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YEAH, yeah, DTM is pretty fond of the traditional Bendigo versus Ballarat saga which has been going on for more than 150 years, but in this case, we think Ballarat’s got every right to be miffed.
This December will mark the 160th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade battle in Ballarat, considered by many to be a turning point in Australia’s history.
Now, you and I might think it appropriate to mark this event actually in Ballarat, but the locals have been gob-smacked to find massive plans for a re-enactment... at a winery near Sydney!
Organisers claim Ballarat council wanted too much money to run the event in Ballarat, but the council says it has no recollection of even talking to the Sydney folk.
Eureka at a winery in Sydney?
It’d be like re-enacting the landing at Botany Bay using a tinny on Lake Weeroona.
Not much to like
A mate of DTM is a regular ranter on Facebook and yesterday launched into a spittle-flecked rage about the misuse of the word "like" in so many people’s everyday conversations.
"Watching TV and was trying to work out what the overuse of the word "like" is all about.
"'Was walking down the street like and met this bloke I know like and said like how about we go for a beer like?’
"What the #@!* is happening to our language? "Like" is not a punctuation mark.
"It makes no sense in this context and adds nothing to what's being said other than to annoy those who have to listen to this inarticulate dribble.
"I don't like it."
Heh. At last count, he had 15 "likes".
Machines eat millions
Hands up anyone who did NOT play the pokies in Bendigo in the 2013-14 financial year. Yep, about what I would have guessed.
We note the recently released data from the Victorian gaming regulator which showed poker machine gamblers in Greater Bendigo had lost $43,243,389.76 in the year.
It wasn’t even a record year.
Let’s put that into a broader perspective. At the last census, Greater Bendigo had a population of 100,617.
With some help from long-forgotten long division skills (and a Marbig desk calculator) that means every man, woman and child lost $459.60 in the year.
Someone must’ve "invested" my share. And yours. And yours etc.
Wishful thinking
Machines can be such fibbers sometimes.
While DTM’s desk gadget was showing a brisk 9-degrees around midday yesterday, an online news and info website was claiming it was 22 in Bendigo and heading for a high of 31.
We wish.
Bearded babies
Which reminds us.
The cutest product of the week was quite possibly a woollen baby-beanie with a built-in crochet beard.
You could even get them in pink.