Come cycle tour in Oz: Our dollar has collapsed

[Slammin Sammy]

Thanks John. I was hoping to barrack for both the Yankees and Mets leading up to a potential "Subway World Series" while I was here, but the Astros put paid to that! I'm more a Yankees fan than the Mets, but I'll still back them, I guess.

Graham, this is the story of my traveling luck. Whenever I make plans to travel overseas, alarm bells ring in all the financial capitals, and the Aussie dollar drops like a stone! 

Jim, we're heading up to Boston in a few days. I'm sure the good burghers of the shopping and eating strips are licking their lips and rubbing their hands with glee.

We'll starve when we get home, but we'll live it up while we're here! 

[JimK]

Jim, we're heading up to Boston in a few days. I'm sure the good burghers of the shopping and eating strips are licking their lips and rubbing their hands with glee.

Wendy loves art and spent her day at the Museum of Fine Arts, while I just strolled around town in the beautiful weather. At the museum gift shop, Wendy found a new book for me that looks really great:

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Wheelways-Traces-Bicycle-History/dp/0262029464/

[Vintagetourer]

A colleague of mine who has been in marketing for a long time talks about the 'death of average' in retail. For example, he convincingly presents about how bicycle sales are at record highs but and so are Lamborghini and Rolls Royce sales. What has plummeted are sales of family sedans.
Similarly he says that sales of luxury foods are at record levels. And so are dirt cheap junk food sales at record levels. What is suffering are average priced meals.
And so on. He has reams of examples...clothing, shoes, sports equipment and so on.   He has the stats to back up his argument. Basically the extremes of poverty and wealth have grown. On the positive, the data says that even extremely poor people are somewhat better off these days. I'm not so sure. The so-called trickle down effect is pretty well debunked.

It is interesting to see the range of bicycle prices these days. Even our local bike shop has $14,000 bikes, but perfectly good bikes are available for as little as $400.

[JimK]

  even extremely poor people are somewhat better off these days. 

One thing along these lines that has my attention is how society demands / requires an ever higher standard of consumption / gadgetry for a person to get by. I don't own a smart phone & hope to avoid that expense, but more and more services are provided only via smart phone apps. Of course in most places in the USA it is practically impossible to survive without maintaining a car. The whole notion of "better off" is very problematic. If I have 50% more stuff, but to maintain social function / status I need 100% more stuff, maybe after all I am not better off. Social status might seem like a luxury but if a person's status drops too low then the person is basically an out-caste and subject to brutal mistreatment.

[John Saxby]

Sam went in exactly the opposite direction to our dollar.

No accounting for taste, eh, Graham?     Our word here, which resurfaces every few years, is "staycation" (=holiday at home).  Makes the point, but it's a terribly clumsy word to my ear, so we go instead beyond the horizon, searching for bargains, finding only false economies...

Rest assured that your Oz-promos have not been entirely fruitless.  We're planning to be in Oz in Feb/March, visiting our family in QLD, esp our two granddaughters :-), but my Raven will stay home this time.  Still working on options for cycling in Oz, however.  Things may depend on the longer-term plans which David and Sarah make: he is just beginning a post-doc, and they are applying for residents' permits, so we do expect them to be Down Unda for a long time, if not the duration. One possibility would be for me to take my Eclipse to QLD on a later trip, and leave it there, to be used for day rides, shortish tours, etc.  I think I'd have to install a more functional drive train before doing so, however -- my limited patience with wonky derailleurs has almost completely disappeared, after a couple of seasons with a Rohloff.

[Andre Jute]

...my limited patience with wonky derailleurs has almost completely disappeared, after a couple of seasons with a Rohloff.

Another couple of years and you'll discover your skills start disappearing through disuse, and memory weakens. "Now which of these two screws on the derailleur is in and which is out?"

Those are skills and memories I'm happy to say goodbye to.

[John Saxby]

For sure, Andre.  It's a bit like having to deal with Windows and Microsoft, after years in the Mac bubble:  I find myself saying, "I'm 65 and then some, I've paid my dues and I don't need this, so why do I have to deal with these dysfunctional devices?"

[in4]

You hit the nail right on the head: 'Dysfunctional devices' If a device is that complicated to navigate and use then it is the problem, not you. I am perpetually underwhelmed by much of the gadgetry that comes our way. Considering how cheap it is to buy a device with the computing power Ada Lovelace could only dream of, it is noticable how counter-intuitive and difficult these things are to use. That said I've been looking at a wooden-hulled narrow boat with a diesel engine on ebay this past week so the paradox of my disposition is not lost on me!

[John Saxby]

it is noticable how counter-intuitive and difficult these things are to use

So true.  I don't move in e-design circles, but from the performance of the various tools, I'm left with the conclusion that the designers are specialists, not "laypersons".  This is not entirely a fogey's POV:  I began using Apple computers in the early 1980s, so I'm rreasonably e-literate, although I'm not a programmer.  Our son, who's a research scientist using specialized lab software, and is also a programmer and tester, is scathing in his comments about the standard stuff.

Hope your search for your narrow boat works!

[Slammin Sammy]

Wow, not sure how this thread drifted from exchange rates to Luddite-ism, but at least it's distracting me from my fiscal misery. 

John, if you're back in BrisVegas in Feb/March, we have another possibility of meeting up. I got sick last year which prevented my "Tour de North Coast", but I'm planning to re-attempt this southern summer. 

[John Saxby]

Thanks, Sam, let's stay in touch about that.  We'll be in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. Exact dates t.b.c., but we expect mid-Feb to early April.  I can sniff around to see if I can borrow a bike to ride with you for a few kms at least. Will send you a PM when I know what's what.  Cheers,  J.

[Vintagetourer]

Listening to all this, I think I need to retire:)