For many years I have maintained that 'if you are not making mistakes you are not doing anything' because I consider that making mistakes, trying and failing, and picking yourself up off the floor after a bad experience is an integral part of the learning and self improveement process. This sets me apart from the politically correct advocates of the 'victim culture' where our children ( never 'kids' ) are not allowed to fail; everyone must have a prize. The name of this blog is self evident and as I have only just registered this site I feel tthe best way forward is to start typing and see what happens. Half way through registering the site I spent too long on looking at various ways of presenting the site and when I went back the pages I had filled in had gone - 'terminated with extreme prejudice' so, not realising that I had done the spadework, I tried to start the registration process again only to find that I could not have the username I had selected because it had already gone ( to me! ); this means that I do not have a clue what my site looks like. That doesn't matter because the content is more important and mine will be based on the fact that politically I cross over on issues and newspapers in Melbourne/Sydney will not publish my letters unless I allow my name and address to be available to the small minority of the lunatic fringe who deliberately misunderstand what I am saying so that they can send an abusive letter. I do not intend to restrict my posts to Australian issues as I have a world view and am very opinionated. I am also more than averagely optimistic about mankind and our ability todeal with what mother nature throws at us. There will be 'thoughts for the day', references to people who inspire me and jokes I want to share. I have no doubt I will upset some people, maybe a lot of people but then a lot of people have problems with the truth, especially if the truth does not fit their prejudices; and we all have prejudices, including the terminally dull whose job requires them to adopt the creed of political correctness. That's enough for today.

Vai Tibi