Locally, with the exodus of Chinese buyers, the property bubble in Melbourne is starting to pop and, nationally, loan interest rates will begin to climb to about 5%...and that will mean about 8% on home loans. Start saving.

There are a bunch of things that you do notice as time goes by. For example...the plan for the USA to accept our refugees on manus Island etc in exchange for Central American refugees the USA wouldn't accept because they weren't refugees at all, but rather narcotic criminals, was ,in fact an agreement with Mr Obama...but after it was made Australia said it wasn't an agreement at all, but it still is...

You don't have to look back very far to see how things have gone. There was the 2008 Global financial crisis...a Massive World Recession that wasn't allowed to be called that. A Recession with a big impact for 20-25 years...still rolling out. In response to this, wealth went from countryside to city, thus the new Rising of London City and New York City (+LA) as Elite City-States with all the money. Then, There was the Brexit vote... people in England countryside were far worse off than people in London, so they wanted things to change...thus Brexit. In the USA, people in the country were much worse off than the City States of New York (+LA) so they wanted change and thus Trump. In the Middle East the impact of the GFC was catastrophic for anyone not really rich...thus the rise of terrorism. Fortunately, through the wisdom and intelligence of the Communist Party of China, the impact of the GFC was minimal...and the bad guys who participated in this remarkable theft there were in fact taken out and shot rather than given more money, as the west gave their criminals. Thus China leapt ahead 30 peaceful years in a day...and the West receded into the new beginnings of real poverty and a lot more war...which is simply a larger form of terrorism.

Good Thinkers and Tinkers

I like a few modern thinkers, but not many. I liked Christopher Hitchens because he was a great and eloquent Atheist, especially when he had had a few drinks, even though I do believe in a very personal God, myself. I do. I just do because I choose to, even though it makes no sense at all. My life doesn't need to make sense. that is not why I am here.
Christopher was a brilliant light of 'passionate reason' and you don't get that kind of person in 7 billion once in maybe 5 hundred years on this world. I miss him.
He went on from being a devout Atheist to being a devout Contrarian, and I felt sad for that change...but still I respected that what his mind and heart chose was totally up to him...as it is with us all.
I joined the Church of Reason for some time after I heard him speak. I wish he was still around, but, alas, he is very dead now. Extinguished. Such is life.
After him, really, for me, there was only the Reformed Church of Spongebob Squarepants, that held any allure. I must admit that the notion of a belief system that will not accept your money is a pretty damn good one...and the Reformed Church of Spongebob Squarepants does indeed set forth this Primary Condition in its Doctrine...and I just wish all Churches did. I hope they all will, one day.
As we have all done, since the Dawn of Time, or at 5am on a Tuesday morning, instead of putting one's head in the oven, we all simply believe what we prefer, and why not believe some good things? Why not believe in the capacity of people to think for themselves and work out what they prefer? Isn't this the base of all belief, in the self, in others, and in the gods? There will be a time when sticking one's head in the oven does make sense, if we are lucky to have the choice and take it wisely, but before then, well, here we are...and some of life is pretty good as far as I know. I've noticed that the longer I live, the better life gets...and there is a scientific equation for this...childhood is basically happy, as you progress through teens and adulthood, its pretty unhappy, but when you get older, its is okay, and quite happy again. That's the Science of human life. this is not rocket-science or rocket-surgery, it's just how life is for most people who get there.
As for a good death, well, there is no such thing. This is one of the great myths of our time...but that's not important. Death only takes a few minutes. You just breathe out and don't breathe in again. That's not rocket science either, and its all as natural as it has always been.
If I had to send love to anyone dead, apart from folk I love as kin, then I would send it to Christopher, for being so passionate about the Mind, and way back 500 years to my hero, Michel de Montaigne, for being so passionate about Being. Well done! Love to you both from way over here in time. You 'done us' and yourselves so very well with all the love of your hearts and minds, and in your wondrous word-smithing craft. Fine bhoys both, and bright as buttons, to be sure, by any reckoning of the lot of us.

I was enjoying waxing poetically and philosophically, just then as I like to do from time to time, and then I got the fucking gas bill. I can't even afford to stick my head in the oven now. bastards.

Poem

Poem

The soft moaning

of the girl

is that pain

or just the world?

Is there light

and is there shade

and who is who

for what is paid?

Is there darkness

is there fright

or do the meanings

make it right?

Shall we sit

awhile and blink

and let the light

absorb the ink.

On we live

from this to that

with prophets who

absorb the fat.

Shall we find

some way of knowing

beyond the moment's

burden flowing?

Tis not me

who knows a thing

a suit and tie

and wedding ring.

Shall we sit awhile

and think

and let the light

absorb the ink?

We were born

and so we live

and take what is

what is to give.

I recall my favourite middle-aged physical fitness bicycle event was putting the padded lycra pants on backwards and just walking around with what looked like a massive erection for hours. Didn't actually get on the bike that day. That was probably a good thing, for both me, and for the world, really.