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Crap. You travel more than most of us. Is there no hope out there, Oh great Plookster?

No Hope For You!

After a recent visit to England, I did rather think it might be nice to live in Bristol again. Very hilly, interesting Georgian houses and fairly good restaurants. Also, one gets that English politeness thing which they do so well (e.g. "Do you know where Charlotte Street is?" "Yes, I'm going that way, I'll show you"). If temperatures were always they way they were in October, I'd seriously consider it.

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The more I learn, the less I know.

I was in the UK Xmas 2010 with temperatures varying around zero celsius. I had a great time. It was 41° C here yesterday ... I hate it but I'm coping. Heading for 40° C today as well, before a cooler change predicted late evening. We're here in Adelaide for a few more years yet, but moving back to the UK later on is definitely on the cards.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

I'm envious of my European (and otherwordly) friends. Having lived in Northern California all my life with travel limited to San Diego to the south, Denver to the east (a one time business trip) and Southern Oregon to the north I am probably a little overly impressed with anyone who has an accent (different from mine) or who I suspect is culturally different.

Ja, it's gut!

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You gotta give the people something good to read, on a Sunday

No wonder when we met,you looked at me like I was some kind of Korla Phlankton kinda guy.

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

I thought you were from Ork?

Truth is, I could relate to the movie "Cedar Rapids" just a little too much.
http://youtu.be/d7LkZwnfwfc
The Dean Ziegler character is a conglomerate of Plook and Kapt. Kiirk.

Having grown up from the age of 5 in Australia and spent most of my adult life here, my context is a country that doesn't have a great deal of apparent history. With all due respect to the native peoples of Australia, their history is just a very narrow slice of the types of history you can find all over Europe. And the history of European settlement here doesn't go very far back. In Europe, there's prehistory with cave paintings and standing stones and so on but you can find signs of every other aspect of history in between then and now.

The first time I went to the UK as an adult I was overwhelmed by the enormity of history there. I'm not a full on tourist or anything close to it, but I like that part of being in Europe. I'm very much for not getting bogged down in the past but at the same time not losing a sense of history - we are what we have become because of it. I'm not sure there are any Europeans that impress me because of it, though. In fact, in general, I think they're only too willing to repeat the mistakes of their past.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

I suppose that's similar to my sense of inferiority having grown up where I have. White people have only been around here a couple hundred years (Oh shit, I should just shut up now. A white man can't open his mouth without sounding like a racist).

Hey, KU2, that is exactly what I hate about political correctness. Don't worry about it, I know what you mean. Why do you think I prefaced that sentence above with "All due respect blah blah". The number of arguments I've gotten into in related situations. Just because I use technical terms like "primitive communism" and "barbarism" doesn't mean I'm diminishing the lives of Australia's native people.

As a person of Western European descent I can eventually trace my history back to people who lived just like the native people of Australia. Just because I refer to the history in between as progress doesn't mean I'm disrespecting them. Just because I point out that they're not actually native to Australia and that you can trace back to the time of their arrival in Australia from somewhere else, doesn't mean ... blah blah. Walking on eggshells we are going to get nowhere and very slowly to boot.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

a 10-sided figure, every day a different side

LOL...

I must admit that's always been my given excuse for never visiting anywhere outside of Europe that was a former colony of a Europen power - no history. On the other hand, I suppose I'm being very small-minded and I really should be more open, so this year I've made a resolution to change my mind. The real reason, in any case is - I hate flying.

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The more I learn, the less I know.