less cars : roll on $2 per litre

On 2006-08-15, Claude (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

"TimC" wrote in message
...
On 2006-08-15, (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

It craps me when people with V8s complain about the cost
of fuel. Now I am beginning to think that people with gardens
who whinge about the cost of food are much the same.

Did you mean "without" there? Sentence parses but doesn't compile,
otherwise.

Er, he's saying that people who have large yards, but don't use them to grow
veges and fruit, **** him off when they complain about the cost of food (?)

Could be. And similarly, people who plant non food, non native
plants, that need any watering.

Nothing in my yard ever gets water, apart from the 3 pot plants full
of herbs. Except that more often than not, I forgot to water them too
Alas poor Rosemary, for I didn't think it was possible to kill ye.

Yet the grass is perfectly green all year around (apparently council
people accused my next door neighbour of illegally using water because
their lawn was so healthy), my bottle brushes are perfectly healthy,
as is the gum like thingy out the front.

--
TimC
Disinformation is not as good as datinformation. -- unknown

On 2006-08-15, TimC wrote:
On 2006-08-15, Donga (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
Sure there
are choices in all this. I could use the local high and primary
schools, for demonstrably worse educational outcomes.

They wouldn't be worse if there weren't so many people thinking like
you.

You're both right. Donga is thinking in terms of the outcome for his
children in particular. TimC is thinking in terms of the outcome for
society as a whole.

Trouble is, no parent is prepared to let their children suffer in the
name of improving public education.

You are demonstrably quite happy paying the premium on a good
education -- send them to the local school and donate it some money
ontop of their regular fees (with the condition that they do not look
more favourably upon your kids through rose tinted glasses when it
comes time to giving end of year reports).

You're assuming that money will resolve the problem. It will in the long
term, but only if the good teachers can be attracted to the public
system. In the short term, it'll make diddly squat difference,
especially if only one person does it.

What we *need* is for the government to retract the funding from private
schools (especially Catholic schools), and put it into public education.
Such a move would be political suicide, though, alas ...

--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@" to "usenet".

In aus.bicycle on 14 Aug 2006 20:44:56 -0700
Donga wrote:

Thanks ya *******. I have three kids who are involved in a lot of
activities. It simply can't be done without driving. This petrol hike

do they all have to go in the same vehicle? A 250cc scooter and a
helmet each....

Zebee

gplama wrote:

The worrying part is, even if we only ride bikes, we are
not immune from this in any way. Imagine postage/freight
costs, air fairs, FOOD. Damn it, I like my food!

Yeah, that's why all the frozen peas in my local Woolies come fron NZ,
and the tinned tomatoes and pasta come from Italy, and why the rice is
from Thailand. It's 'cos freight is so expensive.

I suspect the price of fuel could go up by an order of magnitude, and
it'd have stuff-all effect on the price of food.

Cheers,

Suzy


--
suzyj

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 05:30:56 GMT
TimC wrote:
On 2006-08-15, Donga (aka Bruce)

I live 12 minutes drive away on a good run. I can
ride it in 18 and do when it's just me and I don't need to be
'dressed'. It's not a safe ride for my kids, nor could they do it
practically with the varying hours and the gear they need.

Sorry, but I don't think the world has changed that fundamentally in
the past 15 years. I could do it 15 years ago, why not your kids?

Depends to some extent on how the roads have been changed.

There are more cars - if there weren't then the problem wouldn't be as
bad. Most public schools have been overtaken by traffic, they are in
areas that have more people and many are by what were largish local
roads and are now through roads.

I wouldn't have a problem with kids living where I lived in 1970
riding to my primary school as I expect they'd do what I did - on the
footpath on the busy road and then in the suburban streets that don't
have more traffic than they did when I was there.

The high school route has more traffic on the main roads but I didn't
take them then and no need to now. Wiggle up the back streets, cross
at the lights, wiggle up more back streets.

But if someone's in a choked area with lots of traffic on all roads I
can see they wouldn't want kids under 12 on those roads. Once they
are in high school they are way more resilient than people give them
credit for, especially if they ahve been riding all over the place on
their pushies on the weekend. I believe there is a lot to be said for
the "get the hell out and only come back when you are hungry!" method!

Zebee

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:42:34 +1000
gplama wrote:


The worrying part is, even if we only ride bikes, we are not immune
from this in any way. Imagine postage/freight costs, air fairs, FOOD.
Damn it, I like my food!

Grow it.

If you have a house with a backyard you can grow a fair few veges.

Zebee

In aus.bicycle on 14 Aug 2006 22:21:33 -0700
wrote:

So last week I finally got around to laying out a vege garden.
Rhubarb, cucumber, capsicum and silverbeet to start with We
already have various herbs and lettuce in with the flowers.

Watch out for the beet tree!

I grew vegies for a while, but various things led to the silverbeet
being neglected. I didn't realise they could grow 8 foot tall!

Zebee

On 14 Aug 2006 19:52:10 -0700, "AndrewJ" wrote:

Is it just my imagination, or are there actually less cars out there?
Seems to me that it is starting to reduce slightly.

Roll on $2 per litre.

Which means absolutely everything will cost more.

Roll diesel back to 50 cents per litre.

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 04:12:07 GMT
Friday wrote:


When I was a kid if I wanted to go somewhere I had to walk or ride my
bike. Choir, debating and theatre didn't exist back then, never did me
any harm.

They existed for me, if I wanted to go then I had to take the bus. So
when I was singing in the folk club I had to take bus and train to get
there and bus and train home late.

Theatre was the same - I did a summer of theatre workshop and that
meant a 45min bus trip.

School sport was harder - usually cycle to school on a Saturday and
take the minibus to away games. (Rich school...) else bus and train
again. Sometimes someone else's parents would ferry but couldn't rely
on that.


Zebee

In aus.bicycle on 14 Aug 2006 21:15:05 -0700
Donga wrote:

Friday wrote:

When I was a kid if I wanted to go somewhere I had to walk or ride my
bike. Choir, debating and theatre didn't exist back then, never did me
any harm.

Nor did gears on bikes when my dad cycled. Do you ride a single speed
with coaster brake because of that argument? Come to think of it, my
recent forebears struggled to afford chaff for their horse.

Do you complain that multigear bikes are too expensive so anyone
saying "singlespeed is usable" is mean?

Your kids can take the bus just like I had to if I wanted to go
anywhere. Won't kill 'em. Will teach 'em to manage. If they can't
get up early enough they don't want it enough.

If there's no public transport then they have to find something that
has it.

It will happen, they'd best get used to the idea.

Zebee