The Queen's Birthday

Yesterday was the Queen's birthday holiday. Being retired we miss out on public holidays.

The Queen's birthday is not actually on the 29th of September, but that is when we celebrated it here in Western Australia. The Queen's Birthday holiday is proclaimed by the Governor of Western Australia based on the dates of the Term 3 school holidays and the Royal Show. This recognises the significance of the Royal Show, which has been associated with the Queen's Birthday public holiday since 1981. The other Australian States have the Queen's Birthday holiday in June. Queen Elizabeth's actual birthday is 21st April.

The Queen of England (and the other bits of the UK) has just asked for a pay rise to run her massive estates and feed her corgies. She will probably not be affected by the stockmarket crash.

In the U.S.A. almost everyone would instantly recognise that when The Queen is mentioned it will be QE2. There are other queens....a large number of them live in or around Greenwich Village New York, but even though the U.S. has long ago gone it alone, I reckon a goodly number of the elite still claim her as their Queen.

Back to yesterday's public holiday. Joan's sister and brother-in-law rang and arranged for us to meet for a picnic in Kings Park overlooking the city. It was a lovely day and about half a million others decided to do the same. Result; no parking and we had to abandon the picnic.

A Trip to the Country

Joan (writing this) took on the job of organising the bulk purchase of some fabrics for a workshop in Bunbury early in October. There have been some problems, including slow deliveries to the reseller.

With the workshop now only a week away, I have been ringing daily to establish the status of the one of the fabric bolts. Jackpot today. The fabric was delivered yesterday and would be couriered today. I should get it by Tuesday. TUESDAY!! because Monday is a public holiday. The workshop starts next Sunday. All the fabric has to be cut up into smaller amounts and delivered to/collected by the other workshop participants.

So we took a drive to Lower Chittering to collect the fabric. We were told it was a two hour trip. Navman (GPS) was programmed and we set out.

Almost immediately Navman and I disagreed about the route. My idea would be Farrington Road to Karel Avenue , then Roe Highway to Midland. Navman had us onto the Freeway and probably then onto Great Eastern Highway. So we did a bit of disobedience, the GPS recalculated several times and we finally reached Midland. The rest of the trip was straight forward and we reached our destination almost exactly 2 hours after departure.

Coming home, we switched off Navman and got home in an hour and a half, including 10 minutes spent buying petrol and food in Bullsbrook.

Moral of the story? We would have had major difficulties finding our destination without Navman, BUT we knew a faster way for the major part of the trip than the one suggested.

Second lesson. Never leave home without a camera. We missed several great photo opportunities on the way.

Canning Vale Markets

Went to the markets at Canning Vale with my bro on Sunday. It is a combination of a swapmeet and new goods market..it's huge! I went specifically to buy a couple of leather belts, which usually sell for around $35 each in a clothing store, but from $5-7 at the markets.

Whilst doing the rounds we noticed a bloke with a stall selling hands-free mobile phone thingies. They looked good and didn't have the uncomfortable ear bud, just a largish speaker which plugged into the cigarette lighter. The price dropped from $20 each to $14 each so we bought one each. The man pointed out that he has his address printed on the back of the package, so we could drop in to his shop and get cash back if it wasn't suitable. Seemed fair!

When we got home we found that the speaker part worked well, but if the phone wasn't very close to your mouth then the other person couldn't hear you. $14.00 is nothing, but we aren't about to let this bloke get away with it.

I decided to take them back. The address was 437 Stirling Highway. Stirling Highway is very busy during the day and that, combined with the fact that businesses are very slack at posting address numbers on their buildings, Kev had a very frustrating time finding the place. I parked up a side street and took a walk only to find that 437 was a block of units with no business shingles evident . We will return to the markets next Sunday and talk to the man if he is there. I emailed the W.A. Chamber of Commerce suggesting that they urge their members to prominently display their address numbers on their buildings. Doubt they will even reply to my email. Grumpy old man syndrome!

Our son has once again disappointed us and no doubt himself. Addiction is soul destroying. We are most thankful that our daughter is our bright light.

The Watkins man

Some time ago I wrote about Carter's Little Liver Pills and strangely enough have had a number of 'hits' from all over the world by people seeking information about the little pills.

Carter's Little Liver pills in fact had nothing to do with the treatment of the liver. The main ingredient was a laxative. The US Federal Trade Commission took 8 years of investigation before they could demand that the company remove the word 'liver' from the name. Carter's LLP was a sponsor on a popular US radio show. Here is an advert from the show. The liver part of the name used was probably an early recognition of the 'shitty liver' syndrome. In fact the US FTC allowed Carter's to recommend that an end to your miseries could be had by a jolly good bowel evacuation

Another of my medicinal memories from the 1950s in Australia was the 'Watkins Man'. The Watkins Man knocked on the back door of our house and opened his wonder case of samples and took orders to be delivered later, or sourced from the boot of his car. I never remember him coming into the house. I have a feeling it was company policy to knock at the back door and not enter the house even when invited.

The Watkins man had a rival, the Raleigh Man who had a similar kit. Stories go that in farming areas there was a camel man...probably an Afghan who sold middle eastern cutlery and fabrics.

Student teachers

Our daughter Helen visited after work yesterday. She needed help writing a final report on a student teacher who has spent two weeks with Helen in her Kindy class. Helen had two student teachers doing their first practicum...one very good; one quite poor. The help she needed from us was in framing the criticism in a professional but nice way. The girl in question cried at the drop of a hat when given advice during the prac session. Both of us have written thousands of reports on students and dozens on practice teachers. I gave up having student teachers when a bikie student teacher got a bit agro at a couple of points I made in his final report.

The report forms for Edith Cowan University were available on the web and all Helen had to do was fill in the spaces...lots of them. When finished I printed the reports out on a laser printer so that tears would not smudge the ink. (Just kidding!)

One of the students did the right thing and got to work on time; prepared and dressed appropriately. The other gal was often late to work, unprepared and wore most revealing and inappropriate clothing for a teacher. She is a big gal and bits of her bulged out of her top.

This afternoon they both have to sit down with Helen and discuss their reports and sign them off. Helen is expecting a few tears.

GutterMart

This week is 'bring out your dead' week in our council area. Cars and trailers and even trucks go on tour collecting other people's discarded treasures. Some of the gear put out for the pick-up is an indication of what the inside of that house is like. Some of it looks like it would give you a terminal disease.

Our modest heap includes a computer, a couple of monitors, a printer and a few dozen old VCR tapes.

Yesterday, driving home from my brother's house I noticed a compost tumbler amongst other junk about 5 kilometres from our place. I didn't stop, figuring it must be rusted out, but when I got home I hitched up the trailer and drove back to take a look. Turns out that the tumbler is in near perfect condition, so Kev grabbed it and brought it home. It is now full of partly digested compost and looking just fine down the backyard.

I can't understand why the owner didn't take a free advert in the Quokka and sell it. Looking compost tumbler up in the weekend for sale columns, compost tumblers of this make and condition seem to go for around $90. I need a win like this every now and then.

Humans and Animals

In the Australian press yesterday and today is a major story about a bit of animal cruelty after a video clip posted on a website showed a bloke punching and kicking a kangaroo. The RSPCA are urging the people of Australia to dob these blokes in and promise prosecution and punishment. In Western Australia such animal cruelty is punishable by fines up to $50,000 and five years jail. And rightly so if anyone hurts our national symbol; the one we shoot, eat and cull in great numbers.

Australia is also in the grip of alcohol and drug related bashings of humans. There have been numerous cases of ‘one punch deaths’ at venues in all Australian cities. The Western Australian Government (or at least the one that was in before the recent election) has legislated to bring in harsher ‘one punch’ sentencing to deal with such deaths.

The W.A. Attorney General, Jim McGinty said: that under the new law, it did not matter whether the death was foreseeable or whether the attacker actually intended to kill.

“If the victim dies, the attacker can be held accountable for that death and be liable for up to 10 years’ imprisonment,” Mr McGinty said.

Not a lot more than one could get for cruelty to an animal.

A win for the Tech-Deprived

Cousin Edward visited yesterday and we made a combined effort at finally sorting out the DVD player/recorder. I had previously been able to record TV programmes and copy VCR tapes to the hard drive, but not been successful in burning the programmes to a DVD disk.

I had been using DVD+R disks and the handbook said that when the recording is stopped the disk will automatically be finalised. Indeed the recorder did say that the disks were being finalised; but they wouldn't play on other DVD players. We decided to ignore the messages given us by the recorder and manually finalised a disk and it worked.

A couple of tricks (did I say a couple?) for old players (old operators) when operating these machines are............. 1. There are 5 different disks available to use and each has different properties. 2. If copying a previously recorded VCR tape you must estimate how long the programme is and make a selection from different recording modes to ensure it will fit on the disk. Not like the old VCR where you bought a 750 tape which was long enough to record just about any movie; dumped it in the machine and pressed 'record'.

So now all is well and I have started transferring old Beta tapes to DVD. Works well!

Fathers' Day

We were invited to lunch and drinks at Helen's place for Fathers' Day. It was a very pleasant day with a very practical Dads' Day present (selected by me).

Helen had made a large jug of Sangria and it wasn't until evening that I realised that it was loaded with alcohol. Joan drove home. The meal and nibbles were great. Cheeses, dips, bikkies, berries etc etc followed by the main of very tender Oso Bucco. Yum!

Helen's unit is on the South Perth foreshore. It is modern and secure with lovely gardens, a large pool, spa, gym and recreational area. Three spacious bedroom with two en suite bathrooms and a storage unit. If it had a workshop I could happily live there.

Quiz night

Last night we were roped into attending a quiz night. I haven't been to one of these for about twenty years and we really enjoyed the whole thing. They were really very popular back then. I recall 'professional' groups of people cleaning up the prizes much to the chagrin of the regulars.

Last night's quiz was a fund raiser for an Anglican Church and had 18 tables of six people. The group who won on the night looked like blow-ins, but they did have a tenuous connection to one of the parishioners. We know this because one of the ladies at our table went and congratulated them and asked them a few probing questions to determine if they were in fact Pros.

Rounds of the quiz were punctuated by other fun games for small prizes. One such side competition was a cryptic quiz and I have reproduced it here with only one clue solved for you.
Click on the image to enlarge.
If you wish to print this quiz out, drag the enlarged image to your desktop and print from there.

There were two Biblical questions and the church Minister, a Vicar of Dibley type lady got both wrong. Shame!

Posted by Kev on Joan's account.

Sunbeam Motorcycle

As a young fella I was into motorcycles from the age of 17. My first bike, paid for by my father, was a Matchless 500cc which broke down on the way home from the dealer. That dealer was an ex-cop who was a bit dodgy when he was in the force. As I recall, when he was at Fremantle Traffic Office, he gave out Driver’/Riders’ licences (sans test) for a fee of 10/-.

Anyway when I wheeled the Matchless back to the bike shop he told me to bugger off.

I had a couple more bikes after that, an Ariel twin and a BSA Bantam. Later in Papua New Guinea I had a couple more bikes.

When I was around 19, my uncle, who was Police Prosecutor at Fremantle Courts, decided to sell his motorcycle, a Sunbeam. The Sunbeam was a beautiful piece of machinery and I wanted it. Unfortunately Unc wouldn’t sell it to me. I was never sure why...maybe it was that he thought I couldn’t pay for it or that it may have some fault that would give me trouble later or the most likely reason that my parents asked him not to sell it to me.

The Sunbeam was built by BSA and had a two cylinder in-line engine. A couple of other bikes still have a similar engine, BMW and Moto Guzzi. Both these engines are noisier and somewhat ‘rougher’ than the Sunbeam. One slight ‘problem’ that these three bikes have is right thrusting torque effect when revving the engine at the lights. If the rider missed a gear at high revs the bike could ostensibly tip over to the right. Never actually heard of this happening though.

Here’s a pic of a Sunbeam. Note the shaft drive. I have trolled the net and there are very few for sale anywhere. Pity.
Sunbeam S7- 1951

Phone scam

On the 8th of June we wrote about a scam on Channel 9 which featured an advert with a simple competition to win an iPod. It ended up costing us $55. before we realised what was happening.

On my computer desktop today another ad appeared offering a $50. phonecard if I could correctly answer the following question....

Which Australian public TV network is spelled with letters instead of numbers?
The three alternatives offered were.... Channel 9, ABC or Channel 7. No brainer there!

See the ad. here. After reading the 'Terms and Conditions' I can see how they raid your wallet.

Please don't attempt to win a phone card from this site. The ongoing costs could be enormous.

Fennel is Fabulous

I admit to an ingrained prejudice against this vegetable. Anything that grows wild alongside the roads and walkways can't be that good. Plus it tastes of aniseed and I detest liquorice. So for the last 40 years I have ignored the enormous stands in Wattleup, Spearwood and Bibra Lake.

Last week Kevin visited some friends and Marina offered sliced raw fennel as a snack. He loved it - but then, he also loves liquorice. I remained unimpressed when he raved about it.

Then I read a piece in some paper or magazine that promoted braised fennel. Still unimpressed.

However, on my weekly visit to the vegetable market down the hill, I spied fennel at a really cheap price - 3 bulbs for $1 - so I bought some. I brought it home and Kevin sliced some up for a snack. I didn't like it at all, and he wasn't that enthusiastic about consuming the rest on his own. I could have dumped the remainder in the compost, but my Scottish ancestry kicked in.

Google has umpteen recipes for fennel. I ended up doing my own version as usual. Dinner tonight was great. Lamb cutlets, rice cooked in chicken stock, green beans and braised fennel.

I loved the fennel. I am now a convert and like most newly converted I want everyone to share my revelation.

Here is my recipe for braised fennel.

3 (well 2-1/2 tonight because of the bit Kevin had cut off) smallish bulbs fennel
2 cloves garlic
6 spring onions
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 Tbs butter
1/4 c verjuice

Chop the onions and garlic. Slice the fennel horizontally in thin slices. Strip the leaves from the thyme stalks.
Melt the butter in a frypan on low heat. Soften onions and garlic.
Increase heat, add sliced fennel and thyme leaves and toss till mixture starts to brown.
Lower heat to lowest point, cover pan and cook for 15-20 minutes.
Remove lid, add verjuice and increase heat, stirring till liquid evaporates and mixture is slightly caramelised.

YUM!! We may now take a spade on our next walk at Bibra Lake.

I still don't like liquorice though.

Mr Rudd's education plans

The Prime Minister has made a few grandiose statements about his education policy. One of the statements suggest that the government would sack Principals of non-performing schools.

I have seen a few non-performing schools and I am sure the Principals are not the main factor in this non-performance. Principals can, of course, inspire staff and students and I did see this at a large high school I worked at for 12 years. The students at this high school; approximately 2,000 in number, were from middle class to wealthy families. Many Asian immigrants moved into the school catchment area to be eligible for their kids to attend.

That being said, there are schools which have a cohort of students largely sitting out their time of compulsory education. It is PC not to admit that less wealthy areas do have a population that is not craving higher education. Several schools spring to mind and there is often a 'them versus us' attitude between staff and students.

We sent our kids to government schools and by and large they had a good education. I am a strong supporter of government schools and have always thought that private schools have two bob each way. If a child mucks up at a private school, he or she can be expelled and have to return to the government school system. It is almost impossible for a rude or violent student to be expelled from a government school.

Today I visited a large private girls' school to collect a couple of computers from their IT people. I was impressed; very impressed. Presbyterian Ladies College in Peppermint Grove is set in Perth's most affluent suburb with fine buildings and facilities. As I walked around the campus I noticed young ladies in very proper school uniform walking quietly around in a dignified manner; their uniforms not dishevelled. The staff I met seemed free of the constant need to discipline students.
Government schools have uniforms, but most of the time the wearing of them is compromised by adding baggy trousers etc.

I would have liked to spend a couple of years teaching there. That being said I enjoyed immensely my 12 years at Willetton Senior High and many ex-students keep in touch with 'the old fart Lock .'

Written by Kevin, using Joan's account

the born loser

Just lately I am thinking that I qualify for the born loser badge. I still haven't set up my DVD recorder to transfer old BetaCord tapes to DVD. My cousin who is a Techo has had an unsuccessful attempt to do it and gave up.

I saw a analogue to digital converter for sale on eBay and bought it for $85.00. It arrived yesterday and bugger me that also won't work as it should. After three or four hours of fiddling I managed to record sound and motion, but it was scrambled and heavily pixelated. Fortunately the bloke who had it up for auction made an immediate refund and I posted it back to his Melbourne address this morning.

The next move with the DVD recorder is to take it into the big Sony store near us and let them see if it is just me or there really is something wrong with it. Times like these....and only times like these, I wish we had a 15 year old grandson.

Our daughter Helen wishes to remain at her current school next year, but as she hasn't gained permanency yet her boss cannot do anything to help. Appointments are made from Silver City (education HQ). She rang the District Office and someone there said that her boss can recommend her. Conflicting opinions! Helen is putting the heavies on me to ring a colleague in Staffing to find out what the real story is. Neil taught as the same high school with me...or did I teach with him? Anyway, I should be able to get some info from the horse's mouth. A progress report later.

Kevin wrote this post, not Joan.

Hospice

I have been putting off phoning a friend who is dying in a Queensland hospice. I wrote him a letter, but not had the courage to speak with him until today. Other colleagues from my Papua New Guinea teaching days assured me that he is in good spirits and enjoys a chat.

When I rang him he was indeed in good spirits and told me of his daily visitors and phone calls from all over Australia. He mentioned that he had intended to visit W.A. again this September, but wont be able to make it. He has made a list of contacts for his friends to ring upon his departure. Very organised is Bob. I will ring weekly for a short chat.

Our son, under the influence of 'medication' gave a front guard a bit of a scrape on Joan's car. I took it to our tame panelbeater to get a 'cashy' done. He quoted me $350 folding money for the job. I figured I would make an insurance claim and only pay the $100 excess. It turns out that after a previous dingle the insurance company upped the excess to $400, so we went ahead with the 'cashy' and all is as new again. Might look into changing companies.
A before and after
My 'upside down' tomatoes are doing well. I planted two varieties; cherry tomatoes and some Grosse Lisse. The cherry tomatoes are growing much faster than the Grosse Lisse. Go small people! My brother wants to know how to cook an upside-down tomato.??

Another group of Papua New Guinea colleagues is returning to PNG for a look see in a couple of weeks. PNG is an expensive place to visit and Port Moresby, the capital, has the reputation of being the most dangerous city in the world. See here. Haven't they heard of Baghdad? I declined an offer to accompany them as they were to spend some time in the highlands. I was mostly on the coast when I/we taught there and the highlands is also 'wild west' country with lots of AK47s and holdups, rape and murders are common place. Not for me.

Grumpy old people

Over the last few days I have noticed that there are a few grumps amongst my family and friends. Most of the time there is reason to be a bit offside about things and sometimes a bit of yelling is a good release of pent up frustrations.

I have a friend who has problems with supermarkets and their specials. He claims that advertised specials are not available when he fronts up to buy them even in the early mornings. He says that the specials (promotions by the suppliers) are out the back, but not displayed on shelves until the special offers are over, thus reaping profits at the expense of customers. He often lets them know about it too. Loudly!

My wife Joan, normally unruffled by supermarkets, came home cranky because Woolworths were relaying ( a ruse to get shoppers to see different products whilst searching ) their shelves. Nobody knew where the beef stock was and they weren't too helpful with suggestions. She says she walked each aisle at least 3 times. I guess that's what self-serve is about.

Brother Graham took his motor scooter battery back to the supplier under warranty and was told that as he hadn't used the scooter for 4 wintry weeks the warranty was void. Say what!? He rang the agent supplying the battery who through a few questions deduced that the scooter was made in China (isn't everything?) and that was the reason it didn't make it past 11 months. The battery itself was made in Taiwan. Graham was more than a bit vocal.

Another friend doesn't like being in supermarket checkout queues when there are other registers without checkout chicks working and tells them so.

I, myself, did a somewhat stupid thing today and roundly cursed myself. I have been bidding on eBay for a number of laptops for a teacher's daughter. They were all from the same seller and I carefully read the description of all but the one I won. Leading up to the finish of the auction I reread the details of the one it seemed that I had a good chance of winning.....'Condition Poor'. I won it and will have to refurbish it and resell it. I might lose a bit of money. Bugger!

Upside down tomatoes

I have been preparing for spring, planting tomatoes, silver beet etc. Our house guest, Jennifer, is from the U.S. state of Oregon and suggested that upside down tomatoes could work for me. They seem to be the latest fad in the states.

The idea is that some sort of receptacle; in my case an old hanging planter pot, has holes in the bottom and seedlings point down. The claimed advantages are that they do not need to be staked, creepy crawlies can't get at them and that the crop is at eye level. Sounds reasonable!
They aren't protected from fruit fly and other flying bugs.

I bought some Grosse Lisse seedlings and teased the foliage through the holes in the bottom, filled it with good compost and hung it on a roof gutter to see what would transpire. This morning the seedlings are recovering from the transplanting and rough handling. I am concerned for these tomatoes though. Nature has dictated that they should emerge from the soil and head towards the sun and I am turning their life upside down. Will the roots grow up instead of down?? Will they have a mental breakdown and turn into a vegie?

Old wheel barrows are good planters for the winter as they can be moved around to get the best sun. For the Silver Beet and Bok Choi the white cabbage moth is the enemy. My father used a badminton racquet to dispatch his cabbage moths.

Birthday bash

Haddon has hit the magic 70. There was a time when, fighting the prostate cancer, he thought he wasn't going to make it. But here he is with the prospect of quite a few years left. His chemo has reduced his PSA to around 6 and we hope that continuing doses will bring it down to normal. The Chemo has not been kind to him. Hair loss and toes and finger nails ravaged.
The Birthday Boy

It was a nice sunny day in his Baliesque back yard....a panama hat sort of day with plenty of food and drinks. Luckily we cadged a ride home.

Georgian conflict

The Sudetenland

Older readers and historians probably know a bit about the Sudetenland: a part of Germany annexed to Czechoslovakia with a large German speaking population mostly loyal to the Mother Country. Hitler used that loyalty to force Britain & France to agree to turn a blind eye to his repossession. Along with the territory regained, Czechoslovakia lost most of its mountain defensive positions and when Adolph later invaded Czechoslovakia the Czechs had little defence opportunities.

The current situation in Georgia where an independent Georgia has a couple of provinces with largely Russian citizens wanting to be back with Mother Russia parallels the Sudetenland.

The nice western-looking President of Georgia, Mikheil Saaskashvili apparently decided to give the separatist in the provinces of South Ossetia and Abkahasia a bit of a pasting . Silly man; he should have read up on his history. Of course the Russians retaliated and Pres quickly called for a cease fire and talks. Georgia has the ‘support’ of the U.S. but I doubt that they want to try their military against the Russians.. Let’s hope George doesn’t do more than a bit of bluster.

I am predicting that the Russians will want to do a ‘Sudetenland’ on those two Georgian provinces.