Great post HB.

A diamond is only a piece of coal that has been under pressure for a long time as the saying goes…

I wouldn’t mind attending one of those auctions where there is only the auctioneer , the bank and you.. Was there any phantom bidding [biggrin]… Are you talking about 1990 ?

Shawn

My heritage is a bit twisty and the tree goes back to France during the revolution . The family name owned and ran the guillotine business and apparently they were very well respected [biggrin]

One relative came out and fought in the Maori wars then settled with a Maori wife in Taranaki NZ. Then a couple of generations later I had a pommy grandfather ( post war immigrant)

The wife is pure Dutch heritage and we have three little aussies and tonight we take them all to Milo cricket [wreck] . As good as it gets [biggrin]

Proud to be Australian.

How come you were able to take out the garden for free?

Do you mean that your time is not worth anything ?

What about the movie ‘Ghost’ and the scene with the potters wheel. Ahhhh was a good movie []

Great post g7. I tend to agree with you and I would like to add as an example that comes to mind of poorer people with ‘that’ attitude .

People of the older sheep stations who have hardly a spare brass raazoo to rub together these days and who have lost a lot of their wealth in real terms . I don’t know. I think it is just the way some folk are brought up with those old values and old money ideas. They are not all like that of course but a lot are IMO.

I like the line: that far gone it’s unbelievable. I know what you mean.

Shawn

Interesting article on the ABC Foreign Correspondent last night on property investment in Moscow. What an eye opener!! Having title to property means nothing if someone else wants it. Corruption is rife and justice at the end of a gun!! We have absolutely no idea. No idea at all.

It would be a brave person indeed who invested there. Being an Australian is such an under rated thing I feel. Can not remember the last time I had my life threatened!!!!!! []

Shawn

Here is another one that happened to me a few years back and with a happy ending.

Project was to build a nice picket fence out the front of my old PPOR in Warrnambool (now IP ) .

Had to have the site prepared and all that with a bobcat so called the dial before you dig folks and the guy turned up with his gadget and marked the ground with paint where the gas line would be.All very well.

That was fine. I could get on with my fence project and started putting the posts in ..oooops
nicked the gas pipe with my spade in the bottom of a post hole… There was gas coming out every where.( paint marks on ground 2 metres away..go figure ). Just as it happens there is a large flash motel next door and the day this happened it was race day, the grand annual steeplechase which is big time for the town. People everywhere and all dressed up ready to drink plonk and go and do their dough …

So what did I do? I went inside and made a cup of tea and got the phone book out. I was about to ring someone when my friendly bobcat man pulled up out the front on his way home for lunch to see how I was going. Obviously the pipe needed fixing and he knew the local TXU workers and they came around and put a joiner in and bobs your uncle.

I’d say gas would have been going out for over half an hour. Could smell it a block away. Not much wind at the time.

Didn’t cost us anything as the gas blokes could see for themselves the spray paint mark on the ground was way off. Motel people were not impressed!

So thats my story

Shawn

Hi Hiri

I was in Opotiki about 30 odd years ago on holiday with my folks but the only thing I remember was the huge stingray my dad caught in the surf with his rod and when he finally landed it I dispatched it with a heavy piece of drift wood !!

PM Minimogul , She knows the area