Hello to all availees and welcome to the blog...today's post is likely to be a little bit angry...(a little bit?-Ed)...a tad...because I'm in a whole world of mid-level hurt right about now after my little shunting coupla' days ago...sore, stiff and suddenly staring down the reality of what not having a car in Mt Gambier really means...(I thought you said the car was basically alright-Ed)...yeah, the car's just great thanks, it's the knee doin' the clutch thing that ain't workin'...
(Pretty sore yeah?-Ed)...can't put any weight through it, particularly at an angle, and sitting like that is killing my back because all the quads, hamstrings, etc, etc, have tightened right up, and that's pullin' my back out...just sittin' here doin' this 'ere blog is really unpleasant...(try readin' it!-Ed)...oh you're hilarious...(sorry, sorry, it must be very uncomfortable and frustrating-Ed)...indeed, it's more comfortable standing up or lying down, sittin' just ain't where it at at the moment for me...back in a second...after a real-time stand'n'stretch...reckon I'll be doin' that a fair bit today and for a few days to come...
I ain't no doctor with no book learnin' or nuthin', but I know enough about sore knees and associated back shenanigans, etc, to know that whilst I ain't been exactly 'here' before, I know a big pile of shizzle when I'm standing in it...(such poetry-Ed)...didn't feel too bad first thing this mornin', but then tried to walk the dog to the park, approx only 180-200m up the street from my home, and got about 50m before I started to regret it, got there, turned around and shambled home...and now knees, back, the lot, are tight as a drum...
Park and Stride: says Council...you shreckin' idiots, I can't even stride to the bloody park at the moment, so even if I could drive down to town, I'd be lookin' to park as close as possible to where I wanted to go...if it's raining, I'm just gunna' get half-soaked gettin' from the car to the footpath, let alone shreckin' stridin' anywhere...a week out from Xmas and it's a short, sharp plummet into the unpleasant realities of relying on public transport in Mt Gambier...(oh gourd, of course, no bus on public holidays or weekends, no gettin' to the beach only 30kms away...how ya' gunna get the dog anywhere?...lucky he went to the vets last week-Ed)...ta, a minor silver lining...
Just to quantify my whinging...yes this is a result of the shunting, which shall here-on-in be referred to as 'The Crunch', but injury wise it's old news re-visited and if I had an automatic carI'd still be able to drive, albeit not for any distance or length of time before having to stop to stand up straight, etc, it's 'cos my left knee was jammed at the leg-angle as per using the clutch that I can't drive...I gotta' house, fulla' food, and my family has already flicked me Christmas money, so if I desperately need a taxi trip to hospital or some such, I've got a bitta' cash, etc, etc...I'm in a good deal of discomfort and it's really compromising and frustrating but it's all relative, eh...others put up with far worse all the time, including...
Closed 24/7/11: because with Xmas (Thursday 25th) and Boxing Day (Friday 26th) and New Years Day (Thursday 1st January 2015), and the weekends there-abouts, it will mean that between the last bus (1700hrs) on Wednesday 24th December (Xmas Eve), there'll yet again be no public transport at all in Mt Gambier 24hrs a day for 7 days outta' the next 11, until 0900hrs Monday 5th January...no public transport for 7 outta' 11 days across Xmas/New Years...it's a bloody disgrace, and a perpetual indictment of Council's insular and selfish decision processes...
While I am deeply disappointed that my attempts to get a bus running at these times...(and a Xmas school holidays bus service to Brown's Beach/Bay via Pt MacDonnell-Ed)...indeed, that too...I am disappointed but I don't know what else to do...over 3 months ago I spoke at length with the main service provider here in Mt Gambier, and it was his/their idea to run the bus out to Brown's Beach/Bay...I thought they were really keen, but now I can't even get a phone call returned...no idea why...
Apparently the $27m 'expansion' of the Mt Gambier Hospital is officially finished and open for business with 'so many things we needed'...(but the 6 bed 'Mental Health Care Unit' won't be open until April 2015-Ed)...indeed, but Country Health SA's Jane Downes has again gushingly stated that there'll be Mental Health Care specialists hangin' off the rafters as a result of the 'strong number of applicants' for the 15 positions...apparently we're gunna' have psychiatrists and social workers and Aboriginal health workers, etc, etc...(lots of 'applicants' but not one word of any actual appointments?-Ed)...no, I didn't hear anything about positions already filled...and if it's ready, and there's such a disgraceful lack of Mental Health Care Services in Mt Gambier, and there's all these specialists just linin' up to be signin' up, then why not open until April 2015?...
"Unknown Soil Contamination": is apparently the official excuse for the allegedly already 6 month delay/over-run/whatevs on the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, and the contractor wants another $30million and a 3-month extension to sort it out...(but isn't that building all but built already?-Ed)...yep...(right in the middle of the Adelaide Rail Yards?-Ed)...sure is...(right on/under the flightpath for the Adelaide Airport?-Ed)...right on/under it...(and why would you build, in fact how can you build before any/all soil contamination issues are addressed?-Ed)...dunno'...(and a hospital no less, on an allegedly still contaminated site-Ed)...
No no, I know, it smacks of the De-Salination Plant fiasco where Labor sued the contractors (including Acciona Aqua) for return of $40m in bonuses paid despite the project going way over budget and time and now not working properly...(unbelievable-Ed)...and then dropping that case and 'settling out of Court' a further $20m payment to the contractors...(nuthin' corrupt about that...and isn't former Premier Mike Rann's family directly involved with Acciona?-Ed)...indeed they are Ed, indeed they are...$60m all up...state taxpayer's money, straight to Mike Rann's family and associates...
Just My Unfortunate Timing: that when channel surfing last weekend I went from an SBS overseas news service that was showing footage of Palestinian homes, etc, destroyed as part of the Israeli 'invasion/incursion/whatevs' from earlier this year, surfing from that through various USofA 1980s programs, eg, Happy Days, and infommercials about wonder-leggings and extreme workouts, and then onto car program Top Gear, in which they were laughingly demolishing a row of old houses using 3 different types of giant tractor/tank thingies...relatively innocuous in it's own space, it didn't look quite so amusing placed adjacent to the SBS story and the reality of what's happened/happening in the West Bank and Gaza...
Hooray For Religion: because when they're not assaulting your children their attacking you because your god isn't the right one, and then if you do agree you don't agree enough or in the correct manner, etc, etc...(pssst, he's not one of 'us' us-Ed)...it is my expansive personal experience that obsessive religious observance is the fundamental personification of the inherent insanity that defines being a self-realised ape...(thankyou Dr Charles 'Freudy' Darwin for that insightful dissertation on the Human Condition-Ed)...just sayin'...
And forget even goin' outside Australia, let alone Sow Straya, let alone Mt Gambier, it's all right there out my front door when I look at Mt Gambier and see the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...right there's what religion represents to me...you wanna' go to ya' little temples and wrangle reptiles and genuflect at the ceiling, because that's all that's there, ceiling, sky, and then the void, nuthin' but void, off ya' go, you knock yourselves out...and that's a big part of Religion right there, avoiding acknowledging the void that is the reality of uncaring existence by subjugating the self to the human construct collectively called god...(sweet baby cheeses, where'd ya' read that load a' bumph?-Ed)...just typin' mate, just typin'..
I'm quietly confident that anyone already readin' this 'ere blog whom is offended by the reality of what I'm sayin' to the extent that they'll dis-avail themselves, well I'd reckon there's no such animal...I'd reckon that anyone already reading my furious diatribing re issues like St Martins, the Catholics, etc, no matter how committed to their faith, such availees will allow me the heretical *levity of questioning the very existence of god...(for a little light relief-Ed)...well quite, and somewhat indicative isn't it, when questioning the existence of god is the light relief from realities explored here on the blog... (*spelling correction 20/12/14)
Mayor Andrew Lee has been cuttin' crook about cuts to the City's funding of about 3% of Council's total income (supposedly about $500,000)...not sure exactly what Lee was tryin' to say...(other than 'we'll leave it to the Local Government Assoc to negotiate for us'-Ed)...yeah well he did say that, but this sounded like the softener for the reality looming over the horizon that Mt Gambier City Council have driven the City into massive debt with their unfettered and chronically nepotistic expenditure on whims and fancies, and is in a whole world of trouble before any cuts kick-in, and that means service cuts and/or rates rises and/or asset sales, eg, sale of the Rail Lands as per the Rail Lands Retail Agenda...
And Liberal Member for Barker Tony Pasin was also on the ABC blabbering on about Sow Strayan Labor blaming PM Tony Abbott and the Feds for state problems...blah blah blah whinging about Labor whinging about the Libs...I'd started to drift when Tony suddenly made some delightful jibe about 'next thing they'll be searching for the Beaumont Children' in Tony Abbott's office...(wow-Ed)...indeed, there's nothing offensive about making snide, facetious jibes about a notorious allegedly unsolved paedophile murder case...
(And a good thing too that Tony isn't explicitly complicit in the St Martins paedophile cover-up issue, because then that comment wouldn't just look grossly offensive, but it'd also be a massive hypocrisy-Ed)...but Tony does know about the St Martins case...(oh-Ed)...yeah, oh...and then it was more waffle about why they're closing Medicare Locals, 'we are transitioning to a different model' but didn't explain what that was, other than it's one office for the entire state outside Adelaide...(ludicrous-Ed)...exactly Dr Ed...and then even more waffle re submarines and apparently even if we buy Japanese subs there'll be 'more work not less maintaining those subs' because 2/3 cost is maintenance and that must happen in Adelaide because it's the only national facility equipped for the job...(yay-Eh)...
Tomorrow: Back On The Frackin' Horse
Apologies for not getting there today, but all the stuff about siesmic reactions to Fracking, sinkholes and Karst (Limestone) structures, etc, etc, and some Wind Turbine stuff...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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