Aussie Readers discussion
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Chat about whatever you like: the weather, good stuff, bad stuff, family or pets!
I think I'll go sit outside next to the fire we have going..It's bloody freezing!
Wouldn't suprize me..Real icey chill in the air at the moment.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the mummies out there :)
hope everyone has a wonderful day
hope everyone has a wonderful day
Thanks Melanie! I hope all the mummies get spoiled rotten by their loved ones today, because I didn't (sneaking in a rant here). When asked about my mother's day pressie, hubby shrugged and said: Aren't we (him and my daughter) the best gift you could ever asked for? Grrr, not asking much but a card, choccies (and necklace and books? heheh) would be nice!
We don't do anything for mothers day..actually my mum dislikes it. but she pulled the card today and said can you crack these walnuts afteral it is mothers day..lol i did.
Thanks Carmel! I have some cheesecake sent over by a good friend (yay) so that will be my Mother's Day indulgence. Btw, where is your other daughter?
Melanie wrote: "HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the mummies out there :)hope everyone has a wonderful day"
Thanks Melanie!!!
Mod
We arrived back in Sydney yesterday, and back home today.
So a very belated happy Mother's day to all you lovely Mum's out there, hope your day was awesome, and you were spoilt rotten!!
A very big welcome to Gail, back in our midst! Hope you are ok Gail, and things improve for you in the very near future.
It's taking me a long time to go through all the threads, and read the lovely posts from everyone, but I'll get there :)
Welcome back Brenda :D!!Wow to dangerous to dock :/ That musta been bad then. Glad you stayed safe and were out of the way from that tornado!!
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Anyone else noticed their nofications seem to be a little odd? Mine has dropped the Autumn challenge and also the Sci-Fi one :/ Has it happened to anyone else?
About to go read..Been playing Mini Ninjas all night...oops..lol :P
Mod
Thanks for welcome back..:D
YAY, everyone rejoice! Jess finally has a new profile picture :)
Mod
Amazing that picture is taken in London :o!!
Laura wrote: "Amazing that picture is taken in London :o!!"London is correct :D Last October, in fact...
Brenda wrote: "Ooh it is nice Jessica...is that you in the shot?"
Yep, thats me :)
Mod
London is correct :D Last October, in fact...
Brenda wrote: "Ooh it is nice Jessica...is that you in the shot?"
Yep, thats me :)"
Oh, very nice!! What a gorgeous photo, and lovely memories! :)
Thank you very much...will definitely not forget that trip any time soon/ever :)
Whyyyy is it raining again!?! And it's the type of 'freezing/icey' rain that makes you want to stay indoors rather than go out. Bah.
i wish it was 11c here..that'd feel warm even..lol it's currently 9.9c here :s
Carmel wrote: "Laura wrote: "i wish it was 11c here..that'd feel warm even..lol it's currently 9.9c here :s"NASTY!!!"
LOL it is! And it's dropped since I wrote that...9.3C with a 'feels like' 6.3C. I say it feels more like 5C!!!
Well my new beers will warm me tonight :) Went wine shopping but came home with beer instead..lol Mission not successful in terms of wine xD!!
Wow that funding sure does sound good for Mental Health!! I agree it is long over due. Now to see it all happen and bring some much needed relief to families around Australia.
Mod
so good about the mental health... I'm so happy with it...just hope they follow it up.
we started and youth suicide foundation last year with my old high school but they dropped the program much to the anger of parents and a few teachers... carrying on with out their help... its good the government is finally taking it seriously.
hopefully more people will get the help they need and more lives will be saved
we started and youth suicide foundation last year with my old high school but they dropped the program much to the anger of parents and a few teachers... carrying on with out their help... its good the government is finally taking it seriously.
hopefully more people will get the help they need and more lives will be saved
Sheeesh!! whats the weather coming to, I had to put a singlet on when going to bed last night, LOL!!
Mod
well it was 11 to 22 here on the coast....living in the mountains however made it 9 to 19 or something
just wonderfully cold haha
just wonderfully cold haha
the beers have made my cheeks rosey red x) And doing the washing up also helped...It has dropped to 7.7C now. brrrrrrrrr~!
Bit of both eh Carmel, sitting here in boxers & singlet with a coldie before heading off to bed, heaven forbid, I might have to throw a flannie on when I get up in the morning, LOL!!
David wrote: "Bit of both eh Carmel, sitting here in boxers & singlet with a coldie before heading off to bed, heaven forbid, I might have to throw a flannie on when I get up in the morning, LOL!!"lol feelin' the cold huh? :p
I think this weekend I need to go make a fire again like i did last weekend and sit infront of it with a 6 pack and good company...It's really blissful
Hahaha..Flannies..zomg..BAAAAAADDDD!!! Went outside a few minutes ago....Oouch..5.5C!! No moaarr...Now online gaming!!
Meant flannie shirt, haven't owned flannie jarmies for years.
Laura, keep sending those bottles of rainwater...and you're not blowing hard enough...the clouds never came back...still dry over here in the west...you can keep the cold though...I'm quite happy with day after day of 25.
i got flannie jammies the other day :D
but nah its so cold im going to go out and get a onesie!
but nah its so cold im going to go out and get a onesie!
Carmel, I said 'years' not 'centuries' & as a matter of fact they were black HSV jarmies (-:
Yep! thats it....all different coloured Monaro's LOL!!
Melanie wrote: "well it was 11 to 22 here on the coast....living in the mountains however made it 9 to 19 or somethingjust wonderfully cold haha"
And from sunny Queensland - here on the Darling Downs winter arrived with a thud 3 days ago. Frosts and wind, unusual combination. Nice & sunny though. Oakey town was zero degrees last night and the rest of us have been told to expect more of the same. Including Sunday, when hubby and I have to get up early to go a family reunion two hours drive away.
Had the flannelette sheets on for weeks, wearing our winter jammies, added another blanket, and thank the good Lord for reverse cycle air-con. Until the electricity bill arrives...
Welcome, Sam. Where do you live in the U.S.?
Monya (aka Mary)
I am on holiday in Perth this week and I can't believe how lovely and sunny it is here! Very happy to leave chilly Sydney behind. I'm loving my first trip to WA
We recently had a discussion about the decline of the bricks & mortar book shops due to the growth of e-books and the high price of books in Australia.I’d like to relate my experience of the last couple of days – but not relating to book shops, but music stores.
On a recent holiday I heard a female singer that I thought was Julie London, only to be told that the singer was Jane Monheit.
Wednesday, of this week, I decided to buy one of her CDs, not as a CD, but as MP3, which meant that I didn’t have to go shopping to the local Westfield centre (I hate shops).
As my novel ‘Ice King’ is stocked by Amazon, I thought I'd buy from Amazon.
I logged on to my Amazon account and eventually decided on the particular CD (MP3) that I wanted. The price was USD 9.99 or AUD $9.43 (last of the big spenders).
I filled in all the forms and at the end was told that I couldn’t buy any MP3 music because I didn’t live in the land of the brave and free.
OK, thought I, let’s go to the UK Amazon site, as they also stock my book, – the cost in the UK is £7.49 or AUD $11.53.($9.60 without the 20% VAT).
The same thing happened, I couldn’t buy because I didn’t live in Pommy land.
I know, thought I, (I did a lot of thinking), if Amazon don’t want my money I’ll go to Bigpond Music, as Bigpond is my ISP – $15.35
Universal Music, Australia – is $16.95
I Tunes wanted $16.99, price is going up all the time.
Not happy, so I clicked on Sony Music which diverted me to Bandit.FM – but they wanted $17.00 for the MP3 file.
Last chance, I’ll go to JB Hi Fi – they have good prices (so they say). Wrong, I couldn’t find MP3,but I did find a physical disk by Jane Monheit at $26.99,but the problem is it wasn’t the CD that I wanted. All of the other retailers had the correct CD.
The point of this post is to confirm we are being ripped off buying music as well as books. Why would an MP3 file in the US cost $9.43 and the same thing in Oz around $17.00?
The Australian price is 80% higher than the US price for the same computer file.
I am aware that there are agents in the US who will act on my behalf to buy products and ship them (or e-mail them) to me, but I am not sure of the price of their services.
The music industry is crying that Australians are downloading illegal copies of CDs – is it any wonder?
I am not advocating this action, but it is easy to why it is so popular.
HMV used to have an outlet in Miranda (south Sydney) that stocked a wide selection of DVDs & CDs – it lasted a few years, but, like Sanity and one other(I can not remember the name), they have all done their Elvis act and left the building. We now have JB Hi Fi, what used to be called Virgin Music (inside Myers) and Big W, as the only outlets for DVDs & CDs, and only JB & Myers have a reasonable selection of music.
I am not counting the ABC shop as their selection is very limited.
I think the decline of the Australian music retailers is well underway.
Fortunately a week on Monday my wife & I are off to Malaysia & Singapore and both countries have very good music shops where the average CD price (for a physical CD) is no more than $13 to $15 (including local taxes) so I’ll give my Australian credit card a real workout :-o)
cheers,
Geoff
www.geoffwoodland.com
Jan wrote: "Laura, keep sending those bottles of rainwater...and you're not blowing hard enough...the clouds never came back...still dry over here in the west...you can keep the cold though...I'm quite happy w..."Just caught two big bucket full of water from the other night *sends them over to Jan* Quickly rain go away please and go to where it is needed more!
I hear it's going to rain all weekend and be cold..Oh joy.
Mod
I’d like to relate my experience of the last..."
Thanks for all that very detailed information, Geoff. Isn't it a dreadful situation! It sure looks like music will go the same way as the books...did you check out Ebay for the disc? Enjoy your holiday, and your spending over there....what fun..;)
It's basically the same with computer games--we pay about $100 for a disc that retails for $30-$50 overseas (and with most of them being imported from Asia freight can't be the problem). I've stopped buying brand new just released games from Australian stores altogether and have been shopping at Play Asia.Of course, there's digital download via Steam, but even then, the average Aussie pays about $20 more than their American counterparts for the same version of the same game. I'm really not sure why...
M
David wrote: "Meant flannie shirt, haven't owned flannie jarmies for years."All this talk about flannie jammies reminds me of my little girl's sleeping overalls - I wish they'd make on for adults! They look so warm and fluffy. For all the mums out there, you know I am talking about those wondersuits with little feet and mitten sleeves...
Mod
Matthew wrote: "It's basically the same with computer games--we pay about $100 for a disc that retails for $30-$50 overseas (and with most of them being imported from Asia freight can't be the problem). I've stopp..."Do you play console games as well Matt? Because if you do there are other cheaper sites than PlayAsia (besides Steam when they have their mega sales).
Shopping in the UK is usually much cheaper and they tend to reduce their prices quicker than here.
http://www.ozgameshop.com
http://www.zavvi.com/home.dept
http://www.game.co.uk/
These three sites have games that will work on our PCs and consoles.
Since using these sites the chance of me buying anything in store has stopped. Plus with free shipping (except game.co.uk) it's great!
@Dhitri- Check out Target or Big W or K-Mart..They are sure to sell flannies for adults in there. Except they are not going to have the foot/hand gloves part..haha.
Free shipping eh? I'll have to check it out. Admittedly I am heading to Hong Kong next month to ensure I keep my PR there, so I might come back with a suitcase of games...Thanks Laura
M
(and yes, I have an Xbox 360).
No worries Matt :)Free shipping rules :D!! Ozgameshop are in Aussie dollars so you know exactly how much you are spending unlike the others you need to convert over the money.
Still, I've had no problems with any of these shops and have been going to them now for more than 6 months. Happy with every purchase. Zavvi also is a general store so you can find other goods as well (books included).
Suitcase full of games would be good. Haha..a suitcase full of Mortal Kombat!!
360 rules :D!! I have one of those as well.
Wish me luck all, I've just today sent 5 of my Haiku poems & 1 traditional rhyming poem to a competition in N.Z.
Whaaat!?! On a Saturday? That sucks...
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@Jan- So little rain :o Would you like some of ours? I'm sure i could bottle it up and send a cloud or 12 over when it's start..."
Thanks Laura, unfortunately, because of the way the world spins, west coasts are always drier. Sometimes clouds form over the Indian Ocean, we get a spot of rain or three, then it all blows across the country, and when it gets to a cool place, like your house, it falls down as rain. You would have to blow very hard to blow it all back here again, but thanks for the thought.
Michael...no diet day ? Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now hold on a minute...does that mean double diet tomorrow? Two diets at once...that's the best way...as there's often not enough food in one.:)