Dying
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@NTA said in Aging:
Every time I get frustrated with the political corporate shit, I look at the brickies building houses in searing heat, and think about the farm.I always think of the poor roofers, laying white colourbond roofs in 30+ temps, no thanks. Or mechanics in overalls inside a hot unconditioned workshop.
I did roofing (roofing labouring really) as a summer job a couple of year at uni. Now that is some bollocks work I never want to do again.
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Every time I get frustrated with the political corporate shit, I look at the brickies building houses in searing heat, and think about the farm.
I always think of the poor roofers, laying white colourbond roofs in 30+ temps, no thanks. Or mechanics in overalls inside a hot unconditioned workshop.
a couple of my best mates are roofers. It's insane the conditions they work in. Likewise the mates who paint them. Or the guy who spends most of his time installing solar panels. Roofs in 35+ is fucking ridiculous.
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Back on Aging: someone mentined having to get up to pee in the middle of the night. I now try to avoid any form of caffeine after 3PM and even stop water and other fluids after dinner. But at 4AM I'm still getting a kick from the bladder?
Think I need to exercise more. In my 30s when I got fit, I don't remember having any issues sleeping through the night.
Guys. Prostate check. Get it done. No joke, just get it done.
Completely agree @JC
As my Uncle passed away from it, my Father has it (along with dementia) and is being treated and managed but at age 77 he is more likely to die from other age related illnesses (especially the dementia) rather than the prostate cancer getting him and finally, my brother at 44 was diagnosed,
He had the new robot aided surgery and the after hasn't been fun for him and his wife.
Only just now, 3 years later can he get an erection with just the phizer rizer (blue pill). Previously, he had to take the blue pill plus inject some other drug directly into the old fella. Can you imagine just how much guts that takes, inject directly into the penis!!!
Needless to say, there sex life wasn't great the past three years but is improving now.
Aging certainly sucks. At age 52, like others have said, often having to rise in the middle of the morning to pee, then it's shite to get back to sleep.
Recovery from a decent session is now measured in weeks rather than hours (20's) and days (40's).
Funnily, like a previous poster wrote, my knees which gave me heaps of troubles throughout my late 30's and 40's are now fine but my wife, who is 9 years younger is often complaining of her knees bothering her.
Currently suffering from the rather unpleasant effects of an auto-immune disease, mesenteric panniculitis, which I've likely had for many years but is expressing itself much worse these days due to the body not being able to cope as well when you age.
Supermarkets, interesting topic. I've lived in Sydney (North Sydney these days to be precise) for 25 odd years and my observations as to the quality of produce is that it varies wildly. Depending on where you live and whether said supermarket has any local competition, you can get utterly shite but expensive produce or you can live in an area where the three big names, Coles, Woolies and Aldi are all in competition and prices will be down and quality up.
Funnily, I've also found some of the more affluent areas have some of the worst quality produce.
One thing I've always noted on my trips to NZ is that the shopping seems cheaper, certainly the alcohol is(!!!), the quality generally better but the range more limited.
Especially if you are shopping for in season produce, NZ rocks, Aus not so much. For example (or as per @NTA's latin lesson e.g.) we rarely buy apples from the supermarkets. They will be floury. soft and lacking in any flavour. Often, the are cold storage from the previous years.
However, it should be noted that some new apple varieties to hit the Aussie shelves such as the Jazz apple are actually seasonal from the supermarkets.
I can also say we hardly ever buy a orange for similar reasons, dry and often awful tasting.
Now to booze, as alluded to earlier, I'm like a kid in a candy store when walking into any NZ supermarket. All those awesome craft beers at prices which we pay for dross here! And yes, I am a real craft beer piston wristed gibbon, sans beard and beer gut.
The killer is, I was in Taupo last year for my cousins wedding, went to the supermarket to buy some beers and found that James Squires beers, brewed just across the bridge in Camperdown, are cheaper by half in NZ than in Sydney... now that right there was a WTF moment!
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@mariner4life said in Aging:
Every time I get frustrated with the political corporate shit, I look at the brickies building houses in searing heat, and think about the farm.
I always think of the poor roofers, laying white colourbond roofs in 30+ temps, no thanks. Or mechanics in overalls inside a hot unconditioned workshop.
a couple of my best mates are roofers. It's insane the conditions they work in. Likewise the mates who paint them. Or the guy who spends most of his time installing solar panels. Roofs in 35+ is fucking ridiculous.
Or the guys putting in the roof insulation, I did that once, fuck that.
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the quality generally better but the range more limited.
I actually find the opposite of this although it's generally in specific stuff like chocolate biscuits - no Australia, twenty different types of Tim Tams is not a good range of chocolate biscuits. Although in the last couple of years the 'home brand' biscuits of Coles seem to be mimicking NZ types (e.g toffee pops, mallow puffs etc). Coffee (plunger/beans) is the other big one, there's always a big range in NZ supermarkets but Coles and Woolies have a small range. I actually buy mine from Aldi because I like their 'organic' home brand ... although I hate shopping there as I have to a. line up and b. talk to an actual human to buy it.
Strawberries and chicken are easily the cheapest things comparatively over here - strawberries are the closest to fruit I eat and you can pick up punnets cheap as fudge.
Beer is weirdly expensive here.
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One of my first jobs was grinding out the inside of fibreglass boats to remove the "dags" from the chopped strand matt guns. Middle of summer inside a hull, outside in the sun, wearing overalls taped around the cuffs to stop the itchy shit getting inside. Huge safety gloves that didn't prevent shards getting into hands. Dust prevention masks that were just there to prevent you breathing, not stop inhaling the dust. Fucking nightmare - for minimum wage.
Reminds me of this:
"I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah"
And you try and tell the young people of today that ... they won't believe you
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@mariner4life said in Aging:
Every time I get frustrated with the political corporate shit, I look at the brickies building houses in searing heat, and think about the farm.
I always think of the poor roofers, laying white colourbond roofs in 30+ temps, no thanks. Or mechanics in overalls inside a hot unconditioned workshop.
a couple of my best mates are roofers. It's insane the conditions they work in. Likewise the mates who paint them. Or the guy who spends most of his time installing solar panels. Roofs in 35+ is fucking ridiculous.
Or the guys putting in the roof insulation, I did that once, fuck that.
My worst roofing job ever was one where the original guys had the wrong washers, so I had to remove the nail/screw (Can't remember), replace the washer and drill it back in (because they were too cheap to pay for new ones so we couldn't put the washers on beforehand). It was at the port in Napier ... I've never seen so many used condoms in my life. I think because the sewage pipes were nearby and the seagulls would pick them up and dump them there.
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the quality generally better but the range more limited.
I actually find the opposite of this although it's generally in specific stuff like chocolate biscuits - no Australia, twenty different types of Tim Tams is not a good range of chocolate biscuits. Although in the last couple of years the 'home brand' biscuits of Coles seem to be mimicking NZ types (e.g toffee pops, mallow puffs etc). Coffee (plunger/beans) is the other big one, there's always a big range in NZ supermarkets but Coles and Woolies have a small range. I actually buy mine from Aldi because I like their 'organic' home brand ... although I hate shopping there as I have to a. line up and b. talk to an actual human to buy it.
Strawberries and chicken are easily the cheapest things comparatively over here - strawberries are the closest to fruit I eat and you can pick up punnets cheap as fudge.
Beer is weirdly expensive here.
Agreed in that respect @Nepia . I was focusing more on produce, fruits and veggies in particular.
Some goods in NZ have a much better range than Aus, and vice versa. I guess it's what you focus on.
The one thing I definitely think is a whole lot better in NZ is the alcohol. Prices much much better than Aus due to better tax rules.
What shits me about being a craft beer piston wristed gibbon is that I'm getting used to paying between $16-18 for a single can of a good , strong craft beer. The other day I popped into a good brew pub and asked for a beer I saw they had on Untapped but didn't realise it was by can only and not on tap. The single can was get this... $34!
Sure it was some rare and amazing American 10% Double New England IPA but I just about spat out "what the fuck" when the barman told me. I then ordered a schooner of their own IPA (mind you that was $16 a schooner), drank that and walk out. Probably won't bother to go back.
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Beer is weirdly expensive here.
Australia loves a sin tax. Alcohol excise is complicated too as this article points out (https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/12/23/how-much-of-your-christmas-tinnie-is-going-to-the-taxman/). Then if that's not bad enough you have do-gooders arguing to make it even more expensive like these pole smokers: (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/12/a-tax-hike-on-alcohol-is-the-obesity-fix-australians-need-to-swallow)
It's refreshing to go OS and purchase alcohol. Grabbing a 500ml can of Sapporo from a vending machine for a couple of dollars, drinking in public without being hassled etc.
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@antipodean said in Aging:
Australia loves a sin tax.
Yet, they're the opposite with gambling, they (like NZ) let it become a normal part of sports entertainment and then don't crack down on the gambling companies when they break the laws (I have a mate who works for the advertising watchdog and they regularly break the times they can put ads on when streaming with little penalty.)
TBH, I always thought Oz alcohol prices was just a market thing (competition from being sold in supermarkets) in comparison with NZ - I don't think their tax on it would be hugely higher than ours (by their I mean Oz and ours I mean NZ, which is funny considering where I live).
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@RoninWC $50 two drinks, what is that bar so I can avoid it.
The Flat Rock brew cafe in Naremburn.
I didn't end up purchasing the $34 dollar a can beer, that was just stupid. Just the one schooner and left. Mind you, $16 for a schooner is crazy priced as well, that should be a pint at that kind of price.
Honestly though, the Flat Rock Brew cafe isn't a bad joint, but given the lower North Shore can be challenging depending on where you are, it isn't that bad. But yes, their prices are certainly up there.
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On booze, I find the range and pricing of wines in NZ far better than here in SYD. The old lady lives in Palmy, and there is a run of the mill bottlo across the road from the local Countdown that has all a great range of Australian wine at better prices than I can get them here, and a bunch of stock that you can't even buy here (Rockford Basket Press for example). And of course the NZ range is much superior.
Contrast to Sydney where it's just bulk buying of the same brands over and over and no variety. Very had to find an independent store selling interesting stuff.
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@antipodean said in Aging:
Beer is weirdly expensive here.
Australia loves a sin tax. Alcohol excise is complicated too as this article points out (https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/12/23/how-much-of-your-christmas-tinnie-is-going-to-the-taxman/). Then if that's not bad enough you have do-gooders arguing to make it even more expensive like these pole smokers: (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/12/a-tax-hike-on-alcohol-is-the-obesity-fix-australians-need-to-swallow)
It's refreshing to go OS and purchase alcohol. Grabbing a 500ml can of Sapporo from a vending machine for a couple of dollars, drinking in public without being hassled etc.
Wish there were more options that just an up vote or nothing. I would so give this post a " " if we had Facebook type reactions available .
Some of my bestest and fondest of memories is traveling throughout asia, even in moderate muslim countries like Malaysia, and buying a cheap local beer, usually in a 500ml bottle or can, and just sitting down where ever I happen to be and enjoying a cold one. Usually because it's mid-30's and 150% humidity.
Japan's vending machines in particular are just awesome, everything from cold beer to Johnny Blue to panties guaranteed to have been worn by a school girl - or so I've been told.
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Am I remembering this wrong but did you used to walk into a bottle shop and fill up your own 2l flagon of beer, cant recall seeing that here in Oz. Got stopped by the cops once walking down the street carrying two of them. Think I was 16 and drinking age was 20.
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@mariner4life said in Aging:
@Nepia my understanding is that there is a fair old tax on gambling.
I know for a fact there is on pokies. Pretty sure that extends to horses as well. Apparently just passed on to the punter in the form of shorter odds.
Oh yeah, I should have said the regulation rather the tax. I guess they're lax on the regulation due to the tax revenue.
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@RoninWC $50 two drinks, what is that bar so I can avoid it.
The Flat Rock brew cafe in Naremburn.
I didn't end up purchasing the $34 dollar a can beer, that was just stupid. Just the one schooner and left. Mind you, $16 for a schooner is crazy priced as well, that should be a pint at that kind of price.
Honestly though, the Flat Rock Brew cafe isn't a bad joint, but given the lower North Shore can be challenging depending on where you are, it isn't that bad. But yes, their prices are certainly up there.
TBH I barely ever venture to the North Shore outside of visiting my mate in Manly.
$34 for a can is idiotic, but it also suggests some fools pay for it.