Tom Waits

This afternoon I was playing some Tom Waits in my car.  I went to a Tom Waits concert in Perth some  25  years ago.

 It was  great and fully booked.  The stage featured the front end of a white Cadillac and a New York style lamp post, a microphone stand and a heavy smoking Tom with a tumbler of whiskey.  The audience loved him.

I haven’t heard much of him on radio of recent years and the rumour-mill has it that he has lost his voice.  It could be argued that is natural progression as he was a  chain smoking drinker....probably helped by other substances for many years.

Driving today I listened to several Wait’s (Tom’s) tracks and realised that my favourite track is Kentucky Avenue.  As I understand it, it is perhaps a moving eulogy to a friend...quite likely imagined, who is crippled.

Listen to Kentucky avenue here on YouTube.

Alfa vs Delorian

I have just been watching a TV programme trumpeting British engineering achievements.  One of them was the Delorian car, a beautiful car which in the end didn’t make it in the marketplace.

  Made me think of the current advertising for Alfa Romeo cars here in Australia which has a line ‘it’s not  a car, it’s an Alfa Romeo’.    The Alfa depicted in the ads has all the beauty of a pregnant Wombat.  I guess it sells to the 'elite' because it is ‘different’.

Computer Call-outs

A few weeks ago I gave a computer to a physically disabled young woman who visited with her carer.  I went to her place and set the computer up and she was going to subscribe to an ISP and get a suitable modem to connect to the Web.

She is a demanding young woman and has called me a number of times to get help with setting up a printer, upgrading the operating system so she can listen to radio through iTunes and asking for a USB hub to connect other devices to the Mac. She has a radio and CD player in her house. Not only that she likes country music and has it blaring when I visit.

 I suspect that she thinks I am part of the government welfare system which is most certainly not true.  

Today I have made two trips to her house to help her and just now received a phone call asking me to assign a password to her machine.    I explained that I don’t have passwords on most of my computers and suggested that unless she really thinks someone would be interested in what she has on her machine I would rather not make another visit.....nah; she wants a password.  Damn!

Of the hundreds of people who have received Macs from me over the past 14 years, this gal has given me the most call-outs by far.

Tree Loppers

Over the back fence of my house there was a large dead eucalyptus tree which Crows (Ravens) would gather to await my offerings of scraps of meat etc.    The tree was large, probably  50ft high and I don’t know what could have killed it off, but today a tree-lopping team came in to remove it and another smaller Banksia tree which had also died.   They were cut down and run through  a massive grinder thing and made into wood chips.   

It reminded me of a horrific accident which occurred a couple of years ago when a young member of a tree lopping firm was caught up by a branch and dragged into a similar machine and before it could be shut down was horribly killed.

The Crows would arrive early in the morning and make a lot of loud demands for food and repeat the process in the late afternoon.  I wonder what they made of their roost suddenly disappearing.

Yesterday I had a welfare young lady bring one of her clients to collect a Mac and a nice printer, scanner,copier.  The client is from Sudan and couldn’t speak English too well and at the age of around 16 has a young baby.  It seems that her parents have abandoned her and she is fortunate to have assistance from this welfare group.  She thanked me profusely and in broken English told me that I was her father.  Hope I don’t have to pay for any wedding in the future.

Fromelles France WW1

The Fromelles Project  is a project to identify the bodies of Australian servicemen who were killed in the WW1 battle using collected DNA of relatives who lost family members in that ill-fated battle. I previously wrote about this project here.

Our friend Wendy has since been advised that her uncle’s body has been identified and will soon be buried in a military cemetery with a suitable headstone marking his final resting place.  Wendy has applied for a passport to visit Fromelles and his grave.

Wendy was interviewed by a TV station.  Here is a link to that.  May not play outside of Australia.

Sandwich effect

My daughter Helen invited me over to have a drink which turned out to mean a meal of Gozleme....wonderful! 

As I arrived she was doing her Semester 1 reports on her pupils. I had retired 18 years ago as a teacher and so reporting was a long ago memory for me.  She explained that she could use the Sandwich Effect which she had learned in business studies; Good, Bad and Good

 As daughter explained to me goes something like this.........

‘Look John, you are a great guy, good with the clients and you are a really likeable fella........

but the fact is that your sale figures are shit and you need to start making some money otherwise we are going to have to let you go.

But I am going to give you some more clients to highlight your strengths and hope that you can build on your innate skills on a commission-based salary’.

Souvenir tea towels

Some weeks ago I found a stash of souvenir tea towels in a drawer...around 15 in all.  I was certain my late wife Joan would not have collected them and realised that they most probably came from my mother’s house.  After retirement mother and dad did a number of overseas trips and usually collected souvenirs from places they had visited.  They visited us in Papua New Guinea around 1973, but I didn’t find any tea towels from there in the stash.

The tea towels were never brought into use....a bit embarrassing actually!  

I gave half of them to daughter Helen and the rest I ran them through the washing machine today and hung them under cover because of rain.     Looking at them again I think I will unpeg them and turn them around....don’t want any neighbours looking over the fence and seeing them.

IKEA Flytrap

Yesterday Brother Graham collected me for a visit to the Ikea store at Innaloo (that’s a Perth suburb).  It is huge on several levels.  I thought it was a church as it was Sunday and lots of people were there.

Ikea is like one of my fly traps....attractive, but once inside it is very difficult to find your way out.   Exit signs seemed difficult to find and aren’t displayed in every section.  It doesn’t help to follow the mob....they are mostly browsing.

Brother Graham bought his bedspread and some pillows at what I thought was not a real sale price and we followed a few people with loads of purchases who obviously knew where the exits were.

Neighbours Dave and Judy left this morning on their 7 week caravan trip across to 'the centre' and up to Cape York at the tip of Australia.   I gave them a nice bottle of bubbly and a couple of plastic caravan glasses (American Crystal).  I will be emptying their letterbox of its daily junk mail and keeping an eye on their place.  

                                                       Click to enlarge

What are we doing here?

Thursday evening cousin Val drove down to my place to spend a night and catch upon family news.     Val is a little older than me, and we are good friends.  During WW2 we were thrust together in Fremantle where both of our fathers were ‘manpowered’ as tradesmen for the war effort  My father and uncle worked in Fremantle Harbour which was an important submarine base during the war.
We lived as a two family unit in several houses during the war and I have many memories of that time.     Val married and had a family as I did, and it is just recently that we as widow/widower have spent time together.

                                        Val looking after Kev circa 1940

Last year we had a nice holiday in Bali.

Today we were talking about our time on this place and what we are doing here.   My dear wife Joan has gone and I have wondered what the hell I am here for?    I am lonely and although I have good friends, children and many ex students who keep in touch, I have thought that I am wasting  space. Cousin Val thinks the same way.

And so, tonight I rang Val and said that I would book an nice villa in Bali away from the madding crowds and we should get on a plane and have a week there.  Without hesitation she agreed.   That seems a better option than worrying about what we are here for.

The Budget

The Australian Federal Budget has been released and checked out by all and sundry.   It has, by and large, been panned by both those who know what they are talking about and the rest of us too.

The new government has told the citizenry that we all must help clear up the huge debt left by the previous Labor government.   Did we know that was coming?  

The high income people are being told that they too must help out with a high-earners tax called the Temporary Budget Repair Levy.  Poor buggers!  A person earning $200,000 pa will be up for an additional tax of $400.  Doesn’t sound too taxing to me!

The government has also decided that high earning female employees will get a Maternity Leave Allowance of $50.000 for adding another privileged child to the population.

                                                   Click the pic to enlarge

Youth unemployed are going to have 6 months to find a job before being eligible for the dole.  I guess that is to get all the surfies, graffiti ‘artists’ and scateboarders to actually look for work.

It is estimated that the budget will cost me around $380 per year.  I can wear that.

Bonus!

I received a small bonus in yesterday’s mail.  The Office of State Revenue wrote to me enclosing a cheque for $629.75.    Unfortunately it was my own money and it seems that I had done an electronic transfer and  pressed the send button twice.  It is nice to know that someone in there didn’t just pocket my mistake.

I am collecting family photos from various places around the house and on computers and in other most unlikely places.   A cousin who lives near Albany in the south of this state is doing a pictorial family history.

Whilst rummaging for photos I found a shot I took at a sports day at Willetton Senior High School where I had a most pleasant 13 years.  These ‘kids’ are now probably around the mid 30s with kids at high school or beyond.    Willetton SHS is this state’s largest high school and in the time I taught there it was a pure pleasure to have been able to teach many students like these.  I have taught at a few rough schools.

Ruby and Rosie

last night daughter Helen visited with Ruby and Rosie.   I looked after Rosie whilst Helen took Ruby to a Vet to have a damaged toenail removed from her foot.  Rosie didn’t know what was going on and searched my house thoroughly looking for her mate.  When Helen brought Ruby back she was wearing a collar and bandaged paw.  The vet also supplied a plastic sock to protect the bandage when Ruby needed to ‘be quick’...toilet stuff.

Rosie was intrigued by the large plastic collar and commented with a few growls as if she thought it was a different dog in the house.     Helen has gone to work this morning and James is at work on site at a gold mine, so I will go to their house and put the sock on Ruby’s paw so that she can ‘be quick’ in their back yard.

Helen brought around a nice curry which we demolished whilst watching one of the several cooking shows on TV.

Eiderdown

Last night I watched a TV program about the Eider ducks.  I confess that I didn’t know their association with the name of the Eiderdown quilt.  It showed indigenous people in the arctic harvesting the down from the Eider duck’s nest and using it to make padded jackets and quilts.
The word eiderdown is not in common use these days and more common is the quilt or Doona.  Oldies would probably use eiderdown to describe a doona. Info on Eider Ducks


Another bit of information I picked up from TV last night is that New Zealand has a diesel fuel tax; not on the price of the diesel, but on the number of kilometres driven by owners of diesel fuelled cars, utility vehicles and small trucks.  It is incumbent on the owners of such vehicles to pay regularly for the kilometres driven.   Must be difficult to police?

In Australia, diesel fuel is always more expensive than petrol, and diesel vehicles cost more to purchase.  The extra fuel economy is, in my opinion, cancelled out by the price of the fuel and the vehicle.

Tushless

Yesterday I visited a couple of local OpShops.  I was looking for some casual trousers size 34” with a short leg.  Most new casual trousers have huge amounts of fabric around the legs...enough to make a second pair of shorts.  I found some which seemed perfect, but when I tried them on at home they were about 3” short.    Not sure if they meet the young ones’ criteria of short longungs or long shorts.   I guess they will be for around the house dress.

Whilst I was in recycle land I saw a few videos and I bought four @ $2. each.  One of them was Sleepless in Seattle.  Loved it!    I had seen it before.   Where has that darling Meg Ryan gone?  I can’t remember her in anything else after that movie.

Back to the trousers problem. At 74+ I have tried to wear bracers to support my Tushless body.  I can’t do that and so it is either a constant trouser haul to keep my duds up or a belt tightening that is most uncomfortable.

Update on Meg Ryan.

Blue Ginger

Some time ago a friend, Joy, gave me a Blue Ginger plant.  It is quite beautiful and that is coming from a person who normally considers plants that can’t be eaten as useless.  Info here.

Today our green waste heap was collected by our local council.  I had earlier cut down a tree which was rubbing against a fibro fence creating an annoying noise for our neighbors.  My chainsaw was blunt and so I had to do a fair bit of hand sawing which resulted in some stress to my right shoulder which was badly damaged in 2001 when I fell five metres from a ladder.  My GP suggests that it is not too serious and has prescribed Panadol Osteo which hasn’t eased the pain much as yet.

Another job was a rusted out downspout from a gutter on my workshop.   The gutter had collected years of leaves and blocked a steel downspout causing the corrosion.  I tried to get a roof plumber, but decided to do the job myself.  The price of galvanised steel downspout and elbows etc was going to be around $140 so I went plastic, costing around $50.  The good thing about plastic is that it all fits together perfectly and will certainly see me out.  It stands out in white, but this job is at the rear of the workshop in amongst a jungle of plants and cannot be easily seen.
 

                    Plastic downspout and what is left of the spindly tall tree

Lincoln

I watched another Spielberg movie last night...Lincoln.  5/5 from me.   What I found interesting was the role that both U.S. political parties played back then.  The Democrats were the bad boys opposing legislation freeing the slaves whilst the Republicans were for the legislation.  In today’s political scene, their roles now seem reversed.

Ukraine is out of the news today as is the search for the lost Malaysian passenger jet.

I have no doubt that Russia will seize the rest of Ukraine in the not too distant future and eventually the sanctions will be forgotten.  Uncle Jay sums it up here.

The lost plane has shown no debris and ‘Pings’ from the Black Box have ceased. Suggestions that the plane may have landed somewhere are coming back.  Hmn.

Empire of the Sun

I don’t think Spielberg has made a dud movie.  This evening I watched ‘Empire of the Sun’.   I have seen bits of it before, but never the whole movie.

The main character Christian Bail was wonderful and John Malkovich in his usual; what can I say.....in his Malkovich , type-cast devious/sinister character was superb.

Age gives us a different look at such movies, and I guess everything; and I teared up at the high drama.     That is not unusual for me at 74.  Age heightens the emotions and if it doesn’t for you, then you are pretty hard. 

Hackintosh

I have a couple of Macs which are not working. One is a G5 Tower.  It is a massive machine...solid aluminium case and all the fruit.  Unfortunately the power supply is U/S and I cannot find a replacement one to get it working again.

This model is popular with ‘Hackintosh’ builders who refit them with powerful PC innards.  I advertised it for free on a site and within 5 minutes of it appearing, had two calls for it.  I had to immediately take the advert down as more calls were coming in.

                                                        Mac G5 Tower

Nice machine which these days is often replaced by a Mac Mini which can do most of the work the G5 can do.

                                                          Mac Mini

Anschluss

Good Friday was a complete shutdown with only a few small stores opening.   The Spudshed was able to be open because it is sited on Commonwealth land at Jandakot airport.

Saturday saw the usual mad rush to buy at shopping centres around this state and almost certainly the other states of Aus as well.   It was as though news had just broken about WW3 about to start and everyone was laying in emergency supplies.  

OK; I was at our local shopping centre as well.

News from the Ukraine has slowed down and, to me, it looks like Russia will do an Anschluss to join more or all of Ukraine with itself.  Russia recently increased the price of gas sold to Ukraine by around 80%. 

Chiminea

My daughter Helen and hubby James rang to say they were visiting with a present for me.  It turned out to be a chiminea.  We assembled it and charged it up with firewood and it is going to be great for the outdoors in winter.   Helen also brought over a nice range of food for a surprise dinner....Oysters Kilpatrick, Chicken Kebabs and King Prawns washed down with copious drinks.   Great!

Searching through cupboards and drawers looking for family photographs, I found a newspaper clipping detailing the methods local police used to catch the murderers of a young drug addicted prostitute around 1989.  She was bashed by a couple and was about to front court as a witness/victim.    The couple along with another young man that I had taught in high school were concerned that they may be jailed for the bashing, contracted another fellow to kill the girl with a heroin ‘hotshot’.  He accepted the job for the fee of just $200. 

The killer lured her to a cheap motel room with the promise of heroin and cash.  He gave her a large hit of heroin but when she didn’t die, he rang the three to tell them she was still alive.  They came to the motel and my ex student tried to suffocate her with a pillow, but when that didn’t work one of them stood on her neck until she died.  They arranged the body to look like a self administered overdose.   The cops got some DNA in the bathroom and after extensive phone tapping arrested the killer who gave up the others for a shorter sentence.  They are still all in prison.  The girl’s mother was sad that her daughter would be remembered as just a drug addicted prostitute.   Her life certainly went cheaply.

I got along well with that ex student of mine and a couple of times over the years thought of visiting him in prison, but each time I realised that I would have probably left him in disgust.  Over my many years teaching I have ‘taught’ a few bad boys.

Papua New Guinea oldies

I have just returned from a gathering of Papua New Guinea expatriates held at the Airforce Association estate at Bullcreek, W.A.    The estate has a number of multi-story units housing retirees as well as a comprehensive aircraft museum.  Today’s gathering had a couple of guests; the Papua New Guinea Consul General and his wife as well as the President of the PNGAA (Papua New Guinea Association of Australia). 

I arrived early and noticed a Papua New Guinea couple looking lost, so I greeted them and we had a look at the aircraft museum whilst waiting for the gathering to commence.
The Consul was  fascinated by the planes and had stories about those which were common in PNG aviation.   That gave us time to talk at length before he had to perform his consular duties at the gathering.  Interesting couple!  I would love to talk more to them about our time in PNG.

The Consul brought a lot of presentation neckties emblazoned with the PNG coat of arms.  I haven’t worn a tie in 25 years, but I thought I’d take one for an auspicious occasion....if ever I go to one.

Lots of very old people there and it made me feel positively spritely at 74 years.  The lunch was OK and the drinks were ‘club price’.  Not a bad day!

An Oscar for Oscar?

Oscar Pistorius is sure to be nominated for his wonderful performance in the court-room drama filmed in South Africa (Sith Efriker).   His tearful all-of-a-sudden sorrow should even give him a chance at winning an Oscar.  His lawyer is also a bit of a star.  Oscar’s neighbors heard his girlfriend Reeva screaming as she was being shot, but the lawyer claims that when Oscar gets excited he squeals like a girl.  Makes sense!    He may well get off scot-free.

I am an eBay nut and buy stuff regularly from Australia and China.  Items on eBay originating from U.S.A. and Britain always seem to have extortionate postage costs, where stuff from within Aus and from China are often post free.  My latest purchase was a digital vernier caliper from China.  It is well made and very accurate and cost the princely sum of $18 delivered to my front door.   These would usually sell for up to $100 if made in Britain or the U.S..

So much for manufacturing in Australia and the U.S..

Oldtimers Disease?

Today I went to West Perth to have a consultation with my Financial Advisor.  West Perth is the financial district of Perth and the car bays are larger than other areas around Perth to accommodate Jaguars, Bentleys, Cadillacs etc.  I liked it; my Hyundai i45 was so easy to park.
Mike, my FA, met me and told me that he had booked me in for tomorrow, Thursday. I told him that  I had written down exactly what his secretary had told me over the phone and here I was. He apologised for her and we did a short review of my finances and I was pleased that over the last two years my superannuation fund has made and average of 16%.    We discussed plans for my demise and the  dispersion of my assets to our children.
When I returned home I found a large note stuck on the fridge saying ... Mike Lee Thursday 10th.    Today is wednesday.   Oldtimers’ Disease!

A longtime friend is having problems with his PC.  He has somehow downloaded lots of ‘fixit’ programs and they pop up asking for payment etc which drives him mad.  He asked if I had a Mac which may not suffer from this problem.  I set one up at his house, but at his age he is finding the change to a different computer system difficult and today I brought his PC home and visited my mate Rob who is a wizard on both systems to help me cleanup the PC.  Tomorrow I will take back my Mac and set up his PC, all clean and I hope, working to his satisfaction.

Still nothing on MH370

Our daughter Helen has just been granted permanency with the Western Australian Education Department.  She has been teaching within the dept for 8 years, and at last has been able to satisfy the requirements to get the official letter of permanency by teaching a full year at a hard to staff school.  I have previously mentioned the other ways to get permanency which basically rely on doing country service for two years minimum.    She is very happy that now she can join the pool of permanent staff to apply for schools nearer to home.

Last night I caught up with two cousins for dinner. We did a family run-down of the last 20 or so years.  Great meal with lots of laughs. Thanks Christine.

The Chinese government has been rather nasty to Malaysia about the sketchy details of the lost aircraft.  Chinese relatives of the Chinese passengers have been staging protests and accusing the Malaysian government of some sort of coverup.  The acting Minister of Transport in Malaysia has been fielding much of the abuse from Chinese nationals and their government.  The acting Minister has been most apologetic and last week mentioned that he had noticed the more dignified showing of grief from the relatives of Australians who were lost along with other passengers.   Today it seems that the Chinese government has realised that their stance may damage relations with Malaysia

The headline on News.com.au

CHINA has called MH370 relatives ‘radical’, swinging into damage control over its deteriorating relationship with Malaysia.

I have read a detailed conspiracy theory about the crashed aircraft.  It is too silly to give it space on this blog.  Even so, thousands of people will believe it. 

Google Twin Towers Conspiracy and there are around 1,580,000 articles to read there giving both sides of the argument.

The Party's over

It’s all quiet of the western front today.  A party which was in a house over my back fence went on for two days and nights.  First I knew of it was around 2am a couple of days ago.  There wasn’t any music but plenty of loud conversation by an estimated 50+ people on a range of topics from football to the upcoming election and the Malaysian lost aircraft.
This morning there was some subdued conversation, lots of clanks as bottles were binned and someone playing a guitar (badly).  When the garbage truck makes its pickup on Wednesday morning it will sound like a train crash.

Yesterday, cousin Val and I drove past the Lock family home which we long ago sold after our parents died.  The house was built entirely by my Dad in 1946.  Building materials were rationed after WW2 and there had to be some sneaky ways of acquiring cement, roof tiles etc.         The house is a timber-framed asbestos clad, three bedroom one bathroom place and has been sold twice since we sold it in the early 1990s.  Last time it sold for almost $1m.  Crazy amount for this house.  Even though it is a basic well built place, it is the suburb which commands the outrageous price.
In the front yard is a Peppercorn tree and it has grown immensely since we sold the house.  The owners have let it grow without trimming it in any way and it looks great.

Click to enlarge

We Western Australians have our own names for trees, fish etc.  This Peppercorn we call Point Walter Peppercorn because on the Swan River, Point Walter was covered with peppercorn trees. 

The name of our state has been the subject of some discussion of late.  There are two states and two territories which do not have real names....Western Australia, South Australia, The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory.    If we were to name our state there would be several years of discussions/arguments and probably some sort of referendum held.

Correction: I have just returned from dinner with my daughter Helen where she reminded me that the trees I mentioned as Point Walter Peppercorns are actually Peppermints trees.  The Peppercorns have red peppery berries and are what we locally know as Japanese Peppers.

Done and dusted

I am no Seer.  Just about everyone could see what was going to happen in the Ukraine and it happened.  Russia flexed its muscles and took over a part of the Ukraine in just a few days( OK a few weeks).  Crimea is now a Russian Province.   In the east of Ukraine near the now border of Crimea are many Russian speaking Ukraine citizens who are hoping that Russia will ‘liberate’ them too.   

The U.S. and western European nations have protested the takeover and threatened sanctions against Russia.  That aint gonna work, as Russia supplies most of Europe’s gas and oil supplies.  Pretty cold winters without heating.

Moans and Groans

 Western Australians are to go back to the polls for a second run to vote in the recent Senate Election.  The unexplained loss of 1375 votes in the November elections has caused the Electoral Commission to call for a new election just for Western Australia.

The incumbent Federal Government has made a few unpopular decisions since the elections and the W.A. rerun may change the balance of power in federal politics.  

There are a number of loonies nominating this time and today’s newspaper tells us that ten of those nominees don’t live in Western Australia and most don’t have plans to move here if they win.  Amongst the hopefuls are The Hemp party, the Sex Party, The Wikileaks Party, Smokers Rights Party, Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party, Shooters and Fishers Party, Australian Sports Party, Animal Justice Party, Stop the Greens etc etc.

Australia uses the Preferential Voting system.  I don’t pretend to know how that works, but when lodging a vote the voter has two choices.  Above the line is a simple choice to put one(1) in the Party or group of your choice.  Alternatively, below the line voting means that you have to list your choices in order of preference,for all the parties/groups shown (77).  

Now for a few moans.

There is a family living somewhere near, or in, a nearby suburb who like dogs, leave their marks.  Bags of rubbish including filthy nappies (diapers) are tossed in the middle of the road from a car.   Today I stopped to see if there was anything in the packages to identify the culprits...nothing.  I didn’t use my hands when searching.  Pigs!

Back to politics....A Federal Senator in the liberal Government  has stood down whilst he is being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.  To my mind he has been a bit naughty, but his Liberal colleagues appear on TV giving him glowing references.  Each colleague uses the same words...”Honourable” is repeated over and over.  I am guessing that the party spin doctors reckon that if that word is used loudly and often, people may well believe it.  I don’t!

                                              Mimosa Pudica

Concrete polishing

Yesterday I spent some time with our daughter Helen, applying a few sealing coats of a clear concrete lacquer to the slab where their Spa is to be installed.  James, Helen’s husband, is on site at Boddington Gold Mine and the spa is to be installed next Tuesday.    James and his mate Pete hired a concrete polishing machine to grind down the surface  until the aggregate showed through and the lacquer highlights the visual effect.  Not bad at all!

In the picture things look a bit messy, but it should shape up well with Helen’s artistic gardening skills.  Whilst I was there, we did a bit of gardening with a chainsaw.  A branch stump looked a good place to put up a bit of pottery Helen made years ago in a pottery class.  I reckon it is a portrait of Nero’s sister Shirley.

On Friday evening Helen cooked a wonderful Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles dish.  Absolutely wonderful!    Recipe here.   The author says... This fiercely spicy and addictive noodle will burn and numb your face off at the same time. This recipe requires red and green sichuan peppercorns.  

Helen made a milder version of this using less chilli and regular black peppercorns.

Doing a Sudetenland on the Ukraine

It looks as though Vlad Putin is about to do a Sudetenland on the Ukraine.  

On Sept. 30, 1938, leaders of Nazi Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy signed an agreement that allowed the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia that was home to many ethnic Germans. 

‘Adolf Hitler had threatened to take the Sudetenland by force. 
The Czechoslovakian government resisted, but its allies Britain and France, determined to avoid war at all costs, were willing to negotiate with Hitler. On Sept. 29, Hitler met in Munich with Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain of Britain, Edouard Daladier of France and Benito Mussolini of Italy to reach a final settlement.’   

The trio caved in to Hitler and allowed Germany to annexe that part of Czechoslovakia.   

Soon after, the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia and occupied their country before invading Poland.....WW2.

Russian speaking citizens of Ukraine are out in their thousands hoping that Vlad will return them to Mother Russia and true democracy.  I think he will (without much of the Democracy).

A comedy of errors

Sister Shirl is up from Esperance on the south coast for a Volunteer Firebrigade reunion tomorrow.

It is an regular event and a couple of years ago Shirl came up to Perth city for the previous reunion.  It was held at a reception centre at Jandakot Airport.  I dropped her off at Jandakot and returned home to await her call to be picked up after the event.  As it happened as soon as I arrived back home Shirl rang me to be collected.....the reunion was a successful show, but unfortunately was held the day before.  Duh!

On the Friday I drove her out to Perth airport for the flight back to Esperance.  Shirl has just fessed up to the fact that she was actually booked to fly out on the Sunday.  She was too embarrassed to call me for collection again and had to pay extra to get on the Friday flight.

She claims that she doesn’t have Oldtimers disease....Hmn not sure about that.

Tomorrow I am driving her to the current reunion and I will stick around for a while until she confirms that it is actually the right date and place.

The bastard disease

Some time ago a friend, Merv, offered to rebind a very old original book we have here.  It is ‘Captain Cook Voyages’ published in 1790.   Merv belonged to a bookbinders association and did a great job restoring it.

I was remiss in not returning to visit Merv and finding the book in a bookshelf a few days ago thought I should drop in on him. I bought a nice bottle of red and fronted up to  have a coffee and chat.  His wife Juliana opened the front door and informed me that Merv had died recently.

We had a cup of tea and biscuits and she told me of his death.  I had not known that he, like me, had a Radical Prostatectomy.  I also didn’t know that Merv was a Haemophiliac which gave him lots of problems.  After his Radical Prostatectomy it was discovered the the cancer had metastasised into his bones.   Juliana told me was stoic and rarely complained of his condition.  His treatment gave him quite a few years before he succumbed to the disease.  A nice man!

Today is the third anniversary of my wife Joan’s death.  Daughter Helen is visiting to cook a meal for us.  I expect there will be a few tears.

construction site

Daughter Helen and hubby James are having some major earthworks done in their backyard in preparation of a spa installation and garden areas.  It should all be finished Monday evening.   Then there is the cleanup.  The concrete pad where the spa will go needs a bit of maturing before the spa can be installed.

Some early construction pics...

Their dogs, Ruby and Rosie, have not been able to have their usual run in the backyard and Helen brought them over to our house for a play.  She also brought her washing to hang here because of all the dust the tradies are creating.  Ruby is fascinated with the water jetting from a hose.   Check out the small video here.

Pony Tail

Some 9 years ago my late wife Joan, bought a plant named ‘Pony Tail’  (Beaucarnea recuriata).    It has been living and growing in a large pot at the rear of our house, and after all that time, has just developed a large flower head.    It doesn’t look too good, but I will wait to see if the flowers are attractive and if so, harvest any seeds which develop.

                         Joan would have been excited to see this change.

                        Click on the photos to enlarge them

I had no idea what this plant was called, so I went to my local Bunnings store where a horticulturalist found one for sale in the garden section and I wrote down its name so that I would appear smart.

Home from hospital

Our friend Joy is at home recuperating after three days in hospital following her fall down a steep set of stairs in her home.  When I saw her a couple of days ago I hardly recognised her.  She has two black eyes, cuts and bruises to her head, arms, hands, knees and feet.

It seems that she must have fell and rolled down the stairs ending up on the lower ground floor bleeding and unsure how it all happened.  This was at One in the morning and she had no need to go downstairs from her bedroom and cannot think what caused her to do so.     Fortunately her grandson who is living with her, heard her and rushed to stem the flow of blood and rang an ambulance.  The medicos at the hospital did extensive X-rays and a CT scan and amazingly she has no broken bones.  They believe that she may have had a seizure and have scheduled a visit to a specialist for heart ECG etc.  She has been told not to drive for three months or until she gets the all clear from tests.

Years ago when her husband John was still alive I gave him a home-made gift voucher offering a lifetime (until one or the other dies) of computer support and I have added to that, general household Mr Fixit jobs and now message runner when Joy needs me to shop or drive her somewhere.  She also has lots of immediate family and friends to help out as well.

Macs to go

Over the last couple of weeks I have been restoring a number of Apple computers readying them for distribution to needy folk.  They were given to me by a primary school, a printing works, a newspaper and a couple of individuals.   

Most of them are a bit old, but so am I and I still work reasonable well.  One laptop was a surprise gift as it is a late model MacBook Pro. Thanks Susan.

  I would have liked to keep it myself, but I have a couple of rules for myself when it comes to such things....I can’t keep them, give them to family or friends, or sell them.

I was holding out giving this to just anyone; it had to be someone who would benefit from a nice machine for study etc.  Then along came Kelsey who has been accepted into Murdoch University this year.  I felt she filled the bill and she was most grateful to get a very nice machine which will see her through university and beyond.

Today we (the few oldies who get together once a week for a cuppa and cake) are going to be down by one member. Last night, Joy had a fall down her stairs and was collected by an ambulance and taken to hospital.  Nothing broken but cuts and bruises has her remaining in hospital for a few days.  Get well soon Joy.

Senior moments

Friday afternoon, we (a group of 5 oldies) had our weekly gathering over tea and cakes.

It is most comforting to have these friends to converse with; especially as they all struggle to remember names and places.  I am not alone!

I had a couple of very senior moments this week.  I followed a recipe from daughter Helen to cook a Moroccan Beef Stew.  It turned out pretty nice except it was a bit watery, so I decided to thicken it with gravy powder and cornflower.   I mixed them together with cold water and poured it into the stew.  A Vesuvius-type eruption occurred and the stove top was flooded with stew.   What the....?  I checked the pantry and I had grabbed a packet of Baking Soda which was next to the cornflower.  It reacted with the lemon juice in the stew.   

The second SM was probably a regular for single men.  I carefully checked all the pockets of the clothes I dumped in the washing machine, but didn’t see two new tissues that went in with some handkerchiefs.  The cleanup of all the clothes near the clothes line made the green grass look like it had been snowing.   Only one more day of this week to get through.

Tiger Shark

Fremantle Harbour had its own resident Tiger Shark for some time during the second world war.  Efforts were made to kill it off, but they were not successful.  I never heard that this Tiger Shark itself killed anyone.

                                  Dutch submarine Tjigerhaai  (Tigershark)

In 1964 I taught at Madang Technical School in Papua New Guinea.  The school was a boarding school and I thought I would catch a shark to augment the student rations.  I set a drum line near the harbour entrance and the following morning took a school boat with a couple of students up to the harbour mouth to check the line.  We had caught a large Tiger Shark.  We towed it back to the school boatshed and I started to cut some filets to cook for breakfast.  The students would not eat it because they all knew someone who had been taken by a shark at their coastal villages.  I tasted some, but it had a strong ammonia smell/taste.

I am ambivalent about the state government’s catch and kill policy for large sharks, but I do know that you ‘never smile at a crocodile’ or go swimming with a shark.  Mamalian sea creatures seem to be happy around humans.  Protesters should visit an abattoir.