Rolling Stones

Last night the Rolling Stones played to a large Perth audience.  They have a second show on Saturday night.
A pic of the Stones on stage.  Clean living keeps them looking good(?).

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 Friends have a daughter who is a singer and she was in a guest choir on stage for... You Can't Always Get What You Want.

I didn’t attend.  The Rolling Stones have not been big on my playlist.

Willie Wagtails

I have lots of birds visit me.   Regulars are crows (actually ravens)
and willie wagtails (Rhipidura Leucophris).  It is baby time here with baby wagtails out of the nest and being fed by mum.  The crows, always after some easy prey, are harassed by adult wagtails and eventually move on. The harassment has been ongoing for possibly two months and I am guessing it is to keep the crows away from nests.

A couple of baby wagtails waiting for mum to return with food.

 

                                                           harassment

My Local Apple Store

I have just returned from a visit to the Apple Store near my house.   My 27” iMac was presenting with a white/blue screen and after asking Mr Google, it seemed that it might be a faulty video card.  My appointment time was 3pm and the Apple Store was packed.  A young ‘Genius’ hooked up my Mac to their diagnostic software and in a couple of minutes it told us that the video card was faulty.  They will fit a new card and call me when it is ready in a couple of days.  I had forgotten that I had taken out an Applecare policy and it will be covered by that.

PC people (those who use Windows computers) heap scorn on Apple and the store with its genius younguns, but I have, in the couple of times I have been in the store, been suitably impressed.  So there!

Designing Women

Yesterday evening I attended the opening of an exhibition of fabric art held  in Melville.  The group is one my late wife Joan belonged to and I have quite a few wall hangings of her work in our house.  The group is named Designing Women.      Joan’s sister Dorothy is also heavily into fabric art and she had seven pieces on exhibition.   I am not big on art in general, but a few of these pieces I found most interesting and attractive.

One of Dorothy’s was about her father’s hand-built house on his newly acquired farm in Western Australia’s wheatbelt.   The photograph of the small house was surrounded by hessian (wheat bag) strands of wool (shearing sheep) and golden threads telling us that Ted McHugh was a gold miner near Kalgoorlie to raise the money to buy the farm block.

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Printer repairs

A few days ago I was given a couple of nice printers both with some faults which I thought I might get going to give away with my computer project.  One is a large Brother A3 scanner/copier /fax which I am sure will make coffee as well.  I managed to get it working and need to read up on all the functions.   Fax??  Does anyone still use faxes?

  The other one is also an all-in-one, a Canon, which presents with an error message ‘B200 Print Error’.  I Googled that error and found a solution on a video by a fellow in Holland.  It certainly is a quick fix.   See the short video here.

1928 Hudson

Our son Martin lives in a 2 bedroom unit I own.  It is part of a 18 unit block.  When my wife and I bought the unit some ten years ago we never envisioned the problems it has given us.   This block is in a low socio-economic area and has problems both from within and without.  The rear steel fence is kicked in/out either from tenants using the gap as a easy path to the local shopping centre or youth breaking in to damage vehicles etc.  

Last night one of the tenants who is know to break down the rear fence decided to seriously bash his partner.  The screams and foul language brought out nearby tenants who demanded that he stop beating his partner.  He made numerous threats to the bystanders until the police arrived.  The woman was taken by ambulance to hospital and the man to the police station.  He will probably not be charged with assault as in many of these situations the partner is either afraid to prefer charges or needs the support of even a violent partner.

Martin is concerned he will be a target of this violent man.  It is not politic to mention that this is an indigenous couple.  Enough of this drama.

And now something nice. A 1928 Hudson.  Quality car which would still look good on today’s roads.

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This pic is from Shorpy, the 100 year old photoblog.  Well worth a look and free subscription for a daily posting of interesting photos with a story.

UWA Memorial Ceremony

The Memorial Ceremony held at the University of Western Australia was a major event.  I estimate that there were 500+ attendees along with current medical students and a large group of Professors.

I had been in Winthrop Hall before to sit public examinations back in 1959 and it has, as I remember it, not changed much.  Lovely old building!

There were five major speakers who gave thanks on behalf of the university and the wider community for the donation of 175 bodies to the Medical Faculty. This Memorial is held every three years for the donated bodies of that period.

All the names were read out by a group of students and another group gave every person assembled a long stemmed white rose.   Refreshments were served outside near the large reflection pond.

It was not politic to take photos during the memorial service, but I snapped one as the ceremony finished.

Mike Treasure

Tomorrow I am attending a dedication ceremony for my brother-in-law Mike.  Mike died  just over three years ago and as he wished, his body was given to the medical school at the University of Western Australia.

This ceremony, held at UWA in Winthrop Hall, is a dedication to all those who also gave their body to UWA over the last few years.

Mike in 1980s rig

I have thought about what I want to happen to my body.....join the worms; have a BBQ or let the Uni students play with my bits?

Vietnam Bachelor

This coming weekend brother Graham is off on a two-week trip around Vietnam.  It is a singles trip and he has just found out that there are 8 females and one male on the tour; shades of the bachelor.   

I helped bro set up an Enduring Power of Attorney document in case ‘anything happens’.

I have not watched The Bachelor’ on TV where one fella gets to ‘try out’ 24 beautiful single women.  The degrading spectacle of females fawning over one guy in the hope he would marry them is pretty peurile.    I wonder whether all the gals were told that he has two companies in Perth city hiring out male entertainers.  I have seen some footage of the Bachelor himself ‘entertaining’ female guests.

I wonder whether brother Graham will be the Vietnam bachelor on his trip?

Tahitian Lime

I had been thinking hard about what I would buy with the gift card given to me by three lovely young ladies.   The card was to be redeemed at a garden centre, so I visited one of the chain which is quite close to me.   I found what I really needed; a Tahitian Lime tree.  No problems about whether I will be around for the fruit....there are flowers and young limes already showing.    I had a good sized pot and gave it a dose of a special citrus fertiliser.

I also have a cumquat bush in my front garden which is showing a bit of stress with yellow leaves.   I had intended transplanting it into a pot, but the roots felt like they were down deep, so I decided to give that a dose of citrus fertiliser as well.  At the garden centre the man I talked to for advice about the cumquat suggested dosing the leaves with diluted  molasses.   Can’t hurt??    This cumquat bush has sweet fruit which is not the norm.  Cumquats are usually used for marmalade or eating whole if one wants to determine if one is still alive.

I also transplanted a mango tree which has not grown at all over the last three years.  I will give it lots of love and hope it actually gives me fruit before I ‘cough it’ as my grandfather would say.

This last Sunday I hosted a gathering of oldies who were once young Boy Scouts and then Rover Scouts.   I catered for an afternoon of gluttony.  Lots of dips and biscuits, olives, celery boats with curried egg filling, party pies, baked chicken wings, pizza, cheese, salami, pickled onions, saveloys (little boys), a nice punch and a large fruit platter.   After all that I forgot the tea and coffee.   I bet they are still talking about not getting tea or coffee.