Oztalgian

I remember the great Hong Kong Flu Epidemic of 1968-69 ..... All of a sudden .... nothing happened and we all got on with life largely oblivious of the 30,000 + that lost their lives I was too young to remember the Flu epidemic of 1957 which killed upwards of 20,000 people in the UK. SNAFU is an Army saying "Situation Normal All F***ed Up"

I have been reading various UK on-line news outlets over the SNAFU that is Covid 19 testing in the UK. Do any contributors on here understand why its implementation is so inept. Media sources from both right and left of the political spectrum seem to be in agreement so there must be something fundamentally wrong. According to a local newspaper the only testing centre in the county is in Nottingham itself although at times there have been mobile testing stations used in the county.

Here is a new release, a good idea however once open all my bottles seem to be self emptying.

Yes I understood that Nonna I was highlighting there was another way to use a syringe when it comes to wine The syringe would have to go below the surface of the wine to draw any wine up and would not create a vacuum however assuming no air gets in when the syringe is taken out there would be a slight reduction in wine volume in the bottle and therefore a small reduction of pressure in the air space above the wine. I don't know how much wine would have to be taken out for the outside air pressure to overcome the resistance of the cork and "push it in"

Thanks nonnaB, I learned a new word as a result of your post enoteca, literal meaning "wine depository" They are more commonly called cellar doors here but some actually use the term enoteca. Many like yours offer a wine and food experience with the opportunity to purchase any wines you particularly enjoy. We have a syringe sort of thing that we use when the corks in older wines look a bit suspect. Like yours we carefully push the "needle" through the cork and then pump air into the bottle which gently removes the cork.

The new season hasn't started well either losing 2-0 away at Dark Strangers and to Barnsley away in the Carabao Cup, yet again the ability to convert chances let them down.

Synthetic corks were the thing for a while here but have faded from use. Ultra premium wines still use natural cork but the use of Stelvin screw caps are slowly creeping up the cost chain and if you talk to many younger wine makers they say that the screw cap is the only way to ensure that the taste of the wine stays the way that they intended. It will however be a long while before Penfolds Grange or Henschke Hill of Grace comes with a screw cap.

Absolutely agree Jill but forget about the last three. It's easy for us as we live twenty minutes away from the McLaren Vale wine region, home of some of Australia's best reds. Red of course, white wine is OK for sprinkling on your fish and chips. It is a waste of land that could be used for more red varieties. Putting a sprig of parsley garnish on almost every pub meal is seemingly obligatory here in Australia and it is invariably the first thing that gets put to the side of the plate. Why don't they ask if you want it? If you are serving a few hundred meals over the day, the cost mus

Does he turn them all regularly nonnaB? It looks like they are all natural cork closures, I wonder how many will be spoiled by cork taint? I hope not too many.

Question to Brew and DJ360. Do you think the populace would have more interest in democracy and engaged in debate and policies if :- Voting was made compulsory? or A form of proportional representation was used?

I'd do it all over again in a flash right up to where I am today and beyond I hope. From the sixties, the best music, no shortage of jobs if you wanted one, reasonably safe out and about and I am not referring to Covid. Cheap package holidays and always seemed to have a few bob left over after board, petrol and entertainment. The early seventies were years of uncertainty with the miners strike of 1972 and the three day week of 1974 were elements of my decision to emigrate in 1975 and fortunately I missed the winter of discontent at the end of the decade and the horrendous interest r

Interesting DJ360, a 6 bottle case would set you back 25 pound 61 pence equivalent here. Quite often you can get Australian wine cheaper in the UK than we can get it here but not this one.

Another part of the film reel of my youth gone. Obviously best remembered as the leather cat suit clad Emma Peel alongside John Steed in the Avengers and the wife of a rather wooden James Bond in George Lazenby. She was so much more as her later work showed. RIP A fine Yorkshire lass.

If the glass is either half full or half empty it is probably too big a glass

Live as if you will die tomorrow but learn as if you will live forever - Mahatma Ghandhi Live Long and Prosper - Ishmael Spock of Star Trek Last but not least DJ360's tag line "The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things" - Lewis Carroll

Breaking News Malcolm Turnbull, the man that ousted Abbott has speculated that Tony Abbott may reclaim his British citizenship and stand as an MP in the UK.

Brew, He was born in Lambeth London, his parents were Ten Pound Poms and he came to Australia at the age of 2 Interestingly he only renounced his British citizenship in 1993 to become eligible to run for parliament and not fall foul of Section 44 of the constitution as so many others have done since. Re Taxation When he came to power the take from income tax was 15.3% of GDP when he was unseated it was 16.5% Individual tax take rose from 10.3% of GDP to 11.4% whilst company and indirect taxes remained pretty much the same. Whilst he may not be being paid what expenses

A companion set was one of the first things we made in metalwork at school, did scroll work on the stand and learned how to twist the square section steel for the poker, broom and shovel shafts, turned the handles on a lathe, brazed the shafts into the handles and rivetted the shaft to the shovel. The only bit that was not hand made was the broom head. Mum and dad had it for years, don't know what happened to it when they got gas.

It may well cost nothing to get rid of him but it may cost dearly in the long run

His party thought he was a dud, so they dumped him. Fact Check Based on available treasury data the tax to GDP ratio under Abbott was the highest since 2008/9 The main reason for the growth in taxation was personal income tax due to the government failing to index the tax brackets resulting in fiscal creep and the average Joe Public facing higher marginal income tax rates.

Meanwhile back at UK politics, I see that BJ has appointed our failed PM Tony Abbott as a trade advisor. I would just like to point out a little of his history and some of his past "successes". He was Prime Minister of Australia from Sept 2013 until September 2015, not even a full term. Fond of the three word slogans "Axe the Tax" "Stop the Boats" and his first cabinet contained only one woman Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop. Late Sept 2013 begins "Operation Sovereign Borders", his only real "success" but at a terrible price to genuine asylum seekers which continue

Down-under, tomorrow is the first day of spring, only 22 days 'til the equinox. Then hopefully we will start to see the return of some warm weather. Having said that it was 25 on Saturday, not bad for the end of winter. Today was only 15 deg.

My memories of package holidays start with travelling down the M1 to Luton Airport to fly to Ibiza, Majorca, Torremolinos with Dan Air, on their Comet 4's and BAC 111's.Court Line BAC 111's in bizzare colours, pink, purple, blue and green and Brittania Airways with their early 737's. Fond? memories of last night parties, far to much Sangria, Bacardi and coke and Fundador and having to survive a bumpy flight home on a pink plane suffering a blinding hangover and not feeling altogether the best...... Great times and I'd do it all over again if I could.

Ayup, there are six types of cockroaches in Australia 5 of which like you say have been introduced by commerce. The "black ones you saw in Oz are Oriental Cockroaches usually between 1" and 1 and a 1/4" long. The American Cockroach is by far the biggest of our visitors are reddish brown and can be up to 2" long

I have had a day like DJ360 with his plumbing. Mine was going to be a much easier task or so I thought. A must have on all Australian homes are fly screens and fly screen doors so when the cylinder expired on one of our doors and started to let the door close with a bang that shook the house I thought it was time to replace it. Being the engineer that I am I thought if I could replace like for like it would be so much easier so I took the old cylinder off made a note of the manufacturer and model number and toddled of to a large hardware outlet. Searching through the shel