Wednesday 26 October 2022

After reading the blog of some friends of mine who are currently travelling overseas I realize that I have been seriously deficient in the photo department in my own blog.

A couple of weeks ago I had a very pleasant lunch with some friends at a restaurant at East Beach in Geelong. It was a beautiful warm spring day in Geelong and the locals were out in force, even some of the younger and bolder having a swim in what I think would have been the chilly waters of Port Phillip.

Who would have thought that dear old Geelong would have had such a pleasant location.

It may be of some interest to my many Tasmanian readers that the Bass Straight ferries are now coming into port in Geelong instead of Port Melbourne.  It will be interesting to see how that works out.

I recall a few years ago a ferry service was started from Georgetown in Tasmania to Port Welshpool in Gippsland in Victoria.  This service didn't last very long for a number of reasons.  The first reason the service failed was that nobody in Victoria wanted to go to Georgetown in Tasmania and nobody in Tasmania wanted to go to Port Welshpool in Victoria.  The next reason was the choice of ship, to reduce the travel time a high speed catamaran was chosen for the crossing.  These ships weren't suitable for the rough waters of Bass Straight and many crossings were cancelled. And finally due to the rough waters and the unsuitability of the vessels many passengers suffered from extreme bouts of sea sickness.  

The first budget by our new Federal labor government was bought down last night.  Not much in the budget affects me directly, as usual all the handouts seem to be going to somebody else.  I will be affected by the forecast increase in energy prices.  It is forecast that electricity prices will increase by 50% in the next 12 months and gas prices by 20%.

For many years now we have been sold the pup that the transfer of energy supplies from fossil based fuels to renewables would actually result in cheaper energy.  Ahem, please refer to the above paragraph.

Our Green senator, Lidia Thorpe, who also identifies as Indigenous and is extremely outspoken on Indigenous affairs, is reported to having had a relationship with a bloke who used to be head honcho of an outlaw motorcycle gang (OMG).  There are two issues at play here, while Ms Thorpe was involved with said OMG member she was on the joint parliamentary law enforcement committee receiving highly classified reports into various criminal activities including the activities of OMGs. Oh, and she forgot to mention her relationship to said former OMG head.  Conflict of interest anyone?  (Let's throw in a few allegedlies there where necessary).  She has been reported to the Senate privileges committee for further investigation.

The other interesting thing is, for a strong supporter of Indigenous rights Ms Thorpe was involved with a man who had previously been in charge of an OMG which held strong racist views and promoted themselves as white supremacist.  Would have made for interesting pillow talk. (A few more allegedlies in this para as well).

As has been previously noted the pandemic reporting and recording has been getting more and more irregular and less and less reliable.  I suppose this covid thing is now just part of our daily life and ceases to be a dominate part of it as it has been for the past couple of years.

I am still monitoring the figures where available and I will report on them if and when there is anything that warrants bringing to the attention of my many dear and gentle readers.