chevin

No doubt of that. I have installed a number of compressed air lines working at 120psi and all I ever used was silver solder. I never had a joint let go. I would have thought that the extra heat necessary for brazing the pipe would require it to be well supported, because copper pipe is unlikely to have the strength so support its self at those temperatures!

Not quite true about the whole country being the descendants of crims. There were a lot of people here to look after the crims and many of those settled too. There are also a lot of us who came to Oz to avoid becoming crims in the UK. If I had stayed in the UK I would probably be in prison now because I would have had too much to say about what was being done to the country - that is why I got out in 1977. Incidentally, the term is cobber, not cobba, though perhaps it is possible you knew that judging from the context in which you used the word. It is hardly a complimentary term.

Hmm, it seems as though those trying to make Australia sound so dangerous are not scaring the right people away. We will only need a Mandelson in a few years time and we will have your problems here. But of course we can't say anything about our developing problems for fear of being called a racist or a bigot.

Actually, I think that she threw her brain away the first time she picked her nose.

Hmmm, she looks to be a bit frigid to me.

Yeah, I would have to get p!ssed first though!

Yup, I have said on many occasioons that if an animal killed as many people as drunken drivers kill, they would be exterminated. For some reason it almost appears to be acceptable to get drunk and kill someone, the penalty does not relate to the seriousness of the crime and the drunk will have his licence back after a maximum of three years ban. I have a few guns and also a licence to hold and use them. They are kept locked away in an approved safe. If I saw an intruder on my property and took an unloaded gun from the safe and confronted the intruder with it, I would lose my gun licence for life! Bit strange isn't it?

Ah yes, that is the story put about by some Aussies who like to make Australia sound to be the most dangerous place on earth. We have the most dangerous snakes, spider, sharks, crocks, pigs etc and also in the most dangerous concentrations. Yes, we do have all of those things but they don't seem to attack very many people. When sharks and crocs do, it makes world news. When I first started snorkelling over here, I was terrified of meeting up with a shark, but it was several years before I did so, and when I did, thet shark had no interest in me and I was so impressed with the beauty of the fish, I never felt a moment of fear. Since then I have seen hundreds and have only once had a scare when a grey nurse told me to get out of its territory. I did so and the shark went bnack to doing what sharks do when they are not eating people. I have got out of the water on a couple of occasions when I have seen big sharks that sometimes turn nasty ie. a big tiger and a big mako. You have to be very unlucky to get bitten or attacked by a shark despite their numbers. I remember one long weekend trip of some years ago. There was a road accident on the way to our venue and the driver of the car was killed. I and a number of others, including a commercial group working, dived over the whole weekend and none of us had any problems with sharks. On the drive home we saw another road accident in which a driver was killed. The accidents tend to put things into perspective don't they.

Yes, great whites are protected but this treatment is a special dispensation in regards to unauthorised attacks on humans I believe. They have been warned! Salties have not been mentioned as yet, though there are a lot of calls for the same treatment to be meted out to drunk drivers who kill far more people each year than do sharks. It has been suggested that the woman concerned and PETA should be put into contact with each other and I think that might be a good idea! Sharks might have a tiny brain, but I would think that the collective brains of PETA and Ms Thorne would probably take up less room than the brain of a fairly small shark.

Yeah, it was heart breaking to go out and see the ground below trees littered with the bodies of dead birds. It seemed impossible that the badly affected species could ever recover, but they did. I just hope that they will be able to recover from this winter too, but it might be a lot more difficult for them to do so this time.

Absolutely, the gas injected into the fish by the smokey does a lot more damage than the projectile. I have seen a .45 magnum smokey used on a shark at the side of a boat and the fish never twitched after that!

This is the head line in the local on-line newspaper today. ROGUE sharks that attack beachgoers this summer will be hunted down, shot in the head and sawed apart until their spines are severed. The female government member - Ms Thorne - making the statement accuses the sharks of having tiny brains that are difficult to hit with a bullet and so the spine must be severed to kill them. It seems that the idea is to fish for them and once hooked, the shark will be hauled into a boat and then dealt with in the way she suggests. Now most sharks that attack people are pretty big - in fact according to newspaper reports they all seem to be 14 footers - and they weigh quite a lot too. Well in excess of half a ton in fact. So, having hooked and fought half a ton of angry shark, the stalwarts in the boat are then going to haul it aboard and shoot it in the head and cut it in half (with a chainsaw I suppose). Now, I have never lifted a shark of that size into a boat, but I have lifted aboard a number of around 3 feet in length and they certainly don't lay still waiting to be shot. Quite the contrary in fact. They set about wrecking and biting anything they can reach and they are bloody good at it too. There would be no way to control a shark the size of those Ms. Thorne is discussing. If she really think that her idea is managable, I sincerely hope she is involved in the first attempt to put it into operation. One thing, there is little danger of a stray bullet hitting her brain!

What isn't surpising? The temperatures, or that our summer seems to be normal?

Absolutely. I am on the fence as far as the global warming thing is concerned, but I do remember at the outset, it was said that places like the UK would have colder winters because of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift being adversely affected. Certainly here in Oz we had our second warmest year on record last year, but we have had much warmer summers than we had last year. This one is fairly normal so far I think. Plenty of mid 30C days with two of about 40C. If it keeps on like this then it will be a normal summer. However, I can see that the concern may well be of the extra degree higher during the course of a whole year. I see that global warming is not going to be a problem anyway because a star 3,000 light years away is going to super nova and send out rays or something [CFCs (joke)] which will strip away our ozone layer. Ohhh, let's go back to the '60s when we were expecting to be nuked at any time. At least we would have had a nice hot summer for a few moments and a cold nuclear winter! But I bet that steam engines would still have got through it all!

I think that this http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/kfc-austra...c-1225816987718 is considered to be unPC though it leaves most in Australia absolutely bewildered. Even Aussie based West Indians were laughing at the ad and one who was interviewed said, "Any one who sees that as being offensive has no idea about the retalionship between Aussie and West Indian cricket fans." It's pretty much the same as it is with the Barmy Army. Shouting each other down during the match and drinking in the same pub after it. I can't believe that KFC have caved in and cancelled the ad! They must be chicken

Yeah, we have been surrounded by bush fires for a few days but thankfully we are under no great threat. I have trees on my poperty but most are citrus which do not burn as fiercely as the gum trees that are common in the affected areas. Every few years we get a fire go along the lake but the noise is generally the most frightening thing about it. We just need to keep an eye open for burning ash. Incidentally, Brigadoon was one of the places threatened and that is where Hank Marvin of the Shadows lives these days.

Sadly we have no deer around here - or moose for that matter as I enjoy eating both. However, we do have kangaroos - millions of them, and they are delicious. Not bad for you either as there is no cholestorol in them. A 'roo steak takes a lot of beating.

Ah yes. A very valid point! Global Warming will affect the Gulf Stream and that will indeed make Britain and Ireland cooler I guess you are right, you're aahhll dooooomed. Pretty normal summer day here. 39C with 32%RH so there is nothing to be concerned about there.

Yeah rod rings are a problem in those temperatures but often the only times you need to reel in or recast is when you want to relieve the boredem of fishing on days like that! I have fished a lot in those conditions but I can't say that I ever had an exciting day while doing so and I don't remember even catching a decent fish in such conditions. At least, not in freshwater - the sea can be another thing. I found that some rivers seem to take on a greenish colour when the water temperature is very low and when they do, there seems to be little point in fishing, but even knowing that, of course I often did!

Well I never found it so, I always looked for places where the chub are likely to have their food delivered to them thus minimising the effort they need to expend to get their meals. Nice eddies were the kind of places I checked out and places at which there was a build up of debris that would break up the current is another good spot. There are often eddies at the sides of weir pools and they can be quite good. However, it is often necessary to play a waiting game for winter chub, they do not feed quite as voraciously in cold water. If you can time your outing to coincide with a milder spell after a cold snap, that is a very good time for many river fish and especially chub and pike. I liked one of those drizzly misty days about three days after the cold snap. The rivers I fished were at the winter's best on those days.

Is the road to Balmoral Castle still open? I guess that along with many others I have been in your situation; in 1947/48 and 1962/63. In 1947/48 we scraped what was called sea coal off the beaches. There was no coal to be had in the UK because it was all being airlifted to Germany in what was called, "The Berlin Airlift". A desperate political ploy to stop the Russians gaining gaining ground in Germany after the end of WW II. The British Tommy who had just saved the world from Nazi domination was forgotten and he and his family were left to go hungry and cold so that Germans were fed and kept warm. !962/63 wasn't much fun either, but we got through, as I am sure that you will too. Not a lot of fun, but it makes the good times seem better.!

Where is the intolerance? It seems to me to be a polite notice warning canoeists of something that could be a hazard to both them and expensive equipment. Perhaps I come from an era in which people could accept that they couldn't do just what they wanted to do irrespective of how it might affect others. How do you react to stop signs at road junctions? They are not requests, they are instructions; I would think that you see them as being extreme.

Bit like that here too. It's 39C at the moment but only 35% RH so it's not too bad. Still a bit warm though.

Perhaps even an oxymoron?

You have a 50-50 chance of being right or wrong there mate!