Thursday, January 19, 2012

I NEED YOUR ADVICE!

Well.  I had a call from Miss 17 today about a car and I was left stunned!

When I buy a new car, I don't trade or sell the old one. Yes I  have to pay 5 registrations but the cars are mine. Not work utes or the like, personal vehicles paid for out of my own pocket. One of those cars is a BMW 318i that I bought new and has all the bells and whistles, full service history and has only done around 120,000 klms.

I thought it would be a nice pressie for Miss 17 when she obtained her drivers license.  It is a beautiful motor car, always garaged and in top nick.

Miss 17 calls me today and says she wants to buy a car and wait for it, could she trade-in my BMW?

Now she is still at school, has no funds to buy a car and is unlikely to be able to afford one for some time.  I asked WHY she didn't want the Beemer to which she replied, it was too big and she wanted something smaller.

  • a) I will not pay for another car for her.
  • b) I will NOT be a guarantor for ANY loan
  • c) I am stunned that ANYONE would turn down such a gift!
I'm just gobsmacked to the extent that I am prepared to bring the car here and sell it to the highest bidder.

I don't think she's ungrateful - but to be honest, I think she bloody well is!

My answer to her was "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES CAN SHE TRADE MY CAR"

Help please by leaving a reply, anonymous or otherwise.  When I was a kid a fifty quid bomb was as good as it gets!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Wailing on Whaling

Let me make it clear from the outset.  In an old-fashioned and myopic way, I have NO time for the Japanese as a nation or as a people.  They could slip into the ocean and I would care not one jot.  Yes, Like many, I lost members of my family in WW2 and of those who returned, their lives were ruined by the trauma of cruelty and starvation at the hands of their captors.  Unreasonable and some may say hysterical.  I cannot disagree, but I am what I am. And so to the point.

Whaling is not a nice business, nor is the slaughter of any animal.  As I recall, my last blog concerned the inhumane slaughter of cattle in Indonesia.

We here in Australia enjoy the bounties of the land and our oceans in accordance with out national traditions and diet.  We slaughter cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens in the millions.  In India, the cow is sacred but I don't hear them demanding that we cease the slaughter and cosumption of beef.  Likewise, other countries don't eat pigmeat as it is considered unclean, but I don't hear then telling us to cease the slaughter and consumption of pigs.

Millions of other species are eaten all around the world.  Dogs, cruelly beaten to death in Korea, cooked and eaten.  Some asian dishes require fish to be plunged into boiling oil while still alive.  Other creatures of the sea are cooked alive.  Lobster, Crayfish, Crabs and even our own humble yabby.

But Japan aren't the only ones whaling.  Norway and Iceland are enthusiastic whalers and openly admit they do so for food, unlike Japan who hide behind the skirts of scientific research.  We all know that's bullshit anyway.

A terrific article can be read thanks to National Geographic here:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080627-japan-whaling.html

The closing paragraph quotes Claire Bass, of the WSPA, who conceded that cultural differences do colour the debate.