What annoys you?

My grandfather is 97. Physically very well, but has alzheimer’s. He has no walking stick, nor wears glasses, he even smoked up until a few years ago and climbed up onto the roof to clean the guttering. Used to love wine too, so much so that apparently at my sister’s baptism he got so ■■■■■■ and nearly had a stroke :dizzy_face:… (he would’ve been around 80).

5 Likes

Happiness is a dry pharte.

I love talking to people like that.

5 Likes

Billy Connolly was right, … never trust 'em.

We had a guy like that on our tour of Southern Spain. He was a Pom living in Beverly Hills, but he’d been in London during the war. One Sunday, he went outside to play in the street and a V2 rocket hit his house and destroyed his bedroom.

My nan passed away 18 months ago aged 100 and a few months. But she hadn’t really been with us cognitively for 10 years, the memory loss started well before that, and the delusions & paranoia started some point in the 1990s. Not really fun for anyone.

Old bloke on mum’s side went aged 93, he saw a fair bit. Served in the pacific at the tail end of the war, PNG, attended (he was attached to General Blamey’s office) the signing of peace in the pacific. Had heaps of great memories dating back to Bradman (post war) and footy people from the 40s& 50s onwards. Didn’t have a great opinion of the Japanese, he dealt with and met a lot of troops returning from Kokoda & Port Moresby and some of their tales were pretty grim.

1 Like

Everyone remembers the Nazis, but Japanese were more brutal according to many. Interesting that we don’t talk about them like that though, despite the fact as Aussies, they did more damage to us than the Germans.

I grew up in a family where nothing Japanese ever entered our house. My old man hated them.

Worked with a bloke who’s old man was like that briefly in the late 1980’s. He served in WWII and was taken prisoner by the Japanese. Hated everything Japanese. He was so full on we were worried about what he might do if he crossed paths with a Japanese person. He had held that grudge for 40+ years by the time I met him.

Had an editor who sent an Australian of Japanese decent to report on the local dawn service.
No idea.
Mrs Wim, bless her, had to step in.

So do I. She told me about being in the shelter whilst bombs were exploding around them. No one would say anything but she/they could sense where a bomb had landed by the size and direction of the explosion. The people in there could almost tell when someone’s house had been hit. This happened night after night and afterwards when it had finished they would inspect the damage the following morning and start to clean up. English people from that generation are pretty amazing.

My farking golf game - or lack of it. used to play off 12 now can’t play off 20!!! Lost my enjoyment of the game.

My old man was born in London in 1939. Whilst too young to remember anything specific to the war, he often told stories about playing amongst the bombed out buildings. Was one giant playground to him and his mates.

The silver lining of my family history is that I don’t need to bother paying attention to my super.

2 Likes

My Dad fought them in New Guinea, … never had a bad word, … but my Mum, who sat home reading the Papers and worrying for him,…, Jesuzz, … all the way to her dying day,(last year) had nought but vitriol & bile, … even at just the mention of a Japanese car.

Datsun of mine… shakes fist

5 Likes

My paternal grandfather was captured during the fall of Singapore and spent a couple years as a POW building an infamous railway line. Came back a very ill man and it impacted on him for the rest of his days. But, as was his generation’s way, he never uttered a word about his captors to family. When you read about their treatment as POWs you wonder how they didn’t want to throttle every Japanese they encountered in peacetime.

3 Likes

Geez we’re an ordinary species

There was a bloke in our little suburb who never said anything about his past, until a neighbour recognised him from a photo in one of the museums. He was a Hungarian “nazi collaborator” - who’d actually smuggled hundreds of people out from under the german’s noses. Never said a word until he died.

1 Like

I swear one of these days I’ll write the plane travel rant to end all rants.

But the one thing that’s crept in is the announcements seem to go on from the time you board to the time you land.

Heaven forbid you want to sleep or just enjoy the tranquility

3 Likes

Both my Mum and Dad fought the Japs, Dad was a commando and Mum initially a intelligence officer, then a coastal watcher in some little island off PNG. Both hated anything Japanese until they died.

And true story; Dad purchased a second hand Commodore, and when he found out it had a Toyota motor he took it to the wreckers and had it crushed into a small block and had it delivered back to Kevin Dennis Motors. They were both very formidable people, and as I have said before I didn’t inherit courage or intelligence from either, maybe a bot of ■■■■■■-mindedness from my Dad. I love Japanese food.

3 Likes