Lock Family Ramblings

Junior technician jobs

2012-02-14T07:15:00.011+08:00

The remote control showing the rubber function buttons.

In my bathroom I have a remote controlled heater light and exhaust fan. It must have been installed after the hard wiring had been done. It works well!
On Sunday evening I came home from Helen and James' place after helping them with their fish pond and having a few beers. A few??

After eating some supper I fell asleep in a chair waking at 10.30pm. I went to my en suite bathroom and turned on the fan and the heater light and then dropped the remote controller on the floor damaging it so that it would not turn off the fan and light. Damn! I tried turning off the mains lighting circuit and turning it on again...no go, the heater light was still on. I figured that I could get a ladder and remove the heater bulbs, but the fan would still be running.

So I dismantled the remote and found that a battery contact had fallen out of the circuit board. How can that happen? I repositioned the battery contact and it worked well enough to turn everything off. The next morning with steadier hands and a soldering iron I re-soldered the contact back in place and it is back in good working condition.

Underneath of the circuit board showing the re-soldered battery contact.

This is not the first time I have repaired remote controls and I thought I should pass on to readers a little info on fixing a problem which often presents as remotes get a bit old. On the remote are the rubber function buttons which when manufactured have a metallic pasted-on surface which when pressed, contacts a corresponding part of the circuit board completing a circuit for that particular function. When the remote gets old and has been used lots, that metallic surface on the rubber button deteriorates. I have glued small pieces of aluminium foil where the metallic paste is/was and if the glue is one which will stick to that rubber surface, things are back to normal. Fiddly work, but most rewarding when you are finished. Don't be shy about having a go....there is nothing inside the remote to bite you. If your remote isn't easily opened (secured by screws) then it is a bit of a fiddle getting inside it....see here http://www.ehow.com/how_5834201_open-tv-remote-control.html

The rubber buttons with alfoil glued on...it works! These fixes are born out of a need to save money and it is hard to change that attitude in old age.

Bring out your dead 2012

2012-02-13T13:14:00.008+08:00

This week is Bring Out Your Dead in this area and all manner of discards are put on the verge for council collection. My neighbours had a huge pile of stuff, but that is almost all gone, taken by the bower birds who drive through the district looking for goodies. I must confess to grabbing a very nice late model Canon printer from a pile of techo stuff a few doors from my place. I got it home and found that the ink carriage was jammed because someone had tried to remove a cartridge and the printer decided to return the carriage to its start position with the cartridge not properly seated and protruding causing the jam. A ten minute job and the printer is running like a Buick.
Yesterday Helen and James emptied out a fish pond and cleaned up the tangle of stringy algae and fungal growth. When the pond was empty we noticed some decidedly nasty looking bugs and they were removed from the pond. Only later did we realise that they were the nymph of the Dragonfly. Helen was a bit upset because the Dragonfly is one of her favourites. The Dragonfly breeding season is probably not yet over and we may yet see some homegrown Dragonflies. When I was young in the 1950s, Dragonflies were colloquially called Horse Stingers. Doubt if they do sting and if they did they would probably sting people rather than horses. PS: Google says that they don't sting but can bite.

Helen recently invited me over to dinner and she was trying to replicate a dish; one course served at her cousin Katherine's wedding in San Francisco. The dish was created by the chef Alan Wong.

I am not sure of the name of the dish but it was lovely.

It is chilled tomato soup with a Parmesan chip and toasted Kalua Pork sandwich. Delicious!

The Boer War

2012-02-11T10:07:00.005+08:00

My cousin Val and I have had an interest in family for many years and one thing which interested me greatly was my grandfather and his brothers' service in South Africa during the Boer War. I have his discharge papers from 1902 which noted a gratuity of Five pounds. Was that a reasonable reward for serving King and Country?

All the documents are written in copperplate handwriting by the same person. Even the signatures are written by the same person...not my grandfather. We have wondered if it was because many volunteers would have been illiterate? In Papua New Guinea in the early 1960s I witnessed labour recruitment for plantations where illiterate natives touched a pen and the recruiting person wrote their name. Was that what it was?Click image to enlarge

On reflection I came to the conclusion that the original documents are kept in the National Archives in Canberra and the documents given to the servicemen were copies.....hand written by a scribe in copperplate in a time before photocopiers were even thought of.

My grandfather and his brothers returned to Australia at a time when it was thought the war was over and re-enlisted when it flared up again. It must have been very exciting stuff, or living in country Australia at the time must have been extremely boring.

Grandfather and his brothers were in a unit called Kitcheners Fighting Scouts. I am sorry I didn't talk to him more about his experiences in S.A..

Harry 'Breaker' Morant was recruited from South Australia and along with another Australian was executed for taking part in the murder of a couple of Boers and a German priest who had witnessed the killings. At the time and even today, it is felt that 'The Breaker' and his mate were executed to placate the Germans who were thinking of joining the war on the side of the Boers. Recent attempts to clear their names have failed.

Bees and blowies

2012-02-10T13:48:00.003+08:00

About a year ago I had a 'tradesman' extend a kitchen exhaust fan duct through the roof and finish it off with a 'Chinaman's hat'. As summer came on, every time I cooked a curry or some other food which had a strong smell, blowflies came down the duct and even got through the fan blades and mesh filter to get into my kitchen. So I decided to convert the hat to a beekeeper's hat and fashioned a screen of flywire around it to keep the flies out. When I went up on the roof (silly old man) I noticed that the tradie, an Irishman, had not bothered to position the Chinaman's hat and the duct so that it would be standing vertically. It doesn't really matter as it cannot be see by anyone else, but it is sloppy workmanship. I will have to see how long before the screen clogs up with grease.
The Irish Leaning Tower of Chinaman Beekeeper

I have cooked a curry since I attached the flywire and it seems to be working.

Daughter Helen and James came around for dinner a couple of nights ago and Helen spied a Turkish loaf of bread I had bought. When she asked me what it was like I had to tell her that it was a bit stodgy. She then told me that it was a Home Bake pack and I should have cooked it. Live and Learn!

Helen has had only one offer of relief teaching as yet...this morning. By the time she picked up the phone the Deputy Principal at the school had hung up. She immediately rang back to say that she was happy to do the job, but the message went to the school switchboard and the deputy had already returned to his office and missed the call. Helen also missed the job. She is not desperate for cash yet and I am able to help out if things do get that way.

The Spudshed

2012-02-07T08:51:00.001+08:00

On Sunday afternoon Helen, James and I drove to Jandakot Airport and visited the 'Spud Shed'.....along with about 1,000 other shoppers. The large carpark was almost full and inside it was a struggle to manoeuvre a shopping trolley around between produce and shoppers who looked like Myer sale-day fiends. This particular Spudshed is open 24/7 because it is on Commonwealth land surrounding the airport and does not have to comply with state trading regulations. I guess if I were to return to the Spudshed it would be at 2am when things would probably be less frenetic. OK, there are some bargains there.....but the checkout queues are long and I noticed some folks getting a bit 'testy' when people in the queue sent partners off to continue shopping.

A couple of observations......The meat is so so. I bought some casserole beef to make a curry. When I opened it at home it had more than its fair share of gristle and ropy bits. Somehow, such a crowded bargain-basement establishment attracts cheats. We noticed fruit and nuts being consumed before arriving at the checkout and the trays of mangoes were being re-packed by customers who wanted only the really good ones despite large notices requesting that they not be swapped around.

I'll spend the extra few bucks and shop locally.

My newish car is now due for its first service @ 1500 kilometres. I am still having problems with what I now believe, is a fuel delivery problem at low speed when taking off. I noticed that when the tank is almost empty the problem is much worse, so when I deliver the car to the service centre I will ensure that the tank is low so that the mechanics may experience the problem. Previously I have not been able to show the service centre what happens and they have suggested that I am just an old fart and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the car. I will arrange for the car to stay overnight if the problem does not occur during the service. Morning startup usually presents the problem.

Relief teaching

2012-02-03T10:41:00.001+08:00

The school year has started and my daughter Helen has not been appointed to a school for the first time in seven years. She is a 'Temp' and has not secured permanent status with the W.A. Education Department. Becoming a permanent employee with the Education Department these days is quite a business. There are basically three methods available to get permanency. One is to 'go bush' to a country town for a few years. This path has some disadvantages because the preferred country postings on the coast are usually filled by teachers who have become permanent residents in these places. If she were to get a wheatbelt town posting, there is also the chance that after the usual three years there it would be difficult to get a placement back in the city. There are many teachers in this situation.

Another method is to opt to teach for three years at a disadvantaged, hard to staff, school which is not a great option. And the last avenue is to apply to one of the newly created 'Independent' government schools. These schools can recruit staff independently of the Education Department's staffing department. I imagine there are cases of 'friends' getting employment at lots of these schools.

Helen has delivered her resume to around 40 schools within 12 kilometres of her house putting her name down for relief teaching. At the beginning of the school year there is not much work for relief teachers as most staff do not take 'sickies' for a few weeks into the term. She should start to get work later in Term 1.

I had a most pleasant visit by my cousin Ann and husband Doug from BC in Canada. They stayed overnight and we had a BBQ with daughter Helen, hubby James and brother Graham. Yesterday we went for lunch at the Fremantle fishing boat harbour and had a drive around the interesting spots around Fremantle and up the River to Mosman's Bay. They visit Australia about every 2 -3 years.

Incitement to riot

2012-01-30T17:51:00.002+08:00

I don't really watch major sporting events such as the Australian Open (tennis), but I did catch part of a few games on TV. I am afraid that I had to flip channels when the two Russian gals started the loud...what can you call it?.....grunting?

Another thing I noticed was that Novak Djokovic the Serbian champ relied heavily on help from God. A number of times he did the Sign of The Cross during the match(es) and after winning one round hauled out his cross and kissed it looking skyward. I would have thought God would be pretty busy helping people less fortunate than him.

The Australian Federal Police have decided that there was no crime committed by anyone in the little fracas in Canberra which caused the Federal Police to need to rescue the PM and the leader of the opposition from a rather nasty mob of Aboriginal activists. The Feds don't think that the person who rang the activists with the aim of stirring them up did anything wrong. The Opposition thinks that there is a case to investigate what was actually said by whom. Seems reasonable to me. I think the possible charge is incitement to riot.

Australia Day

2012-01-28T10:11:00.002+08:00

One of the two fridges I have has been icing up in the fridge half and I suspected that I needed a replacement thermostat. A local refrigeration man turned up and agreed with my diagnosis and proceeded to remove covers and dig out the thermostat. He told me he didn't have an Hitachi part in stock and would have to order one at a cost of $440. Ouch!

Whilst showing me the thermostat mechanism, he found some ice in the door that is supposed to close when temperatures change. He removed the ice, tested the mechanism attached to the thermostat by placing it in the freezer section and hooray it now works...at a cost of $150.

I understand thermostats, but have never really thought about how they control temperatures in the fridge. Quite simple really. The freezer compartment is consistently very cold (frozen) and the fridge section is joined to the freezer by a small duct which can be opened or closed by a mechanical door operated by the thermostat. If the fridge section gets a little warmer, the thermostat opens the door to the freezer duct and allows cold air the enter the fridge from the freezer. See simple isn't it?

Australia Day has come and gone and there was a bit of argy-bargy in Canberra near the Aboriginal tent 'Embassy'. The Prime Minister and leader of the opposition were at an official function at a reception centre nearby. The previous day the leader of the opposition was interviewed and asked what he thought of the Aboriginal Embassy. He replied that he could understand why the embassy was set up in 1972 but a lot of things have changed for the better since then and it is probably time to move on.

A government staffer who has since resigned, rang someone who passed Tony Abbot's answer on to the 'embassy' and a riot ensued. The PM and Abbot were surrounded by security and Federal Police and there was a lot of pushing and shoving and abuse from the mob before the PM and Tony Abbott were secured in a car and drove off. Yesterday there was a burning of the Australian flag at the 'embassy' and footage showed young aborigines spitting on the burning flag. Glad I'm not their school teacher. I have connections to Aboriginal groups through distribution of computers, so I cannot comment. I do know that the government staffer should be named. Political dirty tricks...let's hope the PM didn't approve of that phone call.

Eleven months today

2012-01-25T11:57:00.003+08:00

Today marks eleven months since Joan died. I have noticed that elderly people (and I now admit to being one) have a propensity to weep at thoughts and events which previously would not have affected them. I'm one of them...not overtly, but Joan's presence in our home, in the form of her many artefacts, photos etc often move me to a few tears as is happening as I write this.

Years ago when I was a young (22 year old) single teacher at an isolated school in the Gulf of Papua I observed a daily mourning ritual of a young man who had lost his brother. At approximately the same time each afternoon this fellow would suddenly start howling loudly and beating his chest in front of other villagers and often me. The performance went on for probably no more than five minutes and he would suddenly stop and carry on as if nothing had happened. I cannot recall how long this went on for and I guess it was a traditional thing in this language group. I was Teacher in charge at Arehava Primary School for three years and as I lived in a village, saw much of the traditional family life around me. I wrote of one of these incidents here.

This morning I rang the Public Trustee to find out what the delay has been in processing Joan's estate. It seems that there is no reason it was not processed weeks ago and I received a promise, one of several over the last couple of months, that it would be finalised by this Friday. Maybe.

My mother was born in Narrogin and brought up on a farm at Toolibin 30 miles east of Narrogin. I remember her talking about all the neighbours and one family, the Hoyles was often mentioned. Some time ago amongst mother's photographs I found a nice pic of three of the Hoyle kids, probably taken around 1921 or so. There is Sally, Minnie and Dick. Dick went to war in New Guinea and was killed. He is buried at Lae Military Cemetery. Yesterday I had an urge to see if I could find some descendents of the surviving two in the photographs. I rang my cousin Val to see if she recalled anything about the Hoyles and surprisingly she did in fact; she was a flowergirl at Minnie's wedding. Next I looked up the Whitepages Online and found a few phone numbers for Minnie's married name living around Wickepin which is quite close to Toolibin. Bingo! I talked with a couple of folks and have emailed the cleaned-up photo to them. Hope to continue contact and find out what happened to the Hoyles. Val is, of course, very interested and if anything of great interest emerges we will drive to Wickepin to meet up with the descendents.

Lock Family reunion

2012-01-22T12:30:00.004+08:00

My cousin Ann and her husband Doug are visiting Western Australia from BC (Canada) and the remaining Locks were summonsed to a family gathering under the trees near the Swan River at Crawley Bay.

We are all getting a bit old. Aunty Violet is 95 and still looking pretty good even thought she needed reminding of most of the names of the assembled. For some strange reason she remembered my name. Must have been something in my past that she aint gonna forget.

I took a few pics of the group with a remote control and being the photographer I am, suggested that everyone remove their sunglasses. Everyone thought that was reasonable and I should have remembered to remove mine.....one way to stand out in a crowd.

A good get-together with lots of stories told.

An old fella

2012-01-19T20:09:00.000+08:00

I went shopping today for food and as I approached the checkout I thought about an old joke which perfectly suited my situation. In the joke, a bloke fronts up to the checkout and presents his shopping....one piece of steak, a small tub of yoghurt, two bananas, an apple and a half pound of butter. As the checkout gal is bagging his purchases she asks...'Are you single?' The customer replies....'yes, I guess you worked that out by my small purchase?' She replies...'No, it was because you're bloody ugly'.

I had a rude awakening today when I purchased a packet of envelopes at the newsagent next door to the Post Office and sent a letter to a person. Later at home I realised that I had left the package of new envelopes on the desk at the Post Office. I didn't think there was much chance of the package still being there, but returned to the PO and asked at the counter. The woman behind the counter produced the packet saying that a lady had handed it in and described the fellow who left it there as an elderly gentleman. Bugger! First time I have been described as elderly!

Solar Power Array

2012-01-17T17:00:00.002+08:00

I recently received my power bill for the last 66 days. The solar panel array is paying off as well as the fact that I am living alone and watching my power use. The bill amounted to $2.80!

The solar subsidy in this state, Western Australia, has been drastically reduced by the government. People who bought a solar setup after the subsidy cut-off point receive only seven cents for each kilowatt fed back into the grid. I, Helen and James and brother Graham signed up when the subsidy was 40c a kilowatt for electricity fed back into the grid. And as you can see it gives a good return on investment for the $1900 outlay for the panels. The subsidy is for 10 years and at this rate I should pay mine off in a few years.

There are a few tricks to getting the best results. Do washing and ironing and use the dishwasher etc when the sun is not shining and get as many units back into the grid @ 40c whilst the sun is out. Use the grid power for those power hungry jobs @ 4c a unit. Makes sense!

Today Helen finalised the Bali accommodation bookings and I paid by PayPal. All done. Helen and James may have house sitters for the 8 days we are away. I am not sure about my place...maybe talk brother Graham in dropping in every 3 or 4 days to check on things and crank up the reticulation.

If you want to check out the accommodation see it out here.

Woody Allen and the Zydecats

2012-01-15T21:49:00.002+08:00

Helen, my daughter, spent Saturday booking accommodation and airfares to Bali in early April. I am included in the passenger list and I guess that is testimony that I haven't worn out my welcome with her and James. Helen did the flight and hotel deals on the net and we are booked to fly out of Perth on the 8^th of April and spend 8 days in a very nice resort with our own swimming pool. It cost us a bit extra to get a unit with two bedrooms but it looks very nice and it is not near the 'younguns' and their noisy partying.

Also, yesterday, I had a phone call from our son in Melbourne who had had a call from a friend who is renting the unit below mine in Orelia. It seems that the young couple renting my unit went out leaving a cutting board on the stove top. The agent tells me that the new stove needs replacing, but there is little other damage. I have landlords insurance and hope that will cover the new stove and a sparky to wire it in. I will find out more of Monday.

My brain is playing with my body. A couple of days ago I was slicing up some nice hot red chillies for a fried rice when brain told me my nose was itchy...result; extreme nose burn for a couple of hours. This is not the only time brain has set me up. Every time I attend an auction I get a bad case of the itches and end up attracting the attention of the auctioneer just as the bids rocket skywards. Everyone then looks at me as I wave the bid off....'Idiot!'

My brother Graham has had a small problem with his recently purchased new VW Passat. He is unhappy with the ride and VW has made a few attempts to rectify the problem He has had new tyres fitted, a rear suspension strut replaced and alignment of front and rear wheels, but he feels that at the price he paid for the VW it should be a smoother ride. It reached a point where VW simply told him that it was as good as it is going to be....sort of like a bad human prognosis. Graham traded the VW in on a more expensive BMW to be picked up tomorrow. Hope that runs along nice and smoothly. Let you know later.

Sunday evening: brother Graham collected me in his VW, soon to be replaced by a BMW and we taxied from his place to Fremantle to a cinema to view Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. The introductory scenes were wonderful and I wanted to share them with my Joan as we had been to all the places in our last trip to Europe. The movie was a Woody Allen classic.....some obnoxious characters and some wonderful characters. You must see it.

After the movie we went to Clancy's Fish Bar which hosts the local band The Zydecats. Wonderful! Young and old people getting with it and enjoying old Rock. I could see a great photo opportunity and during a break asked the band leader if it would be OK to do some photos....he was happy about that and next Sunday I will front with my Nikon and try and capture the ambiance.

I am at last feeling like there is a life out there.

Taxiing home via Grahams place, I struck up a conversation with the Somalian taxi driver. His situation wasn't too bad and in fact he had two wives, one in New Zealand and one in India. He is a Muslim Somalian and I hope that our conversation went some some way to show that there are moderate non-Muslims in this country.

Counting back

2012-01-12T15:41:00.003+08:00

Yesterday I erected a bit of shadecloth over Helen's garden tank....and so, was invited to stay for dinner. Chicken Tandoori and salad. Nice! Still haven't worn out my welcome there!

Scam warning. This scam is a universal scam which has done the rounds in Canada, the U.S. And Britain and now popping up in Australia and no doubt other countries. The email message purports to be from the Australian Tax Office and tells of tax refund of $773.80 and all one has to do to get the cash is to fill out the genuine looking PDF claim form giving all your bank details and send it to a (false) email address. In all these scam documents there are inevitably a couple of tell-tale spelling mistakes. One in this email message is the spelling of 'Governament'. Snopes is your friend for scams etc. See Snopes here for details about this tax scam in the U.S., and here for a warning from ScamNet in Western Australia about the Aus Tax Scam.

This morning I drove to the local Ford dealership where Helen was delivering her car for a service. When I collected her we went to a newish small supermarket closeby. When we did a small shop we fronted up to the checkout where a woman was using a calculator instead of the checkout register. She explained that overnight thieves had come in through the roof and cut wires thinking that they had disabled the security system and all they disabled were the checkouts. In any case they had lowered themselves into a locked room and had to climb back up and out. The checkout gal was having quite a time of it with a young lad dashing to check the shelf price of purchases per kilo; her using a calculator to price the amount purchased, totalling the purchases up and then doing a subtraction from the amount tendered to calculate the change. The days of counting back are long gone.

Albany Writers' Circle

2012-01-11T09:04:00.007+08:00

Joy, a long time friend of us both, loaned me a small booklet of poetry and prose from residents of the South West city of Albany. The booklet contains 32 pieces from 20 writers.
Two of the pieces were amazing coincidences. One written by Joy's sister told about her friend Miriam...her child, husband and her passion for gardening. Reading it I suddenly realised that Miriam was our next door neighbour in Bicton for some 43 years. It seems that Joy's sister Norma was a close friend of Miri (as we knew her). Her husband Jack was deaf and mute and wrote all conversation on a small pad. Miri was a strange woman; very hippy for the time and quite difficult to approach. I wrote previously about the Williams family, the husband Jack and Mrs Sabodka the bejewelled WW2 refugee boarder.

The second coincidence was a piece written by Betty Kane about her marriage to a U.S. Sailor based in Fremantle during WW2. As it turns out, Betty is the grandmother of the girls in the local group 'The Waifs' who wrote and perform The Bridal Train, a song telling of the train taking W.A. war brides across Australia to Sydney to join the American liner which took them to their new home and husbands. The Bridal Train tells the story of their grandmother Betty. Nice! If you haven't heard The Bridal Train, you can find it on YouTube.

Our power meter is outside the house in a locked box. Western Power reads the meter every 45 days or so and at the last two meter reads the reader had difficulty unlocking the box. His/her master key wouldn't open the box. Fortunately, I was home on both occasions and was able to open the box with my key. If I was not home, Western Power would estimate the power usage based of previous bills. The large hardware chain, Bunnings, is a provider of these locks and I purchased one about 6 months ago, so I took it back explaining that only I could open the meter box. With a bit of argy bargy they eventually replaced my lock with a new one. Hope they don't give my old one to another customer.

At a recent gathering of friends we, being oldies, talked about times past. One topic was worn out shoes, something that doesn't seem to occur as much these days. All the males at the gathering could remember shoes with holes in the soles. Ralph told us that he often had holes in his shoes and could, when stepping on a sixpenny piece ( a 'zac'), tell whether the coin was heads or tails. Cardboard was a popular shoe life extender; not so comfortable when wet.

My brother has been single for many years and has long ago adjusted his food purchasing and cooking to suit one person. I am not at that stage yet. I tend to over buy and cook and end up with plastic containers in the freezer which I often end up dumping in my compost bin. I know I should divide meat portions etc and freeze them. I will try that soon.

Yesterday I went to John's nursing home to cut his hair. It was a bit difficult as he was asleep and didn't respond to requests to bend his head etc. I eventually got the job done...hair, ears and eyebrows. He looked good when I finished. Sad that he had no idea that I was there. His wife, Joy, has the same result most times she visits. If there was any saving grace in Joan's death, it was that she left us with sound mind with no need to be locked up in intensive care for years.

Easyfix computer glitch

2012-01-07T10:42:00.000+08:00

Helen and James invited me to their place for a few drinks and a meal last night. It is always nice to have them think of me. I don't want to wear out my welcome and fortunately it seems, to me at least, that I haven't done so yet. I think I am perceptive enough to recognise when, if or when, that stage is reached.

This morning I had an appointment to look at a printer I had supplied to a middle aged woman. I had previously set up a computer for her a couple of years ago and recently added a printer at the request of her welfare carer. She rang me a few days ago saying that the printer isn't working so I arranged a time to go and look at it. It was a simple fix.....the type I like. I found she had jammed far too many sheets of paper not in the loading slot, but between the slot and the paper support.

She told me that she is doing a computer course. I hope she has told the instructor she is using a Mac at home.

Goodbye Bohemia

2012-01-05T13:11:00.006+08:00

I am home waiting for a 'skip' or dumpster, depending on what breed of English you use. It is to get rid of four trees that have been giving me and my neighbours grief for a couple of years. The trees are Bohemia (Acacia cuspidifolia) coloquially called 'wait awhile tree', although I have never seen or heard them called anything but Bohemias.

They have largish leather-like leaves and skull damaging spear-like seed pods. The leaves take years to break down. It has phyllodes rather than true leaves

A couple of years ago Fiona our neighbour mentioned the leaf and seed problem but pleaded with me not to remove them. A couple of days ago she said the they had changed their mind and would like them 'trimmed'. Chainsaw Kev fixed that. The skip is a 6m3 one and I have been busy cutting branches into into smaller sizes hoping that it will fit in the bin. The neighbours will contribute to the cost of the skip and get rid of some their tree lopping if it fits in the skip.

For those who would give me grief for 'trimming' my trees I can offer...FREE; a box of seed pods so that you can grow your own Bohemia.

The skip has been delivered and Fiona and her young daughter Nikita helped load it with both my stuff and some of hers. All done and ready for collection. Thanks girls for your help.

6m3 Bin delivered

Will it all fit?

All done and ready for collection.

Fishy fare for the end of 2011

2012-01-01T16:46:00.009+08:00

'The Gang'; the usual suspects, or whatever we should be called, gathered at my place yesterday evening. There were seven of us....two had passed on and one is in care at a nursing home. I think we are all hoping to be around next NYE, but who knows? We raised our glasses to ourselves and those no longer able to attend.

Front..Wendy, Margaret Carole Rear... Kev, Dennis, Joy and Ralph

My prediction that there would be copy-cat car burnings didn't hold up....nothing reported. In Western Australia there were a couple of parties out of control, a few arrests, but no injuries. The cops were pretty pleased with things. Strike that, reverse it. There were six cars torched in a Sydney car park last night. I knew we could do it!

Helen and James are spending the long weekend with friends at Margaret River a pretty wine growing region. I must revisit Margarets myself soon. Martin, our son, rang today from Melbourne. He is feeling a little rough after NYE celebrations last night, but happy to be back on the payroll at Coles.

My new car has a fault which is intermittent. I cannot cause it to happen and so the dealer has said that it is perfectly OK. I hate being treated as an elderly idiot. One fellow when writing down the symptoms of the fault asked me a series of questions more suited to an 18 year old. Not only that but he was addressing me in a loud, can you hear me old fart, voice.

I had to stop him and inform him that I am not deaf and I have a wealth of experience with machinery and have even built two cars from scratch. That shut him up.

I will leave the car overnight with them and if they test drive it several times each day the symptoms should show up.

I didn't win the $31M lotto game last night. As Charlie in Willy Wonka said...'I just thought you would want to know that'.

New Year's Eve 2011/12

2011-12-31T11:06:00.000+08:00

New Year's Eve day; 2012! I never imagined that I would see this year. Having been born in 1939, when the nasties were booming us...(John Lennon) I cannot ever recall thinking that I would get old.

A few of us oldies are getting together at my place and we are buying in fish and chips. We will see the new year in Sydney time, which is three hours ahead of Western Australia. Then we can all have an easy night.

Samoa has just done away with Friday and jumped over the International Date Line and aligned itself with Australia and New Zealand to facilitate trade with us. There has been a lot of planning gone into this change. Some Samoans lost a birthday. I don't know what the government has set out for pay for a day not worked....too difficult for me. Just over a year ago, Samoa also changed the driving rules by switching from driving on the right to driving on the left because of the availability of cheap SH vehicles from Aus and NZ. Versus the expensive LH drive vehicles imported from the U.S. I'm guessing they have a blend of RH and LH drive cars causing a few problems. Bus drivers complained that the passenger doors would now be on the wrong side and alighting passengers would be in danger.

NYE is also the evening of the French national event of car burning. Last NYE there were 1137 cars burnt in mainly poorer areas of the country. That figure was 10 less than NYE 2009. Authorities instituted a news blackout. The number of torched cars will remain a secret. That, is to stop the “unhealthy competition” which supposedly eggs on the perpetrators to set fire to more and more cars each year. This story has broken just in time for a few local lads to do a copy cat job. I would not be surprised if tomorrow's news has, among the reports of brawls etc, news of a few cars being torched.

I hope that 2012 brings good health and peace to all my readers.

Carole in London

2011-12-28T18:46:00.006+08:00

Today I visited Carole's Blog. I had been very reluctant to go there as I knew there was going to be bad news. Carole lives in London and has rectal cancer which has developed into metastatic bone cancer. Carole followed Joan's journey and since Joan's death I have kept in touch with her. She has given me much support since Joan's death in February.

In her blog she tells of the prognosis she has been given. Her oncologist apologized for not being able to stop the cancer, which was very similar to Joan's story.

I am sorry that we don't live close to each other so I could drop by and have a few pleasant conversations, although I have not been good at keeping my emotions under control when confronted with such situations.

Carole is a brave lady and even though we have not met I know I will miss her dearly when her time comes. See her blog here.

Some time back I posted a couple of photos of Helen and James' dogs Ruby and Rosey. Since October when rosy was barely able to walk she has grown bigger than Ruby...not stronger, but slightly bigger. Here are a couple of then and now Pics.

Christmas day and Boxing Day

2011-12-27T14:10:00.002+08:00

The Christmas gathering at Helen and James' house went very well. In all, about 12 rellies attended and some I have not talked with or seen in over a year. Good conversation and excellent fare on the table.

On Boxing Day which is the day after Christmas Day, we drove up North of the River to cousin Val's place and had a brunch with Val, one of her sons, Mark and her daughter Ann and their kids. Mark cooked BBQ meats and we each brought some extras to share with everyone. I was 'Skipper' and was without drinks. Brother Graham made up for me though.

Boxing Day is a British tradition celebrated in Australia also. I am sure that the rest of the British Commonwealth celebrates Boxing Day in their own way, but I am pretty sure that it is relatively unknown in the U.S.. Someone will probably correct me on that score. It is not the day of the pugilists

The origins of Boxing Day are disputed, but this link seems the most likely explanation.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day

This morning I delivered a Mac computer and laser printer to a young Indian gal who is under the wing of MercyCare. She is studying and was quite thrilled to get it. I set it up and when I cranked it up, it found the WiFi and was immediately on the net. The suburb is Mirrabooka and looks pretty raggedy where she is renting. Wind the windows up and lock the doors when driving through there.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T21:58:00.002+08:00

So it is Christmas eve. Don't know what significance that brings. It certainly isn't a time for me to be Joyous.

Tomorrow I will collect my brother and drive him down to Helen and James' house for our Christmas Day luncheon. Of the assembled extended family attending, there is not one true Christian amongst us. We don't celebrate anything but the festive season and not think about the meaning of Christmas. I would venture to say that 90% of Australians are the same as us.

Today I had a 24 year old Jewish lad at my door who talked me into donating A$20 a month to the Australian Red Cross. He was a personable, likeable, young man with piercing grey eyes that I imagine would have spooked Germans in the 1930s. He is an Israeli here on a visitor's visa. I liked him.

OK; time for a Christmas story....

A cop pulls over a bloke on his way home from a staff Christmas party. He has him blow into a breathalyser and the result is not good.

' Sir, you are just over the legal limit' says the cop.

The driver asks for clemency.....'Mate it's Christmas, isn't here any compassion?'

The cop replies...'OK in the spirit of Christmas I'll give you a break. if you can find three things in your car relating to Christmas I'll let you off'.

The driver searches around and finds a Christmas card from work colleagues, then a present that he had bought his wife....in desperation he opens the glove box and produces a pair of panties.

The cop asks...'What have they to do with Christmas?. Our man replies...'They are Carol's'.

At last

2011-12-23T14:01:00.002+08:00

Martin has at last received the documentation showing his Australian citizenship and has already been to see his employer and is starting work this afternoon with the promise of more hours to make up for the six weeks of loss of wages. Relief for both of us!

I am still transferring cash to him and will give him a large lump of it for Xmas.

Whew, glad that is all over.

Xmas is just around the corner and it will be the first one in 46 years without my Joan.

The Locks in the 80s

Good news day

2011-12-22T17:11:00.005+08:00

Today has been OK. I went with daughter Helen and Ruby and Rosey to the local dog beach. We had about 40 minutes of socialising with other dogs and there wasn't even a bit of growling....amazing.

Helen dropped me off at home and I received a phone call to let me know that my new car was ready for collection..yippee! I handed the keys for my Sonata over and signed a few documents and the salesman took me into the adjacent showroom to see my car. It was covered with a blue car cover and a large notice in front of it bore my name. The wrap was removed and photos were taken of Kev with his new steed. After the usual lessons about setting up bluetooth etc I was out of there.

More good news when I got home, Martin our son in Melbourne had spent a few hours in at Immigration in Melbourne in the hope of finding what was happening on getting proof of his Australian citizenship. He eventually got to talk to a customer service rep and while he was with her she called Canberra and found out that the certificate of proof was officially completed yesterday and it should be in the mail tomorrow or at worst scenario on Monday. That takes the heat off both of us and he should be back at work within a couple of days. He will not be getting a lot of hours work per week, so I will still be subsidising him until his hours build up again.

Yesterday I was reading some of my wife's letters to her father when we were in Papua New Guinea and one of the letters was written just one month after Martin was born in Wewak, New Guinea in 1971. Joan made a footnote about Martin's nationality, or lack of it. I am sure she would have registered Martin as she was a very organised woman. The Immigration Department informed Martin recently that we did something about his citizenship in late November 1975 just prior to us returning to Australia permanently. It may well be that a certificate was posted to our last Papua New Guinea address and not forwarded on to us in Australia and all these 35 years since then Martin has been carrying on life here without any proof of his citizenship.

Click image to enbiggen.

Government bastardry

2011-12-20T20:26:00.000+08:00

Our son Martin still has not received his official recognition of Australian citizenship. There are only a couple of days before the Immigration Department takes their annual Christmas break of two+ weeks and I am betting that Martin's certification will be delayed until the new year. His employer, the national food chain, Coles Limited, is now putting pressure on him for a quick resolution of his situation, which of course is not his fault. My support is unconditional and I will continue to fund his forced unemployment. I am however, very unhappy with the bureaucratic nightmare that has cost me thousands of dollars and my son his self worth in what should have been a simple affirmation of his Australian citizenship. Damn the system!

I wish I knew of some person I could approach for a swift resolution to this farce.

Tim Minchin Vs Sydney Symphony

2011-12-18T07:09:00.005+08:00

Last night I watched a performance titled Tim Minchin Vs The Sydney Symphony.

Wonderful....irreverent....a bit rude and very professional. The audience loved it and so did I. Tim is a scary looking young man who writes all his own stuff and is a great pianist. His voice is also quite extraordinary in a strange way. Some time ago I decided that I would attend no more concerts, but after seeing this concert I will be looking out for a concert with Tim if he ever gets around to visiting W.A..

Here is Tim doing his best to stir up the believers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENNQ4ZUw4d0&feature=related

Earlier in the evening I drove Helen and James to a classy restaurant in Mt Lawley which is on the Northern side of Perth city. They were celebrating their first year of marriage. They were using a voucher which was a wedding present from my brother and sister. This isn't the first time they fronted up to this restaurant....they tried to use the voucher soon after they were married, but unfortunately left the voucher home and had to pay cash. Ouch! This time they checked out that the voucher was still valid and booked in again. They were told that there is a $100. fee if they don't turn up. Don't think I'll be going there! Restaurant report later.

Of pickled eggs and Taxation

2011-12-16T16:13:00.005+08:00

Our son, Martin is still waiting for official recognition of his Australian citizenship. He cannot work until he receives the paperwork and presents it to his employer. Meantime it is costing me lots of dollars maintaining him until he gets his job back. As he is still employed, though suspended without pay, he cannot claim unemployment benefits. Nothing turned up today, so at best, he can expect the documents on Monday and start work again during the week, but it is more likely that Immigration will take their time.

Today I helped Margaret get her washing machine going again by the Laying of Hands on it. As it turned out she had forgotten one small part of the water fill program. She thinks she is losing it, but it is really no different to me going out to my workshop and not remembering what I went there for.....or losing my keys, phone and wallet in the house...every day! Stay calm Marg.

I am making pickled eggs and pickled onions at the moment. Eggs are quite cheap and small pickling onions are dirt cheap. They should be ready for lunch on Christmas day.

This morning I delivered all the documents I could find to have my tax done by our accountant. The Public Trustee is doing Joan's tax as part of her estate. This is a first for me since Joan handled our tax over the last 45 years. She loved organising things...tax, travel documents & planning etc etc. At first glance the accountant felt that I had provided enough for him to get it done. No doubt he will call if I have forgotten something.

Pseudo greenie

2011-12-13T11:57:00.003+08:00

School officially finishes on Wednesday and Helen is school-less until probably the day before school recommences next year. She is not a permanent employee of the education department of W.A.. There are a few quite inconvenient ways of becoming permanent and I have mentioned them before, so Helen will either get a job at another school, hopefully close to home, or do part time teaching or relief teaching. The relief teaching is the best deal if she can get plenty of work. Relief teachers have no preparation, teacher/parent hassles and no marking or reporting. The pay is slightly better than full time teaching to compensate for the lack of paid holidays.

She is going to take me shopping for appropriate Xmas gifts. I am not good at choosing gifts and Helen is like her mother..artistic and resourceful.

This will be the first Xmas without Joan in 46 years.

I decided to be a part greenie and see if I could save some of the shower water for potplants. That is.... plants in pots rather than pot plants! I placed a large shallow plastic tray in the shower recess and had a relatively quick shower. When I had finished there were about 20 litres of water in the tray. A bit difficult to get it into a bucket and I am unsure how long I will persevere with this little project. Probably time to change the shower head to a water-saving one.

69th Sea Scouts

2011-12-12T08:29:00.005+08:00

Yesterday we, Margaret, Joy and I went to the South of Perth Yacht Club for an oldies reunion of 20 people who were either in or associated with the local Sea Scouts in the 1950s-60s. A couple of the people there I had not seen in some thirty years. I was nearly the youngest person there at age 72.

Unfortunately a couple of fellows were suffering from Alzheimers and I had to answer the same questions over and over again. On reflection, I am unsure if they were 'suffering'. They seemed bright enough and if there is any suffering, their wives are probably experiencing it more than them.

Two of the group were immigrants from Latvia and I remember them when they first joined the 69^th Fremantle Rover Crew in the 1950s. I was amazed that they spoke good English even if the Vs and Ws got a bit mixed up. They are not related and both of them are named Janis....one taking on the nickname of Jacky, probably to tell them apart. Jacky is the Honorary Consul for Latvia in Western Australia and the other Janis built a successful business in marine engineering. The venue was packed as there was also some 120 kids and parents there for their Xmas party and Santa's arrival on a vintage fire engine.

I always come away from such reunions a little dissatisfied that I did not get the opportunity to speak with everyone in attendance. Some of the group are determined to have regular meetings in the coming years.

My fly traps are working well and the prawn baits are proving most successful. Last night I made a couple of traps for Helen and James to put out in their garden. We are having Xmas at their place and flies are a worry at this time. More annoying than the Taliban!

Martin has had $60. taken from his bank account which is the fee for processing his immigration document. We are assuming that that means that they have accepted the application as correct. He is going to follow up on the application mid-week.

New Car

2011-12-10T13:50:00.002+08:00

I have been thinking of buying a new car for some time and yesterday I did it. I have not taken possession yet; it is still in the importer's yard and needs to be trucked down this way and detailed etc.

I was thinking of the Hyundai i45, but when all the extras I would want were added, it was going to be a little more than I wanted to pay. So, I went for the i45's little brother, the Elantra which @ $24,500 has all the fruit already on/in it. I will add a wireless reversing camera myself. I am losing the confidence to easily parallel park so will lean on a bit of technology. The new Elantra is quite different to its predecessor and is now much bigger with a better finish and safety features. The dealer talked me into trading my Sonata and gave me $6,000 for it.

Here it is, although mine is a rich red colour.

Martin's application in

2011-12-07T09:02:00.000+08:00

I have just had a phone call from Martin our son in Melbourne. He has lodged his application to get official evidence of his Australian citizenship. He was hoping to talk with an official at Immigration, but was advised that he would have to wait at least two hours to see someone.

If his application is all correctly filled out it will take four days to process and another two or more weeks to have a document issued.

Last night I had a bit of a downer thinking of my late wife, Joan. I had previously read a blog called 'Mum's Not Having Chemo'. It espouses all sorts of alternative treatments which have supposedly cured people with cancer. I got a bit cranky with the postings on the blog and shot off a comment. People who fervently believe in something are immovable from their position, however I felt I had to be the Devil's Advocate and balance all the previous comments which sided with the blog's author. Silly of me I know...however?

Immigration BS

2011-12-05T18:52:00.000+08:00

Definitely being pooed on from a great height.

I received Martin's photos this morning by Priority Post and attached them to the document 119 (Identity Declaration) and returned to the doctor who filled out the last form which was lost/stolen in Melbourne. His rooms are in Nedlands, some 25+ kilometres from my house. His receptionist filled in the details and he signed in the appropriate places. When I got home I noticed that she had put Martin's name in the space for the person who is making the Identification Declaration. Immigration will not accept any alteration of any kind on such documents, so I rang her and filled out a new form, pasted the photograph on and raced back to get him to sign again.

I posted the lot off to Martin by registered speed post (forgot what it is called) at a cost of $13.60. He should get it tomorrow and head off to Immigration and pay a $60 fee to get a piece of paper saying he is indeed an Aussie in 2-4 weeks. What a load of crap. If you live in Australia you may well see this story on Channel 7 pretty soon.

I have been shown a government report confirming that there are some 60,000+ illegals in Australia, and most of them British and North Americans who have decided to stay in Australia after their visitor visas have run out. I guess that most of them are working as illegals and being paid below award wages and not paying Australian income tax and our son who is an Australian citizen has to jump through hoops to get a piece of paper.

Martin has been in Australia since 1975, paid taxes, received unemployment benefits (lots), used medicare benefits, voted at elections and the dickheads still don't know he is an Australian. Bloody Hell!

Frequent fliers

2011-12-04T10:13:00.006+08:00

It is BBQ time which means it is also fly time here. Every year the flies get a head start on the dung beetles and it is at this time that fly traps are sold in stores. For some reason the old fashioned fly paper rolls are no longer available at the stores I visit. Not sure that they
were really good anyway.

I make my own fly traps from jars. I make a few largish holes in the top and mix up a brew that will attract flies. Yesterday I bought a commercial brew as well as making Kev's own...water with prawns. This morning they are doing equally well with flies queuing up like people at a good restaurant. I reckon in a few days I will have to empty the jars and start again.

There is an argument that all a fly trap does is welcome other people's flies. I don't care, as long as the pesky little buggers are more attracted to the traps than up my nose.

The Philosopher's Zone

2011-12-03T17:03:00.004+08:00

As I was driving today I listened to the ABC show The Philosopher's Zone.

I don't claim to be a philosopher, or even take a great interest in philosophy. I recall having to read Emmanuel Kant's 'Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals' and after fifteen or twenty pages stopped and tried to recall anything of significance my eyes and mind had passed over....zilch!

The reason I was listening to the program was that the alternative ABC stations were all broadcasting sport.

Anyway, the topic was 'The morality of Robo Wars', which discussed the changes taking place in warfare. In previous conflicts combatants went to war...travelled to the action and engaged the enemy with the very real chance of being killed.

With the advent of Robo Wars, using weapons such as Drones, the pilot drives to work to a bunker in Nevada, does the dirty on tanks, soldiers etc and at 5pm drives home and has dinner with the wife and kids. Something to philosophize about eh?

Bigger than Ben Hur

2011-12-02T08:00:00.001+08:00

Martin’s efforts to establish his Australian citizenship have been dealt another blow. Documents and identification photographs were posted from Western Australia by Priority Post on Monday afternoon. Priority Post guarantees to get them anywhere in Australia overnight.

Martin was waiting for the post to arrive at his address in Melbourne on Tuesday and Wednesday, but nothing turned up. He took the receipt code to the local post office and was informed that the envelope was delivered on Tuesday. Dead end!

He will have to start over and will certainly lose his job. If there is a supreme being, he/she is pooing on us from a great height.

Happy Birthday Lockie

2011-11-29T14:49:00.003+08:00

So this is it....72 years of age. I certainly don’t feel like I’m 72, although in the last year I have noticed that I am more likely to think carefully before climbing ladders etc.
When we were young......... about 1980

I have had birthday wishes from a number of people including quite a few ex-students; one, Sean, going back some 32(?) years. Sean is the only male ex-student to really keep in touch over those years...the rest are all gals and I am honored that they even think of me. Most of them were from Willetton Senior High School which was a most pleasant workplace for a teacher.

Helen is having me around to their house for dinner tonight and Martin rang from Melbourne to wish me the best. His problem establishing his Australian citizenship is still ongoing. Yesterday I went to a government department in Rockingham to collect documents and photographs and deliver them to his doctor in another part of the city. I purchased a Priority Post envelope and as soon as the doc filled out the documents etc he was to post them to Martin. Martin then will present them to Immigration in Melbourne and hope that Immigration will be able to give him an interim document stating that he is indeed a citizen and documents are soon the be provided. That would allow him to recommence work and take a little strain off my bank balance. Good if they could do that, but I don’t believe that a simple solution is what bureaucracy is about.

I thought I should buy myself a little birthday present, so went to a local Apple retailer this morning and bought a 27” iMac with all the fruit. This is definitely not me, to drive to a store and spend big on such an item. The whole deal took about 12 minutes....wish I could buy clothes with such ease.

Blog Sub Editor

2011-11-28T07:53:00.001+08:00

My friend Graham in Sydney is my (self appointed) Sub Editor for the blog.

As he informed me yesterday, my maths is still pretty bad.

I am blessed or cursed, it depends on how you view it, with an ability to remember dates. I often wake and think of the date and then birthdays or other events that occurred on that day come to mind. On Friday (25th) I remembered that it was the 64th birthday of a friend I had in high school and have seen only once since. I remember when I learnt his birthdate, I immediately connected it with my own, exactly three weeks earlier. I suppose connections are a good memory jog. I also planned, with a friend a couple of weeks ago, to go on a bike ride in Wollongong on Tuesday 29th and immediately the fact that the 29th will be your birthday came to mind. So, on Friday, after thinking of my high school friend's birthdate, I then thought that it was the date of Joan's death in February. Then I saw your blog post about the same thing, but it is my melancholy duty to point out to you that your maths is still pretty bad, as it is 9 not 10 months ago.

Today is Helen’s birthday. I will buy a nice card and select a present. Yesterday James and Helen visited and took away some gear that Helen had been storing in Joan’s storeroom. Over the school holidays I will move the rest of Helen’s stuff across to their place. They have plenty of storage space there. I will turn that area into a home gym and try and get this near 72 body back into reasonable working condition.

At times I am lonely

2011-11-26T09:24:00.007+08:00

Yesterday was 10 months since my Joan passed away. I miss her dearly.....not as she was at the time of her death, but as the talented, intelligent, wonderful companion she was to me over 45 years of our marriage.
I am, at times, lonely and it is well that I have what seems to be a never-ending project of refurbishing computers to give to needy people. I suppose that if the supply of computers dries up....and I cannot image that happening, I would find some other project to keep me busy.
Computers ready to go now stored in my workshop
Sitting and dining room sans computers, printers, keyboards, printers and cables.

I have no desire to look for another partner. I can cook, clean and do household maintenance. One thing I cannot do is sew. My daughter has three of Joan’s machines and will be my personal tailor when I get around to buying new trousers.

The Public Trustee still hasn’t completed Joan’s probate and I am unsure when it will be completed. I think a solicitor as the executor would have done the job much quicker.

Bureaucratic BS

2011-11-25T14:09:00.003+08:00

My birthday celebration is officially next Tuesday, however a group of friends decided that yesterday was the most convenient time to take me to lunch. We met at ‘The Joy Kitchen’ which is an excellent Chinese restaurant in Fremantle. The food and service were great and I highly recommend it to any visitors to Freo. Thanks guys!

Martin, our son is still in limbo land without proof that he is an Australian. Australian Immigration have told him that he IS an Australian as we did something about that in November 1975 just prior to returning to Australia permanently from Papua New Guinea. I cannot recall what that something was and as my Joan was my memory back-up, I cannot ask her if she remembers what in fact we did way back then. So, because he has no documents, he is having to go through the whole process again to be officially recognised as an Australian citizen. A request to Immigration for an interim document to give to his employer doesn’t seem like a bureaucratic possibility.

The unit we own which Martin lived in has been let to a young couple with a 9 month old baby. Hope they can put up with the feral neighbors.

Enough of words....let's look at some fine art.
Click to enlarge.

slowly slowly catchy monkee

2011-11-22T15:46:00.005+08:00

Our son Martin is still working his way through becoming an Australian citizen. He has to apply for citizenship after spending the last 35 years here, being a regular at the dole office and getting his share of medicare. Neither of these agencies worried about asking whether he was a citizen of this fair country and now he has to jump through all sorts of hoops to get a piece of paper which will give him the benefits he has enjoyed over three decades. It should all be done in about three weeks, meantime, he will probably lose his job. Centrelink is going all out to help him, but government works very slowly. His employer, Coles Pty Ltd is reluctant to give him work until he can show the bit of paper as there is a $66,000 fine for employing each illegal immigrant.
I also had a lot of good information from the office of the Federal Member for Fremantle, Melissa Parke. One of her staffers spent considerable time talking to and emailing Canberra and mapped out the best route to take on the citizenship trail. Must drop him off a nice bottle of bubbly.

I had a visit with ‘my’ nephrologist yesterday and the latest results of my Proteinuria were surprisingly good....no protein ‘leaking’ from my kidneys. In a period of three years it has gone down from significant leakage to none after this test. Proteinuria (excessive amounts of protein in the urine) is an indicator of chronic kidney disease, so that is pretty good news for me. Must be due to my medication...crisp white wine.

To be or not to be..an Australian

2011-11-19T13:54:00.002+08:00

This morning I had a phone call from our son Martin who is working in Melbourne.

Well; he was working, but his employer, Coles has suspended him without pay whilst the Australian Immigration Department investigates him as a possible illegal immigrant. There are an estimated 80,000 illegal immigrants in Australia...mostly people who have over-staid their visitor visas.

Martin is being investigated because when he applied for this job, he had to present a birth certificate. Martin’s birth certificate states that he was born in 1971 in Wewak, Papua New Guinea. At the end of 1971 we, Kevin, Joan, Helen and Martin went on leave to Australia. So that we would be allowed to return to PNG we each had to have a re-entry permit. When it came to Martin’s permit we had to declare him to be an Australian......no documents, just a statement that he is an Australian. He has been in Australia since 1975.

The way governments work, this could take months to solve.

U.S. Government fined for littering

2011-11-16T15:23:00.002+08:00

Here is a grab from today's 'The Writer's Almanac' which tells a story about Skylab and its eventual demise, crashing into Western Australia near where my sister lives in Esperance.

On this date in 1973, NASA launched the fourth and final Skylab mission. NASA's goal for the project was to find out if it was possible for humans to live and work in space for extended periods of time. The station itself was launched on May 14, 1973, and there were four missions with three crews; the first mission was unmanned and involved the launch of the station by a Saturn V rocket. The first crew spent 28 days aboard Skylab; the second, 59 days. The third and final crew, launched on this date, spent 89 days in space, a record that stood for more than 20 years. Skylab served as a solar observatory, a microgravity lab, a medical lab, and an Earth-observing facility. Astronauts on the fourth mission also observed Comet Kohoutek, which was passing near Earth at that time. NASA was also interested in whether quality of life could be maintained in a space station; the astronauts had two hours' free time every evening, during which they could play cards or darts, read, or listen to music. Skylab 4 commander Gerald Carr said, "The most fun was looking out the window."

NASA had originally planned for Skylab to continue orbiting for up to 10 more years while the Space Shuttle was being developed, but unexpectedly high solar activity — which heated the Earth's atmosphere and created excessive drag on the space station — caused Skylab to malfunction in 1977, and it eventually fell back to Earth in 1979. Pieces of it fell in the Shire of Esperance, near Perth in southwestern Australia; the Shire fined the United States 400 Australian dollars for littering. The fine remained unpaid for 30 years, until a radio host named Scott Barley raised the funds from his morning show listeners.

The Writer's Almanac is quite wonderful, arrives daily and costs nothing. Worth subscribing to!

Afghanistan

2011-11-15T08:07:00.007+08:00

My electricity bill arrived in the mail yesterday. At last, evidence that the solar panel array is paying off. The billing period is over 57/58 days and a comparison with the last bill shows a considerable drop....$59.60 down to $15.50.

Several young Australian soldiers have been killed by ‘rogue’ Afghan troops over a few weeks. Many calls have been made to bring ‘our boys’ home and leave the Afghans fight their own war. I think that most Australians think that these 'rogue’ soldiers are actually Taliban, but there are, in my mind, a few more likely reasons for these sudden attacks.

Allied troops in Afghanistan live in well protected bases, have reasonably comfortable accommodation, entertainment and communications with family back home. They are well paid for their; in the case of Australian troops, eight month tour of duty.

Meanwhile the Afghan troops live outside the security of allied bases, are poorly paid and mostly despised by the population for working with the invaders.

Australian soldiers involved in the training of Afghan recruits may well insult the Afghans in the training regime. In Vietnam there were many insulting names for the Vietnamese allies...almost certainly there will be a few for Afghan soldiers.

Add to this the pressure some families of Afghan recruits would be receiving from Taliban agents. A no-win situation!

What is needed is an honorable way of withdrawing all foreign troops.....perhaps a call from Hamid Karzai for all foreigners to leave now.

dialup modem

2011-11-13T18:47:00.006+08:00

Busy few days! I have been helping a friend of my cousin Val try and sort out a connection problem with her laptop. She is using what can be called old technology...an inbuilt dialup modem. For those who can remember here are the dulcet tones of a dialup modem attempting to connect.

It has given me a headache and I am glad to admit failure and let someone else have a go at it.

This afternoon cousin Val took me to Mark and Bernie's place and we had a good ‘catch up’ and feed of Queensland Mud Crabs. Mark is Val’s number two son and I have always enjoyed his company even when he was a cheeky youngun. He gave me a ‘muddy’ and some fish to bring home.

This morning, early, I bottled a brew of stout. I will try it in about three weeks.

On the way back from Mark and Bernie's place north of the river I stopped off at the nearest supermarket to here. There was a bit of a barney in progress at the checkout . A scruffy bloke had eaten some produce and of course didn’t want to pay for it. The store manager told him he was on camera which only served to make him a bit cranky. I don’t think I have heard so many swear words as in the few minutes I listened in. Most of the other customers weren’t fazed by all this as it is a not an uncommon event. He threatened the manager and the security guy and next thing I saw them frog marching him to the rear of the store and shove him somewhere secure awaiting the cops. He was suddenly quiet and I did think that maybe they had pushed him into a coolroom. As he was escorted past me he informed me that I was a F****** Dickhead. I’m sure I’m not.

There's Wind in the Willows

2011-11-09T11:02:00.003+08:00

Several people have suggested that I head out and buy the cruiser I mentioned in my last post.

My good friend Dennis emailed me...........

And Dennis (Badger) is correct. I read all the adverts for moorings around Fremantle and there were none within 12 miles which is far too distant for the sort of attention a moored boat needs. Another consideration is, any passengers need to board from a landing at suitable height which would be reasonably close to the mooring....all my friends are getting ancient and are not going to jump down or climb up into a boat.

When we went and looked at the boat, we didn’t even get on board, let alone take it for a run. I must be cautious here as I have had boats in the past that have sat on a mooring for months without being used. I do recall the maintenance on a wooden craft and the annual hard-stand, refit and paint at not inconsiderable cost and effort.

A great idea but at almost 72 years, I think I will sit the boat licence and hire a boat if I have an occasion to take a party on a run up the Swan River.

To buy or not to buy...that is the question

2011-11-07T20:45:00.005+08:00

On Sunday, brother Graham and I drove to East Perth to look at a boat advertised for sale. It was around 35’ and well appointed with a rebuilt Perkins Turbo Diesel engine, a ‘stateroom’ with double bed, shower, toilet and basin...new wiring throughout, a water purification system, plenty of party space and a flybridge as well as undercover controls.. all for A$19,500. Unfortunately it didn’t come with a mooring, which in a location I would want, could cost as much as the boat. An alternative would be to get a pen @ around $5k a year.

We have had several boats similar to this in the past. One was the ugliest boat on the Swan River and I renamed it ‘Vile Body’ after Capn Bluto’s. Ugly as it was it gave us lots of pleasure with family and friends doing evening cruises. Joan loved it and she catered for lots of cruises with friends.

The last boat I owned was a ‘stink boat’ a fast outboard powered cruiser and I found I wasn’t using it because it was designed for only a couple of people, so we sold it.

I was going to buy another boat when the Western Australian government brought in boat handling licences. That is when I decided to give up boating because the licencing deal was a farce. If I did the licencing test in a 6 foot dinghy with a 5hp outboard,and passed, then I had a licence to drive a $1m block of flats down the river and out to sea.....ridiculous!

Take a look at this boat....a little rough in spots, but a great party or Rottnest Island boat. The money is not the problem here...it is that I will be without my Joan if I did buy it. Not much fun in that.

Notice the Mallard near the stern of the boat. The stern is the blunt end.

Blogger has updated the format of this blog and I believe it is a stupid update. If you click on the photo to see it in full size, then use the 'back button' to get back to the text it now takes you to the previous page. Dumb! Correction.....Bernie in Canada pointed out that the X button in the photo frame returns you to the text. My apologies to Blogger.

Beers and cheers

2011-11-06T13:57:00.005+08:00

Over the years I have made plenty of homebrew beer and stout....most of it tasted like homebrewed dishwater, but of late I have had some real success. At the moment I am brewing a Coopers’ stout and I should be able to bottle it in about a week.

The very first brew my mate Dennis and I made, was a disaster. When we bought the can of malt we didn’t read the label properly and the can was Malt (and Cod Liver Oil). Back then it was illegal to brew at home and the malt was, if I remember correctly, bought at a pharmacy.
The brew kit I have has a screw lid with a port for a manometer and I have always had trouble making a good seal and the manometer has not been able to do its job properly. Ideally, when the brew is fermenting, the gas escapes through the water in the manometer indicating fermentation is still occurring. I replaced the lid and manometer with clingwrap tied down with elastic bands and the gas escapes through a pinhole in the clingwrap...simple.

Cheers!

'Strike that..reverse it'

2011-11-05T09:04:00.002+08:00

Yesterday's post showed two photos...one of our wedding in '66 and one supposedly 40 years later. Our daughter Helen told me that the second photo wasn't taken just 5 years ago and that made me look closely at it. Same people gathered at some venue but it certainly isn't just 5 years ago. We all looked quite a bit younger in that pic and I had to agree with Helen. I was wearing a shirt which I cannot recall having and as I usually keep clothing for more that 5 years this is a much older photo...probably taken at a 30 year reunion.

So here is the photo taken in January 2006.

Padded post

2011-11-04T16:33:00.008+08:00

I am a bit busy (read lazy) today so I will pad this post out with a couple of photos and some clever artwork.

The first picture is of our wedding on January 7th, 1966 with Joan's sister Dorothy and my Best Man, Dennis. The second is of the four of us 40 years later...just 5 years before my Joan died. I am not ashamed that I tear-up when looking at past good times and I am not wallowing in grief.
and for the philosophers.......

a good sales day

2011-11-03T20:11:00.001+08:00

I decided to get rid of a bit of obsolete photography gear. It isn’t completely obsolete...some people who resist the shift to digital photography are still hanging on to their old gear and like the bloke who bought my gear today, some like to do a dig/analogue mix. Anyway, he rang early this morning and raced across from Armadale and took the lot....a Nikon SLR with dedicated flash and two lenses as well as a studio flash with a flash meter all for $175 and a lot of photography talk.

I also advertised Helen’s car and a woman is coming to look at it around 5.30pm. It should sell @ $2,000.

About a week ago I mentioned the spring plague of aphids on our roses. I sprayed them with water and knocked them all off the tender new rose shoots, but next day they were back again, the little suckers. After a couple of days of this, I observed them climbing back up the rose bushes to suck some more. I decided to hit them with a fly spray. Did the job.

Stop press! I sold Helen’s Mazda. A young woman from Rockingham came to test drive it with a mechanical-type friend and they returned saying...’We love it!’ As we were filling out the transfer documents she said will you accept an offer of $1800? What do you say to someone who wants to buy what you are selling with such enthusiasm? I replied...’ you should have come into my house after test driving the car presenting a negative attitude and showing a worried look...but I see you are hooked and want it now, so sorry two grand or no deal.’ She bought it and I am confident she got a good deal. I told her all the minor problems the car had and I know I would not be a successful used car dealer.

The agent looking after my unit down at Orelia rang to tell me that the young lady who looked like the best client for tenancy had a reference from her previous unit saying that she was a great tenant. The agent has at her disposal, information about tenancies and it turns out that the good reference was penned by a relative. The agent suggested that I reject that application. Another ‘Home Open’ is tomorrow and I should get a tenant in soon.

Globalisation on a not-so-grand scale

2011-10-30T08:37:00.003+08:00

Yesterday when I did a ‘small shop’ I bought a few hash browns from the supermarket deli. They were labelled ‘Made in USA’. Unbelievable! They cost 40c each and had travelled all the way from the U.S. to my local supermarket in Western Australia, which is a long way from the U.S..
Were they much cheaper from the U.S., or don’t we know how to make potato patties?

Well CHOGM has finished, the Queen and her hubby have departed. Prince Philip famous for his gaffes, didn’t disappoint this time. At a garden party at Government House he commented on a group of High School students who were the Head Boys and Girls of their schools saying...’It’s obvious they didn’t choose the attractive ones then’. Bye Phil!

During CHOGM the state and federal governments maintained a high level of security in Perth. This caused some anger amongst quite a few local folk, but I reckon the last thing sleepy Perth needs is world headlines about the Queen or indeed one or more of the Commonwealth leaders getting bumped off. Similarly planned street protests were curtailed somewhat and as a result no damage done. As an observer from afar of such street protests, they have the real potential to escalate to riots and major damage and looting. All quiet on the Western Front!

Alternative medicines

2011-10-26T09:13:00.003+08:00

Yesterday I planted a Mango tree in the front yard of our house. Along the lines of ‘At my age I don’t even buy green bananas’, I figured I would not be around to see it fruit. Mango trees look quite nice and I thought I would plant it as a legacy to whoever eventually buys this property.
Grow large very quickly little Mango.

A few days ago the local daily newspaper had a story about a woman who is suffering from cancer and has shunned chemotherapy and embarked on alternative cures. These include Ozone and Vitamin C therapy, Oxygen therapy.....via oral or intravenous hydrogen peroxide.

On her daughter’s blog are a number of alternative treatments which could seem plausible to the very desperate.

‘Some of the most renowned alternative cancer treatment centres in the world won’t accept patients unless they’ve:

A: Completed a course in Transcendental Meditation

B: Given up sugar and dairy for at least four months

C: Had their amalgam fillings and root canals removed

The answer, which might come as a surprise to many, is C’.

It would seem that ‘dead’ teeth, as in root canals, are causing cancer,sinusitis, MS, arthritis and eye disease; and probably in-grown toenails. The removal of the ‘dead' teeth results in an immediate cure.

There is a video with the rider that ‘this is the information that the Pharmaceutical Industry doesn’t want you to see’

My Joan went down the chemo and radiation path. The failure of the treatments was simply that she was at stage 4 and more time was all we expected of the treatment.

If you wish to read about Mum not having chemo blog, find it here.

Never too late??

2011-10-23T10:14:00.005+08:00

I received this email below today.....just a little too late I would have thought.

Have you ever wondered why a dictator would give himself a lowly rank of colonel when he could have; like Idi Amin, bestowed upon himself all the known titles in English and probably a few in Arabic.

Of guns, wars and armies

2011-10-22T09:26:00.004+08:00

Gadaffi is dead and I suspect, also a few innocent bystanders killed by bullets falling from the skies. The middle-east custom of firing into the air in celebration must make munitions manufacturers very happy. About falling bullets.

Now that Libya is now ‘free’, is the new government going to try and collect all those weapons?

A nice quote from an anonymous source...’Neither Smith nor Wesson is known to prompt mental acuity in those they are pointed at’.

Guns in private ownership in Western Australia are closely controlled and must be locked up in steel gun safes. In recent times there have been a few violent home invasions with the gun safe the main target. Is it possible that some clerk in the Police Firearm Licensing department is selling information about the address and type of firearms stored there?

Of guns, wars and armies, I am always amused how, throughout history, each side, the goodies and the baddies, have sought the blessing of God in battles and if victorious, thank Him for his blessing and assistance.

Carole

2011-10-20T22:25:00.002+08:00

I have a friend in the UK who I have never met or even talked to....maybe it is time to Skype her? She is a fellow traveller with my Joan on the cancer trail. Throughout Joan’s trial, she, along with Bernie in Canada, gave us encouragement and hope for a good outcome of Joan’s treatment for cancer. Unfortunately my dear wife passed away in February this year.

Carole has had a relapse with a scan showing metastasizes to her bones from her cancer. Thousands of humans die each day, but I am emotionally linked to Carole.

We may well be socially incompatible. We might not like each other should we meet, but this bastard disease has linked us as friends on the journey of life. I am not a ‘huggy’ person, but I wish I could give her a comforting hug right now.
Here is a link to Carole's blog

Kamikazi Pilot

2011-10-18T13:21:00.002+08:00

On Saturday when we went to the airshow we were standing near a barrier when an old Asian fellow struck up a conversation. He told us that he was in the Japanese Airforce during WW2. I looked at him and asked if he was not indeed Chinese, to which he replied that he was born in Japan pre-war and grew up in Japan. Unbelievable, but he introduced himself to us as ‘Chow Mein’. Oh yeah?

I asked him what unit he was in and he replied that he was in a Kamikazi unit and the rest of his unit wiped themselves out on allied ships in the Pacific. I hesitated, but went on to ask him how he survived.

He replied....my name is really Chicken Chow Mein!

Langley Park Fly-In

2011-10-16T07:29:00.016+08:00

This weekend, Langley Park which is on the foreshore of the Swan River and very close to the Perth CBD was host to a ‘Fly In’ of over 100 planes on the grass strip which was Perth’s original airstrip back in the 1920s. Langley Park is used for many events throughout the year and I am always impressed how the park grass recovers after car rallies, circuses etc. I believe that Langley Park is unique in as much it is the only place in the world where aircraft fly from a grass airstrip in the heart of a city.

I took lots of photos but will only post a few here. Aircraft buffs will recognise most of the planes I have posted. There is a 1917 vintage Sopwith Pup in the lineup.

Of crisps and aphids

2011-10-15T09:35:00.004+08:00

I visited brother Graham, had a couple of beers and sampled some of the ‘New’ vegemite flavoured Smith’s Crisps. Very nice subtle flavour even if you don’t much like vegemite. Americans, generally, don’t like vegemite, but then, they think that Dr Pepper’s is actually drinkable....cough syrup if you ask me! Interesting history of Smiths Crisps here.
Our roses; they are still also Joan’s roses, are suffering with the spring infestations of aphids. It is not a biggy, they are easily washed off with a hose. I have to look after the roses as Joan in her last couple of weeks told Helen to watch that I don’t get rid of them. A couple have died without any malice on my part. I will replace them soon. There is a space in the front garden and over the weekend I will look for a mango tree. There are lots of mango trees around here and they bear well. Helen and James have a large mango which earlier this year had lots of large mangoes at the time they were inspecting the house prior to buying it.

To sell or not to sell

2011-10-14T07:26:00.007+08:00

Yesterday I went down to the unit to do some final touch-ups. It turned into one of Kev’s mess-ups instead. I found that one of the light bulbs had died and decided to go to the local shopping centre and buy a new one. Once outside I found I had locked the house keys inside. Damn, I would have to return home and hope to find the spare set of keys. Problem #2: the remote for the security gate was also in the unit. Hmn. I walked past other units until I found someone home and fortunately they had a remote and I was able to get out and head home. When I returned, I realised that now I was locked out. Fortunately I was able to raise the same person with a bit of yelling and after getting into the unit I felt a bit less embarrassed. Are regular readers seeing a pattern here?

Later I went to see an estate agent about either selling or renting. It seems that selling is not an option at the moment as they have a number of units on the books and sold only one in the last year, so renting is probably how I will go. My cousin Ted suggested that I advertise the unit for sale and throw in Helen’s car as a sweetener. The car is good, but is worth only about $1500 on the market. Might work! Don’t know if I can be bothered with the selling bit though. A few pics of the unit...put your hand up if you want to buy it.

Not a good look!

2011-10-11T15:54:00.005+08:00

I have been very busy at the Orelia unit. Today I returned to look at the paint job we thought we had finished on Saturday.....there were a few ‘holidays’ and I had to re-coat the ceilings again today. It is just about ready to either sell or rent out. I haven’t heard from our settlement agent about progress in transferring the titles over to me rather than the joint names of Joan and Kevin. Can’t sell until it is in my name.

There is so much junk around that it is not a good look for prospective buyers. Next to our car bay there is a car wreck and next to that a large piece of dumped furniture. The rubbish bins are not brought in from curbside and they remain there for the entire week...again not a good look.

Joan’s rose bush is looking good. She always loved roses and now, as she wished, is a good companion of a nice one.

Martin rang this afternoon. He has been successful in his job search in Melbourne. He has won two jobs and has another interview on Monday next for the job he originally went to Melbourne for. My bank balance should stabilize soon...I hope.

Snake oil

2011-10-07T10:56:00.001+08:00

The Australian Pharmacy Guild has pulled out of a deal with Blackmores ‘health’ food supplement range of vitamins etc.

The way it was to work was that when a Pharmacist filled a prescription he/she would recommend a ‘companion’ Blackmores product. Snake oil salesmen!

There was so much bad publicity that the deal fell through and folks will still have to rely on the very sincere recommendations of faded sports stars to get their life saving/improving tablets.

Our son Martin who is in Melbourne is giving my cash transfer system a workout. Hopefully he will soon gain employment and be less of a worry for me. Our unit at Orelia where Martin lived for some years is almost ready for sale or rent. Saturday, Helen and James are going with me down to Orelia to paint a couple of bedroom ceilings. I am also going to replace the washing machine I removed when I thought I was going to sell. There are two other units in the same block which have been for sale for some time, so it may well remain with me as a rental property. If Martin returns to W.A. I would not expect him to want to return to that unit. The tenants in neighboring units are feral.

Young Blue Eyes

2011-10-03T13:50:00.004+08:00

Helen and James' new puppy is an American Staffy whilst Ruby is an English Staffy. They have decided to name the new pup Rosey. It has blue eyes and I am told, in this breed, the eye colour is closely related to the coat colour. Rosey will be about twice the size of Ruby in about 12-18 months and she may remember Ruby being a bit bossy when she was young.

My daughter Helen

2011-10-02T18:51:00.002+08:00

I am truly grateful that my daughter Helen has followed on from her mother, my Joan, and become the chef extraordinaire and presents wonderful meals of which I am not capable of making....and don’t feel the need to cook.

This afternoon she served up lamb kofta meat balls and a Turkish dish, Gozleme.

Usually I am not into this sort of food, but today has changed my mind set and I am up for anything Helen serves up. It is always delightful!

There was also a bit of wine and I am ready for bed at 6.35pm.

They...Helen and James, have a new (second) dog; a puppy. Whilst there isn’t too much jealousy, Ruby, their first dog, is feeling a bit left out. Should be interesting in the future because the new puppy of eight weeks is going to grow to about twice Ruby’s size.

They were searching for a name for the new dog and I suggested a Papuan name ‘Sisia’ which is Motuan for dog...they liked it.

More road trip stuff

2011-09-27T09:41:00.010+08:00

En route to Esperance last Monday we stopped over for a look at the Wagin Historical Village which has the usual exhibits of tractors, machinery, schoolrooms and other shops of old. It is unfortunate that Wagin doesn’t get many tourists and the only person in the ‘Village’ was an elderly volunteer collecting the entry fee. In other more visited touristy places we have visited in various parts of the world each point of interest was ‘manned’ and an interesting story was told.

This is a pic of an Australian invention in the machinery shed. It is a mobile circular saw...the blade covered by a bicycle tyre. It was used for land clearing and was, as it looks, quite dangerous. The blade could be turned to horizontal for lopping trees or vertical for cutting firewood etc. There were reports of the blade digging in and chasing the operator around in a big circle. My uncle had one...for how long I don’t recall.
Another exhibit was a steam stationary engine which, when I was a young fella, was in a house yard at the next farm to my grandparents’ farm. I don’t know why country museums have to paint exhibits in gaudy colours?
Further down towards Esperance is the town of Ravensthorpe. Through the town is a long hill of a 10% gradient and large ore bearing road trains have great difficulty getting over the hill some needing a pull by a tractor.
It is rare that Kev gets a break, but I have been pleased by the assistance the carpet company which laid the carpet at our unit is offering. A couple of days after the man laid the carpet I saw a small mark on the carpet. I dampened a clean cloth and gave the spot a gentle rub....it dried worse. I was not sure whether the layer had dropped some glue and wiped it off or I had brought in some dirt on a shoe. I went to the company seeking information on what I should use to try and remove the stain. To my surprise they told me they would send down their fixit man to take care of it either by cleaning it or replacing that piece of carpet. Unbelievable!

Esperance, Western Australia

2011-09-24T09:07:00.005+08:00

This week, early on Monday morning, brother Graham and I started off on a drive to Esperance on the South coast of Western Australia where our sister lives. Esperance is around 720 kilometres from Perth and takes about 8 hours driving at the speed limit of 120kph with a couple of breaks. We decided to overnight at Lake King.
There is a lake at Lake King, albeit dry. There is also a motel....and that is about it!
Neither of us slept well...Graham suffers from heat and I suffer from the cold. He spent the night throwing off the doona and I spent the night wrapped up to keep warm.
We arrived in Esperance and moved into separate rooms at sister Shirley’s house.

This was not just a social visit, but I had brought with me a couple of computers to replace a previous machine which had died. I managed, after a lot of mucking around and talking with a help desk in the Phillipines, to get a connection and set up a freeby email client; Yahoo Mail. The Skype camera she had bought was not compatible with Macs, so I have suggested she sell it locally and once she has become familiar with using Skype, then buy a camera which is Mac compatible. Not sure that this will eventuate as Shirl is a bit timid when it comes to computers.

Esperance has a population of about 15,000 and magnificent beaches and outlying islands. Being so far south I imagine the water would be too cold for Kev. About 15 kilometers out of town is a large wind farm of about 15 turbines. It supplies about 22% of Esperance’s power consumption. Esperance has plenty of wind and most of the surrounding farms have large New Zealand style windrows of gum trees to break up the howling winds.

On Wednesday evening we dined out at a nice restaurant with the rest of Shirl’s family; Karen, her lovely daughter and the grandkids. A nice meal and good to catch up with them after so long. I don’t think I will visit Esperance again unless there is a funeral to attend....more like they will attend mine.

We did the drive back in 8 hours with us driving 200 kilomters each and making a couple of food stops. Graham’s new Volkswagen Passat was a pleasure to drive and when overtaking road trains went like a ‘shower of s***’. First time I have driven a turbocharged car and I was suitably impressed. The Passat has lots of interesting technological tricks, but is a bit bossy....it won’t let you do anything until the driver’s seatbelt is attached. Not sure how that is overcome in those states of the U.S. where the civil liberties of the citizenry allow them to drive without a seatbelt??

Nice to be home in familiar surrounds and with my own comfortable bed!

Yesterday I drove to the young Cambodian mum’s new retreat and replaced a MacBook laptop with Joan’s PC laptop. After giving her the Macbook a week ago she went out and bought a PC modem and Skype camera. It was easier to give Joan’s PC that trying to return and change the camera and modem. She is a lovely young lady and her joy at being helped is ample reward for me.

Phnom Penh

2011-09-18T07:30:00.005+08:00

A couple of weeks ago I gave a Mac laptop to a young Cambodian woman who was being looked after by a welfare agency. She was in secure housing as she had suffered badly from beatings by her husband. Since then she has been moved to another unit. She wanted to use the laptop to Skype her mother in Phnom Penh. I gave her a few quick lessons on the Mac OS and she was delighted that she would soon be talking to mum.

Unfortunately she purchased a USB modem which needed a later version of the Mac OS which that computer will not run. Also she purchased a webcam which has only a PC driver. I have loaded the higher OS onto another Mac, but have decided to give her Joan's PC laptop as her support person is a PC guy and he can do the hard yards setting it all up. Joan had that PC laptop to run one of her embroidery machines, but switched to a Mac laptop using an emulation program to run PC programs named Parallels.

Things like this have suddenly put me under a bit of pressure I don't need at this stage. Joan's estate probate is still dragging out and I have no idea when it will be settled and to be perfectly honest I don't quite understand how it all works. One thing I am certain of, is that If I had gone first, things would be well and truly under control with Joan at the helm.

Not easy

2011-09-16T16:04:00.002+08:00

I have finished refurbishing the unit our son Martin was living in and on Sunday a young couple are going to take a look at it with the probability of purchasing it. Hope they do as it will save about six thousand dollars in agent's fees.

The transfer of the title from our joint ownership to me is not as easy as I though it would be. Joan's probate needs to be finalised and those documents forwarded to the settlement agent so she can apply to have the title re-issued in my name. Same goes for our residence.

As George Bernard Shaw once said....... 'Life isn't meant to be easy'.

Volkswagen

2011-09-14T00:29:00.001+08:00

I have just watched a TV movie ‘Fateless’. It is a Hungarian production of a most horrific event of WW2, the incarceration of European Jews

and the treatment of those who were not immediately consigned to the gas chambers. It is in black and white and to me, most emotional.

In my youth I owned a Volkswagen car. It worked well..much like the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Later when I read more about the WW2 I made a conscious decision not to buy a German product. We have been to Germany and in the cities we visited there was always a Holocaust Museum….but I am still not sure that the older generation still don’t think the Juden brought it on themselves.

So ist es auf die welt.

Carpet goes down at last

2011-09-13T10:40:00.003+08:00

I spent the last couple of days filling numerous gaps in old vinyl floor tiles in preparation for carpet laying today. I had an early phone call from the carpet place telling me that the layer man was waiting outside the units at Orelia and I had to race down to let him in. My mobile phone had the sound turned off and I missed the call to tell me he was on his way.

He wasn't fazed and he is laying the carpet now. I just hope I haven't miscalculated the floor area and we are short of carpet. I will return to Orelia in about an hour to open the gate to let the man out of the compound. When I returned he told me he was having some difficulty and it was going to take another couple of hours. What he had done looked OK to me.
A work in progress....and no, the carpet is not blue.

Helen and James arrived back in Perth from the U.S. On Saturday morning. They did expect that their bags would also arrive along with them, but L.A. Airport sent them somewhere else. One of the bags has turned up and Qantas has delivered it to their home...the other is still in the jetstream somewhere. They enjoyed San Francisco and the wedding immensely. Katherine and Rick did themselves proud with a super wedding which must have cost heaps. 'Lots' would be under $100,000....'heaps' is heaps more. I am sorry that I didn't attend. I am just not ready to travel yet. Had Joan still been with us and not sick I am sure we would have had a wonderful time there.

It aint easy!

2011-09-10T08:17:00.001+08:00

Just lately, or is it all my life, things don’t go as expected? The carpet guys turned up and took a look at the job. I was told that the edge grippers were stuck down to a previous vinyl tiled floor with glue and over the years that glue had deteriorated and the grippers had in many places come loose. As well as that, the vinyl tiles had become so brittle that as they lifted the edge gripper chunks of tile also broke away...no warranty if the carpets are laid over gaps in the vinyl.

I dragged my brother down to the unit and we lifted the carpet and took it to landfill. Tomorrow I will remove all the edging and fill the many gaps in the vinyl with car body filler. The carpet can then be fixed directly to the vinyl using adhesive on Tuesday. Hope that is it for the whole place...too old at 71 for this stuff!

Helen and James arrive back from San Francisco this morning. I have to collect Ruby, their dog, from the boarding kennel and them from the airport at 11.30am.

Return journey is quicker

2011-09-07T20:23:00.002+08:00

This morning I did the last cleanup of our unit which housed our son Martin. The carpet layer is to lay the new carpets on Friday. I thought I would ring the daughter of the tenant in the unit above Martin’s to inform her that she could view the unit over the weekend. She was most enthusiastic which feels good for a sale.

Later I had a second thought as to whether I could sell the unit before Joan’s estate is settled by the Public Trustee. We were joint owners of the unit and after a phone call to the trustees I was relieved to find that as it was in joint ownership, all I have to do is to present the appropriate department with the Death Certificate and new title will be issued.

On ABC talkback radio today there was a discussion about research which showed that the return journey of any trip almost always goes quicker than the journey to the destination. I would agree with that.

Boat People

2011-09-07T07:10:00.002+08:00

Today I am finishing off the refurbishing of our unit in downtown Orelia. The carpets are to be laid this Friday. Orelia is part of what was originally known as Kwinana.

We both taught at Kwinana High School in the late 1960s and believe me when I say it was a tough school to work at. Kwinana HS has been rebuilt and named Gillmore College....I believe it has the highest rate of student absenteeism in the state. Nice looking building though!

Kwinana promised employment in the nearby industrial area, but employment gradually slowed down and many locals are unemployed and a malaise has settled over the youth of the area.

Both sides of politics in the Federal Parliament are still saying that they want to stop the refugees arriving by boat because it is very dangerous and people could, and have, drowned. They,of course, cannot publicly say that they just want to stop the boats.

The government’s deal with Malaysia to accept 4,000 largely Cambodian /Burmese refugees deemed to be genuine refugees with a swap for 800 of our boat people currently locked up in detention centres has stalled because of a court ruling. I would think that South East Asian refugees would be more acceptable to most Australians than Middle East refugees because of their track record of assimilation and that their religious beliefs and practices do not cause conflict.

Orelia, the Nedlands of the South...not!

2011-09-04T12:21:00.003+08:00

I have been very busy refurbishing our unit readying it for sale. For such a small 2br unit I am amazed at how much work was required to bring it up to scratch. I decided to have new carpet laid instead of trying to clean the existing stuff. It will be done next Friday and shortly after it will be on the market.

This block of units was originally built sometime in the 1970s for the State Housing Commission and probably in the 1980/90s, sold off to individuals. The area is not what one would describe as salubrious and this particular block has run-down gardens and tenants who care little for their surrounds or their neighbours. In short it is crappy and I will be glad to be rid of it.
This description will not accompany the for sale advert.
Doesn't look too bad from a distance

Today is father’s day and it is the first time I can recall not having my children visit. Martin is in Melbourne and Helen is in San Francisco. I do expect that they will ring though. At the time of writing this the time here is 7.18am and it 4.18pm in SF and just to complicate things it is Sunday here and only Saturday there...Australia is ahead of the U.S. in a few things.

Martin rang me for Father’s Day just as I was leaving to bring a trailer load of furniture etc back from the unit. When I was loading a dining room table and chairs onto the trailer a tenant of one of the other units struck up a conversation.
As it happens he is gay and I was introduced to his rather shy aboriginal partner. He told me he loves it there...must be insane! I asked if he had room for some furniture for free. He ended up taking the dining table, a coffee table, an outdoor setting and all the saucepans, crockery, cutlery and glassware. All I brought home was the washing machine and a few tools etc. Easy! Saved me finding places to store it all and if/when Martin returns, we can always buy new stuff

A Chinese stove made in Turkey

2011-08-31T07:20:00.003+08:00

Helen and James are in San Francisco for her cousin Katherine’s wedding to Rick. It is going to be a big affair over several days including a harbour cruise, a baseball game (all the guests have been told which team to barrack for) and of course the wedding.

On Monday Helen went to work and James was to go to work on Tuesday. After work I was to take them to Perth airport for their flight to Brisbane and SF. Monday evening around 8.30pm I had a flustered call from Helen telling me that they had miscalculated and it was actually Monday night they were to depart. I had had a couple of beers so couldn’t drive. They had to taxi it to the airport. James had bought a new suit and the alterations were to be completed Tuesday morning. They flew without that one.

Tuesday, I found instructions on taking Ruby, their dog, to a boarding kennel, cancelling a vet appointment and ringing the people where the suit was being altered.

I received a call from Helen saying that they had safely arrived in Brisbane. They should be now looking for a suit rental place in SF.

Work on our unit at Orelia is going reasonably well. I have decided to sell and hope to come out of the deal with a loss of around $30k. Hopefully I can claim this loss against my income tax, but the waters around this situation are quite muddy. Time will tell.

At the unit I have an electrician coming along on Friday to connect the new stand-alone stove for $95. There are three wires to tightens crews down on, but as I am selling the unit I don’t want to electrocute a new buyer by doing a amateur wiring job myself.
I notice that the stove, although a Chinese brand, is made in Turkey. Are wages in Turkey lower than China?

Local laws demand that smoke alarms be hard wired, unless, as in the case of this unit, there is no ceiling space. In this case an alarm with a 10 year Lithium battery can be fitted. A little bit expensive, but no where near the cost of an electrician to visit.

The Bridal Train

2011-08-29T15:29:00.008+08:00

On Saturday morning a group of friends did a tour of the Woodman Point Quarantine Station. Most of us had heard about this establishment but had no real idea about the fact that it was in operation from about 1852. It is on a beachfront site and there was a large jetty for ships to tie up and disembark passengers and crew who had contracted one of the major plagues of the time. It was still operational into the 1970s. The site is now run by the Department of Sport and Recreation, but the quarantine station and machinery are left in place for tours. $9m was spent restoring the timber cottages, hospitals etc.

There was much to see and learn and everyone enjoyed the experience. The station has the first crematorium ever built in Australia. Because of the deadly diseases treated here, bodies were not buried, but cremated.

For those interested here is a link for a site with interesting details...

In the afternoon I went to collect a computer donated by a lady in her eighties. She was as bright as a button and she told me that she had spent 57 years in California. I asked her if she was a war bride and sure enough she married a U.S. Submariner in Fremantle in 1944. She only returned to be with her sisters in 2001 after the death of her husband. He served on the USS Tautog out of Fremantle. Some info about the Tautog.
Lovely lady and I am sure we will talk more about war brides.

There is a nice song by a local group called ‘The Bridal Train’ written by the band’s singer about her grandmother who married another U.S. sailor and sailed to America on the Monterey.
You can hear 'The Bridal Train' here.

Mike's wake

2011-08-27T09:10:00.005+08:00

There was a change of plan in last night’s wake for my Bro-in-Law, Mike. I decided to be the ‘skipper’ and abstain from drinking. It worked well and I kept myself busy taking photographs and serving snacks.

I made some Aussie fare....celery pieces, filled with curried egg. They went like hot cakes and I was surprised that not many of the guests had tasted it before.

A pic of one of four plates.
The recipe is simple...hard boil your eggs, then remove the yokes and mix with mayo and curry powder and fill the celery. I recommend you try it. Young crisp celery is essential.

Some heartfelt speeches were made in honour of Mike.
Greg made a touching, but humorous farewell speech.

I was surprised how many of their friends are travelling to San Francisco today to attend Katherine and Ricks’ wedding. Dorothy, Katherine and Rick are off at about 5.30pm on the long flight from Perth. I feel somewhat guilty that I am not also going, but Helen and James are representing me.

Cousins...Katherine, Helen, Vanessa, Fiona and Janine.

six months

2011-08-26T07:48:00.002+08:00

It is six months today that My Joan passed away. We were 46 years together and it is a comfort to remember those good years.

I am doing OK, but need to keep very busy.

The six month mark is not especially important...I think of Joan every day.

There will be days like this

2011-08-23T17:01:00.002+08:00

With the events of this year I have had a on off relationship with a bit of melancholia.

Today I had a bright spot when I delivered a laptop to a young Cambodian woman who has suffered at the hands of her violent husband and is now in respite. She is just 26 and has a nice young son. The agency looking after her asked me if I had a computer and printer which she could have. When I set it up and gave her some instructions she was beaming and heaped thanks on me. ‘Then I must remember, there will be days like this’.

Mike’s wake is on Friday evening and we are all driving up North of the River in my car and leaving the car there and cabbing it home. Should work out about $25-30 each for the four of us, which isn’t even the cost of a restaurant meal. Mike wanted a wet wake.

Vale Mike Treasure

2011-08-22T15:23:00.002+08:00

My brother-in-law Mike passed away this morning. Parkinson’s Disease ravaged his body and his mind. The gifting of his body to UWA Medical School for research into Parkinson’s was a wonderful thing for him to do.

This bastard disease stole his very being.

Mike Treasure

2011-08-21T08:00:00.001+08:00

Yesterday; Saturday, James and Helen helped me do some cleaning and repairs at the unit I own which our son Martin lived in for a few years. Helen busied herself cleaning out the fridge and it was soon evident that the door seals were damaged and most of the storage plastic-ware was cracked or broken. A quick decision saw the fridge on the back of James’ pickup and on its way along with the stove to the local landfill recycling centre. The heavily stained carpet in the main room proved to be salvageable after a few test scrubs with heavy duty spotter. I will hire a ‘Britex’ machine next week and give all the carpets a thorough clean. I decided to hire a painter to repaint doors and door frames.

Later in the day I decided to sell the unit rather than be the nasty landlord. I am guessing that I will lose around $30,000, but in the current economic climate, housing values are unlikely to get back to their previous levels in the time I have left. So I rang the young woman who was interested in renting the unit and told her that I was sorry, but I had decided to sell it. In no time a text message appeared on my phone saying that she would be very interested in buying it. Great news! There would be no selling agents’ fee and as her father lives in the unit above, she knows all the problems associated with this block of units. Once I have finished the refurbishment, she will take a look and haggle with the price I have indicated I would like.

My brother-in-law Mike is in hospital and he is in the final stages of his time here. Helen and I drove to the hospital to pay our respects to Mike. His daughter and son-in-law to be have travelled from the U.S. to be there with him. If he has not passed away over night he will soon leave us.

Mike had left instructions that his body be given to the medical school at the University of Western Australia to do research into Parkinson’s Disease.

Big Spender

2011-08-19T16:13:00.003+08:00

Martin, our son, has just emailed me to say that he has found suitable accommodation near where he will start work in Melbourne. He cannot move in today as the room will not be available for a couple of weeks, but he has paid a month’s board in advance to secure the place. Whew! Meanwhile he will remain in the cheapo hotel.

My friend Albert had his radical prostatectomy. The operation was more difficult than anticipated and went for 5 hours. Soon after he was moved to intensive care due to an infection. He is responding to treatment for the infection and should be out of IC in a day or so. Kathy, his wife, is issuing a daily bulletin to friends and family.

The repairs and reno at the unit we own are going reasonably well. Rather than try and refurbish the stand-alone kitchen stove, I went and bought a new one and also a clothes drier. Quite something new for me who is not noted as a Big Spender. The laundry and toilet have been repainted and repairs made to a sliding glass door damaged by a recent break-in attempt. The carpets might come up with a professional carpet cleaner. If not, I will replace the worst of them.

The neighbors are feral. I couldn’t live there, but I won’t have any trouble renting the place.

Renting accommodation

2011-08-17T05:20:00.002+08:00

Our son Martin is in Melbourne, He rang yesterday and admitted that it was going to be more difficult than he thought to find single accommodation. Duh!

Here in Perth, people are lining up to get rental accommodation. It is so scarce that people are pushing up the rental prices by bidding for the accommodation. I cannot see that Melbourne will be any different.

He may have to share a house with others and that is not a good option for him. He is having his job interview today, which he says is just a formality, and he will probably start work next week.

I have been doing lots of work on the unit where Martin lived for several years. It is going to cost. The stove needs replacing as does the carpet in the main room. The bathroom/laundry is getting a repaint and there are other jobs such as patching walls, replacing power and light switches etc. Should take a couple of weeks to get it to rentable condition. I knew there was a reason we didn’t want Martin living with us.

A good friend from the early 1960s in Papua New Guinea had a Radical Prostatectomy yesterday. Albert is to stay in hospital for seven days. This operation to remove a cancerous prostate is sometimes difficult to avoid nerve damage and can leave the patient with incontinence and or impotence. I hope Albert's is a successful operation with no bad side effects. I had a Radical Prostatectomy some 12 years ago and all I will say about that is, I am not incontinent!

San Francisco wedding

2011-08-15T06:07:00.001+08:00

I have just returned from Perth Domestic Airport where I dropped off Martin for his plane to Melbourne. He is relocating there and has a job waiting for him....not a great job, but a job.
Finding Accommodation may be a little more difficult and he may have to do the Backpacker thing until he can get a unit.

Meantime, I will continue the refurbishing of the unit we bought to house Martin and ready it for rental. It will be rented as a furnished unit. Already the tenant in the unit above Martin’s has contacted me and wants his daughter and partner to move in. I will let an agent handle the rental. I don’t want the hassles of being the mean landlord.

I had a visit from Joan’s sister Dorothy and Mike yesterday. Mike has had Parkinson’s Disease for some years and it has progressed to the stage that he needs full time care. He cannot speak and needs specialised foods to avoid breathing in liquids and most regular food. I feel for Dorothy as she has to attend to his every need. Even so they are travelling to San Francisco in a couple of weeks for their daughter’s wedding. Mike shouldn’t be going, but Katherine their daughter wants her father to attend. We were invited, but since Joan’s death, I don’t feel like travel, so have apologised and will stay home. Helen and James are also going, so this family is represented. Mike and I got along well and it is very sad to have lost a friend to this insidious disease.

Veuve Clicquot

2011-08-12T15:15:00.010+08:00

Our daughter Helen, gave us a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for Xmas. We never got to open it at Xmas and last week I opened it to share with Helen and James. It was ‘skunked’, so much so it was undrinkable. Whenever we have had a bottle of cheapo bubbly in the past which was flat or undrinkable, we merely returned it to the bottle shop and took another one off the shelf. Bottle shops don't take back their Veuve without a cash register receipt. You don’t get a receipt with a present and in any case you don’t expect to get a dud bottle of $90 wine.

No amount of googling will bring up an Australian agent for Veuve, but a local bottle shop has promised to do some investigation for me later today. I might be lucky yet.

Helen and James haven’t been too lucky though. They signed up for PhotoVoltaic panels at the same time as my brother Graham and I did and we all had the panels installed on the same day. At the time the sales person faxed off the applications for the 40c per kilowatt power input to be sold back to the energy company. Bro and I got ours acknowledged, but Helen and James heard nothing and when they contacted the energy company they were told that as they had not submitted their application before the government subsidy cutoff date they could only get paid 7c per unit into the electricity grid...no arguments thanks. That makes the expense of the solar panels pretty well useless as it will take a couple of decades to pay off the panels etc at 7c per.
Fortunately my cousin Edward is the man who has volunteered his services as a mediator and he has forwarded all the documents including a Statutory Declaration saying that the application was faxed before the closing date. Hope he can get the decision reversed. Cousin Ted has an impressive track record of winning over lots of government and commercial businesses.
Don’t sell Ted a car unless you are very sure it has absolutely no defects.

Just after lunch today I noticed a Channel7 TV transmitter vehicle near my house front. I’m guessing that something of import has happened in this estate and we should see something on tonight’s 7 News.
The cleanup and repairs etc are progressing in Martin’s unit. A few days ago we opened an inspection door to check out the condition of the electric hot water system. The HWS is housed in a vertical space which services three floors of apartments. It was inhabited by about 300 Australian cockroaches (Periplaneta australasiae). They are a large species of cockroach, winged, and growing to a length of 30–35 millimetres. Martin hit them with a couple of cans of insecticide and yesterday we gave them another jolt with an insect bomb. Martin made sure that the tenants above and below knew when he was going to ‘bomb’ them so they could go out for a couple of hours. I am guessing the bottom unit has heaps of dead cockies next to their HWS.

London's Burning; London's Burning

2011-08-09T13:24:00.001+08:00

London is burning! These riots raise all sorts of questions and the pundits have already solved the puzzle. I am really unsure about the situation there, but it looks remarkably like the G8 protests which start off with a few well meaning folk staging a protest followed up by hooded, masked hoons bent on destruction and looting.

British cops have a policy of going easy on such events. If it were in my neighborhood and the damage to my property, I’d be asking for water canon, tear gas and rubber bullets.

I wonder about insurance problems for buildings and property in these affected areas.

A letter to Joan

2011-08-07T21:42:00.005+08:00

Joan I am watching your fav TV show; Masterchef. It is the final with a female and male cooking it off. As you know I am not into these sort of programs, but I should report back to you about the result. I doubt that most people like us would pay the big bucks for such small serves.

I must thank you for all the pantry stuff you left me. Some of it is out of date now and I used some peanuts in a curry only to find that they were rancid.....should have read the use by date. I am doing OK, but miss you terribly. Helen and James are being very supportive. I eat ...and drink, often, with them and am happy that they still want me around.

Martin is soon off to Melbourne and I will decide if this is a time to sell the unit we bought to house him. I went down to BoganVille to do some maintenance today and wish that I could get out of that situation without losing too much.

I have created a slideshow of photographs of you and us and it brings tears to my eyes every time it starts up on the computer. I love you dearly my Joan.

I’ll let you know later who won MasterChef............results just in...the gal won.

Ferals

2011-08-07T06:46:00.001+08:00

Low-lifes are every where! Generally if one buys into a more expensive area, one expects to have reasonable neighbors, but sometimes the rules just don’t apply.

Helen and James bought their house in the same suburb as us and expected that they would have the same sort of neighbors as we have. As it turns out there is a family of ferals two doors up who are doing their best to make it uncomfortable to live there.

James has confronted them and talked to the parents who have no control over their kids and suffer verbal abuse from them. The parents admit that the previous owners of Helen and James’ house almost certainly sold because of their sons’ intimidation. A line has been drawn and things could get worse. Not good!

Similarly, the unit we own which houses our son Martin, has neighbors from hell also. His unit is in a block of about thirty units in a suburb known for its ferals. I would like to sell it when Martin leaves for Melbourne in a couple of weeks, but the housing market has crashed and I would lose too much cash. Never-the-less once I have refurbished it I will get a valuation. I don’t like being a landlord with all the attendant problems of rough tenants.

The Oxford comma

2011-08-02T16:38:00.005+08:00

Shock, horror.....the Oxford comma has been dropped.
Firstly a lesson on what the Oxford Comma is. I have never seen it used and hopefully have never used it in error.

The 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma before the word 'and' at the end of a list:

We sell books, videos, and magazines.

It's known as the Oxford comma because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. Not all writers and publishers use it, but it can clarify the meaning of a sentence when the items in a list are not single words:
These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.
The Oxford comma is also known as the 'serial comma'.

Anyway, Oxford University has dropped it and just the ‘and’ can now be the standard without the comma. Whew!

Today I returned our cat Amber to the Cat Haven. It has been a very timid cat over the last four months and spent most of its day hiding from me. The real reason I got rid of it was its bad habit of urinating inside the house. I had to fill out a form with a reason for bringing it back after a year and pay a fee of $15. Good value I reckon. I used a nice Apple iBook box to take her to her new premises after drilling a peephole in the end. She didn’t whinge too much after I assured her that she wasn’t going to be ‘put to sleep’.
I did want to be on good terms with Amber, but that wasn’t to be. Over the years we have had quite a few cats and with the exception of Amber, they have all been great.

As an ex teacher I should write a smoothover report on her and mention the good things about her.

She is a very attractive cat, who has a placid manner, neither scratching or biting its owners. She should do well in new surroundings.

A large family

2011-08-01T07:18:00.004+08:00

Yesterday I visited Joan’s aunt, Pat Wray. Joan’s sister Dorothy was also invited and by late afternoon there were about 15 family members attending. I thought this was some big event, but I was assured it was a regular Sunday gathering.

Pat has 8 children, 25 grandchildren (with a couple more soon to arrive) and 12 great grandchildren. This handsome little bloke is a month old and another was born on Saturday. I think they all pity me without any grandkids. I can live with that.
Pat is in her 80s, still very bright and computer literate. She told us of a recent discovery of what she called a strange and well kept secret about her family history. This has inspired her to research her family tree and she has turned up some very interesting stuff. I can’t tell you what it is...but it is a bit spicey!

Of times past

2011-07-31T12:57:00.004+08:00

Yesterday I collected a Mac from a chap. He said it wouldn’t get up. but I thought I might be able to coax it into life....no joy as yet.

On the way home from collecting the computer I visited my cousin Val. We talked lots and I asked about a house the family lived in in East Perth. It was a semi detached house of around 1870 vintage. owned by the government Railways and rented to railways employees. Peter, Val’s husband, worked for the Railways.

Val told a fascinating story about the neighbors and the ongoing family strife all around them. Later at home I thought about the story and rang her to suggest that she write her story. Hope she does as it has the makings of a movie. I could see the story being written by Tim Winton or the late Tom Hungerford; both wrote wonderful pieces about suburban life.

Sometimes when I think about times past I remember how we, without Google, the universal encyclopedia, got information. We weren’t wealthy enough to have set of encyclopedia and to be honest, I doubt we would have used it had we owned one. Most of what I knew then was from questioning others who did know lots more than me about most things.

I also remember the horrific arithmetical disaster of the old currency...Pounds, Shillings and Pence. Cruel teachers would set some long division ‘sums’ and whilst kids worked through them go on a world trip.

An example of a ‘keep ‘em busy’ maths lesson would be like this........

£17/13/11 ÷ 27

For the younguns, that reads seventeen Pounds, thirteen Shillings and eleven Pence divided by twenty seven. Nasty teachers could add a halfpenny to the eleven pence.

Given that there are 20 shillings in a pound, 12 pence in a shilling, there is a whole lot of ‘carrying on’ to be done.

Donation to the Cancer Council

2011-07-29T07:24:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I delivered the cash raised at the sale of Joan’s fabrics etc to the Cancer Council of W.A.. I was not prepared for the legalities of such a donation and the questions to determine how it was deemed.

Was it in her will? Did she nominate that exact amount? etc etc.
I explained with some difficulty, that before she died, she had wished that the cash from sale of her fabrics, dies etc be donated to the Cancer Council. That sorted out, a couple of employees went into ‘The Counting Room’ .....a store room I suspect, and after two counts came back with a figure of $2,200.
I was given an interim receipt which is posted here for any people who donated money to see.
I must find out if the other money raised by the sale of Joan’s books has been donated as yet and if it is donated with reference to Joan.

Joan’s friend Juliet was the driving force in the garage sales to raise that money. My sincere thanks to her for all her efforts.

Bad Cat

2011-07-27T15:36:00.003+08:00

Our cat has been giving me the shits. For some reason it has decided that it is better to take a pee inside the house rather than in its tray or going outside. For those unfamiliar with cat pee, as I am unfamiliar with skunk pee, it is overpowering.

The first time she did it was about two months ago and every effort to shampoo the smell out has failed miserably. She then decided that the bathroom mat was a good spot and after that she moved on to a pair of my trousers which were laid out on the bed. The trousers and Joan’s bed quilt copped it badly. The trousers have been washed and the quilt also cleaned and put out in the sun to dry and air. She is smart enough to know that I am very unhappy and is hiding from me in the three rooms I have banished her to.

Photo of Amber thinking that I can’t see her sunk into a mohair rug.

I am seriously thinking that I will return her to the Cat Haven. I can't see how I can modify her at this stage. Maybe a new owner can start over.

Bikies and a mass murderer

2011-07-25T12:08:00.003+08:00

The Western Australian Bikies’ war is still simmering. Last night a local tattoo parlour run by one of the groups was firebombed for a second time. As I passed it on my way to the Post Office this morning,I saw a large contingent of cops, TV crews and a surly looking mob of bikies standing opposite the Tatpalour. After I had done my post...a couple of DVDs to Bernie in Canada, I returned home to get my camera and see if I could get a picture for the blog. I didn’t want to get too close to the tattooed, bearded nasties so my pic is from from some distance. Nothing to see here folks....move along. Got to be some payback coming soon!

The Norway tragedy is horrible. I taught a Norwegian exchange student at Willetton SHS in the late 1980s. We got along well although he seemed a little more mature than most of his year 12 cohort. He came across as a bit cold, which may have been because he hadn’t yet thawed out. A couple of years later he returned to W.A. for a visit and specifically came to visit me.

Back to the massacre in Norway. It is quite strange how ill prepared the government of Norway was for an act such as this. Utoya, where the youth camp shootings took place is only about 20 miles from Oslo. Even though mobile phone calls alerted Oslo as soon as the shooting started, it took police and military an hour to get there. They didn’t have helicopters capable of taking security forces and presumably couldn’t borrow any, so they drove to a point near the island of Utoya and commandeered local pleasure craft with almost disastrous results. meanwhile Breivik had 90 minutes to casually murder 85 people.

I am sure more transport and personnel are available in sleepy Perth should something similar happen here.

Probably not the time to mention it, but the island is owned by the Workers Youth League and all the youth on the island were members of the political party presently in government. I think the average Australian would worry about political youth groups. I would see it as a little too similar to Hitler-Jugend.

The Moon and space

2011-07-20T09:14:00.003+08:00

Today the US space shuttle landed for the last time. It is the youngest of the shuttles and will now go to a space museum in LA. They are such big and ungainly looking craft and I am always amazed at how graceful they look when landing after a mission. I’ve been in quite a few ungainly landings on commercial aircraft...some have tested the build of the plane, bouncing several times along the strip.

NASA has been told that the shuttle program is too expensive to maintain and future flights to the orbiting space station will be made in a Russian rocket or commercial vehicles.

With the poor condition of the US economy I would think that there would be lots of back-room talk about pulling the US forces out of Afghanistan pretty quickly to save lots of money. Then, I guess, lots of servicemen and women would leave the military and try and seek employment causing more problems for Pres. Obama.

As I went out front this morning to collect the paper I saw the moon in the sky and thought of the moon landings...1969 was it? We were teaching at Kwinana High School at the time and every person in the school watched as man set foot on the moon for the first time. A moment in history!

Boy, how the money is rolling in. I received this welcome email message a couple of days ago. I think they may have me mixed up with my brother who recently bought a new VW Passat, so I guess I will have to forward it on to him. Maybe he’ll give me a few dollars from his win.

Linotype and letterpress

2011-07-18T09:11:00.005+08:00

Sunday afternoon I watched a TV presentation about the history of printing. Having been a Graphic Arts teacher in the 1980s it grabbed my attention. The show was about a printing museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin USA and I would visit it if I had the chance.
It is a working museum with artisans assembling lead lettering and large wooden letters to do artistic printing in the mode of the time. Large headlines such as hit the press at the end of WW2 were made using wooden letters rather than lead.

When I taught Graphic Arts at Rockingham SHS, letterpress printing was well out of fashion and lithography in the form of offset printing was the go. We didn’t have to gather individual letters in a gallery to make up words and sentences and after printing, place the individual letters back in their alphabetical homes. Arduous work and very time consuming. In large printing works typeface was made in ‘slugs’ using a linotype machine. This wonderful invention was still in use in the newspaper industry up until the 1970s and some small outfits still use them. See more on YouTube here and here.

I was reminded of letterpress printing when on Friday, I received an invitation to Rick and Katherine’s wedding. The invitation is beautifully done and the print has a fine but deep impression in the paper, as it would have if it were printed by letterpress. I am assuming it is a newer form of lithography which would allow for a raised text on the printing plate. Must investigate.

My cold is improving. I found a couple of packets of antibiotics in the medicine cupboard and decided to use one of them. Cilamox (amoxycillin) is one often used for chest infections. They were prescribed for Joan, but not used.

Once again I went to Restaurant Helen yesterday to have dinner. Helen prepared Lamb Souvlaki wraps. Delish! Lamb, with a Greek salad, sour cream and chilli sauce

cold and flu tablets

2011-07-15T18:16:00.005+08:00

I had a bad night last night with the rapid onset of a heavy cold. I had to stuff tissues in my nostrils to stem the flow of ‘the runnies’. I can’t complain when I think of Joan’s last four days.

Later in the morning I went to our regular pharmacist to get a pack of ‘cold and flu’ tablets,. The girl who served me summonsed one of the Pharmacists and he advised me that because I was on blood pressure tabs he wouldn’t give them to me. I told him thanks and went to another nearby pharmacy and straight-faced told them I am not on any medications. They had to register my ID before supplying the tabs. The government in Western Australia is reining in sales of Pseudo Ephedrine which the bad boys buy to make speed and this cold and flu stuff is loaded with it.

Our son, Martin is soon to shift to Melbourne and today I went down to his (our) unit to do some maintenance and suss out what I will have to do to easily rent it out once Martin has left.

There will be lots to do to make it rentable.

Helen and James have invited me to dinner and I am typing this on her laptop. Starting the meal with Garlic Prawns, then Rack of Lamb with roast vegetables and green beans and herbs from the garden.

A San Francisco wedding

2011-07-13T13:16:00.003+08:00

My niece, Katherine, is marrying her man Rick in September. The wedding is taking place in their home town, San Francisco. Daughter Helen and James are travelling to SF for the wedding as are Katherine’s mother and father and a couple of their good friends Greg and Janice. Joan and I were invited, but since Joan died in late February I have not been inclined to travel and won’t be attending.

Dorothy, Katherine’s mother, is having a book of friends’ recipes printed and bound as a present. I am contributing a recipe for Ceviche. Helen is writing up one of Joan’s favourites....French Style Chicken with Rosemary, her own specialty, Quick Fish Pie and James contributed his Asian Style Pork Ribs.

My Ceviche recipe was given to me by a colleague I taught with in Papua New Guinea in the 1970s. Mario Cortesano is Argentinean. We keep in touch still.

Here is the Ceviche recipe

Ceviche

Ideally Spanish Mackerel is used to make Ceviche.

The flesh is cut into strips of roughly 8 - 10mm X 50mm lengths and put into a glass or ceramic dish.

Cover the fish with newly squeezed lemon juice. Season with fresh ginger, garlic, chillies, chopped spring onions and salt. The amount of each seasoning depends on individual taste.

The 'cooking' should take about three hours. Ceviche should be eaten at a single sitting to avoid contamination because the process does not involve heat in the 'cooking'.

VoIP and Skype

2011-07-12T09:44:00.003+08:00

I have finished the rooftop repairs to our house and it would look pretty good to a blind man galloping past on a horse. That's not quite true...it looks good and I am pleased with it.

The garage door closer was installed and I was well satisfied with this tradesman’s work and price. He was very professional and did not leave a single piece of anything behind as is the norm with most ‘tradies’. This door closer should see me out.

I cancelled the VoIP phone service with my ISP as the quality of the reception, either at my end or for the recipient of any call was usually very poor. I was paying $20 per month in the hope that I could cancel my landline and get free calls in Aus and Internationally. Skype gives me good quality phone calls free to other Skype users and to most international phones at a cheap rate. Skype is also VoIP and I cannot understand why I cannot get the same quality through my ISP. If you would like to wade through some technical info about VoIP it can be found here. Heavy stuff!

When I was buying materials at Bunnings Hardware for my roof repair job I became aware of a little bit of discrimination, shall I call it, on my behalf. I passed a couple; a professional painter and a young sales lady in the paint department. She was offering the man advice on his selection of paint. At the time I thought that I would have sought out a male to give me such advice, but later thought how stupid that was as the male sales people were no older than she is and they would have received the same training. I have been trying to think of some sort of reverse discrimination....in what situation would I seek out a female instead of a male for advice? Help me here.

Kiribati

2011-07-09T06:31:00.003+08:00

Our daughter Helen has a friend visiting from Kiribati a very small nation in the Pacific Ocean. Maria is working in Kiribus, as the locals call it, on an AusAID program to skill-up local people for the inevitable exodus of the inhabitants to either Australia and or New Zealand. The program is called the Technical and Vocational Training Sector Strengthening Project. At present there is no industry there. People grow coconuts and fish the ocean merely for local consumption and the population will need broader skills once they move south. They will also need to cope with a vastly different climate.
Maria

The main island of Kiribus is around 30 kilometres long and from 100 - 300 metres wide. It is situated north of Fiji and on the equator.

It isn’t sinking and the ocean isn’t significantly rising. The main concern is that the water wells are becoming salty and Kiribus is in a long drought and so, no rainfall. The ‘exodus’ when it eventually takes place is termed ‘Migration with Dignity’.

Maria has been in Kiribati for 18 months and is returning today flying through Brisbane and Nauru. She will be there for another 12 months.

More on Kiribati here.

Home maintenance

2011-07-08T08:34:00.006+08:00

After cutting and replacing some 10 terracotta roof tiles, there is no evidence of my paint spill disaster.

I decided to make up the fancy railing myself rather than seeking out a joinery shop. It worked out well despite the fact that I have few woodworking tools here. A couple of readers confused the photo of the railing with my ladder and advised me not to get on the roof using ‘that’ ladder. It’s OK folks, I do have a real aluminium ladder albeit a bit bent from my previous fall some years ago.

The finished trim to be fitted when James helps me fix it back up on the weekend.
This is a similar part of the roof.

The garage door man came and made a few adjustment to the door mechanism and accepted $100 as a ‘cashy’. No sooner was he gone than the door started playing up again. I rang a different door man and he is fitting a new closer on Monday for an all-up price of $625.00.

I have just received the Water Corporation’s Annual Service Account.
Water is an essential and the supply to my house of clean, almost pure water, is great. But now that I am more aware of the costs of running a household since Joan has gone, I don’t know how lower income people can manage the weekly bills rolling in. In some ways I believe homeless people would not manage even if the government gave them accommodation.