PeelerSheila

Same. There’s a lot of old farts in my family that aren’t fond of or actually dislike Dutton but will vote Liberal anyway because they always have. It’s not a football team people! You don’t have to pick one team and stick with them until you die!

In the 2022-2023 financial year, job network providers were paid $329.07m for all outcome payments. Get rid of these useless welfare leech numpties and use that money to help those who need it.

Love that sound!

Someone recently asked me if I could move anywhere, where would I choose. I said, I can’t because it no longer exists. It was St Kilda around this time. My sister had a house near Acland St and I lived with her for a while.

If they’re that pestiferous we should be encouraging people who have an interest in venison to do something about it.

The same thing happens every year… I inspect my pudgy form in the new year and embark on a healthy lifestyle regimen. I’m good all year and lose 10ish kilos. Then my birthday arrives mid October and I think “mmm, cakes!” Then from October thru to new year is a wasteland of indulgent eating. Rinse and repeat.

Had home made burritos for dinner, just sitting home with the kids watching ABC.

I used to have a subscription, so I got the online newsletter and there are chat groups for members where they discuss products as well. Back then you could subscribe to a free newsletter and get basic updates on what not to buy, with the more detailed info available to subscribers only. If they still do this then this might be the option for you. So for example if you’re in the market for a stick vac or bathroom cleaner the free newsletter would have what not to buy but the detailed test results and product reviews they did would be available to subscribers only. The only reason I cancelled was because my finances were spread a bit too thin and I had to do a cull. Up until then I enjoyed reading the juicy stuff on how shit some of the products available to us are, and general money saving tips.

Edit: they still do the weekly free newsletter https://www.choice.com.au/promotions/newsletter

It’s ridiculous really… my kids see things online and ask me anything regarding what it means, I use it as a teaching moment and we talk about it. Why and how is someone like Andrew Tate popular with boys of a certain age, for example. How does Instagram affect how girls view their bodies and affect their self esteem? How did something like tiktok change the shape of social media in general and what does it mean? I enjoy these conversations with my kids as they arise. Acknowledgement of something as harmful, without any debate about how, is, in itself, harmful. And insulting to young people. And also ultimately useless because kids know their way around VPNs etc. It’s only ultimately going to inconvenience me and compromise my own desire for anonymity and privacy. What 3rd party application will be entrusted with my age checking and how? Ugh.

Consumers have a right to options. Our internet/pos has been a bit temperamental these last couple of weeks (they’re still trying to figure out why) but thankfully we take cash so the cogs keep turning, we keep selling product and making orders and we all still get paid.

I never really stop buying icecream through the winter. Demand for Streets Blue Ribbon vanilla ice cream or those generic brand Cornetto knock offs is fairly consistent in this house.

Tried out a new cafe near my place. Was unfortunately overpriced and a bit meh. Doing some cooking and life admin (especially laundry, gotta make an assault on Mount Washmore every week). Got car insurance coming up so have to spend little until it’s safely out of the way.

Hey, maybe they thought you’d like to buff your stuff while they stuff your crust?

I hate to say it but I think they will attempt to shut the gate after the horse has bolted. I hope it’s just my GenX cynicism talking. I don’t want to do this again either. The last time didn’t exactly fill me with confidence, with all the politicking and social and mainstream media misinformation, and people just openly breaching the guidelines because they didn’t care enough, the antimaskers and antivaxers and sovereign citizens. After all we went through, I still see people not washing their hands when they should and coughing all over people in public places. It wasn’t that long ago, not long enough to have forgotten so easily, and it makes me angry and sad.

Might be just the motivation I need!

Thankyou for sharing this deeply personal experience Baku. As the parent of a child that suffers from anxiety and school refusal I’m hopeful that people will gain a better understanding of the intricacies of the issue. As with my child, there are often a lot of complex and/or contributing factors which combine to lead a child to this point. It’s not just kids refusing to go because they’re being recalcitrant.

That’s a perfectly reasonable question, and the answers are many. It was the house she and dad bought together, and after he suddenly and unexpectedly died, she was really attached to anything which held her memories of him. They had been active in volunteering in the area and had many friends and a strong connection to it, and she just didn’t want to move anywhere more affordable where she didn’t know anybody and had to “start again”. She had an extensive garden which was her main hobby and which gave her an enormous amount of pleasure, and she was loathe to give it up (it was admired by local people and when she died, people came to take photos of it). Mum had Parkinson’s disease at the end, and found mobility a challenge, so the house was easy to modify for her increasing disability. The truth also was that the house itself was kinda crappy and wasn’t actually worth very much and she wouldn’t have gotten much more than it cost for a unit in the area at the time (prices for units in that area were starting to get a bit crazy). After dad died she got all morbid and was talking as though she was going to die soon too, even though she outlived him by about 20 years lol. I guess she thought, why go to the trouble of moving when I’m just going to die anyway? I hope my answer hasn’t bored you with rambling on, my apologies if it has.

I think using your super as a deposit for a house is a terrible idea because you could basically end up like my mum: an elderly homeowner having to pay to maintain and repair an ageing home and no income other than the pension to live on. She’s long gone now, but I’ll never forget how hard it was for her, and how she had to borrow money from a friend to replace the old heater that broke and couldn’t be fixed. Every pension day it was decision time, what to pay and what to delay. Meanwhile the house was slowly falling into disrepair.

Good. That ad has been pissing me off when I hear it at work. It’s like, thanks for charging people who have little choice (eg. renters) more for gas so you can use that money to pay for ads to bullshit us about how gas is green and great. Fuck you, gas companies!