21 June 2009

Sydney Lifts Water Restrictions


With enough rain the current water restrictions were always going to be lifted. It was really only a matter of time. The current water restrictions are to be lifted at midnight tonight. What this means is that Sydney residents can again use hoses and sprinklers (photo) every day before 10.00 and every day after 16.00.

These times are not absolute in the sense that if it is a really hot day then sprinklers can be on to allow children to cool off.

There are other specific rules in place such as hoses must be fitted with a trigger nozzle if they are going to be used to wash cars. It seems like I will be making a trip to the hardware store to buy a trigger nozzle.

However, I am not planning on watering the garden for a couple of days considering the previous two days have been nothing but rain. The garden is pretty wet already.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

this column looks lonely..

did you see the article on high rates of suicide in Bali - related to

1. the rain

2. the economic crisis

3. bali bomb

4. too many australian tourists

??

Rob Baiton said...

Anonymous...

As I say to all my anonymous posters, I would appreciate you adopting a pen name so that I can distinguish you from the other anonymous posters.

Not really lonely. I write about things that interest me. The lifting of water restrictions after many years is interesting to me.

Do you have a link to the article? If you do, post it and I will have a look.

Have a nice day.

lawnew said...

I saw your comments in Indomatters on roughneck debt collectors - this one is serious.In my time here i have loaned money several times; but three of those times it was to someone who claimed that it was a matter of pls give me the loan or I will kill myself - such was the harrassment (of females in this case) of these people. In one case it was credit card debt of 7 million accrued over 3 years and mainly due to a 50% cut in salary because of the business experiencing hard time.

Do you have suggestion? There is no real amnesty for these debtors - its just pay or die...

In these cases, I had no choice but to give,,,,,,

Rob Baiton said...

Lawnew...

There are laws in place that would prevent debt collectors from threatening "you" with physical violence or harm to property.

There have been some classic examples that I have heard over my time in Indonesia. I use some of them in my classes. Among the better ones are:

1. If you do not pay by tomorrow we will call the police and they will put you in jail.

2. We know where your grandmother lives, and it would be a shame if she were to disappear.

3. We know where you work and we will send the lads around to bust up your office.

4. A receptionist being threatened that if the person with the debt did not pay within 24 hours then someone would be round to smash her face in.

The person with the debt, let's say it is a credit card debt, needs to go directly to the card issuer and work out a repayment plan. Generally the card issuer will sell the debt to a collector for between 25% and 50% of whatever is outstanding. The person with the debt needs to be pro-active in order to take advantage of any leniency the lender might offer with a repayment schedule.

Once it goes to the debt collector then it never goes away. This is even the case when the debt is paid or the debtor has absconded to another jurisdiction.

It is just messier in Indonesia than I have heard it being in Australia.