"IF I could turn back time," sang Cher.
Life can be like that: just ask bankrupt mining magnate Nathan Tinkler.
Lamenting on decisions he's ended up regretting, Tinkler reckons if he could have his time again, he would have given it all away at 32, before he became Australia's youngest billionaire.
The former Upper Hunter "pit leco" wishes he'd opted out before he hit the high life, saying he should have found a beach and "disappeared".
The former owner of the Newcastle Knights and Newcastle Jets says he should have retired before the horse racing empire, private jets and multi-million dollar property deals.
"I wish I'd told myself: 'stop, retire, pick a beach'," Tinkler told The Australian this week.
"That period of my life after that, I met some of the worst people that anybody could ever have to deal with. I just wish I packed up and went home."
A one-time star of Australian rich lists, Tinkler now lives in Singapore.
But it seems Tinkler not only wants to turn back time, he also wants to re-write the history books.
At odds with the public record that shows a history littered with stories of debts owing and people burnt, Tinkler has adopted the well-trodden tale of blaming the media.
"I lost my own money. And yet the media were trying to portray it like I just left this whole trail of creditors, and all these people unpaid. It's all bulls...t."
He points to his short-lived ownership of the Knights and Jets as evidence of the media's spite.
"I still haven't taken a dollar out of it, my money only went one way, and that was in," he said.
"For that to be portrayed negatively, it really made me stand back and go: 'Wow'. But it wasn't the people of Newcastle. That was the media."
Having a whale of a time
It was a bumper weekend for whale watching cruise operators in Port Stephens over the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
Imagine Cruises owner Frank Future said that the fine, sunny weather and the abundance of whales on their northern migration had attracted visitors in their thousands to sample many of the Port's alluring attractions. Mr Future said around 75 per cent of patrons had used their discover vouchers and that there was every indication the crowds would be again flocking to Port Stephens, vouchers in hand, for the July school holidays.
"The most recent surveys suggest there are in excess of 30,000 humpback whales making the annual migration. Their population is thriving and what's more they are in good health, we haven't seen any sick ones."
He said that the whales' playful nature had attracted a growing number of photographers and photo groups.
