Where did all the years go?

My neighbor Fiona knocked on the front door asking for assistance to kill a rat in a tree on her property.  I had a look at and it looked a little sick.  I came back with my air rifle and pinged it for her.  Today whilst in my workshop I heard what I imagine was a rat(s) in the ceiling area, so went out and bought some rat baits.    Don't like rats!

This evening I am going to have a meal with an ex-student of mine, Angela.  We are going to buy in some pizza and catch up on 27 years.   She was a lovely young gal then and I know she will be a lovely woman at age 48.    Where did all the years go?

A couple of Bali pics...

A minding service by a bar/restaurant inside a shopping centre.

Clever lighting in a restaurant.

Food stall in the front of a streetside restaurant.  The restaurant allowed the stall to sell to it's customers.

Bali traffic

I have been a bit busy since returning home from our trip to Bali....mowing lawns, washing and cleaning etc.

Driving on a freeway yesterday I was being 'pushed' by a car to speed up over the speed limit. The driver was quite cranky and abused me when he eventually passed me at about 20k over the speed limit. I thought back to our week in Bali where in the chaos of Bali traffic not a person seemed to be angry. Neither did we see anyone get aggressive after drinking. It seemed that nothing fazed them.....a tangle of traffic with motorcycles weaving in front of taxis and trucks worked well without many rules being obvious. It would be good if Australians could be so calm when they get behind the wheel or a bottle.

In Bali the names of males come in a specific order. The first born can be Wayan, Putu or Gede. The second born can be Kadek or Made. The Third born is either Nyoman or Komang and the fourth is Ketut. After the fourth male child, the fifth starts off again with a name from the first list. Interesting Huh?

Charades and Pictionary

In our Villa the sink drain is partially blocked, so we decided to buy a plunger to clear it. The plunger was very inexpensive........about A$1.40 at Hardy's, a department store in central Sanur. We had a bit of trouble with the language and had to resort to Charades and eventually Pictionary to explain what we were after. The Charade of me washing my hands and the sink water not going down didn't work, so I did a charade asking for paper and pen and drew a plunger...Bingo!

Yesterday we hired a van and driver to do a tour. Our driver, Adi, is a good driver and a most pleasant young man with a good sense of humour. By the time we arrived back at the villa he was most proficient in some of the more common base Australianism. We enjoyed his company and gave him a generous tip.....something we are not accustomed to.


Off to market

First stop on the tour was Nusa Dua and we paid dearly for what promised to be a good small tour to Turtle Island, feeding fish and coral viewing through the glass bottom of the boat. It was a ripoff. Turtle Island has a number of turtles as you would expect, but it also has a few birds in small unkempt cages. We were told that a small donation of about R5000 was obligitory...we gave R35000 and were pressured for more. Then on to the the fish feeding where we tossed bread over the side to attract some very small fish. We thought we would see some interesting fish, but no. Then we were supposed to go coral viewing, but the boat took us back to shore. The boat tour was supposed to be a 90 minute excursion, but it as all over in about 50 minutes and to be honest, we were happy to get off.

Adi, showed us around the Nusa beachfront and the very expensive resort hotels. We had a beer at a roadside bar where I bought a couple of T shirts to keep the owner happy. No Bintang Beer T shirts for me.

Next we travelled to Ulu Watu to visit the temple on a bluff. The temple area is home to hundreds of monkeys and they are bad boys. There were, what looked like a couple of hundred tourist of many nationalities. People were warned to secure all their small property such as glasses, cameras etc. Never-the-less several people had glasses ripped off their faces and hats stolen by very fast monkeys. The retrieval of the stolen property was done by bribes and a little judicious violence. The goods were retrieved and the monkey men paid off.

We didn't stay for the Fire Dance and went for an evening meal on the beach at Jimbarin Bay. There are quite a few beachside restaurants at Jimbarin, all looking much the same. They are seafood restaurants and at this one the fish is selected by the diner and then prepared and served on the beach. It was an expensive meal for Bali and I have never paid that much for a meal before. Sanur eateries from now on!
Also, yesterday, Helen and James had another massage and other treatments done in Sanur. Helen asked what exactly the 'Ratus Vagina' item was. It was explained to Helen that it was an infusion of special smoking herbs into, yes you guessed it, the vagina which would make the female like a virgin again. Red faced Helen at that one. She didn't opt for that service.

Bali Day 4

We have been doing a bit of touring and lots of eating and drinking over the last couple of days. Each time we eat at a good restaurant we declare it to be the best, but then find that the next one has taken the crown. Everything here is incredibly cheap. From the Villa to the main drag in Sanur, about three kilometres, is about 8000 - 12000 Rupiah, we give the driver R20,000 which is approximately $2.00 Australian. A great meal, beautifully presented, with a few beers costs around $10A each.

For lunch yesterday we ate at a nice restaurant and enjoyed top food and icy beers and great service. Here is my mixed Sate. Helen had the same and James enjoyed a beef dish.

In the afternoon we had a driver take us on a tour of Denpasar, which is a bustling city away from the tourist areas. We looked in on the large department store, Mata Hari. As my brother Graham says..'They have the policy!' Which means that management hires only the handsome staff of which there were many. Later in our hire car I asked the driver what sort of money those young staff would be getting. He had personal knowledge of their renumeration and told us that such an employee would expect to get the equivalent of A$150.00 per month. One can only image how much take-home pay a road worker would get.

We also visited the main museum which is a magnificent traditional building housing mainly historical dioramas for Indonesia and Bali, with a goodly bit of history about the Dutch colonials.
Some pics of the Museum.

Staircase to the tower

Later in the afternoon Helen went for a massage and James and I had a couple of refreshing ales.
Helen went for the 'Wedding' package which didn't, fortunately, include the last item on the price list....whatever that is?
The last item on the price list is Ratus Vagina!

In the evening we decided to try a small restaurant in an alley close to our Villa. The food was great and James declared his fish curry to be the best he had every experienced. Helen and I shared a huge mud crab and curried king prawns. Great! The owner is a French national, elderly and I think a bit frustrated that he couldn't start a French restaurant on the 'strip'.
Today we are off to Seminyak, about A$15 away, to visit relatives also holidaying and a teacher colleague also here. Seminyak is the 'new' area for tourists.

For people perhaps thinking of visiting Bali, first impressions often don't impress. From the airport there are many dirty and run down areas and then there is the oppressive heat, which would probably take a couple of weeks to get used to. That being said, we are enjoying the place and the people immensely.

Elephants and water

All the water in houses and hotels at least in this part of Bali is ground water from bores. High water tanks provide the pressure for the water supply. We wondered why rainwater tanks are not used anywhere and figure that there is not enough yard space to place a tank. Also, most buildings don't have rainwater gutters.

I don't know where the water bores are, but there is a small construction site near 'our' Villa and in the two metre foundation trenches there is evidence of years of local landfill. Hope there isn't a water bore near that lot!


click to enlarge

When we arrived at the Villa we were advised not to drink the tap water. In the well-equipped kitchen is a smart water fountain of the like I have not seen before. From the one dispenser one can get near boiling water for coffee, room temperature water and cold water. Not a bad piece of equipment! Probably not an energy conserving piece of gear.
An unfortunate choice of names.

Yesterday on our visit to the Safari/Elephant park we shared the van and the day with an American couple. We got along very well together and will, as so many others who meet on holidays do, keep in touch.
Helen and James at the Elephant Park. A long drive, of about 90 minutes, but well worth the trip.

Bali Day One

Well, we are in Bali and settled in to our very nice villa. The flight with JetStar was good. It was reasonable rates. There is an entertainment package for $10 which gives you an Apple iPad with a variety of entertainment of movies comedy shows and games. James went for it but I spent the 3.75 hours reading and rereading their inflight magazine.

We breezed through immigration and customs and our Hotel had a man collect us and deliver us to our villa. All good.

Here are some snaps of our Villa. The main bedroom has an interesting shower with glass walls and a view to a small outside courtyard.

Bali

This Sunday morning we are flying into Bali airport at Denpassar. Bali is a very busy holiday destination and the Indonesian government will be trying to keep it that way because just the airport arrival and departure taxes @$US25 in and out, raise about $A275M a year. I haven't been able to determine how much the rest of the tourism industry pulls in, but it is big business.

I have started packing and whilst daughter Helen is in charge of my documents etc I have had to refer to one of Joan's previous packing lists as a reminder as to what I should pack. The list shown was for a trip we did to Singapore years ago, so I won't be packing silk shirts etc for casual Bali.

Because two thirds of this Lock family are flying on the one plane, I have left a detailed letter with my brother to take over 'if anything happens'...as my mother would say. Our son Martin in Melbourne would have a big job sorting out my estate, but would emerge out the other end a wealthy man. I don't want him to be wealthy just yet.

There is a white knuckle fliers' saying....'If it aint Boeing, I aint going'. I too would rather fly with the old team. The new boys on the block, Airbus, have built the largest ever passenger aircraft, but it has emerged that lots of cracks have been found in the important bits...the wings.

Bali Hi

Yesterday was Joan's birthday. We were going to go to a restaurant, but I didn't feel like another sombre meal and opted out.

As it happened Helen our daughter, last night, had a very vivid dream about Joan. In the dream Joan had left me and took up with another fella. She was very svelte and had a large house with two tigers as pets. Thank goodness she didn't want tigers when she was here with me.

Years ago I had a friend who turned up to work one morning very cranky and it turned out that he had dreamed that his wife had had an affair. It took him all day and a good bit of Kev counselling to convince him that dreams are just dreams.

We are off to Bali on Sunday and it is at these times I realise how organised Joan was. She would have the air travel, hotel, car rental, customs documents, local money etc all organised and all I had to do was collect my shaving gear and a few clothes and we would be off. Never did I experience any glitches when we travelled. Sure there were a few problems not of our own making, but not of Joan's.

Yesterday I received a final letter of statement of Joan's estate. It is all finalised except for a small tax return due to a late share dividend from which I am due a small cheque from the Treasurer.

Full time teaching 2012

Daughter Helen has been doing relief teaching over the last few weeks and it has built up to about 4 days a week on average. She will now have to advise those schools that she has been appointed to a school and cannot do relief for the rest of the year.

The school she has been appointed to is about 30 minutes drive from here. The only downside to this appointment is that it is a 'difficult to staff school' and that is nothing to do with with the building. It usually means the children and/or parents, can be difficult. She is looking forward to commencing there in Term2. If she can remain there for two years, then she will join the ranks of the Permanent Officers and not sweat about getting a job each year. There is a small monetary allowance for teachers who take up appointments at those schools designated as difficult to staff.

She will be teaching Kindergarten and Pre-Primary and the class size is quite small, so it could be OK.

Vladimir Tretchikoff

In my workshop I have a few wall hangings of pieces that otherwise would be dumped or stored in boxes. A couple came from our son Martin's place when he went east to Melbourne. Martin has a good eye for discarded stuff on the roadside chuck-outs which he calls 'GutterMart'. One piece is a Marx Brothers poster and the other is a print of a 1950s artist...Vladimir Tretchikoff. Martin's print is a bit damaged and so it lurks in a darker area of my shed. Tretchikoff was very popular in the late 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of houses had a print of the Chinese Girl. Wonder where they are all now? You can buy prints of Tretchikoff's works on eBay and art shops at reasonable prices.

This is a framed end of a Petrol box from the days when petrol was imported into Australia in boxes of One Gallon cans. I wonder whether they were American gallons or Imperial gallons?

How not to look a gift horse in the mouth

I get my Mac computer discards from various sources and some of them are a little precious when it comes to the actual donation time. One lot was given with the proviso that they wouldn't be sent overseas. I had to inform that source that whilst I assure people that they will not be sold but distributed to needy folks I could not be bound by any conditions of how and where I distribute them. It is really like donating your body to a University....you don't know what will happen to it and medical students may well play pranks with your bits.

A recent lot was of older Macs, all still work well, but their capabilities are more in the educational games area. I can gift them to young families with a large package of educational software. I would rather folks not give me these older machines as most of my 'clients' want reasonably fast machines to browse the internet (and find reviews of books they were supposed to read at Uni).
Oldies, but goodies.
Just when I think I will stop this project, I get an offer of a new lot of machines, then back to work. I have been doing this for around eleven years and estimate that I have refurbished and distributed free, around 400+ computers to needy folks and a couple of schools overseas.

The Wedding of Brian and Lili

On Friday evening I took photos (along with every other guest) at my nephew Brian's small wedding. It did present a few difficulties with lights everywhere, but there are some reasonable shots and once all the other guests give their photos to the the happy couple they should have a nice album albeit of very similar photos. I did the make-up shots; the best man fixing the groom's tie shots etc etc. The bride, Lili, had a few ideas for some other shots which could have been better executed with more time and equipment...but they did work.

Maybe I will post more photos here when I have asked the married couple for their permission.

The wedding breakfast (it seems to be called a breakfast even if it is at night) was catered for by Dorothy, Brian's mum. The name 'Breakfast' for a post wedding meal is more to do with breaking the fast.

Brian and Lili are to have a second very large wedding in the Philippines either later this year or early in 2013. Lots of rellies to witness their marriage.

Larousse Gastronomique

It is over one year since my Joan died and I have been losing my appetite for food and cooking. I seem to cook too much and then freeze the remainders which end up going into the compost bin. Time for a new plan. Supermarkets don't cater for singles like me, the smallest meat package is enough for several people, so I will divide any purchase into serve size portions and again fill the freezer with the rest. Also I could share with Helen and James, but Helen cooks more exotic fare than me.

Joan has at last count 83 cook books including Larousse Gastronomique and folders of collected recipes. Each time I search for a recipe in the recipe library I find it difficult to get what I want out of those 83 books, but when I Google a recipe I will get an immediate and specific recipe. I wouldn't have the heart to sell Joans books but I don't think anything in Larousse would interest me much. So I will leave Helen and Martin to sort that out when I go...along with lots more complex issues. Hey, I'm not going just yet!

Larousse is 'the world authority on food, wine and cooking' which is a bit insular because it doesn't discuss Asian cooking for example. Just in case you thought you would like to purchase Larousse, here is a page from the section on cooking offal.
A bit dreary hey?

Men in Film

And now for something entirely different....a fill-in because I don't have anything significant to write about.


Film buffs will probably get every one first time through.

RIP Carole

After a hard fought battle with cancer, Carole in London has passed on. She died peacefully in a Hospice in London and her son James has written of her passing. If you wish you can read it here.

Brian and Lilly

This Friday evening, my nephew Brian and his bride to be, Lilly, are to be married. It is a small wedding with just a dozen guests including me. I have been asked to take the photographs which is going to be a tricky business. The wedding is in Joan's sister's backyard at 7.30pm and that means complete darkness at this time of the year. I have done a number of weddings, but none have had me thinking things out like this one. I will today purchase some floodlights on a stand and do some experiments in my own backyard tonight. The floods will need to be softened with some filtering media and the judicious use of a flash to fill in shadow areas.

I have not shot a wedding in 15 years and I want this one to be as good as I can make it. At least with digital cameras, these days, I can instantly see whether the result is OK after each shot. In the past when every photographer was using film, there was a nervous wait to see the results after the film was processed and printed. I can also tweek the photos in Photoshop on the computer. Wish me luck.

Red Boy stolen

"They got a name for the winners in the world
And I want a name when I lose"....Steely Dan

I recently posted a story about my visit to the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition at Cottesloe Beach. The exhibition is not fenced off, but has security guards, CCTV and plenty of lighting. One of the installations (see, I can use the artists' terminology) was stolen by a young fellow just 24 years of age under CCTV cameras in a well-lit area. The cameras even captured the ute/pickup truck he was driving without a licence. It wasn't too difficult for the cops to trace our man and they found the severed statue in the roof-space of the family home. Mother, of course, was embarrassed and shamed and didn't want to be identified.

Sister Shirl's visit

My sister Shirley is staying with me this week. She is up from Esperance which is on the South coast of Western Australia. She came up ostensibly to attend a reunion of a volunteer fire brigade that she and her late husband Don were associated with. Today I drove her out to the reception centre at Jandakot Airport and went home to wait for her phone call when the show was over. By the time I arrived home there was a message on the phone from Shirl to say that the reunion was yesterday. Duh!

During the week she got me to take her to a large shopping centre to buy some bras. I have never accompanied anyone buying bras before and suddenly I was by myself and couldn't spot Shirl anywhere. I didn't realise that it is not as easy as buying a seven pack of underpants. Apparently they have to be carefully selected and fitted. Taking into account the airfare for Shirls Perth reunion, those bras were very expensive.

In the time I waited I could have bought a suit, had it altered and selected a new pair of shoes and an assortment of socks.

Shirl is returning to Esperance tomorrow and that will give my liver a bit of a rest as we have been doing the rounds of family drinkies.

I get an infrequent visit by neighborhood cat. It is a sleek black one with a white tip on its tail. It doesn't hesitate to come in the house and check out all the rooms and any cupboards left open. We get along fine and I reckon it is the best pet I have ever had....no feeding, no veterinary fees etc etc.

A distant friend

My Cyber-friend Carole in London has been moved into a hospice. Her son has written of the move on his mother's blog, which can be found here. She has had a rapid deterioration in her situation over a relatively short time and it is most likely that she will pass away very soon. I sincerely hope that her passing will be peaceful. I know that thousands of people die every day around the world, but Carole, through her kind words and thoughts for my Joan in her fight with the BigC has become a close friend.

This morning when I opened my email program I found a message purporting to be from The Commonwealth Bank NetBank. It informed me that a successful money transfer had been made for the amount of $1,580.00 to someone I did not know. I figured it was a scam and didn't click on the link provided, instead rang NetBank and they informed me that it was indeed a scam and by lunchtime EST, there had been approximately 500 calls to netbank about this email message. I am unsure what would have happened had I clicked on the link, but it probably would have been an expensive move.

Here is a screen shot of the email message.

A good word for Bigpond

Joan's sister Dorothy recently had a scare with a positive from a breast screen. She was able to have a Lumpectomy which removed the cancer and one lymph gland . A follow-up consultation brought good news and her oncologist is confident that they had been successful. She will be having a week's worth of radiation and be on a daily medication for 5 years.

There are many bad stories about Telstra/Bigpond's help line for computer worries. Over the weekend I had the job of setting up a wireless modem for a friend of my brother. The modem is a BigPond modem about the size of a packet of TicTacs. I was having all sorts of difficulty which was my own fault. I repeatedly typed in her email address which was hand written on a piece of paper. Un-noticed by me was a period/full stop between her first and second names. It must have looked like as bit of fly poo to me and so I hadn't keyed it into any of my attempts at creating the account. Sooooo, I decided to ring Bigpond help. I was talking to a young fellow in the Phillipines and eventually after he made several attempts to activate the account he asked me to take a careful look at the email address again. There is was. He entered that correct address and it was up and running. At that stage I asked him for mail details such as incoming mail server etc so that I could set up Apple Mail for her. He probably correctly assumed I was a complete dummy and told me to sit back and he would remotely set up Mail and anything else I wanted help with. Sounded good to me and I watched as things were moved around on the screen remotely from an office in the Philippines. I do know about several applications to do this, but I have never seen it done. A very pleasant young guy who was worthy of some award.
Thanks Bigpond.

Sculpture by the Sea 2012

Yesterday we, Helen, James and I visited Cottesloe Beach to view the Sculpture By the Sea exhibition. Joan and I had been to each of the yearly events since its inception. There were many 'installations' as the arty call them and some were really quite clever. My choice was the windmill which was a very modern chrome piece with a number of propellers of different lengths rotating on different axis at different speeds. More mechanical beauty than 'art'! Cottesloe Beach is a very popular beach without the large waves of beaches further along the coast. The Indiana Tearooms looks over the beach and is also the the boatshed of the Cottesloe Surf Lifesaving Club.

I took lots of Pics and here are a few. I couldn't remember the actual titles of each and so have called them as I saw them. Should have bought a catalogue.

click on the pics to enlarge them.

correction?

Graham, my 'sub-editor' of the blog has corrected me on my assertion that President Obama's appointment of four Republicans to his cabinet could not happen in Australian politics.

As usual he is correct and this is the reason that I have welcomed his sub-editorial role. I imagine that most bloggers have a sub-editor. It is good to have constructive criticism. The little I know about politics, does however, make me a little cynical about such appointments.

See his email to me on the subject......

Kev  You said in your blog that one thing you will never see in Australia is the kind of bipartisanship that saw Pres Obama appoint four Republicans to his cabinet.  Of course, the US cabinet members all come from outside the legislature (Congress), or if they are in it, they resign before their appointment.  In Australia, to become a member of cabinet you have to be a member of parliament and usually a member of the governing party or coalition, though that latter bit is not required.  You would have to, at least, guarantee that you would support the government in votes in the parliament.  Sometimes members of the parliament change sides, though it is very rare.  Remember when Cheryl Kernot of the Democrats joined the Labor Party?  It turned out later that she and Gareth Evens were having an affair at the time.  Billy Hughes was a member of three parties (Labor, UAP and Liberals-I think it was those three) during his time in parliament.  When asked why he had never joined the Country Party he famously said that he had to draw the line somewhere.  When Kevin Rudd became prime minister, he appointed Brendan Nelson as Ambassador to the UN, Alexander Downer to a special role with the UN on Cyprus and Tim Fischer as Ambassador to the Vatican.  That is an impressive form of bipartisanship.  John Howard was known for his obsessive overseeing of all appointments his government made to ensure the appointee had no Labor connections, however remote.  Graham

Early tomorrow we are visiting Cottesloe Beach to view the Sculpture by The Sea exhibition.  Joan and I visited it every year it has been held.