Phew, I’m really sorry for the guy, but what was an 82 year old guy thinking? He was riding an electric bicycle on the freeway at 5am (in the pre dawn dark) a few days ago. Didn’t he see the signs? No Pedestrians, Cycles, Animals.

The result was, he was hit by a 4WD and killed. The main story is that the 4WD driver didn’t stop, even though there was quite bad damage to his vehicle. It seems he drove it to his brother’s place, who subsequently made an insurance claim for the damage! Whaaat? The driver has been arrested and charged. Good. If brains were dynamite …

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Russia is a terrorist state. It is being run by a madman. Putin is insane. This insane madman has his finger on the nuclear war trigger. He must be stopped!

Russian soldiers are ruthless killers. They deliberately target civilians, including the aged and children. They must be stopped!

Surely it’s past time when NATO and/or the US stepped in and decisively flattened the Russian army, air force and navy. This can’t go on!

Putin thinks he’s waging this war to gain respect for Russia. Instead, he’s turned Russia into an international pariah state. He’s inflicted enormous economic and reputational damage to Russia, without even mentioning the tens of thousands of dead and maimed troops. Even his own population are leaving for foreign countries, to escape the madman.

Russia must be stopped!! I wouldn’t normally wish death on someone, but Putin does not deserve to live. He should be killed!

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“Why would you? We fluffed it,” former prime minister Paul Keating said on Wednesday. “If Australians have so little pride in themselves, so little pride that they are happy to be represented by the monarch of Great Britain, why would somebody like me want to shift their miserable view of themselves?”

He is referring to the referendum in 1999 which voted for Australia to remain a monarchy with the Queen or King as our head of state. This referendum was cleverly manipulated by the PM at the time, that racist prick John Howard, so that it was confusing about how the head of state would be selected or elected. He did this deliberately, as a monarchist himself.

Mr Keating said the case for Australia to become a republic was so obvious it made itself.

“Who in their right mind could believe that the monarch of Great Britain could represent our aspirations here?”

“We occupy one of the oldest land masses, the oldest continents on Earth, perhaps one of the oldest societies on Earth – it’s so pathetic. [Becoming a republic] barely [needs] an argument … and there was [Scott] Morrison running off to Cornwall with that other fruitcake, what’s his name … Boris Johnson.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Obsequious toadies, monarchists like Howard and the Liberals.

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From The Guardian cookery pages: “It’s possible to find live, Australian-grown, pot-ready mussels for as little as $9 a kilo – less than half the price of free-range chicken thighs and considerably cheaper than steak.”

Yes, but most of this weight is from the shells. If you like eating mussel shells, be my guest, you can have mine. There’s not a lot of “meat” in mussels, in my opinion.

I broke a tooth on a part of a mussel shell in 1996, just a week before I was due to fly to Jakarta to work. The dentist did a very quick fix for me and it’s lasted perfectly since.

I don’t completely object to mussels, I’ll eat them, but I’m not a big fan of their muddy flavour. Maybe I’ll try a couple of different recipes which might enhance and disguise the flavour.

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I’m watching a Japanese TV program on Netflix at the moment, I can’t remember the title – Japan Sinks, I think. It’s full Japanese language with subtitles, and occasional bursts of English as needed.

Point one: The storyline – for goodness sakes! A scientist predicts undersea earthquakes leading to the sinking of major areas of Japan. But, as usual, this scientist is portrayed as weird, part mad, wild haired, eccentric, speaking in a crazy voice. Fer cryin’ out loud! When will TV and movie makers realise that scientists are normal people?? Scientists are always portrayed as laughable idiots.

Point two: As the story goes on, first a large part of Tokyo sinks, but then a new undersea earthquake is 100% predicted to sink all the islands of Japan completely. The story requires the mass emigration of 120 million people from Japan to some other country. Where could that be? Why, Australia of course. This is their first choice, the first country that comes to their minds.

Australia has so much land, so much open space, they think. We could easily accommodate 120 million Japanese people. So they consult a former Australian prime minister, who happens to be called Mr Travis.

Well, unfortunately, Mr Travis says the Australian people would not accept so many Japanese people. He rejects the idea completely and actually gets up and walks out of the meeting. Whaaat? This would be highly offensive to anyone, let alone the unfailingly polite Japanese. So Australia plays no further part in the story and China becomes the main focus.

Canada does get a serious mention, but for some reason is rejected.

I’m sticking with this series, up to episode eight at the moment, but crikey mo! It is slow, stupid, with silly orchestral music in completely inappropriate moments. I’ll watch the rest (how many more eps?) but it’s hard going.

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Personally, I think it would be absolutely marvellous to have 10 million or so Japanese emigrate here. They are intelligent, incredibly hard working, talented, inventive with such a rich culture. They would enhance life here wonderfully.

BUT! The racism in this country would stop that in its tracks. The male population of Australia are racist, violent, uncultured oafs who care nothing about anything except football, alcohol, gambling, swearing, domestic violence and fighting. Japanese people would be appalled! They could never accept our way of life and therefore racist violence would ensue. It would never work.

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I’ve been listening to the radio about the COVID pandemic, and the overriding message is IT AIN’T OVER! I’m going back to wearing a mask whenever I’m out of the house. We haven’t seen the last of COVID-19 by a long shot.