Did you read Evan Beaver’s comment back to my “inter-city ribbing into a slag at people? He, as usual was smart enough to know I was doing a bit of stirring, and responded accordingly, as did I, to him. Read the two comments SBH, do they look remotely as if we are having an argument?

Had you read my whole comment, instead of flying off the handle after the first paragraph you would have read where I excluded members of the press, specifically, from my comment.

Of course there are dozens of other occupations, whose owners employ a lot of people. Worthy people all. But I have neither the time, nor the space to include them all.

As I have said frequently, to you. You have to be a member of the ‘home-birthing mob; their self-righteousness is apppalling-and devoid of any sense of lightness.
I’m damned if I will allow the likes of you to stuff up my day.

If I was having as big a chip on my shoulder as you have, I would march into the nearest public library and do some research into humour. I daresay you hate Ben Pobjie’s delicious and fun driven irony.

Please SBH, go and bleed somewhere else, there’s a good girl.

So public servants are lazy parasites? That’s a narrow nasty view. I suppose that it’s better to be a banker or miner, you know, one of those jobs where people really care about other people and whether or not the country is well run and how best to get people the services they need.

And what about all the people in Canberra who aren’t public servants?

But tell me this, if no one collected tax and ensured it was distributed with some degree of control and responsibility who’d build your road, hospital, library (substitute favourite piece of public infrastructure). Maybe you’d like a world organised like LA in ‘Snow Crash’.

I won’t argue the point, that view is anti-intellectual claptrap and beneath your usual standard.

Is it really exactly 38 hours? It must be tedious work if you have to time it so exactly.

With even more respect I’m parallel to the ground B4 U.

Cheers

Venise

You make it sound as though it’s all beer and skittles here. It takes dedication to work 38 hours a week doing such utterly tedious work as this. Someone has to do it though, and I demand respect!

We, the poor sods who pay the madder elements of the Opposition-the name Wilson Tuckey comes to mind. As does the name of Steve Fielding. All you lot have to do is shuffle papers. Everyone else is forced to work to support all of you. And the pollies of the Opposition do bugger all.

The representatives of the press are exempted from my comments. they really do work. Pity about the paper-shufflers.

The design of Parliament house is full of symbolism. I wonder who the last time the doors of the building were opened to allow the Prime Minister to sit at his desk and and be reminded of the direct cost of war. Parliament House is buried so that people can walk over the Parliament to remind us all that parliament and government is subordinate to the people not the other way around.

None of that’s possible anymore. Howard put an end to all that and well before September 11.
The freedom of movement around our national parliament is one of the symbols of loss wrought by howard that I feel very keenly. I would rejoice at the sight of your dad skiing down the hill.

Canberra’s pretty new, for a city. It takes a while for a place to build up ‘character’. Every time I go back it seems to have more and more.

All the rest yeah yeah Canberra stinks so stay away. Thirty years ago Venise? Jesus Mario’s in Brunswick st hadn’t even opened then, of course things have changed. Oh well I guess its not Sydney or Melbourne but then it doesn’t have to be. And not everyone lives a short spit from Gertrude street. There’s whole and worthwhile lives that go on in other parts of Australia.

“It has the mountains..” yes it certainly does. Early season training up Stromlo, climb Black mountain in under 12 minutes, drop down Mt Ainslie without using your brakes. There are few better ways to live than a bike and the Can’s mountains.

Bullmore’s Ghost - indeed, cold as charity, frozen water bottles, ice in your beard brrr. but all part of the fun when you think about it.

Oh and it also has the most decent premier in Australia.

If you really want to risk your life get onto a peak hour train and shout-loudly-that the Melbourne train system is the best in the world. Ha!

The only reason all governments want more and more people to come to Oz is the hope that all of their kids will be incipient-can it be congenital?- civil servants.

Nice place to visit, but if you need a log fire then it’s not where I want to live.

The hotels/motels were of a standard I would expect to find in Geelong. If Chinese/Vietnamese/Lao/Cambodian/Thai food was available, I couldn’t find it, and as my mum used to say “If Venise can’t find it, the food is inedible.”

However, the thing that really, really got to me was that all the streets had been made not to be walked in: side street cafés and nichè boutiques, markets??? NABT

For the first time in my life, as the plane’s landing flaps came down, I wanted to love Melbourne. And when we disembarked I actually knelt on the bitumen and kissed it.