We're ready to run!

 

 

Those New Year's Eve fires in 2019 were horrific, but we stayed to fight them. If we hadn't, the house and everything in it would have burned down, as the wooden verandah steps were already burning when we formed a bucket brigade.

 

 

Did we get a Christmas card from our insurers for having saved them a million-dollar pay-out? Of course not! Instead, we got an even higher premium bill on the next renewal date for our home & contents insurance, and so we went ahead to replace the burnt-out verandah steps. Since I did it all myself, it cost even less than the policy's excess.

 

 

We are back to bushfire weather, but this time we won't stay! We're ready to run at the first sign of fire, taking with us the receipt issued when we paid our insurance to give them no wriggle room to get out of paying us the $900,000 for the house and the $90,000 for its contents.

PS I also take the last tax return, so I know what lies I told the taxman!

 

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I ran

 

 

What a clever piece of street art spotted on the streets of Tel Aviv! I accidentally found it on the facebook page of Hananya Naftali, who added the disclaimer "This is satirical street art, not intended to offend or promote hate toward any group".

What an unnecessary disclaimer! I mean, who would want to incite hate against an 86-year-old man who is universally loved by his own people?

Just as unnecessary as the pregnancy warning to be displayed here on alcoholic drinks. I mean, any woman who doesn't know that drinking alcohol during pregnancy is bad for her baby can't read either.

Anyway, why should I worry about the state of the world? Why should I worry about all those men who want to marry men, and all those women who want to marry women? Let them! In three generations, there'll be none left. And why should I worry that our flag and culture offends so many and yet our generous welfare benefits don’t?

Mind you, I'm absolutely tired of being told that we have a huge number of drug addicts in Australia and that I must pay for their treatment and support. Did I grab them and stuff white powder up their noses or stick a needle in their arms while they tried to fight me off?

Some 1,371,000 square kilometres of this island continent is desert which means there's plenty of room for 'drying out'. Just give them all a one-way ticket to the Tanami or Great Sandy Desert and let the rest of us law-abiding and tax-paying citizens get on with our lives.

Anyway, why should I worry about the state of the world when I won't be of this world much longer? (now I sound like my 93-year-old brother in Germany who, for the past ten years, has been sending me Christmas cards with the handwritten notation, "This may be my last Christmas!")

 

 

Which is why, when visiting the Nelligen Village Market this morning, I bought Padma a hand-crafted handbag for our 30th wedding anniversary.

"But that's still five years away!" she remonstrated. "Just in case I won't be around by then", I replied. German humour is no laughing matter!

 

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P.S. Did I hear you ask about the weather? Well, North Queensland is bracing for a category two cyclone while whole towns in Victoria are on fire. Here at Nelligen the computer warnings seem to oscillate (that means 'swinging back and forth in a regular rhythm', Des) between ...

... so take your pick!

 

 

Sieh nach den Sternen — gib acht auf die Gassen!

 

 

I can't think of a better way of summing up my own life, in fact, life itself: one moment you're doing well, feeling well, being pleased with yourself for having safely negoatiated another one of life's many obstacles, then BANG! — you're back in a deep hole again.

Maybe it's just the German "Schadenfreude" I was born with, but I can watch this funny Rowan Atkinson clip for hours. It's life in a nutshell!

 

 

Maybe that's why they put "Sieh nach den Sternen — gib acht auf die Gassen!" on the front of my "Abschlusszeugnis" on the last day of school!

 

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In case you're interested ...

 

Click on image to enlarge

 

 

This year is going to be all about COPPER! The International Energy Agency estimates existing and planned mines will only deliver 70% of what the world needs by the mid-2030s.

Right now, two of the world's mining giants are circling each other. Rio Tinto and Glencore confirmed this week that they're in preliminary talks about merging some or all of their businesses. If it happens, the deal could potentially create one of the largest mining companies on the planet, worth roughly $207 billion.

And it's all about copper: Glencore digs up about a million tonnes each year and wants to double that. Rio extracts roughly 800,000 tonnes. Combined, they'd control roughly 7% of global copper production. That's a commanding position in a market where demand is surging.

Every solar panel, wind turbine, and EV motor needs copper. The AI boom only intensifies that demand. The world's biggest miners know this. They're racing to lock up supply before it becomes genuinely scarce.

BHP has attempted to acquire Anglo American twice. First with a $75 billion offer last year, then another crack at $79 billion in November. Now, Anglo is merging with Canada's Teck Resources in a $92 billion deal. It's one of the biggest transactions in mining history, and it's explicitly pitched as a copper play.

BHP has boosted copper production 28% in three years. Copper now represents 45% of its earnings, up from 29%. Rio has pushed ahead with its expansion in Mongolia. Its Oyu Tolgoi mine is on track to become a top-five global copper mine. Copper now accounts for 19% of group earnings, up from 13% in just three years.

Under takeover rules, Rio now has until February 5 to make a formal offer or walk away. Watch the February 5 deadline!

 

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Last throw of the dice

 

 

An old friend in Cairns sent me wishes for a "Happy New Year", to which he added, "... and a speedy sale of 'Riverbend' and the biggest garage sale ever seen!" A big garage sale is long overdue to rid myself of my huge accumulation of clutter over the last thirty years, but I don't hold out much hope for a speedy sale of "Riverbend" after the recent cooling of the real estate market.

Still, as Alexander Pope so succinctly put it, hope springs eternal, and so, in a (desperate?) last throw of the dice I took five minutes out of my busy schedule to rewrite my advertisement on www.realestate.com.au:

 

“They’re not making any more of it.” Remember what Mark Twain said when counselling investment in land? “They’re not making any more of it.” Land appreciates, buildings depreciate, so when you buy a house, invest in dirt disguised as a house. More than 80% of the value of "Riverbend" is in the dirt underneath it. It's a RODWELL – a Robust Older Dwelling on Well Located Land - the sort of house that appreciates the fastest. More than five years ago, the Valuer-General assessed its LAND VALUE ALONE at $2,637,000. Since then we have had sewerage and town water connected, and land values have gone up further. And yet, for little more than say 20% you also get a massive two-storey brick residence, plus several other structures and countless other improvements, and of course absolute deepwater frontage all along its seven acres. Valuation and price aside, what the property is really all about is its unique location. The tranquillity and the absolute privacy and beauty of the river draw you to it. If you are looking for an idyllic lifestyle where the only alarm clock in the morning is a bunch of kookaburras, where you can sit on a huge verandah overlooking the river and watch amazing sunsets, and where you are serenaded to sleep at night by the sound of frogs, you will love it here. If you thought that it was no longer possible to find paradise on earth, think again! (If you are a cashed-up buyer with just that little bit of money missing, vendor's finance is also available.)

 

How whelmed will the response be — over- oder under- ?

 

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