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Garmin Adventure

Outdoor Adventure
The Garmin handheld waterproof GPS range is ideal for those family camping weekends, hiking, geocaching, four wheel drive expeditions and more! Always find your way through the great outdoors and back again with a Garmin.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY (10 February 2012): Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself - Tom Wilson

ENTERTAINMENT

Bob Jones on Fatherhood

What does being a father mean to you?
As is well known, I have vast numbers of children ranging from four to 40 years of age. All have been produced by diverse women without my consent, my participation having been fleeting. Each announcement has been received by me with considerable annoyance. I am frequently told I am not a conventional father, the inference being that I am a bad one. Indeed, with the first batch going back four decades, I well recall dire threats by a number of friends about the fate of my children yet all have turned out admirably and are successful in every respect. Whereas I note my critics’ offspring are committing suicide, “finding themselves” as wine waiters and so forth.

What are the highlights of fatherhood?
I have no particular sentimentality about being a father but now at this stage of my life, accept that my existence would seem a little hollow if they had not existed. But I never had any wish to reproduce myself, assuming that is a conventional motive and would have felt the same about my kids had they been adopted.

What are the lows?
There are none. Small children are a pleasure and have not been a nuisance as I was, and am, a strict disciplinarian in ways now considered old fashion. Additionally, I’ve had the advantage of always having live-in nannies to keep the bastards at bay and do the dirty work.

Was there a defining moment in your life when you realised that being a father had changed you as a man?
If fatherhood has changed me then I’m not aware of it, other than that they provide an expenditure outlet. I don’t say that lightly as I have a number of wealthy friends who shied from marriage and are now at a loss as to what to do with their riches, and there is a very evident emptiness in their lives at this late stage.

What’s the best piece of advice your father gave to you?
My father never gave me any advice, other than to become a plumber as this was, in his eyes as a welder, an elite trade.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever given to your kids?
I do try and advise my children, primarily to be free thinkers and in particular, not to blindly follow convention but instead to think for themselves. Specifically, I emphasise reading and rejection of social norms based on mindless behaviour, e.g. wearing sun-glasses on top of their heads, paying parking tickets, working as employees, getting university degrees (as opposed to going to university). But mostly, I leave them to their own devices and provide them with the financial freedom to do this effectively. I have only one rule. Participation, no matter how innocuous, in any religious ceremony means instant disinheritance.

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Interactive Painting

The days of the still life painting reigning supreme are well behind us...

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