patham

Car window film is a huge thing in Aus, and the dealers all pester you to use their special guy. But entirely for window tint and UV protection purposes (ooops, sorry, don't want to rub the lack of sunshine in NZ in your faces), and not for security.

Car theft in Aus is the only crime aspect that is worse than SA. In 2018, about 50 000 vehicles were stolen in each country, so when normalised to population, Aus is really shown in a bad light. The link below says about 70% are stolen short term, for joy-rides or to commit another offence and recovered. Car jacking in Aus however is so rare that it would make the news, so maybe a hundred per year, rare enough not to have its own crime category for stats. https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/car-insurance/research/car-theft-statistics.html https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/340513/south-africa-crime-stats-2019-everything-you-need-to-know/ Funnily enough, in my suburb, burglar bars on houses built in the late 70's and 80's seem to have been in style back then and look pretty common. The newer houses tend not to have. Houses from before that period in older suburbs also don't seem to have barred windows as a common feature. Most houses only have front fences or walls if they are trying to keep their dogs in, and they are a minority. And notwithstanding the car theft mentioned above, its pretty common for garages to be used as storage - or converted into play rooms, and vehicles are parked in the open driveway or out on the street.

I think I may have touched on this in the other get the hell out of here thread, so you can always search through that thread if you have a few weeks spare. In Aus, there is a pretty direct link between socio-economic environment and crime. If you live and work in decent areas, your odds of being burgled are much lower. Not non-existent, but low. Live in the cheap side, and yes, crime rates, especially property and cars are much higher. Petty crime here also follows easy transport links, from where the crims living in the cheap streets take a train ride to the good 'burbs., take a wander, find an unattended wallet, and head back home after a hard day's thieving. But yes, lost stuff tends to find you again. I lost my house keys in Cairns airport when my backpack zipper came undone, when I swung past a week later, I asked at the lounge if anything had been handed in. Lo and behold, they were there...

You are partly correct - I had omitted that detail. Its the balance of family test. It requires that the parents have at least half of their adult children living in Australia. So in your case, if it was just you in Aus and your sister in SA, then you could apply. However, because the Aus children have no clear majority - you get penalised by being shoved down the processing queue. If, in my inlaws case with 5 kids: currently 1 child in the US, one in Aus, 3 in SA, then you need 2 more to move to Aus. That would make it 1 in the US, 3 in Aus, 1 in SA, so you meet balance of family test. A simple 1, 2, 2 distribution would not hack it. And yes, the Aus term parental visa does not give them work rights, but at least they can stay for the duration.

Thanks for the update. That commitment is beyond what I would contemplate making, the only option that would seem viable was the second. Maybe if the parents were still very young and healthy the option 3 might be a worthwhile gamble...but that is what it is. With some very high stakes.

As a comparison, Aus has a variety of visa options to bring in parents of migrants. In theory they cater for a range of socio-economic level of applicants, but in practice - not so much. Option 1. Cheapskates option. Relatively low fee, full medical coverage. Very limited availability, and last I heard the processing time in the queue was about 25 years. Sign them up on this if you want to tell your folks with a straight face that you would love them to come over (although not really), but its in the government's hand's now. Option 2. Goldilocks options. High fee (above $50K per parent), full medical coverage. Limited availability, and last I heard the processing time in the queue was about 4-5 years. Effectively the fee reimburses the government for the expected health costs of the elderly parents, but in reality the true costs to the taxpayers are probably an order of magnitude higher. The family are the winners - the rest of the taxpayers - not so much. Option 3. 5- 10 year long stay visa's - and after that they have to move back to their country of origin. No medical coverage, so private cover must be bought, and like with most things, expect gap fees if things go wrong. If they go really wrong healthwise - you might end up bankrupted on their behalf.The only advantage is pretty short processing times, and the taxpayers do not take a hit on your behalf.

Yep - that's what the information boards on the museum said. I gather there were about 13 airframes that were decommissioned and cleaned up for museum display. The rest met a sad end - landfill. https://airforcesmonthly.keypublishing.com/2011/11/28/final-23-retired-raaf-f-111s-buried-in-landfill-site/

Yep - there were exhibits that were really unexpected- such as the DH Sea Vixen (not Bronco), as that was never widely used, and certainly not by Australia Apart from that you had a perfect strike rate. The others were a P2 Neptune, the split flaps of a Canberra, and the interior of a DHC-4 Caribou. The F111 is an impressive aircraft - much larger than I would have thought, and to think it was capable of Mach 2.5.

Had a spur of the moment visit to a local air museum. I was without a real camera, but took some mobile pics. I could have spent hours there...although I probably would have begged to go rummaging through all the old interesting bits (random drop tanks, wings, engines all stored at the back of the property). A box of internet smarties, hell - make that two boxes- to anyone who correctly ID's them all.

https://www.facebook.com/Aeronews.ro/videos/doing-a-flyby-downtown-brisbane-c-17-globemaster-raafvia-instagramcomaviation_w_/163368324597223/ I think this video from the year before would take the cake in terms of viewer anxiety.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/30084/this-cockpit-video-of-an-aussie-c-17-dodging-skyscrapers-is-a-must-watch Awesome images (not mine) from the Brisbane Riverfire flyby's over the weekend. Budget cuts must be kicking in, as they just had single F18's and the C17, and no Tiger & Taipan helicopters. The Friday lunchtime F18 practice was great - the initial run-in to the city is right by my work (my office is next to the river). Pilot misjudged his height a bit and he was far lower than his official minima - made for a spectacular fly-by. On the day though he was substantially higher - either he had been read the riot act or he realised he had overcooked it on practice.

Lego Technic only license designs from recognised leaders in the engineering field- I think you are thinking of the Lego Friends Tesla

Good choice - its a nice little set - the youngster just got one & completed it for his birthday. In the flesh it looks better than the box artwork which makes it look a little bug-eyed.

I always try for a window seat for that very reason - to see what I can see. That and not being bothered by those with weak bladders. Every once in a while you get a real "unique" sight - like flying directly over the caldera of the Mt St. Helens volcano and the ash/mud run-out from its last big eruption. I get all excited and everyone else doesn't even notice. Or the time when our plane was coming in to land at Cairns - hot and humid above full low level cloud cover. I think the plane was forming vapour cones, these acted as a prism and formed a perfect circular rainbow projected around the planes shadow onto the cloud below. I have never seen anything like it, and I really should have tried to get a snap. The effect lasted for maybe 10-15 seconds, and I just thought it best to enjoy the moment.

I have my Standard Bank OTP's sent to my email. Works well for my work addy, my gmail account was a failure - took too long to route through.

Was crazy days just afterwards if you were in the States for travel, it was bad enough in Canada. Just not knowing how the hell you were going to get back home, and when, was a bit disconcerting. It's not too often you get to email your boss and tell him, sorry, you won't be reporting for work and you have no idea when you will. I am forever grateful I got stuck in a place where I could stay with friends and not have to hunt for commercial hotel accommodation.

That's part of the plan - you feel so unsafe you would rather jump out halfway than land in the bucket of bolts. I did a few jumps out of Carltonville (I think) - C182 with no door, no seats, flown with the stall warning buzzer on constantly. Luckily I was young and bulletproof.

I visited the towers the week before the event. I flew into Vancouver late the night before, slept in late, and then woke up, flipped on the TV to see what canucks watch only to find the same movie (which seemed to have a far-fetched plot) showing on all the TV channels. It took me a few minutes to work out that it was not in fact a movie. As North American airspace was shut down, I was stuck in Vancouver for a bit over two weeks. As the regular scheduled airlines were impossible to contact (imagine a few hundred thousand people trying to phone them each day), I gave up trying to get my original airline rebooked, and just bought - at huge premium, a flight on of the first charters to leave get to the UK. BA eventually gave me a refund for the flight that I never got to take. This was in the days before facebook and roaming, so global connectivity back then was pretty minimal. One of the casualties in the WTC was a Saffa with the same surname as me, so when those names started to be released I had a few people try and contact me/friends to see if my itinerary had shifted and if it was in fact me.

Hawker Hunter excepted- those are just strikingly elegant.

If the link works - its clips of the Japanese F4's with the sound track of Topgun 2 overlaid- pretty cool. I always liked the F4 - in particular the engine nozzle recesses, and the way the Sparrows were flush-fitted. https://youtu.be/HlfxZah1A5k

The plane picture is a little misleading, it isn't flying under those colours by AA- AA having replaced them some 18 years ago according to the web.

If it helps - those Giant 24" XTC frames are bullet proof. Heavy as anything, it does not feel any lighter than my 27.5" Trance - but the upside is toughness. Might need to upgrade the peripherals that show up the abuse- but I had spare pedals, bits and bobs, fork etc. Chain slap on ours has torn through the paint on the chain-stay, so maybe put on a sleeve or frame protection. Possibly ditch the kick-stand. Otherwise I have no regrets on that purchase.

The problem is that a 24" is such a transient size for them - they do not fit it for very long. Spending the huge dollars on a 24" full suss is a hard swallow. But rather they have a 24" that fits them, than skip sizes and put them on a bike they can barely control. I do know a family that thought they could skip the intermediate sizes as being a waste of money and went from a 20" to a small 27.5" mens. The poor little guy was a crash magnet at the start with barely any control, and to tell the truth, at a year later still is. I think the medical bills and trauma of the youngster's broken wrist after a fall a few months ago would have paid for the 24".

Giant XTC Junior - cable disc was the sweet spot for us. You can go one up for hydraulic brakes and trigger shifters, but then they are getting pricey. But pretty much all bikes at this level have junky coil forks. My youngsters lasted less than a year - and with jumps and bumps it was trashed - and would cost too much to have looked at, let alone repair. I had an 100 mm travel Reba dual air straight steerer sitting around from my old 26" , so put it on as an upgrade. Became a silky-smooth, mean machine as the fork is so plush from 8 years of use that it does not have the sticktion that these lighties experience on newer air forks. The standard forks on the Giant are 26" sized, so it didn't even slacken the head angle.

If coffee was banned tomorrow here in Aus, people would have about an extra hour in their day to find something else to waste their time with. And don't forget the other irritating trend - that people now have to be continually hydrated and need to have at least a 1.5 litre jug of water on their person at all times. Even in the corridor. Or the 30 minute meeting. Otherwise they might expire. Because they forgot that when your body says you are thirsty, that might be an appropriate time to get a glass of water from the cooler. Attack of the Friday grumpies !