Long time no see

A couple of days ago I contacted a couple who live in Queensland.  We knew them well when our two families were on the same government station in the Sepik District of Papua New Guinea; Maprik.

Bob and Marion lived on the station and we, Joan, Helen and Martin, had a house in Bainyik, some 5 miles from Maprik where the Vocational Centre was.  I was the manager of the centre.   Bob was a teacher at Maprik Primary A School.  In 1973 Bob and Marion transferred up the Sepik River to be HT of Ambunti PS.  That was 41 years ago and the last time we saw each other.  If my wife Joan were still here I am certain that we would be on a plane to visit Bob and Marion next week.  I will make my way east some time soon.

Bob and Marion tell me that I did see Bob, at least, in 1975 at Kwikila when I was en route to a wedding at Hula in the Central District of PNG.

Recently I have noticed a sudden drop in my download speed from my provider, VividWireless.    I would normally get speeds of 5-8MB download, but it had dropped down to .16MB.    VividWirelss provides a 4G service wirelessly from towers and ‘mirrors’ throughout Australia.   

Their techies talked me through testing speeds at various locations around the house which was done by using a laptop logged in to a site 192.168.1.1.   It comes up like this.....click to enlarge.

In the BSID part of the panel, 9f-10 shows the tower at Coolbellup (a local suburb) is the one I am connected to.

There are other panels, but moving around the house with the modem told me/us which tower we were connected to and which gave the best signal.  When a tower was found I had to do a speed test at Speedtest.net and it gave download speeds for each position.  If you are going to do the speedtest, look carefully as it is easy to click a download for some other worthless piece of software.   Eventually I took the modem back to its original position and shifted it 2 metres to the right and I now have a reasonable download speed of around 5.8MB.   Whew!

My modem (Home Gateway) showing  signal strength.

Getting old is no picnic

We, and now just I, have been living here in this house for around nine years.  This estate; ‘St Paul’s Estate’ is regarded as a sought-after location.  St Paul himself, no longer lives here.

The estate is divided up into dozens of cul-de-sacs which makes for a bit more security than main roads.  Even so, I really only know my immediate neighbours on each side of my house.  Some in this cul-de-sac do not acknowledge me and others give a friendly wave. Dave and Judy have been good neighbours and I will miss them when they move into their new house.   Will the new owners be as nice?  

On the other side are Fiona and her husband.  He is a surgeon and I don’t often see him.  Fiona is most pleasant and we often converse.  Yesterday she came home around midnight after taking a friend to hospital and saw my garage door up.  She saw that there were no lights on in the house and closed the garage door for me.    

The following morning she told me what she had done and asked me to give her a contact number to call if she thought that ‘something’ had happened to me.  Ouch!!  Getting old is no picnic.

As it happened I had shut the garage door, but the mechanism operating the door has been playing up and sometimes it decides not to stay shut.   I have made adjustments to the settings and it seems to be working well again.

This morning I had a visit by a welfare gal and one of her clients who is about to start a course at a TAFE (Technical and Further Education) college.  She needed a computer and printer which I was able to supply.  I gave her a choice of a desktop Mac or one of two laptops.  She went for the laptop as it can be used at the college.  A laser printer matched up with the laptop.  All done.

Gruen Planet

A couple of days ago I collected two Mac laptops from Ken.  Ken has a  sound studio in his house and does voice-overs for adverts. He is also an accomplished Muso of many years.

Ken played a few of his voice-overs for me and I was most impressed by the variety of voice tones and accents he produces.    He also played me one of his movie segments which he recorded for a comedy TV show The Gruen Planet in 2013.    A humorous look at the push for an Australian republic.

Both laptops have had a ‘clean install’ which wipes off all previous data and installs a new operating system.  At the moment I have four desktop Macs and two laptops ready to distribute.

Avian congress

I feed birds in my backyard.  Magpies will eat from my hand, but Crows (Ravens) are very suspicious and won’t come too close.  Doves are very wary and do not stick around if I appear outside.  

A short distance from my house there is a daily congress of avians which includes seagulls, crows and Corella white cockatoos probably numbering a hundred birds.  They mass on a mowed roadside and the Corellas eat grass roots.  I don’t know what the crows and seagulls get there.  Maybe the Corellas stir up some bugs as they pull up grass roots?

Crows in my backyard visit every day for food scraps I leave on the lawn.

This one is thinking that somehow this is a trap.

The Islamic State

I have just been watching a confronting TV program named Insight, on ABC television.

It has a female host talking with an audience of maybe 100 people about an issue of the day.  The topic was Muslim citizens of Australia going to the middle east and fighting for The Islamic State.   That group has named themselves the Islamic State and I am unsure why I have even given their name capitals.  They are religious terrorists .

There were, amongst the panel,  Muslim extremists espousing their radical Islamic views.   I found myself, at the age of 74, thinking that they should ‘go back from where they came’.  Of course that cannot happen as they were mostly born here in Australia.   They feel that they have not been accepted into Australian society and tell us (the non Muslims) that we are to blame.

There must have been some moderates in the audience but only one man, bravely I believe, spoke out against the radicals.   Trouble on the horizon.

Fush en Chups

Australia and New Zealand have had liberal immigration laws between the two countries since the 1920s.  We both speak a form of English and it seems that far more New Zealanders like to live in Aus than Australians want to live in NZ.  At 30 June 2013, an estimated 640,770 New Zealand citizens were present in Australia.

Many NZers are happy to let Australians know they are here in great numbers.  This car sticker tells us so.

Their version of English is a bit strange compared to Aus English.  i.e. Fush n Chups roughly translates to Fish and Chips. 

The proof I needed

Yesterday I was rummaging through a few cupboards where my wife Joan stored remnants of her many fabric projects and found a large plastic container with photos etc that I had not seen in many years.   Amongst this treasure trove was an envelope of pages cut from expired passports and I was amazed to find one of our son Martin issued in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in 1975 just prior to our final weeks in that country.  Damn!

Click to enlarge

 Back in 2011 Martin’s employer asked him for proof of citizenship.  All he had was a birth certificate showing his birthdate and place in Papua New Guinea.   The employer immediately suspended Martin without pay and at that stage Immigration considered him a possible illegal alien.  My wife Joan would have known that Martin had had a passport and where the proof was filed, but I didn’t and a serious search of the house yielded nothing.....until yesterday.    Convincing Immigration that Martin was indeed a citizen took months.  And he eventually returned home to W.A. and stayed with me.

This would have been all the evidence I needed at the time to prove to Australian Immigration Martin was an Australian citizen.  

If the story is of interest, part of it can be found here.

Ankylosing Spondylitis

Our son Martin has had a interview with a specialist at Fremantle Hospital to determine if he can/should start a serious medication for his Ankylosing Spondylitis.  He is doing a blood test today and the results of that test will be crucial in commencing the drug.

AS is basically due to calcium deposits between joints; in Martin’s case, his spine.  There is no cure for AS, but this drug aims to reduce the calcium deposits in joints.

There is a heavy price to pay for using this drug....not money, but a whole host of side effects and disease possibilities.   It increases that chance of contracting Tuberculosis and  Hepatitis B if the patient has inactive TB or HepB.

There are many other problems with this drug and Martin has to weigh up the value of entering the program.  See here for more info.

Autistic children

I have just watched a Louis Theroux program about autistic children.  I have not been a regular watcher of Louis, however it was a choice between “The Bachelor’ and nothing else worth watching.

Louis was allowed into several U.S. families’ homes and schools to film and to interact with several families, their children and to witness the difficulties of bringing up severely disabled autistic children.

My daughter and her husband have opted for no children, most probably because they had reached the age where birth defects can occur.  I, and my late wife, were grateful that our children were born without the serious problems shown in this documentary.   The parents interviewed were most stoic and I was moved by their acceptance of their situation.

I have had over several years, some association with a ‘special’ school for severely disabled children and I am always impressed by the dedication of the staff; the work they do and the changes they make to those in their care.   

More rewarding work

This morning I had a visit from a welfare person and one of her clients; Sky.  Sky has three children and is working from home and needed a computer and printer for printing fliers and seeking work.  

Tania and her partner welfare officers have brought other needy gals to my place for computers.  They are all young mums under a bit of financial pressure to get by.  Giving needy people nice machines is most rewarding work for me.

Each computer (Mac) undergoes a clean install of the operating system, a new PRAM battery, extra RAM if needed and upload of essential software and some games.  They are tested over a period to ensure they have no faults and I give my phone number and email address for any follow-up help which may be needed.  Very rarely does that happen.

                                    Nice young lady

Qatar

Friday evening I was invited to dinner at Helen and James’ house to catch up with Linda who flew in from Qatar, en-route to Queensland.  Linda is a friend of our daughter Helen and husband James. She is a lawyer working for a foreign company operating in Qatar.  She intends living there for the full 3 year contract....very good money!

Her husband Pete and daughter have rented out their house here and moved back to Queensland to finish off the year before they too move to Doha the capital, to be with Linda.

Qatar, in the Persian Gulf, has a population of almost 2M people and 94% of the labour market is filled by expatriates of which a very small percentage are female.  This, as can be imagined, causes some social problems.  Linda told us that when at the supermarket, a stranger will present a slip of paper with his phone number on it to any female.  It seems the custom is either to  accept, or toss the paper amongst the carrots.

Linda is having a few days with family before heading back to work. Lovely lady.

                           Daughter Helen and Linda

PS.  Linda was late arriving at Perth airport because of torrential rain and slow traffic and missed her flight. She caught a later flight @ $700.00

No real news about MK17

All sorts of unpleasant things are emerging about the crashed (downed) Malaysian jet. I suspect that the missile launcher and the operators are somewhere in Russia now.

The almost immediate cleanup suggests that they did not want any trace of the missile found.  Some bodies are missing and I cannot think why police tracker dogs were not used to find the bodies/parts.

I suspect that the perpetrators are long gone and nobody is going to admit it was just a horrible mistake.  The Russians and their rebels in Ukraine are feeding the chickens (leaking to the media)  all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories, none of which include Russia or the rebels.

MH17

Goodies

I have recently collected another six computers from David, who over the years has given my project dozens of Macs either from his home collection or from his workplace.  David’s house is like a Mac museum and he has collected an example of almost every Apple computer made.  One room has a wall of the early Macs and other rooms have nice examples of the brand.

                     

When I arrived at his house to collect the latest lot he gave me a camera tripod.  I was most grateful as I have a poor model and this one is of professional standard.  When I arrived home I had a closer look at it, I decided I should give him $50. as it was as new and obviously worth far more than a fifty.  There, we are both happy.

Coincidentally

Another coincidence.

Yesterday I mentioned a quote supposedly made by Samuel Johnson regarding his suggestion to overcome sea sickness.    Last night I watched Blackadder on TV and Baldrick, Blackadder’s manservant, fed a fire with Johnson’s dictionary....the only copy.

Read up on Samuel Johnson’s (not the athlete) dictionary.

Boat People

Refugees arriving in Australia have slowed down considerably since the federal government put measures in place to stop boats actually reaching Australia and transferring the passengers to detainment camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.  

Most of the boats heading for Australia carrying refugees departing from Indonesia where their passengers have flown from various middle-east war-torn countries.   Most of these people are Muslims and that does stir up some resentment.  I, and people I know, would probably be happier with Asian immigration as most Asians do not practise a confronting religion.  That being said, there are many Australians who don’t want any refugees to come to Australia.  

Recent boats sailing direct from Sri Lanka carried people who are treated badly after the long drawn out insurgency of the Tamil Tigers.  The Sri Lankan government isn’t going to forget the Tamil Tigers and those who were with them any time soon.  Tamils who tried to escape persecution by boat have been jailed on their forced return to Sri Lanka

Australia’s refugee ‘flood’ is minuscule compared to Europe and the U.S..    For example, since last October some 52,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the southern border of the U.S. from places such as Ecuador hoping for a better life.  The U.S. government has had to house these children as it is deemed too dangerous to merely push them back over the border.  Major problem worldwide.

On a major road near my house is a ‘shrine’ to a road accident victim.  It looks very ugly, but I guess if the local government council took it down there would be an outcry from some members of the public.  It has been on the roadside for about three years now.

In the 18th century Samuel Johnson devised a cure for seasickness....hug an Oak tree. Check out Sam here.

Ralph OBE

Yesterday, my long-time friend Dennis and I drove down to Mandurah to visit Ralph OBE (over bloody eighty).  Ralph is in respite care whilst his wife Wendy is in England preparing to cross the channel to Fromelles where her uncle who was killed in WW1 has been reburied in a military cemetery.  250 bodies of Australian and British servicemen were discovered in a mass grave and over some years DNA identified the remains of 20 Australian soldiers.   Wendy’s uncle Adolf Knable was one of them.   See the story here.

Dennis and I took Ralph for a drive around Mandurah and some of the canals.  Mandurah is a large retirement town; not much industry there, but the amount of building since I last visited, is amazing.       We had fish and chips for an early lunch and we headed back to Fremantle as I had to be home for a computer delivery.

Ralph is being well looked after and he seems to like it there. 

A few days ago I received a phone call from a fellow I had met at a recent gathering of Papua New Guinea expatriates from times before Independence.  He told me of a fellow teacher I had gone through college with, dying.  It seems that he didn’t talk much of his time in PNG and the eulogy at the funeral taking place today needed some link to his teaching years up there.  I knew Tom and caught up with him over a couple of visits to Queensland, but couldn’t recall significant details about his PNG service, so I emailed a good friend who was also at the college and fortunately Jim was able to supply some good stories about Tom which will slot nicely into his eulogy at the funeral.   Farewell Tom.

Kernel Panics

For a couple of years now I have had two Apple laptops which present with the dreaded Kernel Panic.    Kernel Panics show a black rectangle with instructions for restarting.

There are a few reasons for Kernel Panics and most of them would be a problem with the main board.  I have never replaced a main board but have tried all sorts of key stroke startups which have given temporary results.    One of the laptops is a MacBook Pro and I took a punt and bought a new hard drive and inserted it.   It worked well for a couple of hours but KP came  back again, so I pulled the new hard drive out and put the MB Pro in a spare parts cupboard.

The other laptop was telling me that only one RAM slot was working, so I removed the RAM (memory sticks) and tried one at a time in the good slot.  Voila; success.  That machine has been running well for a couple of weeks now so it is ready to go to a good home.

Psoriasis

I attended a dermatologist today for some answers about an annual problem I have with my skin.  I have been to him three times over the past 15 years apparently for the same problem.  He pointed out that each visit was in June/July and I was seeing him for a skin problem.   Psoriasis was his diagnosis and he put it down to lack of sun in the winter months which, with a genetic predisposition, I am to get annually until the game is over.

He also suggested that itching of my skin in general is because of the use of soap and hot water showers.  One minute showers recommended.  Nah...I’ll put up with the itches.

I was given two nice MacBook laptops for my project.  The couple who donated them, Mike and Lesley, run a business called ‘Time Trackers’ which is a genealogical research company.  Looks interesting.....details on their card.

I have had a DVD of a local film production for some time, but each time I start to watch it I have shut it down as it made me feel decidedly bad.   Last night I watched it through to the end and the surprise ending where....no; I’m not going to spill the beans and spoil what was a satisfying end to what seemed like a very violent movie.

Last train to Freo is a movie about the last train from a suburb named Midland all the way to the end of the line at Fremantle (Western Australia).   Lots of harrowing abusive yelling and confrontation by two bad lads to three other passengers in the carriage.  I was most impressed especially by the ‘extras’ on the disk.    Well worth a look.

Pencils and palm trees

The suburb I live in has more than a smattering of Pencil Pines and palm trees.   I have one Pencil Pine (Pinus 2H-HB) and it is soon to go.  It is too close to the house roof.  

I am unsure who determined that pencils and pines should be planted in front yards, but there are not many houses that don’t have one or the other.  My daughter has one and hates it with a passion.

Brother Graham turned 65 on Saturday and yesterday I collected him and we had a good evening with a few beers and lots of laughs.  I had thought that he was now eligible to get state government discounts on most government charges, but unfortunately eligibility relies on working less that 25 hours a week.  Bad luck Gray.

Had a call from a welfare person who through my sister-in-law Dorothy, was after a computer and printer for a disabled woman who recently lost her home to a house fire.  Both of them arrived and decided on a Windows PC I had refurbished.  They also looked at an elderly Mac laptop and the welfare person took that to give her disabled daughter.  The client had a small car packed with all the belongings she had left after the fire was extinguished.  She is hoping that she had paid her annual house insurance.  I also gave her a few kitchen items such as a toaster and electric jug.

Here is a link to the news story which may not work outside Australia.