This morning I had the first of two eye operations...to remove a cataract and insert a plastic lens in my right eye. Tomorrow I get the date for the second operation and if everything goes well, it is goodbye to glasses for Kev. It should take a couple of weeks to get over each of the operations.

Click to enlarge

Styptic pencil (aka jeeesus stick) More commonly used to stop blood flow when using old razor blades. The common name was used when applying the stick to the face.

visual training

This postcard was sent from London to my grandparents by their nephews...both Lees.  They were on leave from the front during WW1.  The soldier was later killed in Belgium. 

Eno

I was born on the 29th of November, 1939.

                                         Enough said.     

                                

Pilot Peter Bieseman and co-pilot Kevin Lock in a Japanese Zero.  Rabaul, Papua New Guinea 1961.

Tried everything,  but couldn't get airborne.   Click pic to enlarge.

Click to enlarge

This book of Cook’s Voyages was printed in 1790.  It was in a lovely colonial house we bought in 1975 whilst on leave in Western Australia from teaching in Papua New Guinea.  I confess I have not read the whole book of 406 pages  and it is the only time I have seen the spelling showing s letters as f letters.  Interesting.

A couple of pages for you to practice your Fs an Ss.

Doctors' Strike

Click to enlarge

Rigby and Ward on the price rise.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Can you guess what I am doing here?

Click image to enlarge

A wedding

Indian neighbours are having a wedding ceremony today. Guests and the wedding party are to be escorted by four Ford Mustangs; or so it would seem.

click image to enlarge

Wartime wreckage, Rabaul.

Pic of a Japanese (?) landing barge in Rabaul Harbour Papua New Guinea.   Note the radial engines.  Taken by me in 1961.

click image to enlarge

BMW Writeoff

This Australia Day weekend my brother Graham and his partner Carole drove to Albany on the south coast of W.A. They had a great time revisiting, as I call it, Roundabout City. No traffic lights in Albany, just dozens of roundabouts. It seems to work well.
Returning to Perth on the Sunday they had a road accident and Graham's car looks like a writeoff. Three trucks were waiting at an intersection and bro parked behind a truck with a caravan attached to it. He parked at least a car's length behind the caravan when a large ute ploughed into the rear of Graham's Beamer canoning it into the caravan. They were taken by ambulance to Narrogin Hospital and Carole had four broken ribs and a small tear to the base of her liver. I drove to Narrogin to collect Graham and we drove to Wagin where his car was in a yard. Not a pretty look, so we transferred all their gear to my car; drove back, collecting Carole from the hospital and driving the 193 Kilometres back to Perth.
They were definitely lucky to get out without some serious injuries.

Some pics of his bent Beamer...click images to enlarge

Sacrificial Anode replacement

Yesterday I replaced the sacrificial anode on my gas water heater.   We bought and had this heater installed about 10 years ago.  It is recommended that the anode be replaced around every 5 or so years.    As the name of the anode suggests, it sacrifices itself so that the water tank doesn't.
The anode cost $45 and it took around 30 minutes to replace.  The one I removed was almost completely destroyed, so I was lucky.

Should you think of replacing your sacrificial anode in your heater, it is a relatively simple job and well worth doing.

Here is a YouTube video of how to replace your sacrificial anode.

Warning; you should check that where your heater is, it has sufficient room above the top where the new anode will be fitted.  Often the anode is longer than the ceiling space above the heater.

On this heater, the top cage has to be removed to fit the new anode.

Buying a car from afar

Kathy, the wife of a good friend from Papua New Guinea days asked for a bit of assistance about a car she wanted to buy.  I live in Western Australia and Kathy, now widowed, lives in Sydney NSW.   The particular car she wanted is at a large dealer here in Perth.   I said I would go and inspect it and get back to her.  The car was as new and looked and sounded fine.   She now is having the dealer arrange for the W.A. licence to be cancelled and the car transported by truck to her in Sydney town.   She really did want that car!

Yesterday I celebrated the 79th year of my birth.  I received a couple of very nice presents from my son and daughter,  Helen, my daughter visited with my two grandkids (they are both staffies) and she cooked us a lovely meal...thanks Helen.
At 79 years of age, I have to remind myself not to plant fruit trees or even buy green bananas.

WSHS 1988 graduates

On Saturday night I attended the 30th reunion of the graduating class of Willetton SHS.  There were 74 ex-students and a sole ex-teacher attending....me.  Most of the group were nearing 50 years of age.   It took me a while recognising most of them and I guess the last time I saw many of them was 23 years ago.   I took 64 photos and they and many more are posted on the WSHS 88 Reunion page on Facebook.

One of the guests flew from Dallas Texas to Perth, returning the following day. 

Nearing 79 years of age, I doubt that I will be attending the next reunion.

Online scams

Scams abound on the net.   This morning I received an email; supposedly from my ISP, iinet, telling me that I need to resend my payment details.

The email looked good, but when I checked with iinet, it was deemed to be a scam.

I also get the Telstra scams about my computer having trouble and calls about my recent car accident.  I have been in the computer world for around 30 years, but there are oldies like me out there who would fall for these scams.

Induction stovetop dies

click image to enlarge

My induction stove top has died.  It lasted around 12 years which is what was expected of it.   I have ordered a new one to be installed later this week.  Daughter Helen and hubby James insisted I borrow a small single induction benchtop model of theirs and it is working very well.