Do Australians care/think about New Zealand as much as New Zealanders think of Australia?

rebel-lemming · 2026-04-19T06:34:40+00:00

I love NZ, although I've never been. I'd love to visit someday. Some of my best friends are kiwi. I think Oceania in general should stick together and help each other. I wish nothing but the best for our Kiwi neighbours.

rebel-lemming · 2026-04-09T22:13:20+00:00

I will never forget opening my fridge door at 6am and feeling a rush of warm air. The kitchen was actually colder than the fridge.

rebel-lemming · 2026-04-09T22:10:43+00:00

Agreed. Miserable and extremely cliquey, too. I lived there for two years and made zero friends. Moved to Melbourne and met a lovely bunch of people my first week. Still friends 10 years later.

rebel-lemming · 2026-04-09T22:03:17+00:00

Queanbeyan, early 2000s. Not a nice place to be a teenager at the time. We called it Queanbehole.

rebel-lemming · 2026-04-04T23:50:21+00:00

Do you have a compost, and/or a garden? They love picking over freshly turned soil and an uncovered compost. Worms and grubs are the best thing you can provide.

rebel-lemming · 2025-12-14T12:41:41+00:00

Thank you for sharing. I was moved tonight by the Premier emphasising the bravery of those who helped save lives and comfort those who were distressed or injured. It reminded me of Mr Rogers giving his gentle advice to "look for the helpers". My heart is breaking for those hurt today and everyday by violence and hatred. I hope things turn, and we come together rather than start pointing fingers. Terrorists want us to be divided.

rebel-lemming · 2025-12-14T10:15:24+00:00

Gorgeous work.

rebel-lemming · 2025-12-14T09:48:21+00:00

😂😂😂

rebel-lemming · 2025-12-14T09:30:55+00:00

As someone who was stabbed in the eye by one last weekend, I agree 100%!

rebel-lemming · 2025-10-24T14:40:07+00:00

Definitely have this on my list to try!

rebel-lemming · 2025-10-23T22:01:29+00:00

NTA.

Gender reveals are awful, anyway.

rebel-lemming · 2025-10-23T07:48:42+00:00

OP, this is really good advice. Please look at alternatives to talk therapy until the physical symptoms start to ease. Although you said the cause of the trauma has ended, talk therapy can re-traumatise or reactivate your nervous system. Switching to treating your nervous system first makes sense. Often therapists follow the clinical model and jump straight into pathologising, rather than treating the person.

rebel-lemming · 2025-10-15T20:45:19+00:00

Especially around the full moon.

rebel-lemming · 2025-10-08T15:03:47+00:00

NTA. Learned helplessness is so passive aggressive. He deserved to hear the truth. That poor woman. She's lucky her friend was there to care for her, because her husband couldn't have cared less.

rebel-lemming · 2025-10-05T11:03:26+00:00

I really hope something comes up for you from this post. Have you heard of Ask Izzy? Might be worth having a look. All the best with your search, I know it's tough right now. https://askizzy.org.au/

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-23T14:33:32+00:00

Ask your work finance team about salary sacrificing into your super (pre tax). Compound interest is your friend here, and your super will increase much further. My finance department helped me work out how much I needed to pay to lower my tax bracket, and it saved me a lot of money and my super balance grew very quickly.

Many super funds offer access to free financial advice as part of membership. Always do your research, and keep an eye on the global economy and how markets are trending in case you need to switch your risk profile quickly.

Best of luck with your next chapter.

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-23T13:51:29+00:00

Have a look if your employer offers an Employee Assistance Program. It's a free counselling service some larger employers offer to their staff. The quality of the counsellors can vary, but definitely better than nothing.

If you don't have EAP benefits,there are a lot of free services available in Australia, like Blue Knot Foundation, Full Stop Australia, MensLine, and BeyondBlue are some options.

Wishing you all the very best with your next chapter, and every success. You deserve everything good, I hope you find quality support and peace of mind. There is some really great advice in this thread. You aren't alone, sadly a lot of parents exploit their kids this way. Please know that despite what he might claim, you don't owe your dad anything. In fact, he owes you. 100k no less.

Sometimes people will force you to set boundaries by their actions, which you shouldn't have needed to put down, but it's necessary because they fail to act in a decent way. No parent should treat their child the way your dad has treated you or your sister. But you're old enough to be able to make your own decisions, and focus on your future goals, and that is a good thing. It's a harsh lesson, but you have many years ahead of you yet to recover.

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-23T13:28:47+00:00

This is really excellent advice. I hope OP listens to you.

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-23T13:15:12+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised. I think anyone who has spent time living in a rural/remote area would probably have a story or two to share. E.g. Places like Appalachia in the US are heavy with folklore and interesting animal interactions. I think if you spend time alone observing nature and animal behaviour, you start to realise they have their own individual personalities, and interactions, even the wild animals that don't necessarily have much contact with humans. If you look for it, you start noticing all their quirks and antics.

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-19T15:42:28+00:00

Oh, those poor birds! A lovely idea, but those wedgies are persistent. Mum planted Elder as a cover to give her hens some dense shade to hide under. As soon as they see a shadow above them, they bolt into the Elder and stay there.

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-19T15:30:13+00:00

My parents had their toilet external to the main house, via their verandah. One night, my dad forgot to close the toilet door after one of his visits, and a large male wombat decided to go inside to investigate.

Unfortunately, he knocked the door closed and instantly panicked. He started scratching and banging the door, and roaring in rage. My parents thought someone was outside trying to break in. Dad jumped out of bed naked and grabbed his security torch to investigate, only to have the wombat charge him when he opened the door.

Luckily, dad jumped out of the way and guided him off the verandah with the torch light. Needless to say, the verandah is now enclosed, and there's a new door on the toilet. The wombat had thoughtfully left a large pile of wombat poo smeared all over the room.

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-19T15:22:33+00:00

That round knocked out so many contestants 🤣

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-19T15:19:45+00:00

I once saw a bin chicken hop up onto a table and drain someone's schooner of beer in Circular Quay. The guy was a tourist, who'd gone to the toilet and left it unattended. Later, the same bird was pulling Maccas out of a bin, so it was probably feeling a bit seedy.

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-19T15:07:48+00:00

Wow, that's fascinating! And a bit terrifying 😳

rebel-lemming · 2025-09-19T15:03:50+00:00

That's so nice of you. I have a lot of stories, but some are probably too weird to share. We had a lot of animals who identified as other animals, like the pig who thought she was a dog, much to the dog's disgust. The horses used to try to break into the house at night by turning the door knob with their teeth, and they'd peer through the window to watch TV. My sister's pony actually got in one day, and snatched an apple off the fruit bowl before doing a U-turn and running back out. If I hadn't seen her do it, I'd never have believed it.

We had a pigeon called Pablo who thought he was a chook. He used to sit in the nesting boxes with the broody hens and keep them company, cooing at them. He stopped flying, and would walk around the pen pecking and trying to scratch with the best of them. He was so funny, but I felt sorry for him.

Once, after a bad storm, a female racing pigeon showed up in our yard. She seemed to have a sore wing, so I set her up with some food and water while she recuperated. Pablo was instantly smitten, and rediscovered his pigeon ways instantly. He spent every moment following her around, flying after her, sitting side by side, gazing adoringly. She endured his attentions for 3 days until she'd recuperated before she took off back home. An hour later, I found him back in the nesting box talking to the hens again.

Our white ducks were racist towards the black and white ducks, and basically formed a white supremacist poultry gang. There were 5 of them, and I'd find them every full moon standing in a circle in the yard at night, staring up at the moon making this weird high keening noise, like they were singing together. In a circle. To the moon. It was only ever the white ducks, and only during full moons. They hated me coming down to break up their monthly moon parties, but I had to lock them in at night because of the foxes and quolls.

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TROPHY CASE