nothing to do with meldowns

[EternalOptimist]

I have been barrelling south through the great sandy desert in oz. Stopped for a few days in Mount Magnet looking through aboriginal cave art in 'the granites'.
I took a compass up into the hills and it was spinning more than Gordon Brown, but the view is a scene from a disaster movie with the open cast gold mines and spoil heaps everywhere. The missus reckons she has a nugget, but I havnt seen it yet.

The ozzie telly is brilliant, loads of stories about how well placed they are to weather the financial storms, followed by all the emergency measures they are taking to save the system. This morning the ozzie pm said 'The australian economy is sound, despite the guarantees I made yesterday'
gobsh i te

[Stan.goodvibes]

The missus reckons she has a nugget, but I havnt seen it yet.

Do you *really* want me to explain how to find it???

[NickFitz]

The missus reckons she has a nugget

nougat

[Stan.goodvibes]

The ozzie telly is brilliant, loads of stories about how well placed they are to weather the financial storms, followed by all the emergency measures they are taking to save the system. This morning the ozzie pm said 'The australian economy is sound, despite the guarantees I made yesterday'
gobsh i te

Um, first off, with a sig like yours, shouldn't you be a *little* less pessimistic?

Secondly, unlike the UK, Australia and New Zealand have pretty vibrant economies based largely on exporting raw materials and food to the world. Yes, the global 'recession' isn't going to help matters, but things are not looking anywhere near as grim as they are 'oop north' (in the northern hemisphere). I been working for 25 years in NZ and Oz and the UK and its a trend that NZ and Oz quite often have economic downturns when the rest of the world is booming, and visa versa.

When my contract is up next July I'll be looking to move abroad. I had planned on the UK, but now its looking more likely that my employment and lifestyle prospects will be better in Oz than the UK.

Just my 2c