February 17th, 2022Kyle’s Rant

WHAT is going on with the potholes? Driving around the Central Highlands is like a stint in the Dakar Rally. Instead of the obligatory scattering of gravel and stomp down that may last a day, the good people on the roadworks seem to have given up.
Our roads haven’t ever been all that flash up here but at least there were once trucks, road gangs and steamrollers attempting to keep some sort of levelness and my teeth from puncturing my tongue every other kilometre. Now there are signs saying slow down to 60, and you enter some sort of slalom run. Case in point is the road to Woodend from Trentham, pictured below. (Not really.) Just at the entrance to the town exists a one-kilometre stretch of the most treacherous bob and weave piece of road you will encounter in your life.
I think about those movies where they run out of fuel in the plane and have to put it down on a road and they are all thinking “thank God we are not far from the airport and several hundred metres above it”. If it happened here the captain would have to be one hell of a skilled pilot to firstly find a straight piece of road, secondly not blow the aircraft’s wheels on a pothole and thirdly avoid the wildlife and other idiot road users that are so prevalent around the district.
Speaking of pilots, well people in charge anyway, we have an election coming up and it frightens me to death at the prospects they have wheeled out in front of us to run the country. I have never been politically minded, motivated or really even given a stuff but I am shifting into the age bracket now that likes to stick their bib in.
On one hand I think keep the same bloke in as we need continuity coming out of the pandemic, but then I think of all the blunders that ScoMo has made. Here a just a few that spring to mind – Hawaii, “I’ll be having a beer with my mates at the footy”, “Don’t touch your face, it’s as simple as that”. And that’s just to name a few.
On the other hand we have Albo, who granted, hasn’t had a crack at steering the good ship Australia but for whatever reason simply annoys me. His presence is like running my teeth down a blackboard. (Worse than nails…)
As aforementioned I have no political alliance, but can’t we get away from these white polished males from the boys’ club and get some diversity around the place, people who actually represent what it is to be Australian.
Spoken like a true Kiwi, rant over…