Nudist fundamentalism

At Cap d'Agde on the Languedoc coast of France, there's a war brewing.

The Village Naturiste was established in the small town 40 years ago and now the 'ordinary' nudists have had enough and they want the hedonist bunch run out of town. They've been complaining for years that Cap d'Agde's once-sedate nudist quarter has been disfigured by the influx of 'libertine' partner-swapping clubs and raunchy hotels.

A flurry of arson attacks on sex clubs two years ago was blamed on low-level terrorism by nudist fundamentalists.

At this week's Cap d'Agde council meeting, the protests took a more peaceful form. Old-fashioned naturists complained that they, and their children, were being confronted with "voyeurist" and "exhibitionist" behaviour, including sexual acts in public. Worse, they suggested, the "deviant" newcomers sometimes walked about in their clothes and mocked the "real" nudists.

The town mayor said "I refuse to make value judgments on the sexual habits of other people. I can't put a policeman behind all 40,000 nudists." He also pointed out that by-laws had been passed recently to ban minors from the raunchier establishments.

Full story here.

I don't think I've ever heard the legislative process to ban minors from sex establishments sound like going above and beyond the call of duty.

Marvellous mosiac

Spotted this letter box when I was out and about. 

I love it so just had to stop and snap a couple of pics to share. 

Is it just me?

As I drive everyday I try and memorise details about cars I see, things like make, model, colour, registration, just in case the cops need help to solve a crime and I can help them crack the case with my superhuman observation skills. I do the same with conspicuous people.

Is it just me?

The land of the setting sun

Government records show that Japan is one of the world's fastest-ageing societies. One in five Japanese (28 million people) is aged 65 or more. According to local body registers more than 270,000 Japanese are aged 100 years and over. Of these 77,000 are over 120 years old and a grand total of 884 are at least 150 years old.

Amazing. I wonder if there really is something to eating whale meat.

The Ministry of Justice has recently completed a survey and has been unable to locate the whereabouts of 230,000 of these most senior citizens. The figures have fuelled fears that families might be deliberately hiding the deaths of elderly relatives in order to claim their pensions.

In August the police discovered the mummified corpse of Sogen Kato, who at 111 was listed as Tokyo's oldest man, in his family home 32 years after his death. This finding prompted the nationwide survey to check the validity of local records and the survey revealed that antiquated methods of record-keeping are still in use in smaller towns and villages across the country.

Wikipedia records Japanese women as having the longest life expectancy of anyone on earth, an incredible 86.1 years and an overall life expectancy for all Japanese of an impressive 82.6 years. Now perhaps we know why.

The full story can be found here.

Hey peeps

Thought I'd pop in to say quick gidday to anyone who bothers to stop by here and to have a quick lurk around some of my favourite blogs. 

-----------------------------------------------

News in brief: Yours truly turned 45 a couple of weeks ago, took it hard I must confess. Much consumption of strong drink and funny smelling cigarettes was required that day/week (well it's ongoing actually). Speaking of ageing, life is cruel you know, I used to ingest chemicals to blur the lines of reality, now, all I have to do is take off my glasses. 

On the topic of cigarettes (a while back I acknowledge, stay with me people), I passed my 2 year smokefree milestone - yayyy for me!

On a more serious note I nearly lost another sister a  couple of months back but thankfully she survived the ravages of a terrifying affliction called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Thank the gods that medical treatment is top-knotch (and free) here. 

Currently getting my head around the fact that I will soon no longer have school age offspring; the boy finishes high school in a couple of months then on to university next year - this is good and bad; great that he's miraculously not a drop out (statistically speaking 'they' tell me he should be a dole-bludging crackhead having been raised in the evil environs of south Auckland by a cash strapped single parent), not so great that I'm inching ever more quickly towards decrepitude (please forgive the age related whinyness; the birthday is still raw). 

I did almost manage to get away for a couple of weeks to South Pacific island (Fiji to be specific), the plan was to up the vitamin D quota over the long, dreary, wet NZ winter but finances just wouldn't allow it. Booked it all but had to cancel when a big unexpected bill arrived. I just know there'll be swim up bars and margaritas in heaven ahhhh. Not actually sure why I included that 'non news' in my news update - obviously not a lot of real news to share. Sad. 

That's about it for now folks, oh yeah nearly forgot, big fucking earthquake down country in the early hours of this morning, mucho property damage I hear though thankfully no loss of life. 

Spring has sprung here in the land of the kiwi (and various other flightless birds) and there are smiles to be seen about town again - onwards and upwards. Love Lou. 

PS Sorry about the surfeit of parentheses (an indicator of poor education so I'm told), I just can't fight it. Ohhh that reminds me yet again - I got my diploma (remember the one that I bitched on about for a year?), big double yayyy for me. Not a real flash diploma you understand - but an accomplishment by my standards. 

L

EDIT: PPS Not a good day for tourists in NZ, I hear that a small sightseeing plane has crashed and burned with none of the 9 passengers and crew surviving.