Quiet Can Be Nice

[glen]

Hi everyone,



Some might say that a quiet website is a bad website but I find the silence in the forum quite refreshing.



I often logged in to find hundreds of unread posts and it got a bit exhausting trying to read through everything others had said.



Now there hasn't been a post in the last 24 hours which is such a big change. I don't know exactly what happened. Perhaps the tough security I put in place (due to the last round of spammers and scammers) has deterred some new members from contributing to the forums. Perhps facebook has well and truly taken over the world as they had hoped.



Thanks to everyone that put up with the security and perserved through to forum posting. I know the requirement to wait for a first post to be approved is a bit of a drag. I may consider changing the settings to make things easier. We have not been hit by spammers for quite some time now.



Take care everyone,



Glen <img src='http://www.melbournechat.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

Yes I think facebook's efforts to grow its user base have been over the top. I don't use it. I did give it a go a long time ago but I don't like it. I still get lots of emails from facebook reminding me to come back.



I acually think myspace was better and more fun but that seemed to die a slow death while facebook grew and grew. I guess in a few years time facebook might also suffer the same fate which will be fine with me.



Yes I am still in china. You know you cannot access youtube from here. Also twitter and facebook are not accessible.



But most other sites are accessible. I find google mail very slow. Hotmail works much better.



Cheers, glen

[glen]

Well that is ok. I mostly have nice things to say. But if I get onto the topic of local cuisine I tend to become negative! hahaha Thank goodness they have pizza hut here.

[glen]

They have maccas too which I love. I have been 3 times so far.



The Big Mac is pretty similar. Though coke tastes different.



The french fries are pretty good.



Yum you are making me hungry. This evening for dinner I had baked beans and eggs and toast. I got some imported baked beans from the supermarket. I also had a few imported gherkins. Not sure where they came from but it was a German company mentioned on the jar and it said "Russian style". Anyway they are very nice. I love gherkins.



Cheers, Glen

[glen]

Hi Peter, the locals don't seem to drink the tap water and so there is a booming trade in bottled water. Though the "bottles" are the type you put on the top of a drinking fountain. I am guess maybe 20 litre bottles.



Many people have a drinking fountain in their home. Usually the drinking fountains also have a hot and cold tap. Chinese love their jasmine tea (and other types of tea) so they like lots of hot water. Kettles don't seem very popular here.



I am brushing my teeth with the tap water and it seems ok. I guess you could drink it but may be best to boil it first. Also we use it for cooking. Not sure about heavy metals. I am sure it will have plenty of chlorine though.



I think maccas have been here for a long time. Also KFC have lots of shops. Pizza Hut is also doing well here though they have big sit down restaurants whereas in Australia it is all takeaway pizza as far as I can tell.



Though that reminds me how there used to be really nice Pizza Hut restaurants in Melbourne. That was maybe 30 years ago!!! I loved going there as a kid. They used to have some activity sheets for kids. And their thick base pizza was awesome!!!



Cheers, Glen

[glen]

Hi Peter,



I think the desal gets too much bad press. I think you can never have too much good water! Maybe we can bottle it and send it to china.



That reminds me...I saw an advert on TV earlier today. It was about Australian milk and there was a reference on the screen to "Goulburn Murray". I thought "wow" that is awesome! It is such a big market...if you call sell aussie milk here then you should do very well.



Over here no one seems to sell fresh milk. It is all long life stuff (or milk powder). The imported stuff is about 3 times as expensive as the local produced milk. You can buy imported milk from NZ, Australia and Germany.



Cheers, Glen

[glen]

Yes we had trouble getting baby formula in Melbourne as well. We are using Karicare which is actually made in New Zealand. But they ran out because many people shipped it to china.



Probably most baby formula in china is OK but there is a strong sense of mistrust after a few scandals have occurred in the past.



I would make one point about chinese farmers shipping the product to china. The aussie farmers are money driven as well and if they can make more money in china then they will chase the export market too. That already happens with some luxury items where local aussies are not prepared to pay as much as overseas buyers.



For example much of the good blue fin tuna caught in Australia waters ends up going to Japan. This happens not because Japanese people bought all the fishing licences but because aussies want the most money for their product.



So I don't think chinese buying aussie farms would necessarily have the effect you might expect.



Cheers, Glen <img src='http://www.melbournechat.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

Not sure about the last question. I presumed it was private business.

[glen]

Hahaha. Well it is very capitalist! It just has communist roots.

[glen]

No I think that is a Japanese thing. I never heard anyone mention whale meat in china.

[glen]

Australia will send peaceships rather than warships since we are not offically at war.

[glen]

I guess we could send a research vessel close to japan and take "samples". Perhaps take their squid. That would make them cry!

[glen]

I think they would eat the sharks peter!!!.... so that may not work!

[glen]

OK Plan B - You get a global monopoloy on tuna fishing. Then you could make whatever demands you liked, including "No more tuna for you unless you leave the whales alone!". I think that would be rather effective.

[glen]

Yes it was based on their love for tuna.

[glen]

Yes I can. First you put the guitar on the ground. And then you drop a large frozen tuna on it from 2 metres high. If the guitar survives then it is a well built guitar and increases in value by 100%. If it breaks then it reduces in value by 100%. <img src='http://www.melbournechat.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

Yes I am becoming more like ducky i think! hahaha

[glen]

Filling that gap won't be easy.

[glen]

Yes ...she had thousands of them! <img src='http://www.melbournechat.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

Hahaha. well she might not have understood half of them herself! I think she just liked talking A LOT!!!! <img src='http://www.melbournechat.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />