Bloody Crows

My friend Rob will be in hospital for about 8 more days then probably a month or more off work. Initially I thought that his hip replacement was one of the types which is giving major health problems for recipients. Not so. It seems that the problem is/was that he has somehow acquired an infection and the operation was to drain infected fluid (about one litre), remove the 'new' metal ball joint and replace it with a temporary ball containing specialised antibiotics. When things are better he will receive another permanent joint. Meantime he is on heavy pain killers and and continuous antibiotic feed. When he is able to return home he will have a PICC line feed of antibiotics daily replenished by a visiting nurse.

I feed local birds daily and Magpies and Mudlarks will come very close and eat from my hands. Not so with Crows (Ravens). Even after years of feeding the same group of birds, the Crows still do not trust me. When I place a foam plastic meat tray with meat scraps out on the lawn they are very apprehensive about taking meat from the tray. They will circle the tray for literally minutes, shying away at the slightest movement of the tray in the breeze. Eventually the tray will be upended by a brave Crow and then they will eat the scraps. I have given this much thought and here is my hypothesis.....

I believe that Crows are the bad boys of the local bird world. They are often chased off by other smaller birds. They don't mix with other birds and raid smaller birds' nests for eggs. For some reason most people don't like them either. Is this why they don't trust anyone? I reckon it is so.

Lunch at Fisherman's Harbour Fremantle

Brother Graham and I had lunch at the Fisherman's Harbour in Fremantle.  Nice fish and chips.  As I was driving out of the Harbour precinct I noticed the Ferris wheel was not working.  Graham informed me that it wasn't working today because it is Ferris Wheelers Day Off.

A friend who had a hip replacement about a year ago is in hospital due to an infection in the new hip.  He had surgery today to remove the dud hip and get a replacement.  There have been lots of problems with some hip replacements reported in the press.  I imagine he will be in pain for a few weeks.

non techo stuff

I am 72 years old and I have seen the most amazing technical advances during my lifetime. I can recall the first VCRs introduced..the Betacord we bought at a staff discount, cost over $800.00. in real dollars back then. I still have a Beta machine in a back room.

I was around when the personal computer came out. I recall us buying a Radio Shack computer with 2K of memory. It came with a program booklet and we typed in the hundreds of lines of program to set up a security program. As it attempted to run it told us of errors on line 235 etc and we went back and corrected the typos. It eventually ran and on the screen the questions asked..'Are the doors locked?' to which the user had to select Y/N. A few more questions which elicited a Y answer and the computer told us that the house was secure. Computers have come a long way since then.

I am a mechanical sort of bloke. I have been into engines and mechanical gadgets since I was about 14. Computers these days have very few mechanical bits in them. Fans, the hard drive and the on off switch are a few of the mechanical hangovers from my era. Even hard drives these days can be solid state without any moving bits. I am preparing a few very nice G5 Macs for distribution and one of them has been a bit silly by starting up by itself. I belong to a Mac users' group and I posted the problem to the list and received some very high tech answers from folks a lot smarter than me.

I tried a few of their suggestions before I figured that there is a problem with the start button. Sure enough, when I inspected another machine the button had a different feel to it and felt like it needed a bit of WD40.....Voila, problem solved! Mechanics 1, techos 0. WD40 has an interesting pedigree....Google WD40. 

These computers were industrial strength and major printers and newspaper houses used them. They came out mid 2000 and in many cases have been replaced by the Mac Mini which fits into a person's hands. I like this continual upgrade trend manufacturers have because it gives me older machines to distribute to needy folks.

            The G5 tower,  start panel and the Mac mini.

Schapelle

Yesterday Schapelle Corby was given a reduction of 5 years on her 20 year sentence for smuggling 4.1kg of marijuana in Bali, Indonesia. She will probably be released on parole soon. There is no doubt in my mind that the Australian government did do a swap deal with Indonesia, Corby for young Indonesian boat crews jailed in Aus for their part in people smuggling. Nothing wrong with that. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bob Carr, denies making a deal.

Schappelle has been in Kerebokan Prison in Bali for 8 years. In 2004 she was nabbed trying to smuggle 4.1kg into Bali where she was heading to stay with her sister Mercedes and Balinese husband who own a, wait for it,....surf shop.

Having knowledge of Indonesian Customs and Immigration it would have been most risky trying to get through customs with such a large haul of MJ without having someone on the inside. At the time of the trial, rumour had it, that the customs officers were changed on that day.

We have driven past Kerobokan Prison and the colonial Fremantle Prison, now a museum, looks like a Hilton Hotel compared to Kerobokan. Only residents wanting to stay there would be the cockroaches.  I hope she gets out soon.

Pearce RAAF Airshow 2012

Yesterday bro Graham and I went to Pearce Airforce Base for the big airshow. We arrived early around 10.30am and it seems that many others who headed up to Pearce later gave up and returned home after waiting in traffic for hours. We had no problems getting to Pearce and parking amongst what looked like thousands of other cars. After the airshow we sat in the car for 3.5 hours as thousands of cars tried to exit on one narrow road. Grrrr!

The airshow was good. There were the local private aircraft and vintage craft and then the Roulettes the RAAF showoffs, doing a speccie job of smoke trailing gyrations. Another flight of instructors did similar and I must admit that one lot of aerobatics looks similar to the next to me. Highlight of the show was the heavy military hardware...The Orion, which I remember Joan and Kev and the kids flew in as the civilian version, the Lockheed Electra, one time returning to Australia on leave from PNG. There was the massive C17 Globemaster, a C130 Hercules which is an oldie but hundreds are still in active service around the world and several other big planes which made some impressive near vertical takeoffs. Here's a photo of the Wedgetail surveillance aircraft. How annoying that all those people spoil my photo!

The exciting part of the show was by the Hornets doing high speed low passes and vertical climbs with wonderfully loud angry noises. One Super Hornet did a few extra speedy passes.

The last participant of the main show was a flypast by a B52 bomber which flew down to Perth from Guam on both days. It didn't land and after doing two passes turned back and flew all the way back to Guam. It is a lumbering giant which seemed like it has passed its time, but there are still lots of them in active service with the USAF. I'm guessing that it was a good demo to show the strike distance to a growing Asian power.

I took quite a few photos with a small digital camera instead of my Nikon D70. I recently heard a radio interview with some expert who said that people take photos of events when they should actually watch  with their eyes. I should have just watched rather than squint into the sun and miss the real events. Looking at photos isn't quite the same. There are plenty of videos and pics on YouTube.

Turn up your speakers as high as they can stand for this 2 second clip from my iPhone.

Funeral and wake

John's funeral went off well. There was a huge crowd to see him off. Peter, his first son gave an emotional speech as did his youngest daughter Andrea. A couple of the many grandkids also spoke of their beloved grandfather. Father Michael told us that John was a father to him as he never got to know his own father. It was a long service even including some Latin bits. Father Michael is know as the only Catholic Priest in Western Australia who does a full Latin Mass.

The wake filled Joy's house and rounded off what John would have been very pleased with.

Yesterday I was in the local Bunnings hardware store. As I searched for my monthly dose of poison (snail pellets) I overheard two young boys probably aged 7 & 8 discussing rat baits with their father. The were speaking in precise English without a trace of accent, except a slight Australian twang; their father was replying in Russian. It seemed strange, but I guess he was trying to teach them his language. How did I know he was Russian? He looked like Putin.

Today I installed a Mac with and older operating system which is being used to run some very good educational software I found. I set it up in My daughter Helen's room at her primary school. I originally trained as a primary teacher and taught primary for about three years. Today I realised that the hard yards are done in lower primary classes. Helen was constantly monitoring these pre-primary kids, reinforcing values that it would seem many of the parents are not stressing. I have mentioned that this school is deemed a 'hard to staff school' because parents and kids can be difficult. She of course would rather teach at a 'good' school, but this full time job will give her holiday pay which relief work doesn't.

Goodbye John

Today was Mothers' Day.   Sadly we don't have any mothers left here.   I miss my children's mother dearly and wish she were here.


Tomorrow we are saying goodbye to John.  His nephew Michael is a Catholic priest and will be conducting the service, not at a church, but at the cemetery.  Michael and his two siblings were brought up by John and Joy when their parents Don and Mag died.  There will be many friends attending the service and later the wake at Joy's house.

Vale John Rowe

John has left us. For most of the last few years he was not aware of his situation in a nursing home.

John was my friend.......a mate, as we would say in Australia.

I guess that we have known each other for around 56 years. Around seven years ago he was diagnosed with Lewy Body disease which is akin to Parkinsons Disease and accompanied by hallucinations and eventually dementia. He reached a stage where he had to be admitted into full time care. Very sad for an intelligent academic such as John.

On the occasion of John's 70^th birthday I gave him a home-made gift certificate promising regular haircuts and computer tech support. I gave him his last haircut about a fortnight ago. He and his wife Joy have a large family who are giving Joy support and comfort at this time.

Love in a Time of War

Some time back I wrote about Australian war brides travelling to the U.S. at the cessation of hostilities after WW2.  One of them was Betty Kane from the small wheatbelt town of Wagin.    Her grand-daughters much later formed a band, The Waifs, and  wrote a song  about her and the trip across Australia to Sydney to board the Monterey for a sea voyage to meet her husband in the U.S..  The song, Bridal Train, was in the top 50 in 2004 and a won the band a major songwriters prize in the U.S.in 2006.  Bridal Train was also dedicated to all the other Australian war brides making the trip courtesy of the U.S. Government.    Betty Kane recently died and a moving obitiary was yesterday published in our local paper.

She and her husband returned to Western Australia. He died in 2001 and she settled in Albany on the South Coast of W.A..

I have met another war bride who lives quite close to me here.  I have thought of writing up her story for ABC radio.  It would be most interesting to hear how the brides settled in with with their in-laws in the U.S..   I would think that there would have been some difficult times for some of them.

Husqvarna Viking

I am planning on travelling south to Esperance this coming weekend.   It is around 9 hours driving and it will be the first time I have done it alone.  I have restored my sister's computer and need to give her another couple of days of instructions on using email and Skype.

Joan's Husqvarna embroidery machine has been languishing in her sewing room for over a year.  She bought it about 5 years ago at around $9,000 and today it is worth about $1500.  I have advertised twice without a single inquiry, so yesterday decided to give it to Joan's sister Dorothy.   Joan and Dorothy were close and both were into embroidery.  Our daughter Helen suggested I give it all to Dorothy and I am a bit ashamed that I never thought of it myself.

Dorothy's daughter Katherine, her husband Rick and his mother are visiting Western Australia and we are invited to a party at Dorothy's house tomorrow evening.  I like Katherine and Rick and Dorothy tells me that Rick's mother is very nice.  The party kicks off at around 6.30 and at 4.30 I have an appointment to collect some computers in East Perth.   Perth traffic gets a bit heavy on the freeways from about 3.30pm, so I wouldn't have time to return to my home and unload the computers and turn around and join the traffic jam en-route to Hillary's which is normally, in off peak times, about 45minutes from my place.  So the computer gear is going to the party as well and Helen and James will have to drive themselves rather than having Dad as skipper.

The house is full of computers to give to needy folks.  I placed a notice at a local university and received only one 'customer'.   I'm guessing that because I didn't make  tear-off phone number tags, that person took the notice down off the board.  When  I return from Esperance I will make a new tear-off notice and hope to place most of the Macs ready to go.

Here is a rough photo of Joan during University of W.A. annual 'Prosh' in London Court, Perth W.A.

Computers and printers

At the moment I have 18 refurbished Macs to distribute to needy folks.  This round I will target a local high school which has some students from low socio-economic backgrounds.  I also have collected a number of printers of various makes which needed just a tune-up and or refilled cartridges.  An online computer group which I am a member has ongoing discussions about the best printers to buy and operate, but I think I am probably up there with the range of printers I have collected and repaired over the years.  A couple of members of this group cannot go past Epson printers and their genuine inks even though they are very expensive.  Personally I have found Epson printers to be troublesome especially if not used for a couple of weeks.  I have two here at the moment which have print head problems and I am attempting to dissolve dried up ink in the print head by feeding a cleaning agent into the head through plastic tubing. 

As Forest Gump said...'That's all I have to say now!'

A two-person reunion

Last night I visited Angela, an ex-student of mine from 27 years ago.  We have not seen each other or even talked in all that time.  We reconnected through FaceBook and it was arranged that I should visit her.   I was not disappointed and we had a good time going over careers and names of the good and bad kids at Rockingham Senior High School at the time we both were there. Of course both of us had stories about staff and students that the other had not heard before.  She told me of a couple of students that I had unpleasant times with who had made it and 'moved forward' since school.  Good news.    She, her husband and daughter live in Cottesloe and their house has un-interupted views of the Indian Ocean and is only one street from the beach.  It is on the market if you have a spare $1.6M.

Here is Angie as she is today.    Lovely!

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.