Well, Happy New Year and good riddance to the old one. NYE was a pleasant day, only 31C yesterday but I thought it was a bit humid – it reached 59%, I see. The cold cabinets at the bottle shop were too dewy to see into.

Here we are past the end of a momentous year, and as much as we hope, it ain’t over yet. Here in WA we’re sitting pretty, no worries mate, go anywhere, do anything within reason. Just don’t leave the country, OK?

The vaccines, plural, should fix us up eventually but it’ll be another year before we could consider international travel. This reaction by some precious few against mandatory vaccination before flying is just crazy. They obviously don’t remember vaccination certificates which were required before boarding as recently as the 1970s. Smallpox, yellow fever, malaria, hepatitis, tuberculosis; they were all infectious and dangerous and you had to get vaccinated before travelling. No problem, we just did it.

So what’s all this about not wanting to be compelled to vaccinate before you fly. I’ll tell you now, if I knew I was placed next to someone, literally rubbing elbows and being coughed and sneezed on in an economy class seat on an aircraft, I would ask to be moved. How dare you expose me to your germs just for some vapid notion of your “rights”. What about my rights? Keep away from me, fool.

No, I will very happily submit to vaccination and present my card before travelling. That’s if I ever make a big trip again. My legs are getting weaker and weaker and I can’t walk far without stopping to sit for a while.

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I’ve been perusing the Perth Fringe Festival web site to see what’s on this year, February 2021. It’s a full program, no concessions to the virus.

I can’t help noticing how many of the Fringe shows involve gender-bending and cross dressing. It’s full on drag in so many shows, mainstream. This is what I’ve been noticing over the years, that many, many guys want to dress female but male culture just doesn’t allow it. That’s mostly so, but if you can gain respect, you can be accepted in male groups.

I’m totally comfortable going out dressed female these days, no fear, no nervousness and I don’t feel any stares or second looks, no problems at all. I was all dressed up at the bottle shop yesterday and a guy called me Sir. I said, “Don’t call me Sir! Miss or ma’am please.” Smiles all round.

It’s only 20-30 years ago when cross dressing was something to be hidden, with secret societies necessary. I used to wonder how I could ever do it, how I could get from my car to any venue. Now, pah! No-one cares, no-one looks at me and I have no fears. It’s a complete change in societal attitudes, the LGBTQI message having got through loud and clear. What am I? I’m T but not Transgender, only Transvestite. It’s a wonderful thing and I’m so glad it’s happened in my lifetime, while I still have time.

I’ve earmarked (put on a list but not bought a ticket yet) quite a few shows, mainly involving burlesque by women, including a repeat of one I went to last year, Burlezque (photo above). I went to this show dressed very daringly last year and was very surprised at how no-one looked twice at me, not on the train going in, not even as I walked past the doors of the big pubs full of drunken blokes in Northbridge. I came home on the train dressed this way and no-one stared at me, even the young guys who I thought might be troublesome. I was amazed and pleased that, really, anything goes now. This is great. I might do it again this year. Finally, finally!

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Uuurrrgh, I’m not happy about the Lost Bali book being organised by the American woman. I finished my contribution a couple of days before Xmas and sent it off, formatted as she requested as a Word document and laid out as I want it with a couple of dozen images. I went to a lot of rouble with image placement and paragraph spacing, wrapping the text around the images, using dropped shadows and soft edges.

But I got a couple of emails back saying how she hasn’t had time to read it (thanks a lot!), but then saying she wanted me to re-send it as plain text, with the images removed and these sent separately.

What?? To me, this is like telling an artist his pictures are wanted for an exhibition, but he must send just detailed pencil sketches, with the paints and brushes sent separately and the editor will reconstruct the paintings. Gaaaah!

Now she wants me to give her a title for my piece, even though it’s got one at the top of the article. At least that gives me more time to come up with something imaginative. I’m not happy about this, though. I had this happen back in the early 90s at TVW7, where I submitted an article, as plain text, as requested for the company newsletter. But the newsletter people didn’t talk to me and just printed it as it came, a jumble of text with no carriage returns and line feeds, no paragraphs. I doubt people would have read it because of that. Now I foresee something similar happening. Grrrr.

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“Perfidious Albion”. Perfidious: “faithless, basely treacherous”. Not for nothing has Britain (Albion) gained this description. Throughout history, Britain has practised treachery and gross crimes against humanity – slavery, torture, genocide, extermination, concentration camps, wars against local tribes, territorial land grabs.

Today, 1 January 2021, the UK has left the EU. They have demonstrated once again that Britain is not a country to be trusted, that puts its own interests first and foremost, that is not a team player. Some people see this as an opportunity for Australia to do a free trade deal with Britain. What a joke. I do not trust Great Britain one inch. They have done the dirty on us before when they joined the EEC in the 1970s, cutting us out of their market for agricultural products. They’ll do it again. Britain cannot be trusted!

What fools they are. Vladimir Putin will be rubbing his hands with glee – he’s seen one of the major European powers break away. He’ll keep chipping away at the Eastern bloc countries like Hungary and Belarus too.

Polls in Britain show that even though the first referendum showed a wish to break away by a slim margin, polls nor show a massive reversal: 47% want to stay in the EU versus only 38% wanting to leave. Too late now, it’s done.

As well, British people are showing themselves in this pandemic to be irresponsible rule defiers. They refuse to quarantine themselves, refuse to wear masks properly or at all and will not socially distance themselves.

The result is that the COVID virus is devastating the country. Britain has the highest death rate in Europe by far, and is third in the world for deaths and infections. The hospitals are being hit by a tsunami of sick people, putting all the medical staff at huge risk. The vaccinations have not had time to be distributed or to take effect yet. But the British public don’t seem to care.

As a friend said the other day, this is Darwinian natural selection at work. The intelligent rule abiders will survive, the stupid low-IQ will die. That would be a good thing, except that the rule breakers take the elderly and innocents with them.

What a sick joke Britain has become. When the Scots held a referendum some years ago about whether to devolve from the UK, I wanted them to stay in and was glad when it was defeated. My views have changed now. Scotland is the most intelligent part of the country and most definitely wants to remain as part of the EU. Now is the time for them to assert their independence and break away. Go Scotland, leave the UK. The south east of the country, London and the Tories, are ruining the rest of Britain. Walk away. And we must tread very warily, as Britain is not to be trusted. What a pity. A once great power, now in ruins.