Ambassador Bob Turner – expatriate Yank now dinky di Aussie and basketball royalty – told us he discovered the uniquely Australian way of offering encouragement on his first Australian game at the Shoalhaven conference when a sideline yobbo kept up with “..’av a go yer mug!”.  Ted eventually mastered our terms of endearment despite the handicap of his still lingering American accent.

In our towns and villages and particularly around our lakes it was party time despite the party pooping efforts of the weather gods who sent thunderstorm fronts growling around the place, putting the frighteners under the horse mob at the showground Oz Day equestrian trials who rushed their prized mounts to the safety of the horse floats. The sad news now is there’s no more holiday breaks until Easter at the end of March. Stay strong.

WITH the potential for Sydney’s garbage for the Mt Piper furnaces simmering away in the background but sure to soon go on the boil we’re wondering what happened to the ‘positive and promising’ expressions of interest for utilising sections of Wang power station revealed with a degree of optimism by Energy Australia a couple of years ago. Was it just wishful thinking on our part or another case of opportunity lost?

SO there’s to be further Lithgow CBD disruption next month with temporary one way traffic while work continues on the Eskbank Street intersection. To the casual uninformed observer it would appear to make sense to do as  much of the work as possible on Sundays when traffic is sparse and few businesses open. So why not?