Paul1Perth

I had the same but I wouldn't say it was because only my Dad "needed" to work. He worked for ICI and then the NCB for years, mostly 7 days a week. In comparison today we were poor, not that you know it as a child, as everyone in the area was the same. Terraced house with a Jennel, no car, parents couldn't drive, no TV, no phone, I'm sure most of the money used to go on the mortgage even then. Parents never went out much, Dad used to go to the pub probably one night a week with mates, holidays in Skegness, if we had one. We moved from inner town Chesterfield to 4 miles away and I thought it was middle of country nowhere. I was about 10, been used to a small school that had a playground, no fields, to a school that had a big soccer field and plenty of room. Took a while to make good friends, everyone seemed to want to know how "hard" you were first and if you could play football. It was the first time I'd had enough room to play it, never been on a soccer pitch before. Luckily I got to be pretty good at it. My Dad had to carry on working 7 days a week and my Mum had a part time job for a few years. Still no phone for years, no car, meat was a treat, butcher used to bring cuts of meat to the house couple of times a week. Eventually my parents paid the mortgage off but they would have been in their late 50's I reckon. If you were in Chesterfield a long time you'd remember the big Coking and Chemical plant on Derby road? That's where my Dad worked for 40ish years and where I started work at 16. Apprenticeship with the NCB was good though. It was demolished years ago and the land is so contaminated that they've never been able to build on it. Different times, different expectations. So many outlays now before money gets put away for a mortgage. If a lady chose to stay at home and look after the kids these days everyone would be asking why. Not many of my friends Mums worked when we were young, that was just the way it was. Maybe times were better? I know we used to appreciate the simple things more. Once a year to Skeggy miners camp on a bus, playing who coukd see the sea first. Only time of year you'd see it. Everyone really excited. Going out on Bank Holiday weekends, picking blackberries in the pennines, maybe a ride in my uncles car, real treat. My parents never had a passport till they were in their 60's. I was the first in the family to go abroad, went to Belgium and France on a soccer trip when I was about 16. I think you could get a passport from the local post office those days. Remember my parents being really worried.

The swimming helped with the vertigo thing I have. First few strokes felt weird and it took me a few laps to bilateral breath without running into the lane rope.

Plenty of spare time on their hands those oldies Ever seen the film cocoon I've been watching the Kominsky Method on Foxtel. Very funny age related material, well delivered by Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin. Only about half hour shows, very good.

It's got to be a better way to see out your time. Years ago me and the wife were having a walk, we'd not been in the area long and were still getting our bearings. Not far away is a St Ives retirement village and it had an open day. We had a wonder in just for a look. You can move in there over 50 or maybe 55, it's laid out really nicely, detached units with gardens, car parking, some with caravan or boat parking, swimming pool in the middle, well fitted out gym, big social hall with nice bar, pool tables, dart board. I said (jokingly) lets get our name down. If your an older couple, maybe no close family, still fit enough to socialise and nip off for a few weeks in the van, would be pretty good I reckon. No idea of cost or if you ever own the units.

Barring about 6 weeks tops that's how it's been the whole time. Normal.

Must be getting up there. Every time I see one of the vaccination places they're busy. Our youngest, 25, got his 2nd pfizer today, our eldest couple of weeks ago, me and the wife both AZ's. Now we have moderna and walk ins at a lot of chemists. I think a lot of youngsters are going for it. School holidays, bored, lets go and get jabbed

If he does there'll be some serious checks on whether you're virus free and vaccined. Don't know about the road crossings, that border might stay closed for a while. Flights are easier to handle.

Did anyone ever watch "top of the lake"? What a load of crap that was.

Finished Vigil last night. I noted ladies can also run faster then guys now and tackle them to the ground quite easily, where they instantly give up. They gave the numbers on female/male crew on the sub and it was something like 10 females, 150 males. You would have thought the other way round in all the action scenes.

No need to worry about that then.

Yes, it's surprising how many people have had it when you ask around. The doctor said it's quite common. The anti nausea tablets help no end. I can cope with the dizziness, even went to the gym yesterday on the bike. It's nice quite roads about 1km to the surf club. I have to make a right turn and when I looked over my shoulder to see if anything was behind, as soon as I turned forwards I was already heading left up the curb Luckily there's a park on the left and not a massive curb and I was on the mountainbike so I just bounced up and avoided the wooden poles on to the grass. Made the mistake of telling my wife. She says she's ready for going back to work for a rest. There's loads about it online, including videos of exercises you can do to move the calcium deposits around in your inner ear. I think it's going off slowly and my wife is taking me to the pool later. Bit too far to risk the bike. That's strange about the A&E, never heard of anyone being turned away before.

I reckon Mark McGowan will be planning to open up, nationally at least, around Christmas. There'll be checks and probably quarantine for visitors though. Don't think it will be long quarantine, test at the airport and quarantine till results come out. McGowan doesn't like predictions and promises that he may be forced to back away from. He doesn't have much opposition politically here in WA, the liberals are a shambles. Federally though I think most would support the current government over Labor, whether borders open or not.

Magda Zubanski too.

Chesterfield is where I was born and grew up. That's the one in Derbyshire, in case there's another on the Gold Coast It wouldn't be that busy there either. We lived near Stockport and it was worse to get an appointment there. Anywhere round London or big cities would be bad. Guess that's why a lot of people just go to ED when they don't really need to.

I rang the Doctor I'm registered with and couldn't get an appointment till this Thursday, which I've still kept. He bulk bills so there's no cost attached. I was thinking it would just go off but it didn't. My wife said if it's like that in the morning it's either St Johns or ED. There's a day clinic at Joondalup ED too mind you. I've been to St John before a couple of times, when they bulk billed. When we got back from Queensland we'd been snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef and I'd scratched my ankle on coral. We had a week in Cairns after and it was slowly getting more red and sore. When we got home it felt really sore after a couple of days, showed the wife and she said it was tracking up my leg and looked like it needed lancing. They were really good, always get a full check up first, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature then the doc comes round. Got loads of yellow puss out and when they asked how I'd done it explained coral is very dangerous and has all sorts of nasty microbes. Sent the stuff of for analysis and gave me anti- biotics. Rang me after a couple of days to tell me to go back for another check. Results had come back and there were 2 pretty serious infections. Luckily it was much better already but they gave me a different anti-biotic. They are thorough. They have a dental section too for emergency dentistry. My wifes friend was sick and went there when she was on holiday. I think she got charged for meds but it wasn't much.

We're on the 4th episode tonight. It's followed the streaming formula. Interesting parts for women who are always more clever than blokes tick, Blokes are either mass murders or imbeciles tick, Gay relationship somewhere tick, Someone of colour in a high position tick. If the gay relationship is one person of colour and one white you can save a bit of money. Oh, then when you've got that in place, think of a storyline. Vigil is pretty good in that respect, good female leads. The one guy who gets a decent part is the police boss of the two ladies. Unusual for it to be a male boss. There's a good article in this weekends Australian by Janet Albrechtsen who calls it Feminist Porn.

Who knows what's round the corner? Might have a major correction in house prices over the next few years. All this talk about young people not being able to afford houses can't be right. Loads of new houses still being built, loads of older established ones for sale, all seem to be selling fast, so someones buying them. I think the phrase unsustainable is a bit over used but I can't honestly see the crazy increases we've seen continuing. If interest rates rise, which they surely will in the next few years, a lot of people are going to be in strife, again. You would have thought the GFC would have taught the banks and everyone a thing or two but we're back on the same gravy train. We emigrated when I was 35 and my wife 30, we made a bit on a house we sold in the UK but that paid for us to come. We were starting from scratch by the time we got here. No jobs, no certainty, renting in Como. We both got jobs, after renting for a year we moved into the house we are still in now and were worried about what we'd done, whether we could afford it. We paid $135,000, doesn't sound much now but as a percentage of what we were earning the repayments were a concern. Interest rates were high then too. A few years later, interest rates dropped a bit, I got a better job with more money, situations usually improve if you work hard and plan (and don't divorce) Now we've paid the mortgage off, have enough to have a decent lifestyle and will eventually get some money from the UK, when my Sis gets round to selling my parents place. Ditto when my FIL passes away. My kids will get our place when we pass on so who knows what's in the future.

When I retired at 66, about 18 months ago, I asked a guy I'd been working with for about 20 years and is a year older than me if he'd thought about it. He had asked me how I'd managed to get on to 3 days a week, transition to retirement terms. It was just an application and if your direct boss agreed fine. He talked about doing that but never got round to it. When I asked him why he'd not bothered he said he couldn't afford to as he'd been divorced twice. He's still working at 68.

It used to be bulk billed but there's a charge now. You get most of it back through medicare.

I guess they'll work that out closer to the time. Might just be something on your phone. You should be fine though, double AZ very acceptable.

Yep, I've seen that. In our case it was Rio that shipped the guy back pretty quick. The in laws got a payout from the state insurance but years later. Nothing happened to the guy who caused the accident.

You still need somewhere to live and costs of moving aren't cheap. You may have your life and friends in the suburb you live in and moving might mean trying to recreate that part of your life. We have friends downsized, cashed in on a beautiful house and moved to a new build but way up the coast. Loads of friends tried to talk them out of it. Their friendship group is here, members of the surf club. They bought electric bikes and thought they would be biking from where they live. The wife did it once and just said it's way too far.

You don't have to take it mate.

My wifes Mum and Dad had a bad accident in Augusta the first time they visited us. They wrote our car off, wasn't their fault and had to be flown back to Perth by RFDS. They were great. MIL was badly injured and was in Shenton Park for about 6 weeks. The guy that ran into them was an American working for Rio. He was very sorry but Rio shipped him out before he faced charges here. He was driving on the wrong side of the road in a big rio 4 wheel drive. They got a payout years later but my MIL's arms and back were never the same.

When the kids were young we went to adventure world a few times. It's pretty good actually, spend the whole day there and not too expensive.