snobee

Definitely with Snowglider's angle. Changing the course of history to what? Perhaps with Hitler gone his even more crazed demonic neighbour would have srutted to power. One Jurassic butterfly snuffed out by time travellers and Hitler may have been an iguana.

CB - Must be my age and losing the edge (if I ever had it), but is a general mid-fat really 90cm underfoot now. I can understand that 90 fits midway between 70 ~110, the general range of current waist measurements. Just I'm still in the 80 is phat(ish) mode, disregarding the big pow sticks. Would you suggest a mainly on pister like me to try out something of those dimensions next season?

Rach - Nothing strange at all! In these days of see all, know all - you just don't know what the next stomping on will be. That's all. And by all means have a preference - while you can.

Lot of Anti-Hairy-Bod fascists on here. I know, I know it's only in jest(???)you say, but the next thing you know it's smooth skin, blonde hair & blue eyes only acceptable bars popping up and swarthy types all over being shunned or heaven forbid rounded up to suffer who knows what. Forced shaving or even worse forced plucking. Knock, knock. Aaaarrrgh!

A Nice Take Spud. Geez. Talk about South Oz. Could be any of a hundred places. Yorks, West Coast........, even the vegetation & sea colours the same. A few years back a well travelled friend told me Lisbon is the best city in Europe and Portugal the pick for a laid back holiday. Seems to be the case.

Thanks for that link JPC. Going to spread it around. Where have all the flowers gone?

lotta common childhood threads around here. Used to make 'Bolt Bombs' with my bros. Take 2 one inch (or bigger) diameter bolts and heavy duty nut. Screw on the nut 1 or 2 threads, fill in the remaining nut hole with homemade gun powder, place a starting pistol cap on top to act as a detonator. Then screw in the other bolt to compact it as tight as hell. Throw it at a concrete/brick wall, path etc. The fun was never knowing which direction it would shoot when exploded. Whizzing past heads, smashing neighbours window, ripping a hole in the verandah roof...... Ahh

Mr Wigs - agree with you re Being There. A splash of Naive painting there. Didn't really think FG pushed any BIG barrow in particular. Just presented a story touching on a lot of topics leaving the viewer to think a little. No moralizing or so I thought.

Quite enjoyed Forrest Gump. Querky, topical (without brow-beating) but enough to let us ponder a little, funny, light, a touch sentimental & sloppy plus bits of action. Makes for a comfortable evening at the movies.

Actually friends of a friend took a kneeboard (midget surf board) to Mt Buller ski resort in Oz in 1980. I saw pix of them having a ball on small back slopes. I recall them saying it was big fun, but way too fast. Ha, Ha. I guess that fine line between inventivity and play is what determines success. Those guyz were on a winner, just didn't know it.

Sad? Why? People need to make up their own minds when it comes to viewing movies, rather than being told not to by those whose who get get paid to say what they believe. I'm seeing it this weekend without too much stacked on it being great.

Certainly raises the bar in the Personal Endeavour stakes. What us mere mortals could do if we really tried. Congrats.

DIRTY!!! That's pretty good mid-range stuff out here. Granulated for extra roll. You're only a pig if you wallow in it.

That'd be Sharpened Snow to prevent snow theft.

Indo & Bushy - your tales of Oz kids & snakes & things brings it all back. Used to collect snakes with my big bros - one escaped on the bus back from Port Lincoln. One (a baby red bellied)bit a kid at school ` show & tell. We'd often fall asleep at night playing with them in bed and mum freaking out when changing sheets to find one coiled up at the foot. And lizards - they're just the bang! Good ol blueys gotta be my favourite, altho geckos gotta be the cutest lil reps around. And didn't everyone say if a sleepy latched onto your finger, then you'd have to kill i

SnowG - that's good advice to slowly work your way thru the %ages. The other week my wife bought the 86 after a few weeks of the 72 - all yummy. Last Sunday the first 99'er. She broke off a slab popped it into my mouth while I was driving and greedy me crunched it lasciviously. Kinda like I had put a desssert spoon of cocoa powder in my mouth. Trapped in the traffic with a "dirty" mouth. Going gingerly from now.

Hey - that's fun.

Kuma - left or right?

On the topic of service stations & self serve, the price difference as kumap said can be huge. Which set me thinking(strange) - what our you folks around the country paying for petrol? In Takamatsu at my local serufu I pay about￥123/litre. Elsewhere?

If I was heading to central/south america the last thing I'd do is skimp on decent insurance. Shitt happens and it's better to have the forces of money on your side. On saying that, a few years back, I had no insurance when I was trooping around asia - including Nepal & India - truly believing that crap only happens to those not mindful. In retrospect - just damn lucky. Many horror stories abound.

I was just talking this topic over with a friend yesterday and she also agreed that erring on the side of caution is better than fuelling something that could be nothing at all. It reminded me of the case a few years back where a "foreigner" - kiwi I think - took some foil wrapped sandwiches to his apartment rooftop to eat while watching the sunset. He was spotted by a resident, who promptly rang the police to alert them that a gaijin was on the roof with a WEAPON. It seems half of Tokyo's finest(?)raced there before the misunderstanding was realized. Hope all turns out OK.

Bushy - Mizuho would surely be one. Jeez they're a tight-arse operation. Highest lift prices in Japan with a half day costing ￥4500. Coupla years back they moved the vending machines away from the gondola cafe to force people to buy expensive drinks inside. But they got arguably one of the best setups out west and good snow to boot. Bastards.

You'd want to be 100% damn sure of the facts before going off half-cocked. Things are not what they always seem. In the event that they are, Indo's advice seems as good as any.

On the parking bit. It pisses me to see camper vans that occupy the same marked space charged o'nite fees that are 3,4x more. Friends last year were hit big by this. Car　￥1000, Van ￥4000 or abouts. As if there's 1,000's of vannies hovering to take over. Ketchi is the only word.

Bobbytw... - Yep, I'm one of those wonkers that got a 4wd and I agree with you. Sure a lotta demerits with owning it. Petrol = environment being the major one. Why did I buy it? Well 5 yrs ago gas was about 50+% cheaper and I had lottsa plans to venture out on those forestry roads in the mountains, camping & the loike, snow touring up to Hokkaido, taking overseas visitors(& local friends) to very out of the way places etc etc. Some of these things I've done but not as often as I had anticipated. So I've spent a lot of money on juice, insurance, shaken etc that I didn't need to. B