Shock absorbers

A couple of months ago I bought our son a small car; a Nissan Pulsar wagon.  It was built in 1996 and is a pretty good ‘runner’.   Last time I was in it I noticed a rear shock absorber was not working and the backside of the car was bouncing around.   I priced a replacement shocky @ $165 + fitting for around $80.   I rang around some wrecking yards and got a price for a good secondhand shocky for $75 plus $25. to fit it.  All done.

Next is some new tyres.   

The Peppered Moth

Way back in 1989, I taught at a suburban high school in Western Australia.  I had a mixed bag of classes because I was a late transfer to the school from a country school which was downgraded from a  Junior High School to a Primary School due to student numbers.

One class I had was a year 10 science class.  One of the units to be taught was natural selection.  If anything being taught was deemed unsuitable for Plymouth Bretheren students they got up and left the classroom.   

An example of natural selection was the Peppered Moth which because of its ‘peppery’ livery camouflaged it on trees in forests.  Predatory birds could not easily see them and white moths were eaten.    There were other examples of natural selection but I was reminded of the Peppered Moth when I read an article in an online magazine The Conversation.  If you are slightly interested, you can find the article here.     The Conversation is a free subscription and well worth a look.  Always a few articles by Australian academics to enjoy.

After teaching at that school for a year my wife and I took paid long service leave; something quite foreign to teachers in many countries.  

After leave I taught Plymouth Bretheren students at Willetton Senior High School.  At recess and lunch their parents took them away from the school because it was deemed not proper to mix with other students. One female PB had heard that my father had died of liver cancer and perhaps naively, told me he must have been evil. 

The intermittent windscreen wiper

I recently watched an interesting movie called Flash of Genius.  It is a true story about a man, Robert Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper and his fight for recognition and compensation for the ‘theft’ of his invention by Ford and Chrysler.   He patented his invention and tried to get the ‘big three’ U.S. automakers interested in it, but they all rejected his proposal, but went ahead and installed his design in their cars.

He eventually fought the case by himself and won against Ford and Chrysler, but due to late submissions he lost the cases against General Motors, Mercedes and Japanese companies. Ford and Chrysler paid out to the tune of US$28m.

Good courtroom drama movie.

RAC Insurance

Things are going well with my minor car crash.  

My insurance company, RAC Insurance (Royal Automobile Club of W.A.) was established as a motoring club in Perth, Western Australia in 1905. It is no longer a club, but an insurance company which also has an extensive roadside assist role.  The claims against me from the other two cars I sideswiped are being fully covered by RAC. 

I am getting very tired of the plethora of reality shows on TV.  Cooking competitions, renovation shows, stage performance shows, the Undercover Boss, even the chatty news commentary shows are starting to bore me. Are they ever going to run out of guests on their shows???

Sooo, I have started to flip channels and end up with the longest re-runner; MASH.  From MASH, I can get a laugh and even tear-up occasionally.  At the age of 75 years it is easy to tear-up.  I am starting to lose names.  Yesterday I made a nice Minestrone soup and it took me some time to remember its name.  A cousin once called it Mine-Strone soup and even after many years I am still unsure if he was joking or not.

Primary Science Project

I am building a Billy Cart (Australian term) for my daughter’s Pre-Primary class.  The  Billy Carts are a full school project to foster physics at different levels.   It is about wheels.  The pupils are supposed to build their cart (one per class) with supervision of parents.  One dad works at TAFE and had his students built one for Helen’s class.  It was massive and very heavy and the Principal told Helen that it could not be entered because her pupils had no input to either design or production.    Helen asked if I could help and I am building a simple cart which can be disassembled and her Pre-Primary kids can assemble it and add decorations as their part of the project.

Billy Carts used to be around when I was a kid.  There was a BC season and major downhill races were run.  Sophisticated carts had a brake which was usually a stick loosely nailed to the seat box which when pulled, dug into the road slowing the cart.

This is not my Billy Cart, but a similar design.

I suspect there are going to be some sophisticated designs from Dads and the Principal may be ruling some of them out.

I did see some of the physics part of Helen’s project with her class investigating wheels, rollers and inclined planes.

RAC Insurance. Nice guys!

After being a forgetful old fella and not transferring my insurance on my previous car to my new car I could not claim for damages I incurred in a recent minor ‘prang’. 

I went ahead and had my car repaired and it cost me almost $3,000.   The other two cars I sideswiped have not yet been repaired and I have had no claims for their damage from their insurers.

I thought I would write to the CEO of RAC Insurance and ask for some consideration due to almost 40 years with them and the dwellings, vehicles and household contents we have had insured over those years.   Just had a phone call from a young lady who told me that RAC would backdate my cover and all is good.  Whew!

Kudos to RAC.

Annual Health Assessment

Yesterday I attended my GP’s medical centre for my first  Annual Health Assessment.  It is funded for Australians over 75 by Medicare.  It took about one hour with a clinical nurse and then a followup with the GP.     I was tested for mental, physical and other functions which at 75 start to slow down.  She told me that I perhaps should drink less, or no wine and get some regular exercise.  I countered that I walk a lot especially as I usually forget what I went out to my workshop for and have to return inside to remember what it was.

Generally I measured up pretty well.  The doc gave me my free flu shot, had a bit of a chat and it was done.

In the evening my daughter Helen went to the Perth Crown Casino with a couple of her friends to see ‘Wicked’.   I got the job of looking after my grandkids; her two Staffies.  Helen and friends had booked a room and were making a night of it and I had the girls overnight.  I drove around to their house to collect Rosie and Ruby and strangely Ruby was spooked by me and went and hid.  I rang Helen and she suggested food was the answer, so I returned with some dog food and Ruby decided that it was OK to get into my car and we were home.  Helen had brought their sleeping mat around and we had a good night.  I took them home this morning.  They are both very loving dogs and it reminded me of this cartoon.

Kia repaired

My car has been repaired and I am happy with the result @ $2,683.80.   The panel shop is very efficient and the car is as new.   

click to enlarge

Next comes the bill to repair the other two cars I sideswiped.    Haven’t heard much from their insurance companies and I assume they are very happy that I am going to have to pay for their repairs.    

My brother Graham suggested that I should think of the money I will lose as owning a wooden boat moored in the Swan River requiring lots of maintenance. Been there; done that and it was quite an expensive hobby.

A better day

It hadn’t been a good week so far.  My car is in a panel shop and I should have it back on Friday.    The quote was better than I thought it would be @ a total of $2,452.74.    It was a very detailed quote and I noticed that the most expensive item was a single headlamp assembly at a whopping $1,037.80 plus GST.

Today I had a pleasant experience which cheered me up somewhat.  I was uprooting a large area of onion grass which has germinated in my rear lawn.  Whilst I was on my knees pulling the grass out a Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys) flew onto my back and then settled on my head.    This lovely little fantail bird has made my backyard its home and I  expect that we will get to be close friends over time.  A look at Willie Wagtails can be found here.

Klutz

Am I a Klutz?  I/we have been with one insurance company for 39 years....vehicles and property insurance.    Last December I bought a new car, trading my previous car in at a dealer.  Somehow, Klutzlike, I neglected to transfer my vehicle insurance to my new car and now; after a road accident, the company, RAC, informs me that I haven’t got cover for the new car.   I fronted the company’s HQs in Perth to no avail.  They refunded my cover on the previous car, but wouldn’t think about being nice to me. 

So I am up for repairs on my car and two cars that I sideswiped.  RAC has been good to us over the 39 years and I had hoped for some leniency.  I understand their position....don’t like it, but I understand it.

p.s. You don’t have to answer the question.

Sculptor Sam Jinks

Some years ago we visited the old Parliament House building in Canberra which is now called MoAD (Museum of Australian Democracy).  One of the artistic installations there was a large sculpture of a very lifelike newborn baby by the sculptor Sam Jinks.  

More sculpture from Jinks can be found here.

Bob's Surgery

A friend has had surgery to repair both ankles. The original diagnosis was osteo arthritis Sub Talar and lower femur collapse and wear.    Two operations on each ankle were required and as the X-ray shows, a fair bit of hardware was used to support the worn bits.  Bob is chair bound for some weeks yet which makes his work as a leadlighter slow right down.  Should make a lot of noise going through airport security.

Click to enlarge

A bad day for Kev

Yesterday was a bad day.    It started when I drove the 15 kilometres to Orelia where our son lives in a unit I own.    The unit is one of 18 in a ‘secure’ block which has for several years been the target of a gang of young indigenes.  They regularly kick in panels of the steel rear fence and break into cars.  I have repaired it twice but this time the Strata company had a handyman repair it.   Our son, Martin, told me that it was a poor repair job and we decided to see if we could repair the repair.

I loaded up the car boot (trunk) with all the tools necessary and drove down to the units.  The car boot was a handy work bench for all my tools laid out in easy reach.    We looked at the job and realised that there was not much we could do to make it more secure and so I decided to go home and closed the car boot with my car keys and house keys well and truly secured inside the boot.  What to do?     Martin said he would drive me home and I could try and break in to the house doing as little damage as possible.   Unfortunately Martin didn’t have enough fuel to get me home and didn’t have a single dollar and my wallet was sitting on the passenger’s seat.   OK, lets ring roadside assistance.  Somehow the number given to me by the car dealer connected me to Roadside Assistance in Sydney town some 3,954 kilometres away.  Damn!  I could not think of anyone else who could come to my rescue so we decided to break the rear quarter window and get entry to the car and boot.  Tough piece of glass that was; but it eventually broke and we opened the doors to the tune of a loud alarm.  Once the alarm stopped, I pressed the boot opener, but it didn’t open.   OK, fold down the back seats and crawl into the boot and get my keys.   No go.  The seats are folded down by opening the boot and pulling on knobs inside the boot.

We now had money to buy fuel, but I was hesitant to break house glass, so rang our daughter at work and asked if I could drive to her workplace and borrow her house keys and find the spare set of keys for my place in their key receptacle.   Helen is a teacher in the nearby town of Rockingham and it was fortunate that she was not teaching at the time and could answer her phone.  So, we drove to Rockingham, got Helens house keys, drove to her place, got my house keys, got into my house and grabbed the spare car keys and drove back to the units.  Easy eh?   Nah!

I have sourced a new quarter window glass and will try and get instructions on fitting it.  It costs $88. and a quote for installation was around $300.

That evening Helen came to my place with my grandkids (two staffies) and she cooked a wonderful meal and we had a few soothing drinks.  Helen’s husband James is week on at a gold mine.

Internet Scams

There are many scams in internet world.   The earliest included romantic scams emanating from Nigeria.  Millions of dollars flowed into Nigeria from  lonely-hearters all around the world.    Even today the word Nigeria doesn’t seem to spook the LHers.  

Lottery scams are still around.....I regularly get excited when I receive an email telling me that I have won 250,000 British Pounds in an international lottery which I had forgotten that I had purchased a ticket in.

eBay scams; PayPal scams, bank scams (Due to misuse of your account, it has been shut down), ISP scams (your email account has been suspended). Computer repair scams (Your Microsoft computer is corrupted)

Yesterday my son-in-law, at work on a mine site, received an email on his phone supposedly from the Australian Federal Police advising him that he must pay $195. for a traffic infringement.  The Aus Federal Police are pretty busy with drug busts, terrorist threats etc etc, but not state traffic infringements.     The AFP have posted a warning about this scam on their web page.  See here.

Alzheimers research study

After carefully reading the 22 page information document about the Alzheimers research study, I decided I would not agree to participate in the 5 year study and have those years tied down to dates throughout each year.   There were a couple of other considerations as well.  One medical condition I have which may be affected by the drug (assuming that I would get the drug and not a placebo).   

 At 75, there is a good chance that the next 5 years might be my last and I want to be able to travel etc whenever I want. 

Oesophageal Cancer update

My friend Dennis has, it seems, dodged the bullet.   Yesterday he underwent the endoscopic ultrasound to determine whether the cancer had penetrated the wall of his oesophagus.  The surgeon told Dennis that if it had not penetrated the wall he would go ahead and remove it.   Fortunately for Den it had not and the surgeon went ahead and removed the nodule and  stopped the bleeding with an application of diluted adrenaline and the application of two clips.  There is to be a follow-up at the same hospital in about a week.

Unbeknown to Dennis he had a complaint named Barrett's Syndrome which is a scarring of the oesophagus due to acid from gastric reflux.  It seems that the body tries to repair the affected area by covering it with tissue from the lower gastrointestinal tract.  Problem there is that that tissue is prone to carcinoma.  So if you have had persistent gastric reflux over some period, ask your GP if an endoscopy is a good idea. It certainly was a good idea for Dennis.

The procedure was done at the newly commissioned  Fiona Stanley hospital.  

Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia....here.

Oesophageal Cancer

A good friend, Dennis, has just been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.  We have know each other for around 60 years.

He had a persistent and uncomfortable pain for some weeks before getting the bad news.   Dennis had a CT scan a few days ago and is about to have an endoscopic ultrasound which more accurately determines how far the cancer has grown into the oesophagus.  This test can also show if the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.

With these results the oncologist/surgeon can decide on the treatment.

He is facing this threat with good humour and all his friends are hoping for a good outcome.

Bastard disease!

The Bali 9

Following the execution of two Australian citizens in Indonesia, there has been an outpouring of grief and anger by many Australians.  Our Prime Minister has recalled our ambassador to Indonesia and made some veiled threats about aid and cooperation between Australia and Indonesia.  

Through the online forums, calls have been made for Australians to boycott Bali as a holiday destination.  Understandably, Indonesians have called for a boycott of Australia.

One of my friends has just booked a flight to Bali in July.  She may well be rattled going through immigration and customs at Denpassar airport.  

Australia’s beef cattle exports may well be terminated and cooperation on people smuggling through Indonesia to Australia may be over.  

The two Australians executed were drug traffickers, not into Indonesia, but out of Indonesia to Australia. The Australian Federal Police tipped off Indonesian customs officials in Bali and 9 Australians including the two ring leaders, were caught with 8.3kg of heroin strapped to their bodies.  An investigation is currently looking into how the AFP caused the Bali 9 to be arrested in a country which has the death penalty for drug smuggling.  Had they been arrested upon arrival in Australia they would have been jailed, but not executed.  The rest of the traffickers are still in prison after 10 years of life sentences.

Executions are carried out in many countries still.  Click here for info on other countries still practising capital punishment.

Cheap printer inks

Yesterday I ordered a pack of 5 ink cartridges for a HP deskjet all-in-one printer.  They are now on their way from Sydney to me in Western Australia, freight free, costing only $15.90 AUD.  In  an Australia-wide company, OfficeWorks, the price is $112.00.  The OfficeWorks package is a genuine HP product in a nice cardboard box.  Mine will come in a plastic bag wrapped in bubblewrap, delivered to my door.

The printer manufacturers caution printer owners not to buy cheap inks as that is where their profits really come from.  Most genuine inks cost more than a new printer.  Another bit of trickery is the fact that most new printers have half filled cartridges in them.

A language problem?

I, at 75 years of age, can get by in four languages.  English of course, is my own language, but my time in Papua New Guinea taught me the basics of conversation of the two Lingua Franca of PNG, Hiri Motu and Tok Pisin.

I learnt the basic 50 words of German when I was an apprentice at a large government engineering works in the 1950s.  I was befriended by a German workmate who was a Luftwaffe pilot during WW2.  Somehow I felt that a pilot was not part of the atrocities that were part of  the German war machine and I became friends with a German group who had settled in Western Australia and were ‘fitting in’.  They built houses for each other in a group project and I followed along listening to their conversations and learning their 50 words of German.

Later I read more about the atrocities and the propaganda that sucked in the population of Germany to despise Jews and the acceptance of the Final Solution.

What is strange is that when I now read something on-line which demands a comment I immediately think of adding my comment in my 50 word Deutsche. What is happening?

In the 1990s my wife Joan and I spent a pleasant 4 weeks in the south of France.  Joan had been a French teacher and spoke the language well.  When we were about to return home to Australia we had to drive to Frankfurt to fly out.  Joan told me it was my turn to book a hotel in Frankfurt.  I rang a hotel and started to bumble my way through my simple German and the receptionist interrupted me saying...'excuse me sir, do you speak English?'   Whew!

Australia's National Broadband Network

Yesterday I helped my brother Graham set up his National Broadband Network connection.  The internal box had been installed about a week ago and what should have been a simple connection stumped me, so I called the Telstra support people and with quite a bit of fiddling around was guided through the resetting of the modem and a change of password and everything is running well.   

NBN requires its own phone and Graham’s nice phones would not work with the new setup.   He was pleasantly surprised at the download speed of 24mbps (Megabits per second).    My download from my wireless provider just a few minutes ago was 9.24mbps which I feel is a reasonable speed.  However my speed may vary depending on the time of the day  and how many people are using the service at that time.  Around 4pm when kids are home from school, mine will slow down considerably.

South Korea boasts the fastest connection speed @ 21.9mbps.

Alzheimer's Research

About a month ago I had a phone call from the McCusker Alzheimer’s Research Foundation of Western Australia.  The caller asked if I was interested in joining a clinical trial of a drug which is used to delay the clinical symptoms of Alzheimers Disease.  The study will run for a minimum of 4 years. I agreed to talking about the trial at a later date and had a follow-up phone call from  the McClusker Foundation yesterday.

After a detailed explanation, I agreed to participate.    The trial goes something like this... an initial interview with a blood test and a couple of memory tests.  Sign the documents and start.    The name of the trial is long.

A Double Blind, Randomized, Placebo Controlled, Parallel Group Study to Simultaneously Qualify a Biomarker Algorithm for Prognosis of Risk of Developing Mild Cognative Impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (MCE due to AD) and to Test the Safety and Efficacy of Pioglitazone to Delay the Onset of MCI due to AD in Cognitively Normal Subjects

Or as I read it, there are two groups, one taking a placebo and the other taking Pioglitazone. We are testing the safety and efficacy of the drug.   I already have symptoms of MCI (mild cognative impairment) I am losing names and my car keys.

I’ll let everyone know how things work out, if I remember.

Papua New Guinea expatriates gathering

last Friday I attended a gathering of Papua New Guinea expatriates.  There were about 50 of us and there was lots of reminiscing of our times there.  We had a nice lunch and a listened to a visiting speaker named Eric McCrum.  Eric features regularly on ABC radio as The Bird Man and is very knowledgeable about Australian birds.   

He was invited to do a presentation about his time in Papua New Guinea.  His presentation was an old fashioned slide show with his commentary.  I thought that it was a well practised package he had used many times before, probably at senior citizens’ gatherings or schools.    It was like preaching to the converted as all of us had spent time in PNG.  I noticed a few people turning off and a couple of oldies having a bit of shuteye.  Never-the-less, it was worthwhile as there were some familiar scenes in the 100+ slides that just about everyone would have remembered.  All in all, a good day where I met and talked with a few people I had not met before. 

Goodbye Pencil Pine

All gone

Some time ago I mentioned a pencil pine in my front garden which had to go.   It has gone.   It was felled in no time by a Samoan couple whilst I went to an ATM to withdraw some cash. When I returned, they were doing a poor cleanup and then moved next door to remove 4 small branches of my neighbours’ tree hanging over the fence of their next door neighbours.  

They conned my neighbour suggesting that her neighbours were unhappy with the branches hanging over their fence.  Her neighbours weren’t home, and their displeasure was supposedly told to the tree people by their neighbour, in the next house along.  Sounds like BS to me.

I was a bit offside with their price and the fact that they left a stump protruding about 6” above ground level.  They offered to return with a stump grinder to remove the stump at an extra fee, but I told them to be off with their tax-free cash.

I spent an hour digging a little deeper around the stump and cut it below ground level with my blunt chain saw.   Must buy a new chain.

Domestic solar power

I have solar panels on my roof, feeding electricity into the power grid @ 40 cents a unit.  I buy power from the grid @ 7.135 cents a unit to do my night time washing etc and most power bills either give me a credit or a very small bill.  I like it!    For the last 6 weeks my solar system has been down and I have not sold any power to the power company.  

The problem was a faulty inverter which converts DC power from the panels into AC 240v.  The company which installed the system no longer services my system and the warranty etc has been taken over by a German company.  It has been over a month without a replacement inverter and only yesterday did I receive a phone call telling me that a replacement inverter would be installed today.   A young man installed it in about 10 minutes and even with heavy cloud cover I can see power being produced.

The entire system is a Chinese-made setup and many customers have had up to 4 replacement inverters within the 5 year warranty period.   I asked the installer whether other brands were any better and he told me that it seems like the German brand also has problems.  A new inverter cost around $400 installed, so if this one fails again, I will buy a new inverter with a new 5 year warranty.

The state government is the owner of the power grid and power stations and is hinting that owners of solar setups will be charged a higher fee over regular users to maintain the power lines and infrastructure.  I guess that's reasonable.

Esperance, Western Australia

Our road trip to Esperance was somewhat tiring; over 7 hours of driving with little of interest en route.  I was great catching up with sister Shirl and her kids  and Esperance town is a beautiful place with fine beaches and scenery.

I renamed Esperance 4Wheel Drive City as it seems obligatory to have at least 3, 4WD vehicles parked in the driveway.  There are a few car yards selling new and SH cars, but they don’t have the sales of the 4W drives.

In the business area of the town the pedestrian crosswalks are the opposite of crosswalks in Perth or Fremantle city.  People crossing have to give way to vehicles.  At first I thought that was a bit silly, but there is a lot of  traffic and also lots of people (especially during Easter) and the constant pedestrian crossings would certainly cause traffic chaos.

downtown Esperance

the town foreshore is grassed, with a nice white beach and lots of meeting places and facilities like these toilets/showers

Driving back to Fremantle took a little longer as the main roads were feeding cars, caravans and 4WDrives from various Easter holiday sites around the coast.  We left at 7.30am and arrived at my house around 4.30pm.

I have an air compressor which has been unserviceable for some time.  It is invaluable for blowing out dust in the many computers I restore for needy people.  The regulator died and air leaked out all around it and none went into the air tank.  The price for a replacement regulator in Australia was almost as much as I paid for the whole thing; so I went on eBay, found one in China for A$11.70 post free and delivered to my door today.  It was exactly the same as the original and the compressor is back on deck, working well.

old bits

new regulator fitted

Road trip to Esperance

My sister Shirley turns 70 on Sunday.  Brother Graham and I are driving down south to Esperance for the celebration.  Leaving early Friday; returning Monday.  It is over 700 kilometres and we will be sharing the driving.  Not a lot to see en route...just farms and a few small towns.

Esperance is a nice seaside town but I would rather it a bit closer to the city. 

  Easter  is the time when people from Kalgoorlie head down to take a look at the ocean and even take a dip in the cool waters.   Sister Shirl has lived down there for many years to be near her daughter Karen.   When she needs to head up to Perth for something important the return airfare is around $800.  That’s about three return trips to Bali.

1942 Ford GPW Jeep

I have owned three Jeeps; two were wartime Jeeps and another was a postwar CJ3B remodelled from the wartime Jeep.

The three Jeeps were found in Papua New Guinea where I taught for almost 10 years in a split service starting in 1961 and finishing in 1975.   I shipped home to Western Australia the  last Jeep I owned in Popondetta a town in the Northern District of PNG.  I rebuilt it over  couple of years and eventually sold it to a colleague who still uses it on his farm.

The Jeep story is quite amazing.  The U.S. government’s military needed a small, light 4 wheel drive do-all vehicle.  In 1941, one vehicle manufacturer submitted a design which didn’t quite fit the bill.  The design was given to Willys and a series of modifications created the MB.  The vehicle was called a GP (general purpose) vehicle which became Jeep. 

Two companies built the Jeep, Ford and Willys and a total of 640,000+ rolled off the production lines; 30 per hour.  I believe that most of the Jeeps used overseas never returned to the U.S..  There were many in PNG post war and my hometown, Fremantle in Western Australia, saw plenty of Jeeps during WW2.  I can remember them buzzing around the streets regularly.

I am sorry that I sold my jeep.  Great basic machine.

It is a Ford Jeep and the Ford company marked almost every part with the Ford logo.  The true Jeep enthusiast will notice the right-hand drive.  No RH drive Jeeps were made in WW2.  I converted it to RH drive to licence it.

Losing it

Today I decided to drive to Perth city to sell some old gold jewellery bits to the Perth Mint.   The total amount was less than an ounce, but I thought I should sell it before I lose my mind completely.  

  

I googled the Perth Mint site and found that I need a few  bits of ID.....passport/drivers licence, a recent utilities bill; gas/water/power showing my address and name. 

Jumped in the car and drove the  23 kilometres, parked the car and found I had brought all my ID, but not the jewellery.   Doh! 

The Perth Mint is a lovely old building opened in 1899.   It mints coins and medals and sells gold bars to people who think WW3 is imminent.

Midnight in Paris

I have just re-watched a wonderful movie for about the fifth time and I am convinced it is the best movie I have ever seen.  Looking through a few glasses of almost two bottles of of Seaview Brut, I may, however, be influenced by alcohol.

Midnight in Paris is one of Woody Allen’s best movies.      Get it (anyway you can) and enjoy it.

I am influenced, of course, by the month we spent in France and experienced first-hand the people and country-side of that wonderful place.

Food from China

Australia has been experiencing an outbreak of Hepatitis A brought into the country in frozen berries imported from China.   The berries were processed and packed in Shandong Province which has a high level of pollution from a number of sources.  

  

Yesterday I bought a packet of Salt and Pepper Squid to have as a snack.  It was bought from one of the two big players in the grocery market.  Tasted good, but as I read the info on the side of the pack I found that the squid were from New Zealand, sent to China and processed and packed there. 

I am unsure as how much extra they would have cost if they were processed and packaged in NZ or even Australia?   I would pay the extra.

Recently I have been buying bananas grown at Carnarvon, 909 kilometres North of Perth, Western Australia.  They are about half the size of Queensland bananas and often don’t look as good as Qld bananas, but they are sweeter and have softer flesh which I have come to prefer.  A few days ago Cyclone Olwyn destroyed all the Carnarvon banana crops and it is going to be up to 24 months before more Carnarvon bananas are available.  Damn! 

Pic from Farm Weekly

To die alone

A couple of days ago our son Martin rang to tell me that the unit above his was leaking a considerable amount of water over a balcony into woodwork in his/my unit.  I suggested he go upstairs and mention it to the tenant above and see if they could work out what the problem was.   He didn’t respond to Martin's knocking and so Martin decided to leave it a day to put a note on his door.

Early this morning police arrived and Martin talked to a policeman who told of the death of the tenant estimated to be several days before.  The police told Martin that it did not appear to be foul play and until the coroner does an autopsy it will be called a non-suspicious death.  Sad to die alone.

Update:  Martin just phoned me to tell me that a police Forensic Squad has cordoned off the unit and is conducting investigations.   Our man might not have died alone.

10th Light Horse Brigade sculpture

Over the last few weeks I have noticed a wonderful roadside metal sculpture near a business a short drive from my place.   I decided to take a couple of photos of it and hopefully find out where it is destined to live.  My photos were somewhat spoiled by a busy commercial background from nearby businesses. 

                              click photos to enlarge

I noticed some signage on the nearest building which suggested that it was of their making and went in and asked a few questions for this blog.  The owner, Albert de Boer, invited me into the inner sanctum of his business ‘Forever Shining’ and gave me a thirty minute rundown of their products and manufacture of memorials of all sorts in a wide variety of materials; glass, granite steel, stainless steel and a few other mediums my 75 year old brain has forgotten.  I mentioned that none of my friends would probably commission a headstone as we were probably going to be cooked.  Albert, in sales mode, suggested an urn for our ashes. 

 The sculpture is a life-size horse and mounted soldier of Australia’s AIF Light Horse Regiment and is to be installed at the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Kondinin.  It is to be installed so that at the dawn service commemorating The Light Horse Regiment the dawn sun shining through the sculpture will create a silhouette.

           This is how it will look at the Dawn Service

            The plaque to be attached to the sculpture

On their site, found here, one can even create a headstone, urn etc, choosing materials, size and artwork and can at any time get an estimate of the cost by pressing a button.  There is a demo for you to check the process out.  Great stuff from a business I and my friends knew nothing about.   The office is very techo with a staff of graphic artists and artisans. Drop by their site and make your own headstone……http://www.forevershining.com.au

Brendan from Texas y'all

Over a few weeks I have had  visits from a friend and teaching colleague, Brendan.  Brendan is living in Houston, Texas with his wife Tracy who works for Chevron as a Health and Safety consultant.  Tracy was transferred to Houston and Brendan of course, went with her.   They have been there for around 2.5 years and look like spending another three years there.

Brendan gets part time work with Chevron as a Cultural Consultant, advising Americans who are being transferred to Australia about the differences they will encounter in the land down under; and from what Brendan has told me, there are plenty.

For the the last few weeks Tracy has been in Japan on company business and is heading back ‘home’ to Texas and Brendon flies out of Perth on Friday.  Great catching up with both of them.  

Joan Lock

It is four years ago today that I lost my dear wife Joan.  We were together for 46 years, and I miss her every day.    We will share a bottle of nice Champagne tonight, as a celebration of our time together.  Daughter Helen will join me for a meal and no doubt, some tears.

                                       Joan in Bloom

Big Brother

As I look at ‘Sitemeter’, a program  showing where the location of readers of my blog are from, I see a major trend of readers searching for The Book Thief.   The hits for The Book Thief come from a wide range of countries.  Interesting!

Big Brother IS watching me.  I received this in an email from Woolworths' supermarket chain.  

I have a Woolworths reward card and so Woolworths have my details such as email address.   The items shown were purchased by me some weeks ago.  Do government agencies have this ability?

11th commandment

Yesterday I saw a small truck which had gone AO*.  I managed a snap with my iPhone as I passed it and noticed that it had a heavy looking small crane on its tray which possibly made it unstable trying to go around a corner.  Didn’t see an ambulance, so hopefully  no serious injuries.

Click to enlarge

I recently read about a famous neuroscientist, Vernon Mountcastle, who said that he will obey the 11th commandment....’thou shall not whimper as the darkness falls’.  He has not had to test his resolve yet.  I hope to obey the 11th commandment when my time comes.

*arse over

St John's Ambulance Service

Yesterday I had a visit from a nice ex-student of mine who has been an ambo for a number of years.  She had just come off duty and dropped in on her way home to have a sleep before recommencing duty at 5pm.   I asked her how she was enjoying her job.  

She finds it interesting, BUT sometimes dangerous and disheartening with the drunkenness and sometime violence of alcohol and drugs. Suicide and self-harm are not uncommon causes of callouts.

Paramedics are not in the upper levels of renumeration in dollars, however they are well regarded by most of the community.  She told me that weekends are the times when clients are at their most difficult. 

There is a Western Australian site on line where people can post photos of drivers who are poor parkers.  

An example I photographed a few days ago:  Click to enlarge.

I won't embarrass him/her by posting the photo.

Click here to visit the site on Facebook. It isn't too thrilling!

Australians to be executed

I use eBay for most of my computer bits; batteries, RAM, printer supplies etc.  When a product is supplied from within Australia there is usually no postage charged.  Even from China, no postage is charged, however if I order something from Britain or the U.S. a ridiculously high postage rate is slapped on even a very small article.  Can’t understand that and they get none of my business.

Example is a single DVD of a Mac operating system as shown here.....

click to enlarge

Two Australian men are soon to be executed in Indonesia for drug smuggling.  They have already served ten years and clemency has been denied by President Joko Widodo.  It is believed that the pair are making last minute pleas for clemency but the pres is standing firm.   Over the years other Australians have been executed in South-East Asian countries and the risks are well know.  In this case the Australia Federal police discovered the plot and told Indonesian authorities.  The Indonesia customs officials were waiting at Denpassar airport and nabbed nine people attempting to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia to Australia.  The two about to be executed were the ringleaders.  The other seven are still behind bars in Kerobokan prison which isn’t a Bali holiday hotel. 

I wonder who authorised the disclosure by Australian Federal Police.  Had they all been apprehended in Australia on arrival from Bali they would have faced jail for some years and not be in danger of execution.

I am confused as to what I should think about this death penalty. What these two young men wanted to do could have affected hundreds of families in Australia if the  drugs had been successfully imported into Australia.  I have close experience of the use of such drugs on a family.

Leg cramp medication

As a follow-up to my leg cramps story, my daughter Helen gave me some medication which seems to be working.    A couple of pics of the container, one showing the ingredients; so many that it looks as though they are trying to cover all the bases.  Something in there has got to work.

                                click pics to enlarge
I have just filled my car with petrol at 95.1 cents a litre, which included a 5c shoppers discount.  Hope it stays around that price for a long time.

Leg Cramp home cures

I have been suffering with night time leg cramps.  If I get up and do ballet-stands on my toes, they eventually ease off. I decide to look for a medical solution, but there doesn’t seem to be any serious research done on the cure for cramps, so I will try the most recommended medical treatment...magnesium. Daughter Helen has some flavoured magnesium powder, so I will give that a try and report back.

Dr Google points to a page of home cures for leg cramps.  Check these out:

'I know this will sound really strange but my son really has bad leg cramps. He will wake up just about every night screaming about his legs. I read putting a bar of soap under the sheets by the feet will relive the pain. Tried and it worked!! Artical said to try either dove or ivory. I tried Ivory'.

'Take the hand of the opposite side of the cramped leg, and simultaneously pull and pinch the ear lobe on the same side of the cramped leg. Pinch the ear lobe firmly, but extreme pain isn't necessary. Also, pulling to pull the ear off isn't necessary, either. Maintain the pull/pinch steadily until cramps subside. It usually takes one to three minutes for the cramps to subside'.

'Pinch your bottom lip as hard as you can for 10-15 seconds. It will eliminate the leg pain'.

and finally...'It might seem strange but a black domino between your big toe works immediately. My mum insisted we always had one in our house. Tried white domino but it does work as well. Don't know how it works but it does'.

I'm off to buy a domino set.

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Willetton SHS upgrade

I have been retired from teaching for some 16 years.  I was fortunate that the subjects I taught were mostly electives where students opted to take them and were more likely to work well with good results.....Woodwork, Metalwork, Graphic Arts and Photography.  I have a lot of ex-students I count as friends.  

In the Western Australian education system I taught at seven schools, some of which could be called, just OK.  Most of my service in W.A. schools was at Willetton Senior High School.  Willetton SHS was a wonderful place..it still is.  It is the largest Government school producing outstanding results.  This year’s enrolments are around 2,000.

Yesterday I drove there to photograph work on a $80M upgrade of the school.  Phase 1 is almost completed at $32M.  When the whole upgrade is completed the 22 demountable classrooms will be taken away and it will once again look like a school rather than dongas at a mining site.  I look forward to the commissioning of the new school in 2016 (If I’m still around).

Demountables.

Old and new

Almost ready for occupation

Szechwan Dan Dan Noodles

Daughter Helen visited last night bringing dinner for both of us.  A large pot of Szechwan Dan Dan Noodles.   Delicious!     She also brought over Ruby and Rosie her two staffies (my grandkids).   The recipe Helen used for Szechwan Dan dan is here.

When Helen and James announce they are ‘going to grandads’ the staffies go berserk, and when they arrive at my place I have to ready the rear door and  stand aside as they bolt through the house to get outside.   After the meal, the dogs always chill out with a sleep on a lounge. 

Some months ago I played with a mouse windup toy.  They loved it and I had to rescue ‘mousey’  and put it up high on a shelf and out of sight.  Every visit, after tearing up the back lawn, they come inside and stand and stare at the place they

remember seeing ‘mousey’ last.  Amazing!  See Mousey in action.

Our son Martin has a good eye for good stuff at ‘Guttermart’; the throwouts at curbside.  A couple of days ago he dropped off a footstool for me.  It is probably not something I would salvage, but it does work well and it is in good unmarked condition.  Thanks Martin.

Home brew Ginger Beer

I have just bottled a brew of alcoholic ginger beer.  I have been brewing beer for many years on and off and have had just a couple of what could be called successful, quality beers.  Stout and ginger beer seem to be easier and more successful.  So, I will have to wait a couple of weeks for carbonation to give the GB some bubbles and hope that it isn’t 30 bottles of dish water.  

My computer project, like me, has run into a problem of old age.   Most of the Macs people give have the older Power PC processor which Adobe has decided it will no longer give PPC support to its video player, Flash.    That wouldn’t worry me, but almost all the folks I give a computer to want to look at videos on Youtube and Facebook.  After trawling the net for an alternative player, it would seem that there is no alternative.  A guy in Texas has produced a workaround which goes something like this......Remove Adobe Flash player from computer with an uninstall program.  Inside the Finder>library>Internet plugins, remove Flash Player plugin.  Replace it with Tex’s Flash Player Plugin> install Tex’s renamed Flash player and it all works.....for now at least.  

A Hackintosh

Yesterday I gave up on the restoration of an Apple G5 tower computer.  There are a few unfathomables which I don’t  have the patience to spend lots of time and money on. 

I advertised it in a local online sellers mart, 'Gumtree' for free to people wishing to make up a ‘Hackintosh’.  A Hackintosh is a nice Apple case with a Windows-based  computer inside.  

I made up the advertisement and and placed it online and within 5 minutes had three calls for it and took the advert down.  The first callers drove down here from north of the river to collect it.  A nice young couple who are both engineers.  It was a pleasant meeting with a couple of interesting people.  

Felt good about that one.   

                      Nice Apple design. Solid aluminium.

Changing times

2015: things are rapidly changing.   This beautiful cork extractor was in use up until 10 years ago, but now has been made redundant to all wine bottles except those destined for the tables of royalty or tycoons.    The screwtop has taken over and our cork extractor is  now a museum piece.

An Australia-wide online market named ‘Gumtree’ which is probably a ‘Craig’s List’ ripoff,  has a new category named..... Unwanted Christmas Gifts.

This is an entry on that list.

                      Click photos to enlarge

Raw Milk

Ah, the internet.   Before the internet there were not a lot of methods of getting your nutty ideas out there.   Cancer cures, anti-vaccination, pasteurised-free milk and green coconut water.  Word of mouth is gone; too slow.  Just a few keystrokes and one can become an international font of information on any nutty topic.

In Australia, every state outlaws the sale of unpasteurised milk, however it is easily bought for people to bathe in (or drink).   Websites have postings from both sides of the argument with many people saying they drank milk straight from their own cow.  I recall milk deliveries in the 1940s and early 50s being delivered by a man, usually driving a horse and cart, in bulk to households scooping it out of milk churns with a dipper and pouring it into a ‘billy can’ left on the front steps.  All sorts of pathogens had a chance to get into that milk and often sicknesses from them were not reported in  the newspapers.  If the milkman was a bit short of his milk he was able to top up the churn with a bit of tap water.  There were inspectors who supposedly made random checks of the specific gravity of milk in the churn, but I never heard of anyone being charged for a top-up.

Anti-pasteurisationers claim that the shop milk is tasteless and pasteurisation destroys ‘all the goodness’ in raw milk.  I like it.

Sitemeter

At the bottom of this blog is a link to Sitemeter which gives lots of information about visitors to the blog and the countries they live in/visiting at that time.   Sitemeter has not been working on my site for about a month and I found it very frustrating that I could not assess whether I had visitors  or what they were reading.    I made several requests to their support centre, but never received a reply.  Googling Sitemeter showed that there were bloggers all over the world having the same problems.  I figured that Sitemeter had gone out of business.....and then it suddenly returned.      Sitemeter is well worth a look and you can click on the icon and select an option to see where the traffic is coming from, the operating system of the computer etc etc.

Go take a look.