Spare a thought for people in NSW, Hubei and Hunan in Australia and China respectively where there has been extensive flooding. More than a million people have been evacuated in China.
The most bizarre news this week – a naked Russian woman swimming with whales near the Arctic Circle (click on Naked Russian Diver) to read the story. It wasn’t a sperm whale by the way.
Something surprising – Aussies prefer to watch TV in hotels rather than have sex in hotels. Why not watch TV and not have sex at home I wondered. Here’s the link. http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/between-the-sheets-secrets-of-aussie-hotel-guests-revealed/story-e6frfq80-1226076436740
Something from the Patrick K this week: “They don’t have to shit themselves to be objectionable” and “some of the people there think that hygiene refers to a woman (as in “Hi Jean”), the latter referring to our visit to the organic markets.
Parking - take a look at this.
Loyal readers will recall parking woes. I was embarrassed this week when I saw just how good some people are at this parking game - try parking a cement truck in a driveway about 4 inches wider than the truck! Sometimes 4 inches is enough it appears, well for Aussie truck drivers anyway. Personally, I think 6 inches is probably better and 9 inches is ideal.
Not satisfied with just a truck, the Aussies sometimes just re-park their houses. Take a look at these photos.
Amelia and Brandon are staying with us while they re-park their house on their block. The move in case you’re wondering was largely completed in a day, about twice as long as it takes me to park Freddie in our garage. When we spoke to the owner of the business, John Hoyes, he explained that they jack up the house, slip in the steel beams, rub them with soap (the beams, not the houses) and then use ropes and pulleys to drag the thing to its new position, in this case as you can see 2 meters away (a meter higher and a meter nearer the road). Many houses here (read most) sit fairly lightly on the ground compared to the UK (no bricks) and Hong Kong (no concrete), are raised up for a variety of reasons (floods, coolness, and car parking).
You can actually go to a house parking lot and walk round the stock, old houses which has been moved to make way for newer houses, or if you can’t be bothered driving there, find one on the ‘Net and have it delivered and erected on the block of your choice. As my nephew Jon told us, he had his first erection a while back (a shed in the garden in case you were wondering, not in a shed in the garden). For a video (very tongue in cheek and worth a watch) of how all this is done, go to: http://www.drakehomes.com.au/Page/house-moving-video-gallery . Note – you want Jester Fry, not the Mega Moves from Canada and US.
This week saw the second Game of Origin, (Rugby League) between NSW and Queensland. I was lucky enough to be invited to Tattersals (http://www.tattersallsclub.com/) to sip some fine Aussie wines, enjoy a good Aussie steak while watching the game with 13 blokes. Does it get better than this? As far as I can tell, Rugby League is a contest to see who can run into a wall of blokes the most times without losing any appendages like arms and fingers. Somewhere in all of this, they try to score tries, then they all go off the field where they get covered in money, tattoos and silly young women in that order. It turned out that Queensland lost this match, one of three but has won the series for the last 5 years running. Some cynics suggested that giving NSW the middle game increases the take for the final. Never.
One of the current controversies here in Aus has been the ban of the export live cattle to Indonesia after horrendous videos were aired on ABC (the Aussie BBC) of extreme cruelty in some Indonesian abattoirs. No one condones such bizarre behavior, but the interesting thing has been the knee jerk reaction of the political system – a complete ban on all livestock exports to the Indonesia; such is the power of TV and the urban voter. The Indonesians are apparently unmoved saying that 70% of their beef needs are being met by internal stock. There are reports that they have slaughtered most of their breeding stock, so I suspect hamburgers in Jakarta may be a bit scarce. Try this link if you’re interested in the ban. Or chuck another prawn on the barbie (for Hong Kongers this reads “get the maid to chuck a ..”) – no reports of cruelty to crustaceans yet. http://newmatilda.com
Keep Well, Stay Safe
Spikey and Mrs K
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