Honesty

Helen and James; my daughter and her husband, are nearing the end of one month’s holiday in France and Spain.  Helen emailed me a couple of days ago with details of a great day they had.  She also told me that she had lost her camera somewhere and was to go to a nearby Police Station to get conformation that she had reported the loss for insurance purposes.   They didn’t expect that anyone would hand in a digital camera and were very surprised that someone had actually handed it in to the Police.

'Oh….by the way I found my camera after making a police report…..interestingly they just opened up some drawers and asked if any of the numerous cameras/glasses were mine before asking for ID or asking what model/make etc I had lost.  They even had bags with drivers licences attached to the front with elastic bands (with nationalities and addresses clearly on display) These were behind glass cupboards (not locked) and on view for everyone to see.  I don’t think they bother to send these items back to their owners. Amazingly they also had loads of lost umbrellas????'

They are impressed with Spain; the friendly people, great inexpensive dining and  the beauty of each place they visited.  

My son Martin found a new iPhone 7 in a gutter a few days ago.  As he picked it up it rang and a girl demanded he bring it to her.  He started out to the address and she phoned to direct him to another address quite some distance from his unit.  Eventually he arrived and the girl, about 14 years of age, snatched it off him and ran off without even thanking him.  Somewhat different to Helen's experience in Spain.

As Willy Wonka said..'Strike that, reverse it'.

Oops, I misread Helen’s email.   It seems that she found her camera in the car after reporting it lost.  My error was when I read that she was shown a selection of cameras handed in to the Police Station to see if hers was amongst them, I assumed that she had found her camera there.

Bye bye palms

Yesterday the tree loppers went to work at my rental unit.  There were three palms to come down and I was impressed with the professional  job they carried out.  I watched the last one to  be dropped.  It was about 35+ feet tall.  The method they used was to throw a weighted long rope over the crown of the palm and tie it off above where they were to make the cut.  One fellow walked out with the rope to where they wanted it to fall.   The chainsaw man made a V cut at the front of the trunk and as he slowly cut into that from the back of the palm the rope man pulled it toward himself.    Perfect landing!

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Oi, that's my car.

Today when I went back, the palms are gone and the stumps ground out.

All gone

Nephew visits old uncle

The last couple of days I have had my nephew Bruce staying over at my place.  Bruce has been visiting his family in Esperance on a short visit from his home in The Hamptons in NY.  We, Kev, Bruce and my Bro Graham, had two evenings with quite a few drinks and lots of laughs.  Yesterday we went into Fremantle and visited a quite wonderful store named Twisted Sisters.  It is full of hippie gear and Bruce selected clothes for himself and his wife Tam for the upcoming Halloween weekend.  The store owner served him and almost every item was knocked down by 50%.    I personally couldn’t see myself wearing any of that gear that I remember from my youth, and I know that Bruce and Tam will probably wear their outfits only once in public and save them for home and barbecues.

Click images to enlarge them

Later we went on a Fremantle Jail tour.  Most interesting.   It has not been in use since it closed in 1991.  It was commissioned in the 1850s and used to incarcerate men and women over 136 years.  The current prisons in Western Australia must seem like holiday camps compared to the conditions prisoners endured at Fremantle.

Narrowband UV light treatment still on

I am still having Narrowband UV light treatment for Psoriasis three times a week.  Each day I attend there are another 100+ patients getting the same treatment.  One young fellow I have seen there many times is about 7 years of age and has severe Psoriasis affecting his body, face and eyes.  This is not his first series of treatments and he has been treated in the last Psoriasis season.  I say ‘season’ because for most patients this is an annual problem starting late winter, when it is believed insufficient exposure to sunlight occurs.

A brave young lad who must expect that the condition will return next winter and the whole thing will start over again.  This is the second outbreak I have had starting in the winter season and talking to other people getting treatment it would seem that until some new treatment is found, I will return annually.

Losing it?

The maintenance on the Quinns Rocks unit is ongoing.  Yesterday I had enough and drove home for a rest.  I parked my car in the driveway and had lunch.  Then I realised that I had left the car unlocked with my wallet and phone in it.  A quick search didn’t find them and so I rang my iphone from the house phone.....nothing?  I thought they might have been stolen, but this suburb  is relatively safe and so I guessed that the phone and my wallet might be still at the unit....sooo another 120km round trip to find them safe on a benchtop.

Am I losing it??

Still more maintenance

I am still making the daily 120km round trip to Quinns Rocks to do maintenance on a unit I own there.  Every day I find more to do.   Today my son is coming along as I need a second pair of hands with a couple of the tasks.  

Watercorp is sending someone out today to replace a shutoff valve in the  water meter.  The tree man has not yet taken down three large palms and another large tree.  I have a plumber coming to replace a tap set in the kitchen and airconditioning is to be fitted in the lounge room.   

Brother Graham has a tile grout cleaning machine and on the weekend it is going to be working hard on a large tiled area.

I want this to be over soon.