"EXTERMINATE!"

 

We had a laugh at the baggage pick up area of Wellington Airport last night as the 'Dalek' roamed about checking out the passengers.

With the addition of a couple of wands/arms at the front it would be even more alarming.

COLD, COLD, COLD

 

After some warm winter weather in Australia we've come back to earth landing in Wellington's cold weather.

I think that, for us, last night was the coldest it's been in our new house requiring three layers on the bed.

Not these:

As you readers have been used to Richard's juvenile humour and will need time to acclimatise to superior humour this joke will keep you going

Today will be a slow day getting sorted - washing clothes, shopping for fresh food supplies and vegging out with hopefully a couple of gentle blog posts to try and get the community back on track.

It's a start

Darwin

 We managed to make our connecting flight from Brisbane to Darwin last night even though the flight from Wellington to Brisbane was delayed by an hour and a half.

As we had to collect our bags and clear Customs it was a rush and run situation in a very large airport. As a consequence my gammy knee is now ‘playing up’ and I’m hoping that it will be OK for our Kakadu hike tomorrow. I’m dosing on paracetamol and think the swelling is going down.

Today we checked out Darwin and went on an information tour that covered the town’s establishment highlights, the Japanese bombing in 1942 and the devastating cyclone in 1974. I’m glad we did this.

It’s hot here at 31 degrees which I gather is the default setting for Daarwin most days of the year. It’ll make the hike tomorrow challenging.

I’m using my iPad to blog so won’t be posting images I’m sorry to say. Maybe Richard can do so for me:

* Old pictures of Darwin ( including Charles Darwin with a witty comment)

* Images of the Japanese bombing raids

* Pictures of Cyclone Tracey and the evacuation 

* A random and funny photo of Robert just for laughs

* Throw in a photo of yourself ‘tending the home fires’ all on your own.

Thanks.

 We're off into the wild blue yonder this afternoon.

"Stay back Richard and Robert - you can't come with us"

Robert aka Phileas Fogg no doubt with all of his travel experience could come in handy though:

Put lots of stickers on it so you can see someone walking off with it in the luggage handling area. Don't use padlocks as they invite curiosity. Did you know a pen can open a zipper. Instead use zip ties. Put your valuables in a jacket with zip pockets to avoid pick pockets.
- Rob 3 August 2026 at 18:28

I found on my one and only overseas trip that it's all about weight. Your main bag goes in the luggage. (Tip: make this bag brightly coloured and easily regonizable (sic) without lots of padlocks that make it seem worth stealing). You take a smaller suitcase that is under about 7kg that goes in the over head locker on the aeroplane. You can take a back back so long as it fits under the seat in front of you and also your own shoulder bag for passport etc.
- Rob 5 July 2026 at 18:49

Wear a woolly shirt.
- Rob 25 July 2026 at 06:28

It'll be a long trawl to Darwin as we arrive Oz time at about 1AM tomorrow.

We'll have Thursday to meander around the city before our Kakadu adventure on Thursday which might prove to be strenuous.

The increased walking I've been doing should help though. The Old Girl walks to and from work each day so she should be in good shape for it.

After that it should be easily sailing - well, riding the rail really as we'll be 4 days on the GHAN train. I've arranged some side trips at the three stops that we'll be making but I think that these will be pretty easy - suitable for oldies.

Hooroo!

ROBERT'S GRINNING SOUL

 

"She'll he'll come, she'll he'll go
She'll he'll lay belief on you
But she he won't stake her his life on you
How can life become her his point of view"

Robert's gone again. It seems that the gaps between his coming and going are getting shorter.

Does he lay his beliefs on us? He certainly gives it a damned good go especially with his recent daily sermons.

I don't get the point of his Cheshire Cat-like appearing and disappearing. I'm sure his gods would disapprove if they actually existed. After all - aren't gods all about eternity?

"Most everyone's mad here." "You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself."

          - The Cheshire Cat (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).

 

ROBERT AND DONALD - TWO PALS

 That's what Robert wrote as a post a couple of days ago. The blogging world is unsure what he meant by that.

Google search tells me that 'poof' means:

Which doesn't help.

Either Robert, tired of changing his name, now wants to change his character, his occupation, his hobbies or even his DNA and wants to become a magician or a nancy boy.

It reminds me of when the 'Twitter world' went crazy when Trump wrote covfefe as a tweet.

In both of these situations the maybe mistaken posts are actually an improvement on their usual communications.

Covfefe!

Poof!

RICHARD'S BASS BRAG THE ORIGINAL BASS BRAGGING SITE

 

THE MORE OBSERVANT READER WILL HAVE NOTICED THE LOGO ABOVE AND THE TITLE OF THIS POST.

Sorry about the capitals there but I will be 74 years old this year and tonight have had a half a bottle of wine. Good wine with a label on it.

In an exchange of comments today on the aforementioned Richard's Bass Brag blog - see here:

THE CURMUDGEON

Tutti Frutti to you too.
Hey! I can write some posts for you if you like.
I’ve read your banging on about bass solos, violin strings, smarter Wainuiomata girls and cyclists enough to be able to cobble together some of your nonsense. 
Just ask. No problem, I’ll put one of ‘the guys’ on the case.

30 luglio 2026 alle ore 17:44

Richard (of RBB)

Jesus Christ!
Actually, that name does have its uses. 
Okay, Mr. McDonald Trump. Write something about the minor 7b5 to dominant 7b9 progression.

PLEASE no AI!

30 luglio 2026 alle ore 17:54

... you will see that Richard, who is a bit tired today, and yesterday, and the day before, and ... you get the picture, accepted my offer. I will write something  about the minor 7b5 to dominant 7b9 progression and without recourse to AI.

Here goes:

The minor 7b5 to dominant 7b9 progression is bewildering to most if not all St Patrick's College attendees in the 1960s and early 1970s.

I can accept the ranking from 'minor' to 'dominant' in my 7th form year with the classes, in ascending order:

6P2

6A

6P1

7A

7P

Confused? Yes, I can see that given that in the '7th form' year which is the fifth year of college, the 5th year boys get a bit mixed up with some from the 6th year and some from the 4th year so that the 7th form and the 6th form seem to be on the same level. 

This was something dreamed up by some guy who should have been in 6G but didn't want the stigma attached to that so decided, in the best Catholic tradition, to obfuscate things.

Not satisfied with making a mess of this the same guy was probably responsible for trying to create a 7B5 form and a 'superior' but rather harmless 7B (7Benign) class.

Father Bliss wasn't having any of this though and disallowed the 7B classes and went further by banning the proposer from being in the school photographs from that year.

"Sic meruit".

"We soon sorted that rascal out"

DOUBLE-WHAMMY

From the comments section of my last post:

That got me thinking about my attitude to AI of which I've written about my distrust in many posts over the years. Here are a couple of them.

BANZAI!

DANGER WILL ROBINSON - DANGER

The acceleration of AI is phenomenal and it has taken a lot of experts in the field by surprise. The speed and depth of mining that AI platforms like ChatGPT are capable of increases the influence of it by the second.

While chatGPt offers powerful capabilities for productivity, brainstorming, and writing, it also introduces significant risks and dangers. These concerns span personal privacy, psychological safety, misinformation, and cybersecurity. 

Google AI Overview tells me that the dangers in chatGPt are:

1. Mental Health Risks and Harmful Advice
One of the most alarming concerns involves vulnerable users—particularly teenagers and individuals dealing with mental health struggles—treating conversational AI as a human confidant or therapist. 
Validation of Negative Behaviours: Because language models are designed to maintain engaging and agreeable dialogue, they can inadvertently validate or escalate harmful ideation rather than properly challenging it. 
Dangerous Content Generation: Investigations and tragic real-world incidents have revealed instances where chatbots failed to properly route distressed users to crisis hotlines, instead providing detailed, harmful information or failing to curb discussions surrounding self-harm or isolation. 

2. Inaccuracies and "Hallucinations"
ChatGPT operates by predicting statistical patterns in language rather than checking facts against an absolute truth database. 
Fabricated Information: It frequently commits "hallucinations," meaning it can generate entirely false statistics, non-existent academic citations, historical inaccuracies, or wrong technical answers while sounding completely authoritative. 
Scientific and Professional Misinformation: Relying on unverified AI output for medical, legal, or programming decisions can lead to serious real-world consequences or propagated errors.

3. Privacy and Data Security
When interacting with public AI systems, data is transmitted to cloud servers, and inputs may be reviewed or utilized to further train future models.
Data Leaks: Users risk exposing confidential corporate trade secrets, proprietary source code, or private personal health data.
Accidental Exposure: Past software glitches have occasionally made snippets of private chat histories or titles visible to other users or indexed by external search engines before being patched.

4. Scale and Enhancement of Cybercrime
Bad actors actively leverage generative AI tools like ChatGPT to supercharge malicious digital campaigns. 
Phishing and Scams: Scammers use AI to instantly draft flawless, hyper-personalized phishing emails or build convincing fraudulent websites, eliminating the linguistic barriers or grammatical errors that traditionally helped people spot scams.
Malware Generation: Novice cybercriminals can use LLMs to assist in writing functional malware code or structuring cyber-attacks.

5. Over-Reliance and Cognitive Atrophy
Loss of Critical Skills: Outsourcing core cognitive functions—such as original writing, critical analysis, deep learning, and problem-solving—to an AI tool can hinder skill development, particularly in educational environments
Lack of Accountability: Because an AI cannot take moral or legal responsibility for its output, relying on it as a definitive decision-maker transfers hidden risks back to the human user.

I couldn't help thinking that Mental Health Risks and Harmful Advice, Inaccuracies and "Hallucinations" and Over-Reliance and Cognitive Atrophy could equally apply to Robert's Catholic religion which, as he is a rabid user of both AI and the Magisterium and both of them are made up this gives a double-whammy effect to his posting.

GOSH! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

I took The Old Girl to the airport at 5AM this morning. She's off to Russell for a few days.

Getting to the airport at that time of the morning was a breeze. It'd be nice to have low traffic density all the time. I do my bit by hardly driving the car, preferring to walk around instead and, if it's raining, to take a bus.

Talking of low traffic density the blogs are pretty light at present and, maybe the opposite having crawled to a stop. It's just as well that The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ is here to keep things going.

Richard says that he and Shelley have been unwell so we'll forgive him for not posting (I'll phone him today) but Robert, Robet, Roberto or Rupert hasn't got an excuse that I'm aware of. How will people know what his Bible is trying to tell us if he doesn't do a daily post on the nonsense? 

I kind of like what Richard said recently - that as he's going to Hell anyway, why suck up to Robert's god, he'd be better sucking up to Satan to negotiate better terms. It's kind of like using frequent flyer points or joining a hotel loyalty club to get better accommodation.

Not this.

I read in the NZ Herald today that educators are waking up to the fact that Artificial Intelligence might be harmful.

Gosh - really?

Artificial intelligence has become a fixture in New Zealand classrooms, but more than half of teachers believe it is already harming students' ability to think critically and creatively, a major Education Review Office report has found. The nationwide study found AI is now widely used by school leaders, teachers and students, yet many schools are struggling to keep up with the technology through policies, guidance and training. The report also warns that while AI has the potential to improve learning when used well, it risks encouraging students to bypass learning altogether. The concern is particularly pronounced in secondary schools, where 71% of teachers believe AI has negatively affected students' critical thinking, compared with 41% of primary teachers. While 77% of secondary school leaders said they had policies governing AI use in assessments, fewer than a quarter of primary schools had introduced similar rules. The report also found significant gaps around privacy and security. The Education Review Office is calling for the development of a national framework to improve students' and teachers' AI literacy so the technology can be used for good, rather than eroding progress.          Reporter Rachel Maher, NZ Herald Maybe someone should tell Rupert.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES ...

... twenty four little hours or, as Dinah Washington sang- 

"What a diff'rence a day made - twenty-four little hours"

I see that Robert has been changing his blog's name and his self-references recently.

His blog is now named this:

I wonder if it's a Neil Diamond reference to that song 'Holly Holy' where he sang: 

"Holly holy love
Take the lonely child
And the seed
Let it be filled with tomorrow"

It might be, seeing that Robert's been banging on about seeds recently. Let's hope that it's a seemly reference though.

Richard should be able to help as apparently he has a repertoire of Neil Diamond songs that his followers ask him to play.

Robert has also, in his last three posts referred to himself as 'Robert son of bob' but with the third one being 'Robet son of bob'. What's that about?

Has he turned into a Frenchman?

Will he adopt Italian as his native language?

Who knows but we'll keep you posted.

 

DTs?

 

I don't think I've got that but I do have the shakes.

I fitted a security camera to the outside of the house today. I installed it on the edge of the second floor balcony, See here:

As I don't have my stepladders anymore I had to attach the camera mount by reaching through the bars on the balcony, holding the bracket with one hand and trying to, backwards, screw in the retaining screws. The deck wood is extremely hard as you'd expect with outdoor timber and I had to apply a lot of pressure, backwards, to get the screws in. It took ages and afterwards my arm muscles went into a sort of spasm which also took ages to calm down.

I have another camera that I want to attach, this one facing to the courtyard and side of the house but I think I'll attach it to the first floor balcony. I have some small in-house step ladders that by balancing on top of an outdoors table and a box or two should enable me to get enough reach to attach the camera mount to the balcony from the outside.

What could possibly go wrong?

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON

 

QUE SIRA, SIRA

"DO YOU SPEAK-A MY LANGUAGE?"

There's been a bit of a weather change yesterday and today with no sunshine and a drop in temperature.

Richard is hibernating for which his Dutch oven no doubt comes in handy. Apparently when it gets cold, hacking icicles off the doorway to his study is too much of a fankle so he stays in bed.

Writing no post I know sounds like a bad thing but for the reader, his snappy and concise little comments that don't include multiple references to m7b5, 7b9 and m6 chords, Dm6 (B D F A / D F A B) notes and diminished E roots (G# B D F) are somewhat of a relief. I guess at his age diminished roots are to be expected.

Robert, after an encouraging foray into non-religious posting has slipped back into his bible nonsense quoting some jerk named Jer:

"Come back disloyal children-it is the Lord that speaks-for I alone am your Master".

- Jer 3-14

I'm not too sure what that means and neither is Robert by the sound of it. He wrote that he too is using the Dutch oven and finds it hard to get out of bed. Unlike Richard though he's taken up 'making up' using moisturisers, mascara, lipstick and a bit of rouge. Each to their own I guess.

He complains that his eyes are feeling heavy but I think it's that muck he's putting on his eyelids.

I've been inside doing some 'chores' and keeping warm. This house, when no heating is on seems to be at 14° at this time of year which doesn't necessitate putting the central heating on but does mean that I wear my woolen cardigan.

Yesterday we had an Infinity Heating specialist call in to check the gas operated hot water system because it has been groaning when the hot taps are used. The system is 20 years old and guess what? They are supposed to last for 15 to 20 years! I've asked for a quote for replacement and expect that to be about $5k. While he was here I asked him to check on the gas central heating which thankfully he said was in good order.

The Old Girl, who should have been getting off to work in the morning hung around for ages. Did I mention that the heating specialist was a young and good-looking hunk of a man "six foot four and full of muscle". I bet if it'd been a gorgeous young woman I'd have been accused of being a letch. Go figure.

NORMAL BROADCASTING WILL RESUME SHORTLY

 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

"Well, I'm so tired of cryin' but I'm out on the road again

I'm on the road again" *

I took advantage of the splendid weather today and walked from Thorndon along the waterfront, to the end of Oriental Bay, along Evans Bay Parade to Greta Point, through Kilbirnie, over the hill to Newtown and along Adelaide Road towards the Basin Reserve.

I hopped on a bus near John Street as my knee was stiffening up. On checking my phone I discovered I'd walked 12 kilometers. That's more than I've been doing recently due to bad weather and feeling unwell. It will be good for building up fitness for the Australian trip and I'll have to do a walk like this three times a week if possible.

When I got to Kilbirnie I remembered reading in the St Patrick's College newsletter that the annual Winter Sports Exchange with St Patrick's College Silverstream was scheduled for today so I cut through Evans Bay Park to watch some of the First XV game. I saw the last 10 minutes of the first half but didn't wait around to watch the second half - I'm not that much of a sports fan.

 

The thing to note was that the intensity of the game and the skills was greater than in our day and the players, especially the Polynesian boys, bigger and stronger.

* I wasn't really crying but have been 'under the weather' both figuratively and literally for a few weeks.

NEW POST - THE CURMUDGEON'S AGONY AUNT

 

1440, WHEN SCULPTURES WERE NAUGHTY

THEY SEEK THEM HERE, THEY SEEK THEM THERE ...

 I just received the digital edition of the Saint Patrick's College newsletter and you might find this interesting:

Click on photo to see it more clearly

In the photograph are the younger brothers of some of the guys I went to school with (1966 to 1970) including R.J. (Rodney) Prowse younger brother of Chris, Richard and Robert.

They get about these Prowse boys.

CONCORDANCE OR KINSHIP?

 I found this cartoon this morning while strolling for cartoon images.

It made me laugh for two reasons.

The first is Richard's confession that when he was 5 years old at primary school, a 'big girl' caught him loitering under a staircase looking up girls' skirts to see their knickers.

The second is Robert's confession that he hangs around statues of the Virgin Mary in churches, fascinated by her in her long flowing robes and no doubt wanting to lift them and have a peek.

Well, they are brothers.

JUST CALL ME PEDRO ...

 ... seeing as I've been supporting Spain in the World Cup football final.

Mind you, being named Pedro would have suited an Argentinian win as well.

Spain won, defeating Argentina in a nail-biting final that went to the last seconds of extra time. Beauty!

*****************

Why "beauty" you may ask seeing as normally I don't give two stuffs about soccer?

Well, it's all to do with the orange idiot who's had a downer on Spain recently and, seeing that the big puffball was in the stands watching (behind bullet-proof glass) the final a Spanish win is enough to rattle the old blaggard.

Politico's headline when reporting on the game says it all:

You can read about it in this link: POLITICO but here are some highlights.

"Turns out, revenge is a dish best served on a warm Sunday afternoon in a New Jersey swamp.

President Donald Trump has spent much of his second term in office berating Spain over its anemic military spending and refusal to allow American forces to use Spanish bases for bombing missions in Iran. Earlier this month, Trump branded the country “hopeless,” derided the Spanish as “bad people” and briefly threatened to cut off all trade in goods with Madrid.

Today, the president who in March dubbed the country a “loser” had to celebrate Spain as the winner of a World Cup that Trump worked to make his own. He was primed to hand the sports world’s greatest prize to captain Rodri in front of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, King Felipe VI and a global television audience of more than one billion."

Sánchez, in a column for Spanish news outlet El País published Sunday before the final, largely avoided the U.S. clash, though did highlight his nation’s ethos beyond the soccer field.

“That’s the team that inspires passion. With the fluid, courageous style of play that defines us. But also with the values that shape our nation,” the Spanish prime minister wrote.

“A Spain that conducts itself with humility and respect for its opponents. And that relies on collective talent to win and show the world the beloved and respected country it is,” he added.

"I'll  take the ball and go home now"

ROBERT MADE THE GRADE

 Richard reminded me that Robert hadn't received his certificate yet so I had a word with Him above and he told me to give him this:

I won't tell you his exact words but he did add - " ... and tell him that he won't be getting one from Mum (sorry, I'll rephrase that) he won't be getting a certificate from Mum because she thinks he's creepy with all that excessive praying of the Rosary stuff. The occasional 'Our Father' is OK but umpteen 'Hail Marys'? Sheesh!"

BREAKING NEWS*

 * (Not 'necking brews' as it's too early - wait for 'wine o'clock' at 4pm).

Richard of Richard's Bass Bag has just completed 200 hours of music practice!

• 148 1/2 hours of violin.
• 29 1/2 hours of double bass.
• 22 hours of guitar.

These are concentrated hours of serious practice. They don't include gigs, band rehearsals or jams (but mainly because no-one invites him to any of those anymore).

He deserves an award for this achievement and ... here it is:

No need to thank us.

For a small fee this certificate can be personally signed by The Curmudgeon and The Music Curmudgeon. It can also be printed in sharper detail (again for an extra contribution) and, seeing that we are dealing with a schoolteacher, the American spelling can be converted at no charge.

BEWARE GREEKS BEARING GIFTS

 We went to see The Odyssey yesterday.

When I first heard of this production I decided it would be crap and took no further interest.

Later, just prior to the release of the film there was a lot of positive criticism coming out and, I thought, that as I've liked Matt Damon in numerous films and he director Christopher Nolan has made some good ones - what could be wrong?

Everything as it turned out.

The production is noisy and overblown. The script is atrocious along with the bad acting. Homer's Odyssey is totally distorted with a few of the sensational bits kept in. In short I was pissed off with it.

It annoys me when great stories are cocked up by ego-driven cinematographers and such a powerful story as the Odyssey deserves to have been made well given the money, technology and resources available. The Lord of the Rings had two abysmal productions before Peter Jackson stepped up and did a damned fine job with it. I would like to think that a decent (non American or American-influenced) director and some European or Chinese or Indian money brokers could come to the rescue and make a better job of it than this travesty.

I studied Homer's Odyssey in the 7th form at school and was captivated by it. I might now have another go at reading it nearly 60 years later to wash away this Americanised crap that has polluted my memory and senses.

BEWARE GEEKS BEARING GRIFTS

I told you that I've got my phone and iPad connecting properly to the internet again via SPARK. This is good for sending and receiving emails but not good in that a lot of the incoming communications are grifts from geeks.

Current internet grifts are largely AI deep-fakes and deceptive e-commerce platforms that cybercriminals use to steal identities and steal money.

Scammers use AI video and audio clones of prominent figures to promote fake cryptocurrency and get-rich-quick schemes. 

Fake online shops and marketplaces lure buyers with purportedly huge discounts to collect credit card details or to take the money and then send nothing at all. 

Fraudsters target job seekers with fake job offers on platforms like LinkedIn, sending attachments containing malware or charging a processing fee to secure employment. 

Pop-up warnings or unsolicited texts from tech support people claim a device has a virus or that the platform needs updating. Victims are urged to call a number and grant remote access to their computer, allowing the scammer to steal passwords and bank accounts. 

Urgent text messages or emails claiming to be from authorities or utility companies contain links to fraudulent sites aimed at stealing personal information or demanding immediate payment.

Sheesh! Maybe it was better being incommunicado.

AN UPDATE OR, "UP YOUR DATE" AS MY DAD USED TO SAY.

"What's been happening on the blogs?" is a question that's seldom posed but I'll tell you anyway.

Not much.

You probably want examples though so here goes:

Richard, as per usual is banging on (fortunately he's not a percussionist) about his stringed instruments practice. It's about as riveting as - well, something that's not riveting I guess. Make your own mind up:

I'm enjoying playing my guitar. I'm working on four tunes - Autumn Leaves, Manha De Carnival, Sweet Georgia Brown and Nature Boy. I have been working out nice chord voicings for chords like Bm7b5 and E7b9. It is interesting that Bm7b5 contains the same notes as Dm6 (B D F A / D F A B) and E7b9 contains a diminished chord with its E root (G# B D F).

"Whatever"

Robert's back on his Catholic religion nonsense and seems to be getting worse. This is what he wrote this morning:

I won't go to the sacrament of Penance. I did that during the week at St Mary of the Angels. The priest listening suddenly exclaimed in an incredulous voice "That's not a mortal sin...did you intend to offend God?". I still chuckle when I think back to that. I like him. Can't remember his name. About my own age.

Unbelievable! Which doesn't apply to Robert evidently as he prefers to believe what some social misfit in a dress tells him. Has anyone got a bridge to sell him? I'll take 10% commission.

As for me? This post is just a filler as I'm cooking up a doozy of a post to write later.

Stay posted.

I HOPE THAT YOU'RE OK

"I hope that you are OK" - I commented on Richard's increasingly infrequent blog and was about to inform him that I didn't post yesterday myself because I had an AF spike and wasn't feeling well.

This immediately made me think of 'parallel universing' (a Richard construction) where when someone tells a story, a listener indulges in one-upmanship by telling another, similar but often grander story. Think Monty Python's 'Four Yorkshiremen'.

The Four Yorkshiremen skit was borrowed from the earlier Peter Cook and Dudley Moore - Pete and Dud - in a Not Only But Also skit:

Now that's classic parallel universing.

WELL I'VE NEVER BEEN TO SPAIN, BUT I SURE DO LIKE ...

 ... their attitude.

The World Cup Football has reached the final stage with Spain set to play Argentina on Sunday (NZ time).

I will be barracking for Spain even though I supported Argentina in their semi-final match where they beat England yesterday.

Why do I care? 

I don't really as I don't follow soccer and most sports except that I like to watch the big events sometimes. Normally I wouldn't give a toss as to who wins as New Zealand in my lifetime will never be a contender but this time, due to geopolitical events, the outcome will be interesting.

You no doubt remember the orange idiot raging against Spain at the NATO summit in Turkey recently where Trump got his panties twisted over Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s refusal to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP and Spain’s ban on US forces using jointly operated military bases for offensive operations in Iran. 

Well, during the July NATO summit in Ankara, Trump ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt all trade and commerce with Spain, calling the country a "terrible partner" and a "wasted cause". 

Sánchez in turn declared the US-Israeli campaign against Iran an "extraordinary mistake", denied US overflights, and capped Spain's defense budget at roughly 2.1% of GDP and played down Trump's threats, noting they had a "cordial" conversation at the summit and pointed out that similar US threats to halt commerce do not align with EU single-market trade rules. Well done that man!

"Well done that man"

Given this background, wouldn't it be great to see Spain win the FIFA World Cup in the final being played in USA especially when the orange idiot bullied FIFA into playing the American national anthem at the game (unprecedented in past tournaments).

... AND THE GLAD RAGS

Look, I admit it - I do moan about a few things and have complained about women's handbags in the past. See: HERE and HERE but it is forever a bone of contention.

What got me going again today is in finalising our booking for next month's flights to Australia. I've booked to include a suitcase each with a view to taking a small backpack as carry-on luggage to include my iPad, phone, wallet etc. No doubt I'll have to do battle to find overhead locker space for even this as there will be idiots taking on medium sized suitcases as carry on luggage. This has become a given and I'm used to it.

What I've never got used to though is that women will have stored luggage, a medium size suitcase as carry on luggage, probably a small backpack to carry the things like I put in mine .... plus a bloody great handbag that is larger than all the other shit they bring on-board. What's that about?

I also get pissed off when visiting art galleries, museums and public places where carry bags have to be checked in at the front desk. I use a small backpack to carry my phone, wallet and a water bottle and am forever asked to check this in. Going straight through though are women carrying handbags that are much bigger and cumbersome than my small backpack.

Sheesh!

TEARS IN MY EYES

My Trade Me auction for a Spode dinnerset was passed in .

It did have over 800 'views' but only one 'watcher'. 

It's a sad fact of life that nowadays 'good stuff' is largely unwanted or people don't want to pay sensible prices for quality, preferring to buy cheap shit on special at Briscoes or The Warehouse.

Ageing baby boomers, who I'm part of, are dying off and leaving their long-held treasures behind. Most often the younger members of the family don't want this stuff or have no room to store or display it in their modern houses and flats. The charity and junk shops are choc-a-bloc with lovely paintings, glassware, ornaments and classic china dinnerware. Sad really.

Before I listed on Trade Me I asked the owner of the multiple shops at Thorndon Antiques if he had any interest in the set. He almost broke down and tears came into his eyes as he told me that he had no room in his shops for ceramics and dinnerware and that people weren't buying quality stuff anymore.

What to do? I guess I will have to donate it to charity.