, I would never recommend such a life to another soul…..but oh shit, I had some fun. But I saw great people very young lost to drugs, drunk driving, misadventure etc. Thanks ,daisy.

    Oh……and the music. Sublime.

    To counter ,I was in Adelaide a lot, a Paedophile paradise.Still is.

    • The music back then was the best. None of this tuneless, repetitive stuff.
      I read somewhere that songs these days use fewer notes. No wonder it’s so easy to claim copyright.
      And Kanye is supposed to be a genius, fftt.

    • Hell yeah. The music was the best from the mid 60s to mid 70s. Although I also like the 40s.
      As for the drugs; as common as candy. And same health and safety-wise, I wouldn’t recommend the drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, alcohol mixed with driving, and sunbaking that was all pretty normal for the beach scene. But we had so much fun.

      It was pre-AIDS.

      • Hahaha. That’s hilarious. Don’t type in purpose, goals, achievement or future. Still it’s better than all of the m_a_s_k ads. Do you think I fooled the cyber spies?

  3. Wow, I feel like such a boring nerd.

    Child of the 80s, here. I watched He-Man and She-Ra as a kid (I preferred She-Ra. She had the better theme song, plus she was a superhero warrior princess. Xena with more sparkles), and then in the 90s, switched to the Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. I grew up religious (sort of. My family were) in a very small town, with very few opportunities for misadventure. I didn’t drink as a teenager (scared of the stuff. I still don’t drink now), I never touched cigarettes (they killed two of my grandparents. I figured out when I was 10 to avoid them), hell, I’ve never even smoked a joint. I can’t even regale anybody with dating stories (my first kiss was when I was 33. I tell myself that it’s okay to be a late bloomer, and sometimes, I almost believe it). Actually, I’m pretty boring.

    I don’t recall many powerful political causes when I was a teenager. At least, I was busy reading and having a nervous breakdown (fun childhoods are the best, aren’t they?), so I didn’t really pay attention to the wider world.

    I remember finding out about 9/11, though. I had a college class. I cried, listening to a sad song on the radio, on my way into uni, and I remember how freaked out the college professor was. It’s funny, to me. I have friends and colleagues who were born after 9/11. They don’t remember what the world was like before that happened. To them, it’s something that was written in a history textbook. They heard about it in school, they saw documentaries about it on TV, but they didn’t live it.

    But, now, covid is *their* 9/11. They’re living through this amazing, world-changing thing, and in a few years time, they’ll have employees and kids who won’t have that experience, they’ve have just read about covid in history textbooks and watched stories about it on TV. That blows my mind a little, to think about.

    Cancer has a funny way of making you think about your life. I spent my 20s stuck at home, staring at a wall, wishing for any kind of life except for the one I had, and trying to end it, more than a few times. I knew I was miserable, right? I knew this wasn’t a good life, but it took me until my mid-30s before I actually decided to *try*. Maybe it took courage that I just didn’t have in my 20s? And that’s what I mean. Existing is easy. You just open your eyes every morning. But living? Living is hard. You actually have to work at it. You have to try. It doesn’t come easily. But having adventures, meeting people, hearing incredible stories, doing some amazing things (I’ve climbed mountains. I spent a morning on a pirate ship. I’ve gone hiking with a wild emu as a companion, twice. I went to a comic book convention and became friends with one of my favourite actors. I’ve had feasts of amazing food in many places. I went to a medieval festival and saw a jousting competition)? These are things that bring me joy. I wished I’d been doing them all along.

    But I feel like, the lesson’s learned, you know? I’m getting better at actually living, and it feels nice. Sure, I’m still zero for zero on the whole career, marriage and home ownership thing, but we do our best with what we’re given, and sometimes we’re not given a lot, you know?

    As for music, I read once that the music you listen to as a teenager tends to dictate your music preferences for the rest of your life. So for me, it’s 90s pop. Backstreet’s back, all right?! But I’m learning to appreciate things from the 80s, folk songs, Bon Jovi (some things just transcend social lines). I like music that makes me feel something, you know? Something empowering, something loud, something that makes me go, “Hell yeah!”

    • Windsong, how can you think you’re boring. Unfinished, yes, because you have so much more to live, but boring, no. Not at all.
      It’s interesting to read of lives from various vantage points, and from various shades and degrees of satisfaction/dissatisfaction. I find it reassuring too. If people as creative and interesting as the ones we have here can question the value and purpose of their existence, then it’s either a good thing, or it’s at least normal Or creatively abnormal. Didn’t Van Gogh have the same problem. Oh wait. Bad example. ,🤪

    • From way out in front here, I can relate to some of this, WS.
      One of the great disappointments of my life was that even being around marijuana gives me full on, blind invoking, vomit inducing migraines. Not helped by the fact that one drink makes me chatty and giggly, and two drinks puts me to sleep. Gave my parents immense comfort but makes it difficult to be a rebellious teen.
      I lived a lot of my life through books but, when I emerged, I was fairly confident in my opinions. I didn’t need to live through a lot of “those” mistakes. My hero/heroine did it for me.
      Not telling you anything you don’t know but for others who are reading this, what happened to you is where the term Arrested Development comes from. I was involved with a charity called Learning Links and it helps children with life threatening illnesses get through that stage. It’s very hard because schools and parents tend to measure progress against grades and underestimate the emotional/maturity impact.
      My brother got cancer (the prognosis seems to be good 🤞). He says it was a bit like standing over an abyss, looking around and finding that he was alone.
      My heart goes out to you and it’s lovely to see you start living life again. How lucky you are to be in sunny Queensland.
      Write that book. I want to be able to say I know a famous author.
      Well, I actually do know a famous author but he’s a w**ker and doesn’t count. His Wikipedia page is a masterclass in fiction.

      • “Not helped by the fact that one drink makes me chatty and giggly, and two drinks puts me to sleep. Gave my parents immense comfort but makes it difficult to be a rebellious teen.”

        Yeah, I was never much of a rebellious teenager. I tended to just do what I was told, but that still was never good enough. Being young is the best, isn’t it?

        I was always afraid that alcohol would make me angry, or else, it would crank up my “obnoxious” switch to 11. But when I started with a very light dose of gin? It just made me a bit giggly and cheerful. I was chatting happily to the bus driver the entire trip home, like, I actually felt the difference. It was an interesting experience, acamedically, but a couple of glasses of gin hardly makes me an alcoholic.

        Although I want to try a cocktail, one day. Maybe a martini or something. Just to feel a bit posh, and say that I’ve had one.

        “My brother got cancer (the prognosis seems to be good 🤞). He says it was a bit like standing over an abyss, looking around and finding that he was alone.”

        Firstly, I’m sorry to hear about your brother. I’m glad the prognosis looks good, though. These days there’s a lot more weapons in the medical arsenal to hit the thing with.

        It actually doesn’t surprise me at all that he said that. It’s something that a lot of people don’t realise. I didn’t even think this, at the beginning. But disease is incredibly-isolating. It’s a very lonely thing, to deal with. It’s very hard to explain it, to other people, and there’s simply nothing comparable to it. There’s no other life experiences that you can really compare it to, for the sake of helping people understand what you’re going through.

        I remember, at the start, they gave me all these pamphletes and brochures and paperwork with phone numbers and websites and message boards, all with people I could talk to if I wanted to. I didn’t get it, then, but after a couple of months, I kind of realised, oh, yeah, that’s why.

        It’s a confronting, terrifying thing. But I was lucky to have some amazing support (in my best friends, and family), and a really great medical team. I wish everybody was blessed with the support that I had, you know?

  4. I have a theory that nobody’s life is boring. You just have to dig deeper for some. Some people are storytellers and can make a meal of a story out of a trip to the dentist. Others will recount their day with, “First I got up. Then I took my right leg out of my PJs.. .” At that point you already know, “Settle in. This is going to take awhile”.
    I’m an animated gesticulator, who likes to jazz up a story with an exaggeration and lies to make it funnier. It wouldn’t work in text because you can’t see my face to know when I’m joking. And I am waving my arms in the air as I speak (just joking face).

    • Now isn’t that funny. I am the exact opposite.
      I don’t change tone or direction when I drop a joke in and I look at people in amazement when I notice that they have taken some unbelievable piece of bulls**t as fact. Like, how did you not see that I was joking?
      Life’s a trial.

      • Oh, I throw in jokes like I am telling the truth, but I am generally an animated person.
        Woolif is the deadpan one. This is him having fun.

  5. Oooops Hahaha. I just reread a comment I wrote on this FB pic yesterday. True. I wrote…
    “Like shots with lines”.

  6. I just found this on FB.
    Grieving
    I remember the days when I was still small
    When family was close and built like strong walls
    Together we played and functioned as one
    United and predictable until each day was done

    We soon started changing from toddlers to kids
    Out on the streets covered in mud skids
    Down in the bush scraping oysters off rocks
    Blonde hair gradually becoming golden locks

    Christmas each year got bigger and better
    Dad played Santa to all nine of us together
    Cousins and aunties and uncles and Grandies
    Eating and laughing, careless and free

    Next it was school – girls became women and boys became men
    The world grew bigger – new experiences to pen
    Smoking and drinking and dating number one
    Study was there but last to be done

    Time to get focussed as careers were chosen
    Diverging paths fragmenting our worlds
    Travelling to far places all over the planet
    Meeting new people, finding new pearls

    Years of experiences filling our lives
    Sport and music and food and good wine
    Friendship and lovers, husbands and wives
    Creating moments to cherish as we move forward in time

    Then things got tougher as life got quite real
    Lots of new things that were not part of the deal
    HIV and AIDS, politics and wars
    Having to walk through new unopened doors

    Babies and children, new family to meet
    Sickness and crises one never expects to greet
    Confronting mortality and the burden of life
    Then divorced and no money, no longer a wife

    Twisting and turning, finding more ways to cope
    Building resilience, relying more and more on hope
    Hope for a future that still holds that strong flame
    For those wonderful times when life was a game

    Now that time has come when my child is grown
    To another country far away he has flown
    Dad has passed and Mum fighting still
    Cousins and nephews their lives to fill

    Still I now work, my career brings great joy
    Caring for others, my favourite the little boys
    Brought in by their mums, snotty noses and toys
    The oldies reminding me of those who made much noise

    Grand and great grandparents, all seven lived long lives
    Not till my twenties did they move on from this world
    Together they showed me what a good life is like
    Simple and easy, like riding a bike

    But now as I age and become as they were,
    Older and wiser and often alone
    I take time to ponder as I sit on my throne
    Wondering just exactly what is happening to this world I call home

    A virus has landed and dictating the terms
    No longer are we free to wander and learn
    Now we must take care and always be mindful
    Somehow it’s changed, there’s danger if we’re playful

    Hugging and kissing becoming things of the past
    Suddenly my childhood is fading too fast
    Those sixty good years of freedom and hope
    Slowly being shattered, not sure how I’ll cope

    Anxious feelings start covering rough edges of life
    We must find new ways, everyone pledges to fight
    United, together, alone and apart
    Suddenly it’s vital we all make a new start

    Never before in my life have I known
    A time when such chaos has entered our homes
    When such a small thing has generated great waves
    When the terror and fear could lead to your grave

    So now as I ponder in bed late at night
    I wonder how far until there is light
    Hope still has a flame, but will it be brief
    Or will it be swallowed by this new world of grief?

  7. Really interesting thread here. I think my backstory is quite similar to Windsong, being later than the hippie era, and with a family that was quite ordinary. I certainly came nowhere near any of the drugs or alcohol scene – I was well and truly into adulthood (with kids) before I heard or understood any of the slang related to that. I still occasionally hear a word or phrase I don’t understand.

    There was virtually no drinking in my family, and only one smoking uncle who I remember gave up when I was a child. My brother got into drinking in high school and I remember one horrific night when he came home late and I woke to hear him vomiting (I was still in primary school). He got to the point of abusing alcohol in his mid-twenties but then went to live near an interstate uncle who was an alcoholic and was beginning to get the illnesses that come with it. Watching him turned my brother around (thankfully) and he now is only a very moderate drinker, and more into fitness.

    I agree that the music of your teens is the style you believe, forevermore, to be the best. My music is late 70s and 80s (I really dislike nearly all 60s music). By the 90s, I was listening full time to the Wiggles, hooley dooleys, justine clarke and playschool. I have recently realised that I missed a whole decade of popular music!

    But I have come to believe that at any given time in history (or the last 70 years or so) that about 10% of music written is good or very good and will endure as the best of its time. The other 90% is generally formulaic dross, most of which will slide into anonymity except for the teens of that era.

    With that in mind, I now get my teens to help me find the good music now, and try to ignore the rest, where you can’t tell the difference between them. My kids tried to tell me that the Tones and me song that won awards was good, but I just couldn’t accept that.

    • I’m not a fan of Tones. She feels a bit gimmicky to me. I don’t like that sharp note.
      You could try Mojo Juju. She’s a bit fabulous in my book.
      I like being sung to rather than screamed at.
      I seem to be alone in my opinion, but they don’t come more overrated than Beyoncé to me. Just shows what a good marketing team will do for you.

  8. WS, your observations about 9/11 are spot on. Recently, there was the anniversary of the moon landing, and some older friends were sharing stories about where they were, what happened on that day. I sort of felt wonder at their passion, and then realised that I don’t know a world where we didn’t go into space. It just isn’t that big a deal for me.

    Yet, 9/11 was a day (well, technically 10/11 for us) that is burned into me, and I will never forget throwing up in fear, holding my three-month-old and wondering whether she would grow up at all. But we survived that, and even though the world was never the same, happiness endured. And that life perspective now enables me to guide the young adults in my life through this epoch. Yes, they will remember this time as a significant event in their lives, but it will end and they will reconcile it within their personal histories just like we have before.

    • I was on a train when it happened. I didn’t hear anything until I got off.
      I remember thinking that WW3 had just been declared and I was busy going to work at a job I hated. Don’t get me started about working at a University.
      All those people sitting at their desk, minding their own business.
      And yes, I was one of those children watching the moon landing on a black and white tv.

      • I can’t imagine how amazing it would’ve been watching human beings walk on the moon for the first time. I get excited at an Olympic Games opening ceremony being televised, you know? It’s one of the greatest things the human race has ever accomplished (I’m including eradicating smallpox in that list too).

        Darn it. All my generation gets is terrorists, murder and disease.

  9. Great read, Fijane. I think your point of view on enduring music is quite true. I also think some amazing music gets lost in the past. I think of songs like, “How glad I am”, that new generations of youth might never get to hear. Perhaps young people can listen to their grandparents’ music.
    Occasionally I listen to something cheesy, eg Honey, just because it takes me back to, what I think, were better days, even though I might not have liked them back when they were popular.

    BTW is anyone else having problems with clicking on a comment in the comments list only to find it pops up to the main post rather than to the comment?

  10. On music, I find it a great mood lifter. When things aren’t so great, I like to keep listening to songs that are bright and happy.

  11. Here is one for the group. Woolif’a mum has just been moved to an old age home. We are thinking of bringing her home to our place. She is 95, frail, with little to no short term memory but is otherwise still quite sharp. I don’t feel good about leaving her to live her last months/years with strange tea ladies.
    Any advice?

    • I have lots of opinions if you want to talk.
      I have looked after 3 elderly: 2 in aged homes and one not.
      My uncle went into a home by choice. He was the subject of elder abuse and he chose to go into one to get away. It suited him for 2 years and then for the last 2 years, it did not. We had problems with the night nurses and had to get some of them fired. It’s a long story.
      It worked out well for my aunt. She was (mostly) content.
      My mother was in a retirement home – not a nursing home – just around the corner from us all.
      I also lived with her for 3 years before the retirement home. This was the best option. I wish I had been more patient. You don’t realise how limited your time is.
      Personally for me, if I had my choice, I would like to live in a granny flat off my daughter’s house. A little bit of privacy and a little bit of company.
      It’s not easy to make a decision and 50/50 hindsight is a wonderful option.

  12. BDD, thanks for the heads-up on Rage. Woolif and I are listening/watching now. Pink Floyd, Beach Boys and now The Byrd’s. ❤️

    OMG and now one of my absolute favourite songs; Itchicoo Park by the Small Faces. Be still my happy heart. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

  13. The House of the Rising Sun. ❤️❤️❤️❤️. Okay, I’ll stop.

    I have all these in on my car song list but it’s fun to watch.

  14. While we are on new and old and renewed. I found these today.
    My favourite lollies were sherbet, anything aniseed, and pink Musky Mints.

    Ice-cream; I liked the Sputnik. It cost 3d. Or threepence.

  15. A bit late to the party. 😉 I think Windsong and I are pretty much the same age. Like “early” Millenials. Okay, I am still a typical Millenial. When it comes to the way I dress, the music I listen too. And it is correct, the music we listen to as teens somehow still defines the later taste in music. I loved band like Smashing Pumpkins, Manic Street Preachers, but also Daft Punk and songwriters like Fiona Apple. And her music was basically the soundtrack of my life. 😉 My mother thinks I was already a depressed child if she today thinks about it, but no one really thought about it at that time. To them I was just an introvert child which loved books more than hanging out with friends. When I misbehaved, not allowing me to watch TV was actually a present (unlike for my sister who then threw temper tantrums which clearly never helped her case^^). No one thought about taking away my books, they were just grateful I loved reading.^^
    I was super depressed as a teen, I only ever wore black, I had my handful of close girlfriends. I had it under control until my best friend went to Upstate New York to do a year of highschool and it was superhard for me. My dad upgraded our internet from a modem to ISDN (ha!) so I could have easier access to talk to my best friend as letters took ages. We basically sent 10 emails to each other every day.
    But at the same time, my other girlfriends except for one, found boyfriends and we both felt pretty isolated. I tried to focus more on school as I was in 11th grade, just two more years until finals and then uni. I had a horrible teacher in Biology class and she loved bullying me. There as also a new girl who repeated 11th grade and she sniffed out that I was apparently weak and also jumped onto the bullying train. I basically got under the train and it tore me into bits and pieces. I totally descended into depression and self harm. It got so bad, the only way I saw to escape that hell was changing schools but my grades significantly dropped so I asked my counselor (who also was my teacher) if I can go back a year and repeat class.
    It was a good decision, I found new friends who weren’t the cool kids but who were just great people. I wasn’t completely healed, but I did therapy and my grades went up again. I also did highschool in the US, but only for a few weeks. I had a great guest family in the US and I loved all of the trips we took. Can I say that the West Coast (Washington, Oregon to San Francisco) is absolutely stunning? I also visited New York. I wanted to take a gap year after graduating and become an Au Pair in the US.
    6 months later, 9/11 happened. I was at school and had therapy afterwards. When I got back home, my stepsister and my stepmum were basically glued to the TV. They didn’t even realize I was there. I looked at the TV and saw New York, and the burning tower. I was just there, taking pictures in that area between the Twin Towers. It was absolutely surreal. And I just was about to sit down when the second plane crashed in. I felt like I had to cry.

    I never went to the States again, even though I got accepted into the Au Pair program. I went to uni and to protests against Bush’s Iraq war. 😉

    • Thanks for contributing to the discussion, Zhee. Isn’t it weird how there is the surface, when you post comments, and then there are the layers. Tragedy always seems to rear it’s ugly head at some point.

  16. On another note, if anyone has FB, check out Clive Palmer’s FB posts. They have loads of comments from adoring WA fans. 🙃

    • I don’t have fb, but tried to get to comments on CP page. I’d have had to wade through too much of his horse shit, though. I assume your second sentence is sarcasm, Daisy.

      • Definitely sarcasm. I only looked at his two most current posts to read the comments. There were more than 2.5 comments…ouch. Harsh. 🤪
        From Fat Bastard to Sloppy Chud. I don’t know what a Chud is but it sounded apt.
        #fattymcfatfuckwit. 🤣🤣🤣

        • I tried again with my computer, but was only able to see two comments. I don’t know what a chud is either, but yes, it seems apt.

          Clive has decided to blame WA for everything that has gone wrong in his life, ever. And bring a separate law suit for every incident. It’s a big dummy spit from a small man.

          • Honestly? That’s Clive in a nut-shell. He’s selfish and arrogant. He thinks the entire world revolves around him, that he’s a big fish in a tiny pond … and he has no idea how small he really is.

            Which is a bit of a paradox since, girth-wise, he’s the size of a barn.

          • Chud – Cannabalistic Humanoild Underground Dweller, an acronym taken from some old horror movie, with further connotations of unappealing, mind-bendingly stupid, valueless, etc. So, yeah, Clive Palmer.

            The current $30 billion dollar suit is over some WA government decision that has pissed Clive off since 2012. And according to ABC news reports, Clive has offered to remove his border closure dispute if WA will move that other dispute along to a conclusion – favourable to him of course. I think I smell blackmail. What an unethical, unscrupulous little toad he is.

            I am not one to use #anything. But what the hell, #Istandwithmarkmcgowan.

          • Sorry for the rant. I know the dreadful, heartbreaking problems Victoria, and NSW, are having with covid19 are much more serious than Clive’s frivolous law suit.

            It’s an emotive issue here.

  17. Good one, Von. 🤣🤣🙃
    And thanks. Yeah, sloppy Chud cane toad.
    #sloppychudcanetoad
    I am late to the whole # party too.

      • I don’t want to make us all to feel terribly old, or not Woke or anything like that but CP has a particular and unpleasant meaning on the internet. Just sayin’.
        Clive needs another nickname.
        And bizarrely, I don’t know what this is all about. Of all the news stories, this is the one that makes me change the station … every. time.
        There is just something about the man that makes me want to run, screaming. I wonder if it’s his uncanny resemblance to Trump and I only have room in my newsfeed for one corrupt politician.
        Otherwise, methinks all hope is lost.

        • I don’t know what CP is, but the Cane Toad, with Morrison’s love and support, took WA to high court to try to force us to open our borders so we could share the Corona. Then, after the hearing was over, Slomo withdrew his support (too late again Slomo). The judge is deliberating.
          Now Fatty is suing WA for billions because he didn’t like the CV protocols for coming to WA so he pulled the plug on some mineral development here that, wait for it….. He was selling to China so they could mine it. An all round nice person.
          Not sure why WA hates him so much.

        • I think the Trump comparison is apt, because he clearly looks at Trump as a role model (certainly, Palmer’s last political campaign used slogans and jingo taken almost straight from Trump’s own campaign). Problem is, he still failed miserably, right? It’s one thing to try and model yourself after Trump, it’s another thing entirely to try and do that, fail miserably, but still think you’re God’s gift to the world.

        • I found out about CP because I followed a story where some American (substitute, it can only happen in ….) wanted to call his about-to-be-born daughter, Caplain-Phasma because he didn’t want her to be bullied at school.
          Telling her what her nickname was going to be was what stopped him in the end. No, surprisingly, not the sheer stupidity of it.
          I love these people. They keep me entertained for days.

  18. Von, regarding your previous comment, someone should remind Palmer we’re trying to have a pandemic here. Who who do what he is doing right now? Only a sloppy Chud.

    My heart goes out to everyone affected either by geography or by compromised health.

    • What’s worse is the link to one of the Instagram profiles of another MAFS girl who actually threatens Dan Andrews because he’s making people wear masks and she thinks it’ll just cut off oxygen to her brain!

      Honey, for you, I think that ship has already sailed.

    • She deserves a fat lip for that, but it’s too late. An idiot on the show ~ and in life.

      Her stupid turd of a husband is charging $50 for interviews.

      • It’s depressing — but also predictable. After all, they all volunteered to appear on MAFS — just how reality-challenged these people ended up being. We thought they were just fame-hungry bogans on TV. Nope! In real life, too.

      • Hayley Vernon — y’know, toothbrush girl — has recently joined an adult website, giving private shows to paying fans.

        Ah, fame. If you can’t get it with your clothes on, well, it’s the internet, after all.

  19. I recall something important happening in grade 5/1965 because we all had to gather around a black and white box TV that had been brought in especially for the event. But I can’t recall what it was.

    I recall where and when I was when the Twin Towers were blown up, and when Princess Diana was killed. I recall a lot of upset people when John then Bobby Kennedy were assassinated.

    • Dammit, Daisy, now I’m trying to remember what happened in 1965 that would call for a tv in the class room. Something to do with space flights? Vietnam?

      I remember where and when I was for the first manned space flight, the moon landing, the murders of Israeli athletes at the Olympics, Diana’s death. the WTC attacks, and many assassinations, so many. Can’t think of one thing in 1965 though.

      • Days Of Our Lives premiered on television.

        Tonight the doco on SBS The Vietnam War is one of the best made. 10.30. Great soundtrack, too. First bombings 1965

        • Hahaha. Sorry guys. You are making me laugh. I thought it was a space/moon thing. Maybe it was a queen thing.
          Nope pretty sure it was a moon thing.
          But I’m lovng your suggestions.

          In year 6, I climbed out of the classroom window to wag sport. It was quite rebellious for my 11 year old self, but my mum was away and my doting grandmother, Dearie, was minding us so I felt emboldened.
          Climbing out of the window wasn’t really necessary. I could probably have just walked out the footpath. They were those bottom windows that pulled down and only opened inward 45 degrees but I was skinny.

          I got home and got a lovely early dinner from my grandma who was probably happy to have extra time with me. ❤️❤️❤️

          Okay, childhood naughtiness????

  20. I am very good at identifying years by fashion and music. Sometimes people confuse late 60s clothes for 70s.

  21. There is a show we are streaming ATM, that is also showing on SBS, that is called Difficult People. It is about a couple of comedians, struggling to find notoriety and work. The female is also a recapper.
    Anyone watching it. I love the mother.
    Juz, this one is for you.

  22. I am finding the ads on this site endlessly fascinating.
    There is an ad on how to find your birth certificate, probably as a result of Trump and his resurrected birther claims.
    Obviously American.
    How does Google know what I am shopping for but doesn’t know where I live?

  23. Daisy, what are your thoughts on the two stupid, selfish, thoughtless women who arrived in WA from SA, escaped hotel quarantine, deliberately evaded the cops, and went to a party? I’d like to don PPE, confront them, and smack them around the head.

    That’s all it takes to get covid 19 set loose here again. If infected, they could have passed the virus on to the taxi driver, who would then infect other passengers, and they also could have infected the other party-goers, and all of them could spread the virus on to many other people.

    One report said the women didn’t have clearance to enter WA. That is very concerning, if true. I don’t know what sort of document people entering WA have to show right now, but it seems there was a slip-up somewhere in the system. But the onus is ultimately on the stupid people who think they can get away with flouting the rules because they are special, no matter how many other people may be endangered. Fucking birdbrains.

    • My thoughts on any dickhead who put lives at risk by flouting CV laws is “Stop threatening them with jail and just do it”. Honestly, it’s like a parent who says, “If you kids don’t stop fighting in the back, I will stop the car and give you a slap”, but never does. The kids soon learn, and unfortunately we have a few generations who have leaned, “Mum and Dad never stop the car”.

      • I’m a savage bitch when it comes to people who don’t give a damn if they kill about 50 old people and a few asthmatics.

    • We had a similar thing in Queensland, a couple of weeks ago.

      There were a couple of days when all these people were found to have lied on their declarations or been dishonest or done the wrong thing. A couple of them ended up being covid-positive, and probably, the only thing that saved us was all the social-distancing that we’ve already been doing (so there was simply less chance of anyone getting infected, even if positive people were wandering around, which they were).

      But the premier just stood up and said, “screw this” and locked the border again. I tend to think that if you’re going to abuse a privilege, then you don’t deserve it. And I kind of like that she’s taken a strong stance on this. We’re not gonna keep taking chances on people doing the wrong thing, we’re just gonna shut the border and be done with it.

      I just think, yep, I support this. I get that it sucks for a lot of people (and obviously there’s kinks in the system that need to be worked out, for people who work near the border, or hospital patients, etc) … but the alternatives are that people start dying in mass numbers. Victoria has become the shining example of what happens when this goes horribly wrong. Why risk it?

      Anyway. The Queensland ALP government recently did something amazing in parliament (banning “conversion therapy”, making it illegal and punishable by 18 months in jail), so at the moment, I’m all for cheering the state government, honestly.

      • I can’t believe conversion therapy is legal elsewhere in Australia. Hopefully this will spark other states to follow suit.
        As far as borders go SA has been pretty strict, which is good.

    • I’m not sure if “love” is the best word, but as long as Evans is still being crazy, then people will keep on ridiculing him, and I guess, that’s the best we can hope for.

  24. Scotty said yesterday that he wanted a covid 19 vaccination to be “as mandatory as possible”. Today he said he didn’t mean it would be compulsory.

    Bit of hair splitting there, ScoMo. Get a dictionary.

    • Yeah, you know, I can acknowledge that he hasn’t done a terrible job, during the whole covid thing (unlike his response to the bushfires, which was itself a dumpster fire) … but I still loathe the man. There. I said it.

      • I don’t think he’s done a terrible job during the pandemic either. Others could have done better? Probably, but he is what we have now.

        I dislike him, but my biggest problem with him is that he is not the brightest spark in the fire. I at first thought he was trying too hard to be blokey oi oi oi, but no, I think he’s just dumb.

    • Scotty has to split hairs, because if you’ve noticed, his hair is disappearing like a rat up a drainpipe.

  25. The women who came without an exemption to WA, escaped quarantine, and went out to party, have been sentenced. One got a $5000 fine, one was given an 8 month jail sentence suspended for 12 months. I would have jailed them both – not for a long time, two to four weeks maybe, after their quarantine is over and they test negative.

    A point needs to be made that, if you flout the rules in this pandemic, you will pay with time in jail. Monetary fines don’t seem to be getting the message across. That could also avoid governments taking more drastic steps to insure people comply with the rules, such as calling in more ADF to guard those in quarantine, or requiring high risk people to wear ankle bracelets. I support measures taken to protect WA, but don’t want us to end up in a police state because a few idiots think they are entitled to do whatever they want to, simply because they want to, regardless of the consequences to others.

    And Clive Palmer is now suing Mark McGowan for defamation. I wonder if anyone has explained to Clive that, if a statement is proven to be true, it’s not defamation. Although I suppose “prize wanker” is a subjective opinion.

    • I agree, Von. I think they don’t worry about fines because they have no money. Or the parents will pay. Two or three weeks in jail would send a message that they and others can be held accountable.
      As for Clive, Judge Judy says you can’t be sued for your opinion.
      Calling him a Cane Toad might be considered slander, if you want to be zoologically factual, and Fat Wanker can only partially be proven true. Prize Wanker, well us that something they hand out prizes for in QLD?

      He is a greedy, fat probably wanker…if he can reach.

    • Defamation is hard to prove in America, but surprisingly easy in Australia.
      We don’t have freedom of speech here, so it’s not a matter of “my opinion”, and the courts tend to side with the defamed.
      Sadly, I suspect Clive will get money and, let’s face it, that’s all he’s after.
      I’m not sure about this but I also think that he and Scott from Marketing are mates, so he will get more Federal support in his claims. Scott wants mining interests to succeed and this is one way of doing it.
      The best way of thinking about it is that courts are not about justice, they are about the law. If you think about it any other way, you will twist yourself into knots of indignation.

      • Shows I got my law degree from Judge Judy.
        Just watching Colbeck being queried on what he did to provide a plan for the protection of people in aged care. Embarrassing. Deflecting blame elsewhere. What a buffoon.
        I think the law in Australia allows for “buffoon”. He had no strategy at all.
        “It’s part of the overall public health response”. Meaning no strategy.

    • These women do need the book thrown at them. But remember that a fine punishes them and gives the government money to help pay for the mess the women made. Gaol, ADF, ankle bracelets all cost the govt (us, the taxpayers) lots of money, and the women contribute nothing in reparation.

      Maybe monetary fines that follow them until paid would work? Like a HECS debt, it gets taken from your wages or your unemployment benefit automatically.

      • It is a good point. I’d still prefer to see them jailed for a short time, rather than giving them time to pay, or having automatic deductions from their income, both of which would be relatively effortless for them.

        I’m angry and I want them punished. We pay whichever way is used.

        • And maybe if their asses had been in jail for a while, they wouldn’t be giggling and acting happy and silly at the airport before being sent home.

          One report said they were vowing to do it again. I don’t know if that is accurate, but I haven’t seen any report of an apology or regret from these two. Here’s an idea, how about a big fine AND jail time for people who endanger others during the pandemic without giving a care in the world.

      • I think I’m with Fijane on this one.
        I’m not sure how logical my thinking is because my first inclination is that I just want them to be punished – a lot. Like, lets put them in a room filled with COVID patients to clean up, but without a mask, or any other PPE, or hand sanitizer. And then send them home to spend a week with their grandparents – the ones they like, not the other ones.
        And the more rational, measured side of me remembers that I’m not a fan of goal for minor offences. Policemen will all tell you that the fastest way to turn someone into a criminal is to send them to a place where they learn the ropes and to hate authority.
        And we are having discussions at the moment about the high incarceration rate for indigenous people. They looked minority to me.
        Maybe the fines are not high enough?
        I do like the idea of community service. How about years of it? At a hospital? Looking after dying children? Not at a nursing home. Those people would be too vulnerable.
        I want revenge, not punishment.

        • Community service. Good one. Yes. Scab duty.
          Except that good people do community service all the time.
          So stocks.
          I only partly jest.

  26. Hard borders or leaky? I was just told of a woman who entered WA from SA, claiming she lives here, when in fact she only wanted to come stay. She was told to go home and self isolate. She moved in with my neice and another girl, who are in and out, going to work. How many of these liars must there be?

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