Howdy Mates! I have a, ah, friend who is getting a bit weary of life here in the states. And I, uh, I mean he, was wondering how things are going down under. My friends understands that the Kiwis live in a socialist paradise. I, again my friend, knows you folks are legacies to the Queen's utopia. But how is it really on the ground? Does everybody pretty much do their thing and ignore the powers that be. Or has Australia become another Soylent Green factory? Also, my friend was wondering if you guys still like yanks. If it helps, my dad, uh his father, used to pick up coast watchers during the big one. Just wondering in case Texas is unable to secede. Dale
you will have to leave your guns at the door .... still want to come ? Plus we have a single-minded road law .... speed kills
Would be great to have your friend down here dr who especially if he is a right winger so we have another voter to get rid of this idiotic tree hugging socialist government that sneaks government through without gaining proper public opinion. Eg carbon trading scheme and optic fibre broadband,what a heap of bxxxshxt.
If his father drove a PT-boat and supported the men in Ferdinand I'll make him welcome. My family ties in the coastwatchers are not forgotten. Several of those eccentric heros were regular visiters to my childhood home. To be truthful though, yesterday I spoke with a 40 year old aussie tradesman who didn't have a clue who JFK was let alone Reg Evans on Kolombangara Island who rescued them. The Pacific generation has nearly all passed now in both our nations and memories of Viet-nam are closer to the surface. Both country's leaders would need a special briefing before they could find Rabaul or Guadalcanal on a map. We still welcome the intelligent yank in all its forms though. Bear Stanly died in a road accident just north of Mareeba recently. In his 70's and long retired here. So, I guess I could find examples of refugee yanks holed up here from every decade, all the way back to the 1850's when Freeman Cobb brought over the yank light weight stage coaches to sweep away the heavier pommie version and set up Cobb & Co. the overland stage coach company that kept our bushrangers busy baling up the gold field coaches. Texas seceding in unision with California and both doing a little annexation to re-create Alta California could work out nicely. You'd have a contiguous land mass with strong population, military, economy and ports giving both atlantic and pacific trade routes. Probably a pipe-dream though.
What guns? I ain't got no guns. Oh, you mean that gun. Ah hell, that's just a little snake charmer. Wouldn't hurt nuthin. Besides, don't you guys have them big-ass bunny rabbits running around? You know why god made rabbits, right? Yeah, I've heard about the car situation. Apparently, the government hates 'em, huh? You did catch the part about Texas, didn't you? We shot the last socialist a while back. Frankly, we've been missing the little bugger. It was kinda fun to stuff him in a tote sack with a bunch of rocks and see how long he could hold his breath. It ain't been the same with him gone. But that was part of my, uh, I mean my friend's question. We have lying sack of s*** politicians here in Texas, but nobody pays them much mind. We only let them meet every two years and then only for a couple of months. I think they get about $800 a month in supper money and all the dough they can steal from the lobbyists. Our problem is those damn nut jobs in Washington. We've already had one war of northern aggression, and nobody wants to go through that again. But Geeze Louise! Those P****** have gotten completely out of control. From what I'm hearing, it looks like you have the same problem. Hmm... maybe we should put our heads together. He actually flew those flying boats. (Go Black Cats!). I'm not sure where Ferdiand is. He flew mostly around New Guinea. I have a picture of the natives paddling out. They thought the gods had come Unlike a lot of Texans, I like California. But we would probably have to give a good scrubbing, don't you know. Dale
We can swap. I want to move to Texas just for the great gun laws tho after watching Sons of Guns I might want to move to Louisiana instead If you like Ferraris start saving 458 Italia costs $600k~ on the road here Tho you never have to tip a person ever again
Correction.. they *love* cars.. It's proved just the ticket (pun intended) to reliably balance state budgets and revenues.. they only need to tweak the "tolerance" or add a few dozen more "safety camera" sites to make up any shortfalls in any given quarter, what's not to like?
Dale Despite it's many shortcomings, Australia is still the place to be. As I have stated repeatedy in the past, if the price of a living in a country where emergency departments, fix people first, then work out whether the private health fund or the government one is going to foot the bill afterwards and where homelessness is a lifestyle choice/mental health issue, rather than an economic reality forced on those in need, is that people who can afford it pay twice as much for a luxury car than they do in the US, who with half a brain really cares? Car jackings are still newsworthy events! As for the Yanks, we love you guys individually, but distrust and dislike your arrogant government, but do you blame us? Stephen
Getting to the point, how's bidness? I would think with the Chinese buying everything in sight, business would be good. Also is it a major PIA to start a business? Say I wanted to get into the home buidling business. Would I be able to open the doors, or would the government and entenched existing builders make this an impossible dream? In Houston, it costs $5 to get a "doing business as" license. That and a head full of rocks is all you need to get going. Dale
F*** no. BTW, I seem to recall someone putting together a killer suspension system for Maranellos a while back. Was that you? Dale
Ah a Catalina pilot. Ferdinand was the code name for the whole coastwatchers group. The symbolism was Ferdinand the bull who didn't fight. They were supposed to observe, not fight. In truth, there were several watchers with private armies and nothing "pacific" about many of the young natives supporting them. Simogun Peter, a solomon islander with Mason, kept score and had killed 31 Japanese soldiers personally by war's end. Most of them were while leading the same soldiers on wild goose hunts. Come over. I'll continue the ear bashing over a beer.
Reg Evans on Kolombangara Island was discussed just the other day...on another forum...you just need to get out more or work in the right place Good to hear that they were eventually invited to the White House.... I see where Felix landed and took off from Lake Boga the other day....sweet!
New home construction in Australia at present has about as much life as a dodo... I'm an architect, just gone back to work for a small practice and we are busy doing very high end houses, but that's about 2% of the market in Aus and the regular commercial house builders are falling like flies; lost track of how many in my area (Sunshine Coast in Queensland) have gone broke this year. Also, you do need to be registered as a builder, plenty of paperwork but I can't say how difficult it would be in reality. Regulations vary from state to state.
QLD has been knocked around with floods and cyclones...lots of rebuilding required and no doubt the tradies will go north chasing an easy buck....however, other areas of Oz are booming...NSW, VIC and ACT are examples where the market is "building"
