Sculptor Sam Jinks

Some years ago we visited the old Parliament House building in Canberra which is now called MoAD (Museum of Australian Democracy).  One of the artistic installations there was a large sculpture of a very lifelike newborn baby by the sculptor Sam Jinks.  

More sculpture from Jinks can be found here.

Bob's Surgery

A friend has had surgery to repair both ankles. The original diagnosis was osteo arthritis Sub Talar and lower femur collapse and wear.    Two operations on each ankle were required and as the X-ray shows, a fair bit of hardware was used to support the worn bits.  Bob is chair bound for some weeks yet which makes his work as a leadlighter slow right down.  Should make a lot of noise going through airport security.

Click to enlarge

A bad day for Kev

Yesterday was a bad day.    It started when I drove the 15 kilometres to Orelia where our son lives in a unit I own.    The unit is one of 18 in a ‘secure’ block which has for several years been the target of a gang of young indigenes.  They regularly kick in panels of the steel rear fence and break into cars.  I have repaired it twice but this time the Strata company had a handyman repair it.   Our son, Martin, told me that it was a poor repair job and we decided to see if we could repair the repair.

I loaded up the car boot (trunk) with all the tools necessary and drove down to the units.  The car boot was a handy work bench for all my tools laid out in easy reach.    We looked at the job and realised that there was not much we could do to make it more secure and so I decided to go home and closed the car boot with my car keys and house keys well and truly secured inside the boot.  What to do?     Martin said he would drive me home and I could try and break in to the house doing as little damage as possible.   Unfortunately Martin didn’t have enough fuel to get me home and didn’t have a single dollar and my wallet was sitting on the passenger’s seat.   OK, lets ring roadside assistance.  Somehow the number given to me by the car dealer connected me to Roadside Assistance in Sydney town some 3,954 kilometres away.  Damn!  I could not think of anyone else who could come to my rescue so we decided to break the rear quarter window and get entry to the car and boot.  Tough piece of glass that was; but it eventually broke and we opened the doors to the tune of a loud alarm.  Once the alarm stopped, I pressed the boot opener, but it didn’t open.   OK, fold down the back seats and crawl into the boot and get my keys.   No go.  The seats are folded down by opening the boot and pulling on knobs inside the boot.

We now had money to buy fuel, but I was hesitant to break house glass, so rang our daughter at work and asked if I could drive to her workplace and borrow her house keys and find the spare set of keys for my place in their key receptacle.   Helen is a teacher in the nearby town of Rockingham and it was fortunate that she was not teaching at the time and could answer her phone.  So, we drove to Rockingham, got Helens house keys, drove to her place, got my house keys, got into my house and grabbed the spare car keys and drove back to the units.  Easy eh?   Nah!

I have sourced a new quarter window glass and will try and get instructions on fitting it.  It costs $88. and a quote for installation was around $300.

That evening Helen came to my place with my grandkids (two staffies) and she cooked a wonderful meal and we had a few soothing drinks.  Helen’s husband James is week on at a gold mine.

Internet Scams

There are many scams in internet world.   The earliest included romantic scams emanating from Nigeria.  Millions of dollars flowed into Nigeria from  lonely-hearters all around the world.    Even today the word Nigeria doesn’t seem to spook the LHers.  

Lottery scams are still around.....I regularly get excited when I receive an email telling me that I have won 250,000 British Pounds in an international lottery which I had forgotten that I had purchased a ticket in.

eBay scams; PayPal scams, bank scams (Due to misuse of your account, it has been shut down), ISP scams (your email account has been suspended). Computer repair scams (Your Microsoft computer is corrupted)

Yesterday my son-in-law, at work on a mine site, received an email on his phone supposedly from the Australian Federal Police advising him that he must pay $195. for a traffic infringement.  The Aus Federal Police are pretty busy with drug busts, terrorist threats etc etc, but not state traffic infringements.     The AFP have posted a warning about this scam on their web page.  See here.

Alzheimers research study

After carefully reading the 22 page information document about the Alzheimers research study, I decided I would not agree to participate in the 5 year study and have those years tied down to dates throughout each year.   There were a couple of other considerations as well.  One medical condition I have which may be affected by the drug (assuming that I would get the drug and not a placebo).   

 At 75, there is a good chance that the next 5 years might be my last and I want to be able to travel etc whenever I want. 

Oesophageal Cancer update

My friend Dennis has, it seems, dodged the bullet.   Yesterday he underwent the endoscopic ultrasound to determine whether the cancer had penetrated the wall of his oesophagus.  The surgeon told Dennis that if it had not penetrated the wall he would go ahead and remove it.   Fortunately for Den it had not and the surgeon went ahead and removed the nodule and  stopped the bleeding with an application of diluted adrenaline and the application of two clips.  There is to be a follow-up at the same hospital in about a week.

Unbeknown to Dennis he had a complaint named Barrett's Syndrome which is a scarring of the oesophagus due to acid from gastric reflux.  It seems that the body tries to repair the affected area by covering it with tissue from the lower gastrointestinal tract.  Problem there is that that tissue is prone to carcinoma.  So if you have had persistent gastric reflux over some period, ask your GP if an endoscopy is a good idea. It certainly was a good idea for Dennis.

The procedure was done at the newly commissioned  Fiona Stanley hospital.  

Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia....here.

Oesophageal Cancer

A good friend, Dennis, has just been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.  We have know each other for around 60 years.

He had a persistent and uncomfortable pain for some weeks before getting the bad news.   Dennis had a CT scan a few days ago and is about to have an endoscopic ultrasound which more accurately determines how far the cancer has grown into the oesophagus.  This test can also show if the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.

With these results the oncologist/surgeon can decide on the treatment.

He is facing this threat with good humour and all his friends are hoping for a good outcome.

Bastard disease!

The Bali 9

Following the execution of two Australian citizens in Indonesia, there has been an outpouring of grief and anger by many Australians.  Our Prime Minister has recalled our ambassador to Indonesia and made some veiled threats about aid and cooperation between Australia and Indonesia.  

Through the online forums, calls have been made for Australians to boycott Bali as a holiday destination.  Understandably, Indonesians have called for a boycott of Australia.

One of my friends has just booked a flight to Bali in July.  She may well be rattled going through immigration and customs at Denpassar airport.  

Australia’s beef cattle exports may well be terminated and cooperation on people smuggling through Indonesia to Australia may be over.  

The two Australians executed were drug traffickers, not into Indonesia, but out of Indonesia to Australia. The Australian Federal Police tipped off Indonesian customs officials in Bali and 9 Australians including the two ring leaders, were caught with 8.3kg of heroin strapped to their bodies.  An investigation is currently looking into how the AFP caused the Bali 9 to be arrested in a country which has the death penalty for drug smuggling.  Had they been arrested upon arrival in Australia they would have been jailed, but not executed.  The rest of the traffickers are still in prison after 10 years of life sentences.

Executions are carried out in many countries still.  Click here for info on other countries still practising capital punishment.

Cheap printer inks

Yesterday I ordered a pack of 5 ink cartridges for a HP deskjet all-in-one printer.  They are now on their way from Sydney to me in Western Australia, freight free, costing only $15.90 AUD.  In  an Australia-wide company, OfficeWorks, the price is $112.00.  The OfficeWorks package is a genuine HP product in a nice cardboard box.  Mine will come in a plastic bag wrapped in bubblewrap, delivered to my door.

The printer manufacturers caution printer owners not to buy cheap inks as that is where their profits really come from.  Most genuine inks cost more than a new printer.  Another bit of trickery is the fact that most new printers have half filled cartridges in them.

A language problem?

I, at 75 years of age, can get by in four languages.  English of course, is my own language, but my time in Papua New Guinea taught me the basics of conversation of the two Lingua Franca of PNG, Hiri Motu and Tok Pisin.

I learnt the basic 50 words of German when I was an apprentice at a large government engineering works in the 1950s.  I was befriended by a German workmate who was a Luftwaffe pilot during WW2.  Somehow I felt that a pilot was not part of the atrocities that were part of  the German war machine and I became friends with a German group who had settled in Western Australia and were ‘fitting in’.  They built houses for each other in a group project and I followed along listening to their conversations and learning their 50 words of German.

Later I read more about the atrocities and the propaganda that sucked in the population of Germany to despise Jews and the acceptance of the Final Solution.

What is strange is that when I now read something on-line which demands a comment I immediately think of adding my comment in my 50 word Deutsche. What is happening?

In the 1990s my wife Joan and I spent a pleasant 4 weeks in the south of France.  Joan had been a French teacher and spoke the language well.  When we were about to return home to Australia we had to drive to Frankfurt to fly out.  Joan told me it was my turn to book a hotel in Frankfurt.  I rang a hotel and started to bumble my way through my simple German and the receptionist interrupted me saying...'excuse me sir, do you speak English?'   Whew!

Australia's National Broadband Network

Yesterday I helped my brother Graham set up his National Broadband Network connection.  The internal box had been installed about a week ago and what should have been a simple connection stumped me, so I called the Telstra support people and with quite a bit of fiddling around was guided through the resetting of the modem and a change of password and everything is running well.   

NBN requires its own phone and Graham’s nice phones would not work with the new setup.   He was pleasantly surprised at the download speed of 24mbps (Megabits per second).    My download from my wireless provider just a few minutes ago was 9.24mbps which I feel is a reasonable speed.  However my speed may vary depending on the time of the day  and how many people are using the service at that time.  Around 4pm when kids are home from school, mine will slow down considerably.

South Korea boasts the fastest connection speed @ 21.9mbps.

Alzheimer's Research

About a month ago I had a phone call from the McCusker Alzheimer’s Research Foundation of Western Australia.  The caller asked if I was interested in joining a clinical trial of a drug which is used to delay the clinical symptoms of Alzheimers Disease.  The study will run for a minimum of 4 years. I agreed to talking about the trial at a later date and had a follow-up phone call from  the McClusker Foundation yesterday.

After a detailed explanation, I agreed to participate.    The trial goes something like this... an initial interview with a blood test and a couple of memory tests.  Sign the documents and start.    The name of the trial is long.

A Double Blind, Randomized, Placebo Controlled, Parallel Group Study to Simultaneously Qualify a Biomarker Algorithm for Prognosis of Risk of Developing Mild Cognative Impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (MCE due to AD) and to Test the Safety and Efficacy of Pioglitazone to Delay the Onset of MCI due to AD in Cognitively Normal Subjects

Or as I read it, there are two groups, one taking a placebo and the other taking Pioglitazone. We are testing the safety and efficacy of the drug.   I already have symptoms of MCI (mild cognative impairment) I am losing names and my car keys.

I’ll let everyone know how things work out, if I remember.

Papua New Guinea expatriates gathering

last Friday I attended a gathering of Papua New Guinea expatriates.  There were about 50 of us and there was lots of reminiscing of our times there.  We had a nice lunch and a listened to a visiting speaker named Eric McCrum.  Eric features regularly on ABC radio as The Bird Man and is very knowledgeable about Australian birds.   

He was invited to do a presentation about his time in Papua New Guinea.  His presentation was an old fashioned slide show with his commentary.  I thought that it was a well practised package he had used many times before, probably at senior citizens’ gatherings or schools.    It was like preaching to the converted as all of us had spent time in PNG.  I noticed a few people turning off and a couple of oldies having a bit of shuteye.  Never-the-less, it was worthwhile as there were some familiar scenes in the 100+ slides that just about everyone would have remembered.  All in all, a good day where I met and talked with a few people I had not met before. 

Goodbye Pencil Pine

All gone

Some time ago I mentioned a pencil pine in my front garden which had to go.   It has gone.   It was felled in no time by a Samoan couple whilst I went to an ATM to withdraw some cash. When I returned, they were doing a poor cleanup and then moved next door to remove 4 small branches of my neighbours’ tree hanging over the fence of their next door neighbours.  

They conned my neighbour suggesting that her neighbours were unhappy with the branches hanging over their fence.  Her neighbours weren’t home, and their displeasure was supposedly told to the tree people by their neighbour, in the next house along.  Sounds like BS to me.

I was a bit offside with their price and the fact that they left a stump protruding about 6” above ground level.  They offered to return with a stump grinder to remove the stump at an extra fee, but I told them to be off with their tax-free cash.

I spent an hour digging a little deeper around the stump and cut it below ground level with my blunt chain saw.   Must buy a new chain.

Domestic solar power

I have solar panels on my roof, feeding electricity into the power grid @ 40 cents a unit.  I buy power from the grid @ 7.135 cents a unit to do my night time washing etc and most power bills either give me a credit or a very small bill.  I like it!    For the last 6 weeks my solar system has been down and I have not sold any power to the power company.  

The problem was a faulty inverter which converts DC power from the panels into AC 240v.  The company which installed the system no longer services my system and the warranty etc has been taken over by a German company.  It has been over a month without a replacement inverter and only yesterday did I receive a phone call telling me that a replacement inverter would be installed today.   A young man installed it in about 10 minutes and even with heavy cloud cover I can see power being produced.

The entire system is a Chinese-made setup and many customers have had up to 4 replacement inverters within the 5 year warranty period.   I asked the installer whether other brands were any better and he told me that it seems like the German brand also has problems.  A new inverter cost around $400 installed, so if this one fails again, I will buy a new inverter with a new 5 year warranty.

The state government is the owner of the power grid and power stations and is hinting that owners of solar setups will be charged a higher fee over regular users to maintain the power lines and infrastructure.  I guess that's reasonable.

Esperance, Western Australia

Our road trip to Esperance was somewhat tiring; over 7 hours of driving with little of interest en route.  I was great catching up with sister Shirl and her kids  and Esperance town is a beautiful place with fine beaches and scenery.

I renamed Esperance 4Wheel Drive City as it seems obligatory to have at least 3, 4WD vehicles parked in the driveway.  There are a few car yards selling new and SH cars, but they don’t have the sales of the 4W drives.

In the business area of the town the pedestrian crosswalks are the opposite of crosswalks in Perth or Fremantle city.  People crossing have to give way to vehicles.  At first I thought that was a bit silly, but there is a lot of  traffic and also lots of people (especially during Easter) and the constant pedestrian crossings would certainly cause traffic chaos.

downtown Esperance

the town foreshore is grassed, with a nice white beach and lots of meeting places and facilities like these toilets/showers

Driving back to Fremantle took a little longer as the main roads were feeding cars, caravans and 4WDrives from various Easter holiday sites around the coast.  We left at 7.30am and arrived at my house around 4.30pm.

I have an air compressor which has been unserviceable for some time.  It is invaluable for blowing out dust in the many computers I restore for needy people.  The regulator died and air leaked out all around it and none went into the air tank.  The price for a replacement regulator in Australia was almost as much as I paid for the whole thing; so I went on eBay, found one in China for A$11.70 post free and delivered to my door today.  It was exactly the same as the original and the compressor is back on deck, working well.

old bits

new regulator fitted

Road trip to Esperance

My sister Shirley turns 70 on Sunday.  Brother Graham and I are driving down south to Esperance for the celebration.  Leaving early Friday; returning Monday.  It is over 700 kilometres and we will be sharing the driving.  Not a lot to see en route...just farms and a few small towns.

Esperance is a nice seaside town but I would rather it a bit closer to the city. 

  Easter  is the time when people from Kalgoorlie head down to take a look at the ocean and even take a dip in the cool waters.   Sister Shirl has lived down there for many years to be near her daughter Karen.   When she needs to head up to Perth for something important the return airfare is around $800.  That’s about three return trips to Bali.

1942 Ford GPW Jeep

I have owned three Jeeps; two were wartime Jeeps and another was a postwar CJ3B remodelled from the wartime Jeep.

The three Jeeps were found in Papua New Guinea where I taught for almost 10 years in a split service starting in 1961 and finishing in 1975.   I shipped home to Western Australia the  last Jeep I owned in Popondetta a town in the Northern District of PNG.  I rebuilt it over  couple of years and eventually sold it to a colleague who still uses it on his farm.

The Jeep story is quite amazing.  The U.S. government’s military needed a small, light 4 wheel drive do-all vehicle.  In 1941, one vehicle manufacturer submitted a design which didn’t quite fit the bill.  The design was given to Willys and a series of modifications created the MB.  The vehicle was called a GP (general purpose) vehicle which became Jeep. 

Two companies built the Jeep, Ford and Willys and a total of 640,000+ rolled off the production lines; 30 per hour.  I believe that most of the Jeeps used overseas never returned to the U.S..  There were many in PNG post war and my hometown, Fremantle in Western Australia, saw plenty of Jeeps during WW2.  I can remember them buzzing around the streets regularly.

I am sorry that I sold my jeep.  Great basic machine.

It is a Ford Jeep and the Ford company marked almost every part with the Ford logo.  The true Jeep enthusiast will notice the right-hand drive.  No RH drive Jeeps were made in WW2.  I converted it to RH drive to licence it.

Losing it

Today I decided to drive to Perth city to sell some old gold jewellery bits to the Perth Mint.   The total amount was less than an ounce, but I thought I should sell it before I lose my mind completely.  

  

I googled the Perth Mint site and found that I need a few  bits of ID.....passport/drivers licence, a recent utilities bill; gas/water/power showing my address and name. 

Jumped in the car and drove the  23 kilometres, parked the car and found I had brought all my ID, but not the jewellery.   Doh! 

The Perth Mint is a lovely old building opened in 1899.   It mints coins and medals and sells gold bars to people who think WW3 is imminent.

Midnight in Paris

I have just re-watched a wonderful movie for about the fifth time and I am convinced it is the best movie I have ever seen.  Looking through a few glasses of almost two bottles of of Seaview Brut, I may, however, be influenced by alcohol.

Midnight in Paris is one of Woody Allen’s best movies.      Get it (anyway you can) and enjoy it.

I am influenced, of course, by the month we spent in France and experienced first-hand the people and country-side of that wonderful place.