I’m not a great fan of verbal abuse even when it is aimed at polticians but, occasionally, I have to applaud a particularly clever insult. Reading the headlines this morning I came across this gem of a description: ‘a ribbiting cane toad of a Prime Minister’. Classic! It was an article about the Novak Djokovic farce, written by a Jonathan Liew who was a new one to me. I looked him up and noted he was a British Sportswriter. So, was he writing about Scotty or about Boris? Either would fit but, on balance, because it was about Djokovic, I suspect that it was our own PM who was being castigated.
Why would anyone want to be Prime Minister when it puts you up for ridicule like that? Surely the salary isn’t that good.
The same article mused about Djokovic’s self-belief and what will happen when he retires from playing tennis. Will he be content to be a coach and part-time commentator? A letter-writer, responding to Mr Liew’s article thinks not and predicts that Djokovic will take advantage of his status in Serbia, go into politics and will, one day, be the authoritarian leader of his country.
Just in the last few days we have a new service station in Longford. We’re not a big town but we have three modern service stations, as well as an agency that sells agricultural equipment and another that sells boats. Obviously, we service a large farming area and have to provide what the farmers want.
The new service station is a United outlet. When we moved here, it was in a building which harked back to the fifties: concrete block with shabby paintwork, a sign that pointed customers to a long-abandoned restaurant, tired pumps (half of them not working) and toilets round the back which catered for the very desperate. But, we could get 6c per litre off the marked price using our RACT card and every little bit counts.
One day, the cheerful young Indian man behind the till told Marilyn he was getting a makeover and even a Pieface. Work started months ago and we’ve been watching it unfold. The old tanks were dug up and replaced. The original building has been refurbished and extended, and painted bright red. Teams of electricians have worked around the clock and vast amounts of new concrete has been laid. Modern pumps have been installed and the ovens and display cases for the pies have been delivered.
We expected it to be open by Christmas or New Year and looked forward to some sort of ceremony: balloons and streamers at least and maybe some attractions for the kids (not a jumping castle!!). But, there was nothing. With no fanfare, the service station quietly opened in the first week of January.
It has seemed a bit quiet and I suspected they haven’t managed to attract their old customers back. Yesterday, I saw the first salvo in their campaign to make their mark. Fuel prices have been reduced by 21c per litre less than the BP, and 25c less than the Ampol. I had just filled up the other day so I have no room in my tank to take advantage of the discount and I can only hope it’s still available next week.
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