Say again - you did what??

A friend sent me a link to Just Answer Law (Ask an Australia Law Question, Get an Answer ASAP!) which had me wondering where on earth some people park their common sense as they grab the keys and decide to take a little ride on the NSW North Coast.

I was riding my un-registered, unregisterable mottorbike with no bike lisence. I was pulled up by a police officer on yamba rd and he let me off with a warning. One month later I received 3 fines in the mail, all adding up to over $1500. All fines stated that I was done riding on "Angourie rd". All i know is that I was pulled over by an officer on yamba rd and given a warning, I get fines saying I was riding on "angourie rd", when i was never pulled over by an officer, let alone ever riding on that angourie rd. I have sent the fines back so the matter can be resolved in court. Please let me know what you think.

Who's driving drunk on our roads?

When the subject of driving while on the turps comes up at my local watering hole quite a few fellow greybeards immediately start pointing a finger at young drivers.

Now if there's one thing northern NSW is known for it's the imbalance between age groups in the local population - with the number of older people steadily growing over the years and those in the late teens to twenties thin on the ground in towns and villages because many are moving away to get steady work .

So who exactly is responsible for the high number of drink-drivers on our North Coast roads?

Well a clue or two can be found in The Daily Examiner piece on 17th September 2009 when it reported that the Coffs-Clarence Area Command district had twice the state average of recorded driving under the influence nabs by police.

That works out as about 1 in every 75 drivers pulled over clearly testing positive for over-the-limit alcohol consumption.

But are they mostly youngies?

Nup and they're not tourists either.

Of the 49 drink-drivers mentioned in that newspaper since the very end of August 2009 up to last Monday, a whopping 33 of these drivers were between 30 and 68 years of age (half of these were middle aged and older).

They clearly trounced the young when it came to being caught with a skinful and accounted for all the high range PCAs highlighted.

Only 8 of the 49 drivers could be definitely tagged as tourists.

So the next time a mate at the bar starts mouthing off about the trouble with the young generation - tell him to pull his head in and watch how much he's knocking back himself.

Pic from Google Images

Like a bad smell on the bottom of your shoe some editors continue to reek long after

When Peter Chapman resigned as editor of The Daily Examiner at Grafton on the NSW North Coast to move to a similar position with the Frazer Coast Chronicle in Queensland, the Clarence Valley almost seemed to echo with a collective sigh of relief.

Still, when one leaves a job after less than fifteen months, with more than a few locals giving you a here's-your-hat-what's-your-hurry send-off, it would appear that there is an intermittent urge to revisit - like an itch you just can't satisfactorily scratch.

Therefore every so often, rather like that sudden bad smell on the bottom of your shoe, the former editor unexpectedly turns up on a page in The Daily Examiner.

This time in a letter to the editor on 16 January 2010, bemoaning the fact that his favourite small time developers did not have costs awarded to them in the NSW Land & Environment Court and using his letter to lobby against the re-election of five Clarence Valley shire councillors.

Chapman's huge ego knows no bounds.

Perhaps he should return to complaining about local government in the new home town, his weight, past hangovers, the price of a good steak, or upsetting the locals as he has been doing in the Fraser Coast Chronicle since at least 12 September 2009 and cease taking defensive pot shots elsewhere because he can't make a editorial sow's ear into a silk purse no matter how hard he might try.

When Japan hunts adult whales in the Southern Ocean this is what can be left to die

Photograph taken by Kate Westaway & found in The Sun

This is a very young Humpback Whale still reliant on its mother.
The Government of Japan is yet to give an unequivocal assurance that its whaling fleet operating in the Antarctic does not leave calves like this to die when it takes their mothers for meat.

• Background article The Japan Times: Whaling — for nationalism or science?