Last summer we remained at the ridiculous requirements of stage bloody one. You could water lawn at any time of the day, just so long as you had the hose in your hand and you could fill a 2,000 litre spa, but kids were allowed NO water toys. No slip and slide, no running under a sprinkler and no water pistols or water bombs.

Fukin stupid. The crabby old bastard two doors up would stand out the front and pour water on the grass in the middle of the afternoon, while abusing the kids across the street for 'breaking the law' by throwing ice cream containers of water at each other.

Strangely enough, immediately following the council elections we went to Stage 4 with no exemptions. Many locals surmise that the restrictions had little to do with the water level in the Hume Weir and lots to do with not upsetting rate payers before they went to the ballot.

We do lose an enormous amount of water to evaporation out of the Murray thanks to idiotic structures like Lake Moccoan and open irrigation channels. Yet Mr Brumby is only interested in improving the infrastructure in the MIA (Murray Irrigation Area) if he gets an iron clad guarrentee that he can pump the water out of the MIA and into Melbourne's storage system for the next 10 years (regardless of whether the improvements result in a net water saving or not).

Probably one of the reasons the Greens vote rose here twice as much as the national average. Country people say fuk that when politicians try to divert resources away from country areas :S4: