At 63 I think I can pretty well say that as a working class man, I have never been violent to a woman, a child, a pet; and even in the feisty hormone charged years, my one or two fights with other men were pretty fucking silly and no one was actually grievously hurt. We tried for awhile, but it is quite hard to do this effectively. There was indeed a moment when I could have smashed my rival's head onto a corner brick edge and do him great harm, but I didn't do that. Even enraged, I knew...why would I do that? Five minutes of man to man wrestling and punching was all I could do before I was exhausted and started to laugh. That's fucking hard work. And what were we fighting over? Some woman who was well away and safe. Ridiculous. So whilst agreeing that violence against women is obviously bad, violence against Anyone is equally obviously very bad. It always has been. It always will be. No one, especially a man, is going to radically evolve because of some notion. None ever has or can. The best you can be is non violent in all forms to all the forms of being...same as ever...and then you have good laws.

Reducing Domestic Violence Against Women isn't Rocket Science nor will it be done by re-educating Men. To seek to bring about social change by re-educating Men is a Wank and that's all it is. I've been wearing a black plastic anti-domestic violence armband for about 2 years now. I bought it at a pub, interestingly enough. It is about stopping violence against women, and I agree that is a worthy goal. At the same time, violence against anyone of any of the 3 or 4 genders, is also equally important. Why not just have an anti-violence armband? Or better still, not need an armband and just cut hotel open times by 4 hours a day and you get a massive reduction in all violence anyway...beyond what any Program can ever hope to do...then just reduce opening times by an hour a day ongoing for about 5 years...and you will get a society with much less violence...and isn't that necessary, really? It would work. No one would suffer that way...if we are actually really interested in stopping the suffering and violence. Commitment is all it takes. Commitment, continuity...and you have it. the Answer is quite easy...but the hard question is Do we really Want less violence?

Afghanistan, 2016...those we define as our enemies...culturally and religiously...a whole population with a median age of seventeen years old.

MOVING from Cairns to Melbourne Update

I bought the packing boxes today , 20 Tea Chests and 20 Book Boxes. Big plastic bags for the mattresses and lounge etc.

The BBQ is clean now. The lighter-clicker thing still doesn't work but I believe it not working is actually a feature of the Weber Qs after a year or two, and shows it is a genuine Weber product. A very good BBQ.

The selling of the BBQ has covered the cost of the packing boxes to the dollar.

The place is crowded as always...much like a Chinese furniture shop ... fitting a big Thai 4 bedroom 40 sq metre 3 level apartment full of stuff into this Australian sized 3 bedroom 12 sq metre place has always been a challenge...now, at least when we get to Melbourne the house there will be big enough for our gear...or we can just light a bonfire in the backyard and burn everything whilst we dance around it. Now, there's a thought.

Potential tenants come by at 4pm today and I will leave them to have a look around with the managers. I will leave a note saying they can have all the plants, including the incredibly lucky Chinese Jade Plants, and their interesting Chinese pots, if they want or I will get them out of the balcony and sell them or give them away etc.

The place does look nice, if crowded just now, as always. It was built brand new, high spec, and over priced at the time of the Great Recession of 2008 and so was VERY overpriced, though nicely done, and no one bought it til we did 3 and a half years back when the price was down by 100,000... So it has only been lived in for a few years and everything is easy to clean, even the bathrooms... (except that fcking BBQ).

Anyway, it is the coolest place I've ever lived in Cairns, because of the good cooling atrium design of the towers themselves, and it is very quiet and normal people with a normal amount of gear would find it very modern and quite spacious.

So, from now til 20th december, we just pack and clean slowly, pack and clean etc. Not bad.

We may well have baulked at the cost of the move, that we really can't afford , and especially seeking work in a very distant place etc...but there was something about Donald Trump becoming President of the USA...if he could do that, well, we can do anything. So off we go.

I listened to the previous Australian ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, talk today about the shock of the Trump victory and he pointed out the mistakes that the much richer, much spendier, much more aligned to Australia, Clinton campaign made, and it was interesting. Obviously Kim is still a US acolyte/parasite (true believer) but still his observations were well reasoned within his capacities. A true Australian Diplomat. I'm glad the problems he faced regarding child abuse charges went away for him.

Daughter DJ is one of those folk who believe that if you pay for something, then you should get it. This is not how Sydney Airport operates.

Sydney Airport is a real dump, for sure. No interest, no investment, no knowledge, no effort, no future.

Comment from daughter: Nothing in Sydney international departure is duty free! The prices are even higher than normal price! Seriously, This is how you make profits? So here I'm! Sitting in the lounge, glaring at the wall...

Looking forward to sitting at the bench in the Melbourne kitchen after a hard time mowing the lawn and relishing the fact that we no longer have want or need a BBQ... and ordering up some Sichuan saliva Chicken with black fungus...with chicken feet and pigs bowels on the side...and seeing what happens. The glass table in the pic will be replaced by our round oak table and five chairs. Why do Australian people either buy 4 or 6 chairs? 4 is not enough and 6 is too many. We have 5. Chairs are easy to carry anyway. Do I expect 6 people to ever sit at this table? I expect not in my life time. 4 is most possibly likely, taking into consideration a suitor for daughter. 5 gives you some lee-way should one of their parents also turn up. After we kill the boy, and bury him in the back yard, then the number of chairs necessary decreases by one anyway.

Looking forward to sitting at the bench in the Melbourne kitchen after a hard time mowing the lawn and relishing the fact that we no longer have want or need a BBQ... and ordering up some Sichuan saliva Chicken with black fungus...with chicken feet and pigs bowels on the side...and seeing what happens.
The glass table in the pic will be replaced by our round oak table and five chairs. Why do Australian people either buy 4 or 6 chairs? 4 is not enough and 6 is too many. We have 5. Chairs are easy to carry anyway. Do I expect 6 people to ever sit at this table? I expect not in my life time. 4 is most possibly likely, taking into consideration a suitor for daughter. 5 gives you some lee-way should one of their parents also turn up. After we kill the boy, and bury him in the back yard, then the number of chairs necessary decreases by one anyway.

Watched Star Trek Beyond overnight. It's rubbish, much like the new JK Rowlings new film and the last Star wars film blockbuster. I fell asleep watching it. This whole fascination with CGI, aka 'fizzy things', and the dependence upon action rather than plot or character, and the dependence upon viewers having ADHD and an incredibly short attention span means that it is all basically, just another car chase scene.

Poem: Perfect

Poem: "Perfect". 

by John Fitzpatrick 26 November 2016

Time is short time is sweet

time is everyone you meet

in the world or in the earth

there's taking life or giving birth

and so you work out best you can

how best to do your perfect plan.

Interesting studying Balwyn Victoria, our next suburbia...there is a street some way along the road from us truly named Lucifer Street. A house in Lucifer Street recently sold for 2 million dollars. If its in easy walking distance we will try to do some jogging up and down it at night. Lucifer Street? I wonder who lives at 6/66... The only other Lucifer St I know of is Lucifer St, Pattaya...Thailand, also known as Walking Street, but officially the real name of it is Lucifer St....and it is understandable why it is called Lucifer St and also why they prefer to call it Walking St for the tourists....when in fact, it is absolutely Lucifer Street.

I believe that President Obama has just pardoned Hillary Clinton on the usual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Pardoning rite.

First potential renter of the snake-house (our name for our home, as we are both snakes in Chinese astrology) is due to visit on Monday afternoon. Damn, I still need to clean the barbecue.

Noting CNNs coverage of the attack on Mosul, in Iraq...the Govt has decided not to give out any information regarding citizen deaths at this time...but it is a good war with good bombs to defeat bad Islamic Terrorists. Meanwhile they note the terrible impact of the Syrian Govt bombing of Aleppo with bad bombs in pursuit of defeating bad Islamic terrorists...

Re USA/NK Presidents...both Kim Jung Un, at 27, and Donald Trump, at 71, are well known to be equally very thin skinned and to take personal insults very seriously. Trump attacks his enemies in the media, whereas Kim Jung UN puts them 10 metres in front of an anti-aircraft missile, and fires it through them. Neither is afraid to risk everything, yet both are quite and equally bright and most interested in their own survival. We will see who is the first to seek dialogue. I expect Kim Jung Un will outlive many US Presidents.

The true goal of U.S. policy towards North Korea since the death of Kim Jong Il has been “political suffocation and system collapse” of the DPRK

The true goal of U.S. policy towards North Korea since the death of Kim Jong Il has been “political suffocation and system collapse” of the DPRK, a nine-page ‘Memorandum of DPRK Foreign Ministry’ document said on Tuesday.

The document, provided to NK News by the DPRK Mission to the United Nations, provides a detail-driven and chronological account of why, from Pyongyang’s perspective, the Obama administration’s policies have since 2012 justified ongoing development of nuclear and missile programs.

Citing an increased focus on North Korea’s human rights situation, ever-expanding military exercises on the peninsula, and a ratcheting up of the sanctions regime, the timeline shows that the U.S. policy of ‘strategic patience’ is “none other than an aggressive and heinous “strategic suffocation” policy against the DPRK,” the document says.

That means the “root cause of escalated tension on the Korean peninsula lies with the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threats against the DPRK, not the latter’s nuclear and missile tests,” the document continues, pointing to around 50 U.S. policies, statements and military maneuvers since January 2012 as evidence.

Overall, the document concludes, Pyongyang’s decision to bolster its nuclear and missile capabilities – alongside efforts to develop the economy – put the North in a “new strategic position.”

And that means the U.S. should now “take actual measures to show that they are willing to scrap its anachronistic hostile policy and nuclear threat,” an approach that would be a “first base of resolving all the issues.”

Photo: Michael Vadon/Flickr

OLIVE BRANCH?

While North Korea often justifies its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs – prohibited by several rounds of UN sanctions – with angry statements about U.S. policies, the timing, manner and style of the ‘Memorandum’ document is notable.

“It’s almost like they wrote a policy review for the Trump team and said ‘Here’s our take on it,'” John Delury, a long-time North Korea watcher at Seoul’s Yonsei University, told NK News on Wednesday.

“It starts with Kim Jong Un, not Obama … (meaning) there’s an implicit message from their perspective: the clock started over when the young leader took over,” Delury continued. “And here’s what he’s faced from you guys. Here’s what Obama did. He insulted him, he threatened him, and he sanctioned him.”

The detail-driven approach in the document, which lacks “threatening or ominous language,” further shows an effort of North Korean restraint, Delury added.

“They’re trying to say: here’s what strategic patience was. And it didn’t work, so try something new.”

Consequently, the document can be seen as “an effort to get Trump to change course…(to) try something new.”

Tristan Webb, a senior analyst for NK News affiliate NK Pro, agreed that the timing suggested the paper is aimed at President-elect Trump.

“Of particular interest are the final two sentences of the memorandum, which suggest the terms on which the DPRK might make a deal with the U.S.: some form of acceptance of the DPRK’s nuclear capability, and an end to the U.S. nuclear threat.”

“The most pragmatic deal here might be one where the DPRK accepts a freeze on tests and a shelving of the question of nuclear recognition, in return for the U.S. dropping its claimed right for nuclear first-use against the DPRK, dialling back on ROK-U.S. military exercises, and the U.S. dropping its preconditions for returning to the Six-Party Talks,” he said.

OVER-ARCHING GOAL

Daniel Pinkston, another Seoul-based North Korea expert, said the document did not, however, suggest a change in over-arching DPRK “national interests,” noting Pyongyang has long “been consistent and very transparent in their goals.”

“North Korea always throws this type of propaganda at new administrations and those who are not well informed about the situation on the Korean peninsula,” he continued. “They do this to justify their actions and to gain an advantage in strategic interactions with adversaries.”

Dr. Andrei Lankov, a North Korea historian at Kookmin University and regular NK News contributor, agreed.

“The political message is: we are nuclear, we do not care what you say about it, and we are willing to talk as long as you do not seriously question our nuclear potential.”

Additional reporting: Ole Engelhardt

North Korea may conduct its sixth nuclear test early next year timed for Donald Trump's inauguration as the U.S. president, security experts said Wednesday.

SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea may conduct its sixth nuclear test early next year timed for Donald Trump's inauguration as the U.S. president, security experts said Wednesday. 

"North Korea may seek negotiations with the U.S. when it completes nuclear tests and reaches the stage of deploying a long-range nuclear-tipped missile," Lee Su-seok, director of the Center for Unification Strategy at the state-run Institute for National Security Strategy, said in a military forum held in Seoul. 

"In early 2017, it is highly likely that Pyongyang will detonate another nuclear device and launch a long-range ballistic missile to reiterate its status as a nuclear power." 

Citing a recent report carried by the Choson Shinbo, a Korean-language newspaper published in Japan, he said the North expressed hopes for dialogue and negotiations with the next U.S. government by favorably comparing President-elect Donald Trump to President Barack Obama. 

He speculated that the incoming Trump administration won't likely handle North Korean matters in a hasty and hurried manner, as it takes time for the real estate tycoon to review pending issues and appoint the right advisors. 

"Any dialogue with North Korea, if any, will be possible some time after Trump takes office in January. Inter-Korean relations will remain frosty and strained until the first half of 2017 due to the North's continued military provocations," he said. 

The communist regime has conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests in January and September, and launched some 20 missiles this year alone, to achieve its stated goal of developing a nuclear-tipped long-range missile that could hit parts of the U.S. mainland. 

As South Korea is engulfed by an influence-peddling scandal involving President Park Geun-hye's confidante, the North is expected to focus on psychological warfare aimed at causing internal conflicts in the South for the time being, the director said. 

In the scandal, Park's close friend Choi Soon-sil, with no government post or security clearance, is suspected of having abused her decades-long ties to the president to meddle in state affairs and even influence certain government appointments. 

"The Kim Jong-un regime will continue its verbal and military threats in efforts to urge the nearly paralyzed Seoul government to change the current strict policies toward Pyongyang," he said. 

His view is echoed by Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Unification Strategy Studies Program at the Sejong Institute, and other security experts. 

"Chances are high that North Korea will conduct the sixth nuclear test or launch a missile before the Trump government's inauguration on Jan. 20. Follow-up provocations are likely before the 75th birthday of the late Kim Jong-il on Feb. 16 or the 150th birthday of the late Kim Il-sung on Apr. 15," Cheong said. 

Kim Jong-un took the helm of North Korea in late 2011 from his late father Jong-il. Kim Il-sung, the founder of the communist state, is the grandfather of the incumbent leader. 

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr 

Interesting changes...The Syrian Govt and the Turkish Govt working together to rid Aleppo of ISIS terrorist enclaves. From the geopolitical position of the West, the Syrian Govt is our enemy and the Turkish Govt is our friend, and we support, militarily, the insurgents/terrorist the Turks and Syrians are bombing...21st Century multi-polarity adjusted values. Expensive.

Interesting number...43% of American Trade Union members voted for Trump. This represents a significant change in the political dynamic for that country. Whether it is one-off or continuing will be interesting. The Left-Right phenomenon of the 20th Century does appear to be drifting... and is, at least temporarily, being replaced by more multi-polar projections and new connections; as it is in many other Western democracies.At the same time, as Western democracies become more rigidly concerned with national security over individual liberties, other bloc nations like China and Russia tend to be relaxing individual rights to some extent, the very expensive national security issue being effectively managed.

China in space

In 2016, having the remarkable experience of being really happy with a refurbished 2011 Apple iMac, at under half the price of a new one, I am looking into the purchase of an apple factory refurbished 5S iphone. 600 dollars cheaper than a new iphone. In CAIRNS, over 25 years, i have never actually needed a mobile phone at all, but Im thinking it may be a useful thing in Melbourne. I think we should all take up technology with sufficient wisdom to know, as is true, that mostly the new technologies simply dont deliver anything useful for about at least 5 to 10 years between models. This is usually how long things usually take, unless you enjoy disappointment as a way of life. Personal human development obviously takes decades longer than that...and hasn't changed its speed in at least a thousand years, at each essential generic individuated step. Unfortunately, there are no specials or bargains with that. As time goes by, we are all refurbished by these years, by ourselves, to some small extent, as individuals, but still yet mostly as our designers see fit to release or re-release us onto the market.

SOUTH KOREA (ROK): ROK might have to increase defense spending under Trump: minister

ROK might have to increase defense spending under Trump: minister

MND refutes statement, insists South Korea's contributions are adequate

Dagyum Ji 

November 22nd, 2016

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South Korea will have to accept an increase in defense burden-sharing for the U.S. Armed Forces in Korea (USFK) if Donald Trump’s incoming U.S. administration demands it, the head of Seoul’s arms procurement agency admitted on Monday.

The U.S. President-elect has urged American allies to carry a larger defense burden and his campaign’s rhetoric suggests it might happen after his inauguration, Chang Myoung-jin, South Korean Minister of Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), told a seminar in Washington.

“If there is a ‘huge demand’ for more burden on the part of the ROK (Republic of Korea), I think Korea will ‘inevitably have to’ embrace that,” Chang said.

Speaking at a conference co-hosted by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Chang said the increase in the defense budget would bring about “a lot of resistance,” as the South Korean government would have to cut back on other areas, including on welfare.

“If that ever happens, the ROK government will place ourselves in a dilemma, but our focus and priority will have to be on defense, in my personal view,” he said.

DAPA on Tuesday offered an apology as Chang’s remarks drew heated debate. The agency argued Chang meant to say that it was “a matter for further consultation” if the next U.S. administration called on the South to pay an increased share of defense costs for the American troops stationed in the country.

The South’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Tuesday voiced opposition to Chang’s stance on burden sharing.

“The remarks were inappropriate,” MND spokesperson Moon Sang-gyun told reporters. “Our government shares its defense costs at the optimum level.”

Song Min-soon, President of the University of North Korean Studies (UNKS) in Seoul, argued that the U.S. and the South should negotiate new defense cost sharing “publicly, based upon the objective numerical index.”

“South Korea has domestically tried to avoid giving the impression of supporting excessive expenses since the first time the South officially provided maintenance costs for the USFK in 1991,” Song, a former South Korean foreign minister, said on Tuesday at the 59th Unification Strategy Forum held by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

Speaking at the forum, another South Korean expert at MND-affiliate research institute reiterated that President-elect Trump may demand the South take on significantly more of the costs of American military presence in South Korea.

“According to Trump’s remarks, the U.S. will call on the South to pay 100 percent of the stationing costs for the USFK”, Suh Choo-suk, Senior Research Fellow at Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), said.

Suh said the new stationing costs are estimated to come to $18.3 billion, based on data released by American Action Forum (AAF) on November 11: 2.4 times higher than South Korea’s current spending.

“Trump may consider the option of withdrawing the stationing troops if there is no increase in the defense budget-sharing,” Suh said.

Featured Image: U.S. Armed Forces in Korea (USFK)

I think that if you are going to have challenging therapeutic groups in mental health clinics, then everyone should wear a onesie of their own choosing. I see this as a human right.

This is how I expect Mrs Fitz and I will appear as we drive across the border from New South Wales into Victoria...the only difference will be that we will be also wearing Duck-bill surgical Masks...not being paranoid or OCD at all, but It's the only way to be sure these days...

Mind you, carrying a spear gun in your back pack also helps.

A few stray packing boxes have begun to appear in the house, like eagles dropping kittens onto the balcony...like some arcane Roman Omen of Change. Also, there is more floating dust particles in the lounge room. If one has OCD, then one does notice these discrete harbingers.

I knew a guy who drove buses in Rockhampton, Queensland. He liked his job and had done it all his working life. A few years before retirement he thought about what he may have missed out on in his life, but he couldn't come up with any thing much. Except for one...he'd always wanted to be able to sing well...just a few songs. His voice was pretty awful, but, he decided to go to a singer tutor and he did the various voice exercises and learnt hard at 60 years of age. After a year of singing lessons, he was still driving the bus and yet could now sing 5 songs, 3 popular songs and two semi-operatic songs, in pretty close to perfect pitch.

He knew he had it in him.

I think the world is okay just as it is, as long as people stop using the word 'appropriate' altogether.

I note Americans are killing American policemen again today. I'm not making a big thing about it, but I do notice it. It does mean something. What it means is up to them Americans.

Advice for the Traveller in the USA: I think it was Anarcharsis, 2000 years ago, the inventor of both Anarchy and the modern Ship's Anchor, who noted: "The First Drink is For Happiness, the Second Drink is for Relaxation, the Third Drink is for Love and Laughter..the Fourth Drink is for Madness..." If I were you, whilst in America, I would forgo the Fourth drink... and Take the Fifth...

I was just asked by a facebook friend to join a facebook group called Glamorous Lesbians at Play. I wonder what that group is about. Life is an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, laced together with contradictions and with vibrating rotating pearl beads I guess.

It seems the most successful fighters right now against ISIS in Mosul are the Iranian Militia, who actually know how to fight...they are gaining ground within the city from their angle of entry...and they will never ever give their gains back...(this was all, before the separations, all Persia...their country)whilst Iraqi-American army trained folk are regrouping with their state of the art weapons after getting a bit of a thump in the face from ISIS. ISIS knows how to fight too...and ISIS will fight because Mosul is an Iraqi city and ISIS are... Iraqis....Iraqis who we don't like, mind you...but Iraqis...and people do get a bit pernickety and recalcitrant about surrendering their homeland for some strange reason.

Melbourne: the great thing is, for Mrs Fitz and daughter DJ, is that we can live together for some time with DJ going to Uni there, so there is all that good and hard time together that Mums and young adult Daughters can need and that can drive them crazy...DJ can excel at her cool sound engineering and movie making studies and Mrs Fitz can use her skills as the best teacher of Mandarin in the country. Her students will be, as always, Chinese, Korean and Japanese kids whose parents realise the importance of Mandarin for the present and the enduring long term future in the world. She may also get some Indian kids, and even Australian ones...so it is very good for Mrs Fitz, we believe, this move to Melbourne, in establishing her Teaching Empire of Excellence....a discrete school and education tour business, called: "China Passport". I will be happy to have some rote job in Health, no longer needing a career, per se, for a few years...and I think I will find that kind of work...mind you, I have to. To distract me from this work-burden, and being a profoundly spiritual being... I will now choose which Chinese Lucky Waving Cat to sit upon the dashboard of the Nissan Navara on our Journey South...it's kind of like a St Christopher Lucky Cat in a way. Onwards!

Goodnight, and here is some Entrainment....Van Morrison That's Entrainment BBC Four Sessions HD

My brother Jim, a military tactical expert, now retired, although not, to my knowledge, retired from being my brother, did great things, as he saw them, for Australia. He can also still relate the entire comic book of 'Donald Duck Versus The Terris & Fermis'...from about 1960...and he WILL do so without even being asked to. So, be careful should your paths cross.

With the end of work here in sight, I must admit the glamour of neurosis mental health nursing of the mostly worried well is wearing a bit thin. Apparently where we will be living in Melbournopolis is quite close to Monash Hospital which is apparently very big and does good palliative care as well...so I might rock up there and see what's happenin' in da hood...tinker around with a syringe driver or two...and just basically chillin' with ma homies on the stoop there, bust a cap or two in some skinny white cop's ass on the way to work...as honky nurses do...Righteous. Represent. Southside.

The world is not going to end, and no one is going to hell.

So, let's see, I finish work at the Asylum on about the 11th December...and I must remember to return my Asylum work uniforms to the Executive Office rather than wear them about town in glitzy Night Clubs, in Melbourne as I intended to... damn!

Talking with colleagues re work regarding the upcoming scary big move to Melbourne...'do they have mental illness there in melbourne?' Oh Yes! Oh, good! "Do they have palliative care people who die there in melbourne?" Oh Yes, Oh good! Otherwise, I'm stuffed! Now, where and exactly what is melbourne?

Homo Sapiens...I must admit, I do like them...but what ever happened to their forebears, Homo Erectus? Why did they die out?

Probably because their parents were 4 bears, I guess.

Bob Dylan will accept the Nobel Prize for Literature, so, he is unlike Jean-Paul Sartre, who refused it...but Bob won't be going to Sweden to pick up the award, and that's reasonable. He didn't ask for it, and it is a long way to go to get something you didn't ask for. I think I'll have that approach myself when the Nobel comes my way. Seriously reasonable. I don't like award ceremonies either...social phobia, very disturbing...nno parties, work gatherings or hotels for me this last 45 years. I just cant get there. Not a problem for me..oonly a problem for me if I do try to show up.... In the 1980s when Bob and Sarah broke up and his life was broken hearted and in ruins, he went to see a psychotherapist and told him ...im not a whole person...the only time i feel free and alive is when im on stage or on the way to perform...and the psychtherapist said...well maybe thats what you need to do to be yourself ...thus begun his continuing through 2016 and beyond from 1980s 'never ending tour' 8 mths a year when he is not radio broadcasting from his home and playing his favourite music from 1950s america.

Bob Dylan will accept the Nobel Prize for Literature, so, he is unlike Jean-Paul Sartre, who refused it...but Bob won't be going to Sweden to pick up the award, and that's reasonable. He didn't ask for it, and it is a long way to go to get something you didn't ask for. I think I'll have that approach myself when the Nobel comes my way. Seriously reasonable. I don't like award ceremonies either...social phobia, very disturbing...nno parties, work gatherings or hotels for me this last 45 years. I just cant get there. Not a problem for me..oonly a problem for me if I do try to show up.... In the 1980s when Bob and Sarah broke up and his life was broken hearted and in ruins, he went to see a psychotherapist and told him ...im not a whole person...the only time i feel free and alive is when im on stage or on the way to perform...and the psychtherapist said...well maybe thats what you need to do to be yourself ...thus begun his continuing through 2016 and beyond from 1980s 'never ending tour' 8 mths a year when he is not radio broadcasting from his home and playing his favourite music from 1950s america.

The joys of hearing loss in the mental health setting. John, to client...hi, how are you today? Client muttered....something. John To client...did you say you were insane? No, John. I said 'I'm the same...THE SAME!' Oh, ok...no need to add Aggression to it...

The joys of hearing loss in the mental health setting.

John, to client...hi, how are you today?
Client muttered....something.
John To client...did you say you were insane?
No, John. I said 'I'm the same...THE SAME!'
Oh, ok...no need to add Aggression to it...

Saw that new jk rowlings film last night. Wasnt tired but still fell asleep halfway through. May well be the time in my life for frozen Coke with flakka in it.

Reading Trump's plans for the first 100 days, these are all reforms within Washington for making it less corruptible, and they all make sense. They are things Obama could have done but didn't and things that Hillary would never have done...so, this is a wise start for an American President interested in and focused upon fixing America.

After the flurry of the US presidential elections, the Turtle House blog has gone down from about 200 hits an hour back to about 10-20 hits an hour with quite a few folk interested in getting a daily update of the journey from Cairns to Melbourne by road in December. I will work out a standard format for that...a picture of the day...what is out the window, where we are staying, food, etc. I always thought it would be an innovative thing to do such a journey and only indicate where we were each day by the Indigenous Nations names of places, and I think that would still be a great idea for someone to do, but I can't be bothered. Probably be better for some indigenous person to do that one.

I like Vladimir Putin. He has all those excellent Libran qualities of riding horses bare chested across the steppes, and wrestling with tigers, and always dressing well...meticulously. All Librans I know, both men and women, do those things quite often. As for Trump the Gemini, well, he obviously has all those Gemini characteristics we all love...innovation, robustness, assertion, laughter, charisma, and self deprecation. With Mr Xi Jinping of China also a Gemini, the world is in good hands now.

anyway, my life is not about me anyway...sigh...a pure Libran sentiment. I think of myself as a Libran, of Viv, my colleague, of DJ, my step-daughter, as Librans, as I think of Vladimir Putin, as a Libran...faced with a world of Geminis...Trump...; Mr Xi of China as a Gemini...but as for Hillary Clinton...as a Scorpio...wow, is she going to hate everyone except herself, as is the Scorpio way, for her own failure, and seek to make everyone suffer for their crimes against her......anyway with Trump and Putin,etc I think, hey, this world will all work out quite well. Librans and Geminis in charge, damn good people. Damn good world.

After the joys of the day are done, looking forward to the Great Drive South, oh dear, I really do need to find some job there. Reality, it is such a bastard of a thing. It just keeps happening.

you try and see how it feels, at 63.

I never enter into the notion of what Australia is, or means, because, having being born here I, understandably, really have no idea at all about what it is or means...but I'm looking forward to this journey, just to show Mrs Fitz around the whole East Coast of it, a bit.

I expect that in the time from now to heading off to Melbourne 20th December, at 603am I will be faced by 'The Usual Consequences of Action on Earth'...being...outrageous unaffordable personal or financial expense...or both...but then, after that, the clear clean lines of a human journey. On we go. Why not?

Talking about the day, now that is REAL Human SUPERFOOD.

DJWaWa at dinner time in Cairns after the journey from Townsville to here. That is the super fresh mud crab from Cardwell. It was perfect.

North Queensland Australia SUPER FOOD

For any one interested, our journey from Tropical far far North Queensland, Australia to Temperate far far South Victoria, 3,000kilometres and whatever that is in miles...crossing 3 states, something around 2300miles I guess, will begin around December 20 and be updated daily with some pictures.

As I have noted earlier, the Americans would call this a Big Road Trip, but I call it, in the Australian vernacular.... a ' Really Fcuking Long Drive in a Truck.' With my OCD need for certainty in the face of Fate, we will be leaving here, Cairns, at 6am Eastern Standard Time Australia...on December 20th and we will arrive in Doncaster, Melbourne at 9pm Eastern Standard Daylight Time, on December 27th.

Cairns to Townsville to Cairns by road/ all up around 500 miles.

Just returned from drive to Townsville (yesterday); stayed overnight, then back to here today with DJWaWa's goods and chattels to add them to the Melbourne bound pile.

Beautiful drive. Damn that is a good Nissan truck! Fast enough, smooth, enough power. DJ spent half the 4 1/2 hour journey back reading out aloud her HD essays on movies and sound engineering etc as she is very proud of her work...and that was a real treat...for about 10 minutes.

Last night, Mrs Fitz and I stayed at the Aquarius hotel on the Strand/beachfront in Townsville. That only tall building in Townsville, and it looks like a Marlboro 20s cigarette packet in shape etc except somewhat bigger. It was about $120/night; which is a lot, or ok, and the thing about it is that everything is just so nice, comfortable, so quiet, huge views of the sea and island...sea breeze always...and big enough, and you just arrive, open the doors to the sea breeze, and sleep. Fantastically comfy. the room is big enough, there's the usual things, the bathroom is good and you just feel in 'the zone' for space and rest. Pull across the thick curtains and its soooo dark for sleep...open them up in the morning and feel the heat of the Tropic sun....a big bright hammer.

On the way back to Cairns today we stopped at Cardwell and bought a mud crab and some tiger prawns and oysters for tonight's end of journey dinner.

The journey gave us a bit of a preview of our journey to Melbourne in the Nissan in a way. In the tray we will put a few things we need until the furniture arrives there... 2 things to sit down on, a small coffee table, and a thin mattress, the kettle, some tea and sugar, a few packets of noodles...and some luggage...in the back seat goes the computers and pillows and some blankets...and the esky filled with fruit and water......with Wanyi and I in the front...so, as the removalists are so fcukign expensive, they can take everything else for their exorbitant price...and we can travel fairly light.

The massive sun light around Ingham is quite amazing. The light is so bright and clear, wow. We will miss the Tropics, I'm sure, especially in July cold and rainy Melbourne catching drafty trams in that 4 million people crowded Southern city. Still, I look forward to the journey and to arrival. After that, the dread of finding work etc and the terror attached to the Credit Card people finding me will arise pretty fast.

Patti Smith - Changing of the Guards

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues/ Join the army if you fail

Bob Dylan - Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Unplugged)

Bob Dylan - When the Deal Goes Down

be Kind to yourself and each other, Americans. We don't need you...never have...You need You now. "The foe has crossed over from the Other Side." Bob Dylan - 'Cross the Green Mountain

Bang Bang take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you were...

If people want to listen to shit music, all they have to do is watch Fox TV.

there you go, 127 million views. GD X TAEYANG - GOOD BOY M/V

BIGBANG - 뱅뱅뱅 (BANG BANG BANG) M/V

I think we should all have a little bit of grace and understanding for how hard it is to be an American just now. Oh dear, some vomit just came up in my throat.

Those Americans, before Trump trumped Clinton, they were, for a good 7 minutes, very exceptional, in their own minds, to themselves. And isn't that what really matters?

Those Americans..Well, I do like their movies, well, some of them, from some time ago, and I do hope they work themselves out as best for themselves and each other as they can. They are having a hard time now. A little sympathy never goes astray. Like · Reply · 3 mins John Fitzpatrick John Fitzpatrick and , well, yes, for about 7 minutes, they were indeed Exceptional, to them. Like · Reply · Just now

I am quite happy that Mr Trump is soon to be the President of the Americanese. I like the Americanese, mostly for some old movies, although I can't say I know any of them, Americanese folk, personally, but I'm sure they are Human, and kind of like me and us, and they made the best choice available by voting in that quirky unusual system they have and love. I wish them well in their journey to be better at being Americanese and at making the lives of Americanese in America much better, much better. Most of those poor bastards have had a very hard twenty years. At the same time, to have a better future, they do need to get the fuck out of Asia. Asia is not about them at all, never has been, and never can be.

I am quite happy that Mr Trump is soon to be the President of the Americanese. I like the Americanese, mostly for some old movies, although I can't say I know any of them, Americanese folk, personally, but I'm sure they are Human, and kind of like me and us, and they made the best choice available by voting in that quirky unusual system they have and love. I wish them well in their journey to be better at being Americanese and at making the lives of Americanese in America much better, much better. Most of those poor bastards have had a very hard twenty years and it has done none of them any good at all. At the same time, to have a better future, they do need to get the fuck out of Asia. Asia is not about them at all, never has been, and never can be. Fix up your home. Americanese, look within, and see each other.

The strange thing about the Great Australian Plan to swap 1800 genuine Muslim refugees in Australian prison camps in New Guinea for 1800 Central American refugees who the USA won't at all ever accept, is that it is a dud of a plan. They must know that...so why announce it? Why not accept genuine refugees in need of refuge where they need refuge? What is so wrong with good manners? What is so wrong with people in Australia and the USA?

Fear is the Key...And it isn't even Real Fear, it's just Taught Fear. We know that. WE KNOW THAT. Yet we remain, by choice, as a people, as a 'civilisation' so piss-weak to our peers, so piss-weak to our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers and daughters and sons in real trouble.

I guess if all the Lucky Waving Chinese Cats get into the Flakka and the Chop Chop, whilst listening to AKB48 Heavy Rotation, we'll all end up driving to Melbourne looking like this:

Thinking of the drive to Melbourne in an industrial ute...the problem is always the bounce of the rear leaf springs but I think I can counter that with the 500 kilograms of chop-chop illegal Mareeba untaxed tobacco, and the 500 kilograms of Flakka....that should flatten the ride a bit...as long as the Lucky Chinese Waving Cats don't get into it.

I remain very fond of the Nissan Navara 4X4 Common Rail Turbo Diesel white BLOKE Ute By Which All Other white BLOKE Utes Are Judged. The picture, from somewhere around Daintree, is before I added the Amazing Cascade Array of Massive SETI LED Lights to it. It will do just fine. Roll on, Brave New World, Roll On! We don't need a GPS...we have 7 Lucky Waving Chinese cats, and Phil the Angel, and our own songs, to guide us.

Home from work, bunch of crazy people...and then there were the patients.The chinese waving lucky cats are waving at me here at the desk, clunk clunk clunk...the Removalists have advised the cost will be higher...how do they know that instantly after you've paid the deposit? Must be psychic. Anyway, the old 1945 Thai industrial brass standing fan is making crescendos and cascades of violent wind and intimidations of physical threat in the background. Mrs Fitz is snoozing. Good to be home. We are off to Townsville briefly in the a.m. to pick up daughter DJWAWA and bring her gear back here to add her stuff to the pile bound for Melbourne.
I'm guessing on our late December 3000km drive to Melbourne, we'll be passing through some Yiddish/Yokel/Syrian town on Christmas Eve...somewhere near Damascus or Dorrigo or the Dandenongs, ...looking for a modest manger for the night....the lucky chinese waving cats clunking in the box in the back of the ute...Phil the House Angel peering out from his T-Chest, as we drive singing and humming and swerving to miss donkeys and bad samaritans and kangaroos...sounds like a good real journey to me.

The Australian Government must have forgotten to mention that the sending of 1800 genuine real muslim refugees to the USA from Manus/Nauru Australian Detention Camps also involves Australia receiving 1800 central american migrants that the USA won't accept. I wonder why they forgot to mention that? i didn't hear a word about that from anyone yesterday, but that is the Deal.

Tight Rope / Leon Russell

Australia: what an amazing country. We review, we analyse, we study and severely select the folk on Nauru and find that 1800 are genuine refugees in real need of refuge in Australia...and with absolute rights of refuge...so we are going to try to send them to the USA...and accept 1800 Central Americans who the USA don't want, for good reason. Why wouldn't they want them?

News Reviews Today Post Trump Election. Australian Government and Commercial Channels: Very Negative Trump...noting the Anti-China Trans Pacific Partnership is still alive? CCTV China: Very balanced and in depth, noting the Anti-China Trans Pacific Partnership is a dead duck. NHK Japan: Balanced, brief, worried. Russia TV: Coming towards Balance, 65% Pro Trump today. BBC: Negative Trump. Al Jazeera: Negative Trump. CNN: Negative Trump. Fox: Positive Trump. SKY: Balanced Today. Noting Australian Govt very fast today to announce the 1800 Muslim migrant swap with the USA for 1800 Central American migrants is going ahead, fast, when it won't.

News Reviews Today Post Trump Election.
Australian Government and Commercial Channels: Very Negative Trump...noting the Anti-China Trans Pacific Partnership is still alive?
CCTV China: Very balanced and in depth, noting the Anti-China Trans Pacific Partnership is a dead duck.
NHK Japan: Balanced, brief, worried.
Russia TV: Coming towards Balance, 65% Pro Trump today.
BBC: Negative Trump.
Al Jazeera: Negative Trump.
CNN: Negative Trump.
Fox: Positive Trump.
SKY: Balanced Today.

Noting Australian Govt very fast today to announce the 1800 Muslim migrant swap with the USA for 1800 Central American migrants is going ahead, fast, when it won't.

I see the plan to ship off 1800 muslim refugees from Nauru to the USA under an agreement with Mr Obama, and for Australia to take 1800 South American refugee gangsters in return seems to be having a bit of a problem just now, after the election.

Noting the Australian Government is still talking up the Trans Pacific Partnership ... even tho Trump has said No. Australia thinks it is still best to form an anti China trading bloc whilst having China as our major trading partner.?.?. Meanwhile Barking Mad Bill Shorten said We are going to be tough. What does that even mean? He is such a dick. Australian politics...wwhy bother?

Noting Fox News has offered to charter a large luxury plane to assist hyperventilating Hollywood celebrities to leave the USA free after the Trump win. they could well get 'crowd funding' for that, but they are prepared to foot the bill themselves.

As for Australia's idea of being the deputy dawg for the anti-China US military in Asia, with the object of cutting China's trade routes whenever necessary...whilst having good trade relationships with China...with our politicians simply 'outsmarting' the Chinese (hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha) well, that was never a good idea. You can't have a leg on both horses when they are running in different directions. That will really really hurt you. Idiots.

Remember last year, the Australian Government was boasting that the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement was the One Thing that was going to make Australia capable of surviving economically in the world...and it also formed the economic basis of a semi-military pact against the Rise of China...never a good idea. Now, of course, with President Trump, it has gone. Dead. Too many eggs in that dodgy basket. We will have too see what China analysts say about the Australian economy. China has many more, and more gifted, economic and social analysts studying Australia than Australia has. The one thing that China does very, very well, is Objective Analysis of each world country and analysis of itself, all the time, learning, investing in knowledge. It is a bit more organised than the Romans ever were yet none of its wealth or growth includes invasions or wars. It is a new kind of world civilisation...and we don't get it yet. maybe in 300 years when it fully rises.

Marks & Spencer is closing all its stores in China...too much competition. Can't compete. Wrong model. Interesting times. Both McDonalds and KFC are also leaving because, well, they are USA brands and the USA isn't popular due to the perceived US military threat to China in the South China Sea...but also because that old Western model of capitalism doesn't work well in China, whereas Chinese Capitalism, more focused, innovative, more researched, and a hell of a lot faster...is doing very well. We haven't seen any Chinese capitalism in Australia so far as we are off the map of importance really and as we are content enough with the old ways of the world they will continue for some time here. It does mean that the Australian economy can't actually grow, but, that's our choice.

South Korean folk rebelling in the streets against their elected President this week. Corruption. I expect she will have to go.

I like Australia and i don't mean to complain about it...but there are some things that stand out...the past PM Julia Gillard announcing the beginning of the Asian Century 25 years after it began...and it isn't really the Asian Century, it is the Chinese century...and then no one believing her anyway...her only achievement being to hand over a chunk of Darwin to the US Military to help stop China's trade routes...madness. China doesn't have Churches or much in the way of Religions...instead it has shops. You shouldn't try to stop Chinese shop keepers from selling stuff...that's insane. Australia has lots of nice things, that's true. We certainly haven't had the huge mistakes or the huge successes of China because we can't conceive of that scale...but if we tried, we could maybe learn from it rather than trusting in 1950s British economics and 1950s American politics here. they don't work now; they didn't work very well back then.

Noting Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry is currently in Antarctica ... after bringing peace to the Middle East, nothing else for him to do now...safest place for him I expect.

So, the Trans Pacific Partnership, a huge conglomeration of about 26 countries and giant companies, sponsored by Obama and Clinton to isolate China, the largest and only growing economy on Earth, rather than do anything good in the world, is defunct now. Good! The US putting bullying pressure on Phillipines, Vietnam, Laos, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan etc to not have anything to do with their rich neighbour who they always trade with to their benefit, was never ever a good idea. So, The USA will be studying just how much it costs them each and every day to currently bomb six countries (The Obama-Clinton form of Peace) they are bombing...Good! Bombing villages is, apart from hurting the folk who live there, and creating a lot of enemies, is something that costs a lot of money and the USA can't afford to keep borrowing this kind of money every day from China. Good!

Jordan Steed-Fitzpatrick and Tianshu Jiao (AKA now DJWAWA) going to the shops in Thailand.

Thailand Memory of Mrs Fitz (Wang, Wan Yi) off to school to teach Mandarin at International School. A rainy morning, a good bike made in Myanmar, and a Hello Kitty honking bell.

Brief Sum Up of World Media Reporting...re US Election, today, after the Decision re new President-Elect Trump: CNN: Negative FOX: Positive SKY UK: Negative AL JAZEERA: Negative NHK Japan: Balanced CCTV China: Balanced Russian TV: Positive Australian Media, all of it, Government Funded and Commercial...Negative, & Fearful.

Brief Sum Up of World Media Reporting...re US Election, today, after the Decision re new President-Elect Trump:

CNN: Negative

FOX: Positive

SKY UK: Negative

AL JAZEERA: Negative

NHK Japan: Balanced

CCTV China: Balanced

Russian TV: Positive

Australian Media, all of it, Government Funded and Commercial...Negative, & Fearful.

Mandarin Scholar and Teacher, Wang Wan Yi,...showing students around...at the hand made, perfectly engineered, low impact, twin rivers giant 2,000 year old ,still working perfectly, irrigation system west of Chengdu. Outback China.

Respected International Scholar and Mandarin Language Teacher, Madam Wang Wan Yi, with international students, meeting the lady who manages the massive organic farms just outside Chengdhu, PRC

Private Chinese Mandarin Language Tuition from the best Scholar and Teacher of the Mandarin Language in Australia and South East Asia, Madam Wanyi Wang (Wang Wan Yi) acknowledged, world wide and through international education systems as Brilliant Teacher, True Scholar...from child, beginner, tourist, business, government, to Highest Best Outcome International Baccalaureate Success... in Balwyn, Melbourne, Australia... from January 2017. Deep knowledge of how China and the Peoples Republic actually functions and works. Long experience as an executive oil business manager, double degree in Mandarin Language and Traditions, and Journalist, in 32 provinces... business, teaching and social links, travels, tours etc. Individuals and small groups. Enquiries welcome. Fair prices always.

Private Chinese Mandarin Language Tuition from the best Scholar and Teacher of the Mandarin Language in Australia and South East Asia, Madam Wanyi Wang (Wang Wan Yi) acknowledged, world wide and through international education systems as Brilliant Teacher, True Scholar...from child, beginner, tourist, business, government, to Highest Best Outcome International Baccalaureate Success... in Balwyn, Melbourne, Australia... from January 2017. Deep knowledge of how China and the Peoples Republic actually functions and works. Long experience as an executive oil business manager, double degree in Mandarin Language and Traditions, 20 years as international school teacher, and background of

Journalist, in 32 provinces... business, teaching and social links, travels, tours etc. Individuals and small groups. Enquiries welcome.

Never one to be dramatic, but as Corporal Hicks called out to Private Hudson, when they were deep in the Aliens' nest on Planet LV436...."Hudson, WE ARE LEAVING!" ...the plan being to take off and nuke the site from space... Well, Mrs Fitz and I, Corporal Hicks, are leaving Cairns for Melbourne. Last work date 11 December (work advised today)...Furniture uplift to the Mothership on 19 December, driving South on 22 December. The apartment goes up for rent from 22 December...and we need good tenants pretty fast. The Cairns Pavilions management here will be organising the details and will be the contact point here for anyone interested. I will supply their phone number. It is a nice, modern...8 year old 3 bedroom apartment with balcony and a large store-room (in terms of a very large walk in robe in the third bedroom). The master bedroom is large with an ensuite, large mirrored built in wardrobes,the second bedroom is small, with large built in wardrobe, the third bedroom is large and it's position in regards to the front door means it could be sublet. We are on the third floor (with a lift), there is one designated totally undercover car space downstairs and room for a second car in the Visitors car park if one is clever (I know about this and can advise). I have lived in Cairns in houses and units over 25 years, and this is the coolest quietest place I've lived so we are not selling it but rather renting it.It has no expansive views from the balcony, but the outlook from the bedrooms is all tall tress. Its very well designed so that there is a central atrium within each of the blocks that enables some cooling where all else in Cairns is sweating. the apartment faces North so all the Tropical Heat from sunlight is gone by 2pm. There are also 4 split system Daikin air conditioners, 3x bedroom, one for lounge dining) and ceiling fans. The place is in good condition and will be rented unfurnished (unless someone wishes to include some of our stuff). The rent expected and similar to others will be around $360-400/week, and it is 2 minute walk to Stockland, Woolworths, Coles and Cairns' 2 best Asian Groceries, as well as buses. The service from the managers in keeping the external areas very clean and beautiful is excellent. There is a large swimming pool. There is a good modern electric stove, a good clothes dryer, and ample space. It is on the third floor and there is a lift up from the car park. We have a number of nice plants and if any prospective tenants wish them to stay, they can; otherwise I will bring them to TCC. The only ones I need to sell for a small amount in their pots will be the Chinese Lucky Jade (Money Plants) as it is not acceptable to give away 'money' in the Chinese Tradition of them.

Never one to be dramatic, but as Corporal Hicks called out to Private Hudson, when they were deep in the Aliens' nest on Planet LV436...."Hudson, WE ARE LEAVING!" ...the plan being to take off and nuke the site from space...

Well, Mrs Fitz, and I, Corporal Hicks, are leaving Cairns for Melbourne. Last work date 11 December (work advised today)...Furniture uplift to the Mothership on 19 December, driving South on 22 December. The apartment goes up for rent from 22 December...and we need good tenants pretty fast. The Cairns Pavilions management here will be organising the details and will be the contact point here for anyone interested. I will supply their phone number.

It is a nice, modern...8 year old 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment with balcony and a large store-room (in terms of a very large walk in robe in the third bedroom). The master bedroom is large with an ensuite, large mirrored built in wardrobes,the second bedroom is small, with large built in wardrobe, the third bedroom is large and it's position in regards to the front door means it could be sublet. We are on the third floor (with a lift), there is one designated totally undercover car space downstairs and room for a second car in the Visitors car park if one is clever (I know about this and can advise). I have lived in Cairns in houses and units over 25 years, and this is the coolest quietest place I've lived so we are not selling it but rather renting it.It has no expansive views from the balcony, but the outlook from the bedrooms is all tall tress. Its very well designed so that there is a central atrium within each of the blocks that enables some cooling where all else in Cairns is sweating. the apartment faces North so all the Tropical Heat from sunlight is gone by 2pm.

There are also 4 split system Daikin air conditioners, 3x bedroom, one for lounge dining) and ceiling fans.

The place is in good condition and will be rented unfurnished (unless someone wishes to include some of our stuff). The rent expected and similar to others will be around $360-400/week, and it is 2 minute walk to Stockland, Woolworths, Coles and Cairns' 2 best Asian Groceries, as well as buses.

The service from the managers in keeping the external areas very clean and beautiful is excellent. There is a large swimming pool.

There is a good modern electric stove, a good clothes dryer, and ample space. It is on the third floor and there is a lift up from the car park.

We have a number of nice plants and if any prospective tenants wish them to stay, they can; otherwise I will bring them to TCC. The only ones I need to sell for a small amount in their pots will be the Chinese Lucky Jade (Money Plants) as it is not acceptable to give away 'money' in the Chinese Tradition of them.

Leonard Cohen - Steer Your Way

Leonard Cohen - Leaving the Table

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker (Lyric)

Leonard Cohen - Slow (Audio)

Farewell Poet Leonard Cohen

"In those days, the old man said, Sydney and especially the Northern Beaches were just floating in an ocean of pure heroin with little blotting paper squares of LSD on the wave peaks...but there was no peer pressure to indulge...and I was of a literary bent anyway, rather than a musical one, so my intention was to spend my life writing very depressing melancholic poetry and neither heroin or LSD were helpful to that 'genre'...I just bought a lot of books and read them...fortunately, just up the road in the Hunter Valley the good Shiraz with amazing head-killing histaminic tannins in it was coming out at $6 a bottle, 10 years old. Mind you, if the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen up to that time in my life, Sally Martin, had asked me to indulge in the narcotics with her, I probably would have...but she never asked and I've never been one to impose. Sigh. My brother Bob, who I had fights with when 6, grew to be the most generous of all of us Fitzpatricks and bought me a bottle of South AUSTRALIA'S FINEST Penfolds 1953 Grange Hermitage...21 years old... for my 21st birthday, and we drank it together, respectfully. I remember the taste of that still...it was perfect raisins in the free-based bliss of the sun designed by a Loving God. I could never afford an addiction to that magnificent substance, so I had to basically live my life only addicted to cigarettes and a few occasional Cuban cigars, a good red now and then, and my favourite really depressing books mostly written by very depressed Germans...books....regrets, yep, a few."

"In those days, the old man said, Sydney and especially the Northern Beaches were just floating in an ocean of pure heroin with little blotting paper squares of LSD on the wave peaks...but there was no peer pressure to indulge...and I was of a literary bent anyway, rather than a musical one, so my intention was to spend my life writing very depressing melancholic poetry and neither heroin or LSD were helpful to that 'genre'...I just bought a lot of books and read them...fortunately, just up the road in the Hunter Valley the good Shiraz with amazing head-killing histaminic tannins in it was coming out at $6 a bottle, 10 years old. Mind you, if the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen up to that time in my life, Sally Martin, had asked me to indulge in the narcotics with her, I probably would have...but she never asked and I've never been one to impose. Sigh.
My brother Bob, who I had fights with when 6, grew to be the most generous of all of us Fitzpatricks and bought me a bottle of South AUSTRALIA'S FINEST Penfolds 1953 Grange Hermitage...21 years old... for my 21st birthday, and we drank it together, respectfully. I remember the taste of that still...it was perfect raisins in the free-based bliss of the sun designed by a Loving God. I could never afford an addiction to that magnificent substance, so I had to basically live my life only addicted to cigarettes and a few occasional Cuban cigars, a good red now and then, and my favourite really depressing books mostly written by very depressed Germans...books....regrets, yep, a few."

Yes, Australian Military weapons costs come from Australian Foreign Aid money: Humanitarian Bombing of Cities...for their health, well being and quality of life.

As for Trump=War, Obama=Peace...The US Airforce, under Obama, is currently bombing 6 nations every single day....but of course, only ever the bad people, and for their own good. the Australians call this Humanitarian Bombing and draw funds for their military invasions from their foreign aid budget to support the USA war machine.

Interesting Comrades...A friend of mine, 45, Jimbo, is a mad fascist, anti Jew, anti-....well, arabs, blacks, everyone except gays etc. Moderately educated white guy, health professional. I'm 63, moderately educated white guy, health professional...a communist by philosophy and a libertarian by nature. I don't hate jews nor any particular religious group at all, I don't hate any races except a bit of despising obese white Australians and old people riding around in supermarkets on mobility scooters... both of us are equally overjoyed that Trump won. Neither of us are Americans, but we are both very happy. The old notions of Left V Right are fused from the edges and burning fiercely into the middle.

Interesting Comrades...A friend of mine, 45, Jimbo, is a mad fascist, anti Jew, anti-....well, arabs, blacks, everyone except gays etc. Moderately educated white guy, health professional.

I'm 63, moderately educated white guy, very pro-transexual, health professional...a communist by philosophy and a libertarian by nature. I don't hate jews nor any particular religious group at all, I'm very very pro-refugees and support the UNHCR every month, I don't hate any races except a bit of despising obese white Australians and old people riding around in supermarkets on mobility scooters...

Now, both Jimbo and I, both of us, are equally overjoyed that Trump won. Neither of us are Americans, but we are both very happy with both Brexit & Trump. The old notions of Left V Right are fused from the edges and burning fiercely into the middle. These are interesting times and, indeed, good times...apart from the dissolving economy.