I'm sorry but that just sounds far too intelligent and reasonable.

This all makes so much sense. My mother and 2 of her brothers-in-law (so just to emphasise, they were all related by marriage only) all got a PD diagnosis within a couple of years of each other. They all grew up and lived within 20 miles of each other, all on farms. They were all dead within 2 years of each other.

Hey, maybe they thought you'd like to buff your stuff while they stuff your crust?

I hate to say it but I think they will attempt to shut the gate after the horse has bolted. I hope it's just my GenX cynicism talking. I don't want to do this again either. The last time didn't exactly fill me with confidence, with all the politicking and social and mainstream media misinformation, and people just openly breaching the guidelines because they didn't care enough, the antimaskers and antivaxers and sovereign citizens. After all we went through, I still see people not washing their hands when they should and coughing all over people in public places. It wasn't that long ago, not long enough to have forgotten so easily, and it makes me angry and sad.

Might be just the motivation I need!

Thankyou for sharing this deeply personal experience Baku. As the parent of a child that suffers from anxiety and school refusal I'm hopeful that people will gain a better understanding of the intricacies of the issue. As with my child, there are often a lot of complex and/or contributing factors which combine to lead a child to this point. It's not just kids refusing to go because they're being recalcitrant.

That's a perfectly reasonable question, and the answers are many. It was the house she and dad bought together, and after he suddenly and unexpectedly died, she was really attached to anything which held her memories of him. They had been active in volunteering in the area and had many friends and a strong connection to it, and she just didn't want to move anywhere more affordable where she didn't know anybody and had to "start again". She had an extensive garden which was her main hobby and which gave her an enormous amount of pleasure, and she was loathe to give it up (it was admired by local people and when she died, people came to take photos of it). Mum had Parkinson's disease at the end, and found mobility a challenge, so the house was easy to modify for her increasing disability. The truth also was that the house itself was kinda crappy and wasn't actually worth very much and she wouldn't have gotten much more than it cost for a unit in the area at the time (prices for units in that area were starting to get a bit crazy). After dad died she got all morbid and was talking as though she was going to die soon too, even though she outlived him by about 20 years lol. I guess she thought, why go to the trouble of moving when I'm just going to die anyway? I hope my answer hasn't bored you with rambling on, my apologies if it has.

I think using your super as a deposit for a house is a terrible idea because you could basically end up like my mum: an elderly homeowner having to pay to maintain and repair an ageing home and no income other than the pension to live on. She's long gone now, but I'll never forget how hard it was for her, and how she had to borrow money from a friend to replace the old heater that broke and couldn't be fixed. Every pension day it was decision time, what to pay and what to delay. Meanwhile the house was slowly falling into disrepair.

Same here. I'm an old fart, and I can read things my parents wrote easily. But when you get to what my grandparents or great grandparents wrote.. the further back you go the more decorative flourishes the copperplate style seems to have and I've found it's not easy to make out every word.

The Big Gig

I love this style of art, and it's a beautifully written article. Would like to know where I can get some of it, but I can't seem to find any more info about him. There's a Michael Koren who makes bendy wooden spoons and a Michael Koren who is a musician, but I can't find this guy.

"I'm angry at the science I made up" 😆