2 weeks ago my daughter came back from a 1 week long school excursion to Melbourne and she said they kept getting Wino's, homeless, Junkies etc asking for money, and it was too crowded and noisy. Yep, I remember all those things about cities!
Then, tonight, my son came back from his school Surfing camp at Lorne. We took him into Ballarat Pizza Hut Restaurant to celebrate him being home.
Now, today was a public Holiday in Ballarat coz of the Ballarat Cup Horse race. We hoped the restaurant would be fairly empty. It was when we turned up at 6:30pm.
Then the wierd crowd started turning up. Heaps of drunken blokes and sheilas in suits and floral hats from the Ballarat Cup day. They were only there about 3 minutes and they took over the place, yelling, throwing stuff around, arguing etc.
One family got up and walked out half way through their meal!!! I told my family we are staying, I'm not going to let them ruin our night. Then we looked out the restaurant window and there was a street brawl between about 30-40 Race-goers (blokes and sheilas) right outside Pizza Hut in the roundabout! Punches flying everywhere! They were fighting in the middle of the traffic with cars swerving to miss them (should have run them over!!!) and then more came out of the pub opposite to join in.
My boys were getting a bit nervous! It was a pretty wild street brawl. Then the drunks inside the restaurant started cheering them on from inside, trying to yell at them through the windows!!!
What a hell of a night at a restaurant!
When we finally left, every street we drove down to get out of Ballarat again, there were drunken, arguing, staggering race-goers, plus the usual locals stirring them on!
It was worse than the usual Ballarat Friday/Saturday nights of nightclubbers and hoons taking over the streets!
Geez it was great to get back to our quiet little country town.
Strange to think that many years ago I used to be one of those annoying people, and now I can't wait to get away from it all and high-tail it out to Hicksville, cows, sheep and peace & quiet.
It was a terrible night.
You can keep your cities thanks.
I'll stick to being a Hillbilly with dark sky and silence
It's not the city Ken, it's the booze etc which is the problem.
But, I don't live in the city either!!!!
Although Adelaide isn't like Melb or Syd by any stretch of the imagination.
But pissed peeps are the same all over!
...and I should know, look at my avatar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the best and sorry that you and the kids had a bad night - that would piss me off too Ken.
Doug
Its funny Ken i know people that said the romantic country lifestyle dream was negated somewhat for them by all the chemicals farmers have to spray/cropdust and use, in fact i know of one elderly retiree person that eventually died indirectly from constant exposure/proximity to cropdusting. not too mention those dangerous highspeed roads, lack of doctors, sometimes decent jobs ect. Its not all beer an skittles surely?
That's shocking that. I'm sorry that you had to go through it.
I tell you, it's nice to get away for a bit but it's even better to get back.
I'm reading this thread with the deafening sound of insects and frogs coming in through the back door.
Serenity?
We've had a few fights on the property over the last 3 nights. My cat chased off a couple of ferals, she's still limping poor baby, and the other night a Corella got into a Crows nest full of babies, what a racket that was. Fighting and swearing, it took them ages to settle down. We had the spotlight out watching them.
The only time we go anywhere near the city is to visit Bintel everything else we need is local. But you never know where an idiot may appear and most times it is always a result of to much booze.
Strange to think that many years ago I used to be one of those annoying people,
.. we are all getting old ken
I don't know if its the same everywhere these days but there don't seem to be many happy drunks out and about
its always aggressive and obnoxious people you see wandering around.
Its funny Ken i know people that said the romantic country lifestyle dream was negated somewhat for them by all the chemicals farmers have to spray/cropdust and use, in fact i know of one elderly retiree person that eventually died indirectly from constant exposure/proximity to cropdusting. not too mention those dangerous highspeed roads, lack of doctors, sometimes decent jobs ect. Its not all beer an skittles surely?
of course i'm just jealous
Too True, Kearn.
But no-one cropdusts around here. No crops
This is sheep and cattle country.
No high speed roads, coz we are nowhere near any main roads. We are off the beaten track in between nowhere and the other nowhere. Yeah, Doctors are 20 minutes away at Beaufort but we have a 1st reponse team operating in the town, who are faster than ANY ambulance anywhere.
Jobs? Yeah, gotta travel for those. Anywhere from 15 - 20 mins for the nearest places.
But also in response to Doug:
Quote:
Originally Posted by dugnsuz
It's not the city Ken, it's the booze etc which is the problem.
But, I don't live in the city either!!!!
But pissed peeps are the same all over!
Yep, country locals now how to put the grog away too
Just not as many of them and only one small pub, and when they start causing trouble, someone will knock em down and drive em home, and still be mates tomorrow
I agree, the country isn't all roses. And it doesn't suit everyone due to lifestyle, work commitments, whatever.
But when you live it for a while, cities seem so overbearing and hurried.
It's hard to leave the peace you've gotten used to, even temporarily.
I do go into Ballarat quite a bit, but I haven't been in there at night for a very long time.
I'm reading this thread with the deafening sound of insects and frogs coming in through the back door.
Serenity?
I could never return to Brisbane to live. Ugh!
Exactly, Jeanette!
The frogs are deafening, the horses, cows and sheep have their own cacophany, baby birds chirping constantly to be fed, etc etc.
What a noise
Gee it's hard to sit outside and hear the animals, watch the kids swim in the dam surrounded by Ibis and Spoonbills, wander over your property, smell the air (yep, real air!), wave to the rare occasional car that goes by, and look up and see the one daily jet to Adelaide.
And then to make things even worse, the Sun goes down and it is almost impossible to get around in all that dark! Gotta watch out not to walk into the fence up the back paddock.
from here in the 'burbs. I can hear the call of the 500 metre burn out nissan birds, the sneezing drifter, and the delightful thunderous nightcalls of the accelerating V8 hoonster.... ahhhh nature
You can keep your cities thanks.
I'll stick to being a Hillbilly with dark sky and silence
Mate, I retired to Paradise (well, next step to it) 8 years ago, go into the "city" of Mackay once a week for groceries and can't wait to get back to serenity... Drunken brawlers, piffle, we have an average of 3 snakes a week. Druggies, pooh, we have 5, or 6 prettyface wallabies to pooh on the lawns every day...No moo cows, sheep, horses to make a noise, only sugarcane in the area. The biggest noise is the sound of the wind in the coconut palm. No shops, so, no litter from the school kids.
And, I can put the dob in the front lawn and view the night sky without light pollution.
Ken I know exactly what you are saying, and only last night I said to Alice, after watching the news about the level violence in our society, especially with the young.
There is no respect any more and there is no such thing as a fair fight, not that i encourage fighting at all.
Years ago when there was a scruff between to blokes or anyone for that matter it was fair to a point, and if you were down that was it and it was over, now the stinging pieces of crap kick you to death, or twenty others join in and stomp on your head.
Society has turned sick, and i nearly spew each time you see the level of violence toward others.
The young men and also the young females are nearly always responsible and it's the piss that causes the problems.
If governments were serious than control it a bit better, like the war they (the government) did with smoking.
Grog causes more misery in society that any smoker ever has.
and age mellows.
stampede's? anthrax? 
