mike carey

That absolutely sucks, although having read stories here for a few years nothing surprises any more. Hope the snow storms a couple of states west aren't affecting you too much.

Kings Cross in Sydney was named in 1897 as Queens Cross (I'm not sure that she was) to mark the Diamond Jubilee, The name was changed to Kings Cross in 1905. It wasn't changed back in 1952. KCs became QCs here as well. For the Americans among you, Queens Counsel is a senior barrister (prosecuting or defending courtroom lawyer, the frontman/woman in the proceedings as opposed to the lawyer who does the actual work) who get to be a QC through a nomination followed by a judicial review of their standing in the profession. They are colloquially called Silks, and being granted the status called taking silk, reflecting silk being added to their gowns. In most states here they are called Senior Counsel now but the process for becoming one is still the same. If we become a republic we can probably count on them becoming Presidents Counsel, or PC.

This one's a bit meta, a random post about something random.

Things there clearly haven't gone to the dogs.

I still have mine, and I did use it in high school.

So true, I can remember being in the first non-smoking row next to the smoking section. Not exactly smoke-free.

Not yet, he's been on my radar for a while. Covid travel restrictions intervened for a while but are easing now.

I used to carry a coin holder, sort of a stiff pouch with at cover that folded over it. As @BSR mentioned in reference to Canada and the Eurozone, Australia has $1 and $2 coin and it was not too difficult to end up with $20 worth of coins. No longer an issue for me as I almost never use cash. An escort I hired one time in the US actually commented to me about it. If you're used to the amount of money you can collect in coins in the US, suddenly finding you had over $10 in your pocket would be something of a surprise.

The first day of decimal currency. The Australian pound was converted to two of the new 'dollars', and one shilling (12 pence) became 10 cents. So I still know what it meant when the price of something was £5/17/11. The cartoon character for the introduction advertising was Dollar Bill, but we never called currency notes 'bills'. Party line phones. Five local farms were on the same number and they could listen to each other's calls. My first few years at university my mum still had a manual phone. Number was 745. Imperial weights and measures. Having our first television just a few years after TV started here. TV started after I was born but before I can remember. Wireless stations closing for the night with the national anthem. (It was 'God Save the Queen'. I can't remember when it was God Save the King - I hadn't been born when the Queen came to the throne.) Only AM radio. One and two cent coins. (5c is the smallest here, 10c in NZ.) One and two dollar notes. Finding Kiwi, British and Fijian coins in circulation. They used to be the same size and weight for the same nominal value. The only foreign coin I've seen here in recent years was a Swedish 10 Krona coin which is the same size and metal as $AU2.

Even down to the strategically placed sprigs of parsley. I hasten to add that this unfortunately was not at my local butcher's shop today,, but rather the pic was posted in twitter.

I'd forgotten about that.

I can see that JJ Knight would attract men happy to pay $500 an hour, I like his porn and would be one who would consider that. Maybe. But, as he said to a scene partner, 'You said you like a challenge', that is what he presents, and I'm not so sure!

It would be churlish to suggest that these brands celebrate a puritanism that has been abandoned save for occasional bursts of moral indignation, and a racism that has been abandoned in rhetoric if not in reality. Lest anyone challenge me, we haven't had the former but still suffer the latter.

The first Abba number I remember was Waterloo, and in recent years the Australian tribute group Bjorn Again has been prominent here. I think that the first LP I bought was of another battle, it was Tchaikovsky's 1812. How boring am i?

Of course! Dancing Queen. In a manly way ... Yup. I guess Fernando would be about a cowboy on the Rio Bravo del Norte.

Since it's Friday in 澳大利亞 (Australia), Happy New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai, or as your banner says, Xinnian Kuaile.

He went on to say that he now drives to Buffalo or Vermont, so I can only think that he was flying from Canada.

I remember a trivial pursuit question, what is the first foreign country you reach travelling south from Detroit. People were guessing at Mexico and Caribbean islands when the answer was across the river.

No, it's a Gaggia. I'll be looking at other brands now I know the sort of things they can do. Thanks for the recommendation on Jura. My sister's been through a succession of coffee makers, Nespresso, an Aldi brand capsule machine and now this. The local coffee roaster I mentioned was the place we bought coffee when we shared a house in Canberra in the late 70s. (No fancy, or even basic machines then, water boiled in the kettle and poured through a filter funnel into a coffee pot.) They no longer have a shop in the mall, but they still have a shop-front in a light industrial area about 1km away. I'll buy some of their beans to take to her next time I visit.

I do, at least in the filter coffee maker in my house in Canberra. My other machine has a reusable ultra-fine mesh filter. I don't add a paper or any other filter when I use the coffee plunger (see earlier post for translation into American)., just the mesh in it. If I hadn't heard of the American meaning of 'fag' the expression wouldn't have made sense. 'Blowing' isn't a verb I'd use about a cigarette. 'Suck on a fag' most Australians would interpret as meaning smoking.

In Sydney and Melbourne, the rates are about the same in dollar numbers (so about 30% lower). I'm not sure that legality affects availability or demand, legality doesn't appear to be an issue in the US.

Thanks, @TruthBTold, I hope the gods change their rules, but I suspect not.

My sister's machine has you load beans and water in it and put milk in a carafe, and it dispenses coffee, either with or without hot milk. There are no capsules or anything like that involved. That said, I haven't found out how much the machine costs! I suspect a lot!

Thanks!

Yes, it is @RexB, but it's good for these wonderful guys to gain a little more attention in the forum. They have been solicitous of my indelicate praise of them. I should stop talking about @TylerandAce.