John Fitzpatrick's Great Fishing Story, a True Story, with thanks to Alvey and Abu Garcia Fishing Technology, and Palm Cove Pier, Cairns. Back in the year 2006AD, I went fishing at Palm Cove Pier one afternoon with my Alvey General Purpose Australian designed Fishing reel and rod set up, a fantastic and simple reel, with 3 moving parts...I baited the red suicide hook with a prawn, and tossed it out to sea, into a breeze, at the end of the Pier. I only really go fishing to feel the great connection between man and the Great Ocean, to watch the silver line connecting us...that's just me. I don't really expect to catch anything. No bites on the line, after ten minutes, I reeled the line in only to find a growing weight on it. When I reeled the line up to the top of the pier, I saw that the red hook had caught...a fishing rod...not only just a fishing rod, but an Abu Garcia Fishing Technology rod and reel...the reel, with gold plating over it, the rod, 5 ft high, perfectly taut and flexible...and, by its condition, it was new and had only been in the water for a day. 150 moving parts. Now, this was about 300 years in advance of my stolid Alvey rod and reel and I was very grateful for this gift...so grateful that I didn't go back to the Pier for some time fearing that the owner might come along. I practised here and there in the yard, then, two weeks after finding the Abu I went beach fishing, just north of the nude beach, before you get to Ellis Beach. It's very beautiful there in the late afternoon. The Abu was just sooooo precise...such brilliant technology...you choose your spot in the sea, 20 yards, 30 yards out, and just launch it, and the sinker would drop the line and prawn exactly where you wanted it to go, every time. it was a fine art, indeed. A beautiful machine. Once again, ten minutes passed, and nothing happened, so I placed the rod into a plastic tube rod holder that I had stuck in the beach sand, and walked along the edge of the sea for about 500 yards, meditating on the sound of the little waves on the sand and shells there, and on my rare fortune. On the way back to the Abu, I noticed it jerking in the holder, once, then twice, then three times, then... and then, I started running towards it, but before I could reach it, the whole rod and beautiful reel just, snap, turned the rod holder flat down on the sand, and the rod and reel flew out into the sea. That's my true fishing story.

I've liked Nursing, from 1983 til now. True, The times have changed but Nursing really hasn't changed. The young and bright and versatile souls are still persecuted, and the old and incompetent robots are revered, as in any of the Great and Real professions that have led us to have the World we now inhabit. Yet we wonder why we still are beset with health problems. With all we know, with the huge amount of money invested, all those problems, including all the cancers, should all have been eliminated at least 20 years ago. Money simply badly spent, and, true, I would have to agree, mostly on doctors making the most of their careers.

The UK about BREXIT: To use a remarkably inappropriate Australianism created by a long dead Australian Football personage, Rex Mossop..."Look at them...the UK, it is so embarrassing...they're too weak to knock a sick girl off a toilet."

BREXIT. What's New? The UK, the rapist, entering into meaningful discussions with Ireland, the raped, to work out a solution that's good for the UK.

Anyway, I think the problem with the UK staying as part of Europe, or leaving Europe, is the same. They've never had any respect or belief in the strength of the people of Ireland, and so, whatever the Sassenachs do, wringing their hands and saying please and yes and no, oh, now let's decide again, etc, well, they're fucked twice anyway. Imagine the UK staying in Europe now...and some hard decision comes up when all of Europe needs certainty..."Oh, oh, I don't know, I don't know, oh, its too hard, oh dear, oh no, oh yes..." Weak Sassenach scum. When Push comes to Shove on any meaningful thing..."Oh, I don't know, oh, my mouth is sore from sucking, oh dear, oh dear, let's have another vote!" Same as they ever were. Same as they ever were. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

we should remember that belief systems are here for us, to meet our needs, and that we don't exist for them. they are just ideas we can like or hate for awhile or not care about at all.

My beliefs are fundamentally Christian in that I think its best to do good for others. Why? Because it's best for them. That's just how I am. I spent a good decade as a deep Mahayana Buddhist inculcated into the Kalachakra Tibetan faith by Mr Dalai Lama himself, but found that, really, Buddhism always favours who is in charge...buddhism loves bosses, loves anyone who is in charge. Buddhism is about self comfort...buddhism does well because it just sucks cock. That's the whole basis of buddhism...look at Thailand, Myanmar, Tibet etc...buddhism is the cool elite and has nothing to do with helping others. The most backward societies on earth are buddhist societies and I wish them well. Look at Buddhists in management positions in your own companies. They do nothing but help themselves. This is buddhism. Islam is okay, and is much like Catholicism was 300 years ago...great ideas but lots of nuts. Hindu is probably the most survivable of the crop. I believe in the things written down about Jesus, the good things about the stories, but not the virgin birth etc or the reincarnation...that's stupid, thats just marketing...nor most of the other things about homosexuals, tax agents and publicans being condemned to hell. I don't believe that. I believe that people believe what they prefer, no matter what is true or no matter what happens to them. I believe that you should study the tenets of any religion, like a dinner on a plate. You don't have to eat everything out of good manners. A lot of it is bitter, and some is quite poisonous.