The PALM LAKE LUXURY RESORT

In February 2023, the Palm Lake company started work to develop the large block of land on the western side of Orion Drive, at the street address now known as 2 Orion Drive.
It wasn't number 2 until Palm Lake started work there....number 2 was the first house further along Orion Drive, just past the existing Palm Lake Resort at 1 Orion Drive. That house had been number 2 ever since it was built, back in the 1990s.

No, it is now 2A, because somehow Palm Lake convinced the Clarence River Council to reallocate the number 2 to their new development, so whoever lives at 2A had to advise all their mail contacts that they'd "moved".
It must be nice to know how to pull strings.

Anyway, the location now known as 2 Orion Drive was where the original developer of the village in which we live had the facility for manufacturing and assembling the homes.
The “shed”, as it became known, sat there until 2019, when it was demolished, the land remaining bare until the site began to be filled and all the pipes, drains and conduits for telephones etc were put in place.

There was a lot of filling being trucked in daily and the height of the land was raised by a couple of metres, as can be seen by the wall in the following photos, and it lifted it well above any possibility of flooding….not that it ever flooded prior to that but under the Council’s new requirements, it had to be raised.

In March 2023 work picked up, with the laying of concrete for the internal roadways and the main entrance was started.
Within a couple of months a fence, complete with advertising, had been installed along the front boundary, a sales office was opened and work began on the Vantage Clubhouse – a structure of humongous size and which we locals dubbed “The Taj Mahal” as it was all white and very ornate.

Apparently the intention behind this luxury development was that there would be 70+ two-story villas constructed, each with an electric lift (elevator) and priced between $1.2 million and $1.7 million. Work would be done in three stages.
The Vantage Clubhouse would be completed, furnished and landscaped first and then used as an attraction for potential buyers. It features a theatre, a bar, a gym, a sauna, a pool and other up-market features designed to lure the wealthy downsizers.

At the time of writing (early December 2024), new construction has virtually stopped; we have learned that only twelve units have been sold; only one occupant has moved in (and that was back in April); the prices have been dropped dramatically; and that whilst Stage 2 will be completed, Stage 3 of the development has been “taken off the plan”, according to reliable sources.

Everyone you speak to about this project - both here in the original resort and also with any towns-people aware of the development - has the same opinion: whoever at the Palm Lake company made the decision to place a luxury resort in this spot needs professional counselling.

If you are of retirement age, why would you buy a two-story home with no external view, a flight of stairs to negotiate if the lift breaks down, in a location exactly the same distance from everywhere as the existing resort across the road at 1 Orion Drive, and pay twice to three times as much?

If any development was to be planned for that site it should have been a nursing home/care establishment.
A simple analysis of the demographics of the surrounding region would show that they have a captive market.

It will be interesting to see what happens as time passes.

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Sums it all up, really.

A friend of mine, who is very handy with the drawing pencil, produces the occasional political cartoon.
He uses the pen-name "Fulcrum Frottage" and can be found on Facebook under that heading.

His latest comment is reproduced below and sums up all there is to say about the current situation.

What else is there to say?

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Why has the Canberra Times (masthead shown above) dropped the use of the words "yesterday", "today" and "tomorrow" when reporting on matters and events?

I've noticed that this practice has been in operation for some time. I find it annoying and, in some cases, confusing.

For example - I will buy a newspaper this morning (Wednesday 3rd. April 2013) and when reading through it I will notice the following peculiarities:-

• Reports relating to something which occurred yesterday will say "Tuesday" instead of "yesterday".
• Items concerning something which will be happening tomorrow will say "Thursday" in lieu of "tomorrow".
• Most annoying of all, however, is that the newspaper does not refer to "today" when informing us of a matter relating to this very day of issue but they will say "Wednesday"!

This third practice caused confusion yesterday - yes, Canberra Times, YESTERDAY, not "Tuesday" - to whit:-

The paper had an item regarding the closing of the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition at the National Gallery.

The report stated that it was closing on "Tuesday" yet the paper in which the article was printed was Tuesday's (2nd. April) edition.

So which "Tuesday" was one to conclude that the exhibition was closing?

Next Tuesday (9th. April) would have been the natural assumption. After all, if it was closing on Tuesday 2nd. then surely the term "today" would have been used, would it not?

But no - we now have a newspaper which has removed the three basic words relating to the passage of time and which have been in use for centuries.

Why?



Lee Child sells out to the movie industry.

For many years one of my favourite authors has been Lee Child; his many novels featuring the character Jack Reacher have always been very enjoyable - as many millions of other readers have discovered.

One of the greatest things about reading is that we each establish a picture in our minds of the characters in a work of fiction and, when the central character is defined over time as to his/her size, weight, features, manner and so forth we each imagine exactly what that character is like.
Each of us has our own "picture" of that make-believe person.

I had long admired Child for not selling out to the movie industry and looked forward to the next Jack Reacher adventure with eagerness.

Not any more.
Lee Child has betrayed my imagination. He has sold out and I am contemptuous of him for doing so.
It's not as if he needs the money - he's certainly not poverty-stricken.

I could not believe it when I heard that (a) a "Jack Reacher" movie is being released and (b) Tom Cruise has been cast as the titular character!
TOM CRUISE?!!!

I never had a mental image of any particular actor as Jack Reacher - none at all. But if I had then Tom Cruise would not have even made the initial list, let alone a final interview.
Why?
Well, here is a summation of Reacher's physical attributes as gleaned from the various stories (courtesy Wikipedia):-

• Reacher is 6' 5" tall (1.96m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds (100–115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He has very little body fat and his muscular physique is completely natural (he reveals in Persuader he has never been an exercise enthusiast). He is exceptionally strong but is not a good runner.

Tom Cruise is 5'-7".
He does not have a 50" chest and certainly doesn't weigh between 210 and 250 pounds.
Jack Reacher is NOT Tom Cruise.

But now, when you Google "Jack Reacher" or "Lee Child", the majority of the images which appear are of Tom Cruise.

I will never be able to read a Jack Reacher novel again without seeing Cruise in my mind's eye and that is not only disheartening but also ridiculous.

No thanks to you, Mr. Child.

"And how are you today?"

Don't you find this to be an odd greeting when attending a doctor's surgery?

I had an appointment this morning and the (very pleasant) receptionist greeted me with that line, to which I replied "Well, not really great, otherwise I wouldn't be here", which was met by a look of surprise.

What else did she expect? I was ill!

In a similar vein is the "Have a nice day!" that the checkout-chick throws your way at 5:30 in the evening.

In both cases it's habit, I know, but in the former "How can I help you?" and in the latter "Thank you." would be more appropriate.

Our peace has been breached!

Well, Mr. Obama has finally set foot in Canberra after two previously-cancelled trips and the usual semi-load of American hyper-crap has been dumped on us.

In a similar fashion to the Bush visit in 2003, we have a permanent - noisy - fighter aircraft circling the ACT for the next 24 hours, just to guard against sneak attacks on the American embassy.
Why can't they simply have an aircraft sitting on the ramp at Fairbairn, fuelled up and ready to go at a moment's notice?

There are 300+ security personnel here!
THREE HUNDRED!!!

At selected intersections throughout the capital sit black, unmarked and unregistered vans.
Why?

Perhaps the most insidious thing is that mobile phone reception around Parliament House/American Embassy has been disrupted.

Like many other Canberrans who don't give a toss about this visit, I will be glad to hear Airforce One depart tomorrow afternoon.

Well, here's proof. Australia is governed by the minorities.

"Carbon Tax Sunday" is now a definite.
On Sunday 10th. July - in two days - Julia Gillard PM will announce that her tax - which she once made a commitment to not introduce (in her pre-election load-of-crap) - will be introduced.

She now has the power to do this because our country is effectively governed by a handful of politicians - several Independents and a couple of Greenies.
They hold the balance of power and in the wheeling-and-dealing that appears to go on 24 hours a day, 7 days per week up at the Big House, these turkeys have it in their power to control what will or will not pass through the house as legislation.

All I can say is that I never dreamed that the future of this country would fall into the hands of a couple of tree-huggers, a would-be cowboy from Queensland and a few wanna-be's.

What a sad day for Australia - and  on the same day that news comes from Europe that the Emissions Trading Scheme in operation there appears to be nothing more than a way for banks to increase their profits and does bugger-all for the environment.

I give up!

And they're hitting us with a "Carbon Tax".....?

This makes whatever we Australians will push into the atmosphere over the next 100 years look piddling by comparison.........(Click on for larger image).

Have a look at these images from the Boston Globe "Big Picture" and, when finished with the Chilean volcano, they have a bunch of pix of the Icelandic volcano that you can be impressed by, as well.

Now, would Julia Gillard and her henchmen/women, and all the advocates of a Carbon Tax, please explain to me one more time just how it will benefit we Aussies in particular and the planet in general?

Commercial television - YUK!!

I have become increasingly irritated..........no, that's not the correct term.....let's use "pissed off".........by commercial, so-called "free to air", TV.

This came to a head last night when I was watching a movie on Prime 2, or Seven 2, or whatever they call it.
The movie - if seen without commercial breaks - is one hour and twenty minutes in length.
Last night it took two hours - TWO HOURS - to see the whole thing.
That's 40 minutes of what (I learned today) is classed as "non-program" time.

I thought to myself that this can't be right - the station must be contravening the rules and regs that govern commercial TV broadcasting.

Uh-uh.
Not according to what I found after Googling "Australian tv content" and discovering a government site which lays down the law (AHHHHHA! HAAAAA!) regarding TV broadcasting.
 
I also learned - to my horror - that Australia has the greatest "non-program to program ratio" in the world.
There is some slight flexibility but essentially it averages at around 15 minutes per hour (lowest) that may be taken up by non-program material.
This material includes not only advertisements for products and services but also community announcements, station promotions and, when elections are on, party-promotions.

I was also pissed off by the fact that the first avenue of complaint takes one straight to the front door of the TV station about which you wish to complain!
To use an old saying, that's like complaining to your mother-in-law about your wife!

I'm fed up.
So fed up that I have decided that, irrespective of how attractive a program may be to my tastes, I am not going to watch it if it is on any channel owned and operated by Prime, TEN or WIN.
They can get stuffed.