I will have to start thinking like Billy Connelly who says, ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather, there’s only the wrong clothes’.

See you in 3 flaps of a Kiwi’s wing

Anyway - you’ll be glad to know its warming up nicely (and everything is lovely and green and new from the rain we had over winter).

See you in 3 stinkers

(We plan to be buying drinks for lots of people… ourselves especially! Mmmm… wine and beer!)

I guess it’s more of a fact-finding trip than a holiday. Plus, hopefully, the travelling through all of that lovely scenery will be as much part of the holiday as the stopping in places.

Enjoy, enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s just be thankful that he did!

What she actually said on the topic of Obama was: “He’s a complete TOSSER!” (repeated several times for impact)

There you are Mum. Now nobody is under any misapprehension about what you said. Unfortunately you’ll now have to deal with the shame of the public knowing that you dissed THE-MAN-WHO-WILL-SAVE-THE-WORLD!

Yes… He’s up against unenviable odds. Those who have grown rich and fat through their manipulation of US politics and government policy will fight hard to retain the status quo. If he really wants to change how American politics functions (as he has committed himself to do) he’ll have to fight every step of the way - he’ll make many and powerful enemies.

And that’s not the only struggle he faces with Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Plus whatever other shit Bush and his cronies pull in their final months (expect to see a whole bunch of extra tax payer funded ‘bailout’ money-grabs in these coming weeks). I hope the recent US attacks into Syria and Pakistan don’t escalate into anything larger - I wouldn’t put it past Bush to make a few final god-is-guiding-me-in-this-holy-war stabs at the Enemies of America, leaving his successor to deal with the aftermath.

No… I don’t fancy being in Obama’s shoes!

The Onion sums it up nicely: Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job

P.S. I love The Onion - it’s one of the few websites that actually makes me laugh out loud. Here are a couple of other election themed articles that made me chuckle quite a lot…

Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress (Mum, you’ll appreciate the last paragraph of this one)

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

What worries me is what lunacy Bush can get up to before he finally f*cks off in January now he is apparantly unaccountable the American electorate. I bet Iran are crapping it.

I think its truly historic that Obama got elected in a country where blacks did not get to vote until about 40 years ago and it will change how America is percieved, particularly in the Middle East.

We are living in exciting times I think, we could be seeing the start of a paradigm shift in world economics and politics. The unfettered free market experiment encouraged by Reagan and Thatcher and every American and UK govt. since has failed and stock markets have crashed. America also realizes it can no longer maintain its aggressive meddling in world affairs.

I think the New Orleans disaster was the turning point for America when the nation saw how appalingly the richest and most powerful government in the world handled the aftermath and left the poor starving in the “great nation of the free”.

I remember feeling optimistic too when Tony B.liar got in here though and look where that got us though, I hope its not going to be the same let down.

If Obama is going to change anything he will have to fight huge pressure from big corporate American interests and the free market Chicago school economists. I don’t see how he can get the national debt under control and I don’t see how they can pull out of Iraq whithout leaving behind a civil war and huge poverty as when the USSR pulled out of Afghanistan. So, he’s up against it.

I keep thinking of won’t get fooled again by the Who:

“I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss”

How did he beat Hilary in the nominations?
How did he get America to vote for him?

I think I know what it is. He has shed loads of charisma. It pours out of him like a river.
JFK had it , Nelson Mandela has it and Martin Luther King overflowed with it.
We are now waiting with baited breath to see how he will stop talking history and start making history….

[end of sarcasm]

The whipping up of anti-Muslim fervour at the Republican rallies (esp. Palin’s) was the most distasteful and disturbing part of the whole election. It was shameful.

One classic moment I saw was a white-haired old lady taking the mike at one of McCain’s meet-the-people events. She stammered out: “I’ve heard, heard he’s, he’s not like us, he’s an Ay-rab!”

McCain’s response was to take the mic and ‘correct’ her: “No M’am, he’s a decent family man”.

Errrr… I don’t think the two things are exclusive… I think, maybe, an Arab could could also be a decent family man!

McCain should have responded: “So what you stupid old bigot?!”, but instead he kept the whole anti-Muslim thing going. This was continued with the his campaign’s attempts to link Obama to ‘radical Islamists’ - otherwise known as well-respected university lecturers. It was all just so wrong - real appeal-to-the-worst-in-people stuff. I’m glad to see the back of it (for a while).

Needless to say, McCain and Palin weren’t overly popular here in Kuwait!

(Oh, I’m soooooooooooooo happy that I’ll not have to see Palin’s face any more, or listen to her hideous voice. “You betcha!”)

That’s it - If McCain (and f***king Palin!!!) had got in, the world would have given up any hope!

And as for getting old, as you’ve always told me: “I’ll take a youthful black man over a wrinkly white guy any day”

One says get the geriatric redneck in there god bless. The main reason for this is that our friends Emily and Brandon, who are planning to return home to the US soon, will cancel all plans and stay in Nelson if he and the Hockey Mum (don’t even get me started on it - really!) get in. It might be a bit narrow minded but they are good value and will be missed.

The rest of me says OBAMA. Its about the only thing that will start to rebuild America in the eyes of the world which, despite middle Americas sentiments, is quite an important thing. Good on them anyway - from what I can tell on the net he has romped it - even if its still split between the coasts and the land locked states. I pretty much agree with all his policies and, at last, we can look forward to the US playing a pivotal role in world politics again rather than giving every other country the finger and trying to tell women when they can and cant have babies!

Who would have thought it of you Steve - I thought that McCain would have been more your style, now your getting on in life.

I am in bed, feeling rough as a dog, coughing like an old man, but I am watching the news and am very happy!

I wish I had got Lisa to do a degree for me - it was in fact a HND that took me 3 years to complete even with Lisa’s assistance. Like Roy Castle used to say ‘delegations what you need - if you want to be a professional slacker, Yeah’. The best bit of that HND was that they gave me £3k to race for the Uni. I ended up doing one hill climb then sacking them off and spending the money on a pimped out MTB with gold Middleburn chainrings - ha ha. Suckers.

It’s quite appropriate that you wrote this in a page about cats…

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeowwwwwwwwwwwwww!