I had a visit from an old friend from my days as a "farmer" in Maryborough Vic. John and his charming new (to me) partner Barbara located me, we had completely lost touch after we both went through divorce's, we recalled many good times and funny incidents through the bottom of a variety of glasses and bottles over a fun filled 3 days.
John and Barb are on their way up to Cape York (that's the pointy bit at the top right of a map of Australia) which is one of the best "Four Wheel Drive" adventures in Australia, its another 3000 klm North of Gympie and the adventure part kicks in not long after you leave Cairns, there is almost 1000 klm of gravel road, or track dependent on how far North you are, most of this is corrugated and pretty destructive on vehicle suspension/tyres and driver/passenger nerves, but the scenery and pristine isolation is well worth the effort.
I am envious of their coming adventure and I'm certain they will enjoy it, John is the one who first introduced me to four wheel driving and many of our reminiscences were of the trips we did.
While these are fresh in my mind I might even post some of them??? time will tell.
That said... I have been able to spend enough time at my inbox to come up with material for a post.
We are into the second week of a 5 week election campaign so you can imagine the plethora of political stuff that's around.... I won't bore you with a lot of it.
Always completely unroll your newspaper before reading the headlines
Cattle guards
Our Government at work!
For those who are not familiar with Outback Australian roads Cattle Guards (note; I have always referred to these as Cattle Grids) are horizontal steel rails placed over pits in the roadway at fence openings these effectively stop cattle from crossing them as they fear getting their feet caught between the rails.
Sometime ago PM Kevin Rudd received and was reading a report that there were over 10,000 cattle guards in NSW and Qld. Graziers (cattle and sheep farmers) had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, so he ordered the Minister for rural affairs to fire half of the cattle guards immediately.
Before the Minister could respond, and presumably try to straighten him out, the Minister for employment Julia Gillard interrupted with a request that.... before any cattle guards were fired they be given 6 months of retraining.
This is our ex PM and the current PM folks and they run our country.
A salesman drove into a small town where a circus was in progress, he read a sign that urged "Don't miss Derick the amazing Scotsman" so he bought a ticket and sat down.
There on centre stage was a table with 3 walnuts on it, standing next to it was an old Scotsman. Suddenly the old man lifted his kilt, whipped out a large willy and smashed the 3 walnuts with 3 mighty swings.
The crowd erupted in applause and chaired the old Scot from the stage.
10 years later the salesman visited the same town and saw a faded sign for the same circus, sure enough there was the sign that said "Don't miss Derick the amazing Scotsman" he could hardly believe the old guy was alive, much less still doing his act, so again he bought a ticket, again the centre stage had the table, however, instead of walnuts, 3 coconuts were on it.
Again the old Scotsman stood beside it again he suddenly lifted his kilt and shattered the 3 coconuts with 3 swings of his amazing willy, again the crowd went wild.
The salesman requested a meeting with him after the show, "that act is incredible" he told the old Scot, "but you're older now why switch from walnuts to coconuts?"
"Well laddie" said the old Scot, "my eyes are nae whit they used to be!"
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