First Time for Everything !

On their way home from putting their kids in to high school, two ladies break the two days of flying with an ovvernight stop at the Wayside Tavern.

Neither of them has ever before entered a restaurant.

They have never before had a cocktail.

They have never before heard of a cocktail.  They have no concept of what a cocktail is.

They ate a restaurant meal, they drank a cocktail (a "mai tai" each)

The Wayside Tavern dishes up the best tucker north of Adelaide.

It was the first night on duty (and his second night in the country) for the barman in the Wayside Tavern's cocktail bar.

This country is much larger, and the backgrounds and experiences of the natural born citizens more diverse than one may first think.

Wish Granted!

Been griping about the amount of air time ABC news & current affairs programmes have been devoting to the Global Warming scam?

Been hurling the sherry glass at the tv screen in sheer frustration at the amount of airtime ABC news & current affairs have devoted to the 100th-tier issue of "gay marriage"?

Your wish has been granted!

For some years the abovementioned two matters have been (to the ABC) the biggest event since Adam & Eve ate the apple.....

..... not any more, for the ABC hasn't a moment to spare, so busy it is getting stuck into Rupert Murdoch.

You'd swear Mr. Murdoch is the Anti-Christ incarnated.  (If you actually believed what you see and hear on ABC news & current affairs, that is).

The ABC's fanatic obsession has been pursued to the point where their Murdoch-666 obsession has become comedy.

The nadir came on Monday night's Media Watch programme on ABCTV.
Nobody can produce and actually put to air an episode such as Monday night's, not and maintain any claim to be journalists.

Prime Minister Abbott:  Don't just cut ABC funding to the bone - the news & current affairs section needs to be completely dismantled, and started again, with entirely new faces.

Vote Winning Policy

Reasons to vote for the Liberal Party in the upcoming Australian Federal election are manifold.

Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott provides yet another:

He will legislate for small businesses to receive the same consumer protections that individuals receive.

This alone is sufficient to be worth voting for him & his party.

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It is not possible to overstate the deleterious effect to a small business of not having any rights as a consumer.

Big business, government, and particularly gypsies & conmen, all brutally capitalise on the fact that small businesses have (pretty much) no consumer rights whatsoever.

There is an entire industry of rip-off artists and conmen who are allowed to exist, purely to fleece unsuspecting small businesses.

There is an entire section of big business that exploits small businesses without any mercy.

The Labor Party, during their current term in office, was given the opportunity to enact these protections.  However the Labor Party, by deliberate inaction (as opposed to brainless incompetence) chose to not protect small business.

One may conclude that the Labor Party is the party of Big Business.

One may be correct.

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Mine Host looks forward to Prime Minister Abbott protecting the little blokes from the brutes of the corporate world, and from the vultures of the gypsy world.

Mine Host is unsure how many voters he can influence, but Tony Abbott has convinced him to try. The federal electorate which hosts the Wayside Tavern can at times come down to only a few hundred votes. On a good day Mine Host may be able to influence that number of voters.

Don't vote for the Dingo

Reasons to not vote for the Liberal Party (in the upcoming Australian Federal election) are manifold.

Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott provides yet another:

Just before a recent leaders debate, Tony Abbott announced a $5,000,000 (Five Million Dollar) gift of taxpayer money to a Brisbane Rugby League Football club.

The lucky club is already one of the wealthiest community organizations in the nation, for it has been granted (at no cost) 280 poker machines, which collectively yield say $10,000,000 annually.

.... and Tony Abbott gives this club another $5 million that has been hoovered from taxpayers.

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Mine Host to Tony Abbott:  Where is my $5 million (to extend the Wayside Tavern building, and provide "better facilities" for my community?)

The Wayside Tavern has already been levied more than $100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Dollars - from a country pub) for extensions and redevelopment at Lang Park (cynically known now in the hotel industry as: "pub park" or "hotel park").

Mine Host is unsure how many voters he can influence, but Tony Abbott has convinced him to try.  The federal electorate which hosts the Wayside Tavern can at times come down to only a few hundred votes.  On a good day Mine Host may be able to influence that number of voters.

America is Kaput

This has gone too far!

Every rodeo clown in the USA should strike.
Every rodeo rider should strike.
Every American should boycott every state fair.
Every decent human being should wear an Obama mask and march on Washington DC.

Perhaps a million-mask march.

For Richer or Poorer, in Sickness & Health.... etc

Perhaps Mine Host fosters a workplace culture of enterprise and individual achievement.
Perhaps Mine Host selects enterprising types as staff.
Perhaps it is pure chance.

But at least three (3) people who have been low level employees of the Wayside Tavern (with seat out of their pants, blah blah) have within a few short years become larger than average entrepreuers.

Two of them with debts now of more than $5 million.  (Good on 'em!)

A third, having made a lot of money with nothing more than his hands and a mobile phone, has entered into a business where he places capital at risk (a shop).

This has gone quite badly, it looks as if he'll lose his shirt.

But it ain't over yet.  He's putting tremendous effort (likely in vain) into saving the business.

His wife, has she pulled out the stops to support him, making the home front as much a sanctuary as possible, cooing & cah-ing over him, and giving him both refuge from the worries of the world and mental/spiritual comfort, in his time of distress?

Pig's rear end she has!  The bitch has just about pulled the plug on him, calling his judgement into question, implying he is a failure & "loser", and haranguing him day & night at home, over his "blowing" of the fortune he had built up.

She's on the verge of moving out with the kids, and going back to her parents (who are rich - very rich)

Perhaps it is confirmation bias, but this is a very common response by women to their man facing financial or other hardship.

The added distress for this man is almost impossible to imagine.  He never considered even looking at another woman, lives for his kids and what he can provide for them, and loves his wife dearly.
The distress caused by just the thought of his children no longer living under his roof, is, to a practicing Roman Catholic almost intolerable.

He is young, resilient and resourceful.  He'll make another fortune (and if she pulls the plug she won't share in it.)
Neither will she notice or care, as her father is not just rich, but Rockerfeller type rich.

Even if she doesn't move out, she is making his life hell at a time when he needs support and reassurance that he has a loving family.

Instead she's jerking the rug from under him.

Hell has a special place for such women.

Can't tell Daylight from Dark

A depressingly common theme is the inability of (some members of) the general public to recall very recent events and movements in their daily life.

Specifically, which pub they were in last night, this morning, or even ten minutes ago.

Many times has Mine Host's time and patience been wasted by a person angrily demanding replacement or refund (or something) for defective liquor that "was bought from your pub mate" - this often despite a price tag or some other label clearly showing the name of another pub.

When this is pointed out, the complainant will become angry, defensive, and (to cut a long story short) mystified how the other pub's name got there ".... coz I know I got it from your place mate".

Finally they wander off, believing they've been had by Mine Host, but unable to figure out how.

This happens only with dim-witted bogans and Kath & Kim types?  Think again.

Think that well critiqued & properly constructed online reviews for hotels are left by sophisticated white collar types who are smart enough to at least know which hotel/resort they stayed at?  Think again.

At the online customer review site Trip Advisor, two of the reviews of the Wayside Tavern are clearly and obviously intended for another business.

These two reviews go into detail of the building, the layout, method of construction, materials used, and lots of other things that are a dead giveaway.

Yep!  Some people are so stupid that they leave a trip advisor review on the page of the wrong business.

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As can be easily guessed, both of these reviews are very negative.  If anyone has the faintest idea how to get Trip Advisor to remove (or move) these reviews, it would be gratefully received.

Full Employment Economy

Believe the current polls/reports/whatever that suggest unemployment is on the increase in Australia?
Consider this:

The Wayside Tavern advertises a skilled job (on one of Australia's leading job bulletin sites).
The job ad, including the headline, clearly states the location as:

Beyond the Black Stump, Queensland.

There are a mere Three (3) responses:

The first applicant was well qualified and oh so very suitable, but upon discovering the job is not in Melbourne, flatly refused the position.

Mine Host is unable to comment on the other two applicants, as neither of them answered their phone.  Well not for 14 days - which is when Mine Host gave up trying their numbers.

Your Safety in Their Hands........

Late July 2013:   (say the date was the 27th)

 

Health inspection of the kitchens at the Wayside Tavern.

The council health inspector was the usual under-achiever with a chip on his shoulder and zero empathy for anyone whose survival depends upon producing something.

 

The health inspector, like many such jobsworths, had migrated some 20-odd years ago from the English Midlands.  Crikey, who wouldn't have guessed that?

 



In his zeal to do Australia what his ilk did to the midlands, he found (minor) faults aplenty.

The "most serious" fault was "out of date" milk in the fridge.

Several 2 litre bottles were declared "significantly" out of date, having expired 14 days beforehand, on the 13th of July.

 

 

"This is a maximum fine of $100,000  - (pause for effect) - per bottle." Gloated the health inspector in a beta-male accent that had a resonance akin to fingernails on a blackboard.

 

Mine Host was ordered to dispose of the "severe health risk" on the spot.  Not being this ... person's... personal valet, Mine Host did not get on his knees and begin clearing milk out of the fridge.

 

Instead the Head Chef was summoned, and asked to "arrange" for the milk in the fridge to be destroyed.

 

The health inspector, with ire now aroused at Mine Host's blatant refused to personally perform demeaning physical tasks when ordered to, reminded Mine Host of the maximum fine (per bottle) and stated that the "health risk" must be removed immediately.

 

Mine Host stated to no one in particular that any fine for out of date milk would be contested most vigorously.

 

(Nothing gets a badge-toting pommy jobsworth riled faster than a challenge to their "author-a-ie.")

 

At this point Mine Host stopped the kitchenhand who was removing the milk and visibly destroying it, and took a photo of the "use by" date on each bottle.

 

Mine Host's forecast:  There won't be any fines issued, not ever.