Bits and Bobs

Howdy all.

I'be been meaning to sit down at the blog for a little while now and put fingers to the keyboard. I'll give y'all a quick wrap up on the last few weeks or so.

I had a hankering to go to the States and had planned to go on a photo-holiday in June to Montana. I subscribe to (U.S.) Popular Photography magazine amongst others and they, in conjunction with Nikon and some pro-shooters have these two week photo 'safari's' to capture great images and learn compositional technique and digital skills. Man I was SO looking forward to it - the Teton mountains, open spaces, old western towns, cowboys etc.,etc. it was gonna be awesome, but it was sold out in weeks. So I'm hoping that they'll run a second course due to popular demand and will go on that. If that doesn't come through, then there's another one in one of the Carolina's (can't remember if it was north or south and I don't have the mag handy to check), but that looked cool too.

I have to check my passports (U.K. & Aust - I have dual citizenship) to see if I need that new biometric data chip thing in the back, so a phone call to the Embassies in Geneva will be on the cards.

The snow/ski season is alas now just about done except at higher altitudes. I've been going most weekends and went to my favourite x-country place (Samoens - 1,700m) last Sunday. It was quite warm and the snow is just starting to get a wee bit soft. There's another week of mild weather this week but we may get a late final snowfall (I hope!). The lady up there knows me now and just hands me my skis, poles and boots without barely missing a beat.

If it stays warm then it's the 'tween-season' period where you can't ski anymore but it's still too wet to hike, so as the Easter break is coming up soon with a four day break I'll be heading south to Provence to the sun and exploring the Roman villages, Aix-en-Provence and the insides of one or two bars with the locals. The last time I was down there I got chatting to a local at the gas station who couldn't place my 'French' accent with the region indicated on my license plate and when I told him where I was from it turned out he used to be in the Army and had been to Sydney years ago on exercises. Small world.

The building of the apartment(s) is plodding along nicely and since most of the tedious contract paperwork is done they rarely bother me these days except to ask for the next instalment cheque ha,ha!

Work is work. Way too much for everyone to do and not enough people to handle it all. Still, my darn lottery numbers refuse to get picked so yours truly will most likely be among the ranks of the working Joes for a wee while longer!

Later all...

The U.S. Elections - random thoughts...

Is it just me or does the U.S. Presidential election campaign seem like it has been going since the start of the Civil War?! Dear God what a drawn out process... I think if I were a U.S. voter I'd be tempted to vote for the Skipper and Gilligan just as long as they promised it would finish!

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I've been reading the International Herald Tribune lately which draws articles from the New York Times amongst other papers and some of the journalists have been indulging in quite a lot of self-love about how the whole world is 'transfixed' watching this 'great democratic drama' unfold, etc.,etc. Uhmmm, well, not quite... Everyone elsewhere in the world knows that (a) they got thorougly hoodwinked last time with Dubya and (b) seven years of being beaten around the head with Bush's 'my way or the highway' policies means they're watching this like hawks to see they don't get sold another pig in a poke...One can imagine the world is thinking 'Do we send out the BBQ invitations in November to the new tenants or do we pull down the blinds and pretend no one's home?...

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Who's gonna win? The political pundits tried to prematurely pick (influence?) the winner of a process that lasts for well over a year before even the end of the primaries in New Hampshire and Iowa. So it was with great delight and much solidarity with the average working Joe (and Mary) that I saw the voters go ahead and pick who they (and not the pundits) wanted! On ya!

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An Anglo wit once said, '300 million people and that's the best you could come up with?'

Thompson - out. A movie actor and political lightweight who had no idea about policies except what was written down on a script for him.

• Mitt Romney - Just pulled out. Telling Michigan he can bring back thousands of vanished auto jobs was as irresponsible as telling people he'd bring back jobs at shipyards working on Tea Clippers. They're gone and those days are over. Almost as bad was his wanting to relax gas mileage standards. Everyone is talking about the end of easy oil and the energy crisis that will cause; the U.S. is having all sorts of foreign policy and economic difficulties precisely because of foreign oil dependance/over-usage and he wanted to go and worsen that. OMG!

• John McCain - front runner (R). Although his policies are basically Bush-lite, he seems steady, intelligent and prepared to go against the current on issues when necessary. Still too overbearing on F.P. for my tastes by you could at least work with him. But 71 (72 next year)? I think the whole military/POW thing is overdone too. I respect the guy and hey, hats off to ya, but that was half a century ago.

• Mick Huckabee - still pitching. Although you tailor your speech and policy to your audience(s), blue-collar steel workers one day, Wall street types the next, he seems like his policies change according to the data from the advance teams demographic surveys. Not this is 'my' message just fine-tuned for you, but rather this is 'any' message that I've been told you're 65% more likely to want to hear. Hmmm....

• Hillary Clinton - tied front-runner. Almost all the Americans I know had passionate feelings one way or the other about her which was surprising. Anway, she tap-danced a lot about voting for and then against Iraq. Now prevaricates about pulling out of there but only in a 'partial' withdrawal leaving troops for just this task and just that task and so on and so forth. Well heck, add that all up and that's almost as many as are currently there now. So who's coming back? Private Ryan's nephew? Sounds to me like being just a little bit pregnant? Sounds like he's trying to have a bet both ways - saying she had a troop withdrawal but also saying that she's left soldiers there too.

• Barack Obama - tied front runner. Smooth, calm, diplomatic, say he's prepared to work with the world rather than give it orders and demands (Messrs Bush? McCain?). Strong on understanding policy details and the philosophy behind them. Can land the odd jab on the chin when needed, but as one columnist wrote today, 'can he stand up to the attack machine' that will be blasted at him soon? Not sure....

Anyway. Drink lots of coffee 'cause this election thingo will still be going in November.

And it all started off so well...

Nicolas Sarkozy has been in power for a while now and everyone - yours truly included - had high hopes.

But a few months down the track and as we say in Oz, there aren't a whole lotta runs on the socreboard.

He promised to do something about the 'we get paid tons but do bugger all work' train drivers/ public servants etc and their retire at 55 sweetheart deals while everyone else has to slog to 65. Final result? A fudge that looks almost the same as the what the situation was before.

He promised to reform the concrete-rigid labour laws so that employers could hire people without being legally wed to them until the end of time or sued otherwise (I'm all for labour protection from voracious capitalism, but no one should expect a job literally for life). Final result? Ermmm. They're still looking into that one...

He promised to do something about the restrictive 35 hour week. Result? A kinda sorta band-aid fix.

He promised modernisation, but instead has re-instated an age old practice where ministers can also run for local government office at the same time. it's like being the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs (Aus)/Secretaty of State for the Foreign & C'Wealth Office (U.K.)/Secretary of State (U.S.), whilst also saying your the full time Mayor of Canberra/London/New York. It's nothing but a blatant rort and job protection scheme so in case you f**k up as a Federal Minister, you can golden parachute back into the local position. Something no other person in the workforce enjoys. And Besides, isn't being a national minister/Mayor supposed to be a full time job? So which job/which citizens are you short-changing?

He promised to do something about falling purchasing power. You're average Mom & Dad French person is hurting big time in the wallet. Prices are up, housing is up, but wages are stagnant or falling. Result? He went on another vacation (using rich friends houses, jets etc.) to enjoy the dubious charms of the man-eating and arrogant heiress - Miss Bruni - who thinks that monogamy is 'boring'.

His relationship with her has now made him the laughing stock of Europe. Cartoons and jokes are popping up everywhere (Low cost carrier Ryanair being just the latest). Europeans and Brits (and Australians for that matter) are generally very pragmatic about politicians partners/lover affairs. They figure that as long as you turn up to work, do a good job and the relationship doesn't interfere with your job, then que sera sera. But the President of the French Republic could (and should) do better than this ageing groupie.

(Say what you will about old Jacques Chirac, but Madame Bernadette Chirac was the epitome of discretion, grace and manners and the French had a huge respect for their former First Lady).

He's not doing his job, he's taking too much time off and he's descending into Britney Spears/Paris Hilton territory and all in all it's not a good look. His poll humbers are in free fall and if he doesn't do something soon he will be a very short-lived President with no electoral capital.

So Nick mate. Ditch the groupie, get back to work and start going through that 'to do' list. Talking about 'La Gloire' of the Republique isn't gonna wash with Madame and Monsieur citizen for much longer...