Over the years that I have lived in Australia, there is something that I have grown to love - the sound of a " Coo-ee " when someone comes to my door.
It is like a welcome from a great height.
" Are you there? " and " Can you hear me? "
Most importantly " am I welcome? "
I do love a Coo-ee. But what is a coo-ee you may ask?
Read more: Coo-ee! It could change Australia - Could this be our Battle Cry?
It is just over a week until the start of the 4 day Burt Munro Challenge in the deep south of New Zealand. Motorbike enthusiasts congregate to race and gather with fellow enthusiasts to honour the memory of The Worlds Fastest Indian.
You don't have to be a Kiwi, a motorbike fan or someone who has attended the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to appreciate the greatness of Burt Munro.
“We’ve quite literally outsourced the definition of reality to a small group of technocrats in nondescript offices whose names we’ll never know and who self-selected for issue advocacy and whose interests likely diverge severely from those of we the people.” –El Gato Malo on Substack
The big annual World Economic Forum meet-up concluded last week with a mighty “So, What?” as the world struggled with some success to get its mind right after years of relentless WEF-inspired psy-ops. Own nothing… eat bugs… great re-set… yeah, right.
Living in the real Outback of Australia is like confronting yourself with yourself. Seeing yourself for who you are. It is like meeting yourself as a stranger and wondering if you will like that person.
It was back in the 1990's that I met Albert. A quiet man who had shunned the city and, after a trip to Brisbane in 1949, decided that the big lights were not for him. He returned to the Channel Country and never left again.
Albert was an older bloke who lived in my new home town of 35 or so residents.
Read more: The Ramshackle Shanty of Tin - A story of Swaggies, Storms and Feline Phantoms
For over 100 years our country’s economy was wrought from gold.
The gold that was mined from the ground and the gold that came from the golden fleeces of our unique strains of merino sheep. The common expression was that Australia rode on the sheep’s back.
Read more: Heritage Merino - when Australia rode to wealth on the Sheep's Back
As we celebrate the birth of Australia, we will be busy heading for the beach, the barbeque or the backyard. Or all three. Ice sales will skyrocket and beer sales will be bigger than an outback blowfly.
But there is a serious side to the claims of " Invasion Day" and it has nothing to do with white pommy soldiers or white pommy convicts.
It has everything to do with blow ins who don't give a damn about our country, our culture or our way of life.Everyday is becoming Invasion Day and one day a year is condemned by the blowflies, blow ins and criminals and crooks that plague our once great Nation: Australia.
It was back in 2018 when Larry Pickering passed away and went to whatever rambunctious old cartoonists and blog writers call the Rainbow Bridge. He was the quintessential Australian larrikin. The man that offended and seemingly didn't give a hoot. In fact, he managed to offend with ease and incredible skill.
His pen was mightier than the sword and he wielded it with clever cartoons,words and with much enthusiasm. In fact, he seemingly managed to offend and or entertain Australia with his rapier wit and his astoundingly provocative cartoons depicting modern Australia.
Read more: Larry Pickering - the Aussie bloke who is an Aussie Legend
Another 26th of January is on our doorstep. Only a few more sleeps before we gather our daggy thongs, search out the shorts with the flag plastered all over them and order in a few slabs, a keg or 3 and assemble around the barbie at the appointed hour ( normally around 11 am ) to tell a few mate jokes and have one too many.
We'll dust off the cricket bat and ball while the missus makes the salads and the kids are reminded that beer always lives in the bathtub on Australia Day." Oi ! Get your Dad a beer! " will resonate around this great dusty island and we will pull each other's leg and tell jokes about who had a convict in their ancestry.
Read more: Today's Eulogy is to Australia. Goodbye you beautiful bastard
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has resigned after months of rumors.
Ardern, whose popularity has plummeted during the last six months, told us “she had nothing left in the tank.” In her resignation speech, she called on Labour Party ministers to consider which reform areas should be priorities and which should be scrapped as Labour moves to try to wipe some controversial policies off its plate.
Read more: Money Makes the World Go Round But Water Feeds the People?
Sometimes you get an email and think " Wow! I never knew that! " Here is such a one.
When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included. Although he played with five major-league teams from 1923 to 1939, he was a very mediocre ballplayer. But Moe was regarded as the brainiest ballplayer of all time.
In fact Casey Stengel once said: "That is the strangest man ever to play baseball."
When all the baseball stars went to Japan, Moe Berg went with them and many people wondered why he went with "the team."
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