Winter was supposed to be warmer than usual, but I must have missed that bit.

If you live in Launceston one looks at the mountains to predict what it's going to do. 

If they look far away the weather is stable, if they look nearer then it's going to change and if you can't see them at all then it's with raining or foggy. An older guy told me this years ago and so far it's been pretty accurate.

IN the USA, a form of living museum, also called an open air museum, includes interpreters who dress in period costume and conduct period crafts and everyday work. 

This interesting and innovated form of museum allows visitors to see how things were done in the past, cooking and preparing food, animal husbandry and in colonial Tasmania, living in chains and guarding and sometimes disciplining convicts.  

Unlike periodic re-enactments, these are continuous displays. Do we have any of this form of living museum, popular in the USA since the ’70s, in Tasmania?  

LAST week I was involved in a minor traffic accident in St Helens. While pulling into a parking place in front of the IGA, the driver in the car to the left of me suddenly flung his door open. 

In an attempt to avoid hitting it, I put my foot on the accelerator instead of the brakes.

My car slammed into a pole in front of the store. 

Needless to say the car is quite badly damaged.

Luckily for me I still had my seatbelt on and was not injured, but very shaken up.

People came from all over to see if I was alright. One bloke called the RACT for me while others lead me to a seat, checking to see if I was OK. Kelly from the nearby employment agency took me to her desk and gave me a glass of water and offered me a cup of tea.

I did not know any of these kind folks. I’d like to sincerely thank them for their spontaneous acts of empathy and kindness.

I HAVE read with interest letters from those who oppose the proposed Mount Wellington cable car.

They wax lyrical about the beauty of the mountain and how it will be destroyed if the development goes ahead.

There have even been some who say it is sacred to the Aborigines and should not be touched.

How about some straight thinking on the subject, not hysteria.

True, it is a beautiful backdrop to the city, but surely a cable line with a station at the top and bottom would have less visual impact than the scar of the road that crosses the face of the mountain.

Incidentally, it is interesting to note that some of the fiercest opponents of the proposal are the Greens who, apparently would rather we drive pollution belching vehicles to the summit than take a cable powered by clean, renewable hydro electricity.

WELL, thanks to some extremely astute delaying tactics by Malcolm Turnbull, at least some commonsense prevailed and Scott Morrison was able to beat the Abbott, Dutton, Abetz axis and became our 30th Prime Minister.

I well remember many years ago, when the Whitlam government was toppled, a workmate of mine, who’d been a fully paid up Liberal Party member for many years, resigned from the party because, he said, Malcolm Fraser was far too right wing.

Compared to the modern right wing, dear old Mal was a borderline Red.

A BUMPER sticker adroitly describes my reaction to our current political situation.

It reads: “I feel much better now that I’ve given up hope.”

AFTER the first round of voting the choice of a new leader of the Liberal Party and, of course, Prime Minister, the choice was reduced to Scott Morrison or Peter Dutton.

What a dilemma, both the ministers responsible for the hard nosed “stop the boats” policy and the continuation of condemning asylum seekers to detention centres.

The news showed footage of the Evangelical Christian church of which Scott Morrison is a member.

How can he justify his Christian faith whilst perusing this horrific treatment of human beings?

HAVING watched with disbelief, along with the rest of Australia, at the contempt shown by the “talented people”, as they were described some time ago, to the Australian electorate over the last week, I think the time has come for the Liberal Party to publicly reject the machinations of the hard right Christians, led by Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz.

Failure to do so will only lead to more unstability in federal government, with private agendas being the order of the day.

This country has some major problems. Problems that will only be solved if the LNP somehow show some decency and honour and respect for Australia.

But unfortunately, so long as Abbott and Abetz are there, those three values are a long way down the track.