mike carey

Possibly so, but there is another explanation, and one that the OP nods to in his choice of a thread title (and I admit to being lamentably slow in the uptake) in which he references the traditional translation of Qu'ils mangent de la brioche, which Jean-Jacques Rousseau attributed to an unnamed 'great princess' (and has since been attributed erroneously to Marie Antoinette). 'Let them eat cake' has become the byword for being monumentally out of touch. Neither sneering condescension nor being hopelessly out of touch reflects well on the CEO.

And there I was expecting this to be a thread about finding a doctor in Baltimore!

Moving this into a relevant Forum, the test match was a roller coaster ride for spectators and the teams playing at Hagley Oval alike. Australia did indeed have the advantage at the end of the second day, but what a difference a day makes. The New Zealand batsmen settled down and played aggressive cricket in their second innings, overtaking Australia's 94 run lead from the two teams' first innings. By late on the third day they had amassed a second innings total of 372 runs, a lead of 278 when they were all out. Things didn't get any better for the Australians as when they began their run chase four of their batsmen were out when the team had only scored 34. Early on day four another Australian was out when the score was 80 leaving them 199 runs to win and New Zealand only needing to get five more batsmen out for them to win. Nobody gave Australia much chance of pulling that off. Scoring more than 250 runs in the fourth innings of a test match rarely happens, and it was more than Australia had ever scored to win against the Kiwis. Mitch Marsh and the wicket keeper (a bit like a baseball catcher) Alex Carey (NR) combined to score 140 runs (dare we hope?) before Mitch was out with Australia needing a further 59 runs. The new batsman (who is in the team mainly as a bowler) was out first ball. Seven out and hope ebbs away. The nervous tension was palpable, even for someone watching on a small screen. The captain, Pat Cummins (also a bowler) came in to bat. They gradually scored runs, with Cummins, the less accomplished batsman, scoring more than Carey. Australia reached 277 runs. Cummins was at bat. Carey was 98 not out. Cummins could have played a defensive shot and left scoring the final two runs to Carey, but he hit a final ball to the boundary scoring four runs. And leaving Carey two runs short of a century. If New Zealand had won they would have reprised their first ever test victory against Australia, at Lancaster Park in Christchurch in 1974, a victory that had been marked by a reunion of surviving NZ players on the eve of the match. Many Australians would not have been too disappointed at a loss for that reason. A fitting way to mark the 50th Anniversary wasn't to be. And we had been treated to a match that was absorbing throughout and had an uncertain result almost till the end.

Christchurch is a beautiful city, although there's nothing 'must see' about it, and it has that in common with a lot of places. Australia is playing New Zealand in a cricket test at the moment (day three will be on Sunday, and Australia had the advantage at the end of day two), and that is being played at Hagley Oval which is in the same area of parkland where the botanical gardens are. Hagley Oval is a new test cricket ground, the previous venue at Lancaster Park was damaged beyond repair in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and the area was deemed unsafe to build a new stadium. I agree with Rod, that driving anywhere in the South Island is a joy. @azdr0710 @tristanbaldwin and I drove from Picton (the ferry terminal from the North Island) to Queenstown down the west coast and it was a great trip.

Lol, my sincere thanks for your concern, and you didn't mention that it's a short domestic flight. I can assure you that the traveller in me is significantly less excited than the avgeekish part. It's a new aircraft type for Australia and an aeroplane that has been widely greeted in the FF blogs as being innovative in its 'passenger experience' (to use the jargon). I won't be wearing a Qantas A220 t-shirt by the pool at InnDulge!

There is a common culture in the Gulf Arab states, but the hired help, including airline employees are not part of it. These countries are the antithesis of diversity, there is a dominant culture, hired technocratic help (mainly western) who have no rights, and the rest who have even fewer rights, more analogous to slaves than anything else. So they offer no lessons on whether diversity in the West is a good or bad thing. Interesting as that may be, this thread is about airlines and air travel, not the advantages or otherwise of diversity or of the nature of Middle Eastern societies, so please stick to discussing travel.

(Without reading the article) there are two groups of people involved. WW customers would indeed be ill-advised to base their use of the company's products on whether she was on the board. (I wouldn't dream of saying 'stupid'.) In contrast, shareholders would be sensible to sell in anticipation of the stup, i mean irrational response of customers.

When I was growing up there was no routine smallpox vaccination within Australia with the most recent recorded case being in 1938, but vaccination was enforced at the border. Hence my vaccinations in the later seventies, and I still have my yellow WHO book. That requirement ended in 1980 when it was declared globally eradicated.

I think the site has moved on from those days.

Okay, so I'm a bit of an avgeek, don't @ me. I booked my flights for the Palm Springs weekend last year. Fast forward, and I've had two notifications from Amex that Qantas had changed my flights. The first was a two hour earlier departure from LAX on my flight to MEL. Amex insisted that I call them (or use their chatbot) to confirm I was happy with the change (note, IDGAF). I did so, and they were very thorough, going through the changes and making sure they worked for me, and they would have changed my connecting flight from MEL for free (and presumably the TPAC sector) if I wanted. All good. The second change they said wasn't material and I didn't need to call them. Took a while for me to find what it was, and it was a new flight number but the same time for my MEL-CBR flight. But there's more. The changed flight was on a different aircraft type *cue avgeek squeal of delight* onto one of QF's brand new A220s (they only have two so far). I had wondered when I would get to fly on one, and now I will be!

@BenjaminNicholas shows up at @nycman's house and it's not the guy @nycman saw in the ad, but he proceeds to allow him to rummage through his drawers and offer gratuitous advice on whatever he wants to. But you're right, it is off topic because it's a hypothetical not something that's actually happened.

Mid to late 70s. At the time it was required for overseas travel from Australia.

The clinician who saw me at the ACT government-run sexual health clinic asked whether I had considered the mpox vaccination (and HPV, which they will administer, but I'd have to buy for myself at a chemist's). She said they advise it's worth getting the mpox one, although it wasn't a hard sell. I had a vaccination against the variola virus (smallpox), which would provide some residual protection but I'm considering it.

Nice to see you here again, @AJDalton!

Moderator's Note Gentlemen, a reminder that this is a thread about Basstiann, and some earlier tangents notwithstanding, it's here for everyone to offer opinions about him. It's not a place to snipe at other posters about their opinions or to offer character assessments of each other. Please stop the sniping back and forth.

Following discussions between the Mardi Gras board and the NSW Police Minister and Police Commissioner, the NSW police will have a contingent in the Mardi Gras parade on Saturday night. It will a smaller group than in recent years and they will not march in uniform.

I've experienced 45 degree weather in western Sydney once (that's 113F) and it was not comfortable. My last three weeks deployed in Baghdad it was in the mid-40s every day, and that was surprisingly bearable. I wasn't on patrol or in a trench or anything like that. I'd prefer not to repeat either!

And probably more than a day's worth of sodium, and more sugar than you can imagine!

Nothing at all unseasonal going on here, mid to high 30s for the past fortnight and 40 forecast for tomorrow. Catastrophic fire weather warning for parts of western Victoria today, with one 22,000ha fire currently at 'watch and act' level and restrained for the moment in containment lines.

Fair comment!

Here's an article from the BBC on developments. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-68410026

BREAKING: The NSW police commissioner has just announced (Tuesday, 1530AEDT) at a press conference in Sydney that NSW Police have discovered the remains of two people at a rural property at Bungonia, about 200km south west of Sydney. Police searched the area, in the same general area as a previous search had been conducted yesterday, following up on information obtained from the accused.

And from the US, @Jamie21 is only a short flight away!

It does have the decided advantage over other globe trotting schedules reported here, that actually doing the travel and having time to work in the various locations would be feasible.

No, that wouldn't work. For a start, sharing the information has already been discussed so even with the name blurred out it would clearly be about him. Secondly, as a general point, even without any prior discussion, posting the exchange in a thread about a particular provider would be seen as being about them. To say that it wasn't about them but was about a random interaction with an unnamed provider would stretch credulity.