Tomatoes taste better there- the bland shelf friendly stuff is less likely. I used to live in an area with tomato farms (now contaminated with nuclear plant bits) and they were amazing. I did not understand why people liked tomatoes until I had a fresh one there, with just a nice piece of bread and a bit of cheese.

A lot of the seemingly wealthy are still pretty dependent on those benefits, and freo(along with the rest of WA) is going to be heading into some less economically booming times. That said, tie negative gearing benefits to mandatory vaccinations and you could get two birds (talking points) with one stone

It depends on the store too- one of the ones near me does have larger sizes, you have to ask for some pieces, but on others they will just hunt up the other styles that work. Another one seems to be staffed by unhelpful sales people who have zero interest in helping.

Just want to mention Leona Edmiston. She’s an Australian designer and makes some very good dresses.the dresses on this link are being modelled by thin models, and she uses her own sizing 1-6) but the larger sizes are definitely plus sizes. I got hooked by her plus size diffusion range which seems to have disappeared,…

Easy is a relative term. It isn't too difficult for me to obtain asafoetida here in Brisbane, but there has been a high level of immigration from India in the past decade, so catering for the local market.

Yep. I went back to my Smith reunion last year, and ended up on their mailing list, so I do know that there is a campaign on.

I think there were a number of factors that helped in moving overseas, but I do know that going to Switzerland for JYA in college did not help, so it wasn't just the overseas thing.

I had a therapist very early on who suggested hats and putting my hair up as a deterrent as well as having alternative hand activities for the trigger times. I still tend to wear my hear up, or at least over the area I pull from, and it does help some of the time. And the way I wear it up helps- those long alligator…

A long history of fairly strict punishments for crimes helps. There are some interesting societal habits that imply that there used to be crime and there have been successful countermeasures.

It's a rule that doesn't take into account differences in responsibility at that age. Some 14 year olds are fine, others aren't, so the rule covers all. That way no one has to make a judgement call... It is stupid.

In the Australian state I live in, one cannot leave a child under 14 alone by themselves without adult supervision. 14. I grew up in the USA, and was routinely babysitting by 12 vo am blown away by this.

report them to fair work or to the ATO. My guess is that they are also not paying all of the other entitlements - including super. It may take a while for the ATO to gear up, but when they do it isn't pretty. And the new phoenixing laws mean that it is harder for them to declare bankruptcy and dodge them.

here in Australia we have mandatory voting (for registered voters that is), elections are on Saturdays and absentee/postal ballots are widely promoted. It does increase voter turnout, but the fine is pretty small. And it doesn't stop young people from being obtuse. I worked one election and had a total dimwit ask…

Badly. White men, collectively, will not cope well.

yes. I took the train from Chicago to SF this summer, and we ended up 5 hours late as a result of waiting for freight trains. Two and half days of travel, but very pleasant compared with the horrors of the TSA ( I have been living overseas, in Australia and Japan since 2000, so the TSA was a horrible surprise). It…

Well, of the four doctors who have used a speculum on me, the three women were much more painful than the one male doctor. In Australia, Pap smears are mostly done at the GP, and I generally get a woman. But I started going to a fertility specialist about four years ago, who is male ( almost no women in that…

try different genres as well. I don't read "serious" lit much, but I read a lot of spec fic ( sci if and fantasy) and romance. These are genres which are not seen as being worthy in a literary sense ( total bs, but still true) so they sell by being fun to read.

Yes it does. It has made me realise how much data is being sloshed around - despite never posting anything relating to any of my very short lived pregnancies, farcebook ( not a typo) decided that I was preggo and bombarded me with pregnancy ads and prioritized pregnancy announcements from friends ( that was the worst…

Depends on whether you have sick leave/ an understanding boss as well.