G'day, Rick! I gave up both tobacco and weed nearly 3 years ago (after too many attempts to count!) and I'm glad I did and feel a lot healthier. When it does become legal, I'll make beverages and cakes / cookies out of it rather than smoke it. Also, there's a slim chance I could contract glaucoma down the track so if I do, win / win or is that lose / win!? They (cigarettes) cost from $20 to $50 a pack here. The tax revenue governments could make by taking the money out of criminal's hands would be enormous. Not many big races coming up as yet, will keep you posted. Cheers.

Anyone who allows themselves to be scammed by phone calls or emails etc. thoroughly deserves it. How many warnings do people need to get it through their skulls? Companies rarely call their customers direct or email them and mostly if they do it's usually about new deals etc. and never about accounts. The obvious clue with phone calls is there is a long delay before the caller (usually Asian / Indian in Australia), speaks and identifies the supposed company they represent. I hang up. Sometimes when someone calls with an Australian accent, as a precaution I hang up, then I call the business to confirm if they are /were legit. As for email scams, if it sounds too good to be true, it is, and it's a scam. Also, once I read who the fake website is trying to represent, I go online to the real website and report suspicious emails, either by forwarding the email(s) to them or in some instances report them directly through their website and then deleting them.

The sooner it's legalised and tobacco products, including vapes are banned here in Oz the better.

Elon Musk promoted to control / reduce government spending? That's like (in the American vernacular), giving a kid the keys to the candy store. NASA and specifically Space X will be potential winners there. On Elon, most think he is this incredible genius inventor. He along with Trump inherited their wealth from their parents and made investments in construction etc., nothing more. They are not self-made tycoons. Astute businessman, yes. Musk never invented anything, he just acquired Tesla and Twitter (X) or created the company Space X, his employees and former owners contributed to the research and development of "his" suspect electric, driverless cars and rocket technology. He merely financed and runs them. It'll be interesting to see what future projects he enters into without conflicts of interest.

There's a rumour going round that the North Koreans will defect en masse once they reach the Ukraine border.

I saw the Principal of Moments tour in Sydney back in 1984. Bought this at the gig and still got it.

This "Stairway to Heaven" sculpture was erected at Bondi Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia a few years ago.

Nice.

Imagine JPJ on this.

So, he ridiculed his opponent because she said she worked at McDonalds 40 years ago? Then the "Great Pumpkin" (apologies to Charles Schulz), had the audacity to "don" an apron and attempted to cook fries. I suppose he could get a job there dressing up as Donald McDonald!? Is there no end to his hypocrisy?

Your bro is looking good too, even though he's slightly out of uniform!? Glad to hear he made it home safe. My two mates and I were due to be called up for national service (draft), in December 1972 however, we had an election just a couple of months prior and the winner who had the majority in the Senate abolished conscription immediately, so we didn't get to go to Vietnam. I even had the lingo down pat too although I've long since forgotten it. Btw, most schools that had cadet corps also had rifle ranges. Incidentally, the ammunition used for the Bren and Lee Enfield were both .303, so not having to use different shells was a bonus. This is a photo of me and Mark (who is in the previous photo), on one of our bivouacs, again in Singleton.

Glad to hear it, Walter. It looks bad on the news being hit with two, Helene and now Milton.

Stay safe, mate.

Back in 1967-68 we cadets were learning Vietnamese as part of our training. The first photo was taken at Singleton Army Base in New South Wales on the Bren Gun range. That's me in the centre with my head up looking at the target 1000 yards away after emptying a magazine. The second photo was taken in 1967 in the backyard of one of my mate's place, I'm the shortarse on the end.

When I was a cadet in high school, we used full timber stock and barrel Lee Enfield .303's when we went on camps etc. We used a smaller .22 calibre replica on our rifle range at the back of our sports fields after school. Happy Days! My school was divided into separate boys and girls which was a bummer however the quartermaster store and armoury was located in the girl's area and cadets were the only boys allowed to go there. This a good movie too about the last mounted infantry (not cavalry), charge.