At times I am lonely

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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'

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

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

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

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

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??

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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