Travel tales.
Yesterday was my last in Rome, after sorting my phone issue I wandered through the Jewish Ghetto, I’d committed myself to a meal at a less touristic Roman restaurant otherwise a lamb and fellafel kosher souvlaki beckoned, next time.
I visited the Shoah museum again which this time had an Auschwitz exhibition. Always heart-rending.
The lunch was excellent and I recommend the restaurant, already a queue of locals had formed for the 12.15 opening, in a location about a km from the main tourist area.
I tend to get into a little bit of a flap moving on to new places and spent a bit of time getting my travel ducks in a row, and of course, it wasn’t entirely clear if I had all the paperwork required.
The ferry sailed at 10, so 7 hours was pretty of time to get there in time.
No-one checked tickets on the regional train, let alone ‘super green passes’.
The Port and all the ferries are easy to see from the station and it was a nice walk along the esplanade , the bus driver at the station told me there was a shuttle to the ferries inside the station but of course I couldn’t see where to catch it, a couple of locals gave me directions but even I could see that route was ‘no pedones’. ‘Ask the man in the bar’ so I did, he laughed at me, the shuttle stop with twin shelters was right outside. It was dark is my excuse.
To get through the turnstile into the terminal you must pass the temperature test 35.9, my best so far.
Everything in order, to my relief, I was sent around to the embarkation point, naturally after my qr code failed to scan many times, there was a kerfuffle and phone calls were made, finally, it’s okay but you don’t have a barcode, leave your luggage and go back and get one.
Now the queue inside was long but no hurry, but then the lady who served me and was no longer at the counter spotted me and came out to ask what the problem was. A barcode? One minute.
Back to the embarkation point now behind a big group getting their passes scanned.
Waiting then went to put my luggage through the scanner, ‘on your way’ the gentleman said, no scanning for you.
I had booked the only cabin option, a four berth and had been worrying I might have to share with strangers so I asked at reception.
Of course he said indignantly, did he mean of course yes or of course no, I didn’t want to ask again.
Then another temperature check. 33 this time, you are dead the man told me smiling, I think, behind his mask . Several times now, I replied.
It’s like they don’t care. 🙂
I found the cabin (about the same size as my Roman apartment), boarding finished at 9 so I had about 2 and half hours to find it if it was of course not or of course yes.
At about 7.30 the engines started, that’s early, then at 8.15 we were clearly moving.
I’d fixed 10 pm in my head but it was 20.00 you idiot, just as well I was super early and hadn’t realised I was wrong earlier or my mild flap would have been a major flap.
Now 2 hours out from the port of Cagliari, I’ve had a message from my host and feel relaxed, sipping water so I don’t have to remask.

The government has accepted the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies’ proposal for “broader storytelling”. Institute chief executive Craig Ritchie told The Australian in 2021 that the new precinct should not ignore the frontier wars, but it was a chance to focus on the “rich untold story” of the long history of Aboriginal people and Australia.

No mention of cannibalism, infanticide, inter tribal warfare or the odd massacre of European settlers?

and then willingly lapped up the maggot, dog food and bovine excrement treat in the plastic bowl they’d left him.

Being seen to do something assists him politically.

That’s all he’s interested in.

Have we not learned that by now?

If there is any evidence Ms. Guiffre’s lawyers will attempt to extract it from Prince Andrew when he is deposed – i.e. questioned by them under oath – during the discovery process, which would be the next stage if the judge denies PA’s motion to dismiss.

Roger did you see the BBC he did? He’s a fucking moron: first for doing the interview in the first place and secondly for acting like a complete wanker.

From the interview from memory, to paraphrase:

BBC dragon queen : She said you went dancing and you were sweating profusely.
Andy Wanker: I don’t sweat it’s a medical condition that I never sweat. He was sweating during the fucking interview.

BBC dragon queen: She said you banged on this day.

Andy Wanker: well, well, well I went to X that evening to pick up pizzas for the kids and myself.

His legal team have since withdrawn the ridiculous no sweat response from the law suit defense and makes him look like a fucking liar.

The interview was an abomination and you want him to be guilty even if he is innocent, which I think he is in terms of banging this sheila (innocent) as she sounds like a serious money grabber.

Curiously, Andy wanker was named as part of the nondisclosure agreement Epstein signed in Florida back last decade.

Here’s my hunch, I reckon she’s lying, but the wanker did commit misdeeds while he was Epstein’s pal. It very likely it was other gals who form part of the non-disclosure (Florida). Interestingly she’s the only one to accuse him I think. Is there anyone else?

dover0beachsays:

January 5, 2022 at 7:28 pm

Rosie, as you’ll be in Sardinia, can you please try the maggot-infested cheese and report back.

Good luck with that.
Rosie tried my recommendation of spaghetti cacio e pepe and spat it out as “too rich and too salty”.
Miffed.
If pecorino is a bridge too far, maggot cheese won’t get a run.

He is a low IQ fucking moron….

Hardly Robinson Crusoe in the House of Windsor.

I ate the cacio e pepe!
Just find a little pecorino goes a long way so probably won’t try it again.

Roger did you see the BBC he did? He’s a fucking moron: first for doing the interview in the first place and secondly for acting like a complete wanker.

Firstly, he is as dumb as dog-shit.
Secondly, no-one has ever told him he is as dumb as dog-shit.
Surrounded by sycophants all his life telling him how bwilliantwy witty and sharp he is, he thinks he can wing it in an interview.
Which he did.
Right up until he crashed and burned.

Ahahaha! Our MP, Meryl Swanson, has tested +ve.

Ghastly woman; not that I’d wish the chunk virus on anyone; but a ghastly woman.

And before I recline to watch the last of season 4 of Yellowstone, here’s Tucker on why the Western nations, particularly the US are going big population:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ka7zKnzEfs

People on concessions and such will be viewed as ‘vulnerable’. While they may not be a significant voting bloc, they will have family who will be pleased they don’t have to pay.

The fact that it is 6.6 million Australians, not just the pensioners and disabled (well, actually disabled) will be glossed over with a nonchalance that only the most determined exertion and exacting practice can achieve.

There is not a single person involved in the decision who really needs to worry about cost.

It is the glory of consolidated revenue. Imagine how people might react if they were told how much of their taxes were spent on specific items. They may not enunciate what pissed them off, but would happily join their voices to whatever rhetorical cause matched their visceral but forbidden cause.

It is not a new idea. And much depends on the breakdown – how much of your money goes to universities compared to how much goes to nuclear physics and how much to political studies.

Making the fuckers who normally collude instead compete would be fun. The socialists and psycho-environmentalists who presently support each other and vote each other more funds instead squabbling over a dollar would be illuminating, each showing why the other was a scam. When universities were under the gun having the engineers fiercely arguing that they deserve more than political economists – perhaps bolstering their position by pointing out what they deliver tax payers in dollars of value.

I am not a leftist. I am not anticipating a proper society and the relations that must be set in stone – people must treat all spending as undeserving. But throw it all up in the air and let people scramble over what they think it should mean.

Rosie

That was a lovely travelogue. Reminded me of a solitary trip (husband doing a BMW motorbike safari in Oz) I did to Italy many years ago. I got escorted off a rail station by two burly rail cops in southern Italy because I had not “endorsed” my ticket, which was then the custom of the land. Me, protesting loudly.

But the worst was a bad case of bed bugs which I actually contracted in a 3 Star hotel. The trouble was that the bite marks appeared continually for the next week. It was winter so I was rugged up and wore gloves. But I was petrified that they would begin to appear on my face, and the airline would not let me fly home. So I brought forward my return. I will never forget it – train from Old Pompei to Naples, transfer to train to Rome, (bought a fake Prada briefcase for ungrateful daughter from seller near station), then shuttle to Leonardi Da Vinci airport, flight to Heathrow London, transfer to plane to Sydney. Met by husband at Mascot, driven down to a (then) holiday house on South Coast. All in 24 hours or so. Longest continual trip I have ever done.

But a great trip, nevertheless. Being a former Ancient Historian, I was able to amble around the archaeological sites of Rome at leisure with our irritating my other half. …..Hours wandering the Forum…the Capitoline Museum, Hadrian’s Villa, the remains of the Via Appia, up on the hill where the house of Livia (Augustus’ wife) stood, the remains of the Circus Maximus, the Pantheon…..and most important ( for me) the restored (I had not seen it restored) Ara Pacis – the tribute that listed the achievements of Augustus that tells us so much of the the rationale of Roman political life…..And then of course – Pompei and Herculaneum – which we had never visited in our previous trips to Rome….very few people there….it was wonderful.

Hope you also loved your stay, Rosie. Bon Voyage… and travel safely.

Roger did you see the BBC he did?

Only clips of it, which was enough to know it was a train wreck and gifted Ms. Guiffre’s lawyers with several free kicks. Andrew seems disinclined to accept advice, which for his advisers, not to mention his mother, must be a worry.

The Battenberg Clan are extremely inbred, that’s why they brought Philip Glucksburg into the family.

Err, Philip is the Battenberg. QE isn’t. Neither were any of her ancestors.

Seriously, Ed is a parody…has to be.

Compleat rubbish.
The Battenberg Clan are extremely inbred, that’s why they brought Philip Glucksburg into the family.
Philip did the rightie and sired Charles, who has reasonably good bloodlines and is quite smart,
but he retired from the Royal Boudoir after that.
The fathers of the other 3 are listed on the Net, so check that out if you like.

Not only factually incorrect (see Tim above) but a mishmash of conspiracy theories and outright wankery!

gawd- just keeps getting worse and worse

It was a mere $120K or so.

Epstein couldn’t believe his good fortune, slipped the creditor an extra $20K for his trouble and told Andrew not to worry about repaying it.

PA was thereafter part of Epstein’s security backup.

Mouse…meet cobra.

Err, Philip is the Battenberg. QE isn’t. Neither were any of her ancestors.

Wrong.

“Clearly”

LOL.

Wrong

Phew, that must be relief.

The ball is in your court, Ed.

I suggest you feign injury and forfeit.

Omicron crisis: Will your workplace mandate a booster? Eric JohnstonFollow @ejohnno

7:32AM January 5, 2022
171 Comments

A new front in the Covid-19 battleground is about to open.

Will the wildfire spread of the Omicron strain now push companies into requiring staff to have booster shots?

The chairman of food manufacturer SPC, Hussein Rifai, who led Australia’s first company to mandate the Covid-19 vaccination for workers, says he won’t be doing the same for the booster.

After rolling out a full vaccination policy in August, Rifai’s SPC workers have already beaten him to the third dose.

“We’re just not seeing a need for it,” Rifai says of mandating boosters. “Everybody is just going out and doing it.”

If someone has already gone to the trouble to getting two shots, “then the third one is not really a big leap of faith”, he says. Rifai got his booster shot two days before Christmas.

“It hurt for two hours and then I was fine,” he says.

More than 91 per cent of Australians over 16 have two Covid vaccination doses. The number for boosters is running at 10 per cent, although this is expected to rise quickly in coming weeks as new Covid case numbers stay high and more people become eligible.

Shortly after Rifai declared vaccines would be mandatory for SPC’s factory workforce and contractors – most who live around the central Victorian town of Shepparton – a string of businesses far bigger than SPC followed his lead. Even so, he faced a firestorm about the move from unions and a number of people outside the company.

Key names that have moved to a full or partial workforce vaccine mandate include Woolworths, Qantas, Coles, Telstra, Medibank and Virgin Australia. Others include the big miners and professional services firms PwC and Deloitte.

Several of these companies are also moving softly on the booster shot, pointing out – like Rifai – that if an employee was prepared to go the distance on the first two Covid vaccine doses, the conversion to the third will be extremely high.

Current advice from the federal Health Department recommends booster doses to give maximum protection against Covid-19. It is not known yet if we will need booster doses on an annual or longer basis.

At this stage Canberra has only strongly recommended people working in aged care consider having a booster dose, and hasn’t shifted to a compulsory mandate for the third shot.

West Australia Premier Mark McGowan has given employers in his state – including the big miners – some protection. Days before Christmas, he introduced a mandatory booster shot policy for all workers covered by vaccine mandates.

Those covered by the rule are required to have a third dose within a month of becoming eligible, which on current health recommendations is four months.

This policy extends to healthcare, education, construction workers and fly in, fly out miners scattered across remote sites around the state. This means that the likes of BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are demanding their workers have boosters there, but not in operations in other parts of Australia.

Still, McGowan’s month-long time line could be ambitious, given the current national rush on boosters, which is putting a squeeze on short term supply. Nearly 12 million Australians will be eligible for their booster shot by the end of the month.

A top legal authority on workplace vaccination policies, Heinz Lepahe, a partner with law firm HWL Ebsworth, says the law is not so clear cut when it comes to booster shots.

For businesses it’s important to know that, given the status of booster shot in most states and federally, it may not be in the same legal situation as the primary Covid shot.

The key difference is that the primary shots – the first two Covid doses – were mandated by federal and state governments in some workplaces – mostly health and aged care.

“We haven’t elevated the booster yet to be part of your full vaccination profile,” Lepahe says. “That’s partly because of supply and timing issues.”

Under workplace rules, companies introducing mandatory vaccination policies are required to have consultation with their workforce before pushing ahead.

This suggests a fresh round of talks between employers and unions may be needed if anyone wants to move to a mandatory booster outside of state protections.

Lepahe says at some point boosters will be seen as part of the full vaccination course, but given the rollout is still in its early days, that is likely to be some time off.

Outside of healthcare, businesses are even now finding their own path around compulsory vaccine policy, and legal tests will be needed for some time.

The law has tended to strongly support businesses that want to vaccinate their workforce where the workers could pose a risk to public health. This tends to come down to having a large number of customer-facing staff or businesses that have some links to healthcare.

Companies can’t just make a unilateral decision to impose a vaccine standard; they need to be prepared to make a case that the vaccine is required to keep employees and the public safe.

Several challenges to compulsory vaccination rules have already surfaced, the highest profile being mining union CFMMEU’s successful bid to oppose BHP’s demand that miners at the Mt Arthur open-cut coal mine in NSW’s Hunter Valley be fully vaccinated to work on the site.

In December the full bench of the Fair Work Commission ruled against BHP on the grounds it had not undertaken a meaningful consultation process. Had BHP done so, there would have been a strong case to move to a compulsory vaccine mandate, the ruling found.

The same pressure points will likely arise for workplaces requiring Covid test results – even rapid tests – before staff members enter a building or site.

Again, consultation will be the key, and issues will need to be thrashed out: how many tests, the frequency and who gets access to the information. The legal path is still being written and businesses are finding that they are on their own when it comes to a mandate.

More than 25,000 hate emails (and counting) later, SPC’s Rafai still says the vaccine mandate was the right thing to do. It was aimed at keeping them safe and the food producer running as the Delta strain was flaring across Victoria.

“We’re just trying to protect each other and to protect the population,” he says.

Wilhelm spoke perfect English. As did Nicholas II. Not many people know this.

They corresponded with each other – the Willy- Nicky letters/telegrams – in English, in the years leading up to Wobbly Wobbly One.

OK Shiv is the chick (Sarah Snook) from “Predestination” which was based on “All you Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlein.

Not a bad movie.

You have to admire Andrew for this, at least -sticking by his former wife and the mother of his daughters. If nothing else, apart from his war service, there is that, which is honourable.

Well, Ed seems to have consulted with his trainer and forfeited.

See you all tomorrow, Cats, God willing.

This is from the BBC

Tony Blair: Petition to block knighthood tops 600,000 signatures

Looks like we aren’t alone in our contempt for him.

Bizarre story by Heinlein, sort of poking fun at the whole idea of time travel.

“By His Bootstraps” was an earlier effort by Anson MacDonald which was a Heinlein pseudonym.

Eyrie says:
January 5, 2022 at 9:30 pm

Bizarre story by Heinlein, sort of poking fun at the whole idea of time travel.

“By His Bootstraps” was an earlier effort by Anson MacDonald which was a Heinlein pseudonym.

Thanks, I’ll check that out 🙂

Nathan Buckley proclaiming he would like it very much for the paparazzi to stop taking his photo.

Story doing the rounds a few years back about an internationally famous Australian songstress and twerker lunching in Williamstown with family and (mwah) close friends.
Media pack gathers in the park across the way.
Indignant macho(ish) member of the lunch party storms over and insists that their privacy be preserved.
A confused silence ensues, then one of the cameramen pipes up. “No idea what the fuck you are talking about mate. We’re here to cover the strike at the dockyards”.
Hasty and chastened retreat.

Indeed Yekaterinburg is named after her. Nice place to visit, take the wonderful Trans-Siberia rail.

The Memsahib enjoys train travel and the Trans – Siberian is on the bucket list. Any advice to prospective travelers?

Oh grate – now I’ll have to retire for the evening wallowing in complete indignity – being beaten to stating the bleeding obvious by poor ol’ Eddles.

Let us never speak of this again.

Zulu…that was me……I had also read that there is a strong rumour that Imre Nagy, at the time a Hungarian POW, partipated in the Imperial family’s execution in the cellar

Thanks, Cassie, the book made interesting reading.

SloMo does a pretty good Wile E Coyote impression.

The new Wall Street adage.

Tera Cap. As in US$1 trillion plus market capitalism.

Police checking identity documents after we disembarked.
I get out my passport and ‘that’ piece of paper.
Didn’t even look, all I got was arrivaderci.
No-one wanted to sell me a bus ticket so I just hopped on anyhow, missed my stop and had to walk down the mountain, then a little up the mountain again, was okay anyhow as the next stop has a large viewing area to the mountains on the other side of the port, very beautiful, even in the grey.
This time my ground floor apartment is on the second floor, but the view of the cathedral facade amends.
I was sent to a fancy restaurant for lunch, the primo pasta was very nice but definitely an entree.
I shall head down to the main drag for cheap and cheerful tomorrow.
The streets are so narrow in this part, the local bus service which would normally stop outside my building has been cancelled as the building two doors up is being remodelled, which appears to be everything but the facade being replaced, and the bus cannot pass the scaffolding.
It’s a very pretty area, very old and mostly free of graffiti and rubbish. I like it.
Now I’m sitting in the laundromat while the operator and her husband eat maccas out the back.

OSC
The gaurdain obit refers to a rare lung condition since childhood.
Perhaps a number of comorbities.

Agreed.

Investors may want to think twice about putting their money to work in China, contends DoubleLine founder Jeffrey Gundlach.

“China is uninvestible, in my opinion, at this point,” the bond king told Yahoo Finance in an interview at his California estate. “I’ve never invested in China long or short. Why is that? I don’t trust the data. I don’t trust the relationship between the United States and China anymore. I think that investments in China could be confiscated. I think there’s a risk of that.”

Gundlach’s comments came ahead of DoubleLine’s third annual Roundtable Prime investor event on Tuesday.

On train travel, I caught the train back to Perth after abandoning Melbournibad in the early 90s. Two days from memory. A saving grace I did book a sleeper though I’m pretty sure I didn’t get any sleep. After booking my flight the original Compass was launched and I could have flown home for about $250 (admittedly 1990 dollars).

Morale – leave train travel to Tim Fisher and old farts.