D O R I N N Y

Long awaited update

2011-12-05T09:13:00.005+11:00

The last time I posted a blog entry, I wrote about the top things I would do after having a baby. Well, it has been 8 weeks since Noah was born (which I never got around to announcing on this blog - oops! I have discovered that time feels little and very precious when you have a newborn to take care of, even a simple thing like a blog update seems like an impossible chore to find an opportunity to do).. and looking back at my last blog entry, it makes me laugh inside a bit..

1. Rock climbing... right. I haven't done that yet. The last time I climbed was back in ... March? I was still in the early stages of pregnancy where the harness was not yet too restrictive and painful, and my pregnancy weight was not yet too difficult to pull up on a bouldering wall.. now that I don't weigh 20kilos more than usual, and I don't have the harness issue, I have a very hard time sticking to immediate plans, like going to the gym. I've even packed the clothes and gear into my car with every intention of heading over to climbfit, but my plans mean nothing now that I have a baby with his own schedule and immediate needs. Thats not to say that I don't WANT to go climbing.. i DO.. and I'm sure I will soon... as soon as Noah allows me more than a 30 minute break during the day between feeds, nappy changes and play time.

2. Snowboarding... hahaha yeah. I do love to snowboard, but that is not really high on my priority list anymore. I definitely am excited about getting to do some runs on the snow in a few weeks time, but would be equally satisfied with sipping hot chocolate in front of a burning fire inside a warm cosy cabin on the mountain... and needing to breastfeed on a regular basis does make the whole exercise of getting up on a mountain with my snowboard a little impossible. Still, I am excited and will attempt it.

3. Sleeping on my back. So funny - now that I can sleep on my back, I find that I want to sleep on my sides, but sleeping on my sides is now too uncomfortable because of engorged (milk-filled) breasts.. Joy! I also now have a desire to sleep on my stomach, which is uncomfortable for the same reason.. But I am getting a lot of excellent back sleeping, which is great!

4. Sushimi.. I havent eaten it yet, haven't felt a craving for it actually. It turns out I can eat anything I want while breastfeeding but the things I thought I would be dying to eat are not so tempting any more. I have had sushi rolls though, which were great! I've also eaten smoked salmon.. mmmmmm... and cold meats like ham and chicken, all of which I had been avoiding for 9 months prior to having a baby. Food is not high on my list either these days, although I do have a much bigger appetite than usual, mainly because I'm awake so much, and breastfeeding, but I'm mostly snacking through the day. I also find that I have to eat all my meals at lightning speed because of a crying hungry baby or some such.. which makes "eating" not very enjoyable.

5. Anniversary in Bali.. I thought this would be something to look forward to, but I can't think of a worse thing to do with a 6 month old baby. Not only because it would be hard to get around Ubud and Amed with a little one, but I'm scared of him getting sick with basically no immunity to various bugs etc. Stan is dead set on us going, so I'm actually dreading it. Still hoping to convince him that we shouldnt go, but first we will see what it is like to travel with a 3 month old in Israel and Italy at the end of this yr. This should give us some indication of what to expect in April if we go to Bali.

So, without further ado... I would like to introduce the new addition to my family, Noah:

2 days old in the hospital

2 days old in the hospital

8 days old at home

6 weeks old, about to go to the park

6 weeks old, after a bath

7 weeks old with his Aunty Shira

He gets cuter and more adorable every day. I just love seeing his little milestones. My little boy is growing up so quickly... Its amazing to compare his 2 day old photo to his 8 day old photo - such a massive change! Every day I just love him more and more. I feel so blessed and happy :)

He is happy and healthy, and a super big baby. Last time he was weighed, which was just under 2 weeks ago, he was 5.5kg. His weight at birth was 3.85kg. He was 59cm long at his 6 week checkup, so he's definitely 60cm at least now.. He already outgrew his bassinet so we had to buy him one (we were previously hiring a hospital-style bassinet, highly recommend if your baby can fit in it). He has amazing head control already (actually, since birth), and already holds our gaze for ages, smiling, cooing and mimicking us. He is also so loving and beautiful, and doesn't care who holds him, as long as he is held. He is such a wonderful boy. I didn't know anything could bring me so much joy, but there he is..

Now that I am no longer maintaining my pregnancy blog, I thought I may as well post the link to it, which includes my birth story. Warning: it contains all the gory details...

http://bakingfirstbubs.blogspot.com

Enjoy! I will try to update this blog as often as possible, although I suspect it will just be filled with little ramblings about babies and parenthood.. til next time...

Things to do after baby is born:

2011-09-24T10:57:00.000+10:00

1) Rock climbing.. god I miss it! (ASAP after bub is born)

2) Snowboarding.. only my fave activity in the world!!! can't wait to hit the slopes in Dolomites (Jan 2012)

3) Sleeping on my back.. I've truly taken this small luxury for granted (same night bub is born)

4) Eat sushimi.. Though not sure I'll be allowed while breastfeeding. goddammit! (after breastfeeding? waah)

5) Wedding anniversary in Bali.. Can't wait! (April 2012)

Political Cartoons

2011-08-24T08:49:00.001+10:00

Gotta love 'em..

The Block Bubble

2011-08-22T18:36:00.013+10:00

I loved watching The Block on channel 9 every night, but feel extremely underwhelmed by the finale. I can't say that I'm surprised at the outcome, but do feel really bad for the contestants who worked their butts off for 8 weeks on those houses (especially Rod & Tanya - my favourite couple - although I am happy for Polly & Waz, and super glad that those idiots Josh & Jenna didn't win).

I've read feedback about the auction results, claiming that this proves the Australian property bubble is about to burst.. I totally disagree. The only thing it proves is that the format of the Block doesn't work as well as it did in Sydney (given that Sydney property is, was, and always will be hotter than Melbourne), and the fact that the properties were houses and not apartments meant that there was a much narrower market.

I've been to tonnes of auctions over the years, have bought a number of properties, and always keep an eye on the market, and one thing I've noticed from all the auctions I have attended, is that more often than not, properties get passed in at auctions - not because people can't afford to purchase the property for the reserve price, but because people are for the most part, averse to purchasing under auction conditions. Auction conditions suck balls - who wants to waive their cooling off period, waive their chance at negotiating directly with the vendor, and waive their chance at getting building & pest inspection plus strata report before committing to a 10% deposit? You'd be mad. The ones that do get sold are the super hot properties that everyone wants so badly, that they have done all their pre-auction checks (which they would have had to pay for) because they can't risk the property selling to someone else. And those properties need to be really special. And selling in a strong buyers' market.

So many of the auctions I've been to have been packed full of looky-loos or serious buyers who are just busting for the property to be passed in, in order to make an offer post-auction (in fact, this is the only reason I attend auctions - to see what happens to the property; I would never actually consider buying at an auction, despite having registered as a bidder numerous times).

As for falling property prices, well yes, they seem to be down right now - but that is expected, given that its winter, the worst time to sell or buy property, and given current economic conditions, which are not looking good at all. Property prices fluctuate all the time, but over the long term, they can't go down, because demand will always exceed supply, especially in high density areas like the CBD, or popular beach/coastal areas. I do believe prices are going down, or as the graph below shows, the growth rate is going down (that isn't to say that prices themselves in Sydney are falling, just not growing as strongly as in previous quarters), but unless you're someone who buys and sells property on a regular basis, this is nothing to be concerned about. So thats my 2 cents on the Block outcome and the current property market. Over & Out.

New furniture and other random stuff

2011-08-11T21:06:00.000+10:00

Great delivery today - most of our new furniture arrived and my husband set it all up while I was at work (and managed to store away all our old crap in the garage - which I'm trying to sell on ebay now). It all looks really good so far - new sofas, dining table (finally!!! we haven't had one for years) and coffee table. We have a matching TV stand that's still to come, and a new fridge and microwave coming early next week. I feel like finally our home is coming together and its pretty exciting :) The baby nursery is pretty much done too (needs to be organised but all the essentials are there), and we still need some outdoor furniture.

In other news, I've recently started watching Game of Thrones, and it is freakin AWESOME! I'm keen to start reading the George R.R. Martin books that the series is based on. I've also been watching True Blood season 4, and it is shaping up to be the best ever!

Work has been really hectic lately, but now that I've finished my Uni assignment and exam, the upcoming weekends are looking pretty good. Going to the Opera tomorrow night to watch La bohème. Last weekend I saw Neighbourhood Watch at Belvior Street theatre and it was really good! Highly recommend, although not sure if its still showing.

Ps: I love true blood.

Busy Little Bee

2011-08-04T08:30:00.000+10:00

I've had a pretty hectic few weeks. I'm always complaining about the same things, but this time its been really crazy. I've had tonnes of work piling up, particularly as I'll be on maternity leave soon so trying to cram all my appointments and other tasks into the space of a couple of months is not easy.. I've also had to deal with a sick hubby, organising things for the new baby on the way, trying to find time to study for an exam tonight (haven't done a single minute of study for it as yet but hoping to wing it based on my extensive note-taking in class and the fact that its open-book), trying to find time to finish an assignment (for the same subject) which is due next Monday (thus far, have only finished the executive summary), worried about still not having bought any furniture for our house (seriously lacking a dining table right now, but also in need of a fridge, microwave, sofas, outdoor furniture, tall boy, bedside tables etc etc), having to deal with dodgey tradies, crazy body strata members, and various legal issues that affect our holiday rentals business (luckily my dear husband is dealing with all this, but I'm affected by proxy)... and to top it off, we're exchanging tomorrow on another property (which by the way, needs extensive renovations and the settlement is a couple of days before my due date - FUN!). On the plus side, I stayed back at work last night til 9pm to finish tax returns for my husband and me, from 2009-2011, and lets just say, our combined refunds will be enough to pay for all the aforementioned renovations. So unexpected!!!

On another bright note, I'm super excited about the following upcoming events:
* baby shower
* baby's birth
* playing with baby
* breaking dawn part 1 with belinda
* 3 weeks overseas with hubby & bubs
* 2 weeks in the italian alps!!!!

Good times.

True Blood Verdict

2011-07-12T10:20:00.004+10:00

Season 4 of my favourite porn.. I mean vampire show has been released in the US, and I've finally gotten my hot little hands on the first 2 episodes. I have been hanging out so hard for this season, particularly as it is (loosely) based on my absolute favourite of the Southern Vampire Mysteries books, "Dead to the World".

Now that I have seen the episodes, I can give my honest opinion of how I feel about it. A great deal of my "verdict" has to do with the fact that I inevitably must compare it to the book, so if you haven't read the books, you might have a completely different take on it. Also, if you haven't read the books, you might want to avert your eyes, since this is going to be a massive spoiler right here..

Since I want to finish off on a happy note, I'll start with the things I didn't like:

The Cons/Massive Thumbs Down/What the fV%k?:

1) The start of the series takes place in Faery. This is just weird. It gets even weirder when Sookie sees Bellboy Barry and then her Grandfather, neither of which are supposed to be fairies (in the books, she isn't even related to her "grandfather"). Then it gets even WEIRDER when all the beautiful fairies become ugly evil monsters that look like they've stepped out of Middle Earth after fighting against the fellowship of the ring... what the? The books do have a fairy war much later in the series, and there is a "good" and "evil" side to the fairies, but they are all super beautiful and they don't shoot fire balls out of their hands. The whole first 10 minutes of the season was just bizarre and disappointing.

2) The supporting characters' lives have all gone to shit - Tara is a lesbian cage fighter in New Orleans, Sam is hanging out with a bunch of random shifters in some sort of swingers/nudist club, Tommy has become a Christian and has been "adopted" by Maxine Fortenberry, Jessica now lives with Hoyt and they seem to have a pretty crap time dealing with domestic life together, and Arlene has an adorable baby that she thinks is possessed by her dead ex-fiance, which is the most disturbing thing I've seen on this show to be honest! I'm just expecting her to go all post-natal-depression any minute now, and try to kill this poor baby!

The other characters' lives have also massively changed, but more of that later (in the "Pros" section). Aside from the fact that these characters either don't exist or are hardly mentioned in the books (Jessica and Tommy were made up by the TV show writers, and Tara is a very minor character in the book, particularly before Book #5, while Hoyt is hardly mentioned except in relation to being Jason's best friend), I just think that a lot of this stuff is over the top - they tried too hard to make it look like everything has changed, but why should it, if everything pretty much stayed the same through the first 3 seasons?

3) Eric has bought Sookie's house and is a total bastard about it. I just don't like this direction. Eric is a bit of a bastard, naturally, but he's subtle about it, and he's never tried to force himself like this onto Sookie (firstly because he doesn't care about humans that much, even Sookie - yet, and secondly, he's way too cool to be acting so desperate), either in the books or in the TV show. I just don't like this whole "I own your house, so I now own you" line.. As if someone like Eric would actually believe this nonsense? Also, Eric buying Sookie's house is just so predicible (of all people to have bought it).

4) The witches - uuuugh.... I understand that this was probably the only way they could work the witches into the plot, and they did start building up to it in the previous season with Danielle being a Wiccan and Jesus talking about magic and all that, but this whole "Marnie" Stonebrook business - what is the deal? Isn't she supposed to be a "baddy"? Because it looks to me like she's just an innocent old witch who seems to black out in some sort of possessed trance when she does all that freaky 'speaking-in-tongues' thing? In the books, she is a V-juice junkie werewolf witch who is totally bad ass and is in love with Eric, and also wants to take over Eric's business. She also does not look like an old derelict cat lady. She's young and buff and androgynous. At least, that's how I imagine her. And she's powerful enough to use her magic without needing a bunch of book club looking followers to join hands around her in a circle.. When I compare the show to the books, I just feel really disappointed on this point, but if I hadn't read the books, this would be a total non-issue for me.

5) Portia. Hmm.. I'm not sure where this is going, but it looks sort of like Portia and Bill have a flirtatious thing going on.. which is plain gross, given that Bill should know full well by now that he is her great-great-great grandfather or something along those lines. Yuccccky. Also, Portia is supposed to be not very attractive, and she is supposed to hate vampires. The whole scene with her and Sookie and also with her and Bill exchanging looks just rubs me the wrong way.

6) Jessica - she is starting to bore me to death. Her and Hoyt, but especially Jessica. Booooring...... talk about a time filler.

Ok.. now to the good stuff..

The Pros/Massive Thumbs Up/HELL YES!!:

1) Bill Bill Bill. He is smoking hot. Hotter than ever. And he's the King of Louisiana - unexpected? Yes. Loving it? YES! Does it matter that in the books, Sophie Anne is still alive and still a powerful Queen while Eric is her underling, and Bill is even lower ranked than Eric? Not really (in fact, I don't like the Queen in the TV show anyway). Additionally, in the books, Bill shrinks away into this nerdy and deflated hired-help errand boy to the Queen, and its all quite unsexy to be honest.. Furthermore, he disappears for half the book while abroad, which would have been a big let down in the show. Instead, Bill's house has been converted into a swish fortress, he's looking really stylin, and while it's obvious that he still loves Sookie, he's so suave in his supposed detachment. Loved the sex scene with his "security" floozy as well, not to mention Sookie walking in on them getting dressed. So good! But my favourite part of Bill's new role is the flash back to punk-rock London, where Bill first encounters Nan. That was so good, I can't even explain why. Ps: Love Bill with eyeliner.

2) Pam & Eric - aside from the aforementioned "You are MINE SOOKIE" crap, I love the scene with Pam and Eric in Fangtasia, filming a vampy community announcement. They are just so cool and funny, without even trying. Pam is one of my fave characters, she is just so awesome. Love her. As for Eric, of course he is gorgeous, and there's not much else to say about that.. I'm very happy to see that at the end of episode 2, he has lost all his memory and the plot looks like its about to go in the right direction. All looking good from here on.. *fingers crossed* I just can't wait for that shower scene! They better include it in the show, or I'm going to have to write a very angry letter of complaint to the producers.

3) The whole "Sookie missing for a year" thing - I actually like it. I think its a great way to move on, particularly with Jason being a police officer (which I think is great!) and Bill being the King (which I think is genius!), and just generally helps to explain the whole plot changing so much. I don't like that Sookie doesn't own her house but I'll get over that (I'm going to make a prediction now that while Eric has amnesia, he gives Sookie her house back - you heard it here first Folks!).

4) Lafayette & Jesus - I'm liking that they are still together and that they're part of the Witch club. It just ties the witches in well with the rest of the plot and the other characters (never mind the fact that Lafayette actually gets killed at the start of Book #2 - rather than Miz Janet).

5) Hot Shot - Love it! (Although in the books, Hot Shot is not so dirty, and they aren't such rednecks). But I think the producers/writers of the show actually improved the plot over the book, by making Crystal part of Jason's abduction. It just makes a lot more sense than Felton doing it on his own to make Jason a "freak" so that Crystal wouldn't want him. Also in the book, while its more mysterious not knowing Jason's whereabouts, I'd feel pretty bummed if he was missing from the entire season of the show ;)

Obligatory Update

2011-06-26T11:08:00.001+10:00

I suppose it's time for an update.. although I can't say that too much has happened since the last blog post. We've been settling into our home and have had some friends over already, but still haven't been able to organise an official housewarming. We need to buy a bunch of furniture and appliances, and I can't believe we've been here for nearly 8 weeks and still don't have a dining table or a proper fridge. It's pretty cozy here though, and so peaceful, I'm quite content to leave it as it is for a while, but of course, it would be nice to set it up properly and have it feel more homely. Each weekend we have a plan of going shopping for furniture but then we never get out of the house before the afternoon and then only have a couple of hours at the shops (really not enough time). Today probably won't be any different ;)

In other news, Stan has bought a new car. I'm really happy about this, as I hated his old car (he still has the old one but trying to sell it). The new one is identical to mine but its a hatchback instead of sedan, and its 1 year younger. It looks super sexy, especially for a 2nd hand car (although it looks new). Finance will go through on Monday so he should be able to pick the car up on Monday night. It will be so much better than his current car, a Holden Astra Coupe which is crap for a family car.

And speaking of families, since I haven't mentioned this before - I'm totally up the duff! Oh yeah be-be! Actually I've been pregnant for a while and have been keeping a pregnancy blog. If you'd like to visit, you can find the link on facebook or just hit me up for the address. I'm trying to keep it out of reach of the general public :) I'm feeling pretty huge right now, not too long to go :) We'll have a baby with us when we travel to Italy. Should be ... interesting... ;)

Aside from that, I've just been working hard, waiting for end of financial year to pass so I can just forget about it. Wishing I was with my friends this weekend at the snow, but too risky to snowboard with the belly and all.. Waiting impatiently for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 to come out, as well as True Blood season 4, and just generally being happy and feeling good.

Thats all :)

La Dolce Vita

2011-06-10T09:29:00.002+10:00

We have booked our holidays at last!

Actually, we bought the flight tix a while back (a month ago in fact) but now we have booked our snow accommodation, so we pretty much have it all worked out!

We're going to - you guessed it (from the subject of this post) - ITALY!

We'll be staying in this charming town, Ortisei (in one of the ski regions of the Dolomites):

More on the dolomites:

Wedged into the top right-hand corner of Italy, the Dolomites are a world apart. The characteristic spiky mountains soar up from the surrounding forests and pastures in rough cliffs that glow an eerie pink at dusk — and it’s among these that some of Europe’s very best ski areas are to be found.

What’s more, the area is as famed for its hospitality — particularly its food — as it is for its unique natural beauty. As for winter sports, you’re spoilt for choice. The Dolomiti Superski, the world’s largest ski network, offers an unparalleled 1,200km (745 miles) of slopes and 450 lift facilities, reaching way above 3,000 metres (9,843 feet) Shaded and protected from cold northerly winds by the Alps, South Tyrol enjoys a climate that is exceptionally mild and warm compared to its central European neighbours. Sunshine pours down from blue skies for over 300 days a year, on average, making this a perfect year-round destination.

I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it!!

I'm SO excited about this trip. And we'll be meeting up with our gorgeous Italian friends for a few days on the snow.

Our itinerary is like this:

Leaving Sydney on 24th Dec, heading for Israel. Spend 5 days in Tel Aviv (from 25th-30th Dec) and then head to Milan. Stay in either Milan or Como (with Italians) for 1 night before heading to Ortisei in the Dolomites *eeep!* And spending 14 nights there, starting from New Years' eve til 14th Jan, when we head back to Milan to fly home to Sydney.

Super excited. CANT WAIT!

We've booked our accommodation in Ortisei, which is a small apartment in town, and now we just need to book accommodation and car hire in Israel (and possibly 1 night hotel in Milan). Oh, and in case anyone is interested, here is the trail map for the Dolomites superski area ;) Yeah, basically, it's massive.

Loving everything right now

2011-05-20T18:28:00.003+10:00

I love our new house. I love driving to work in the morning through the beautiful green canopies of the north shore, and seeing golden rays of sunlight peeking through the morning fog. I love how peaceful and spacious our house is, and best of all, I love that we own it. Its such a fantastic feeling. I do wish we were closer to our friends on "the other side" of the bridge, but still, the north shore is where I grew up, and I hope it is where my children will grow up too.

We have a tonne of renovations to do on the house, but we wont get a chance to do anything for about a year (no money left after this purchase - and we still need to buy furniture and appliances this weekend!). But I did manage to play around with some free architecture software, and that was mighty fun! Here's what we are thinking of doing with the house:

This is the current plan:

This is what we're thinking of doing with it:

(Basically, we would extend the back of the house and the deck so there is one long deck at the back, we would turn the bedroom#3 into a master bedroom with ensuite, expand the bathroom, move the wall between the original master and the smallest bedroom to make them more even, add a study/library at the back, and turn all the living areas into a big open-plan L-Shape space, with the kitchen facing out onto our beautiful backyard).

The following are some awesome 3D images that the software generated:

(The kitchen looking onto the fireplace/family room)

(The dining room looking onto lounge room)

(The deck looking into open-plan kitchen/living/dining)

(master bedroom - havent put the built-ins into the plans yet)

(a "skeleton" view of master bedroom/ensuite/main bathroom)

(Front of the house - with a timber deck instead of current concreate/tiled stairs)

How cool is THAT?

We also want to put totally new floors throughout, and put a new roof over the whole house with elevated ceilings, and a full external render. Oh, and new windows/frames, and a new remote-controlled roller door for the garage.. and possibly some landscaping. Hmm.. shouldnt cost much, right? Hence, the reason we have to wait at least a year before we start any renovations. But I think once it's done, it will be amazing :)

Anyway, the house as it is now is really lovely. Its homely, its warm, and its neat as a pin! But of course, it has its annoying quirks which we have to learn to live with for now.

This weekend we are going to be buying furniture and appliances. I'm pretty excited about it. We'll be doing the majority of the buying at a furniture auction place, and I'm super excited about picking up some bargains! Thanks to our wonderful friends for pointing us in the right direction (actually, literally taking us to the auction haha).

We currently don't have internet at home (so annoying) but it will hopefully get set up soon. Meanwhile, I spend my evenings watching Masterchef and reading my Sookie Stackhouse novels. Fun!!! :)

Oooh, last but not least, I finally got around to watching a movie last night! It feels strange going without my wonderful drool partner, Belinda.. But at the last minute, my sister invited me to join her and her boyfriend to watch Water for Elephants, and I thought, I could stay in the office and continue working (as it was around 6pm at this time), or I could go out and have a total perve fest (i.e. Robert Pattinson. yummmmy.) Movie was great, I really enjoyed it. Best movie ever? Not by a long shot, but it was really enjoyable! That's all kiddos!

Our New House

2011-05-09T08:04:00.002+10:00

We moved into our new home this weekend, and it was a really horrible experience, as I expected. We were up til 2am on Friday night still doing some last minute packing, and when I finally got into bed, my entire body was aching, and we hadn't even started moving yet! Saturday, predictably, was painful and drawn-out. At least it was a beautiful day though. When we moved into the apartment 14 months ago, it was pouring down with rain. THAT was a craptastic day, so I do have something to be thankful for this time around. But we finally managed to get everything moved to the house (large items taken by removalists, and small things taken in our 2 cars over several trips back and forth). The apartment is getting professionally cleaned today, and then we hand over the keys, and then we never have to go back there again! Woohoo~!

It isn't that the apartment we'd been living in was that bad - it was actually quite large; brand new with a nice kitchen, large bathrooms, air con & heating etc. But it was dark, unfriendly, and within a massive complex. Our courtyard was overshadowed by the balconies of neighbouring units, and the whole place had a very sterile feel to it. Furthermore, we never bothered furnishing it or making it "homely" because it was always a transitional "temporary" place to stay until we bought our house. And for that reason, we never had friends over, EVER. I've been busting to have a dinner party or house warming, or even a poker night, for so long, and now we can finally do that.

We spent all day on Saturday moving into the house. It's funny how much you don't think about, or just completely miss noticing, when you are inspecting a property to buy, only to be massively surprised when you actually move into the place. This house comes with plenty of surprises. But each one is a little reminder that this is our house, and we can spend the time, energy and money necessary to fix it, if we want to. The truth is, we are tossing up between doing a huge renovation, or just knocking the house down completely and starting from scratch. I don't really want to knock-down and re-build, but it would certainly give us a lot of choice of what to do with the place.

But for now, its a really neat house, with beautiful lush green views out of every window, shiney polished floors, a decent kitchen, and one recently renovated bathroom (although the seperate toilet is a bit of a pain, though that has its advantages too). We're planning to stay in the house as it is (fixing bits and bobs when necessary - e.g. we currently have no water in the kitchen, and we need some hooks in the toilet for towels, and we need some sort of shelving unit in the bathroom for toiletries... things like that), and after about 8 months to 1 year, we will start the renovation (or re-build). I started looking at magazines last night for inspiration (thanks again Cassy for that awesome Real Living subscription - I love it so much, I'm going to renew it), and we're going to start a folder with all our ideas, and get some advice about quotes and designs over the next several months.

But first thing we need to do now that we have our own house, is furnish it with our very own stuff! So excited! We'll have to wait until next weekend to start looking for stuff, because this coming weekend we are off to the Hunter Valley!! Yaay! Here are is a pic I took this morning of the view into our backyard.

New beginnings

2011-05-04T23:56:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I had a much needed three and a half hours of indulgent pampering at a day spa (organised for my birthday by my lovely adorable husband - and more about that later). This weekend, I'll be doing the exact opposite: hard labour, organising and helping with the move into our new house.

I've spent the last 2 nights packing all my DVDs and books, and a bunch of kitchen stuff and winter clothes. There actually isn't all that much to pack, but I am exhausted! I'm excited about buying all new furniture and home wares, kitchen appliances.. since getting married and moving out of our bondi beach apartments (and consequently leaving behind all our furniture and sexy appliances etc - since it was needed for furnished holiday apartments), we've been living with crappy McCrap stuff which gives me asthma. It'll be good to have a fresh start :)

We settle on our new property in Turramurra tomorrow afternoon, and moving on Saturday. But we still have to spend the rest of the weekend cleaning out our current apartment before we hand over the keys on Monday.

Next weekend, we're going to the hunter valley with my brother, sister & partners to celebrate my bro's 30th. So excited to get away! Seems a little undeserved, given that I just had an awesome long weekend, followed by a heavenly day spa experience, but I do feel like lately, work has just been absolute hell, and it's nice to get away from all that. Looking forward to dinner at Shakey Tables on Saturday week.

Now, about that day spa.. Its called "Endota Spa" in Turramurra. The women who work there are so lovely. My birthay was a month ago, but hubby organised a day spa voucher for me, and this was the earliest I could use it. The voucher included a therapeutic foot scrub, 1 hour back massage, facial, pedicure and manicure. As well as that, I was served delicious herbal tea on arrival, and I was also given a yoghurt-topped fruit salad with juice and tea, to enjoy while I had my pedicure done. I felt so pampered, it was amazing :) I felt so lucky to have such a beautiful husband too. Naaawe..... I love him so much :)

That's all for now. So tired, and have backache from all the packing.

We bought a house!

2011-04-15T08:45:00.005+10:00

Finally! After months of searching, we have made our decision, contracts exchanged and all that jazz. It's in Sydney's upper North Shore, which is further from the city than we planned (about 30 mins), but I grew up in this area, and I love it. Plus, we get to buy a whole house, not just a garden apartment (which costs pretty much the same price as you get closer to the city). It needs a lot of renovations to make it what we want (new kitchen, bathroom, tiled roof, render, extend decking & add a pool maybe?), but for now, its clean and neat and is fine to live in for the next 12 months or so :) So excited! We settle in 3 weeks, so now its just a matter of buying some furniture (and a huge fridge, because I am tired of doing grocery shopping every 2 days due to our tiny fridge not being able to hold more than a bag full of groceries, not to mention, everything going off pretty much within 24 hours) :D Best thing is, we don't have to rent anymore, and we have room to raise a family ;)

What Holiday?

2011-02-25T07:50:00.008+11:00

I definitely feel like its been a million years since I went away for a break. Work is more hectic right now than I ever remember it, and things at home are sort of crazy too. I'm also going through various medical issues right now that prevent me from exercising the way I want to, and this is adding to my anxiety, because I love my rock climbing and spin classes, but can't enjoy either of these right now.

Our holiday was fantastic. It honestly is hard to remember it now because although we have only been back for a month (arrived back on 24th Jan), so much has happened since then, that the little snippets of our trip are a distant memory now.

We started in Israel which was so much fun. We travelled around the north part of the country and around Tel Aviv & Jerusalem, doing all the touristy things, visiting Nazareth, Safed, Haifa, Caesaria, and a bunch of other places, and we also visited many of our relatives, which is always fun. We met up with some close friends from Sydney who did some of the touring with us, and basically had a really fantastic 9 days in the country. This was just the beginning of our trip though, which was predominantly a ski holiday. There was a lot to look forward to, and we were not disappointed!

A typical Israeli breakfast

Beautiful Caesaria

Switzerland was amazing. We started off in Zurich for 1 night, and loved our hotel room which was super swish. Zurich city was very cute, but we were surprised by the number of sex shops and stip clubs (wtf?). Maybe when your main industry is banking and watches, you kind of need some excitement to compensate..?? From Zurich we took various trains all the way over to the alps, to a picture perfect town called Zermatt. Zermatt was SO beautiful and cute, and full of Russians, of all people. The ski slopes in this town were so incredible -- wide, expansive, long, super high elevation, and beautifully set amongst the rocky summits of the swiss/italian alps. We also had some opportunities to go over the border into Italy and hang out with our lovely Italian friends. It was a wonderful, enchanting 12 nights in Zermatt, and I would love to go back one day. I don't have too many pics available now, but will definitely post more later.

The Matterhorn. You will recognise its distinctive shape on any bar of Toblerone.

Amazing slopes.

A peek of the town. This was just the sleepy end of it where we were staying.

Sampling the local fare...

From Zermatt, we were off to another remote town - the tiny little village of Happo One (pronounced "happo oh-nay") in Hakuba, Japan. Home of the Nagano Winter Olympics. The town has not seen any infrastructure improvements since the olympics, which was in 1998 but I think all the lifts, except for the "gondola" were built pre-Olympics... many many years pre-olympics. I didn't like the resort facilities at all, especially after spending 2 weeks in super ultra-modern ultra-high tech Zermatt (the ski lift systems there were just amazing). The eateries on the slopes in Happo were also lacking, and pretty much anything to do in the town was lacking. Having said that, the snow in Japan, is THE BEST. There is just SO MUCH POWDER. I spent 15 minutes at one stage, trying to dig myself out of a massive snow ditch. Most of the days that we were in Happo though, either the visibility was crap, or it was just too windy so they would have to close most of the resort and we would be stuck with the newbies where all the powder had been scraped away. I also noticed a much large proportion of snowboarders to skiiers in Japan, whereas in the Swiss Alps, most people ski, which is lucky for them, because there is hardly any powder on the groomed runs in Zermatt (this was the only down side - many runs were quite icey).

Having said all that about Happo, I did find the people to be very warm, kind and hospitable, even if they didn't speak a word of english (hardly anyone in Japan speaks English!) and the culture is really beautiful and fascinating to observe. We stayed in a cute traditional guest house, and our room was a traditional room with tatami mats, sliding screen doors, and all that Japanese caper. It was a great experience! We even had our own kimonos to wear every day, and the guest house (Ryokan) had its own Onsen (Japanese hot spring bath), which was BOILING hot, but very relaxing.

Stan outside the gondola station

Amazing powder

Still of me from a video. Bad quality, but you get the idea.

Drinking tea in our Ryokan

My favourite thing about Japan was the snow monkeys. We took a day off from Skiing/Snowboarding to visit these cute little guys in their natural habitat. They are the most amazing creatures. They live in the snow, and hang out in hot springs all day long when they arent foraging through clumps of snow for food. They were SO cute!!!! Definitely the highlight of my trip. Hahah! I LOVE MONKEYS!

Cute!!!

Super cute.

Well, thats all for now folkes. Thanks for reading.

Yay its friday!!

Happy new year!!

2011-01-02T09:51:00.003+11:00

Well, I am in israel now, and typing this from my iPhone which is not that easy.. But I couldn't resist posting an update for the new year, particularly while I'm able to connect to some random wi-fi for free (hardly anyone protects their account here so you can almost log on from anywhere)!

We arrived just 1 week ago but it feels like a lot longer than that. We spent the first day here sorting out my passport issue (as my Israeli passport had expired - and clever me, forgot to check before leaving sydney). Being an Israeli citizen, I'm allowed to enter the country on a "foreign" passport but I must leave on my Israeli passport. Not knowing how I would go about renewing my passport in the short time I was to be here, or how easy it was going to be, I was quite stressed out and scared, but it turned out to be super easy and fast. I literally stood in line for 5 minutes at the office of the interior, and at the counter, I explained that my passport had expired.. They took the expired one, typed some data into the computer and printed out a sticker to put into the existing passport with a new expiry date, and that's it, didn't even have to pay! Considering this happened in israel, that is pretty amazing.

I spent some time with my grandmother the same day, and the following morning, we met up with our friends from Sydney and embarked on a 5 day road trip around the north of israel, which included 2 nights in zfat (also spelt safed, tsfat, sefat, and various other ways) then 2 nights in zichron yakov. During these 5 days we also went to Haifa to see the Baha'i gardens, to Nazareth, which I didn't really want to go to at first, but it turned out to be awesome) , bet she'an where we saw amazing ancient roman ruins, caesarea to see more ruins, but this time by the sea (looooved Caesarea) and also did some wine tasting in zichron (very little).

Back in tel aviv, we said goodbye to our friends, and met up with my cousins and aunt for new years (actually, it was Shabbat) dinner, and then into tel aviv city for new yrs celebrations with friends.

Today we had a huge sleep in, then met up with friends again for breakfast, and then to visit my grandma again, before heading to Jerusalem for some nighttime sight-seeing and more of hanging with friends. It's so much fun seeing friends overseas. It's weird and wonderful at the same time ;)

It's about 1 am here on Sunday morning. I'm at stan's dad's place, waiting for stan to finish whatever he is doing on the computer - I've just eaten some delicious cake and I am so ready for bed. We'll hopefully be leaving soon and heading back to my mums place. Til next time ... Xxxx

One sleep to go!

2010-12-23T13:29:00.006+11:00

Not til Christmas (obviously)... one sleep until I go away for a month!!

I am soooo excited! Unfortunately, I have been nursing a very sore throat all week and am not feeling too good. I just hope to see some improvement from the general feeling of death that I am currently experiencing before my flight tomorrow.

I'm a little nervous that there is something I have forgotten - I keep remembering little bits of what I need or have to do before I go.. I must have done about 10 different trips to Westfield (that's our "mall" for the non-aussies on here) to buy various items last minute.. (that reminds me, I need to make sure I have international roaming on my phone!). Speaking of phones, I recently replaced my crappy LG GU285 for a slightly upgraded handset... I loooove the iphone4. I used to think this phone was stupid and loaded with tonnes of useless crap, but actually, it is amazing. I am totally in love with this phone. I have already downloaded a bunch of useful apps for my trip, including tripcase - highly recommended if you are travelling. I could go on all day about my iphone... but I wont.

Today is the last day at work. My office is closing from tomorrow until 16th January, and everyone is in a great mood because of the long break. My lovely adorable and gorgeous secretary (and adopted sister) made everyone brownies and gingerbread cookies today for xmas... needless to say, I am on a brownie & gingerbread diet today. I literally have been eating brownie for lunch. Naughty!!! I also probably shouldnt be eating sweet things when I'm sick... but... its christmas for crying in a bucket! Yummmy.

On a totally random note, I have already made a list of must-watch movies when I get back after my trip, including The Kings Speech (ohmahgawd COLIN FIRTH! love love love), The Heartbreaker, Black Swan (no idea what its about, but it has natalie portman in it, so naturally, I really want to see this!), The Fighter (finally, i movie I can watch with Stan, without having him cringe and complain about how unrealistic and "hollywood" the movie is), and of course, I shall be watching Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part 1 again, hopefully, it will still be in cinemas in early Feb. Not sure Stan will come with me to this one ;)

In other completely random news, I have signed up for the 2011 Warrior Dash! Oh yeah Baby!!! Hopefully I will not get fat while overseas, and will not get "less" fit either.. I'm usually going to the gym 5 times a week, and I havent done much running for a while, plus, there won't be any running opportunities at the swiss alpes or Japanese ski fields, so I think I'll just need to do a crash-training program when I get back for the 2 weeks leading up to the event. So exciting!! Jumping over FIRE! Wearing cool viking hats! And eating giant turkey legs~ Could you get a cooler event to compete in? I'm going to be doing it as part of a climb fit team, and my sister is going to enter with me. It's going to be hilarious, if not painful and grueling.

Speaking of the cute little thing, she is currently in Paris.... Jealous much? She's going to have a blast in Europe these holidays. So happy for her. But also super happy for myself, as I will shortly be embarking on a magnificent adventure through Israel, then off to Switzerland to snowboard for 12 days in Zermatt, and then 5 days in Japan. Hellz YeaH!

Well... thats all from me for this year (I think)... Have a very merry xmas everyone, and enjoy your holidays!

Mad Weekend

2010-12-13T11:14:00.005+11:00

I had the pleasure of seeing Geoffrey Rush at Belvior Street Theatre on Saturday night, in his performance as a poor (and completely insane) 19th Century clerk in St Petersberg. The majority of the play was funny, actually hilarious at times but ended with a very dark and disturbing portrait of a man who had fallen into the deepest pit of madness - the transformation on the stage is brilliant.

This is the second time I have seen Mr Rush at Belvior St and it was a joy on both occassions. He is just incredible. I've been hanging out for this show (Diary of a Madman) all year and it was worth the wait. All together, a great evening.

The day was also pleasant; we went out for breakfast at a french bistro near our house, and then went to one open house in Forrestville - I think this is the most likely location of our future family home. We'll most likely buy something early next year.

Yesterday we went rockclimbing and then to Bondi Beach - another pleasant day :) its a welcome change from spending endless weekends in home mega malls and furniture stores. Yuck.

In other news, I bought one of those ereaders the other day and have already downloaded a tonne of books onto it (all for free of course.. mwhahaha!!) so I am all geared up for long flights and hours spent waiting at airport gates. Yay! The reader I bought was the sony touch, which I just LOVE. I got used to the page turning very quickly and actually prefer it to holding bulky books while I read. If anyone wants to recommend a good book to upload to my reader, please feel free ;)

This week will hopefully just fly past... This coming weekend I am planning to do a lot of pre-holiday shopping, for all sorts of bits of stuff I might need - thermal socks, clothing, adapters, toiletries etc etc.. I can't believe we are leaving so soon. Only 11 days to go!!! I found this awesome virtual tour on the official Zermatt tourism site which shows the mountains and the village... it has gotten me super excited all over again! Here's a few screen shots;

I'm also looking forward to touring around Israel with our friends. I haven't seen all that much of Israel, because we usually only go to see family, but we have 9 days there this time; plenty of time to see everything!

Well thats all for now folks... back to work!

Christmasy things and other bits

2010-12-08T13:33:00.004+11:00

Yesterday I received a beautiful gift from one of my clients (she sent it to me and our secretary) naawww.... a bouquet of chocolate dipped strawberries! So sweet, and nice to be appreciated. And today i received a lovely card from my dear friend Kate, whom I havent seen for ages, because she lives in merry 'ol england. I love getting little treats on christmas; all adds to the happy mood of the season. I've decided to give little treats to everyone in my office every day until we close down for the year. Last Friday it was gift baskets that my sister and I made; Monday it was candy canes; Tuesday it was ice cream (owing to the broken down air conditioner in our entire office building, so i thought ice cream was appropriate - they also got chocolate dipped strawberries!), and today it was mini toblerones and more candy canes. Am I not the best employer ever? I've also taken to listening to christmas radio online LOL yes, it is a little extreme, I know. This is what happens when you are a jewish kid growing up in anglo australia without a christmas tree. Well, thats all for now. I have tonnes of work to do.. it isnt all about chocolates and candy! But one does have to admit, being an accountant in my office is pretty awesome.

The Silly Season

2010-12-01T10:07:00.009+11:00

I absolutely love this time of the year. I usually get a little silly around this time, going on random shopping adventures, buying all sorts of weird christmasy things, singing carols and smiling more than usual.. I love all the decorations everywhere (one of the reasons I like going to the mall so much around this time), and I love all the xmas songs and movies going around. I also love all the parties and dinners and all of that.. its just FUN! It makes it a little strange though, being Jewish and all.. but that doesn't stop me getting into the swing of things, and for that reason, I have uploaded a festive template from 1st December til after I come back from my winter wonderland holiday!

I'm so excited about my trip and have bought a bunch of stuff in preparation! Including new luggage (I've never bought luggage before - so exciting. Ive been using our old family suitcases which are falling apart and are ugly and oversized). I also bought 2 pairs of snowboarding pants, and new thermals, plus some other bits and bobs. I can't wait to get on that plane and enjoy a month of travelling, relaxing and snowboarding!! It could very well be my last big trip for a while, if we start our 'family' next year. So I'm determined to make this a really awesome trip.

There's only a few weeks left of work, and its getting pretty damn stressful. But the light at the end of the tunnel makes it all worth it. Our work xmas dinner is coming up in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to that :) And we're even having a little xmas celebration at my gym (a fruit platter after our morning spin class in 2 weeks - can't think of anything better than standing around dripping in sweat, and woolfing down strawberries and pineapple with a bunch of your spin class buddies). Climbing is going really well - I've advanced quite a bit in the last few months. I'm a little worried about how much I'm going to "lose" in the skills department, after a month away without any rock climbing. Hopefully I wont go too far backwards.

Generally, everything is fabulous, the end of the year is nearly here, Eclipse comes out on DVD today, and I have a nice little shopping trip to enjoy today at lunchtime. Good times. :D

Ps: Here are some pics of my new snowboarding pants - my sister thinks the first one looks terrible. She just doesn't "get" boarder fashion.. what do you guys think?

Uncle Vanya

2010-11-16T10:33:00.003+11:00

Went on Friday night. Bloody brilliant. Love love loved it. It was really incredible to see so much talent, and such a fantastic script come to life on stage, live, right in front of you. I admit, I did feel quite star struck at first when Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh and Cate Blanchett all made their opening appearances onto the stage, but once that overwhelming moment passed, it was natural to appreciate just how wonderful these actors are. Though, after having subscriptions to Belvior Street Theatre for 3 yrs running, I am quite used to seeing awesome acting on the stage, but this was another experience all together.

"The persistent buzz of blowflies. Clothes clinging to your skin. Sweat continually raked back through your hair. The Hungarian director Tamas Ascher's staging of Chekhov's tragicomedy conjures up an oppressive stickiness that Sydneysiders will instantly appreciate.

Though the title suggests otherwise, Uncle Vanya is a group portrait of the inhabitants of a rural estate jolted out of their lassitude by the return of the celebrated Professor Serebryakov (John Bell) and his much younger wife, Yelena (Cate Blanchett).

All manner of dormant romantic hopes and resentments are stirred up, none more so than in the estate's manager, Vanya (Richard Roxburgh), who has spent - indeed, wasted - the greater part of his adult life coaxing a lousy 2 per cent return from it.

[...]

The designer Zsolt Khell's set is magnificent in its scale and attention to dingy detail: the chairs seem to have characters of their own; a towering timber wall (reminiscent of the woolstore architecture of the piers across Hickson Road) mocks Astrov's campaign against the deforestation of the countryside; a cleverly angled door swings open to gives a sense of a labyrinthine house beyond.

Astrov's motorcycle, a refrigerator and Telegin's forlorn tuning of a transistor radio suggest we're in the 1960s, though almost everything else seems to belong to the previous century.

Across the board the performances are exceptional, lead by Hugo Weaving as the burned-out doctor and eco-crusader Astrov. Virile but with voice and manners coarsened by drink, Weaving allows us a clear look at the man Astrov can be as well as the ruin he will likely become. By contrast, Roxburgh's hunched and rumpled Vanya is already a goner, almost a man without shape. It's a lovely performance, unflashy and affecting.

Bell's Serebryakov - gouty, vain, reptilian - is absolutely on the money and Blanchett's Yelena is not so much a mermaid (as Vanya describes her at one point) but more a fish-out-of-water, dressed in figure-hugging frocks and crowned in platinum curls. Her playing of Yelena's contradictory mass of feelings is finely graded and funny, typified by the moment when she silently points an imaginary pistol at the back of Serebryakov's head. Her farewell scene with Astrov is a rom-com mini-masterclass.

It's Hayley McElhinney who shines, however, playing the plain and long-suffering Sonya, a woman diligently working herself to the bone. Her midnight feast scene with Astrov and a touching and playful tete-a-tete with step-mother Yelena are among this handsome and engrossing production's many highlights."

- the age

The latest

2010-11-10T07:55:00.005+11:00

We have finally finished sorting out everything for our new apartment. Looking back on the photos, I started having doubts about our choices of furniture & decor, but after some really amazing feedback from our first tenants, I'm feeling pretty good about it now - and so I should, after spending the last 6 weekends, countless hours, tonnes of energy and pain sorting all this stuff out - so here it is, our latest investment:

the kitchen

dining area

bedroom

living room & second bedroom (combined)

The kitchen and bathroom are going to get a complete overhaul next July (or thereabouts) when vacancy is higher. We're also knocking down some walls, and putting up a new wall between the living room area and the 2nd bedroom area. So eventually we will have a floor plan that looks something like this:

I'm just so exhausted and over it right now. Maybe the exhaustion has something to do with the super tough spin class I did this morning?.. But I will be very happy to not have to buy furniture & style an apartment again for a very long time.

My house in Kariong is nearing its settlement finally. I'm going up today to check everything is still ok before the buyer's pre-settlement inspection which is tomorrow. Looking forward to getting all that monaz in our account, particularly after spending so much money lately on furniture and homewares etc.

In other news, I saw The Social Network last Friday, and it was GREAT. Seriously good film. It might only be "inspired" by true events, but I still found it fascinating to see the development of the facebook phenomenon. And the acting was brilliant. Here's what David & Margaret had to say:

DAVID: Facebook, I must say, doesn't kind of thrill me too much, so I went and I thought, well, this might be interesting, but I came away thinking that, well, this is the best film from a studio I've seen, certainly since INCEPTION anyway, this year. It's been a lean year in many ways but this is a terrific film. The very opening scene, I think is a classic scene.

MARGARET: It's so good.

DAVID: An instant classic.

DAVID: ...the film is witty. It's smart. It's fascinating on every level imaginable. It's beautifully made. I just absolutely loved this film.

Tonight I'm going to see Eat Pray Love with my mum, and possibly my sister too, and then ... *drum roll* I'm going to see HARRY POTTER and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) on November 20th. Those are my immediate movie-going plans. I am so excited about Harry Potter 7 - I've already watched all the first 6 films this week to refresh. Heh. I also plan to take the last couple of books in the series with me on my overseas trip for some light reading ;)

This Friday evening I'm going to Sydney Theatre to see Uncle Vanya - should be good - Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh are all performing in this play. Not too shabby! And this coming Monday night is my sister's Honours Exhibition at COFA. I'm SO excited to see what she's done. Cute little thing.

Lots to be excited about .. and thats just this month!

A historical moment

2010-11-04T08:44:00.002+11:00

1.00 AUD = 1.00481 USD

Still here

2010-11-01T07:26:00.008+11:00

I haven't updated in a while. I've just been too exhausted! This weekend that just passed was the most unrelaxing I've had in a while. We settled on our new apartment on Friday, and on Saturday we took delivery of all the furniture and appliances for the property. We also had to assemble a lot of shit ourselves, and there was also SO MUCH rubbish (from all the packaging, padding, boxing etc) which we had to dispose of - another huge effort. On Sunday we had to go and buy even more shit for the apartment (light fittings, bits and pieces from bunnings, kitchen utensils etc), and that took the entire day. We still haven't bought any linen, pillows or dunas. Or artwork. *sigh* I am SO OVER it! O-V-E-R! I don't want to buy any more holiday apartments for a long time.

I didn't get a break at all the entire weekend, but after running around all day and evening yesterday, we met up with my dad for his birthday dinner, which was so nice. It was also nice to see all the little trick-or-treaters running around everywhere, which made me reminisce about my childhood days of trick-or-treating. I also kind of wish we'd organised a Halloween party for our friends. I love dressing up in costumes and getting into character, and no one's even seen our apartment (where we live) so it would have been a good opportunity to have a quasi-house-warming-Halloween party thing. But alas.... no such thing happened. Maybe next year, when we have our own home (house? maybe?).

I've finished reading my Southern Vampire Mysteries collection, and I feel a little deflated now. I think the next book comes out in May 2011. I don't want to wait that long!!! Now I just have to find something new to read. I have 1 more book of the Dresden Files to get through (Turn Coat) and I am seriously considering reading Harry Potter again, particularly as the 1st instalment of the last film is coming out this month (update: just bought tix for November 20th - OH YEAH~!!)... I also finished watching LOST.. and BOY did I hate the finale. SUUUUUCKS. I don't want to say any more in case it spoils it for someone. I'm still watching TrueBlood season 3 on TV - one episode left of the season. I'm super excited about Season 4 next yr. Also, I'm watching Smallville on my computer - downloading each new episode once a week. Its freakin awesome! As you can see, I love my fantasy TV series.

Anyhoo, that's about all from me... God, I cant believe its already November. In 7.5 weeks I'll be on a plan to Israel. Crazy shiznit..

Just another monday..

2010-10-18T09:20:00.004+11:00

It feels like this year has gone by quicker than any other year I can remember. Maybe that is because I haven't had any major things to plan, or any major studying to do. In other words, it's more or less been enjoyable and relaxing. Time does fly etc etc..

I kind of feel like it wasn't that long ago that I was in the snow in Canada (which was actually 10 months ago), and here I am, almost ready to fly off to Israel on Xmas eve.

This weekend was quite draining. We spent the majority of it buying things for the new apartment, furniture, decorative items, appliances etc. I'm getting tired just thinking about it. But I was able to get a lot of reading time in, which is a good thing because I have become quite addicted to Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries. I'm now onto the 3rd instalment, "Club Dead", and I really can't put these books down. Good thing they are relatively short novels, and I have other things such as work to break up the flow.

This week is set to be quite boring. Although I am seeing my lovely girlfriends tonight in the city, and I have a not-so-lovely exam this weekend. I'm seriously considering just flunking this subject, I hate it that much. I've been to 3 lectures this semester and have not even opened the textbook. I didn't do too well in the first quiz, and will probably do even worse in the 2nd, and then there's the final. Honestly, I just can't be arsed.

Finally Sold!

2010-10-13T07:46:00.009+11:00

Cooling off period has expired, so it is safe to say that I have actually SOLD my house. Joy!

In other news, what do you think of this new look? I thought some colour was well overdue on this blog. Also, I'm downloading a trial version of photoshop. I havent had any design software for a while, and its quite necessary for our bondi holidays website, so I'll be playing around with it to determine if I should be the ridiculously expensive full version.

Sneak peak at some of my little experiments so far.

From Kariong to Coolangatta

2010-10-11T10:27:00.007+11:00

Lots of stuff has been happening, and I haven't been online much to report on it. So here it is in a nut shell:

Firstly, the sale of my Kariong house fell through during the cooling-off period (now I understand why so many Sydney vendors will not agree to exchange without waiving the cooling off period, but in the central coast, with competition/demand not being as aggressive, it really is a buyers market and the vendors, i.e. myself, do not have the luxury of being able to make this demand)... However, lucky for me, there was another couple of buyers itching to get their little mitts on my house, so I was able to exchange right away with a new buyer, and I'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that they do not pull out before the end of the cooling off period (which is on Tuesday afternoon). I can't see why anyone would pull out of this purchase - the house is bloody amazing, beautiful, big, not expensive, and practically brand new. I would be moving into it myself if we didn't have to live closer to work.

Onto happier topics, we spent the labour day long weekend in Byron Bay to attend a friend's wedding, which was really beautiful, and so much fun being with our friends for the whole weekend, and hanging out with the bride and groom the day before the wedding. The only downside was the terrible weather, which I'm sure will be one of those things you remember in years to come and are able to laugh about. Despite the turbulent downpour, it was still a brilliant wedding with absolutely awesome music, dancing and food. We arrived on Friday morning at Coolangatta airport, picked up our rental car and drove down to Byron Bay. We had a beachhouse that we shared with our friends - making up 8 all together, and there was another house nearby with another large group of friends, so we spent the weekend between the 2 houses, mainly doing bbqs and just relaxing and hanging out. I don't think we actually spent any time in Byron Bay itself, and even the wedding was in the hinterland, so not on the beach. It was a really relaxing weekend, and I got a lot of reading done :) We then drove back up to Coolangatta on Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the day til our flight hanging by the beach.

View from Coolangatta - with Surfers' Paradise in the distance

This weekend that just passed, we met up with the newleyweds and our 'jew crew' at Duff Reserve in point piper for a post-wedding picnic catchup. It was super relaxing and beautiful there, overlooking the harbour. On Sunday we spent the day buying furniture for our new apartment - which I just realised I haven't mentioned before. Anyhoo, its another one of our holiday rental projects. We only had enough time to find a sofa set and dining table + benches. We're trying to furnish/decorate it in the 'spanish mission' style, and its actually not that easy! But lots of fun :) There are some pics and details on our bondi beach holidays website (link on the right). We settle in 3 weeks. Exciting!

Our beautiful new apartment building in North Bondi

Vuze

2010-09-29T07:54:00.003+10:00

I have discovered Vuze. Where all my downloading-of-fantasy-TV-series-not-yet-aired-in-Australia dreams come true.... *blissful sigh* This morning I felt terribly sick and couldn't make it to my wednesday morning spin class at the gym, so I decided to watch the season 9 finale of Smallville. OH. MY. GOD. Farkin best season finale ever!!!! So now I am happily downloading Season 10 premier on Vuze. My new best friend. I am also downloading all the season 3 episodes of True Blood. HELZZZZ YEAH! Now to find the time to watch these wonderful packets of delight...

Sold!

2010-09-28T11:39:00.002+10:00

I am very excited to announce that I have sold my house after less than 3 weeks on the market. Woot!!!!

38 Belsham Road

Stolen from Jessy

2010-09-22T11:38:00.002+10:00

Is there anyone you want to start over with?
My "step mother", who for some unknown reason hates me (and my brother and sister). Would be nice to start over again so that maybe in this lifetime I will be able to get to know my 1/2 siblings.

Why do you hate the person you hate?
I don't hate anyone. But I am seriously pissed off at those responsible for our government right now.

What does the 10th text message in your inbox say?
I have no text messages!!!! I deleted them all and now I cant receive SMSs :(

Have you ever collapsed?
not that i can recall right now

Do you like anyone right now?
yes..... he's tall... cute.. brown eyes.. speaks russian.. drives badly..

When was the last time you bought something?
a few weeks ago on amazon.. and I am now the proud owner of the sookie stackhouse collection (8 book series). also the owner of season 9 of smallville and season 6 of lost. OHYEA!

Has someone told you that they like you today or yesterday?
not many people tell me that they "like" me

In the next 4 months, what are you looking forward to most?
SNOW BOARDING!!!!! In SWITZERLAND!! and JAPAN!!!

What do you hope happens tomorrow?
I pass my exam?

When will your next kiss be?
when I next see my hubby

How was your weekend?
nice. went to the opera, and drove up to the central coast for the morning.. and went rock climbing at st leonards

What is the last cd you bought?
i cant remember.. its been that long

What was the last movie you watched?
"welcome to woop woop" (watched it on foxtel). WORST AUSTRALIAN MOVIE EVER. it makes Aussies look like a bunch of mentally challenged red necks.. not that we don't have a good bunch of them in reality.. but still.. terrible movie. That Johnathon Schaech guy sure was a hottie though (back in in the 90's that is..).

What's bothering you right now?
this blasted medication I'm on..

Are you happy?
about most things, yes

Do you miss someone?
my friends. havent seen many of them lately.

Do you think you can last in a relationship for 3 months?
well ive been married for about 17 months... so yes.

Last person who made you laugh really hard?
I dunno.. probably my brother sam?

Do you curse a lot?
yes

Will you be in a relationship 4 months from now?
hope so!

What is the most money you have spent on a pair of shoes?
About $300? but they were snowboarding boots

Something you hate more than anything?
being sick

Are you a bad influence?
i hope not! maybe I used to be in the past

Night out or night in?
i definitely prefer a night in. especially with my favourite vampires.

Do you have a tattoo?
Hell no! and I never will. aside from the fact that I think they are ugly, and that they are painful, I also have a slight problem with the idea of being branded, particularly post-holocaust.

Can you easily tell if someone is fake?
depends how good they are at it

How's your heart?
beating fine last time i checked

Have you broken a bone?
not lately.

Are you good looking?
I'm better looking than Amy Winehouse and less attractive than Angelina Jolie..somewhere in the middle there...

What do you dislike currently?
I don't dislike lady gaga (jessy, what is wrong with Gaga???? she is AMAZING!!! you crazy!!)

What is your favorite scent?
the smell of cookies baking

Who makes you happiest?
cuddles. babies. puppies. cute things.

Do you have any expensive jewelery?
just my engagement ring

What type of guys do you usually fall for?
the wrong ones (normally). got lucky with the last one.

Dream Job?
successful property developer. "successful" being the operative word.

Would you consider yourself to be spoiled?
sometimes.

Ever met anyone famous before?
janet jackson

Ever been out of the country?
plenty of times

Have you ever been to disneyland or world?
disneyland in california

Do you have a favorite cartoon character?
homer

Do you need to know everything about someone's past?
no

It is more worthwhile and satisfying to improve the world or to appreciate the world?
Both...

Do you feel you have a purpose or calling in life?
maybe but i dont know what it is. something tells me that it *isnt* to get people large tax refunds. although they do appreciate it.

Do you believe that dreams can be messages from a "higher level"?
no

Do you like kissing in public?
i used to but not anymore. i like holding hands in public though

Would you date someone significantly (9 years or over) older than you?
yea been there done that (3 times) heh. currently there is only a 5 yr gap between my husband and myself

How well do you handle criticism?
depends what the criticism is about. if it is work or study related, i'm ok, but if its about my lifestyle or relationships, I dont handle it too well

Would you rather know everything about your mate, or be regularly surprised?
surprises are nice, but not if they are huge and unpleasant

What is sexiest on a man?
a kind face and good smile. and a good body haha. and fangs?

Should your mate also become your best friend?
mine is :)

Have you ever had a true one-night stand?
yes

Is it better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all?
yes

Snow Monkeys, Weddings and the Like..

2010-09-21T07:32:00.008+10:00

I've had a pretty hectic few weeks I must say.. Everything is happening at once, and its taking its toll on me. I'm pretty tired and not feeling too well with all my various injuries and aches. Firstly, my feet are sore. This has been bothering me for 2 weeks already. It is because I did all sorts of laboursome jobs on my house in Kariong without wearing supportive shoes, which is not a good thing when you have flat feet. As well as this, I have been feeling a bit fluey. I went to a doctor who confirmed I have a viral infection, so basically I can't do a thing about it. The flu is going away though, finally. Third, and worst of all, I was recently diagnosed with PCOS with a borderline insulin resistance, so I now have to take medication every single day, indefinitely, on top of vitamin D and iodine supplements, because I was also recently told that I am deficient in both of these. Joy!

It isn't all bad though. Some exciting things are just around the corner - My friend's Hens Night is on this Thursday night, which should be really fun (although, due to my daily dose of medicine, I cant "binge" drink.. not sure how much alcohol constitutes a binge, when I get quite tipsy off 2 glasses of wine, so I'll need to be careful - my doctor said if I "binge" drink while I am on this medication.... I will die. That certainly has put me off drinking). Then on Friday night, Stan and I are going to spend a night at the Swiss Grand Hotel in Bondi Beach (where we had our wedding reception last year). They sent us an anniversary voucher in April but we haven't used it yet, and its about to expire in a couple of weeks. Oops :) It'll be fun staying there again, and we'll use the Saturday to look at properties in Bondi Beach to potentially buy.

And the following weekend we are flying to the Gold Coast, hiring a car and driving down to Byron, staying in a beach house with a bunch of friends, and then going to D&S's wedding!!!! Yaaaay I love weddings :) And Marsala will be performing as well, which is just too exciting! They played at our wedding and it was the highlight of the day for everyone :D

We've also been finalising some details for our end-of-year trip overseas. We've hired our car for Israel, and it turns out my mother will be in Tel Aviv the same time as us, so we will be able to stay with her in her apartment. We also booked our first night in Switzerland (Zurich) at the Hotel Continental. We already booked our 12 nights in Zermatt (at the Casa Vanessa), and now I'm just about to finalise our accommodation for Japan, at Shirouma So in Happo One, Hakuba. I'm pretty excited about it, as we'll be staying in a traditional Ryokan (sleeping on tatami mats and all of that) and soaking in mineral hot springs (Onsens) after a long day of snowboarding. Only thing is, we originally were going to Shiga Kogen, so now that we'll be in Hakuba instead, we miss out on the snow monkeys. So unfair :( Here is a pic of them that i posted back in April.

Aren't they the cutest???? We might still be able to make a day trip when we first get to Nagano, before we start skiing/boarding in Hakuba. I really can't wait to get back on the snow. Snowboarding and Rock Climbing are my 2 passions, and I want to be able to do both for the rest of my life :D But unfortunately, over the next few years, with starting a family and all of that, this is going to be my last big snow adventure for some time.

In other news, the house in kariong is going well. The first open-house was a let down because it had only been on the market for a couple of days so there wasn't enough exposure, and consequently, no one came through the house. The 2nd weekend, there were several parties coming through and already an offer.. so I'm very positive about this coming weekend, and will probably have that miraculous quick sale I have been hoping for :D

ps: I've added a new poll. Go to the end of each post or the bottom of this blog to vote.

What is it about Vampires...?

2010-09-13T12:54:00.004+10:00

They are terribly sexy and romantic aren't they? *shiver*

Warning: TrueBlood is way addictive.

In other news of the day, the SMH asks the question "Are migrant parents pushing their children too hard?"

"New figures obtained under freedom of information laws show that 95.2 per cent of students [at James Ruse Selective High School] list a language background other than English in their entry application."

... 'In NSW we are entrenching advantage within one particular ethnic group. If the NSW government was serious about equal opportunity, it would put some geographical boundaries to ensure better access to [top] schools.'

Hmmm... an interesting way of looking at the situation. Let's see... Children of non-ethnic persuasion are somehow disadvantaged because their parents do not "push" their children "hard" enough.. and this leads to inequality in selective schools? I thought the premise of the selective school testing was to eliminate inequality. And aren't parents supposed to push their children to do well academically? I know that Australians have a very strong sports culture, and that's great! But China has a strong sporting culture too - or at least, a culture of success (just look at their performance in the Olympics), and yet, they also have waves of super smart kids filling up Aussie classrooms and university lecture halls. I think that generally, Anglo-Saxon Australians do not value academic success as highly as non-Anglo Australians do. Just this morning on the way to work, I heard an advertisement on the radio for the UAC (Universities Admissions Centre) that went something like this:

A 17-20yr old female voice over says something along the lines of "hey guys, did you know that you could earn a salary over your lifetime that is on average $1.5 million more than someone who didn't have a tertiary education? Choose your courses now at UAC.edu.au"

Since when does UAC need to woo yr 12 students with dollar signs to apply for university courses? Clearly, parents of non-migrant background are not concerned enough, or involved enough with their children's education, which is a crying shame, considering the quality of public education in NSW.

As for migrant children being advantaged... well, its true!! They have the advantage of being raised by parents who actually understand that putting your kids into a uniform and shuffling them onto the school bus is not enough to make them study and excel in their education. If anything, we should be commending their parents, and trying to follow their example.

Holy Smoking Cigars Batman, my house looks amazing!

2010-09-08T08:49:00.003+10:00

Click on image for full size version (will open in new window):

Body feels broken

2010-09-07T10:20:00.007+10:00

I dont think my little body was designed for manual labour. My hands and feet literally feel like they are riddled with broken bones. I'm limping around the place from the pain, and my lower back is killing me! This is what happens when I spend Friday, Sunday and Monday slaving away working on my house. Needless to say, it looks incredible now. Here is a short list of what was done (note - I didn't do it all on my own, 2 of the days I spent up in the central coast were with my mother-in-law's husband, Phil, who can pretty much do just about any odd job on a property. So handy):

* Gardening - planted various foliage and flowers around the backyard and front yard, as well as some feature strips. The dirt was so packed down and filled with bits of debris and tonnes of thick tree roots.. bloody miracle I can still walk after all that labouring in the garden.

* Skirting boards throughout the house - the flooring people took the boards off to lay the timber floors, and when they put the boards back, there was a lot of flakey bits and pieces all along the skirting boards. It was my job to cut all these little bits off with a utility knife, and then fill all the gaps and cracks up, including the holes where the nail gun punched through. This took about 6 hours, and required sitting in very uncomfortable positions.

* Cleaning the house after the timber floors went in - there was so much dust and debris. I had to sweep the entire house 3 times, and then mop. I also thoroughly cleaned the bathrooms and toilets, kitchen, and windows, as well as sections of the pergola. I also had to go around the house with one of those magic sponges and wipe off dirt from the newly painted walls where tradespeople have left marks. Grrrr!

* Removing rubbish and building materials such as bricks, collecting fallen branches that were strewn all over the lawns after Sunday's gail force winds, and constantly watering the new lawn and plants.

* Sanding down and painting the side gate, painting the mail box, painting one of the skirting boards, and painting the concrete at the entry-way to the house, which has been an ugly grey concrete colour for the last 20 yrs. I also had to mix cement and fill a massive gap in the concrete at the front step to the house before Phil could tile the threshold.

* Helping Phil replace all the low-volt downlights throughout the house. The globes that the builder's electrician installed were so dim and emitted a gloomy white/blue light. So I went out and bought a bunch of yellow hallogen lights and now the house is bright and warm looking.

* Other odd bits - I cleaned out the bbq area and helped Phil re-tile the whole thing. Phil also installed an out-door light fitting in the pergola, and replaced one of the shower heads with a bigger sexier shower head. Also had to clean out the mail-box and glue new numbers to it, the previous numbers were ugly, plus a bunch of other stuff I can't remember now.....

Here are some before & afters..

Paul Hogan

2010-09-01T09:57:00.003+10:00

" Linda is not coming out here; she is afraid to come out here," he said. "She said: 'They can't just keep you there - haven't they got a Department of Justice you can appeal to?' I said we don't even have a government here at the moment."

- Paul Hogan @ the australian

An interesting weekend

2010-08-31T08:54:00.016+10:00

Friday night I went out with lovely Belinda (hey there, luva!!!) to watch Inception, which I believe would be more enjoyable the 2nd time around without needing to think so much about what is happening. Great acting, amazing special effects, but I don't think it was as good as it was hyped up to be. I did enjoy it, and I would like to watch it again. I have to say, I actually enjoyed Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance better than Leo's but I did think Leo was outstanding, as usual.

I spent pretty much all of Saturday and Sunday watching True Blood. Yep. I am officially addicted. To say that the show is "sexy" is a serious understatement. I've managed to watch 2 whole seasons in 2 days. This could only be achieved because my husband was out with the boys for the entire weekend for a friend's buck's "night". He wouldnt have been able to stand watching that much supernatural shit. Although I suspect he would have enjoyed all that full-frontal nudity and sex. Even if it is with vampires.

But I am not a total loser... I did see my wonderful brother and sister and 'sis-in-law' on Saturday night, and we ate take away thai, drank 5 seeds cider (which was recently described by one of my friends as "shit" but I resent that!), and watched a really dumb but hilarious movie called 'Step Brothers'. Followed by a trueblood episode. Hheheh. Sunday night was a night with the girls, and that was really fun. My poor friend had to hobble around the apartment making us dinner and being a wonderful hostess after having an operation on her toe. Bless.

Last Thursday I went to visit my house in Kariong and it looks pretty damn good. I'm quite proud of my choices in colours and fittings etc with regard to the bathrooms, tiles, paint, kitchen, blinds, lighting and so on. It all looks a billion times better than it was before the fire (and especially directly after the fire). I've got a landscaper on the site this week, and hopefully the flooring will start tomorrow. Styling next week and then professional photos, but in the mean time, I thought some before/after pics would be fun:

Life is not like a box of chocolates

2010-08-25T15:39:00.005+10:00

It is more like a giant to-do list, and every time you tick one thing off, two new items pop up.

I'm mega overworked and have too many things to do. I'm not going to uni tonight.

I didn't go last week either. Bad start to the semester but the lecturer is a douche, so whats the point of wasting 3 hours of my precious time listening to him?

This weekend my husband is going away for a buck's night thingo. Good time for me to catch up on my uni work. Or a good time to watch all those new DVDs I just bought. Oh yeah~!

Looking forward to visiting my house tomorrow which is being renovated post-fire. Almost finished now. Builder should be done by the end of this week, and next week the flooring is going in, and landscaping begins. I'm meeting a stylist at the house tomorrow to make the house look really special for sale. It'll hopefully go on the market within 2 weeks, and my wonderful friend (who is going to be featured on that 'Selling Houses Australia" show in February) is going to be the selling agent. Very exciting now.

Election Result

2010-08-23T07:20:00.005+10:00

First Preferences

Enrolment: 14,088,260
Turnout: 78.13%

Australian Labor Party = 4,000,224 VOTES

Coalition Total = 4,483,182 VOTES

(made up of)
- Liberal 3,148,949 votes
- Liberal National Party of Queensland 932,487 votes
- The Nationals 401,746 votes

After Preferences

Australian Labor Party = 5,041,478 VOTES (50.67%)
Liberal/National Coalition = 4,908,247 VOTES (49.33%)

Source: AEC

Some thoughts...

1. Clearly, more Australians (of the votes counted) voted for the Coalition over the Labor party.

2. The Labor party only has majority after preferences (a tiny little margin of 1.34%). This means that if it wasnt for the "deal" they struck up with the Greens, Labor would be out on their arse. Australians have no say on how these preference deals are decided, so this should not be the deciding factor of who should govern.

3. Only 78% of the votes have been counted. That means there is still another 3 million or so votes to count. Looks like we wont know the outcome for days... Big let down in that respect, but what a victory for the Coalition, and a huge credit to Tony Abbott!!!

Home Stretch

2010-08-20T18:26:00.002+10:00

"LABOR has lost its lead in the election campaign, with voters shifting towards the Coalition to split support 50-50."

Already voted

2010-08-18T07:39:00.003+10:00

Oh yeah~! Loves them absentee votes :D

Don't spend ages waiting in line on Saturday - go here to find your nearest early voting office (you don't need a reason to place an absentee vote, and it takes just a few short minutes). When you do the search, make sure to select "I need to vote early".

Click here for info on how to vote Liberal in NSW

Caroline Glick

2010-08-17T16:18:00.003+10:00

"Only an informed jewish people is going to be able to wake up in time to prevent terrible things from happening."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VDNupft_oI

Woohoo! Polling day in Snives!

2010-08-13T18:44:00.003+10:00

In the last election, I volunteered to help out on polling day for the Libs, but because they had too many people in St Ives already, I was asked to lend a hand at Gordon. This year, even though my electorate is in Bondi, I'm currently living in 'snives', and this time around, I'll be helping out at St Ives Park school, so if you're from snives high and I havent seen you for aaages, come and say hello ;)

Pic of me in Turkey a couple of weeks after the election - my T-shirt reads "Brendan Nelson - Liberal for Bradfield"

Which is "your" party?

2010-08-13T14:47:00.002+10:00

Check out this fun quiz. Here are my results:

I just want to mention though, when it asked the question about Gay marriage, I answered that people should be allowed to marry whoever they want.

In Oz Today

2010-08-13T07:48:00.018+10:00

Telstra shares tank as mobile phones take over

TELSTRA shares collapsed almost 10 per cent yesterday - their second-biggest fall since listing on the stockmarket in 1997.

The company admitted reaching an "inflection point" where fixed-line customers were hanging up faster than it could sign them to mobiles.

The warning, which came after the company reported a 4.7 per cent drop in net profit following its first fall in revenue in more than a decade, compounded investor uncertainty about the potential impact of the competing broadband plans of Labor and the Coalition.

Telstra shares, which the government sold to investors for $3.70 in 2006, yesterday crashed 31c to a 10-week low of $2.94.

Stockmarket analysts said yesterday there remained uncertainty about the impact of Labor's $43bn NBN on Telstra despite an $11bn deal struck by the company to sell key parts of its network and customer base to the NBN.

The Coalition's $6.3bn broadband plan, unveiled this week, would keep Telstra intact but would seek to boost broadband internet rollout by encouraging competition with the dominant telecommunications company.

Is anyone really surprised? Telstra phone lines are ridiculously expensive compared to mobile phones (installation alone is a couple of hundred dollars, plus $30 a month for line rental, plus land line calls..) Why would you want this, when you can alternatively sign up to a $49 mobile cap plan with $300 of free calls included, plus a sexy mobile handset to boot... Fixed phone lines just can't compete with this. I can count the number of friends that I have with fixed home phone lines on one hand. The majority of new fixed lines these days are being installed for business, and this is a problem. Because Telstra will have to make up their 4.7% drop in profits somehow, and I suspect the cost will be bared by business customers. In my tiny little business alone, we have about 8 fixed phone lines. It costs a fortune every month, but its necessary, and it's only going to get more expensive. Add to this, the potential drop in profits once Teltra has to compete with the NBN and you've got a bit of a sinking ship on your hands, particularly if you're a Telstra shareholder. Not good news.

As for the NBN, I've mentioned before that I think this is a really wasteful investment. On average, it is going to cost $5000 per household (which will be paid for with taxpayers money) but not every household will use it. Even if the internet plans were costing the same as they do now, a lot of people don't need cable internet because they get wireless USBs included in their mobile phone plans. And people who do use internet at home are mostly just going on facebook - who needs super fast internet for that?

There was an article in The Australian yesterday, in which Bank of Queensland CEO David Liddy slammed Tony Abbott and the Coalition for their broadband policies (and plans to axe the NBN project), stating:

"If Australia wants to establish itself as a leading financial centre in this part of the world, we can't be backward in our technology."

That's all well and good, but how many financial institutions are there in Australia? And I'm pretty certain they can afford to pay $5000 or whatever it would cost them to set up superfast broadband in each of their centres. That doesn't mean that every household in Australia needs to have this broadband set up. If anything, Mr Liddy is just confirming what the Coalition has been saying all along - the private sector should be paying for this, particularly in circumstances where they really need it and its feasible to do so. Particularly when the people who benefit the most from super fast broadband, is big business.

The article goes on to quote Rod McGeoch, chairman of SkyCity group, who said:

"it was like travelling on the Pacific Highway - at 1am you can travel at 180kph, but at 9am you're only doing 5kph.

He slammed both parties for their "unbelievable abrogation of responsibility" over access to the nation's telecommunications infrastructure."

Right. Well, firstly, if you're driving 180kph on the pacific highway, then you are a maniac who should not be allowed behind the steering wheel of a car. But putting that aside, what this statement clearly points out to me, is that in Australia, there are many infrastructure deficiencies, and our roads are certainly a major part of that deficiency. And if you put $43bn into roads and public transport, two things that the private sector would NEVER pay for, then you really are building infrastructure for a sustainable future, and that is a very good thing. But if instead, you spend $43bn on fibre optic cables that will allow media pirates access to super fast downloads, then this does absolutely nothing for our future sustainability, and what's more, the government would be providing funding for something that the private sector could do themselves, and most likely, at a fraction of the cost, and certainly more efficiently, in the sense that those households who don't want the broadband, wont be forced to have it.

Lastly, and this is a huge point - people are so excited about this wonderful fast broadband plan, thinking that the government is paying for it. Where do they think the government is getting that money from? It isn't a FREE service. It just means that the tax that you pay, instead of going towards health, education, roads, public transport, national security, welfare etc - it will go towards faster internet, which many will not use, and which in any case, may not be THAT fast, unless you upgrade ALL of your computer hardware (which evidently, the "government" wont pay for). It is the most ridiculous effort of redistributing income.

Now, in other news, the Coalition has come up with a nifty little statement that they will issue as part of taxpayers' notice of assessments after they lodge a tax return. I personally think this is one of the most brilliant yet simple (and not costly) initiatives to come out of the Liberal camp, and would love to see this taken up.

And before I move off the topic of politics, I'd like to post some choice quotes from Tony Abbott's Q&A at Rooty Hill RSL on 11th August.

On the demotions of Rudd & Turnbull

" I didn’t think Kevin Rudd was a great Prime Minister [...] but he was the Prime Minister that the Labor Party told us we should vote for at the last election. He was chosen by the people and he should have faced the people’s judgement. Now, I would have argued that they should have got rid of him, but nevertheless it should have been the people that made that decision, not the faction leaders in Sussex Street.

Well, I’ve got an interjection here from the front, ‘what about Malcolm Turnbull?’ Two points I make. The first is that parties in opposition often change their leaders and in opposition your leader belongs to the party. But in government the leader belongs to the people as well as just to the party and I think that’s an important distinction and the other point I make in respect of Malcolm is this, we had an argument over policy and I wanted to change the policy, Malcolm didn’t want to and the leader was changed because a majority of the party decided to change the policy. In the case of Kevin and Julia, what was it all about? I mean, she said ‘the Government had lost its way’ and then she seems to have made a bad situation worse in the seven weeks or so that she’s been the Prime Minister. In the end I think we’ve got a bad political culture here in New South Wales where State Premiers get politically executed at the first sight of the polls and I would like to think that the federal parliament is better than that."

On why a single person without a mortgage should vote for the Liberals

Ok, well, Joel, again, I can’t say that I’ve got a big bag of goodies necessarily to dole out and frankly I think you might not respect me if that’s all I had to offer. What I would like to say is that if I say that I will do something I will do it. I’ve got a record in government as a Minister in the former Government, a very senior Minister in the former Government, of actually competently administering portfolios and I think what Australians really want at the moment is a steady, stable, competent government that respects them and which respects the taxpayer’s dollar. So that’s what I would try to do for you.

On the NBN

I think there are lots of people who would say, why not spend $43 billion on this? Even without a business plan? Even without really knowing exactly how it’s all going to be achieved, which is what the Government did. I would rather not commit myself to such a gargantuan expenditure when we are in a difficult financial situation and where I don’t think we can be absolutely confident that technology is not going to change all the time.

On the Liberal's Health policies

I was a Health Minister for four years so I’m very conscious of how important health policy is and health services are. In a nutshell, I am offering more beds and local hospital boards or local community boards to run the hospitals and I’m talking now about public hospitals. [...] The basic problem is that they don’t have enough beds. So some of the money that the Rudd-Gillard Government wants to invest in what I think are fairly bureaucratic structures I am going to redirect to opening more beds, 2,800 more beds and that’s 1,500 more beds than the Government is proposing.

But it’s not just the beds. Anyone who has anything to do with the doctors and nurses in public hospitals understands that morale is low. These are very dedicated, idealistic, very skilled people. One of the nice things about being the Health Minister, was the contact you have with doctors and nurses who are always in it, or almost always in it, for the right reasons.

Now, their problem is that if there’s a difficulty at the hospital, no one can make a decision. No one can make a decision. I became quite good mates with a very senior doctor, a great clinician, a world class clinician in his field and he had a very senior official position in the western Sydney area health service. He could not order a plate of sandwiches for a meeting, even though he was notionally in charge of 1,500 professional staff with an annual wages budget of about $70 million. The thing is, in such a bureaucratic straight jacket that he could not order a plate of sandwiches for a meeting without getting permission from higher up. The General Manager of Port Macquarie Hospital can’t decide on any item of spending greater than $5,000 without going further up the line for approval. Now, no wonder the whole thing is log-jammed and people leave the system in droves if they can, because they hate dealing with superiors who have to give ‘no’ for an answer.

There's quite a bit more, so have a read for yourself.

I don't understand why so many people abhor Tony Abbott? Is it because he was snapped by the press wearing budgie smugglers, or because he is a devout Catholic? Neither of these things should make a jot of difference when it comes to who should be the Prime Minister. Firstly, as a non-practising Jew, I feel that Tony Abbott's devotion to his faith is something very admirable. I also think that being a volunteer surf lifesaver should be boosting his public image as a natural do-gooder hero-type person, not some seedy hairy budgie-smuggler wearing perve, which is how a lot of people are painting him (some literally paint him in this image):

These cartoons are funny, but he just looks so seedy!!! I personally admire his enthusiasm for exercise and fund raising, its what we need to see more of from our leaders!

But so many of my friends unanimously agree that he is foul, and refuse to vote for him. Thankfully, most of my friends are voting in safe Liberal electorates. Mwahahah!! Suckers!

That's all for now.

F%$k Off Mark Latham!

2010-08-12T16:01:00.004+10:00

From today (selected excerpts from here):

FORMER Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke says Mark Latham should stick to gardening.

Mr Latham has also been told to "p--- off" by onlookers after confronting Tony Abbott on the campaign trail.

Mr Latham crashed the gathering of veterans at the Penrith RSL in western Sydney where Mr Abbott was explaining new Coalition policy on veterans.

"Long time, no see," Mr Latham said to his former political opponent as the pair met. "Are you brave enough to shake my hand?"

The pair shook hands before Mr Latham, now employed by the Nine Network's 60 Minutes program, quizzed Mr Abbott.

He asked Mr Abbott about any role he may have had in the 2003 imprisonment of Pauline Hanson.

"I've interviewed Pauline Hanson and we'd like to know, are you willing to apologise for your role in putting her in a prison," Mr Latham said.

"I don't think that's a fair assessment of my role," Mr Abbott responded.

One veteran shouted: "P--- off Latham, this isn't about you''.

One anonymous man in the crowd yelled at Mr Latham: "how about taking off".

The wife of a veteran said: ""He is only here because he is on 60 Minutes.''

Another veteran yelled "p--- off Latham.''

""Well said,'' replied another.

In a newspaper column in 2009, Mr Latham described the nation’s soldiers as "meatheads".

He said they had "limited intelligence and primeval interests in life'' in a column in The Australian Financial Review.

Mr Abbott who arrived at 11.20am for the press conference reiterated his new policy announcement that all disabled veterans would get free medicines under his regime.

Bye bye blackberry :(

2010-08-12T08:51:00.004+10:00

So, being the "special" person that I am, I dropped my blackberry into the water at the marina in Roseville Chase a couple of weekends ago. It caused a great deal of excitement amongst the patrons of the cafe there, many of which offered advice on how best to get rid of the water and sand that had seeped into every crevice of my handset. I'm just surprised we managed to retrieve the phone in the first place, and thus, salvaging my precious SIM card, but alas, the phone is no more. After two weeks of attempting to dry the thing, it now makes a very unnerving buzzing sound when I clip in the battery. So I am now using my old Nokia from a million years ago, which for some reason sends most of my SMSs to 'drafts' thereby making it seem like I am a total snob to anyone who sends me a message. I miss my phone :(

In other news, I did go to Uni last night. I have to admit, a lot of stuff was very interesting, but had NOTHING at all to do with the curriculum, which means I have to spend more free time than usual, to study this subject. And its a tough subject to get ones' head around. I was considering contacting the unit coordinator to find out when he takes tutes, but Wednesday night is really the only night that works with my crazy schedule. Waah.

I did learn last night, that you can get very rich by purchasing Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice contracts at a certain price, and that the recent fires in Russia have quadrupled the price of Wheat commodities in Australia. Then again, I find it difficult to trust investment advice from someone who thinks that 'CPI' stands for 'consumer price inflation'.

Slight dilemma

2010-08-11T08:55:00.003+10:00

The topic of bad teachers was recently discussed on another blog. The government (and opposition) want to introduce policies that will reward teachers that have performed better than their peers, but this incentive is not extended to higher education. I don't understand why university tutors/lecturers, particularly (in my experience) those who teach post-grad students, can get away with firstly, being completely dull and passionless, and secondly, knowing very little about a subject, in some cases, almost to the point of fraudulence. The government doesn't seem to care much about this matter, and I don't understand why. After all, they are the ones funding these ridiculously expensive degrees. On yet another blog, the question of "whether individuals are over-estimating the returns to (higher) education" was discussed. Thinking about the lecture/tute I have to attend tonight, I'm starting to wonder the same thing.

Double Take - A few funny ones

2010-08-10T07:29:00.003+10:00

Its over a year old, but funny nonetheless.. :)

An interesting day, Sort of.

2010-08-09T20:17:00.002+10:00

Today I took the day off work. I spent just over 2 hours in pathology and had 9 vials of blood taken, have let my sister give me an at-home hair cut (looks pretty damn good actually), watched a lot of crappy TV and started reading The Power of One, for (i think) the 5th time.

Sunday Scribblings - "I'd like to thank..."

2010-08-06T14:12:00.005+10:00

I've almost missed the boat this week, but better late than never.. This week's Sunday Scribblings prompt is "I'd like to thank" in manner of a dedication or acceptance speech. So here is mine:

I'd like to thank...

Australia. Thank you Australia for voting in the Labor Government, and ending 12 years of Australian economic prosperity.

Thank you also to the Labor party, for putting a stop to off-shore processing of illegal immigrants and for abolishing temporary protection visas. The people smugglers thank you greatly as well. Your replacement border protection policies have ensured that these people smugglers have lots of money to feed their families, so THANK YOU.

Thank you Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan, for changing the baby bonus to a fortnightly payment of around $200, rather than a lump sum of around $5000 received when the baby is born, which usually goes toward huge initial costs such as prams, cots, baby seats and obstetrics. That was just so considerate of you guys, and just shows how "in touch" you are with Real Australians and "working families".

Thank you also, so much, for all those expensive school halls that you built around the country, around double the cost that the private sector could have built it at. And thank you so much to Julia Gillard, the architect of this wonderful initiative, for saying today that you would do it all over again if given the chance! I really hope you don't get another chance, but THANK YOU anyway, for spending taxpayers money on wasteful building projects. Cheers.

I would also like to thank the Labor party for the $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN), which is going to cost around $5000 per household out of taxpayers money, while most Australians will not actually use this service.

I'd like to thank Ken Henry for his wonderful new tax, the "Mining Resource Rent Tax", which is far superior to its predecessor, the "Resource Super Profits Tax". This is sure to weaken one of our most important industries, but that's ok - because you need this money to fund your budget blow-outs and compounding debt.

Thank you to the Greens & Labor party for their joint effort in bringing about the Pink Roof Insulation batts program. What a wonderful initiative. All those hundreds of houses that burned down because of these batts has actually helped to increase productivity, particularly in the industries of building & construction, insurance, and public services (fire department). I really do thank you guys for this.

Also, THANK YOU Labor Government, for taking our very impressive (by international standards) Net Savings worth 8% of GDP, and magically making it disappear into thin air in less than 3 years, and replacing it with a Net Debt of 10% of GDP. In other words, thank you for the $1015 billion of debt.

I would also like to thank the union factions in the Labor party for booting out the country's elected PM, and replacing him with, first of all, a "fake" Julia Gillard, and then a "real" Julia Gillard. Thank you!! I'd like to thank everyone in the Labor Party who started leaking information as well, all of which added to the general impression that this party is falling apart from the inside out.

That DJs Chick

2010-08-06T08:44:00.005+10:00

A couple of days ago, I posted a blog about Kristy Fraser-Kirk, slamming her for being a media milk maiden. My views haven't changed so much regarding the exorbitant compensation she is seeking from David Jones, but after reading the application filed by her lawyers to the court, I have changed my view on a couple of matters:

1. McInnes didn't get what he deserved. He deserved far worse.

2. David Jones did breach their duty of care to her, fostering a culture of male chauvinism and a pattern of excusing and/or ignoring serious misconduct of the company's CEO toward several female employees.

Some excerpts from the application to the court:

So basically, this guy really was a pig-headed tosser who clearly thinks that money and power make him god's gift to women, and he did make this woman's life a living hell for several months (I was also mistaken previously about the length of her employment - it was actually more like 2 years at DJs) and she is right to seek compensation from the company. I still think though that $37 million is way too much, but clearly this is a test case to set a precedent for future disputes of this nature.

Too funny!

2010-08-05T13:08:00.004+10:00

http://catallaxyfiles.com/2010/08/04/incidence-of-the-crisis/#comment-82977/

The comments, that is.. BBB is just too funny :)

Uni tonight. Sigh.

2010-08-04T17:13:00.000+10:00

First evening lecture of the semester. Joy.

International Finance. Double Joy.

:(

A bit rich

2010-08-04T07:55:00.001+10:00

She just wants to be treated with respect. As any person would, regardless of sex. But its hard to respect someone who seems to be pulling off a massive publicity stunt.

Kristy Fraser-Kirk clearly isn't after money, as she has pledged any damages that she receives from this case to charity, but a few days ago, no one knew who she was, and now, she is the 2nd most talked about woman in Australia, after this one.

She is a victim, no doubt about it - and the man she is accusing of sexual harassment got what he deserves - he was fired, and his reputation tarnished, his career and future prospects of holding a high ranking role in any corporation, pretty much ruined.

And Fraser-Kirk would certainly have received some sort of severance for having to leave David Jones, so it isn't as if she was left empty-handed. To me, this seems like justice has been served.

But she now claims that DJs breached their duty of care to her and the damages she is suing for, are equivalent to 5% of the company's profits from the time that Mr McInnes become DJ's CEO, in 2003. Wasn't she only working for the company this year? And only started falling victim to McInnes' harassment in May? So on what grounds would she be awarded 5% of the company profits over the last 7 years?

I'm not a legal expert or anything, but my understanding, from my very limited legal studies, is that damages are awarded based on some sort of criteria; specifically, as some compensation for actual damages incurred. For example, loss of future income, or to cover medical or psychiatric costs as a result of the misconduct, negligence or what have you..

I fail to see how she could rack up $37 million worth of psychiatric costs, after having experienced the following:

* McInnes urged Fraser-Kirk to try a dessert by saying the dessert was like "a fuck in the mouth."

* Mr McInnes allegedly touched Ms Fraser-Kirk by "placing his hand under her clothing to a point where it touched her bra strap".

* He repeatedly asked her to accompany him to his Bondi home "where the clear implication was that such a visit would be for the purpose of sexual intercourse".

It doesn't sound THAT devastating, but it certainly is inappropriate, and he was rightly fired because of it. I personally would be offended and maybe even shocked, but not psychologically damaged. Maybe Kristy Fraser-Kirk is just reeeeeeally sensitive (certainly more so than myself), or maybe she just wants to be famous??....

Labor Train Wreck

2010-08-02T08:18:00.001+10:00

Thanks Catallaxy Files. I *heart* you.

Standing Up or Moving Forward?

2010-07-30T08:53:00.006+10:00

My lovely friend Jess recently commented that she was under the impression that the Liberal Party supported the 'more financially able', while the Labor Party supported 'middle and lower class'. On a side note, a lot of people think of the Greens as a bunch of socially-conscious harmless tree-hugging weed-smoking hippies, and the Nationals as just a bunch of small-town hick farmers. Hmm... Maybe that last one is correct.. So let me elaborate on all points.

Labor - "moving forward"

To understand what "Labor" stands for, and for whom this party benefits, you first have to understand the party's history. Labor was created by Unionists in the late 1800s.

What is a Union, I hear you ask? Well, in this context, we are talking about 'trade unions' (such as teacher's union, nurses union, hospitality union, retail union etc), which are organisations of workers, that as a collective, have bargaining power against 'big bosses'.

As an individual worker, particularly in large industry, you have very little bargaining power. It would be difficult to negotiate with say, Coles, for higher wages or better working conditions. But if you join a Union, you suddenly have a much larger voice; your rights and interests are now looked after by the heads of your union (by way of negotiations, and in some extreme cases, industrial action, like strikes).

Trade unions also have an interest in politics, and they often lobby government or promote certain legislation. In the early 20th Century, trade unions, through successful lobbying, were able to stop child labour among other immoral practices, and contributed to raising the standard of living for society as a whole. Sounds great, right? Got to love those Unions...

So Unionists founded the Labor party, and in a lot of ways, exercise a great deal of control over the party (look at the way the Union power brokers booted out our elected prime minister, for example).

In Labor's first election (1901), they introduced the 'White Australia' Policy. Great policy that was... Twenty years later, they introduced the "socialist objective" which was consequently scrapped some time later, but this has not changed the fact that the party's constitution still describes the party's ideology as being "democratic socialist". Meaning that if not for that annoying 'public opinion' thing, our way of life would more closely resemble China, Cuba and Russia, rather than USA, UK and NZ... if you know what I mean...

So what do we know so far? That Labor is heavily influenced by Unions and Union interests, and that their underlying ideology is 'socialism'. Now, how does this translate to what parts of society they favour? Well, traditionally, Labor governments raise taxes, and at the same time, spend a lot of money on social welfare. There is supposedly a lot of redistribution of income (sort of a Robin Hood mentality). But most importantly for those in control of the party, there is a heavy focus on increasing bureaucracy and red tape, and putting more power in the hands of unions, and less power in the hands of business owners (such as abolishing 'Work Choices' and introducing 'Fair Work'). The general reasoning behind this, is that the economy needs happy and socially secure workers for it to run and be productive. Which is in contrast to the Liberal's way of thinking, in that business needs to be successful and operate in a free market (without much government intervention, without much red tape, and with lower taxes) in order to prosper so that it can provide the jobs that are necessary for economic productivity. Its a tough one really; sort of a 'which came first - the chicken or the egg?' conundrum. Neither is more right than the other - it just depends on your personal beliefs.

Historically, Labor runs big deficits and spends way beyond its means. Also, under Labor, on average, there have been higher taxes and higher interest rates. The Labor government is more socially-focused, rather than economically-focused, but they have done some pretty right-of-center type of reforms in the past, specifically, floating the Australian dollar, abolishing centralised-wage fixing, deregulating the banking system and selling some of the government's biggest assets (Commonwealth Bank and QANTAS). Those were all Labor initiatives, which really is confusing actually.. But then, within the Labor party, there are different factions (left and right), and others of which consist solely of unions. So I guess it is all just a mish-mash of conflicting ideologies. No wonder they constantly change their leaders.

Most recently, the Labor government under Kevin Rudd, and the various Labor state governments, particularly NSW, has been plagued with mismanagement, waste, rorts and poor public services.

Billions of dollars have been wasted over the last 3 years on -

(1) the national broadband network (which never took off eventually, and NEVER will, since most people use wireless these days, and would never be able to afford super-fast cable broadband);

(2) the disastrous pink batts program, which resulted in shonkey installation, poor quality batts, and eventually hundreds of house fires;

(3) green loans for solar roof panels - which resulted in massive rorts and eventually was abandoned;

(4) building the education revolution, which saw hundreds of thousands of dollars being wasted to build ONE canteen or ONE class room or ONE library, more than it would cost to build an entire house - and eventually this would turn out to not even have been needed, the school already having a perfectly functioning library or canteen or what have you;

(5) grocery watch & fuel watch - which saw Labor's fraudulent promise at the last election to bring fuel and grocery prices down, completely miss the mark, and cost millions of taxpayers dollars in the mean time;

(6) the $900 bonuses - many of which were paid to people who weren't even Australian, and who were living overseas - some of the recipients of the bonus were actually DEAD. Some people (one person I know personally) received the bonus twice for no reason;

(7) Emissions trading scheme - another broken promise, put on the back burner, and now being replaced by a new scheme - a carbon tax (good old Labor, sticking to their principles and raising taxes), and "no more dirty power stations" as the Prime Minister likes to say, which means, surprise surprise, higher electricity prices.

(8) The illegal boat people - an ARMADA - every week, more boats arriving at Christmas Island - more taxpayers money being put into handling this crisis. And now, instead of the government planning to re-open the facility that they themselves shut down 3 years ago, which was built and paid for by Australian taxpayers, they are proposing to spend even more money, to build a new facility in East Timor (but not if the East Timorese government has anything to do with it).

These are just the issues off the top of my head. With regards to the state governments - well, one only has too look at our exhausted public health system, our sub-standard public education system, our terrible roads, and the spiraling crime rates, to know that something seriously wrong is going on with this government. And Labor ministers are resigning everywhere you turn! Just yesterday, John Della Bosca & his hideous wife, Belinda Neal resigned (thank God!!!), just more to add to the growing number of resigning Labor pollies.

So... its no wonder that the Labor party wants to "move forward"... Look at what they have to look back on! A whole lot of embarrassing stuff ups. And to specifically address the original question of what Labor stands for, and to whom they benefit - Labor is not so much concerned with middle and lower class workers - they are concerned with making Union bosses happy (because without happy Union Bosses, Politicians in Labor are very much in danger of being demoted - as so happened to Kevin Rudd and Nathan Rees), and they are concerned with creating as much bureaucracy as possible. The more bureaucracy, the better - because it means more public sector jobs, such as unqualified lackeys in the department for climate change, earning an annual salary of $200,000.... for example. Who does Labor benefit? It benefits people who want power. It does not benefit ordinary Australians. Not even close.

Liberals - "stand up"

Without getting into too much boring detail, the Liberals' ideology is very clear - It is one of 'decentralisation' - moving away from socialism, strongly opposing communism, supporting less government intervention; more freedom for business; a belief in market forces and the market's potential of 'correcting' inefficiencies, and so on. The party is "right of center" meaning that the ideology is "right wing" to an extent, but not so right wing that the party completely denounces government intervention. But Liberals will not compete with the private sector (i.e. Australian businesses) when it isn't necessary (in contrast, the Labor government is more than happy to have government competing with the private sector - e.g. Building the Education Revolution, and the National Broadband Network - two very costly government initiatives that are directly competing with the private sector).

Since the Howard (Liberal) Government came into power in 1996, the Liberal Party has become a lot more conservative than it was in the past, and proceeded to significantly cut taxes, and privatised a lot of public sector companies (such as Telstra). During the 12 years of the Howard Government, the Australian economy flourished - unemployment was at record lows, productivity at record highs, and inflation relatively stable. Taxes were falling each year, we had very few illegal immigrants since the Pacific Solution was implemented (offshore processing centres and temporary protection visas), people had to work for the dole (which ended the long running trend of dole bludging), the Howard government banned guns in Australia, abolished a multitude of confusing and useless taxes and sales levies and replaced them with the relatively simple GST, and most importantly - the government had a budget surplus every year, while also repaying all of Labor's debt from the previous 13 years that Labor was in power.

There certainly is a bias toward business and higher income earners, but this doesn't change the fact, that under a Liberal government, the economy performs better, the government performs better, and ALL AUSTRALIANS AS A WHOLE are better off. The reason I say that there is a bias toward higher income earners, is because it is clear that the largest tax cuts were implemented in the highest tax brackets, and other reasons, such as the 30% rebate for private health insurance, which most lower income earners don't buy. But at the same time, and more importantly, the government has a very clear bias toward BUSINESS, and the majority of business people in Australia consist of small-medium enterprises - not BIG business billionaire CEOs - but small business - the mum & dad cafes around the corner, the furniture makers, the smash repairers.. those sort of people. That is where most of Australia's productivity is created, where most of Australia's jobs are created, and that is why, I believe, a government that implements policies to support these small businesses, is the best government for Australia.

The Liberals have a reputation of trying to help these small businesses. That includes creating industrial relations legislation that helps business people, not hinders them. The Work Choices act "was said to improve employment levels and national economic performance by dispensing unfair dismissal laws for companies under a certain size, removing the "no disadvantage test" which had sought to ensure workers were not left disadvantaged by changes in legislation, and requiring workers submit their certified agreements directly to Workplace Authority rather than going through the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Additional factors aimed at increasing economic performance included clauses significantly compromising a workforce's ability to legally go on strike, requiring workers to bargain for previously-guaranteed conditions without collectivized representation, and significantly restricting trade union activity and recruitment on the work site."

Now, that all seems pretty rough on workers, but remember - most workers in Australia are employed by small businesses, and therefore are not represented by Unions. And the result of WorkChoices speaks for itself - productivity up - unemployment down. When work choices was abolished and replaced with Fair Work, a lot of employers stopped hiring permanent employees. Instead, they opted for short-term contracts, in order to protect themselves. This was NOT good for the workforce, because it reduced job security. And coming into the Global Financial Crisis, the last thing you want if you are a worker, is to be on a contract without the benefits and security of permanent employment.

The truth is, WorkChoices was not THAT BAD. It WAS bad for unions though, because it made them pretty much obsolete. And because of big Union Bosses in politics pushing their relentless scare campaigns onto the uninformed and unsuspecting Australian public during the last election, people really did start hating workchoices. And now it has been replaced with Fair Work, which is not really that great.. Basically, Fair Work gives more power back to Unions, and encourages collective bargaining.

Back to the original question - what do the "Liberals" stand for, and for whom does this party benefit?

"In short, we simply believe in individual freedom and free enterprise; and if you share this belief, then ours is the Party for you." The Liberals

Greens

As for the Greens ... well, I've written my piece on them already. But basically, they are the extreme left party in Australia. As Barnaby Joyce (of the Nationals party - which together with the Liberals, forms the Coalition Government) put it the other night on 2GB Radio, under a "greens" government, Australians would have NO borders, you would "be queuing up at coles next to boat people" if it were up to the Greens. We would also have 50% taxes, NO COAL FIRED POWER stations (i.e. 500% increase in electricity costs), and generally a higher cost of living. But thankfully, marijuana would be legalised, so at least we wont really care about any of that because we'll all be smoking away our sorrows in a big green cloud of Mary Jane..

Nationals

You can't really fault these guys. They're just farmers - how could you not love farmers? If you're a farmer or live in a rural area, you should vote for the Nationals (if not the Liberals - because chances are, if you live in Rural areas, you run your own business, usually in some sort of agricultural industry).

"The Nationals see their main role as giving a voice to Australians who live outside the country's metropolitan areas."

When did the ATO start hiring clowns?

2010-07-29T15:50:00.001+10:00

seriously.

Tony Abbott's fatherly advice & Julia Gillard's Earlobes

2010-07-28T13:15:00.006+10:00

I was listening to the radio the other night, and there was a very heated discussion regarding Julia Gillard's earlobes. The radio presenter strongly recommended doing a google search of "Julia Gillard Earlobes" and today while reading the news, I noticed her very prominent earlobes, and thought I would do the suggested google search. I was surprised to see the following photo pop up in the search:

So I clicked on the link and the following article came up. I was really taken aback by the entire article, and am shocked this wasn't given more attention at the time. Let me know your thoughts.

THE first thing to be said about Tony Abbott's critics this week is that they are liars.

Take Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Gillard's eager ears pricked up when she learnt that Women's Weekly, in a long profile this week on Abbott, asked the Opposition Leader what he thought of sex before marriage.

Hello, hello, hello.

You see, the Rudd Government has been desperate to exploit anti-Catholic bigotry in this country and paint Abbott as a papist who'd ban abortions if he could and force children to study Bibles.

Yes, really - that's how dishonest and vile its attacks have been.

But Gillard must have been disappointed by what Abbott actually told Women's Weekly, because I doubt there's a good father who'd have said much different to his own daughters.

Check for yourself. Here is every last word that Abbott, himself the father of three girls, said: "It (sex before marriage) happens ... I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question ... it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving, and don't give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say."

Full stop. Read anything to object to?

No. And that's precisely why Gillard had to lie. (I am of course presuming she actually checked what Abbott said.)

Here now is what Gillard said: "These comments will confirm the worst fears of Australian women about Tony Abbott. Australian women don't want to be told what to do by Tony Abbott.

"Australian women want to make their own choices and they don't want to be lectured to by Mr Abbott."

You see immediately Gillard's big lie - albeit one of deliberate inference, rather than bald statement.

Abbott had not lectured Australian women generally. As he'd made clear, his was advice he would give only to his own daughters, and only if they asked.

Nor was he telling anyone "what to do" - not even his daughters.

He was only suggesting what they might consider when making their own decision. Not even to his girls did he preach against sex before marriage.

So Gillard lied. And she wasn't alone.

Predictably, the media repeated this untruth that Abbott had told all single women to keep their virginity.

Once again, many journalists preferred to reinforce their stereotype of Abbott as the "Mad Monk" rather than to tell the sober facts.

Even The Australian announced: "Tony Abbott urges women to save their virginity for marriage."

No, he didn't.

Age writer Gabriella Coslovich even fumed that Abbott's "nauseating" advice showed this "religious fanatic" was again trying to "lord it over" things, "be it land or a woman's body".

"Comedian" Fiona Scott-Norman, also in The Age, abused Abbott as a "one-time drug-taking, Vatican roulette playing, shagabout, white, middle-aged male" and a "pompous tosspot" who was "telling young women not to do what he did when he was their age".

And the ABC's Jon Faine gleefully played a clip of yet another Age banshee screeching at Abbott: "Get your rosaries off my ovaries."

SUCH orchestrated lying about what Abbott said is the real issue, and at least Gillard did not make things worse by also lampooning the advice Abbott actually offered his daughters.

Indeed, how could she? What should he have said to his teenage girls instead? To sleep with the first drunk who asked, for all he cared?

You'd really have to be especially ideological, malevolent or clueless about parenting - and probably all three - to think Abbott's words so silly.

Alas, we have many commentators who tick just those boxes.

Academic Catharine Lumby, the gender-politics expert who for years taught National Rugby League players how best to ask women for sex, actually claimed Abbott's advice belonged to the days when women were "shamed and blamed for having a normal sexual appetite and behaviour".

(I think she means the days before NRL players had group sex with girls who then cried their eyes out on TV.)

Feminist Eva Cox meanwhile claimed he was "commodifying women by saying their sexuality was something to trade".

But no one was more vicious than our resident feminist ideologue, Jill Singer, who on this page likened Abbott to a terrorist ... and a paedophile.

His "tender appreciation of female chastity", she said, "would sit happily alongside that of ... Osama bin Laden".

What's more, Abbott's views were "icky" and "pervy", since "even metaphorically, it's kind of creepy for a prominent male politician to be rummaging around inside the underwear of young girls in search of political inspiration".

If I ran this paper I'd sack Singer for so foul and dishonest a piece of vilification. But when even the Deputy Prime Minister can so lie about a loving father's sane advice to a daughter, who can be surprised by a shoal of savage Singers swimming in that cesspool, too?

Good policies - Paid Parental Leave

2010-07-26T09:30:00.004+10:00

Paid Parental Leave - this is probably the most radical policy to come out of the Liberal camp. Its an excellent initiative to get women in the work force to start having (or start expanding) their families.

The Coalition’s Paid Parental Leave scheme will:
• provide primary carers (in the vast majority of families, mothers) with 26 weeks (that's 6 months - compared to Labor's 4 months) paid parental leave, at full replacement pay (up to a maximum salary of $150,000 per annum) or the Federal minimum wage (Labor's policy will only pay the minimum wage, which is currently approx $540 per week, while under the liberal's policy, you could receive up to $2885 per week), whichever is greater;
• be available to all employees, including contractors and the self-employed; and
• include superannuation contributions at the mandatory rate of nine per cent (Labor's policy does NOT include superannuation contributions).

"The Coalition’s Paid Parental Leave scheme will be funded with a levy of up to 1.7 per cent on companies that have a taxable income in excess of $5 million. This levy will affect a tiny fraction of Australian companies: only about 3,200 companies out of more than 750,000, or less than one per cent. [...] The Coalition would prefer to fund our Paid Parental Leave scheme from a Budget surplus, but this is not possible due to the large debt and deficits run up by the Rudd Labor Government. [...] The next Coalition Government’s priority will be to repay Labor’s debt. After that we will set about reducing taxes more generally, making it possible that the levy would only be temporary. [...] Unlike Labor’s scheme which places an administrative burden on small business, the Coalition’s scheme will be administered by government."

To read more about this policy, click here.

Good policies - Education Tax Refund

2010-07-26T09:19:00.007+10:00

Education Tax Refund - one of my main problems with this tax refund, is that it barely scrapes the surface of actual education expenses that parents incur. Those expenses that are included in the refund are things that most parents could claim as work-related deductions in any case! The most burdensome expenses are the ones that were excluded by the Labor government when they chopped and changed the Liberals' proposed legislation (the education tax refund) after the last election. Now the Liberals are putting this bit of tax legislation back on the agenda. Under a Liberal government, parents will be able to receive up to $500 refund for each primary school student and up to $1000 for each high school student, for the following expenses incurred:

• School fees
• School camps and excursions
• Special education costs for children with disabilities, like dyslexia
• Extra-curricular activities such as music, dance or drama lessons
• Tutoring costs
• Musical instruments required for lessons
• School photos
• Sporting fees and equipment.

And these are the real costs to parents with school kids. Not internet and computer depreciation! This is a really good policy because it encourages parents to give their children the sort of extra-curricular opportunities that they otherwise might not be able to afford (such as music lessons, maths tuition etc).

"Only the Coalition recognises that the cost of children’s education involves much more than simply getting them online or paying for a uniform."

And that's pretty much all that the Labor government has offered.

To read more about this policy, click here.

Cheder Katan

2010-07-22T07:47:00.006+10:00

I was looking through my old facebook notes and found this link:

CHEDER KATAN

- It is an MP3 file of my mother singing the old shtetl tune about a Rabbi teaching torah to a little boy. You might remember the tune from the film Schindler's List, but the song is much older than the movie.

The song was recorded around 1979.. My mum was a bit of a singer back in those days. Here is a pic of her doing her thing..

Two more songs if you're interested:

On the Galilee Sea Coast

5 years on Michael

Results

2010-07-20T16:28:00.008+10:00

My Master of Business Degree @ UTS

2010 - Autumn Semester [Investment Management] Credit < yay!
2010 - Autumn Semester [International Finance] Withdrawn / Fail < boo! :(
2010 - Autumn Semester [Corporate Finance] Pass < bit harsh getting a pass with a mark of 62 :/

2009 - Autumn Semester [Capital Markets] Credit < and a credit with a mark of 74.... ggrrr

2008 - Autumn Semester [Economics for Management] Distinction < woohoo!
2008 - Autumn Semester [Financial Management] Distinction < woohoo!

Well... I don't have a choice, I have to do stoooopid international finance this semester (starting 4th August) WAAAH! I hate this subject. and what's worse, I now have a FAIL on my record, even though I dropped out of the subject early in the semester. I was hoping to get my application for withdrawal without academic penalty approved, but alas..

Tax time

2010-07-19T10:04:00.004+10:00

Things to do: tax returns (tonnes of them) including friends & ~~family~~ which makes it difficult to prioritise.. company tax & other work related junk .. reply to emails.. so many emails! sorting out crap with my house (in kariong - the one that almost burned down).. ~~fix my car~~ & get it serviced (already put it into smash repairs this morning).. ~~updating our holiday rentals website & advertising/listings~~ especially the calendar which I havent updated for weeks.. organising things for end of yr trip.. gotta call the ATO re: several different clients (this will take at least an hour and i hate calling the ATO).. plus a gazillion little odds and ends that i need to sort out.. God I wish I had a PA. That would be tops.

Moving Forward

2010-07-19T08:35:00.001+10:00

Gillard says she wants the focus of the election to be “on taking the nation forward” - as you would, if you were up to your neck in a mire largely of your own making.

[source]

Measure for Measure

2010-07-18T09:11:00.005+10:00

Went to Belvior Street Theatre last night and watched Measure for Measure. I actually wasn't familiar with this play before, and didn't even know it was written by Shakespeare until about 5 minutes into it (reason being, we have a subscription, so we choose what plays we'll go to before the season starts - so yesterday, I knew we were going to the theatre, but had no idea what the play was even called). Aaaaaanyhoo.. At first, I was a bit confused about what the hell was happening. Particularly given the set design, which consisted of a rotating platform with a hotel room constructed on top of it, and with the actors filming themselves on stage during the entire production. Also, very graphic sexual goings-on, with porn shown on the TV screen, orgies, nudity and the like.. BUT.... it was actually really good, and quite funny (thanks to Toby Schmitz's excellent and hilarious performance as Lucio). The only really hard bit to swallow, was Barnardine's very unnecessary trashing of the hotel room, where he threw all the furniture up side down, rubbed his own shit all over his face (and ate it), spat blood on the shower screen and then fully exposed his penis. Niice. I do recommend this play, if anyone is interested in going. Its showing til 25th July.

Hang on a minute.....!

2010-07-16T07:53:00.013+10:00

"After months of defending the $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution scheme she oversaw when she was education minister, the Prime Minister said yesterday that errors had been made because the program had to be designed in haste to protect jobs during the global financial crisis.

In the future, Ms Gillard said, she would allow individual schools to manage building projects and embrace "a commercial hard-headed" view." (16TH JULY 2010)

Hold on..... isnt that the Liberal's policy?

LIBERALS: "Under the Coalition’s Real Action Plan to Stop Labor’s School Halls Waste, principals will decide on the priorities for each school, not the state bureaucracy.

Once the planned construction is complete, schools will retain any remaining money for other education or infrastructure initiatives."(7TH JULY 2010)

I guess it wasnt enough to do a massive backflip on Border protection; now they are 'stealing' the lib's education policies too.... niiice..

Are you f'n serious Joolya????

2010-07-14T07:33:00.014+10:00

Some exercpts from today's paper (The Australian)..

Nauruan President Marcus Stephen said yesterday his country [...] would consider reopening the detention centre closed by Labor.

he had not heard from Ms Gillard's government

He said the infrastructure of the old detention centre [...] remained in place and could be pressed into service.

"I've always said we'll keep an open mind on it because of our long-term relationship with the Australian government," Mr Stephen said.

Asked about Nauru yesterday, Ms Gillard's spokesman told The Australian the government would not discuss hypotheticals.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said "With respect to a regional processing centre, our focus remains on East Timor."

East Timor opposition party Fretilin indicated yesterday it would reject any processing centre on East Timor. [...] "I don't think any processing centre will be acceptable to the parliament"

source

What the hell is wrong with this government??? WAKE UP PEOPLE!! Labor are a bunch of frauds!

And if you need any more evidence of this, it has now been revealed that the treasurer used forecast models created by Xstrata and BHP to put the mining tax revenue projections together in their 'super wicked magical' deal. You know, the one where they basically reduced the tax to nothing, but only cut $1.5b off the budget? No wonder the "mining industry" (i.e. the 3 big guns with all the advertising funds) are happy about this deal - they have made sure that they will barely be affected by their generous and overly optimistic commodity price projections. While experts have indicated that iron ore prices are likely to fall (i.e. LESS revenue for the government). Once they win the election, they will just tell the Australian people "you can't blame us for market forces..." Since when does a government base its policies on modelling provided by companies with a vested interest in paying as little tax as possible?

An Amazing Woman (Sunday Scribblings)

2010-07-13T08:52:00.004+10:00

This week on Sunday Scribblings, the mods have posted the link to this video, and then asked to write about an amazing woman that we know.

The most amazing woman I've known has definitely been my grandmother, Zila Birkental (nee Shneor). Sadly, she passed away last year after suffering from a very aggressive cancer, but she did live a very full life, and was lucky enough to know her first great grandchild before she passed.

Zila Birkental was a twin, an older and a younger sister, a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She was born in Poland in 1926 and moved to Palestine as a young girl with her Zionist family. She joined the Etzel (Irgun) in the 1940s and became a freedom fighter, together with her twin sister Ester, and her younger brother Itzhak (Shneor, of Maccabi Tel Aviv fame). She was imprisoned by the British at Bethlehem with other women in the Etzel movement, together with her pregnant sister. She was released with the help of a young Romanian Jew who had been trying for some time to win her affections, and whom she married shortly after her release. She was a member of the Likud party from its inception, and together with her husband, was a close friend of Menachem Begin, Israel's 6th Prime Minister, and 1st Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

She was a wonderful person with an incredibly huge heart. She was selfless, passionate, political and righteous. She was a woman who believed in God and believed in family values. A Zionist and patriot to the end, and the best cook I have ever met. I love her and miss her, and will never forget her.

Where's Michael ...

2010-07-12T10:54:00.011+10:00

The same dude who put together Where's Elvis and Where's Bin Laden has recently published Where's Michael, however, unlike previous spin-offs of the Where's Wally hit, where the same illustrator was used for all the images, in Where's Michael, Author Xavier Waterkeyn has enlisted the talents of 12 illustrators with completely different styles, one for each 'scene' in the book. 11 of the 12 illustrations are done using digital media. One of the illustrations is done using print making and watercolours.

The "They dont care about Me" illustration was done by my lovely talented sister, Shira - unfortunately, due to publishing stuffups, she wasnt properly credited as an illustrator, but she does have a very short bio about her in the back of the book. Its available in Dymocks stores around Australia. Little Shira is currently studying Honors at UNSW in Fine Art (Printmaking) and will hopefully go on to PHD next year.

15 things about MJ

2010-07-12T09:02:00.004+10:00

Thanks for the link Jose,

but MJ was the 8th of 10 children. Marlon actually had a twin brother, Brandon who died shortly after birth.

Is it sad that I actually knew most of these things already? I didn't know about the mini mouse thing, or the #7 phenomenon (although I did know it was a special number for him).

VIDEO: Gillard v Abbott: The movie

2010-07-08T08:42:00.001+10:00

VIDEO: Gillard v Abbott: The movie

Gillard's "New" solution

2010-07-07T08:33:00.012+10:00

I don't have to bore anyone with rhetoric. The facts say everything that needs to be said:

1. The Rudd/Gillard Government heavily criticised the former (Howard) Government's border protection policy (The Pacific Solution) at the last election. Their stance on border protection was at a polar opposite to Howard's, such that it was one of the key issues which won Labor the election. Even when massive problems with the Labor government's border protection policy became apparent to Australians in 2009, then-Deputy PM, Julia Gillard loyally defended the government's stance on illegal boat arrivals:

"We also said to the Australian people that we believed in terms of dealing with asylum seekers that it was appropriate to have mandatory detention, that it was appropriate to use the facility of Christmas Island, it was appropriate to keep that island excised but we were going to end the Pacific Solution which had cost so much money for so little result" - Julia Gillard, MP (April 2009)

2. Under the Pacific Solution regime, illegal boat arrivals were virtually non-existent. The sharp dip in boat arrivals in the graph below represents the implementation of the Pacific Solution. The sharp spike and ongoing growth in boat arrivals under the Rudd/Gillard government represents the abolition of the Pacific Solution.

3. The Liberal Party have promised to reinstate the former Howard Government's Pacific Solution, whereby asylum seekers arriving by boat (illegally) would be transported to detention camps on small island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland.

4. Arriving on the Australian mainland would give illegal boat arrivals a legitimate claim to seek asylum in this country; while forcing them to land in a 3rd party country (Such as Nauru), would not guarantee them residency in Australia, thereby providing a deterrent to make the dangerous journey by sea. This would effectively stop people smugglers from "having a product to sell" (in the words of Tony Abbott).

5. In response to the mounting criticism of the current (Rudd/Gillard) Government's border protection policy, and the growing concern about the welfare of people being illegally smuggled into this country, and certainly in response to the Liberal's election promise to reinstate the Pacific Solution, the Gillard Government has now said they will change their stance on Border Protection, and they will make a 'new' policy of 'offshore' processing (offshore being, somewhere other than Mainland Australia, OR Christmas Island, which is a territory of Australia in the Pacific Ocean, where currently people are being processed and guaranteed refugee status in Australia).

6. Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop (who is also the Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson) has criticised the Gillard Government's "new" policy, stating;

"Before the last election she made a promise to the Australian people if Labor was elected they would end offshore processing. Today she said Labor are talking to people about recommencing offshore processing.. [there is] no difference between the prime minister's intention of regional processing and the dumped Pacific Solution".

7. Tony Abbott (Opposition leader) was asked whether he has had any talks with other countries who would be willing to process illegal boat arrivals. Although he responded by saying that as opposition leader, he is not in a position to negotiate on behalf of Australia with other countries leaders, he did say that when the Liberals announced they would reinstate the Pacific Solution, the sovereign nation of Nauru put their hands up, offering to re-open their existing facilities as soon as possible. In other words, if the Liberal party was elected, they could literally start processing offshore illegal boat arrivals right away.

8. For some reason, the Gillard Government doesn't even consider Nauru as a viable location for off-shore processing; instead, they are "having serious talks" with East Timor, where they would have to spend millions of dollars building a detention facility, which would not be ready til 2011. Why would the government, who is desperate to bring the budget to surplus, spend MORE money unnecessarily, on a new offshore processing facility, with a country that hasn't even agreed to the deal yet, when we have another country, Nauru, who has had experience with this sort of thing, is putting their hands up to do it, and already has a perfectly functional facility that has only been closed for less than 3 years?

Someone please explain? Oh, wait.. here's one explanation:

"There is no chance whatsoever of a Gillard government ever building a processing centre in East Timor," the opposition leader told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

Mr Abbott said he was glad to see the prime minister realised the coalition was right all along about offshore processing being absolutely essential.

But Ms Gillard was a late convert and it was an election fix rather than a serious policy, Mr Abbott said.

"Julia Gillard is faking it," he said.

Now, on another note, the Libs have released some clear cut statements about their policies and also statements slamming the Gillard government's new MRRT. If you have time, take a look:

Bureaucrats out - principals in under Coalition - "Individual schools will have an added incentive to extract value for money in the knowledge they can keep any additional funds which currently are reclaimed by the state governments."

Swan fiddles with the numbers to create 'magic pudding' budget - "When asked if the underlying assumptions had changed from the RSPT to the MRRT, the Treasurer did not even mention these upgraded forecasts. Wayne Swan is guilty of lying by omission."

For Pete's sake, save art from Labor's super axe - "Mr Ciobo said the recommendation within the Rudd/Gillard Government-commissioned Cooper Review to exclude “collectables and personal use assets” from self-managed funds would be a killer blow to the nation’s artists."

New Poll Feature

2010-07-06T14:54:00.004+10:00

I've added a poll to my blog. I'll change the question every week or so. The current question is, "what do you think of our current labor government?". Go to the end of each post or the bottom of the blog to view the poll.

The lesser of two evils?

2010-07-05T07:25:00.018+10:00

I've heard that phrase quite a bit lately, when people have described to me their reasons for voting for a certain party in the last election, and their decision-making rationale for this upcoming election. For example "I didn't want to vote for Howard, so it was a choice between Labor and Greens, and I chose greens because they were the lesser of two evils". They knew that effectively, they were voting for Labor, but it was the principal of the thing! When I asked what Greens stood for, they had absolutely no idea. I find this is the case for most people I speak to - "Oh, I don't want to vote for Tony Abbott! He's a radical Catholic; he's going to make abortion illegal in Australia".. I don't believe that's one of the Liberal party's stated policies, or even what they stand for, but its an interesting way to vote, isn't it? That is, vote for a party based on absolutely zero knowledge of the facts.

The Liberals have recently published a very concise and no-frills document which states in point form, all of their election promises. I am a little sad reading it, with the knowledge that they might not get voted in, and even more sad that most Australians will probably never even read it. Briefly, here are their key election promises:

Restore the budget surplus within three years and start paying labor’s debt
This will put downward pressure on interest rates and protect our standard of living [...]

End labor’s waste and restore cabinet government
[...] The Coalition will also stop the billions of dollars being wasted through the ‘school halls’ program, and cut spending on government advertising. [...] Unlike Labor where decisions are made without proper process or consultation, the Coalition will restore the decision-making processes of Cabinet to restore integrity to government decision-making.

Reject labor’s massive new mining tax and other taxes that hurt productivity
This will help maintain Australia’s competitiveness in the global marketplace. It will deliver long-term security to businesses and their employees who have long been in the engine room of Australia’s strong economic growth and prosperity.

End government discrimination against small business
The Coalition will ensure more government work for small businesses and introduce new rules to ensure the government pays its bills to small business on time. This will give small business the opportunity to grow and employ more Australians.

Enforce strict border security and control
The Coalition will maintain rigorous offshore processing of those arriving illegally by boat, reintroduce temporary protection visas (to deprive people-smugglers of a product to sell) and be ready, where possible, to turn boats back.

Link population growth to the provision of better infrastructure
The Coalition will set immigration numbers on the basis of economic and environmental sustainability.

Take direct action on water and the environment
The Coalition will provide holistic management of the whole Murray-Darling water system so that water can be distributed fairly and equitably among all those people who depend upon it [...] our Emissions Reduction Fund will purchase abatements to improve the environment and reduce emissions by 5 per cent by 2020.

Protect private health and improve the public health and hospital system
The Coalition will introduce local hospital boards staffed by local health experts. By preserving the private health rebate, the Coalition will help to take the strain off the public health system and reduce waiting times.

Help growing families to get ahead with six months paid parental leave
This will give mothers the right to their full wage for six months so they can stay at home with their new baby and to support and strengthen young families when they most need help.

Provide safer neighbourhoods
The Coalition will work with local councils and police to ensure that more crime-prone areas have closed circuit TV (CCTV).

Raise standards in education
The Coalition will work with the states to give principals the right to pay the best teachers more.

Restore work-for-the-dole and mutual obligation
The Coalition believes that working age people in good health should work – preferably for a wage but, if not, for the dole. The Coalition will reverse Labor’s softening of mutual obligation requirements.

We will not bring back work choices
And we will not bring back AWAs. We will work within Labor’s industrial relations framework to encourage greater productivity by bringing greater flexibility into the workplace to benefit both employees and employers.

Climate change needs to be addressed
We will take real action to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions without introducing a great big new tax. We will tackle land degradation issues and repair and restore our environment by establishing, within four years, a 15,000 strong permanent workforce dedicated to protecting our environment and adjusting to climate change.

Each of these policies, are looked at in closer detail on the Liberals website. The website also has a feature where you can submit your ideas for new policies.

Now, back to the Greens... Let's have a look at some of their policies (quoted directly from the official website).

The Australian Greens want/will:

* as living organisms - plants, animals and micro-organisms - are not inventions, patents on life are unethical, against the public interest and should be banned.

Genetically modified organisms are used in biological and medical research, production of pharmaceutical drugs and experimental medicine (e.g. gene therapy). Are the greens banning ALL gmos, or just those on agriculture (which in itself would completely destroy the Australian agriculture industry by the way!)

* an end to the destruction of old-growth forests and other forests of high conservation value.

In other words - an end to back burning. That sounds like a nice plan for the tree hugging hippies out there, but try selling the idea to these people.

* oppose the establishment of new coal mines and the expansion of existing mines.

Ummm.... Okaaaaay! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!!! Good bye mining industry.

* smaller class sizes throughout the public education system to ensure manageable workloads for all educators and best educational outcomes for all students.

* free university education for Australian citizens, permanent residents and refugees.

Both of these policies, as well as the other 32 education-related policies, will have to be funded somehow (the greens use the phrase, "through funding models for all sectors of the education system" - i.e. funded by funding models.. that isn't ambiguous at all... it does sound a lot better than "funded through ridiculously high personal tax rates" though, doesn't it? France also has free university for all its citizens; they also have the 3rd highest personal tax rate in the world. Here's a good policy: Free housing, education, transport, health, food and clothing for everyone!!!! even boat people! But... in exchange, 99% of your wage will go to the government. Great idea! Why don't we all just become communists, that will sort the tax issue..

* Australia to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as is feasible and by no later than 2050 with a minimum of 40% reduction on 1990 levels by 2020.

Greens aren't kidding... ZERO emissions. None of this 5%, 20% etc nonsense. Basically, shut down all industry.

* a more equitable distribution of corporate income between management and employees.

Equitable on what basis exactly? Who should decide what is equitable? The unions? If you are a business owner, you take on a certain level of risk. You also put your own capital into the business. Sometimes you might even mortgage your own home to keep the business going. You employ people to carry on tasks in your business and your employees get remunerated for this labour. But they do not share the risk you do, and they do not put their own money into the business.. so on what basis should they be getting a more equitable distribution of corporate income? What else should they be getting (on top of salary, super, and insurance)? This is just one of the most ludicrous ideas I have heard of.

* full employment, and job security for all who seek employment.

Together with full employment, we should also have a free market economy, and we should also have unicorns. Unicorns for everyone!

* abolishing the 30% Private Health Insurance Rebate in order to increase funding for public hospitals

This is a sure-fire way to reduce the number of private hospital patients, in other words, exacerbate the already struggling public health system (think over-crowded waiting rooms, shortage of beds, underpaid doctors and so forth)

* removing the concessional arrangements for Capital Gains Tax

Which means that when you sell your family home, you will have to pay tax on it. It also means that if you sell an investment property after 1 year, you will have to pay tax on 100% of the gain. This will effectively (1) discourage investment in properties, further worsening Australia's housing shortage problem, (2) force people to sell their properties for a higher price in order to have more cash in their hands - which would reduce housing affordability even further, (3) drive investment away from Australia - don't forget, CGT concessions also apply to shares, which almost all Australians own (either directly or through their Superfund). How exactly is that going to improve our economy or the quality of life for Australians?

These are just some of their randomly picked policies. I think its important for people to understand what policies they are actually voting for. Politicians will try to sway the public with fancy marketing campaigns, but all the information is available right there on their respective websites! Have a look for yourself, and then make a decision.

Tax Time & Other Tid Bits..

2010-07-02T19:24:00.005+10:00

This is the first year in the past 4 that I haven't stayed in my office til midnight on 30th June, trying frantically to get company tax returns lodged on time. Luckily, we applied for an extra long extension this time around, due to hundreds of corporate clients not having sent in their materials to us yet for 2009. I really can't believe how slack some people are. Well, people who run businesses that is, because usually they have to pay tax (and large accounting bills) and try to put off the payment of both for as long as possible. And then they of course will get interest penalties for late tax payment; but its funny how the ATO doesn't pay interest to tax payers who get a tax refund, after having held onto their money for up to a year or more. I find it even more mind boggling when individual tax payers put off doing their tax returns for years at a time, when they clearly are going to receive tax refunds. One such client is about to receive approx $19,000 per year for 2007 and 2008 financial years (still hasn't done his 2009). I understand the aversion to paying tax, although it is healthy to pay tax, but whats the aversion to getting craploads of money back from the government??

Meanwhile, on a completely other matter... Belinda & I had a good little perve-fest last night while watching the latest installment of the twilight saga. I am 100% team edward. God i love vampires. Also, I'd like to add, I didn't mind Bella's wig one bit. I thought she looked amazing. Wish I had hair like that!

Gillard cuts mining tax deal

2010-07-02T10:23:00.004+10:00

* New tax will apply only to iron ore and coal
* Tax to be capped at 30 per cent
* Key promise of lifting super will be kept
* Plans to cut company taxes will be halved
* Budget still to return to surplus by 2013

Update Prime Minister Julia Gillard has slashed the mining tax rate and cut the types of resources affected in order to secure an agreement with mining companies - lopping $1.5 billion from expected revenues in the process.

The announcement indicates the new PM has taken just over a week to resolve a bitter two-month fight with major miners over the new tax, and removes a key obstacle to her calling an early election.

Initially introduced by former PM Kevin Rudd as the "Resources Super Profits Tax", the new tax sparked a public relations war with the mining industry and contributed to depleting his popularity, particularly in resource-rich Western Australia and Queensland.

"There will be no resources super profits tax," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in announcing the new resources tax regime in Canberra.

Tax cut halved

Ms Gillard said the reforms would maintain Australia's attractiveness as an investment target and bolster the economy. Key promises of raising compulsory superannuation payments and bringing the budget back into surplus by 2013 will be kept - but plans to cut company taxes will be halved to pay for the concessions.

''Australians are entitled to a fairer share of the mineral wealth within our ground,'' Ms Gillard told the briefing, calling the accord with the big miners ''a great result.''

The Opposition remains opposed the new tax even in its modified form, while Greens leader Bob Brown says the changes will be closely scrutinised by the Senate.

Treasurer Wayne Swan accredited the breakthrough to Ms Gillard's role, lauding a "marked change of attitude". ''Her intervention changed the tone of the debate,'' he told the media briefing.

"We have a situation where the larger companies are going to be paying more tax and that needs to be understood."

Investors have cheered the resolution, sending the Australian dollar up half a US cent on the news to about 84.6 US cents. Mining stocks are also expected to buoyed by the result when the sharemarket opens shortly.

Only iron and coal

The renamed Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) will apply only to iron ore and coal in Australia, and will be capped at 30 per cent rather than the original 40 per cent proposed. Oil and gas projects will come under the current Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) regime to all Australian onshore and offshore oil and gas projects, including the North West Shelf.

''The breakthrough agreement keeps faith with our central goal from day one: to deliver a better return for the Australian people for the resources they own and which can only be dug up once,'' Ms Gillard said in the earlier statement. ''It is the result of intense consultation and negotiation with the resources industry.''

''These represent three-quarters of the value of our exports and resource operating profits and account for an even greater share of resource rents in the mining industry. They also represent the vast bulk of growth in the sector over the coming decades,'' the statement said.

Other commodities will not be included, which reduces the number of affected companies from 2500 to around 320, the statement said. ''These commodities were not expected to pay significant amounts of resource rent tax, and excluding them will allow many companies to remain in their existing taxation regimes,'' the statement said.

'Sensible middle ground'

Burrell Stockbroking associate Peter Wright said the miners had been successful and a sensible middle ground had been reached over the issue of a new mining tax.

“There was a subtle acknowledgement from mining companies all along they could pay more tax but the way (the original tax proposal) was gone about … was absolutely disastrous for mining companies.”

The mining sector had prevailed in the disagreement in part because the original proposed tax was so poorly designed, it invited their protest, he said.

Mr Wright compared the government’s back down to the controversy surrounding the WorkChoices industrial relations reform which had infuriated unions, setting the stage for former prime minister John Howard to be voted out of office in 2007.

He said the Gilliard compromise may signal a more consultative approach towards business like that seen in Labor governments under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.

He expects mining stocks to be from 3 to 5 per cent higher across the board on the news.

BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers said there was still a lot of work to be done before the tax is enacted but vowed to work together "constructively" with the government.

"We are encouraged that the MRRT design is closer to our frequently stated principles of sound tax reform, in that the proposed tax will be prospective in its treatment of profits from our iron ore and coal businesses, and not apply to the other commodities in our portfolio," he said.

Higher profit hurdle

Crucially, the new ''super profits'' tax will only kick in when profit exceeds the long-term bond rate plus 7 per cent - compared with just the bond rate in the original reform announced by then-PM Kevin Rudd on May 2.

The deal is in line with details first published yesterday by BusinessDay's Malcolm Maiden. The government negotiated directly with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata, three of the world's biggest miners. The exclusion of smaller miners may lead to dissent, with some smaller resource companies complaining about being excluded from talks.

Miners will have two years to prepare, with the new tax kicking in on July 1, 2012.

The ''improved'' reforms are estimated to reduce revenue by $1.5 billion over the forward estimates - or four years - according to the statement from the PM's office.

As a result, the plan to cut the company tax rate from 30 per cent to 28 per cent has been pared back, with only half that cut to be introduced.

''The company tax rate will continue to be cut to 29 per cent from 2013-14 but will not be further reduced under current fiscal conditions,'' the statement said. ''Small companies will benefit from an early cut to the company tax rate to 29 per cent from 2012-13.''

''The improved resource taxation reforms focus on the most profitable resources, raise the uplift factor for tax losses, remove refundability and offer generous depreciation arrangements to promote new investment,'' it said. ''They are more generous to industry in some respects, while industry has given ground in other areas.''

Policy transition group

To underscore the government's efforts to bring the mining industry on side, Ms Gillard will set up a ''policy transition group'' to oversee the introduction of the tax changes.

Significantly, the group will be chaired by former BHP chairman Don Argus and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson.

''This agreement provides certainty to the resources industry, to mining communities right around the country, and to the broader Australian economy,'' the government said in its release.

''It sends a very clear message to the world that the Australian resources sector is strong and its future is secure.''

http://www.smh.com.au/business/gillard-cuts-mining-tax-deal-20100702-zr62.html?rand=1278021933695?autostart=1

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Shocking! They actually caved in to the miners, big time. Share prices have already started to go up for BHP, FMG and RIO. Its good to know that the current government is willing to negotiate, when pushed into a really uncomfortable corner.

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Also..

# 02 Jul: Xstrata Copper resumes Ernest Henry underground project and exploration program in North Queensland
# 03 Jun: Suspension of expenditure on AUD6BN Wandoan Coal and AUD600M Ernest Henry Underground Copper Projects in Queensland
# 10 May: Xstrata Copper’s North Queensland Division announces the suspension of its regional exploration program

xstrata

Something fun

2010-07-01T14:56:00.004+10:00

I just wanted to post this before it gets too dated :P

News of the day & Happy end of financial year!

2010-06-30T10:10:00.009+10:00

Howard, Costello slam Labor reforms

Former Prime Minster John Howard has slammed the federal government's handling of the proposed resource super profits tax (RSPT), and called Labor's actions the "copybook example of how not to bring in a change in taxation", according to The Australian Financial Review.

According to the newspaper, Mr Howard said he did not think the current government had made any big economic reform proposals.

Former Treasurer and Howard Deputy Peter Costello also took aim at the new tax.

"I don't think the the RSPT is tax reform because a tax reform is the abolition of inefficient taxes, simplification of existing taxes and the reduction of the tax burden overall," Mr Costello told The Australian Financial Review.

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I wish I had a transcript of Alan Jones' comments from early this morning (and his interview with the PM later in the morning). He was right on the money. Everything he says is gold. I think I'm in love.

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NSW Labor plunges to record low

The latest Newspoll shows primary support for New South Wales Labor is at the lowest level for any state government in the survey's history.

Primary support for Labor is sitting at 25 per cent, down six percentage points since the last Newspoll conducted in April.

The Coalition's primary support is at its highest level since 2004, up four points to 46 per cent.

The poll, published in The Australian newspaper, also shows a record two-party-preferred split, with the Coalition leading Labor by 22 points on 61 per cent to 39.

Newspoll chief executive Martin O'Shannessy says the Labor Party would suffer a huge defeat if facing an election today.

"That swing, which is 14 points, would wipe out a dozen, 15 more seats, a crazy number of seats," he said.

Premier Kristina Keneally is still the state's preferred leader, at 44 per cent to Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell's 36 per cent, but her lead has narrowed by seven points.

The poll was conducted over a disastrous two months for the State Government.

During that time, David Campbell and Ian Macdonald resigned from the ministry over scandals and the party was thumped by the Coalition in the Penrith by-election, sparked when former parliamentary secretary Karyn Paluzzano stood down after lying to a corruption hearing.

Graham West also stood down as juvenile justice minister, citing family reasons and disappointment with the political process after Cabinet rejected his plan for an overhaul of the youth justice system.

Mr Campbell quit Cabinet after footage was broadcast showing him leaving a gay sex club.

Mr Macdonald resigned after incorrectly billing taxpayers for travel expenses.

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Talk about a high staff turnover!

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Andrew Forrest had tax pact with former PM Kevin Rudd

KEVIN Rudd secretly negotiated a super-tax deal with billionaire miner Andrew Forrest in his last days as prime minister.

And the mining industry has now called on Julia Gillard to come up with a even better tax proposal.

In an extraordinary turn of events, Mr Forrest yesterday revealed a far-reaching secret compromise deal he said he had negotiated with the former prime minister.

The proposal included lifting the rate at which the 40 per cent resource super-profits tax kicked in, from 6 per cent to 15 per cent; immediate write-offs for new capital and moving the taxing point for minerals to where they were dug out of the ground, rather than after processing.

It also dealt with BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto's main concern of retrospectivity by doubling the value of existing capital and allowing full transferability of liability across projects within a tax-paying group.

(click link above to read more)

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Ooh, I don't think the Greens would be too happy about that..

"Life Swap" - Sunday Scribblings

2010-06-28T18:40:00.003+10:00

This week, the good ol' mods over at Sunday Scribblings ask;

Is there anyone whose life you would swap yours with? What about for one day? One hour? If you did swap lives and then got yours back, what lessons would you have learned? What would you do differently if you could? Whose life fascinates you? If you wouldn't swap lives with anyone, why not?

I don't think I would swap lives with anyone, but sometimes I do wish I could just shut out the world and go and do something totally different; still being myself, but just away from everything that is normal. For example, work in a ski resort for one season, or live in Tuscany for a year. Its not that crazy when you think about it, but I do feel quite tied down to my life here because of work commitments, working in the family business and so on. Hopefully one day in the very distant future, I'll have the freedom to do those 'crazy things'.

Perisher - Day 2

2010-06-28T08:47:00.005+10:00

Despite the small number of lifts and runs open, the weekend was a huge success, mainly because I didn't sustain any serious injuries (such as my broken rib last year). My most serious injuries this time around are hideous bruises on my right knee, and the back of my left knee, both of which were due to people crashing into me from behind, after losing control, going too fast and not being able to stop. The worst thing is, I couldn't even get angry about it because most of the people who crashed into me were between the ages of 10 and 15. Despite the bumps and bruises, I had a great time, and can't wait to go back to the snowy mountains next month. Hopefully there'll be a lot more snow cover.

Still shots from videos:

Perisher - Day 1

2010-06-27T07:54:00.005+10:00

The ski season only just officially started, but with hardly any lifts open, and not much snow cover, it is a little disappointing, especially after spending 2 weeks in Canada's Rockies. However, it is still extremely fun to be snowboarding again, especially when we've got awesome friends with us. We're only here for the weekend, so there's a bit of pressure to get as much on-snow action as possible, but that's hard to do when you just want to hang out with your friends, and even harder with only a few lifts open. Today should be a lot of fun, and I'll be taking lots of photos. Here are some from yesterday.

Dan & Sasha on the lift @ Blue Cow

Jews having dinner

Where's the love?

2010-06-25T08:52:00.009+10:00

"Kevin Rudd fought back tears as he gave his final address as Prime Minister, saying he was proud of many achievements, but not how he "blubbered" during his speech."

Watching Kevin Rudd cry makes me really sad. I didn't agree with any of his policies or decisions, and yes, I liberally used the term "krudd" in reference to his government, but he is after all, a human being, and one that probably should have been given the chance to face Tony Abbott at an election, rather than get booted out of his position by the frightened soulless members of 'his' party. It's one thing to feel that Australians are disillusioned by their government, but another to see it happen to the leader of the country.

As for the Labor Government, if I didn't trust a single thing they said before, due to their broken promises (ETS, Health care, education revolution), I certainly couldn't trust them now after they betray the man who won them the election 2.5 yrs ago.

Introducing: The Labour Government!! (now with replaceable members)

2010-06-24T08:22:00.011+10:00

Over breakfast this morning, my father and I we were discussing the doom of the labour party (one of our favourite father-daughter pass times) and he mentioned to me that Julia Gillard has openly stated in the past that she never wants to have children. This was in response to my brother commenting on her overzealous use of the words "working families" in her speeches. So I joked that we were soon to have Australia's first lesbian prime minister, to which my father responded, "Oh, no no, she has a boyfriend! .... and he's a hair dresser". To which my brother and I exchanged a quick glance and nodded in agreement, "yes, lesbian prime minister all right"[see end note].

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Having said all of that, this potentially new lesbian Prime Minister is just a female version of the old non-lesbian male Prime Minister, and therefore, replacing one with the other doesn't make the slightest difference when you consider the fact that this government has done absolutely nothing for the people of Australia, except wasting taxpayers money on stupid projects that either never make it off the ground, or are monumentally flawed and consequently fail.

Let's see.. what has the Krudd government done throughout their term in office so far?

Building The Education Revolution - this $16.2 billion program has really "revolutionised" education in Australia. Among its many successes, the Krudd government has managed to (i) build a $650,000 canteen at Toomelah Public School, which is "smaller than an average cubbyhouse", in a town "where a three bedroom house can be bought for under $120,000"; (ii) allowed taxpayers to claim a refund in their returns for 50% of eligible expenses* up to $750 for primary school students and $1500 for high school students - that is $375 refund or $750 refund respectively (*eligible expenses do not include school fees, extra curricular activities including sports and private tuition fees, school uniforms, compulsory excursions, art supplies and a number of other educational costs - what it does include are things such as internet, computer depreciation and stationery, which most people claim anyway in their tax returns as work-related deductions - huge bonus there, Mr Rudd - CHEERS!); (iii) Laptops for everyone! I think this last one was a key promise that incited emotional voters to envision their 10 yr old child with their very own government-paid laptop. This gives a whole new meaning to 'buying votes'. Meanwhile, where is my 13 year old sister-in-law's laptop? Oh yeah, she has one, and her mother bought it for her.

Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) - It is quite ironic that the initial plan outlined in the "green paper", to be implemented in 2010, proposed a reduction of carbon emissions by up to 60% between 2000 and 2050 (I wonder by the way, where Rudd planned to be in 2050, to answer for the success or failure of this plan?), and then, quite fittingly, was replaced by the "white paper" (because apparently, it isn't quite as 'green' as its predecessor) which cut down the planned carbon emissions reduction to 5% between 2000 and 2020.

"On December 2, 2009, the Senate failed to pass the Emissions Trading Scheme causing a potential double dissolution election over the ETS [...] On 27th April 2010, the Prime Minister announced that the Government has decided to delay the implementation of the CPRS until after the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (which ends in 2012)"

Wow, now THERE is a back flip if I ever did see one. Eventually, we are now approaching the halfway mark of 2010 and the ETS has still not been implemented. I wonder if Gillard will include the plan in Labour's next political campaign? To be implemented in 2014 no doubt... and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by the year 2200.

Border Protection & Immigration - Under the Howard Government's "Pacific Solution", illegal immigrants (aka Boat People) would be detained in a 'third-party' country (e.g. Nauru & Manus Island) where they would be evaluated on their eligibility to enter Australia under refugee status. This policy was heavily criticised by Amnesty Int'l and refugee rights groups, because apparently, Australia wasn't meeting its international obligations to illegal immigrants. At the same time, the policy was hugely successful in reducing the amount of illegal entrants arriving in Australian waters by boat. When Rudd ran for the PM office, he said that he would shut down the Pacific Solution program, and eventually, that is exactly what he did - this resulted in the detainees at Manus Island and on Nauru to be transferred to Australia where they were granted the right to settle (on an aside: one of these refugees was a known sex offender).

In July 2008, The Rudd government announced in that it was ending its policy of automatic detention for asylum seekers who arrive in the country without visas. As of 29 March 2010, 100 asylum seeker boats had been intercepted within Australian waters during the life of the Rudd government. [source]

"Kevin Rudd’s immigration and border protection policy failures, which have resulted in 110 illegal boat arrivals, are threatening the integrity of our immigration system. Christmas Island is already in chaos and now the department and our broader immigration programmes are being thrown into gridlock.." [Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison]

Roof Insulation Batts - the $2.45 billion scheme ended up costing taxpayers $58 million (est) because of substandard Chinese insulation batts that failed to meet thermal tests, and also because of dodgy installation which ultimately resulted in house fires, with over one hundred families losing their homes and possessions. I actually spoke recently to someone who lost their house from one of these batt-fueled fires, and he said that within hours of the installation taking place, the down lights in the ceiling overheated and the entire roof exploded into flames. Luckily, he had insurance.

Mining Resource Super Profits Tax - Hmm... let's see.. Australia narrowly missed falling victim to the global financial meltdown because of its strong resource sector; Australian superannuation funds invest heavily in the mining sector; the mining sector employs around 172,000 people, and contributes 5.6% of the countries GDP.. Here's a good idea; lets impose an extremely unfair tax on this industry's profits, giving them a huge disincentive to put money into exploration and other investments - sure it's going to make share prices fall, unemployment in the industry to increase, and investors to shift their money overseas, but hey -- we need money and who better to get it from than those greedy billionaires in the mining sector? Oh, and lets not even bother consulting the heads of the industry until *after* we announce this plan to the public. Great idea.

Now... the Labour government is going to replace Rudd with Gillard, who by the way, is the Minister for Education (of all things! - well, hey, at least she isn't the minister for immigration..) and then Labour is going to try and convince Australian's that Gillard is waaaay better than Rudd, he was the evil mastermind behind all those bad policies, while Gillard was just the innocent lackey. I really don't think Australians are going to make the same mistake again. This is going to be an easy win for Liberals (if they play their cards right). And it will take a lot more from Labour than uncovering Tony Abbot's undisclosed mortgage, to get Australian's to vote against him - if anything, seeing Abbot take out a 2nd mortgage over his home in order to pay for living costs and pay for his kids' education only humbles him in the eyes of the Australian public, after all, who doesn't struggle these days with a mortgage and school fees? Aside from wealthy Kevin Rudd of course, who doesn't need a $250k salary, when he's married to a millionaire.

I mentioned to my brother this morning that Rudd did deliver *some* things that he said he would; namely, signed the Kyoto Protocol, and apologised to the Aborigines. In response to this, my brother said, "didn't he do that within the first 1/2 day in office?". Well, it certainly made a huge difference to the people of Australia....

Update: Hurrah!!! First ever lesbian prime minister!!!

[end note: Ok, so Gillard is not ACTUALLY a lesbian. It was obviously a joke, just in case anyone was taking that point literally.. and sorry if I offended anyone]

Israeli News - No Bias

2010-06-22T15:56:00.000+10:00

Ps: Exam went well as could be. I am pretty confident that I achieved the required 4% in the exam in order to pass the subject.

Uuugh exam tomorrow

2010-06-21T22:23:00.002+10:00

Well, I *was* stressed about tomorrow's exam, until I realised that I only have to achieve a mark of 4% (that's not a typo, that is four out of 100) in order to pass the subject. One of the dumbest subjects ever, and i don't know why they bother giving a formula sheet when half the formulas you need arent even on it.. I think a mark of 4 is quite achievable (shame, because I was so close to maintaining my distinction average, but I am just so over this bloody degree, and can't be bothered anymore), so I shall go home now because if I spend another minute in my office looking at formulas such as this:

VL = VU + B [ 1 - {δ(1-Tc+ƔTc)(1-Tps)+(1-δ)(1-Tc)(1-Tpg)}/(1-Tpb) ]

I think I'll be sick

"Birth" - Sunday Scribblings

2010-06-20T10:53:00.019+10:00

This week's sunday scribblings prompt is "birth" - and I'm going to deviate a little bit into the slightly religious and slightly (ok, maybe "very") political, to talk about Israel, the country of my birth, and the country of my people.

Ezekiel 16:3

and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem, "Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

ואמרת כה־אמר אדני יהוה לירושלם מכרתיך ומלדתיך מארץ הכנעני אביך האמרי ואמך
חתית׃

Since June 1st, I have been reading a lot of commentary on Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, Israel's occupation, Israel's right to exist, Israel Israel Israel.

I think of myself as an Australian first, and Israeli second. I don't "blindly" support Israel, as one of my friends has recently (and quite offensively) insinuated on facebook, but I do feel a certain sense of responsibility when things happen in the region, which attracts worldwide attention.

The responsibility to speak my mind, and if necessary, to point out the facts of a given situation, particularly when many (I would actually say, most) of my friends don't know much about the situation, and may be easily influenced by the media, high horse critics, and misinformed bigots.

I feel a responsibility, because I know that I am being judged every single day for being a Jew, and for being Israeli, and it really pisses me off. And when Israel does something wrong, of course people would look at me, and any other Jew or Israeli, and shake their heads and wonder how I could live my life day to day without being absolutely ashamed for not publicly denouncing the "Zionist state".

The truth is when the Israeli government does something wrong, I usually shake my head at it as well, and even feel embarrassed and conflicted, but when they do something right, and the world throws up their arms and says things like, Israel "lacks basic human decency", I feel like my homeland is being unfairly judged, harshly misunderstood, and typically, punished, for situations that are beyond their control.

So... here are some facts about Israel, Gaza, Hamas and the Flotilla:

ABOUT ISRAEL

1. The modern State of Israel has its historical and religious roots in the Biblical Land of Israel, also known as Zion. Political Zionism took shape in the late-19th century and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 formalized British policy preferring the establishment of a Jewish state. Following World War I, the League of Nations granted Great Britain the Mandate for Palestine and the responsibility for establishing "the Jewish national home" within it.

Note: my grandparents came to "Palestine" in the 1920s; I currently have over 100 relatives in Israel, some of which were original Zionists personally working alongside Menachem Begin in the 1940s.

2. In November 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine, proposing the creation of a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a UN-administered Jerusalem. Partition was accepted by Zionist leaders but rejected by Arab leaders, leading to civil war. Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948 and neighboring Arab states attacked the next day. Since then, Israel has fought a series of wars with neighboring Arab states, and in consequence occupies territories, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, beyond those delineated in the 1949 Armistice Agreements.

ABOUT PALESTINIANS

3. The Palestinians who lost their homes or fled from their homes after the war between 1946 and 1948, were given refugee status by UN; there were approx 711,000 declared Palestinian refugees in 1950; today there are over 4.7 million Palestinian refugees. Many of these refugees live outside of the Palestinian territories, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

By the way, the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was approximately 6 million, and as a result of WW2 millions of displaced Jewish refugees fled Europe (and quite ironically, were refused entry into Palestine by the British), while hundreds of thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors spent years in Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Europe, after which they were unable to go back to their countries of birth due to anti-semitism. Another relevant tid-bit is that after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, between 800,000-1,000,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries due to persecution and anti-Semitism. Most of them went to Israel!

4. In June 2010, according to CIA factbook, around 2.5 million Palestinian refugees resided in the West Bank, which is under the control of the PA (Palestinian Authority, whose President is Mahmoud Abbas)

5. In June 2010, according to CIA factbook, around 1.6 million Palestinian refugees resided in the Gaza Strip, which is currently under the control of a terrorist organisation called Hamas.

6. Despite Palestinian refugees living in both the West Bank and in the Gaza strip (neither is accessible to the other, as there is a section of Israeli-State desert in between the two regions), the Gaza strip is far worse off than West Bank, with approx 70% of the population living below the poverty line (2009 est), while West Bank had 46% below the poverty line (2007 est).

From CIA fact book - Re: WEST BANK: Since 2008, the PA under President Mahmoud ABBAS and Prime Minister Salam FAYYAD have implemented a largely successful campaign of institutional reforms and economic development that has contributed to increased economic performance, supported by more than $3 billion in direct foreign donor assistance to the PA's budget since 2007. An easing of some Israeli restrictions on West Bank movement and access in 2008 and 2009 also contributed to an uptick in retail and entertainment activity in larger cities.

From CIA fact book - Re: GAZA: High population density, limited land and sea access, continuing isolation, and strict internal and external security controls have degraded economic conditions in the Gaza Strip - the smaller of the two areas in the Palestinian Territories. Israeli-imposed crossings closures, which became more restrictive after HAMAS violently took over the territory in June 2007, and fighting between HAMAS and Israel during December 2008-January 2009, resulted in the near collapse of most of the private sector, extremely high unemployment, and high poverty rates. Shortages of many goods are met through the HAMAS-controlled black market tunnel trade that flourishes under the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.

ABOUT HAMAS

7. Hamas, which now contols the Gaza Strip (after a civil war between Hamas and its opposition party Fatah), is directly responsible for the firing of rockets into Israeli towns. These rockets are fired onto civilians, indiscriminately, on a daily basis.

8. Hamas' stated Charter calls for the destruction of Israel, Jews, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Charter also states that the Jews were responsible for WW2, and that the Holocaust is just one big Jewish conspiracy.

* Article 22 claims that the French revolution, the Russian revolution, colonialism and both world wars were created by the Zionists or forces supportive of Zionism:

"You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I [...] They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state."

9. Hamas uses women and children as human shields. "During the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, the Israeli government and military criticized Hamas for blending into or hiding among the Palestinian civilian population. The Israeli government published what it said was video evidence of human shield tactics by Hamas. Israel also claimed that Hamas frequently used mosques and school yards as hideouts and places to store weapons, and that Hamas paramilitary soldiers stored weapons in their homes, making it difficult to ensure that civilians close to legitimate military targets are not hurt during Israeli military operations."

In November 2006, the Israeli Air Force warned Muhammad Weil Baroud, a Palestinian militant accused of launching rockets into Israeli territory, to evacuate his home in a Jabalya refugee camp apartment block in advance of a planned Israeli air strike. Hamas responded by calling for volunteers to protect the apartment block and nearby buildings and, according to the Jerusalem Post, hundreds of local residents, mostly women and children, responded. Israel suspended the air strike.

ABOUT THE BLOCKADE

10. The Gaza Strip has land borders with Israel and Egypt, and a sea border. Egypt and Israel largely keep their borders with the territory sealed (since June 2007). It should be noted here, that the Blockade is not just an "israeli" blockade, but also an EGYPTIAN blockade of the Gaza strip. The Israeli navy maintains a sea blockade from three nautical miles offshore. Egypt is constructing an underground steel barrier to prevent circumvention of the blockade through smuggling tunnels.

11. Israel maintains that the blockade is necessary to limit Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on its cities and to prevent Hamas from obtaining other weapons. Egypt maintains that it cannot fully open the Rafah crossing since completely opening the border would represent Egyptian recognition of the Hamas control of Gaza, undermine the legitimacy of the Palestinian National Authority and consecrate the split between Gaza and the West Bank.

12. Israel provides tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip on a weekly basis, including medical supplies and medical equipment, food, blankets, blood units, car equipment, generators etc. Some things are restricted, such as cement and other supplies which may be used to build bunkers and weapons.

May 24th 2010 (a week prior to Flotilla Raid): "Israel continues to transfer basic food supplies and humanitarian goods into the Gaza Strip. Items such as medical supplies, meat, chicken, fish, grains, legumes, oil, flour, salt, sugar, fresh vegetables and dairy products as well as animal feed, hygiene products and clothes are all transferred through the Israel-Gaza goods crossings, Kerem Shalom and Karni."

13. On 3 February 2009, 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels were confiscated by Hamas police personnel from an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) distribution center. On the following day, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator demanded that the aid be returned immediately. In a separate incident on 5 February, Hamas seized 200 tons of food from UNRWA aid supplies. The following day, UNRWA suspended its activities in Gaza.

14. On 31st May 2010 (Israeli time), the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) seized an aid convoy of six ships known as the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla". The "Flotilla" had been warned repeatedly during the 2 weeks leading up to 31st May, not to attempt to break through the blockaid. The Israeli government had forewarned organisers of the Flotilla, that if there was an attempt to break the blockaid, the IDF would stop the ships and tow them to Ashdod, an Israeli port between Tel Aviv and the Gaza Stip - they were forewarned that anyone on board the ships would be arrested, and detained in Israel until being deported. The Israeli government even stated that they would pay for the activists' plane flights out of Israel, if they agreed to leave immediately (or else be detained in a detention facility that was being prepared in anticipation for these activists). In other words, they all knew what was going to happen, they had weeks of repeated warnings, but they wanted to make a political statement, so they came anyway.

ABOUT THE FLOTILLA RAID

15. During the boarding of the Mavi Marmara, the demonstrators on board attacked the IDF naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally two of the weapons used were grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose. In fact, flotilla leaders stated (Sunday, May 30) that violence was premeditated. There are numerous videos on youtube showing people on the Mavi Marmara, preparing to fight the IDF Commandos, and other videos showing organisers of the flotilla shouting pro-Islamic and anti-Israeli battle cries (if you would like a link, please ask and I will be happy to post it). There are also interviews available online, of some of the flotilla activists, stating that they are ready to die as martyrs aboard the ships.

In response to a radio transmission by the Israeli Navy warning the Gaza flotilla that they are approaching a naval blockade, passengers on one of the ships responded, "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz" and "We're helping Arabs go against the US, don't forget 9/11." This is not really consistent with the stated aim of the Flotilla, which is to provide humanitarian aid to a besieged peoples.

16. As a result of the immediate attack upon Israeli commandos as they boarded the ship, and the lack of preparation by the IDF against a possible violent resistance (note: only 1 of the 6 ships had violent clashes on board), with IDF soldiers having carried paintball guns onboard as anti-riot measures and handguns as sidearms, 9 of the activists were killed, and 30 people were wounded, including 10 Israeli soldiers. Videos released by the IDF show activists beating soldiers with metal rods as they hit the deck of the ship, and other videos show activists attacking Israeli soldiers who are in speed boats, running alongside the Mavi Marmara. The activists are shown to be throwing fire bombs and heavy objects at the soldiers, and some are beating the soldiers with long metal chains (video links can be provided on request).

ABOUT THE FLOTILLA ORGANISERS

17. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla, comprised of eight ships, was organized to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. This was the tenth time that the Free Gaza Movement had tried to ship aid to Gaza. Five aid shipments had been allowed through prior to the Gaza War of 2008–09, but all shipments following the war were blocked by Israeli forces. This flotilla, the largest sent by far, was supported with one large passenger ship and two cargo ships by an Islamic aid group from Turkey, the IHH (The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief).

18. IHH is a Turkish NGO (Non-government organisation) established in 1992 and officially registered in Istanbul since 1995. It operates in more than 100 countries and provides humanitarian relief in areas of war, earthquake, hunger, and conflict. The IHH has held Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2004. Its activities have been banned by Israel, which sees it as an organization close to Hamas.

19. In a 2006 Working paper published by the Danish Institute for International Studies, with respect to IHH, terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann alleges that Turkey had known of the IHH links to terrorism for at least ten years, and that Turkish authorities began their own domestic criminal investigation of IHH as early as December 1997, when sources revealed that leaders of IHH were purchasing automatic weapons from other regional Islamic militant groups. According to the source cited by Kohlmann, IHH's bureau in Istanbul was thoroughly searched, and its local officers were arrested; security forces uncovered "an array of disturbing items, including firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions and a “jihad flag”"; and, after analyzing seized IHH documents, Turkish authorities concluded that "detained members of IHH were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya". [source]

20. The Free Gaza Movement, another group which was involved in the aid flotilla, released a statement saying that they are "proud and honored to work and be associated with the IHH and its honorable track record of humanitarian missions worldwide". Israel remains the only country which has banned the group. Two U.S. counter-terrorism officials say that although there is evidence that IHH or some of its personnel had interactions in the past with radical groups beyond Hamas—possibly including al-Qaida—intelligence available at present does not substantiate a significant connection between IHH and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization.

edit: I added more about IHH - thanks Mike for pointing this out

The rest of what I want to say is best summarised by this article in the Australian, written by Greg Sheridan:

Does Gaza signal Turkey's defection

THERE'S no doubt Israel tactically mishandled the naval operation against the flotilla of six ships ostensibly trying to deliver aid to Gaza. Any police operation that results in the tragedy of nine deaths is in some sense a failure.

But consider Israel's dilemma. It cannot possibly allow Gaza under Hamas to become another South Lebanon under Hezbollah, in which tens of thousands of long-range rockets are accumulated for a devastating attack on Israel at a time of Iran's choosing.

In seeking to board the ships, Israel did so with an intentionally light hand. Most of its soldiers did not carry rifles but pistols to be used only as a last resort.

In five of the six ships they boarded there was no very violent resistance. Imagine the criticism Israeli naval units would have attracted if they had boarded those vessels in the manner necessary when expecting savage violence. Instead, the Israeli commandos went in light and were nearly beaten to death. Not until after 20 minutes of clubbing and stabbing by the wonderfully misnamed peace activists did the Israeli soldiers fire in defence of their own lives.

This was exactly what the protesters wanted and it has aroused the predictable storm of global protest, including from Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith. On these big global issues so much of Australian foreign policy consists merely of the sanctimonious restatement of conventional wisdom, a kind of high-toned channelling of the zeitgeist without any sign of serious moral or intellectual input.

All this is a PR blow to Israel, but it is the sort of blow that in some measure any democracy fighting for its life against terrorists will from time to time sustain.

What is harder to evaluate is the incident's strategic consequences. Within Israel, the best strategic thinkers see the whole tragedy as a successful Turkish government exercise. Three of the six boats were Turkish. The only boat on which violence took place was Turkish. It may be we are witnessing a huge strategic realignment, Turkey's defection from the West and entry into the Sunni Islamist world, defined by hatred of the West. Hatred of Israel is a subset of this.

If Australians are familiar with any Turk, it is Kemal Ataturk. His brilliant defence of the Gallipoli peninsula paved the way for his rise to national leadership. His immense prestige allowed him, something like a Turkish Deng Xiaoping, both to modernise Turkey and to define the terms of that modernisation.

Ataturk determined that Turkey, in succession to the Ottoman Empire, would be a modern, secular republic.

Secularism became a central part of Turkish national identity and the institution at the heart of Turkish national life was the military. Turkey was tough in enforcing its secularism. Turkish women, for example, could not wear the hijab at university or in the civil service.

Over time, Turkey became the most important majority Muslim nation allied to the West. Turkey is a member of NATO, the only Muslim majority member. Since the mid-1990s it has had an intimate military relationship with Israel. The two nations helped each other with hi-tech military equipment and intelligence.

But Turkish society was not immune to the currents of Islamisation and extremism running through the Muslim world. In 2002 it elected a seemingly moderate Islamist government, led by Recep Erdogan.

A few years ago I spent some time in Turkey and, like most new visitors, was entranced by the beauty of Istanbul, the vigorous diversity of Turkish society and its robust democratic debate.

But many of the secular Turks I met in Istanbul were deeply worried about the long-term intentions of their government, which they believed wanted to Islamise Turkish society but was moving cautiously and slowly because of the power of the military.

In the past year or so more than 200 Turkish military officers have been jailed on the most preposterous conspiracy charges, allegedly for plotting a coup. Like many Muslim societies, Turkey is always rife with conspiracy theories. When I was in Turkey the bestselling novel there was called Metal Firtina and concerned a US military invasion of Turkey. Many of the secular Turks who denounced their own government to me also told me they thought the Firtina scenario quite plausible, even realistic.

Similarly, I visited several city campuses in Istanbul, where smart young people, the sons and daughters of affluence and secularism, formed the student body. But the virulence of the anti-Israel propaganda was astonishing. On one campus there was a display explaining how Israeli tanks, when they entered Palestinian towns, strapped Palestinian children on to the front of the tanks so Palestinian fighters would not fire on them. Needless to say, this is completely nuts.

Now these conspiracy theories are being used against the military, which prosecutors allege wrote out a 5000-page planning document for their military coup. Similarly, some of the most powerful and liberal media proprietors have gone to jail.

At the same time, Turkish foreign policy has lurched in a sharply anti-Western direction. The Turks host Hamas leaders as honoured guests and have a warm relationship with Iran and Syria. They recently offered to enrich Iran's uranium as a way of avoiding UN sanctions on Iran.

Turkey will hold elections next year and the secular parties are showing signs of greater competitiveness than they have for a decade. The murderous conflict between secular and Islamist Turkey is at the heart of a number of novels by Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk, especially the magnificent Snow, in which an Islamist fanatic murders a high school principal for enforcing the no-head-scarfs rule.

The Turkish government is expressing maximum outrage over the Gaza incident, although it has been vastly more brutal in suppressing Kurdish separatists and suspected terrorists than anything Israel has ever dreamed of. The Gaza incident has nonetheless allowed Erdogan to demonise Israel. It is beyond even Erdogan to revolutionise his society overnight. If Israel loses Turkey's friendship it will be a severe blow for Jerusalem.

If this is part, as it seems to be, of a more general defection by Turkey against the West, with Turkey holding who knows what ultimate military or even nuclear ambitions, that is a grave development for the entire world.

Oh, and having Barack Obama as US president instead of George W. Bush has made not the slightest difference.

[source]

Funny stuff

2010-06-19T17:28:00.007+10:00

Other totally awesome comics on this site is The 8 Phases of Dating and How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell.

Thanks Jessy for finding this site. Classic!!!

One exam down

2010-06-18T08:28:00.005+10:00

Last night I sat one of my final exams for the semester - there's another one to go next Tuesday, and then I have to find some way to make up the last 6 credit points of my Master degree while avoiding the dreaded 'international finance' course next semester. I am so bloody sick of studying. I'm so OVER IT. And it doesnt help that half the course work is stupid group assessments that I always end up doing myself and then tacking on other student's names to the cover page, and it certainly doesnt help when the sample/practice exam on UTSOnline is completely deceiving, as it (1) isnt the same format for the final exam, and (2) only covers 1/4 of the topics actually included in the real exam. So frustrating. Luckily for me, I was able to fumble my way through based on the assignment work I did throughout the course - I wonder how my "group mates" handled that doozey, seeing as they contributed piss all to the assignment.

Ahem.

I'm not bitter at all. really.

I think I did ok in the exam, and am dreading having to study this weekend, while I have a million other important things to do such as look at open houses and go rock climbing.

This week was good though; I like short weeks. Next week will also be a short one for me because I'm leaving work early on Friday and heading down to the snow fields. Super excited. Can't wait to get onto my own board again (I hated renting gear in Canada, boots never fit, always a different stance with the bindings, board too big or too small and so on).

Still on the snow topic.. we've booked our accommodation for switzerland & japan. We're also supposed to spend new years eve in Tel Aviv, but I don't know if that is going to be possible given the talk of war and all that..

Here are some pics of where we're going:

Our little cabin in Zermatt (switzerland)

Pic of the ski resort in Shiga Kogen, Japan

Snow monkeys!! Japan

I guess that's all for now. Here is a photo of some boxer puppies that I hope to own some day.

Oy Vey

2010-06-17T12:43:00.006+10:00

definitely bad news

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Israel and the US are trying to drive a wedge between Iran and Saudi Arabia, following a London Times report that Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli jets to use its airspace to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

jpost

..

All sorts of stuff

2010-06-12T17:14:00.012+10:00

This morning I had a lovely breakfast in Roseville Chase, at Echo on the Marina with Sam & Noushy. Then Stan and I went around Willoughby & Chatswood/Lane Cove area looking at open houses. Hopefully we will eventually buy a house in this area. We also drove around Northbridge (wishful thinking) and Roseville, just to get a feel for the area. Its so lovely there, and also so close to my work. My house in Kariong is getting rebuilt (inside) so once that's all done, we'll sell it, and use the proceeds towards our family home. It's so exciting thinking that soon we'll be buying a house, dogs, having kids, and all that jazz. I'm quite tired of moving around all the time and living in apartments.

I haven't updated for a while, so here's what's been happening: Since moving offices to St Leonards, I have been super stressed with work and Uni. I ended up dropping out of one of my subjects (full time work doesn't go well with 3 uni subjects). I just couldn't keep up with the work load. I have 2 exams coming up and then I'm trying to figure out what to do with the final 6 credit points I need to make up. I can either do international finance which is really hard for me to get my head around, or 2 x 3 point subjects (which are much shorter courses and which are supposedly really easy), but I'm not sure if they are offered next semester, and I want to finish with this bloody degree already.

Work has been good, and bad. Good because I love my new office and love St Leonards, but bad because there are so many unrealistic deadlines set for me, and I'm really struggling to meet them while studying and exercising and trying to have some sort of social life. I've joined climb fit, which is an indoor rockclimbing gym near my office. Climbfit has a tiny little gym in the building where they have some weights & treadmills etc, but excellent spin classes which I really love. I'm getting crazy good workouts there, and combining this with 3 climbs a week which is a combination of top-rope climbing and bouldering. I'm getting pretty good actually. Going to see my dietician on Tuesday and it'll be interesting to see how much body fat I've lost (if any) since 5 weeks ago.

In 2 weeks time I'm going to the snow. Yaaaaaay! I'm so excited. Its been about 6 months since I've been snowboarding and I'm just itching to get back out there. Last time I was boarding, I had just started to get a real feel for it, linking turns, switching from toe to heal, going down the mountain FAST. Here is the last video taken of me boarding in Canada (Lake Louise) - although this wasn't very fast, and a lot of the run was icy so I was scraping a bit at the start:

So we're just going for the weekend, to Perisher with some friends, and then about a month later, going again to Thredbo. And then about 5 months later, going to Switzerland and then Japan (oh yeeeah baby!) It'll be my last snowboarding hurrah, since I'll be popping out the little babies soon after..

So that's it for now.. going out tonight for drinks with some friends, and then spending the rest of the long weekend studying (boo) and climbing (yay). I'll start posting updates of my house too (I dont think I've mentioned this before on my blog, but my tenants in Kariong pretty much burned down my house, and the insurance company is re-building it). Here's some photos to kick things off:

The last pic was taken about a week ago after the builder ripped everything out of the house. The other pics were taken in February shortly after the fire. The only thing that remains is the brick exterior, the roof, and timber frame. Everything else is going to be brand spanking new, so we're hoping to make it look really shmick, modern, sexy and expensive (looking). Heheh

Censorship

2010-06-11T07:57:00.006+10:00

I recently have been informed that there are certain people who shall not be named, who are "friends" on facebook, viewing my wall posts and updates and making anti-semitic and ridiculous statements about me in relation to the things I have been posting. I dont even think these people realise they are being anti-semitic, but to say that I don't consider myself an Australian because I support Israel in the Flotilla fiasco is more than just a bit of a stretch; its just completely mental! What the hell does the Gaza/Israel conflict have to do with Australia? Least of all my own personal sense of national pride? And then because I post a Q&A from a Rabbi who happens to be a personal friend, means that I am 'heavily influenced' by Judaism and therefore should not be allowed around certain small children who also shall not be named, because I might in turn be a bad influence on them? If anyone is going to be a bad influence on these children, it is small-minded bigots who are too scared to allow their children to experience other world cultures, religions, views and opinions, or encourage their kids to think for themselves. And hello?! Just because I am a jew, doesnt mean I'm some sort of JEW MONSTER who is going to come to your house, steal your kids, circumcize them in an underground lair and force them to read Torah.

So..... then I get told by certain someone who informed me of all of this, that I should stop posting stuff about judaism and Israel on facebook. Um.... HELL NO. I am not going to censor myself because someone is too much of a two-faced coward to tell me how they really feel, and therefore go spying on me through their sister's facebook and then complain about it behind my back. If you dont like what I'm posting, don't bloody read it!

And ps: I am 100% sure that this person is going to read my journal, and i dont give a damn!

Behind the Headlines: The Israeli humanitarian lifeline to Gaza

2010-06-02T20:15:00.000+10:00

Behind the Headlines: The Israeli humanitarian lifeline to Gaza

A random little trip down south

2010-05-17T16:26:00.003+10:00

For this post, I have decided to combine the Sunday Scribblings prompt "recipe" with a Scenic Sunday picture of Melbourne CBD which I took yesterday (Sunday).

I didn't know I was going to spend the weekend in Melbourne until Thursday night, while I was talking to my friend who lives down that way, and realised it would just be the perfect time to go. I hadn't seen her in such a long time (close to a year now), and I hadn't really seen Melbourne before. My friend needed me, I missed her, so why not?

Recipe for friendship.

Equal parts of the following:
* Laughter
* Kindness
* Love
* Understanding
* Patience
* Fun
* Compassion
* Happiness
* Similar & Complimentary interests
* Silliness
* Affection
* Communication
* Honesty & trust

Combine all these together, making sure to eliminate any judgement, jealousy and feelings of superiority.

Once you have everything ready, make sure to spend a lot of time nurturing the relationship, and always be there in good times & bad.

**

I'm so glad I could be there for my buddy, and I also had an absolutely awesome time. Looking forward to getting back down to Melbourne to visit again, hopefully under happier circumstances :)

Storm front & Scams

2010-05-05T12:36:00.006+10:00

I'm sitting here in my shiny new office in St Leonards with an awesome floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the leafy street below, and it is storming outside. It actually looks so eery but in a cool way. I'm so happy to be here, away from the hustle and bustle of Bondi Junction with its sewerage smells, and noisy tourists/school children/homeless people/drunk irish/rich stay-at-home mums drinking their lattes.. St Leonards is just corporate and clean. I love it here. I've been running all over the place the last couple of weeks trying to organise the move, and now that we have moved, trying to organise everything else like setting up phone systems, internet, signage, and a billion other bits and pieces. I've already gotten some positive feedback from VIP clients that they are welcoming the move to the north and actually find it very convenient now. Still a long way to go before we're properly settled, but overall, things have been fantastic and hopefully will only get better.

Now, on to some really upsetting business... I have been scammed. Big time. I wanted to sell my wedding dress so I advertised it online ages ago, and yesterday I get this urgent email from someone saying "please send me the dress ASAP, send me a paypal request etc etc".. I thought, "sweeeet, she's going to buy it without even seeing the dress, good news! I dont have to worry about fittings etc" as I had done in the past..

So I sent the payment request and told her once I receive the money, I'll send the dress. She is in UK, so the postage was going to be expensive, but she was going to pay for it. Then I get an email from "paypal" saying that a payment has been taken from this woman in UK, and that in order for the funds to be released to my paypal account, I need to provide a tracking number, i.e. I need to actually SEND the dress before I can get my money. Without even thinking, and probably largely due to the urgency in the UK woman's emails (she sent several through the day and all of them were immediate replies to my emails), I had the dress sent by int'l express. I sent over the tracking number to "paypal" and then thought everything was a done deal.

This morning I get an email again from this "paypal team" saying they need additional information. The thing is, they sent me the email to another address, that wasnt on my paypal account. It was the email address that I had been corresponding with the UK chick. All of a sudden, it dawns on me... I check the email address, it is sent from service@paypal.com but then I realise that is just the account name, i.e. name of the sender.. the actual address was something totally different. UUUUuuugh... DREAD. All of a sudden, I feel an overwhelming attachment to my dress and wish I had never thought of selling it in the first place... I realised then, that she never made the payment, that paypal sent her a request to pay but instead, she used my paypal email address to get this bogus email account to request the tracking number.. I immediately forwarded the email to paypal's fraud department..

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it isnt a scam, but it shook me up enough to NEVER use paypal again, and never trust anything anyone emails me until I get actual money in my account. I'm just so mortified and cannot believe how stupid and easily fooled I was.. Thankfully, I will only lose the $140 postage fee, but will be able to get my dress back (worth $2000), as I have put in a request for the package to be returned to sender. uuugh... let this be a warning to you all....

Big move

2010-04-29T16:32:00.002+10:00

Simultaneously excited and nervous as hell..... we're moving offices tomorrow from Bondi to St Leonards. Its going to be .... unpleasant.... to say the least. But I am so happy to finally move. I think I've had it up to here with bloody bondi.

In Europe

2010-04-26T11:51:00.001+10:00

I've updated my travel blog. Added some photos and changed the layout. I love reading back over my travel adventures. If you're bored, or if you're just curious, have a read. http://dorinnyineurope.blogspot.com/

Today is going to be a good day. Just relaxing, and hopefully working a bit on an assignment. Loving life right now.

"Dinner" - Sunday Scribblings

2010-04-25T17:24:00.004+10:00

Written for this week's Sunday Scribblings prompt. Something lighthearted for the long weekend.

Lords and Ladies, Gentlemen! Please make your way, make haste!
The dining room is ready, and there isn’t time to waste –
Take a seat, and raise a goblet, home-brewed mead or ale,
Whichever takes your fancy, to go with slow cooked quail.
The King’s arriving shortly, and he loves his game soup hot,
It’s hearty, made with leeks and turnips, and a pinch of salt.
So don’t involve yourself with trifles; where to sit, and how,
Just bring your appetite and manners, don’t forget to bow –
Here comes the host, his Majesty, his robes and golden crown,
He sits between the Bishop and his Queen in bridal gown.
His hand makes gestures to begin, his stomach rumbles low,
The royal feast has now begun, and Dinner’s quite a show.
Tonight’s supporting act is Quail Soup, hot, with Barely Bread,
The second act, cured Pork meat, or Pigeon Pie instead,
The fish is next, with almond milk, spiced, yet honey sweet,
And cameos of fruit and cheese, and savoury tarts, a treat!
A wafer and some sweetened wine, will end the meal tonight,
With bellies full, and hungers quenched, the evening a delight,
Please wash your hands, and now say Grace, we wish farewell, ‘Adieu’
His Majesty with all his kindness humbly does thank you.

I love long weekends

2010-04-23T17:04:00.006+10:00

Another long weekend is here. God bless Australia. 2 long weekends in the same month. Too good.

I'll spend most of the weekend hopefully working on assignments and uni homework, which is far better than the recent study stress I had to endure before my mid semester exams this week. I'm feeling pretty good now. Havent been to the gym more than twice in the last 2 weeks, which is pretty poor form, but now that the stress of exams is behind me, I can start getting back into it.

In recent news, we have officially booked tickets overseas for December/January. This is going to be one of the many NYE's spent overseas. The last one being in Morocco, the time before that in Fiji, and the time before that in Israel. This time, we'll be in Israel once again, and hoping to recruit our 'jew crew' to come along for the ride. We'll be in Tel Aviv for 1 week and then head off to Switzerland for 2 weeks of some serious snow action, and then off to japan for a week for some more snow + snow monkeys + vending machine goodies + sushi. Good times.

Snow monkeys hangin out in Shiga Kogen

Maybe going to ski/board here in Zermatt (swiss alpes)

Anyhoo - If I dont get back online before Sunday, Happy ANZAC day folks!

Eyjafjallajokull

2010-04-21T06:08:00.007+10:00

Eyjafjallajokull. Looks like gobbledegook but its actually a name. The name of a particularly unpopular volcano right about now.. Check this out:

This last photo is hilarious. But also not funny at all. Clearly people are pissed off. But how can you blame airport staff, or the airlines for that matter? If "anyone" is to blame, its the freakin volcano!!! I just read this in the news:

Flight chaos grinds on as Qantas says no new booking until mid-May

QANTAS says it will not take any new bookings for flights to Europe until mid-May as it tries to clear a backlog of passengers stranded because of volcanic ash.

The airline has grounded a succession of flights to London and Frankfurt. Yesterday it cancelled more services due to leave Australia today and tomorrow.

[...]

Travellers looking to fly to Europe face hefty price increases, with the last available seats on only business or first class. Tickets are costing up to $14,200 - up from about $10,800.

Air New Zealand is currently charging travellers up to about $9000 to fly return to London from major Australian centres including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth after the repeated eruptions of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

When news.com.au searched for an economy return flight from Sydney to London, British Airways quoted up to $11,200. However at the payment stage it was revealed that the prices were for first class or business seats.

The cheapest BA return economy ticket next week was quoted as $7500 but soars to $11,200 for some days, with customers warned that many of the quoted prices have “only one seat left”. In one instance BA has a single economy fare of $7680.

Absolutely insane!

I wonder if any of this volcano business is going to affect future flight prices. My husband and I are planning our next big trip, which will take us to Israel, then Switzerland, and then Japan, travelling for a total of 1 month, 3 weeks of which will be on the snow. Yipeee!!!! So excited. We just need to lock in the tickets which is in the works now, but we're hanging back to see what happens with prices in the next few days. Our current quoted fare is AUD2800 each. I wonder if that's a lot...

I'm SO excited about our destinations. I've always wanted to visit the swiss alpes. I've spent a few days in Switzerland with my dad, and I absolutely loved the people there. Its such a pretty country. Plus, they have some of the highest elevations in the world :D I've been doing some digging into the top resorts in Switzerland (there are so bloody many to choose from!!!) and it looks like we will most likely go to Zermatt. Need to do a bit more research though. And then there's Japan, which I have dreamed of visiting since I can remember! Cant wait to have all the sushi I can stuff into my belly, and snowboarding in super soft powder. fun :)

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary

2010-04-16T07:16:00.005+10:00

So its coming up this Monday (19th April). Originally (last year) when we talked about celebrating it, we considered going to Bali to re-live our honeymoon. Heh. Yeah, that is so practical, lets just go to Bali for a few days.... right. We have decided on a much more sensible way to celebrate, by going away for the weekend to Copacabana in the central coast. Its a beautiful place, and the little cottage we have rented is going to be soooo relaxing. I'm so excited, Just cant wait to get up there. Leaving work early today and then spend the weekend relaxing by the pool, eating out in Terrigal, and studying. .. wait.. what? study? Oh yeah, we have mid semester exams next week, so we have to take all our Uni stuff with us. Booooo :( so not fair. Here are some pics of where we'll be staying;

Tetsuya's

2010-04-15T06:27:00.007+10:00

Last weekend I celebrated my 27th birthday with a wonderful lunch at Tetsuya's - Australia's "best rated" restaurant. Probably also Australia's most expensive restaurant. The degustation menu was $200 and was served over 4.5 hours, with a $90 p/p wine pairing option (which I happily took). It was really incredible and fun, and the service was fantastic. Here was our menu:

Avocado Soup with Potato Ice Cream & Tonburi
w/ 2003 Pewsey Vale The Contours Riesling, Eden Valley, SA
[this was really yummy, loved the creamy avocado with the salty cold potato]

Sashimi of Kingfish with Blackbean & Orange
w/ Tamanohikari Sake, Junmai-Ginjo, Kyoto, Japan
[has to be the best, yummiest sushimi I've ever had, and with the Sake, it was absolutely divine]

Scampi in Tea with lemon infused Oil + Scampi with Capsicum + Scampi with frozen egg yolk
w/ 2008 Twofold Riesling, Clare Valley, SA
[I actually really didnt like this dish - I've never had scampi before, and eating it raw probably wasnt a good idea for my "first time" with scampi]

Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Fennel & Apple
w/ 2007 Massena the Surly Muse Viognier, Barossa Valley, SA
[tetsuya's signature dish, and for good reason - this was incredible!]

Cuttlefish Noodles with Bean Sprouts, Ink & Botarga
w/ 2002 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon, Hunter Valley, NSW
[this was lovely, not my favourite, but very nice]

Ravioli of Slipper Lobster with Tomato & Basil Vinaigrette
w/ 2007 Pierro Chardonnay for Tetsuya's, Margaret River, WA
[the only problem with this dish was the serving size *1 raviolo* it was AMAZING though]

Twice-cooked De-Boned Spatchcock with Crystal Ginger & Yuzu
w/ 2008 Pelton Road Pinot Noir for Tetsuya's, Central Otago, NZ
[it was quite a large serve for degustation, perfectly cooked, so tender and juicy. loved it]

Slow Roasted Rack of Lamb with Green Beans and Creamed Garlic
2004 Torbeck Grenache/Shiraz for Tetsuya's, Barossa Valley, SA
[this was nice, but I was disappointed that they didnt have the Wagyu Beef as planned, and there wasnt anything spectacular about this lamb - wine was delicious though!]

Banana Ice Cream with Pineapple Sorbet
w/ 2007 Heggies Botrytis Riesling, Eden Valley, SA
[yum yum yum!!!!! i loved it, and loooved the sticky wine. yumm!!]

Cannellini Beans with Mascarpone & Soy Caramel
w/ 2007 Heggies Botrytis Riesling, Eden Valley, SA [again]
[never knew beans could be so tasty. the mascarpone just melted in my mouth]

Chocolate Fondant with Hazelnut & Praline
w/ Seppeltsfield Cellar No. 6 Tokay, Rutherglen, SA
[This was probably my favourite 'course' - best fondant EVER! and I was the only one at the table to get it because I was the birthday girl. mwhahahah!]

Coffee or Tea & Petit Fours

and some photos:

Overall, it was a wonderful long lunch, and I was able to share it with some of my favourite people <3 I loved that we had our own dining room, and were even treated to a private tour of the restaurant, kitchen & cellar. Good times :)