Blue Manna

I knew a guy who worked for Nokia and he had to go to Scandinavia a few times a year. He claimed for every hour, even when he was sleeping. But he had a brain the size of a planet, and I think they would have paid him anything. Sort of depends on your negotiating powers I guess.

Go on. Do the dance. You know you want to.

We need a recession.

I believe you can do it for 2/50 weeks without any issues, and I often do work a couple of weeks in the other country. I'm not sure if this is a reflection of the UK summer.

If you had a decent VPN. Most companies don't like you doing that for tax reasons. If you didn't mind lower paid jobs you could do it easily. Both countries are screaming for lower paid jobs. Could be harder with skilled. I've seen some companies take 3 months to hire someone. What sort of work do you do? When you get certain skills, companies often want continuity.

"Bagging"? Don't think I've heard that before. Is it a Tassie term?

I think you need to drive for around 200 hours and keep a log book. Basically the rules are the same, except they undertake on the left, you can't park on the opposite side of the road, and merging is a nightmare. But the traffic is much lighter. In fact, if you can drive in England, this should be a walk in the park. But the tests do seem to be quite hard.

They already know where the money came from. They're watching you! They have eyes and ears everywhere.

It's true that many things are different economically since the 70s. MMT, gold backed currencies, banking and central banks are all very different. But the underlying principles that increasing interest rates will slow investment, stall growth, lower demand, thus lowering inflation should hold, even though there will be a temporary increase in housing costs.

Do you have a permanent home if you are renting it out? Not being picky, just thought that could be something they object to?

I thought that's why they invented covid? To reduce the number of old people? Is this not so?

Why when the technicalities bear no relationship to the reality? People vote depending on who the leader is, and to some extent who would make up the cabinet. Most voters aren't aware of who their MP is.

They elected a government led by Boris Johnson. Stop being pedantic.

Is this a serious question? They elected Boris Johnson. Does that answer your question?

National insurance is a labour con. It is just a tax they can increase and say they haven't increased taxes. But it's a rod for their own back, as a lot of stupid people think they have paid for their pension and NHS. They haven't. But it will make it harder to means test it. But they will.

Surely the employer would pay in that case?

The future of the NHS. People will need to start contributing.

The problem with the UK is that a lot of people go and see their GP because they are old and lonely. This means that the GPs are rushing through the time wasters and they often miss people who are really sick. Same as you get people in the UK calling the ambulance because they have run out of coffee or nappies or whatever. People tend not to do this when it costs them money, as in Australia.

Isn't there a magic roundabout in Swindon? I think if an Australian ever arrived there they would probably set up home, as I don't think they would ever get off.

Whenever I arrive at a three point mini roundabout and all the bases are full, I secretly hum the theme tune for "the good, the bad and the ugly". Mexican standoff.

Sorry pet, but you're going to have to draw me a picture.

So you're only allowed one car at a roundabout at a time in Oz? I thought life was slow there but not that slow.

Sounds like they had plenty of time. You can have more than one car on a roundabout at the same time. Australians are often very backwards about roundabouts and don't really understand how they work. It was probably a recent immigrant and their brains work much faster than Australians.

Assuming they have enough collateral in the house, house prices generally go up over time, so I can't see much risk for the bank. As long as they can make the payments. If their situation changes they can always sell. Probably less risky for the bank than lending to a first time buyer on 5% deposit.