The lesser mabinogion

On the right is my suit for the Conflux Regency Gothic Banquet. Or at least it will be once Emma has actually made it.
The dark green is velvet for the tailcoat, the yellow is silk for the waistcoat (I had my reservations about the colour, but Emma insisted, and when you see it up close it really is very nice – but it’s still by far a more terrifying shade than I would usually choose for myself), the white is linen for the shirt, and the brown is wool for the breeches.
After having purchased that lot, I now have a greater appreciation for the cost of good clothing. The per metre cost of the fabric itself isn’t the problem – it’s the amount you need that’s the killer.
Someone is just going to have to organise quite a few more regency themed events now.

I had intended to spend the weekend trying to get a little ahead with work, but instead I ended up spending the whole weekend eating chocolate and reading Georgette Heyer novels in an attempt to avoid thinking about how to reply to a particularly irritating email.

I am usually more than willing to help people and to offer my assistance wherever I can, but the level of presumption involved in this request was entirely insupportable. If it had been a direct personal request, I probably would have done my best to figure out how I could help. (Which may still have been very little, as there was a potentially large amount of work in a small amount of time required). But as it was instead relayed through an innocent third party in the guise of a request of an organisation I’m associated with (but obviously made with full knowledge that it would be me that it would directly affect), it did nothing but infuriate me – it’s as if it were simply assumed I’d agree, despite it being not entirely clear what I would be agreeing to.

It bothers me to have to be so disobliging in this case, but there are limits to my capabilities, resources and patience, and the originator of this request has already drawn very deeply from all three in the past.

I cannot think of the Federal Government’s Lifetime Health Cover scheme as anything but extortion.
If they wish to encourage me to take out private health cover earlier in life, then why don’t they make the threshold for the Medicare levy surcharge related to age?

The very idea that if I don’t take out private health cover this year, that I will be charged 2% extra per year I delay once I actually do for the rest of my life is completely absurd.
Why should I be punished for the entire rest of my life for it? That is what this is. It is not encouragement, it is punishment – punishment for foolishly believing that the > $20,000 I’ve directly contributed towards the public health system via the Medicare Levy in my working life so far – (and from which I have so far never needed to benefit) actually meant something.

A friend who is approaching 31, but is not in the income bracket that would usually be expected to take out private health cover raised an interesting question – what if you can’t afford private health insurance until you are older than 31? Why should you have to pay between 2% and 70% more for your private health insurance for the rest of your life simply because you used the public health system the way it was supposed to be used. What incentive is there for you to ever take out private health insurance once you’re 40? or 50? Surely a misguided scheme like this risks backfiring?

The Government needs to decide whether or not its position on health is one of providing its people with the health care they need (and already paid for), or whether it is one of providing private companies with customers.

Sorry for the politics – particularly such a self serving and sulky rant, but every time I encounter the “Lifetime Health Cover” propaganda and its horrible attempt to paint the scheme as if it’s actually to my benefit it puts me into such a mulish and contrary mood that I feel like simply avoiding the issue entirely.

However, common sense will no doubt get the best of me, and I’ll line up to make some insurance company rich like a good little consumer tax payer before the 1st of July despite my whinging.