My view and thoughts on everything!

A belated Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to all.  I hope that everyone had a great New Year celebration and didn’t overindulge in the amber nectar, or drank to extreme from the offerings available from Messrs Walker, Daniels and Beam! Here in Australia the family has been on a two week holiday to see the outlaws (ahem, my in-laws – as my wife hovers over me to see what I am typing!).   Anyway, the outlaws live in Northern NSW and also across the gun-toting border in Queensland.  So getting to see them involved a road trip of 11 hours, with food and restroom breaks, from the Big Smoke that is known as Sydney.  Things in the rural areas of NSW seem to move much slower than in the cities.  At times it feels like time has stood still as nothing really seems to change from one day to the next.  Part of this is due to the weather which is normally stinking hot this time of year, and also due to the “she’ll be right mate” attitude of the friendly ...

"Who in the world would close a multi storey car park on the busiest day of the year?....Fortunately I hadn't picked up a parking ticket. Parking officers must have time off - even in North Sydney!" New Year's Eve is a special day for most people. From a psychological point of view it is the end of the old year and a day away from what can be perceived as a 'new beginning'. It's like wiping the slate clean and starting all over again. Resolutions are made and most will be broken before the month is out. Then eleven months will pass before the same resolutions are made. Shades of Groundhog Day! In Sydney it also means fireworks. As most people would know, Sydney hosts probably the best New Year's Eve fireworks display in the world. It's not just the fireworks themselves, but its the setting. The view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House is utterly fantastic, even more so on New Years Eve. For children it is a highlight of the year akin to Santa, Do...