Aussie Readers discussion

We go back next week....I just got good news that I'm working again :) 30hrs a fortnight with Mon/Fri off so it's a 4 day weekend. Not that shabby in that respect :)

B the BookAddict wrote:
Need to pick your collective brains here - do I claim for blood test costs on Medicare or my Medibank Private Insurance? My dermatologist recently sent..."

I'm not sure Bette - the rules seem to change almost at whim. We used to have an easy accessible medicare shop here but goodness only knows where it is now - so was easy to take my receipts and ask them - sometimes they said no it is all private - sometimes they said we pay for some then submit the rest to private, and then sometimes they said we pay some your private won't pay any.

But it never seemed to be the same two claims in a row.

Sorry I can't be more useful than that.

I seem to spend a lot of time sitting on hold waiting to talk to a Medicare human asking for advice!!!

You are better off phoning your private fund for information. They don't take as long to answer as Medicare:)

B the BookAddict wrote: "@Brenda Haven't been away, just been quiet:)

Need to pick your collective brains here - do I claim for blood test costs on Medicare or my Medibank Private Insurance? My dermatologist recently sent..."

Hope you're alright Bette... I'm not sure either. You may get the answer on MBP's website where you can do your claims anyway. Good luck:)

Laura wrote: "We go back next week....I just got good news that I'm working again :) 30hrs a fortnight with Mon/Fri off so it's a 4 day weekend. Not that shabby in that respect :)"

Excellent! Congratulations Laura...I bet that's a big relief for you:)

I used to work in private health insurance so can answer for you. Medicare was introduced to cover outpatient medical services and so at the time health insurance was changed to be able to cover the "gap" up to the govt schedule fee for inpatient (hospital) medical services. Therefore if your blood tests were done outside of hospital it is Medicare only. If the blood tests were done in hospital it is Medicare and your health insurance. Same applies for any medical services including dr consultations, x Rays etc.

Brenda - Thanks! Yes very relieved about it. Bit of a change as I'm in Kinder this time round but it'll be fun!

Laura wrote: "Brenda - Thanks! Yes very relieved about it. Bit of a change as I'm in Kinder this time round but it'll be fun!"

Little ones will be great! New to school, learning everything:) How exciting!

Today when I click on the little red number showing a new post my iPad is taking me to the top if the newest page so I have to scroll down to find the new message. Is this just me or is Goodeads having a moment?

Probably GR Phrynne...it often happens, going on what's said on the Feedback group :)

Is that in Safari, Phrynne? I often find that with the iPad, but not on the computer...

Kathryn wrote: "Is that in Safari, Phrynne? I often find that with the iPad, but not on the computer..."

Yes it is Kathryn. I haven't checked it on the computer yet.

Yes. I might just have to try something different because it is very annoying! On my lap top right now and all is of course normal there.

Think I will just leave it until tomorrow and maybe it will be fixed by then:) Might just go to bed with a cup of tea and my Kindle!

Safari is having serious issues right now - lots of iPads and iPhones and Macs were crashing around the world. Mine was last night but hubby's wasn't.

Was very frustrating.

Was more than that Michael - was crashing every time I tried to do a search or move off the page I was on - was every page - drove me mad. Hubby found a temporary fix and changed some settings - is ok now.

It was world wide. There will be an update soon put out by Apple

Some people just opened it and it crashed.

@Alik Thanks for your info.

Everyone, thanks for your input to my question. Health insurance is already complicated here in AU and about to get a whole lot more complicated with the changes the govt is talking about at the moment. What I want to know is why does it seem that it's Health Ins they want to wring a few more dollars out of? Haven't they govt seen the issues that other bigger countries like US or it's population is having because the govt fiddled with their Health Ins' too much? The next step is they'll end up like India:(

Just back from the movies where I watched Suffragette, it was very good!

Laura wrote: "We go back next week....I just got good news that I'm working again :) 30hrs a fortnight with Mon/Fri off so it's a 4 day weekend. Not that shabby in that respect :)"

Congrats Laura :)

☼♄Jülie wrote: "Just back from the movies where I watched Suffragette, it was very good!"

Good to hear Julie, I am wanting to see that film :)

☼♄Jülie wrote: "Just back from the movies where I watched Suffragette, it was very good!"

Thought you'd catch that one, Jules! You'll have to fill me in at the catch up :)

Hi Suzanne - everyone back to school now (except your little one)? You'll have a bit more time for reading once you recover from the school hold :)

I reckon having my birthday this weekend officially gives me permission to add some new books to the shelf :D

Michael wrote: "☼♄Jülie wrote: "Just back from the movies where I watched Suffragette, it was very good!"

Glad you got to see it Julie. Wasn't Carey Mulligan superb in the lead role. Have you gone to see Carol ye..."

She was brilliant Michael, she's a natural. I actually went to see Carol two weeks ago with a friend and it wasn't out yet arrrrgh! So ended up watching Joy instead which was meh...because my friend had alteady seen Suffragette :[
So hopefully I will get to see Carol next week, really looking forward to it, but I wanted to see Suffragette before it moved on. There are some great movies coming out at the mo, I might have to try and get one a week in :)
45 Years looks good.

I found out on Thursday when I went to work that this headline

"Woman has emergency caesarean after eating at Sylvania bakery linked to food poisoning"

was one of my work colleagues!
Luckily she's OK now, hubby and baby fine, but what a rotten thing to happen, especially as it was her first.

That was an awful thing to happen. And so many people too.

Marianne wrote: "I found out on Thursday when I went to work that this headline

"Woman has emergency caesarean after eating at Sylvania bakery linked to food poisoning"

was one of my work colleagues!
Luckily she..."
Awful thing to happen. Glad to hear she and baby and husband are ok now. Hope all others involved in that are too.

Oh Marianne! We saw her and her husband and new bub on TV - my goodness she was so incredibly lucky, as was her baby. Even the husband was so sick he couldn't be by her side.

And the man who runs the bakery is offering free food to all affected when he re-opens! As if!!!

So glad they are alright...so terrible; so many sick and affected...

We just had to stop on the highway and give way to the most beautiful goanna - black and white striped. I've never seen one so pretty - there were a heap of us stopped to let him go across the road, then the fellow in the car on the opposite side of the road clapped his hands out of the window and it took off!

Brenda wrote: "We just had to stop on the highway and give way to the most beautiful goanna - black and white striped. I've never seen one so pretty - there were a heap of us stopped to let him go across the road..."

Glad everyone stopped till it took off.

Me too Dale:)

Thanks Melissa and Michael! :)

Brenda - Yes, all new little kids...Will be busy, busy! I'm working specifically with two little boys.

-

Even though work doesn't officially go back until Wednesday..I'm off to a training course all Monday...I get relief pay..Yay! Learning about manual lifting without hurting yourself, etc.

Oh that food poisoning thing sounds terrible :( Yea, being offered more food by the person who gave you the food poisoning would be a def no for me!!

Laura wrote: "Thanks Melissa and Michael! :)

Brenda - Yes, all new little kids...Will be busy, busy! I'm working specifically with two little boys.

-

Even though work doesn't officially go back until Wednesda..."

Good luck, have fun and enjoy!

Laura wrote: "Oh that food poisoning thing sounds terrible :( Yea, being offered more food by the person who gave you the food poisoning would be a def no for me!!"

Awful!

Decimal Currency
I was on the way to Mum’s today, thinking about the introduction of Decimal Currency. Next month, the day after the Melbourne get-together, in fact, it will be FIFTY YEARS since the official introduction of decimal currency.

For all those people too young to remember (or not even born in 1966! like many of my work colleagues) you can skip my reminiscences. The rest of you will be nodding heads in agreement. I was just eleven years old, and it made a BIG impression on me. There was a huge campaign to introduce this enormous change to the country: TV ads with a character called Dollar Bill (yes, to start with, $1 and $2 were notes, imagine!) and a jingle to the tune of “Click Go The Shears”. We all knew the words and would sing along.

What I vividly remember was the fact that 12 pennies became 10 cents. This meant that they had make two pennies to disappear somehow. Well before 14th Feb the shopkeepers had the new currency, and you could go in and change your pennies for cents.
1d = 1c
2d = 2c
3d = 2c
4d = 3c
5d = 4c
6d = 5c
7d = 6c
8d = 7c
9d = 8c
10d = 8c
11d = 9c

We kids quickly figured out if you had 3 loose pennies, you were better off to go in with 2d and get 2c then go back a bit later with 1d and get 1c, so you had 3c instead of 2c.

Before this we had all had to cope with pounds, shillings and pence, with their weird relationship to each other. 12 pennies to the shilling, 20 shillings to the pound. My parents were especially delighted when decimal currency was introduced: they had come from The Netherlands in 1957 where absolutely everything was metric, and had to cope (with a great deal of grumbling) with Pounds, shillings and pence for 9 long years before the currency changed. Mum was especially pleased to see the back of a bizarre thing called the Guinea = 1 pound + 1 shilling (21 shillings), something that was often used in advertisements.

Of course, they had to wait quite a few more years until the rest of weights & measures caught up. In 1971 The Metric Conversion Act was passed and received Royal Assent. The Metric Conversion Board was established and Australia commenced the change to metric units, but it took until 1988 for the Imperial system to be no longer legal to use.

Very gradually we went from fluid ounces (fl oz), pints, quarts and gallons to millilitres and litres; from ounces (ozs), pounds (lbs), quarters and hundredweights (cwts) to milligrams, grams and kilograms; from inches, feet, yards and miles to centimetres, metres and kilometres; from Fahrenheit to Centigrade.

People my age will remember that the back of exercise books used for school had tables like this that we all learned off by heart:
16oz = 1lb
14lb = 1 stone
2 stone = 1 quarter
4 quarters = 1 cwt
20cwt = 1 ton

End of reminiscing: resume normal programming, LOL!

Haha! Thanks for all of that Marianne:) Perhaps you should start a reminiscence thread in the Just For Fun folder;)

I am back and I had a fabulous birthday. I got some new colouring books and a new TV for my room :)

Oh that's awesome Melissa! Well done:) And some reading books too I hope;)

Brenda wrote: "Oh that's awesome Melissa! Well done:) And some reading books too I hope;)"

I am picky about my books so I was given gift cards to Chapters/Indigo (our major book chain in Canada) to pick out some books :D

Oh nice:) You'll have fun shopping then!

Here's a couple of youtube clips with the Decimal Currency changeover ads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZTeW...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Jaw... watch to the end and think oh boy, the price of fruit!!!

Brenda wrote: "Oh nice:) You'll have fun shopping then!"

I will indeed. The tough part is the choices :p

Melissa wrote: "Brenda wrote: "Oh nice:) You'll have fun shopping then!"

I will indeed. The tough part is the choices :p"

But what a great result!

Brenda wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Brenda wrote: "Oh nice:) You'll have fun shopping then!"

I will indeed. The tough part is the choices :p"

But what a great result!"

Absolutely :)

I hope you are having a great weekend

Yes thanks Melissa:)

Marianne wrote: "Decimal Currency
I was on the way to Mum’s today, thinking about the introduction of Decimal Currency. Next month, the day after the Melbourne get-together, in fact, it will be FIFTY YEARS since th..."

That's really interesting, Marianne! I hadn't appreciated that it was 50 years ago! It feels like a lot longer - probably because it was a bit before my time, but interesting to hear about the conversion! And I sympathise with your mum - I don't think I'd have coped well with the inconsistent numbers from one level of measurement to the next - I love that decimal means everything is in tens or factors of tens!

Morning, Bette, Suzanne, Jools!
Suzanne, Jools, are you Early Birds today, or up late??
Have a good day, all!

Good morning, early bird here Marianne, seems my inner clock these days thinks 4am is a good time to wake! :&

well, at least you can chat to us without disturbing your DH. Time for me to get on the treadmill and READ!!!