Will do, Ms Moderator!
I'll address the thread in full myself in a week or two... My year is entirely depedent upon the result, but till then I have a few comments that will suffice.
I'm annoyed at the fact that the Australian only offered it's 'year for so much' special for only a few days, whereas the Herald offered it for some time. I'm not exactly a fan of the Murdoch Press (and I now listen to the ABC more so than read the papers), but the Herald is mostly online and in anycase its journalists are forever whinging about something, so I would hve liked to have had the option of picking up a copy of the Australian in addition to the Herald. I do know that the papers are relatively cheap as it is, but an outlay of 60c most days does add up over time.
The union's food is shocking, and that's being polite. The price structure in particular makes one want to scream. It turns out that the alcohol is reasonably priced with the member discount, but that isn't much use for someone who only ever visits Manning for a drink or two at the end of each year and it hardly helps the USU cause in that it gives those arguing against it something to criticise (ignoring those aspects of the Union or the SRC that are of significant value, of course)... Sorry, couldn't help myself
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I hate the fact that too many men are becoming involved in the Manning-based fashion contest. Yes, there's a need to be respectable and clean, but for fu.. fig's sake, there's no need to spend however much on clothing and gel just to impress those of a similar bent. If all men stick together, then there's a hope that we may just beat this apparent shift in social values - don't give in, you bastards. Be clean and repsectable but don't do it in a manner that suggests that you are nothing more than a walking advertisement for the wankey crowd that inhabits Manning. Surely that woman cannot be worth your wallet.