Topic: Let it all hang out,tell us how you really feel and what pisses you off.

[Terry in Australia]

I dunno where I got the Kawasaki from mate.
I thought that I read it or some fcuka  told me.

Speaking of Germany, the missus and daughter Hannah are on a boat cruise around Potsdam at the minute.
That's a wild place full of history.
I went there a few years back and it's a bloody weird feeling being in the same room that Churchill, Truman and Stalin were after the Battle of Berlin.

The Brandenburg Gates is another eye opener, just knowing that a fair bit of history lays there.

Even walking across to the East which is no worries now after the wall got levelled gives a bit of an idea of the differenciatian of how it was at that time.

I've got a piece of the Wall here that the missus bought back when it knocked down.

Berlin is a magic place to visit if you're into a bit of the past.
Not as good as Darwin though which will piss the Germans off. 

Yeah Mick, I was in Germany in the early 1970's when the wall was well and truly up, and it wasn't a good idea to get too close. What I didn't know at the time was that there was a war going on in Europe between the PLO and Israel's Mossad, who were hunting down the organisers of the Munich Olympic's terrorist attack, and knocking them off.

At the same time, other terrorist organisations were very busy, we got taken off two trains in France in the middle of nowhere while the French bomb squad removed bombs from those trains, and the train that we were booked on to go from Paris to Rome was blown up in a tunnel by the "Red Brigades", (Italian Commo's) and everyone was killed. Because of my dad and mum's poor grasp of French, we got on the wrong train and ended up in Lourdes. I missed out on a trip to Rome, which pissed me off.

My favourite place in Europe was Amsterdam. (now known as the "Old Amsterdam") I had my first "American" hamburger there, as Amsterdam was full of American Hippie draft dodgers who were waiting out the end of the Vietnam War. Every open area was full of these guys (and gals) listening to music and smokin' da weed. Dad and I weren't getting on too well at the time, so Mum and Dad and my little sis would go on day trips to look at tulips and shidt like that, while I hung out with the young guys who ran the little hotel we were staying at, drinking Heineken or Lowenbrau, and smokin' da weed.........

All I remember about Britain was that it was mostly cold and miserable, we drove our rented Hillman Avenger station wagon from one end to the other, and spent a bit of time in Ireland, where Dad's family came from, but we spent more time in the south than the north, because this was right at the height of "The Troubles", and there was all sorts of bad shidt going on. I think it'd be much nicer now that the Irish and the English have made friends...........        

[spotty]

My alcohol consumption has been drastically reduced since being diagnosed with celiacs. No more beer. Well...no more good beer. Paying for gluten free beer just seems stupid. I should be getting paid to drink IT. Some whiskey is ok but some makes me sick. I drank some fireball the other day and paid dearly for it for the next 24ish hours. Lately I've been drinking Sailor Jerry rum.

Celiac disease is a raw deal.

The ONLY plus in it is that it's like I got a slight raise in my monthly pay because I don't hardly buy alcohol any more. Bike should be done sometime in the next few years now!

yep, my dad was coeliac, and suffered for a long time before they worked out what was causing his problems, then he had 20 years or so of not eating everything he loved (pasta , bread, cake, biscuits, beer etc)
another mate of mine has just been diagnosed and was ok with losing evrything except his beer......he found a local 'brew-it-yourself' shop ,where you uae their ingredients, recipes facilities and bottling equip to make your own home brew (easier, betterer and cleaner than trying to do it at home) and you can choose your fave style of beer - euro, aussie, asian, etc - but they also make gluten-free beer from sorghum grain. i've had it a few times at his place and tis delicious, you'd never know it was a) home brew and b) sorghum
he's even fixed up a fridge on his back porch with lines and taps running through the door and just puts his newly brewed keg in the fridge. works a treat (he 'borrowed the keg from round the back of his local sports club)

[Terry in Australia]

That sounds like a fantastic set up Spotty, and good to see your mate didn't have to give up beer just because of his allergies. I'm just happy they don't make booze out of shellfish!

[mick7504]

Way back in my Rum drinking days, there were no rules.
In Darwin, it was just a part of the culture to smash about 10 gallons into your guts and make the biggest tnuc of yourself until the coppers threw you into the back of the Paddy Wagon and made you a guest at Her Magestys Hotel for the evening.

At some stage, the time had come for a bit of self analysing as far as the alcohol consumption was concerned.
So, one night, and it wasn't planned, I decided to give the piss the flick for a while.

Well, believe it or not, I stayed "Sober Bob" for 5 fcuking years.
That felt pretty good, until the time arrived when I knew that it was fcuking boring being a fcuking tea leaf.

So these days, I'm making a concerted effort to catch up on lost time for those lost 5 years of being pissed. 

[petercb750]

There goes my self esteem. .....I'm a boring tea leaf.....

[Terry in Australia]

I still love you Pete, (in a manly "Spit on the floor and swear like a sailor" kind of way of course, they may have just legalised gay marriage in the US, but it's not mandatory here yet, thank God) but we've gotta be careful with the correct use of rhyming slang, "Tea Leaf" means "Thief", which I'm sure you and Mick are certainly not. Mick meant that he was a "Tea Totaller", methinks.........  

[petercb750]

I figured that Tez but didn't want to spoil Mick's story, that might have pissed him off...and a pissed off Mick is not a good thing 

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, well I'm pissed off that my new bottle of "Bundaberg Red" is going down so quickly, fark this stuff is good! I was never a fan of the old "Chunda-Berg", but the new brew is a winner, for sure. Pete, get yourself a bottle of this stuff and you'll kick yourself in the nuts for ever giving up!

[trueblue]

I'm yet to try the Bundy red, but they had one a few years back that made the normal Bundy taste like crap, which looking back now it always tasted like crap, I just didn't know any better. If memory serves me correct it was called Bundy silver label or something like that. It came in a flash silver/grey box and cost an extra $10 on the standard bottle which was about $25 at the time. After they stopped making that stuff I switched to scotch and never looked back. 

[petercb750]

I drank a fair bit of draino, I mean bundy, back in the day, but decided it was going to kill me or at best give me ulcers, so also switched to scotch as the spirit of choice.
I don't know if they had bundy red back then but I've not tried it.
I'm quite happy not drinking but there are times I wish I did, like when I'm pissed off.

[mick7504]

It was the Bundy that turned me right off of the grog for those years gone by.
We had some bloody good times back then and still have a laugh about it.

There's something about that Bundy that makes you temporarily capable of doing some super human feats.
I used to love climbing trees with a skin full of cane juice but then the primate instincts would fail when I'd fall out of it and then end up at the hospital for some more stitches or being treated for concussion.
That use to fcuk up the evenings fun.

So these days, a few beers and a coupla Wild Turkeys and this ex gorilla is a happy camper. 

[bear]

The lovely Evelyn and I got stuck running a pub between Cooktown (the worlds largest unfenced assilem) and the Daintree, called the Lions Den.
The locals used to drink what was called a "Brutus" up there, four nips of cane juice in a schooner of coke.
Never a dull moment I can tell you.

Cheers,
Brian

[Terry in Australia]

The lovely Evelyn and I got stuck running a pub between Cooktown (the worlds largest unfenced asylum) and the Daintree, called the Lions Den.
The locals used to drink what was called a "Brutus" up there, four nips of cane juice in a schooner of coke.
Never a dull moment I can tell you.
Cheers,
Brian

Yep, that's about the strength I like Brian, is the Lion's Den still in operation? I might have to go for a ride up there and demonstrate my blending skills to the inmate, er, patrons. Before I collapsed last night I tried mixing equal parts Bundy Red (nothing like normal Bundy, Andrew, Mick and Pete will love it) Kentucky Gold (el-cheapo Bourbon, made in the USA, but it must be like Fosters is here, no decent Bourbon loving Kentuckian could be proud of this piss) Chivas Regal and Stolychnaya Vodka.

A nip of each in a pot glass with real coke is a fine drop. (Never mix booze with diet coke, coke zero etc, unless you just wanna get smashed, your body takes time to break down the sugars in real coke, but as diet coke and coke zero is a chemical, it goes straight into your blood stream, which means if you had one pot of my "Special Blend", you'd instantly be .09 on the ol' breatho, this is partially why sheila's get themselves into trouble when they get on the spirits, they always mix spirits with diet drinks, which are "enablers" is drug speak.) 

For Pete, Bundy Red is new, and tastes nothing like regular Bundy, it's almost like Scotch Whisky or Bourbon Whiskey. I read some of the reviews on the Dan Murphy site and it was compared to Whisky/whiskey several times and while I can still taste a dark rum flavour, I can also agree with the above. Hmmnn, it's only 10am as I type this, so I'm pissed off that the bar's not open for another 8 hours or so................ Cheers, Terry.  

[mick7504]

Why would the coppers piss around with Tasers when you've got a mean brew like that Terry.
One quick spray on the recalcitrant offender and it'd be good fcuking night Cyril. 

[demon78]

Mick, Terry, Bear, whoever, I've got a political question for you, your voting system how does it work for you?
Does it reflect what everyone  wants? How easy is it to fiddle? How hard is it to figure out? Yes I could spend hours on the net trying to sort out the various proponents but in the end that's a bunch of pseudo experts trying to push their opinions/biases to the top. What I want is the practicalities not the BS. Yes I understand that you must vote does it interfere with the system?
Bill the demon.

[Retro Rocket]

Mick, Terry, Bear, whoever, I've got a political question for you, your voting system how does it work for you?
Does it reflect what everyone  wants? How easy is it to fiddle? How hard is it to figure out? Yes I could spend hours on the net trying to sort out the various proponents but in the end that's a bunch of pseudo experts trying to push their opinions/biases to the top. What I want is the practicalities not the BS. Yes I understand that you must vote does it interfere with the system?
Bill the demon.

Hi Bill, It goes like this, you go into a room, there are 3 pictures of the #$%*wits you have to vote for, in front of each #$%*wit is a box of darts, you stand there and throw darts at the one you think is the biggest #$%*wit, and #$%* me dead if i'm lying, the biggest #$%*wit wins.... Whats it like in your neck of the woods   

[petercb750]

Geezus RR, I think you've nailed it. 

[74cb750]

Mick, Terry, Bear, whoever, I've got a political question for you, your voting system how does it work for you?
Does it reflect what everyone  wants? How easy is it to fiddle? How hard is it to figure out? Yes I could spend hours on the net trying to sort out the various proponents but in the end that's a bunch of pseudo experts trying to push their opinions/biases to the top. What I want is the practicalities not the BS. Yes I understand that you must vote does it interfere with the system?
Bill the demon.

Hi Bill, It goes like this, you go into a room, there are 3 pictures of the #$%*wits you have to vote for, in front of each #$%*wit is a box of darts, you stand there and throw darts at the one you think is the biggest #$%*wit, and #$%* me dead if i'm lying, the biggest #$%*wit wins.... Whats it like in your neck of the woods   

Here in Vermont if you eat kale, don't wear makeup, are "progressive" you vote socialist (bernie sanders) whom talks tough, but doesn't get anything passed in congress that actually changes anything. same old same old. that pisses me off.

[trueblue]

Well I've spent the last two days sorting out my shed, and I've still got #$%*loads to go.  I started with a 6x9 shed that was packed to the gills and only had a couple of small paths through it.  I've sent two trailer loads of car parts from days of projects past that I will never use to the wreckers.  Mostly old hilux parts, I've sold the hilux and if I ever buy one of those #$%*boxes again I might just shoot myself.  I've probably got another trailer load to send to the tip and I've got another 3 days before I  start at the new job, now my training course is complete.  I might start building a new set of shelves so I can organise the shed a little better.

The biggest problem with this new job is all the time off, the missus already has a huge list for me to do.  I start my time with 3 days off then 4 on, then 3 off, 4 on then I have 10 off and 2 on.  This is apparently a full time job , I'm getting paid full time pay so I don't care.  They are 12 hour shifts, but at least you get paid for the time you do, unlike the last place I worked where I did 10 hour days most days and got paid for 8 if I was lucky.  During that 10 day break I might put in for some overtime, pick up a weeks pay in a day .  I started off being pissed when I started typing this, but I'm finding it hard to keep the momentum up when I think about how much time I now have off. 

[petercb750]

Haha, sounds pretty bloody good to me Andrew. Good luck with it and hope you get the shed sorted.
When we moved into this new place a lot of stuff got put in the shed to "sort out later". I don't know when "later" is, but today I went into the shed to do something about it , looked at the 1100, looked at the sunshine and said "fk it" and went for a ride. "Later" will have to wait.

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day Bill, I imagine that our voting system and yours is pretty much the same? I think it's referred to as the "Westminster System", inherited from the Poms (English) all those years ago. Voting for both state and federal elections are compulsory, if you don't vote, you get a fine.

The problem with that is the "Donkey Vote", where people with no interest in politics, but don't want to get fined, attend their polling booths and either just get their name ticked off and walk out without voting, or vote for Donald Duck, etc. Kids under 18 can't vote, and old folks over 80(? Not sure) don't have to.

The voting system is pretty fair, but the non proportional representation in electoral districts is a problem, whereby some electorates might have as many as several hundred thousand voters, and others as little as a few hundred, but the MP's who represent these electorates have equal power in the paliament, which is silly, as some of the "Rat Bag" politicians who represent the tiniest electorates can hold the balance of power.

Anyway, it's not great, but it's probably no worse than it's main competitor, the US system. Can it be rigged? Of course it could be, so lucky for us our politicians are so honest..............    

[trueblue]

Haha, sounds pretty bloody good to me Andrew. Good luck with it and hope you get the shed sorted.
When we moved into this new place a lot of stuff got put in the shed to "sort out later". I don't know when "later" is, but today I went into the shed to do something about it , looked at the 1100, looked at the sunshine and said "fk it" and went for a ride. "Later" will have to wait.

We had a similar thing, Pete, when we moved in here, 2 years later and the shed is still a shambles.  It also didn't help that we downsized the shed when we moved here which only compounded the problem.  I now have to get a car in there to rebuild, which is the final motivation to get it done.  Also I'm sick to death of tripping over #$%*.  Once this car is done it will be back to the bikes, first off will be getting my 650 back on the road.  Then I have to build some cupboards for the missus, to keep her happy .  I think I'll be busier now I have more time off.

[vfourfreak]

Mick, Terry, Bear, whoever, I've got a political question for you, your voting system how does it work for you?
Does it reflect what everyone  wants? How easy is it to fiddle? How hard is it to figure out? Yes I could spend hours on the net trying to sort out the various proponents but in the end that's a bunch of pseudo experts trying to push their opinions/biases to the top. What I want is the practicalities not the BS. Yes I understand that you must vote does it interfere with the system?
Bill the demon.

Hi Bill, It goes like this, you go into a room, there are 3 pictures of the #$%*wits you have to vote for, in front of each #$%*wit is a box of darts, you stand there and throw darts at the one you think is the biggest #$%*wit, and #$%* me dead if i'm lying, the biggest #$%*wit wins.... Whats it like in your neck of the woods   

Here in Vermont if you eat kale, don't wear makeup, are "progressive" you vote socialist (bernie sanders) whom talks tough, but doesn't get anything passed in congress that actually changes anything. same old same old. that pisses me off.

In France it seems to be much simpler, but as I am not permitted to partake I can't say for certain. To me it appears that you are given two choices, Raving red commie or far right facist. Typically people like alternance here, so the seem to vote in the guy from the party that lost last time around. The system only ever changes when we get invaded by another country.

Kev

[demon78]

Thanks guys there's talk here about proportional representation and I heard you had something different because here the last bunch got in with less than 40% of the popular vote and tried to turn the country into a clone of our southern neighbors and we can't seem to stop the ringpiece any how there is an election coming up in October and the feeling is #$%* and party are out, one of the opposition parties has burbled about proportional representation and I am doing a little checking on practicalities. Retro yes darts no, more like lumps of chicken #$%*. I'm trying to do this on a tablet and my fingers are not pointed enough. Goddamit.

Bill the demon.

 

[vfourfreak]

Thanks guys there's talk here about proportional representation and I heard you had something different because here the last bunch got in with less than 40% of the popular vote and tried to turn the country into a clone of our southern neighbors and we can't seem to stop the ringpiece any how there is an election coming up in October and the feeling is #$%* and party are out, one of the opposition parties has burbled about proportional representation and I am doing a little checking on practicalities. Retro yes darts no, more like lumps of chicken #$%*. I'm trying to do this on a tablet and my fingers are not pointed enough. Goddamit.

Bill the demon.

Ireland has had PR for a long time past. In some constituencies it has taken up to 12 recounts to get a result. Some say it is a good system, some despise it.

Kev