Hello,my name is Andy Youngman and I am your new guest blogger. I would like to say hello and tell you a little about myself.

Mostly what I like to do is help people.

 Example,after leaving school one of my first jobs was as a fruit picker in Tasmania. I  was hitchhiking and got a lift from a raspberry farmer in desperate need of pickers. I was happy to help him out. Wasn't too bad,most of the raspberrries went into the bin, but a lot fed the birds.

Afterwards, landed in Melbourne, got a fill in job and for exercise took up boxing in a local gym.One of the volunteer supervisors told me he wanted to manage professional boxers and he asked me to join his group. I did this to help out and I agreed to a fight in the Melbourne stadium . Fortunately  the ref stopped the fight in the second round because my opponent was exhausted from hitting me. That ended my boxing career.

 Then I  got into something I was good at, Human Rights campaigning. Did some good things.e.g. I helped some Muslims get an okay to build their mosque.Helped get some involuntary patients out of a hospital because they did not need to be there.Got some repressive laws changed. That sort of thing.

 So that's  what I used to do. However as I am now a senior  I retired recently and am now interested in doing something for other seniors subjected to abuses of their human rights. If you know of any such instance please contact me. 

Andy

Australian bosses, so it seems, will soon have the right (and responsibility) to check their workers’ emails. The new scheme is all part of improving national security, according to our Government.
I can’t help thinking that, in the realm of stupid propositions, this has to be right up near the top.
Firstly, assuming that the checks will be on emails sent to and from the workplace, how’s the “boss” going to find time for his own work if he has to spy on his workers? I can’t see how he could be permitted to appoint a staff member to spy on his or her mates.
I suppose, though, that someone will soon invent software that searches incoming and outgoing mail for mention of sedition, or a range of other crimes such as industrial spying, or pornography, or even illicit romances.
But, surely, our civilisation has reached a pitiful level if government feels the need to instruct employers to spy on their workforce!
Anyway, why don’t they install whopping great computers and spies to vet all of the nation’s emails and phone calls, as is said to be done in the U.S?
What a pity it is that we can’t all grow up!

As an ex newspaper man, Mike has finally retired a second time. This time as our resident SIG (Special Interest Group) manager here. We wish him well for the future and thank him for his valued contribution to greypathers.

We are thinking about making this a guest blog spot, where each guest has there say  for some months and then moves on. 

People say funny things when under pressure - like the Melbourne Cup TV commentator, t'other day, talking about a jockey due to ride in the big race, having had a disappointing first try, years ago. . . . ."He fell off last time he tried this race  - But he bounced right back up again!".

Of course, we all knew what he meant.

Then there was the man who wrote about the Melbourne Cup race that almost didn't happen, because od a downpour that flooded the bookmakers' enclosure, about half an hour from the start. . . . "It was alright though. The bookies and the stewards had a very intense conference and then the rain stopped!" he wrote.

In fact, this year's was a great Melbourne Cup - horse 'flu notwithstanding. The field was good, the weatther was terriffic, none of the riders fell off, and it was a great finish. Not just that, but the ladies, in the current fashion, looked smarter than they have for years (in my humble opinion, that is)

Television station executives tell us that they don't run the commercials louder than the programs want to enjoy. They place hand over heart (metaphoricaly) and say they don't want to annoy us, and that "our support is valuale to them", and that they think there's a rule about over-loud commercials on telly anyway.

So we have to believe them, don't we?  Of course we do!

I've puzzled over this problem for ages and I think I've come up with a solution. I'm going to write to every station - or perhaps send a non-stop run of brochures - suggesting that they turn up the sound level of the actual programs a bit, so they and the commercials will seem as though they're coming out at the same level of loudness.

I wonder why the telly people haven't thought of that?

I wrote a great item for this blog late last night, but it's gone. I finished typing, had my wife correct the typing mistakes, worked out a snappy heading and then sent the fruits of my labor into the wide blue yonder!

The theme of that missing gem - there's not much excuse for boredom, these days, among those of us whose hair is greyish (or has departed). I recalled having finally found the courage to retire properly at the third try, how  I'd found plenty to keep me busy since,  and how my (our) interests have changed as the years take their toll.

We've progressed from years as "Grey Nomads" back to householders with scads of memories, a small garden for herself, music, computer blogs and stuff and exercise classes for me. What with grandchildren there's hardly enough time in the day.

We hope there'll be a good few years yet for us to find new interests before we get sent on to the "never never" with that missing masterpiece of mine.

I was so disappointed at losing that par I got up early this morning and started a new one. I had to leave it on the screen until my return from exercise class ,when I faced a blank screen. So I gave up, and here we are again!

By the way - I'd love to publish a list of how you fill spaces that would otherwise be "spare time"

Please note: There'll be no fresh word will appear on this page until October, because we're off on a three week holiday so we can  spend a week with our young'ns, Interstate.

This item is my announcement of a major sort of policy change in this particular blog.

I short, I'm no longer going to bother to lecture on matters of serious politics, or of national, political or moral importance!

I've decided, seeing you've all managed to live long enough to make your own major decisions, to let you "get on with it".

Instead, this column will now endeavor to entertain and amuse.

There may be a need, however, for you to keep me on track. Encouragement by way of comments (see below this par) could help my resolve.

It is, you'll understand, a bit hard to break the habits of a lifetime.