Go Native

Best not to get me started. But think what it would be like if the Tea Baggers Party was in power in the US. That's what it's like here at the moment. I've never been so ashamed to be an Australian.

Well at least there might be some really good deals on Malaysian airlines over the next few months!

Just look at what's been going on in Australia recently under our government and you'd realise yes, they can get dumber.

He's a great guy. Plays a good game of poker too.

Yep. He got married earlier this week as well!

You got that right Tubby!

I still think Aus has some great backcountry terrain and even some reasonable snow quality at times. Doubt I'll ever ski at an Aussie ski resort again though.

A friend of mine in Niseko runs an organic farm through the warmer months. It doesn't make all that much money but he enjoys it.

Retiring doesn't necessarily mean slowing down of course!

Yep. Another 25,000 to deliver on Thursday...

Actually been wearing a back brace. Delivered over 20,000 plants in the last couple of days and I'm feeling it.

Yeah but after 20-30 years of retirement I reckon I'll be ready for a good long sleep.

43 here. Closer to retirement than all you youngins!

Surprised no one else has updated this recently as we've been having a pretty good snow season in Aus. All higher resorts now have well over 1m of snow on the ground and from what I've heard the quality of the snow has been good (at least for Aus). Bit of sad news over the last couple of days though with two missing backcountry snowboarders, who were up on Victoria's highest peak Mt Bogong (1986m), having been found dead in avalanche debris in one of the gullies. Haven't made it up myself yet as we've been incredibly busy with work but hope to soon.

Amazingly I've never even had a single cavity. Good genes I guess!

Owning a plant nursery I know all about weeding....it never ends.

Considering how little use mine gets it can last years.

I'm not convinced that within resort boundaries there's anything that much steeper on Honshu than what's on offer at Hokkaido resorts. Sure if you head out beyond into the backcountry there's much bigger mountains on Honshu but within resorts themselves for those that don't have all the skills and experience to head backcountry are there really many Honshu resorts that offer much steeper terrain than found at Hokkaido resorts? Are there any resorts on Honshu that offer as much easily accessible and legal off-piste terrain as many of the Hokkaido resorts? Genuine enquiry for those that have exp

Probably useless booking now as it'll all be booked out!

From the very first day I started working I was already planning my retirement. I've never been into working for a living. It really is a mugs game.

I expect in retirement I'll do a lot more volunteer work than I do now. I'm already on the board of two volunteer organisations and those roles would take up all my spare time if I let them. I don't think I'd get bored in retirement. Some volunteers I talk to reckon they've never worked harder than they have whilst in retirement.

Having income producing investments. I'm looking at retiring at around 55. My wife is 7 years younger than me and I expect her to work till 55 as well so there'll be 7 years I can live it up whilst she supports me. Looking forward to it.

My daughter in our pool

I must admit I had no idea how much we used until I noticed our last bill on the kitchen bench (my wife normally takes care of all the bill payments). I was just amazed at how much less we were supposedly using compared to the average Aussie family. We do have a solar hot water system which I guess saves us quite a bit and a slow combustion wood heater for winter. Plus as we live so close to the beach we normally get afternoon sea breezes which cool the house down in summer meaning we rarely need to use the aircon.

Here in Aus it seems to be a national pastime to complain about the cost of electricity but since being back in Aus I've found electricity here to be pretty cheap, at least compared to Japan. From what I can tell though it's not that Aussies pay that much for electricity it's that they use so god damned much of it. We now live in the biggest house we've ever owned and as it was built prior to gas being connected to the town everything is electrical. We also have for the first time a dishwasher and as we live in quite a cool and wet part of Aus we have to use the clothes dryer quite often. Any