patham

Easy enough to remedy if you are willing to experiment. I also tended to avoid cooking fresh fish, but about 3 years ago made a conscious effort to expand our menu. So started off with Mediterranian type fish bakes in tomato type sauces, and just experimented with whatever new fresh fish I see in the deli counter, bought fresh every Saturday morning. The worst that can happen is you chuck it out and just eat the veggies ! I admit my swordfish was pretty crummy and will never try that again. Last night was super simple, rainbow trout fillets, oven cooked - wrapped in foil with loads of butter, with sweet chilli marinade prawns skewers on the side. 10 minutes, little prep time, and a lovely delicate flavour. Topped with a mango, pineapple and yellow and red pepper salsa. Occasionally I get sashimi grade tuna. My wife ends up getting a seared tuna steak, I have so many sashimi tasters along the way I have nothing left to cook for me!

Sorry to hear & I hope things turn out OK in the end for all. Which vertebrae are broken ? I broke 4 thoracic in my off last year, so I can comment on how my recovery went - but mileage can vary. Covid restrictions to hospitals are the pits, and the worst is that they hit you unexpectedly and at the last minute when you are already dealing with the shock and trauma of an unplanned visit in an emergency situation. My son had a MTB crash last year and I drove the family to the children's hospital ER. I then had to wait most of the rest of the day in my car in the ER carpark as they would only let one guardian in (my wife). They had a taped off car-park in front of the COVID check-gate and I just was not allowed to get out the car. You must have faced a similar issue with your daughter- except with even less options. Luckily when I crashed a month later, my health insurance coughed up for a private room, so I was allowed one person per day to visit (no children allowed). Even that concession made a huge difference.

The Islanders seem to dominate the removals industry here in Aus as well. And I agree on the ratio, its about a team of 6 on the SA side, and 2 here.

And this is why we practice the game of musical chairs when young. The second plane has arrived too late and now can't fit into the hardened shelter as his buddy got in before him ! Sorry for you serial number J-2331, it's been nice knowing you

Gabon Air Force Mirage V according to this: https://avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=238039

To dwell on the dark side, you should also be telling your partner that for the price of the punnet of mangoes in KZN you could practically pay a hitman to take out the farmer who grew the mangoes in the first place. Some things are perhaps too cheap in S.A.; I try not to compare apples with oranges. But in relation to the QLD mangoes in particular, I have heard they all get grown in north Queensland, the big supermarkets ship them to their centralised warehouses in NSW and Victoria, and then ship them back up to Queensland to match local demand. Hence you pay for them to travel needlessly. The independent grocers at least buy locally, but just price match the supermarkets. But if you buy from the local grocer at least you are not contributing to a massive carbon footprint.

Thanks for adding the post-script note for us. When I saw your original mail with the speed test ( a mere 20x better than what I can get) I was going to shoot off a response using emojis for swearing, tears of frustration, and whatever else could best depict the concept of third world connectivity. I shall now enjoy my reasonably priced, locally grown, tropical fruit instead

New goodies for me and the Trance. Shimano AM501's to replace the very old, tired and dusty MT42's. Psychedelic rug background to match the laces. And an E-13 35 x 40 mm stem. This has cool asymmetric bolts to secure the stem to the steerer tube.

Original Wave owner here, had mine now for 21 years !

Its still a better value proposition for the risk averse than Option 3. Medical bills in Aus for elderly foreigners (who are not entitled to the medical benefits for residents) once their health insurance limits kick in could bankrupt you. We were thinking of this option for my mother-in-law, but as the way the dice have rolled for the family we do not meet the "majority of kids in Australia clause", this has fallen by the wayside. I reckon Option 1 is only still on the books as a way for people who don't have cash to be able to say to their folks, "We are trying to get you here, promise". Or maybe for people who immigrate when they are 30, their parents are 50 at the time, and they get the parent visa awarded when the old folks are 75. Otherwise the maths doesn't compute so well.

In Aus there are multiple visa pathways for parents; can be summarised as: 1. The permanent "cheap" alternative - gives them full resident rights. 2. The permanent "expensive" alternative - gives them full resident rights but you pay up a hefty fee upfront to cover the government for a portion of their medical expenses they are likely to incur. 3. Temporary alternative. Gives them visitor rights only for up to 10 years of stay - then they need to leave. You need to give them private health insurance for this time. Anyway, last I heard the waiting list for Alternate 1 was in the region of 25 years due to limits on the number they award. And that was in pre-COVID days. Most people seem to go with Alt 2, with a wait in the order of 4 years or so. As an aside: my mom tried to retire in New Zealand in the town where my sister is, she gave it up after a few years as being too boring and limited opportunities. She then followed some friends to the UK instead.

Trying to work out the best power provider here in Aus is also a nightmare. So many tariffs, network charges, scheme choices, rebates and discounts, so there is no easy way to assess it. Think medical aid complexity ! But a while back when a new power retailer upstart had a big marketing blitz, promising to save everyone $$$, I took the time to go through my line item bills, converted to the rates offered by the new outfit, and realised I was still about 5% better off staying where I was. That research was great ammunition when the outfit cold called me to see if I wanted to change - could shut them down pretty quickly. And in terms of power cuts, longest one I have experienced was about 6 hours after a tree came down on the incoming line to the suburb.

I made sure to wash my hands just after opening the bag to give them a sniff But thanks for the tip about the seeds.

For our December break, the youngster and I are building a matched pair of Sukhoi's, 1/48 Su 35 (him) and Su 34 (me, the one with canards). First time I have used an airbrush, so lots of frustration as to how to use it (masking, overspray, trying to get mottling and texture, paint layer build-up, fragility of the coating etc). Any of us who were at the SAAF 75th anniversary show should remember the Su 27 and flight display with cobra ? But making progress and learning new things. Work in progress pics below - last 2 photos are after a panel wash (again, new techniques) to make the panel lines, rivets etc. stand out more. In 1/48 these are big birds, the real ones seem smaller somehow.

Hi all I have just been gifted a bag of home grown fresh chilli peppers (described as ranging in hotness from "OK" to "the little guys are a bit dangerous"). As someone who rarely goes past the "sweet chilli sauce" level of spiciness, any thoughts on how best I can use and appreciate them ?

Postage would have been a problem in any event but I have already donated my old 26” dual system to my son’s buddy. When my son outgrew his 24” we got him a Trance junior- which is the 27.5 Liv ( Trance) in XS with 26” wheels. The Trance is a good basic shape for the little guys as the bent top tube gives great standover height.

On arrival here, we were a single income family for about 8 months whilst my wife got her paperwork, exams and approvals for her professional qualifications in place. As a result I had all the accounts, debit orders, rent etc. coming off my bank balance. It wasn't end of the month Salticrax time, but I needed to run a tight budget. And a house purchase was only possible with funds brought in from SA, not built up locally. So you are in the normal range, - the silent majority. Unfortunately, the boiler room tactics of the estate agent industry and the press in general only focus on the hype and the "I was a 18 year old Macca's worker and I was able to grow a 25 house property portfolio" stories.

Likewise, my XM3s are my daily office wear headset. For 2-4 hours a day they are great, for 8 hour virtual workshops you can get a bit tired of them, but I reckon that would be true of all options. The Sony's dominate my office here, I reckon up to 75% market share. Now that I have been able to do some flights for work they are also my music headphones for the plane. Although the newer noise-cancelling tech is better, the music quality in my 8 year old Sony MDR1's is far superior (more depth & immersion, richer bass). The downside is that the old tech is heavier and bulkier, and not bluetooth enabled, so its a less versatile system to take on a work trip.

Hey Ross In Aus, I think it is a case of a two speed economy demographic developing. People who are already in the property market get the boost from the higher prices from what they are selling. People who have yet to buy their first property just get to see that entry level price escalate further and further out of reach. And at the moment, assuming you have a good deposit you avoid the interest rate penalisation and mortgage lenders insurance and hence the interest rates and hence repayments are cheap, which is a strong factor in why the prices are rising. I do think some people speculate to try and get ahead, by building up a buy to let portfolio starting in places where $350k will buy a place - but that is time and effort. Others just say full steam ahead and damn the torpedos and buy with the lowest deposit a bank will accept, and pay the surcharge every month after (and pray interest rates do not rise). Both these strategies would not suit someone who is risk-adverse. The other key factor is that Australia is not budget friendly for a family on a single income, you can get by but it's hard to get ahead. Not that it's necessarily budget friendly for a dual income with kids, in their first few years before school childcare costs can suck up a lot of cash.

I used to do a lot of work at a industrial plant with their own thermal power station. When they were doing a boiler blow-down to get rid of scale and sludges from the system, you could not hold a conversation in the meeting rooms in the buildings maybe 500 m away. I have no idea how loud it must have been in the open next to the power station - I was never in the right time and place to witness close-up.

And straying even further from topic - railway engines. In which case I shall give away my heritage by nominating the Garrett steam engines of the RR/NRZ. They smoke even more than the early turbojets ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia_Railways_20th_class Photos are CC and sourced here:http://www.nigeltout.com.

From those in the know - how does the JT-9D from the early jumbos compare to the later CF6's and RB's. I flew in a jumbo (the SP) first at age 9, and had a thing for the turbofans and pylon styling and drew and doodled that profile everywhere for years after.

For the aero piston category, I was thinking that I should nominate something else - as everyone will pick the Merlin - it's almost a cliche. However, it became that way for a reason - it was just darn good and versatile. The P&W Twin Wasp radial was made in larger numbers, and maybe a lot more of them are in use today, but was more of a plodder in the transports and bombers. I quite like the DB601 in the Bf 109 with its fuel injection, but in the end I have to support the Merlin nomination. For the car engines, even though I have never owned one I reckon the Honda VTEC should be ranked pretty highly as a technology step change that was brought to the market.

Isn't "damp" just an inherent feature of the atmosphere in NZ, and it just settles downwards? "Rumpus rooms" in QLD are also generally a poor addition to the house. Either the garage was converted by bricking up the garage door. Alternatively, they have enclosed or re-purposed the underside of the house which is typically not of legal height for habitation purposes. When we were househunting we learnt that if anything was described as a rumpus, just stay away.

I have only ever had one watch with a moveable bezel. I found I rotated it constantly as occupational therapy during boring meetings, conversations etc. Took me a while, but I eventually realised that the sound of the ratchet mechanism was probably pretty irritating to everyone else and retired it. So in those days, my bezel would also be pointing at random directions for no good reason.