The Books With Looks 📚 discussion

Met some Australians yesterday, saw a comedy band called Axis of Awesome. Have you heard of them Ashleigh? Was wondering how big they are over your way, place was sold out which doesn't happen too often.

They were really funny, I guessed maybe they weren't that big over in Australia.

Here is one of their videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDe...

Today is my last day at work for this year, I got back on the 12th Jan, a whole month off. I am going to spend my time on the xbox360, reading and do some hiking if we get lots of snow.

You should be a man, takes 5mins to pack.

Where are you cruising too Ash?

We are off to Tasmania during the summer have a property there and have to cut the grass! also going to climb the Nut and possibly Mt Amos - Wine Glass Bay. But the big news here is that Sue and I bought two brand new all singing and dancing Vintage (Retro) bikes, they are bicycles designed to enjoy riding not for showing off on and definitly no Lycra. Sue's is a Mixte (hybrid) in Rosewood with 3 gears, she fell in love with the colour, mine is a Caff Racer black with white wheels and no extra bits and bobs. They are both beautifully light and ride like angels. Cheers Anthony E

Sounds great Anthony. Only got one house and hate having to cut the grass. I would love to have a bike, but you can guarantee it would get stolen, always happening around where I live.

This year I am planning to do more long distance hiking, staying around the south of England so not doing any mountains this year.

We have got 100 acres here in South Australia and I have to cut the grass and 5 acres in Tasmania and again I have to cut the grass However in South Australia it's a once a year job and I don't cut it all. We are trying to sell off our SA property and I tell you never own two property a thousand Kilometers and a great stretch of waterapart looking after them is murder! Cutting the grass isn't as bad as it seems I use ride on mowers and unfortunately I have to have two of them. I don't cut all the grass just fire breaks and the man who wants to buy this place is going to run sheep. Cheers I envy you being able to do some hiking in the English country side although Tasmania is brilliant too.

2 ride on mowers???? Fancy a race? Reckon we could get 100 acres done pretty quickly.

Two ride on mowers sounds good but I have to support them both! Its like having kids, what school are you going to send your ride on mowers to? Ones a dull yellow and built like a tank that's for our hilly property here in South Australia and the other is a beautiful red and more of a lightweight that's for our flat meadow in Tasmania.

Well I got an orange push along mower, and it hates grass, always getting clogged up with our super strong grass.

I got two bloody push mowers and one whipper sniper I'm not bragging here I would love to have less. One of my Push mowers is red and called a ute and I've been using it for twenty years and it is a real ute (Utility) when a wheel falls off or something breaks I just throw the broken bit away and keep on pushing it. Should write a book about a lawn mower, in the Sydney Olympics they did a dance with lawn mowers! Cheers Tony

You kept talking about Ute in your book, so I googled pictures and it showed pictures of pick-up trucks, but it can mean any machine then?

A ute is an Australian version of a pick up trick, farmer wrote to Ford Australia about 100 years ago and said: I want a car I can take the wife to church in on Sunday and the pigs to market during the week. So a ute looks like a car with a tray built into the body work on the back. A pick up truck is really a small truck. The term Ute obviously got pinched by the Rover lawn mower company because they built a lawn mower for farms. Cheers Tony.

I see.... so you can take the wife to church on the lawn mower? Fantastic stuff.

The lawn mower is a later addition. The ute lawn mower is a push mower but it is rugged I've used one for twenty years.

Glad you enjoyed yourself you will need to go on a diet now by the sound of it unless you got up to all sorts of fun and games on the boat. What sort of activities did you get up to or did you just read and relax?

Woohoo only one sleep to go till I open presents. Not going to say merry Christmas until I get a reply from Ashley.

Merry Christmas, guys! Well, technically its Christmas Eve here in Germany ;)

Woohoo, what did you all get?

Merry Christmas.

I got a leather bracelet with a skull and the ace of spades on it. And I also got some money.

I got a Ferrari and a diamond ring and a motor boat and Rolex Watch and I'm lying.

wow that sounds amazing.

No I wasn't lying but the chimney needs repairing now!

Anthony wrote: "No I wasn't lying but the chimney needs repairing now!"

Does your insurance cover acts of Santa?

No I shall tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but, I did get a diamond ring it came in a cracker and is a nice plastic pink,my Ferrari goes well but it has used up all the batteries the boat is good in the bath with the rubber duck, now the Rolex watch also came out of a Christmas cracker and is a beautiful ice cream yellow.

You do still sound pretty rich, being able to afford more than one cracker at Christmas. Our household can only afford one cracker and we all pull it together, it has never worked as there is not anybody to go on the other side and pull.

Didn't actually have a Christmas cracker this year, forgot all about them!

So, any plans for New Year's Eve now that the Christmas craziness is over?

Yes. More time off work.

Anybody making new years resolutions.

For my New Years resolution I resolve not to make a New Years resolution.

No! cut back on the lollies you're young and beautiful you want to try and stay like that for as long as you can. As for Chocolate eat dark chocolate. Alternatively just tell me to shut up. Cheers Tony

If you cut back on sweets you will still enjoy them just as much maybe more, now you can tell me to really shut up.

SOFT drinks you will have to give them up bad for you all round, as I said at the moment you are young and beautiful but you don't want to get old and fat like everybody else. We don't eat sugar we even wrote a sugar free cookbook and I don't want to sound like a priest on a pulpit but a young human being is such a beautiful thing why wreck it? Sermon over for today!!!

Eat more apples, preferably in cider form.

My new years resolution is to complete the wayfarers walk in one go, It is a 70mile hike near me over lots of hills.

This years resolution was to do a hike each month, failed July's as didn't have time and failed this month as I have been ill. I think I did really well to do 10/12 months.

Congratulations 10 out of 12 is a distinction.

Talking of cider made 400 bottles of Apple Champagne yesterday all for our own use!!!

Wow sounds like you guys are having a big new years party... or a small one if you are alcoholics.

No champagne has to ferment in the bottle we are still drinking last years batch.

I still hike then, if we have snow I have snow boots, I don't take the dog on long walks in the snow though as the snow clings to his hair.

I walk in the snow here but it only snows once every ten to twenty years then it melts after about an hour or two.

Happy New Year a day late guys. I'm on vacation and just occasionally online lol

I stopped making resooutions years ago...I mostly never keep them anyways lol

Happy Australia day. Do you give gifts to non-Australians?

We don't give gifts to Australians even BUT you get to go to a Bar Be in the morning and get a free breakfast snags and Bacon, do you get snags in England? Sausages.

We get sausages, not heard them called snags before, on the way home I shall get some fosters to celebrate Australia day, that is your national drink?

Yesterday was Burns night, s Scottish celebration, so I got my wife a Haggis, trust me when I say you do not want to know what's in a haggis.

I've cooked hagis in Scotland and...but this Fosters stuff nobody drinks it over here.

What is the top beer/lager then?

What happens in Australia is that in the West they drink Swan Lager, in Queensland they drink XXXX, in Sydney Tooies, might not be the right spelling, in Melbourne it's VB (Victorian Bitter) in Hobart its Cascade, basically Australians drink the local brew. In SA we have a small brewery called Coopers makes a slightly English style drop and that is drunk all over Oz but not in big numbers.

I think we can get XXXX over here so will have a look for some.

I made a beer myself that was very popular and sold in Brisbane for $24 a bottle that's about 15 pounds It was an apple beer called Billy B's but I sold the rights to make it to a Sydney Company, it was getting too popular for us to keep up with demand.

sounds nice.