The School of Life

 

Go to www.theschooloflife.com

 

There is a quote that says, "it’s never too late for new beginnings in your life". We are all trapped in a myth that there is a certain age limit on when you can start to learn and when it is too late. This is a thought that needs to be forgotten. If you hate your job or career and crave a new change then it is never too late to start.

Many people assume that skill development is an ‘age sensitive’ thing and can only apply to people who are just starting their career. Whether you are 17 or 75, there is no reason why you can’t start now. Age is nothing but a number. In fact it is said that learners of the average age of 80 are less likely to develop brain-related illnesses such as dementia.

Learning is a necessity. It is simply a tool that nourishes our mind and relieves our soul. Learning new skills is a way of preparing you to feel more ready to take on new challenges and opportunities that will come your way. It keeps your mind engaged and allows you to explore new paths for your future.

It isn’t just about making money; it is about protecting your wellbeing, making sure you are enjoying what you do and allowing the world to open up new opportunities for you. Don’t be afraid to take on a new challenge, it could be the best thing that you ever do. Which is where "The School of Life" come in.

 

 

I haven't been to my favourite op-shop in the Bay for a while and I'm sure they're missing me. As soon as the verandah is done and the weather has warmed up a little, I'll be back in there but for the moment I'm still going through some past treasuries I picked up several months ago, one of which is Alain de Botton's Volume 1 of "The School of Life".

 

Read it online at www.archive.org

 

I don't know why anyone would surrounder such an engaging book to an op-shop because it's the sort of book that you'd dip into time and time again, as I've been doing this weekend while sitting on the jetty and facing the timeless river. My only regret is that I didn't read it fifty, even sixty years ago, although I'm consoled by the copyright imprint on the inside page: "First published 2012 by Macmillan Publishers Limited".

By that time I had already committed most of my life's biggest mistakes, but as they say, "it’s never too late for new beginnings in your life".

 

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Waterlog

 

 

I grew up far from the sea or even a river or swimming pool, when swimming was the thin line between waving and drowning. Now that I am old, and after having spent almost a lifetime near the ocean, swimming to me has become a moving meditation, a way to escape, to breathe, to find peace in the chaos of life.

Which is why I enjoyed Roger Deakin's book "Waterlog", which puts into words my own feelings about water: "When you swim, you feel your body for what it mostly is — water — and it begins to move with the water around it ... The swimmer experiences the terror and the bliss of being born. So swimming is a rite of passage, a crossing of boundaries: the line of the shore, the bank of the river, the edge of the pool, the surface itself. When you enter the water, something like metamorphosis happens. Leaving behind the land, you go through the looking-glass surface and enter a new world, in which survival, not ambition or desire, is the dominant aim ... You are in nature, part and parcel of it, in a far more complete and intense way than on dry land, and your sense of the present is overwhelming." [page 3]

 

Read the book online at www.archive.org

 

Perhaps our profound response to water appears to be our evolutionary inheritance — we came out of the ocean, of course, but never fully. As Roger Deakin writes: "We spent ten million years of the Pliocene era of world drought evolving into uprightness as semi-aquatic waders and swimmers in the sea shallows and on the beaches of Africa. We went through a sea change to become what we are, and our subsequent life on dry land is a relatively recent, short-lived affair. Apart from the proboscis monkey of Borneo, we are the only primate that regularly takes to the water for the sheer joy of it. We are also singularly hairless like dolphins and, alone amongst the primates, have a layer of subcutaneous fat analagous to the whale’s blubber, ideal for keeping warm in the water." [page 147]

There is something primordially powerful about immersing yourself into the water and propelling yourself into motion and silent thought, the daily bustle of the world left to the land. "As you swim," Anaïs Nin wrote in her beautiful meditation on leisure and the art of presence, "you are washed of all the excrescences of so-called civilization, which includes the incapacity to be happy under any circumstances."

Let these thoughts sink in when next you sink into the water. To me, the best thing about swimming is that water doesn't know how old I am!

 

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A piece of Nelligen history

 

 

It's been twelve years since Benny Housiaux sold his waterfront café and his 3-bedroom residence behind it for what was then a very expensive $710,000, but now looks like the bargain of the century.

We still miss his innovative merchandising of placing DUREX right after Chuppa Chups and before Panadol. He was right with the chronology!

 

 

Benny bought the old store in 1998 for $200,000, and constantly had his magnanimity tested by customers quoting "Blue fish blowing bubbles" which, according to his website, entitled them to a free Coke (I tried it and was nearly handed over to the authorities for verbal shoplifting ☺).

 

Quote the phrase; "Blue fish blowing bubbles", when you place any takeaway order over $4, to receive a free can of Coke!

 

He tried to sell it again in 2009 but no luck. Then, in April 2010, it burnt down and, with a bit of help from the insurers, a new store arose from the ashes which Benny then tried to sell for over $800,000. He had to wait three years before he found a buyer in October 2014 at $710,000. Eight years later, in 2022, it sold again for $1,450,000 - click here.

 

 

It's still going strong - but don't try quoting "Blue fish blowing bubbles"!

 

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Pondering the problems of the world

 

Same name as the Braunschweiger Feldschlößchen, but this one comes from Dresden

 

Sitting on the jetty and pondering the problems of the world, I suddenly realise that, at my age, I don't really give a rat's ass anymore. I mean, if walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, and drinks water, but is still fat. A rabbit runs, and hops, and only lives fifteen years; a tortoise doesn't run, and does mostly nothing, yet it lives for 150 years. And they tell us to exercise? I don't think so.

Now that I'm old(er), here's what I've discovered:

• I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.
• My wild oats are mostly enjoyed with prunes and all-bran.
• Funny, I don't remember being absent-minded.
• Funny, I don't remember being absent-minded.
• If all is not lost, then where the heck is it?
• It was a whole lot easier to get older than it was to get wiser.
• Some days, you're the top dog, some days you're the hydrant.
• I wish the buck really did stop here; I sure could use a few of them.
• Kids in the back seat cause accidents.
• Accidents in the back seat cause kids.
• It is hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.
• The world only beats a path to your door when you're in the bathroom.
• If God wanted me to touch my toes, he'd have put them on my knees.
• When I'm finally holding all the right cards, everyone wants to play chess.
• It is not hard to meet expenses ... they're everywhere.
• The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
• Funny, I don't remember being absent-minded.

Have I sent this message to you before? Or did I get it from you?

 

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Work in Progress

 

 

The progress on the verandah-rebuild is better than I had expected: one day removing the old one, then three days building the hardwood frame, and, since this morning, half of one side of the decking has already been laid. At this fast rate, in another three days all should be finished.

 

 

So far, I've paid him only in oysters which he picks himself off the jetty, but whatever the final costs, they will be well within the budget and a lot lower than any of those three or four quotes I had received before, some of whom had quoted me for not one but THREE men on the job.

 

Troy's Handyman Service 0450 140 834 - Rating:  ★★★★★

 

If you want a verandah professionally built, ring the number shown on the back of his shirt, but make sure you have some fresh oysters handy!

 

 

Now it's time to get ready for the weekend and some time spent by, on, and in the river. The pelican (the white dot) is already leading the way.

 

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Labor's new ENVY TAX

 

 

By displaying the cartoon above and republishing the following SwitzerDaily article below, I am probably breaking copyright laws but, like Labor, I am going for broke, so here we go:

 

Don’t buy Treasury’s Budget spin

"Treasury says 90% of Australians will be better off under the Budget’s tax changes. I’m not buying it — and here’s why that 10% figure matters more than the government wants you to think.

One of the universal shortcomings of too many politicians is that their utterances are as reliable as the promises of snake oil merchants. And they can be seen at their worst when they roll out statistics from a mob like Treasury to tell you that their policies won’t hurt you.

It’s this history that has made one liners, such as this one from former US President Ronald Reagan both funny and worrying: “The nine most worrying words in the English language are — I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.”

The memory of Reagan’s takes on what governments take came back to me, when I read a SMH story headlined as: “Nine in ten young Australians will be better off under tax changes: Treasury data”.

That means one in 10 or 10% are expected to be worse off. But what if this is an important 10% for the economy? So, could the use of statistics such as ‘nine in ten better off’ be based on flawed assumptions about how a population gets “better off” and even a flawed view on what constitutes an average Australian?

Who would’ve thought public servant economists in Treasury could have missed some important aspects about the role of the small minority of aspirational Aussies, who are change agents, who create big life improvements on many levels?

Think how John Symond at Aussie Home Loans took on the CBA and other big banks by cutting home loans by 2% in 1992, giving birth to the age of mortgage broking and an era of lower home loan rates, financial competition and millions of better off Australians.

Below I look at the Treasury’s views on how the Budget will impact us. Here goes:

1. The top 1% of income earners would lose about $400,000 worth of tax concessions over their lifetime.
2. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says there’s no clear evidence that taxing capital gains lightly promotes investment.
3. The new capital gains tax discount will better allocate capital or Aussies’ investing more efficiently.
4. 90 per cent of people under the age of 30 would benefit from a one-off amount of up to $1,000 from the combined tax changes, including the Budget’s $250 income tax offset. This is fairly insignificant!
5. Some young people who made high returns on investments would pay more tax.
6. Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson summed up what her team found and wanted to change with the following: “Our assessment is that these reforms will contribute to arresting the decline in home ownership rates, improve the efficiency of the taxation of capital, and support a modest reduction in the tax burden on labour income.”

So, what do I think about these Treasury observations? First, I always operate from the lesson taught to us by either US writer Mark Twain or UK Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who both said: “Lies, damned lies and statistics!”

To tell us that only 10% of Australians will be worse off is to believe Treasury’s ‘guess’ about who constitutes an average Aussie. That worries me.

Even if they’re right (and I’m sure they’re not), the 10% figure could be more important than Treasury thinks because they could be those important Aussies who don’t need tax slugs to curtail their aspirational goals.

An Australian stock exchange study in 2023 found 51% of the population had investments — mainly stocks I guess — aside from their super and their home. However, 9%, which is close to 10%, were young “next gen” investors in the age bracket of 18-24.

Many of these have come out of a generation who know building wealth from property is hard for them because governments haven’t helped the supply of housing and now take 12% of their income for superannuation.

Another important 10% group are business owners with ABS data saying that about 10% of Australians (or 2.72 million taxpayers) own a business that would also be an employer or potential employer. Because business owners are job creators, income payers, worker trainers, tax collectors and taxpayers, it’s a really important group that a smart government wouldn’t want to make business life harder for. Changes to the capital gains tax discount will hit the successful business builders really hard.

Last week, I heard the Federal Small Business Minister Ann Aly tell the ABC that only 10% of businesses will be negatively affected by these changes. She said that “all businesses have to do” is get a valuation of their business before July 2027 and they probably won’t be affected!

Aly clearly didn’t know that accountants can’t do a valuation that the ATO will simply accept. Accountants recommend to their clients that the business value be determined by a valuer. As accountants are telling me, that could cost between $3,000 and $10,000! And the bigger problem is that there aren’t enough valuers to do the job!

It looks like the Government will have to get Anthropic’s AI model — Claude — to do the valuations! And I wonder if Treasury’s model has those costs and supply of valuers problem factored in?

Finally, my research has found 20% of Australians (or 2.24 million people) are property investors, who could find selling their investment properties harder, as new investor buyers won’t be able to use negative gearing, and their capital gains discount will be less generous.

This partly explains why SQM research is tipping that house prices in capital cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, will fall by 9% or 10% this year, some of which would be due to these proposed Budget changes and rising interest rates.

While I bet this Treasury modelling is good for making the Government’s Budget look good for the so-called ‘average Aussie’, I think it has at least a 10% chance of being a very misleading snapshot of how we’ll be affected by these so-called reforms.

You see, no economic modelling can reliably estimate the negative effects on aspirational Australians of this Budget. The multiplier effect of a government inspiring the best 10% to create businesses, employ people and dream for economic greatness will never be understood by the penny-pinching political pygmies that we call our leaders.

The history of great leaders is that they inspire the top 10% to make life better for the other 90%. And then governments don’t have to ride to the rescue of the population with nickel and dime tax cuts.

One good piece of news I can share with you about these Budget changes comes from the SMH: “The government appeared surprised on Thursday when its laws were automatically referred to a Senate committee after passing the House of Representatives. This was because the Senate passed a motion earlier this month to require that substantive new laws commencing on July 1 be probed by an inquiry by June 22.”

This is where some of my more critical takes on the Government’s ‘takes’ will get spotlighted and hopefully changed. Let’s hope the Senate identifies Treasury’s BS and de-stinks some of these changes."

 

Peter Switzer is the founder of Switzer Group - a content, publishing and financial services firm. Peter is an award-winning broadcaster, talking each morning to 2GB's Ben Fordham about the latest in finance and money. You can read his views daily on Switzer.com.au, and subscribe to Switzer Report for his latest insights and recommendations.

 

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The thin red line

 

 

I don't want to strain the relationship needlessly, but isn't it about time you put the fence between our properties back in the right position?

You needlessly had my original survey pegs bulldozed - even though a bulldozer was only required when you eliminated the fence between your property and the communal lagoon - and I had to pay several thousand dollars to obtain a new survey.

Before the pegs from this new survey disappear again, I would like the fence positioned along them. I would also like our boundary with the communal lagoon NOT fenced in, as I quite like the kangaroos visiting our property.

Also, we have some prospective buyers for the property who insist on a clearly defined boundary.

Thank you for your attention in this matter."

They say, "Good fences make good neighbours", but several years ago, our neighbours bulldozed our simple but adequate fence and replaced it with heavy barbed-wire fencing, ostensibly to keep their cattle in, but in doing so also removed all markers from a survey I had carried out when I bought the property in 1993. The new fence seemed to suffer from "boundary creep", and it cost me another expensive survey to establish that the fence had crept onto our property by as little as one metre at one end to as much as a massive four metres at the other.

 

 

In the interest of good neighbourliness I was not too bothered and only made a passing remark about it. After all, we live on over seven acres, so what are a few metres between friends, but that was before I read about this perverse law of adverse possession, colloquially known as "squatter's rights", which is a legal principle that allows a person who occupies land without the owner's permission to eventually claim legal ownership. To succeed, the occupier's possession must be continuous, exclusive, and hostile (without the true owner's consent) for a legally mandated period of time, which in New South Wales is twelve years.

I eventually mustered enough courage to dash off the above message.

 

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Are all our politicians little Kants?

 

 

When making a moral decision, a person should consider what would happen if everyone took that course of action. For instance, if everyone lied, no one could ever be trusted. So should you lie? No.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant called this ethical test the “categorical imperative”. He believed that applying it to every action, even if it goes against one’s self-interest, and following the set of rules it implies (don’t lie, cheat, steal) is the key to leading a righteous life.

Wouldn't it be nice if all our politicians were little Kants? Or are they little Kants already? (no pun intended)

 

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I stole these photos from the internet

 

3/149-151 Blues Point Road, McMahons Point, NSW 2060

 

The green dots in the photos point to an 'Art Deco Delight in Prime Locale', which sold prior to auction on 22 May 2026 for $770,000.

The advertisement described it as "nestled in the heart of the vibrant McMahons Point Village this refreshed, first floor unit offers a great first home, city base or investment in one of Sydney's most central and desirable neighbourhoods. Set in a small boutique block of only 4 with classic period charm and large communal rear gardens to enjoy. Offering a generous eat-in kitchen, separate lounge/dining area, bathroom/laundry, linen closet and large bedroom with modern built-in wardrobe, the unit is more than comfortable as is while offering scope to upgrade to taste. Surrounded by quality restaurants, cafes, pubs and shops - and conveniently located just minutes walk to the Harbour Foreshore, walks & parks, North Sydney CBD, ferry, rail and Metro - this is Sydney living at its finest."

 

The apartment sold is right above the SERENITY shop.
My apartment is in the red-brick building to the left.

 

When I came back to Australia in 1985, I bought an almost identical apartment at Number 153, the building right next door, but soon began to think that this was not "Sydney living at its finest". It probably had a lot to do with the regrets I felt about my disappointing homecoming.

 

 

I was desperate to get away again and to "cut my losses" by selling the apartment to whoever wanted to experience "Sydney living at its best". I was ready to accept even an offer which was $15,000 below what I had paid only three months earlier. Luckily, the lady never came back with the money because the apartment has given me a steady rent income ever since. As for its current value, it's comparable to next door.

 

 

Having been spoilt by the peace of "Riverbend", I could not live there again, but it's nice to know that as an investment it turned out well.

 

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We've been left with no other choice

 

 

When people vote for Pauline Hanson, they're not really voting for ONE NATION; they're voting AGAINST the duopoly of Liberal and Labor, who look as if they're against each other, but away from the public eye slap each other's back and have a laugh.

 

 

The next election can't come soon enough because they won't be laughing when ONE NATION romps in - although, come to think of it, they'll still have the last laugh, as they retire on their generous lifelong parliamentary pensions plus all the other perks. What a scam!

 

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The Making of 'They're A Weird Mob'

 

 

Sixty years ago, on 13 October 1966, the classic comedy "They're A Weird Mob" was released. It's about an Italian immigrant, a 'New Australian', who has just newly arrived in Australia. It was based on the 1957 novel of the same title by John O'Grady who wrote under the pen name "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character of the book.

 

Read the book online at www.archive.org

 

In order to learn about real Australians, Nino takes a job as a brickie's labourer with a man named Joe Kennedy. The comedy of the novel revolves around his attempts to understand English as it was spoken in Australia by the working classes in the 1950s and 1960s. Nino had previously only learned 'good' English from a textbook.

 

 

"The House That Nino Built" in the movie is at 128 Greenacre Road in Greenacre, a suburb of Sydney. There the actors dug trenches, poured concrete, and laid bricks. It was then finished professionally and sold to raise funds for The Royal Life Saving Society. The stars' footprints were set in concrete slabs in the pathway. When it last sold in 2023 for $1,800,000, it had already been forgotten as "the house that Nino built" - click here.

 

 

The novel is a social commentary on Australian society of the period; specifically male, working class society. Women mostly feature as cameos in the story, with the exception of Kay who becomes Nino's wife.

The final message of the novel is that immigrants to Australia should count themselves fortunate and should make efforts to assimilate into Australian society, including learning to speak Australian English.

The movie met with some not so favourable reviews, such as, ""Behind the rugged exterior and grating speech of the average Australian, there lies a heart of gold: or so would seem to be the cosy message of this rather patronising tale of how an immigrant makes good in barbarous Sydney (by marrying the boss's daughter – how else?). Michael Powell seems ill-at-ease during the chummily extrovert opening, with its repeated assurances that Australia is a big, big country and its endless jokes about a foreigner's difficulties in understanding the slang; but after that the film stops trying so hard to be jolly, and the quieter sequences in which the Italian learns to live his new life are moderately effective. Nothing, though, can really conceal the fact that this is just a routine women's magazine romance in a new setting; and the acting is mostly indifferent.""

When the movie was shown in cinemas in 1966, I also had just arrived in Australia. I immediately fell in love with it and the country. In the movie Nino Culotta is called a Dago. I was sometimes called a Hun. I'm reminded of it every time I sit down to order something from a menu and the waitress comes over and asks me, "What can I getcha, Hun?"

 

 

Sixty years later, Australia has changed but my love for it has not. Every so often, when I want to remind myself of what I fell in love with and why, I sit down and watch "They're A Weird Mob" again. And so can you!

 

 

"Australians live Down Under. Like flies on the ceiling, they never fall off. Of course, they see themselves like this! They're a nation of sportsmen. They have a shot at anything that moves. This they call 'doing your block'. These they call 'schooners'. These they call 'sheilas'. Or 'beaut' sorts'. And this they call 'English'. They're a weird mob."

 

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The butcherbird is keeping an eye on things

 

 

Three weeks ago, the handyman, trusty Troy, pulled down the old verandah decking. Then we had to wait for the timber to arrive. Today he came to do the framing-up because today was a rained-out day and he couldn't work anywhere else.

 

 

With a bit of luck, it will rain for the rest of the week, which means he will work on the verandah for the next three days and get everything done except for the time-consuming laying of the Merbau decking.

 

 

To speed up the process, I bought this little gadget from BUNNINGS. It should help with the positioning of the screws and give a nice and neat finish. At a mere $10.45, it's certainly worth its price several times over.

 

 

At this rate, the job will be finished well within budget and well below what other tradesmen had quoted me. As I can't be there all the time to make sure that good ol' Troy keeps up the pace, I've instructed the butcherbird to sit on top of the dropsaw and keep an eye on things.

 

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