It sounds like you caught my cold. I promise that the Christmas card was sent before I caught the cold.
I also didn't taste Christmas lunch on Christmas day…but for a different reason. I was feeling rather lousy with my cold so I went to bed at 1pm and didn't wake up until about 5am on Boxing Day! Just like you though, I've been battling through, working despite the cold.
On the topic of random breath testing, I had my breath tested yesterday morning in Holbrook. I was asked the same question as you, gave the same answer as you, and my breath test confirmed my answer, and I was sent on my way…however to answer your question, you're asked if you've been drinking because your breath test will produce a higher result than your true blood alcohol level for a period of time after your last drink.
I listened with some interest to your story about your little one's current aversion to baths. I used to like baths and would want to stay in the bath for as long as possible, but these days I don't really like them. I think it has something to do with me being taller than the bath, and the fact that I don't really like being immersed in water. Showers are OK, but baths are just lengthy boring pointless ordeals for me.
I've never really been a huge fan of swimming either. I can doggle paddle to stay afloat if necessary, but I can't think of a worse way to spend a hot summer day than swimming…actually, scratch that, watching tennis all day, that would be much worse. Thank goodness that they don't play tennis in pools!
I see that we're having the "driver training should be compulsory in schools" debate again. I have no problem with the idea of driver training in schools, but I think the idea of making it compulsory is a mistake. If it is to be practical training, then I also fail to see how insurance and other costs could feasibly fit within the already stretched education budget.
Personally I quite like the ACT system where a "road ready" course must be undertaken prior to one obtaining a learner licence. This course, whilst available directly from the government, has been made a part of the year ten curriculum. I personally opted out of doing this course as, at the age of 15, the idea of driving and being responsible for a motor vehicle came fairly close to scaring me. I would imagine that I was not alone in this, and it is for this reason that I think making such courses compulsory is a mistake, even more so if the idea is for practical training.
One watch down, how many more to go? I'm pleased to see that the Senate have killed off Petrol watch…it proves that there is still some sanity in parliament after all. Not that it lasted for long, apparently the Senate Standing Committee on Economics want us to launch a space program.
As for the soccer, can you explain to me why Adelaide United even bothered? I've watched half of both games and I can't see why they bothered. They're not good enough to defeat Gamba Osaka, they're not even close to being good enough. Stick to the A-League for now would be my advice, perhaps give the Asian Champions League another go in a few years when they're a bit more experienced.
And I could tell you a fishing joke, but I think they've all reeled you in so far, so I'll avoid it.
Thanks for another great entertaining year of rugby league…I know it’s a bit late to organise, but I would love to have both Ray and Andrew commentating the big match. Perhaps an early request for next year?
Anyway, go the Sea Eagles, the Broncos (I’m still after some revenge for the Raiders defeating the doggies in Round 26) and the Jets.
And I’m willing to put money on Melbourne Bellamy declaring that the referees cheated after the match.
Enjoy your summer and catch you next year.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
I did, quite unsuccessfully, attempt to leave the “N” out of Melbourne in an effort to refer to Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy as “Melboure Bellamy” as per the “Big League” spelling of Melbourne. Still, he’s being sued by the NRL judiciary for his comments the other week, so I’ll leave it at that.
For the last week or so I've been considering the rather naughty possibility of voting multiple times at the upcoming ACT election to help ensure my desired outcome, however as I like to be informed of the potential consequences of my actions, I decided to find out what the penalty for this could be. According to the ACT Electoral Act 1992, Section 130, the maximum penalty for this is $5000 or six months imprisonment. This is in stark contrast to the fine for failing to turn up at a polling place to get your name ticked off, which is $20 according to the electoral commission or $50 according to the act.
Needless to say, I have decided that spending my whole day voting as many times as humanly possible just isn't worth the trouble…although I have to admit that I find it amusing that the commission will take people to court who fail to pay the $20 fine for not voting…the court costs on that must be astronomical.
This email was sent at 9:46pm. I’m not sure why it didn’t appear automatically at 10pm
Hi Stuart,
When the planet and the universe aren't destroyed by the recreation of The Big Bang in the giant hadron collider, do you think the scientific community will accept that Intelligent Design is more likely to be an accurate theory than The Big Bang theory? Or will they just claim that they either found something wonderful or didn't quite calibrate the machinery correctly, and then deviate on to a "by the way, did we tell you that the planet is warming and it's all our fault" tangent?
Just to be fair, if they do manage to destroy the planet and the universe, I'll be more than happy to admit that they were right. If only they would extend the same courtesy to me and my fellow Intelligent Design believers.
If the experiment is successful and detsorys everything, can you imagine the scientists in fifty billion years time when they discover that a previous group of scientists created their universe in an underground tunnel?
I could be mistaken because there appear to be satellite issues tonight causing parts of words to be replaced with blips and blops, but did I hear you refer to "talkbock radio" at the top of the show? Could this be related to the "Bock of the 90s" from one of your previous haunts?
In regards to tennis at the Olympics…I can't stand tennis! Golf and Lawn Bowls need to be added to the Olympics, shall I leave it in your capable hands to organise that? I can see it now, Stuart Bocking, Australia's first golfing gold medallist.
The offer by Pakistan to give each and every one of our cricket players a "presidential style security team" is very generous, but it doesn't change the fact that DFAT considers it to be a dangerous country.
I don't think that Cricket Australia have any right to decide whether the team go or not. It should be up to each individual player to decide whether they want to go in to a dangerous situation in which they have a decent chance of not coming home in one piece.
It's either that, or add a clause to the players' contracts which says something along the lines of "Thou shalt go wherever the chaiman of Cricket Australia decrees".
Seeing as it's Mark Knopfler's birthday, do you think there is any chance of you playing Going Home, the theme of the Local Hero (John Stanley's theme music)?
I'd be ever so appreciative if you could, it's a great piece of music.
Regards, Samuel Gordon-Stewart Canberra
For those of you who are wondering what I’m going on about, here’s the best version of the music that I can find on YouTube.
19 countries in nine months? No wonder the solution to everything is a website with a list of prices…the Internet's the only way Kevin 07 can keep up with the latest news in the country he's supposedly running.
I wonder if anybody's told him that there's an entire department of diplomats and he doesn't have to be the ambassador to everything? And um, when do I get my share of the frequent flyer points from all of these trips that I'm helping to pay for?
I tuned in to a few minutes of the swimming last night and I have to agree that Bruce's commentary was flat, which surprised me as he covered the 2006 Commonwealth Games in partnership with the late great Clinton Grybas and their commentary was spectacular. That said though, I'd prefer a flat Bruce over Ray Warren whom I just can't stand commentating anything let alone swimming.
Personally I think Seven should have outsourced the AFL coverage to Fox and simulcast the matches much like they do with the Sunday game in some markets when Fox have the more relevant match for the region. Doing this would have enabled them to send Dennis Cometti to the Olympics to relive his fantastic swimming commentary of the 2000 games.
I don't really care about the Olympics though so I'm glad that Dennis is here doing a great job with the AFL. I'll be interested in the Olympics once they add golf and lawn bowls to the schedule.
In reply to the question of whether I have ever seen a dog walking a human, the answer is yes, every time my dog takes me for a walk. I have almost no say in which direction we go or how often we must stop to sniff things…and for some reason, whenever I want a quick walk, the directive from my canine overlord seems to involve a lot of very slow walking and a stop every half a metre.
It’s very clear who wears the doggy coat in this relationship!
I'm disappointed with Channel Seven and Prime Television in Canberra this evening. In Melbourne the AFL started half an hour early at 7pm to allow Seven to screen the entire match before the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. Normally in Canberra we would get the AFL match at 8:30pm on a one hour delay, however tonight they've been running various shows about China and the Olympics since 7pm, and they're not going to show tonight's AFL match until 7:50 tomorrow morning.
I suppose I can be happy that they;re not replacing the overnight shopping at 1am with the AFL and I can therefore watch it at an almost sensible hour, but I would have been much happier if the AFL had been screened at 7pm in Canberra.
I see that the ACCC have decided that their amazing solution to everything, a website with a list of prices, would be a good idea to keep the supermarkets in line.
For petrol I can almost understand it because it’s a very small number of products which can easily be compared between outlets…I don’t, however, see how “grocery watch” is going to have any chance of succeeding when each supermarket has thousands upon thousands of products. The only way that such a website would work is if either the supermarkets are required to report their prices each day which would take a bit of work, especially for smaller outlets who might want to have some discounts during the afternoon, or if the ACCC were to pay people to walk around each store every day noting the prices on a portable computer which reports back to the website.
Having the supermarkets do it would mean that they need to spend more time monitoring their own prices, a cost which would effectively be passed on to consumers, and having the ACCC run the monitoring operation would require a massive increase in their budget, which would get passed on to us as an increase in taxes. Ultimately, for the website to work, our cost of living would have to go up…it hardly seems worth it to me.
As for mandatory unit pricing…well that idea has been floating around for ages…it’s nice to see that the ACCC know how to take credit for an idea though.