Food from China

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

  

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

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

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

Pic from Farm Weekly

To die alone

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

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

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

10th Light Horse Brigade sculpture

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

                              click photos to enlarge

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

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

           This is how it will look at the Dawn Service

            The plaque to be attached to the sculpture

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

Brendan from Texas y'all

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

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

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

Joan Lock

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

                                       Joan in Bloom

Big Brother

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

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

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

11th commandment

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

Click to enlarge

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

*arse over

St John's Ambulance Service

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Australians to be executed

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

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

click to enlarge

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

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

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

Leg cramp medication

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

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

Leg Cramp home cures

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm off to buy a domino set.

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Willetton SHS upgrade

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

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

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

Demountables.

Old and new

Almost ready for occupation

Szechwan Dan Dan Noodles

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

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

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

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

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

Home brew Ginger Beer

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

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

A Hackintosh

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

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

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

Felt good about that one.   

                      Nice Apple design. Solid aluminium.

Changing times

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

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

This is an entry on that list.

                      Click photos to enlarge

Raw Milk

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

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

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

Sitemeter

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

Go take a look.

Stamp Tax rort

This morning I transferred ownership of my new car to me.  It isn’t a new car, but is only six months old and has done a mere 7,000 kilometres.     The transfer fee was a bit of a shock...$812.70. 

   

The state government is double dipping on the Stamp Tax.  On the purchase price of the car there is a Federal Tax (Goods and Services Tax), but when the state Stamp Tax is calculated, the GST is added to the price of the car and so everyone transferring a vehicle pays Stamp Tax on the GST.  How do they get away with that?

When I bought the car, the dealer gave me a fuel discount card....4c off every litre.   Trouble is that it is only redeemable at BP service stations.  In this state BP is the sole fuel refinery and it sells fuel to a number of different brand name servos who all sell fuel at far less than BP service stations.  Useless!

Reading, a thing of the past?

The main newspaper in Western Australia is not published on Good Friday or Christmas Day.  My late wife Joan was a voracious reader of books, magazines and the newspapers.  On the days preceding Good Friday and Christmas Day she would divide the newspaper so that she had something to read on those two days.  

When we worked in Papua New Guinea in the 1970s there was no television, mobile phones or computers and so we either partied or read for entertainment.  I confess I haven’t read anything much except technical manuals and on line information since our PNG days.  Our house has hundreds of Joan’s books in almost every room.  Books are getting hard to sell these days and I am unsure what I am (or my kids are) going to do with them.  Example is the huge collection of cook books Joan bought over the years.   I get frustrated trying to find a recipe in the books, but with just a few keystrokes can pull dozens of recipes for anything I feel like preparing.

Something to ponder....

New car

I picked up my new car today.  It is a Kia Optima, built by a cousin-company to my last car, a Hyundai.

Nice car with lots of goodies such as reversing camera and sensors as well as forward sensors which will help me get closer to the wall in shopping centre carparks.  

A couple of days ago I bought my son a small car at the other end of the scale for $1700.  He hasn’t had a car for five years and is enjoying his freedom from public transport.  I am hoping it will also allow him to get work off bus routes.

Is this going to be my last car?

The Festive Season

This ‘Festive Season’ isn’t so festive this year.  We have agreed to a no-presents Christmas Day.   Not sure if that will work.  I have a number of Christmas cards to which I haven’t reciprocated.

In the next few days I will write a synopsis of the better times of the last year and email it to friends.  I hope that my friends will not be too upset about not receiving commercial cards.

Government schools in Western Australia closed on Friday.  The students finished the day before.  At daughter Helen’s school it would seem that some students didn’t feel their school year was worthwhile and set the place on fire.  The damage should be repaired by the start of the school year in 2015.

Every year during school holidays, bush fires, vandalism etc increases.  Is it because school kids are bored during holidays?   I don’t really need an answer to that one.

Sydney hostages

There is a hostage situation in a Sydney cafe under way at the moment.  It seems that at least one Islamist has taken staff and customers hostage and forced some of the hostages to hold up the now infamous black flag at the cafe windows.

There are hundreds of state and federal police personnel surrounding the cafe and nearby buildings have been evacuated.  Roads have been blocked and a nearby rail station has been closed.  At this stage no communications between the Islamist(s) and negotiators have been disclosed.

Personally I believe this one will be a protracted situation as the cafe has plenty of food, drinks and toilets. If I were one of the hostages I would be worried that once world-wide media coverage has been achieved the ‘terrorist’ may well blow himself and the hostages up.

Whatever the outcome, he/they have done no good for integrated Muslim Australians.

PS: Tuesday morning.  It's over; three dead including the hostage taker.  Now comes some debate about how the two hostages died.

Online shopping

Over the last couple of months I have been buying items from an online store named Kogan.  They sell good, inexpensive products and are very efficient in their deliveries which are mostly free.   One item I ordered didn’t arrive on time and after three weeks I started emailing their help desk enquiring as to what had happened.  

They eventually sent me a notification with a photo of a signature at the time of delivery.  The signature was by someone name Michael.  They suggested that I ask the neighbours if there was a Michael in their houses.  I replied that I know my neighbours and nobody by that name lives nearby.

At this stage there was a bit of a stalemate.  I waited to see what was going to happen next, then a couple of days ago the young daughter of my neighbours rang my doorbell and presented me with the missing package.

The neighbours were having renovations by some builders and their garage was filled up with boxes and furniture etc.  Their mail box doesn’t have a number on it and my mail box is on the border between both houses.  

                            My house is on the right

The delivery man went to the wrong side of the mailbox and one of the builders signed for the package and put it on the floor amongst all the other stuff.  three weeks later the daughter noticed my name on the carton and delivered it to me.

I emailed the company explaining the details and we are friends again.

computer project

I have just finished a roll of 600 metres of Gladwrap/Clingwrap my wife Joan bought on the 21st of December 2010.   I am happy to say that I am pleased that it is now over and I can start using the new roll with a fully functioning cutter.  The previous cutter has provoked many harsh words over the years.  The new roll cutter has a sticky leading edge which holds the clingwrap when cutting.   I am inspired to wrap as much stuff as I can now.

The computer project I have been running  for the past 12 or so years ebbs and flows.  Sometimes I have to seek more donations from friends and businesses and other times my spare room and workshop is overflowing with machines ready and loaded to go to needy folk.  That is how it is now with approximately 20 computers and seven good printers with spare ink cartridges.   In the 12 years to date, I estimate I have placed 5-600 computers with needy folk and a few dozen scammers.  After all this time it is still a rewarding project helping out others.

45 +75 = 120

It's birthday time here.  Daughter Helen's today and mine tomorrow.  Helen is having a combined party for both of us tomorrow.

The photo below was taken by my father when I was about to depart for a second round of teaching in Papua New Guinea in January 1970.  Joan and Helen joined me when I had accommodation sorted out and had built a bedroom on to the one- roomed 'donga' I was allocated at Bainyik in the East Sepik District of PNG.  The six years we worked and lived in PNG in that second round were most rewarding.... me as manager of a vocational centre and Joan teaching high school and in the last two years joining my staff at Popondetta Vocational Centre which catered for males and females.

A break-in

I was out visiting yesterday afternoon when daughter Helen rang.  I hadn’t taken my iPhone with me which may have been fortuitous, as Helen was ringing to tell me that the security company rang her with a message saying her house alarm was going off.   I have driven the 400metres to her place on a couple of previous alarm alerts and re-set the system after a false alarm.

This time however, it was a real break in.  A side window was levered out and the villain gained access and stole just jewellery at an estimated $3,000 including a few sentimental pieces given to Helen by Joan, my late wife and Helen’s mother.   This morning forensic police officers visited to try and take fingerprints, but gloves were worn.  They told Helen and James that three other houses in this estate were also done over yesterday afternoon.

Laptop, desktop computers, iPod and other valuable gear was not touched and there was not the usual vandalism often perpetrated by youth.  Obviously a pro who could conceal his loot in his pockets.

Talking to Helen this morning I told her that it could have been a bit nasty if I blundered into the house thinking it was just a false alarm.

Helen and James have adequate house and contents insurance and she is out now getting some of the pieces valued from photographs and online catalogues.

Sexing Papaya

Oh dear me....some people will believe anything.   I have an acquaintance who believes one can determine the sex of an unborn baby using a piece of string with a wedding ring attached to dangle over the pre-birth tummy and noting whether the ring circles over the babe or goes North and South.  I can’t remember which is male or female, but it has got to be right 50% of the time.  

The topic came up during a recent gathering when one of the group said that he has had trouble with his pawpaws (Papaya).  Papaws need male and female palms to germinate fruit and he didn’t know how to determine the sex of a pawpaw.  My acquaintance  suggested the ring and string method. Duh!

Another puzzler...What if the hockey pokey really is what it’s all about?

Discovering ANZACS internet site

A friend, Dennis, told me of a site named Discovering Anzacs which has service and other details about Australians at war.....http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/

  I went to the search panel and typed in my grandfather’s name and although there were a number of Maurice Lees listed, his was the first to show up.  He enlisted with his brother to go to the Boer War in South Africa in 1902.   His enlistment document shows his personal details including his age, which he told them was 20 years of age.   He was not actually 18 at the time and he and his brother, both underage were returned to Australia.  They both returned to the fray after hitting the age of 18.  

I have his original enlistment document and discharge document where it shows he received a five pound gratuity for his service.  Doesn’t sound much, but in the early 1900s it was probably worth about $400 Australian in today’s money.

Grandad's entry can be found here.

Gope Board (Hohao)

In 1963 I was HT at Arehava PS in the Gulf of Papua.   I asked a carver to carve me a traditional Gope Board.   The fellow who carved it had lost a leg and I thought it must have been a crocodile that took it, but he told me he had an infection and eventually had the leg amputated.   I  imagine he was transported to the district HQ of Kerema where there was a hospital of sorts.

When I was on leave in Australia that year I gave the Gope Board to friends Margaret and Haddon.  Later when I returned to W.A. I borrowed back the original and made a copy.  Margaret and Haddon later gave me back the Gope Board and so now I have two.  The copy lives outside on a wall the other original is inside out of the weather.

Can You Help

A few weeks ago I contacted The West Australia, our daily newspaper.  They run a 'Can You Help' page in the Monday edition.

Some 25 years ago, I had collected some photos of a WW1 soldier and thought I might find out who he was by using the can you help column.  The person who manages that column, Jenny, thought it was a long shot as there was no surname just the name Frank.

This morning about 6.30am I received a phone call from a relative of Frank telling me that he has all his records and details of service.   It will be interesting to meet with him and find out more of Frank.  There might be something significant worth writing about.  Click the photo to enlarge.

Busy Bee

Yesterday was designated a Busy Bee day for all the owners of units in the block I am housing my son.  I have attended every one of these things over the years and it usually turns out to have a turnup crowd of three or four.  This time there were only two of us there to do gardening  and general cleanup that the regular gardener never does.

There are 18 units in this block and for just 2 owners to turn up is very poor.  Instead of doing gardening, we, as well as my son, repaired the rear metal fence which is regularly kicked in or out, depending whether villains want to get in to thieve and vandalise or to make a gateway for tenants to take a short cut to the town centre.

We know that this is just another temporary repair but hope the several dozen metal screws with which we secured the steel sheeting will cause them some problems when they next kick it in/out.

Once we finished the fence repair we declared it all done and departed.  I would rather have every owner pay $50 and a professional job done but unfortunately the collection of those subs would not be easy.

BTW Australians speak English and although we have no real distinguishing accents, each state has different terms for some items.   A Busy Bee is a volunteering work party at no payment at least in Western Australia.

Melbourne Cup

Two horses died immediately after competing in this year’s Melbourne Cup.

One horse was spooked by a flag waving child and broke a leg when it kicked a fence.  

Another horse, Admire Rakti, a champion Japanese horse favoured to win, struggled during the race and died in its stable immediately after the race.   An autopsy revealed that Rakti had died from a heart attack.

In the 1930s a champion Australian racehorse, Phar Lap, died on a visit to the U.S..  Rumours at the time had the Americans poisoning Phar Lap.  I remember my grandfather telling me about how the yanks had killed our Phar Lap.   Other stories had gangsters involved in the death of Phar Lap to protect their illegal betting shops.

Phar Lap was inspirational for most Australians struggling through the depression years of the ‘30s.  Googling Phar Lap gives 443,000 results .

A 1983 movie tells the Phar Lap story

Will there be a conspiracy theory about the death of Admire Rakti?

WWW instructional videos

The WWW has become an educational treasure trove.    I have found a number of youtube instructional videos.  ifixit is a site with detailed instructions to fix just about any item from kettles to iPads.

Couple of examples of other instructional videos.  One here by a father to his children...click here


                                 And try this one as well....

Rolling Stones

Last night the Rolling Stones played to a large Perth audience.  They have a second show on Saturday night.
A pic of the Stones on stage.  Clean living keeps them looking good(?).

                                                       Click to enlarge
 Friends have a daughter who is a singer and she was in a guest choir on stage for... You Can't Always Get What You Want.

I didn’t attend.  The Rolling Stones have not been big on my playlist.

Willie Wagtails

I have lots of birds visit me.   Regulars are crows (actually ravens)
and willie wagtails (Rhipidura Leucophris).  It is baby time here with baby wagtails out of the nest and being fed by mum.  The crows, always after some easy prey, are harassed by adult wagtails and eventually move on. The harassment has been ongoing for possibly two months and I am guessing it is to keep the crows away from nests.

A couple of baby wagtails waiting for mum to return with food.

 

                                                           harassment

My Local Apple Store

I have just returned from a visit to the Apple Store near my house.   My 27” iMac was presenting with a white/blue screen and after asking Mr Google, it seemed that it might be a faulty video card.  My appointment time was 3pm and the Apple Store was packed.  A young ‘Genius’ hooked up my Mac to their diagnostic software and in a couple of minutes it told us that the video card was faulty.  They will fit a new card and call me when it is ready in a couple of days.  I had forgotten that I had taken out an Applecare policy and it will be covered by that.

PC people (those who use Windows computers) heap scorn on Apple and the store with its genius younguns, but I have, in the couple of times I have been in the store, been suitably impressed.  So there!

Designing Women

Yesterday evening I attended the opening of an exhibition of fabric art held  in Melville.  The group is one my late wife Joan belonged to and I have quite a few wall hangings of her work in our house.  The group is named Designing Women.      Joan’s sister Dorothy is also heavily into fabric art and she had seven pieces on exhibition.   I am not big on art in general, but a few of these pieces I found most interesting and attractive.

One of Dorothy’s was about her father’s hand-built house on his newly acquired farm in Western Australia’s wheatbelt.   The photograph of the small house was surrounded by hessian (wheat bag) strands of wool (shearing sheep) and golden threads telling us that Ted McHugh was a gold miner near Kalgoorlie to raise the money to buy the farm block.

                                                         Click to enlarge

Printer repairs

A few days ago I was given a couple of nice printers both with some faults which I thought I might get going to give away with my computer project.  One is a large Brother A3 scanner/copier /fax which I am sure will make coffee as well.  I managed to get it working and need to read up on all the functions.   Fax??  Does anyone still use faxes?

  The other one is also an all-in-one, a Canon, which presents with an error message ‘B200 Print Error’.  I Googled that error and found a solution on a video by a fellow in Holland.  It certainly is a quick fix.   See the short video here.

1928 Hudson

Our son Martin lives in a 2 bedroom unit I own.  It is part of a 18 unit block.  When my wife and I bought the unit some ten years ago we never envisioned the problems it has given us.   This block is in a low socio-economic area and has problems both from within and without.  The rear steel fence is kicked in/out either from tenants using the gap as a easy path to the local shopping centre or youth breaking in to damage vehicles etc.  

Last night one of the tenants who is know to break down the rear fence decided to seriously bash his partner.  The screams and foul language brought out nearby tenants who demanded that he stop beating his partner.  He made numerous threats to the bystanders until the police arrived.  The woman was taken by ambulance to hospital and the man to the police station.  He will probably not be charged with assault as in many of these situations the partner is either afraid to prefer charges or needs the support of even a violent partner.

Martin is concerned he will be a target of this violent man.  It is not politic to mention that this is an indigenous couple.  Enough of this drama.

And now something nice. A 1928 Hudson.  Quality car which would still look good on today’s roads.

                                      click to enlarge

This pic is from Shorpy, the 100 year old photoblog.  Well worth a look and free subscription for a daily posting of interesting photos with a story.

UWA Memorial Ceremony

The Memorial Ceremony held at the University of Western Australia was a major event.  I estimate that there were 500+ attendees along with current medical students and a large group of Professors.

I had been in Winthrop Hall before to sit public examinations back in 1959 and it has, as I remember it, not changed much.  Lovely old building!

There were five major speakers who gave thanks on behalf of the university and the wider community for the donation of 175 bodies to the Medical Faculty. This Memorial is held every three years for the donated bodies of that period.

All the names were read out by a group of students and another group gave every person assembled a long stemmed white rose.   Refreshments were served outside near the large reflection pond.

It was not politic to take photos during the memorial service, but I snapped one as the ceremony finished.

Mike Treasure

Tomorrow I am attending a dedication ceremony for my brother-in-law Mike.  Mike died  just over three years ago and as he wished, his body was given to the medical school at the University of Western Australia.

This ceremony, held at UWA in Winthrop Hall, is a dedication to all those who also gave their body to UWA over the last few years.

Mike in 1980s rig

I have thought about what I want to happen to my body.....join the worms; have a BBQ or let the Uni students play with my bits?

Vietnam Bachelor

This coming weekend brother Graham is off on a two-week trip around Vietnam.  It is a singles trip and he has just found out that there are 8 females and one male on the tour; shades of the bachelor.   

I helped bro set up an Enduring Power of Attorney document in case ‘anything happens’.

I have not watched The Bachelor’ on TV where one fella gets to ‘try out’ 24 beautiful single women.  The degrading spectacle of females fawning over one guy in the hope he would marry them is pretty peurile.    I wonder whether all the gals were told that he has two companies in Perth city hiring out male entertainers.  I have seen some footage of the Bachelor himself ‘entertaining’ female guests.

I wonder whether brother Graham will be the Vietnam bachelor on his trip?

Tahitian Lime

I had been thinking hard about what I would buy with the gift card given to me by three lovely young ladies.   The card was to be redeemed at a garden centre, so I visited one of the chain which is quite close to me.   I found what I really needed; a Tahitian Lime tree.  No problems about whether I will be around for the fruit....there are flowers and young limes already showing.    I had a good sized pot and gave it a dose of a special citrus fertiliser.

I also have a cumquat bush in my front garden which is showing a bit of stress with yellow leaves.   I had intended transplanting it into a pot, but the roots felt like they were down deep, so I decided to give that a dose of citrus fertiliser as well.  At the garden centre the man I talked to for advice about the cumquat suggested dosing the leaves with diluted  molasses.   Can’t hurt??    This cumquat bush has sweet fruit which is not the norm.  Cumquats are usually used for marmalade or eating whole if one wants to determine if one is still alive.

I also transplanted a mango tree which has not grown at all over the last three years.  I will give it lots of love and hope it actually gives me fruit before I ‘cough it’ as my grandfather would say.

This last Sunday I hosted a gathering of oldies who were once young Boy Scouts and then Rover Scouts.   I catered for an afternoon of gluttony.  Lots of dips and biscuits, olives, celery boats with curried egg filling, party pies, baked chicken wings, pizza, cheese, salami, pickled onions, saveloys (little boys), a nice punch and a large fruit platter.   After all that I forgot the tea and coffee.   I bet they are still talking about not getting tea or coffee.