The title was all Phoebe's idea... snicker snicker.
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Old school tie dies, whilst new school starts today...
Against the background of the dreadful fall of the Royal Bank of Scotland and others, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a sunny disposition is it not? I was shocked to hear that the great and venerable institution has had such an ignominious turn in its fortunes and took no consolation in having not that long ago explained that this was likely to happen (to Wayne) since we live in a society that takes constant and unceasing expansion as its God over all else. It's one thing to appreciate something from a theoretical point of view, and quite another to see it actually occur. Nor was it much comfort to hear that the value of chairman, (ex) Sir Fred (the shred) Goodwin's personal shareholding had fallen from £5.73m to $296,345. (OK I'm lying... that was a comfort!)
The implications for all of us are similar though and I can assure you that it is difficult to take the current dearth of financial good news and concoct a sunny outlook for my own future employment, future business, future house building finance or future - period. Sad isn't it, that our fortunes are so closely associated with a system that is so fundamentally flawed. A system that is being administered by others of Fred Goodwin's disposition to spreadsheets and complex risk instruments. They are all too flawed, just like me, just like all of us - yet we trust them to keep our future 'bright' even though their heads, like most people's are full of meaninglessness. Aah but what can we do about it, save pull up at the side of the rat run, cash it all in and buy a little small holding as far away from the affected conurbations as possible. And the funny thing is that if you did that, everyone would say you were mad. Pause here to take a belly laugh, if you can muster one. What's the worst that can happen?
Well the thing is its not me you understand that its all about. It's the kids. It's Josh and Moll and Matilda and Phoebe. It's all still to happen for them eh! Welcome to the real world...have a nice day!
So, this weekend was Australia day. Buggered if I really know what it's all about. I did get a letter from the Open University asking if I could write about what it's all about. I did consider finding out and writing it here, so that you'd all be the wiser, but then I thought 'Na stuff it'.
No one seems to know what it's all about if you ask them, and most people go to the beach or hang out in their yards taking dips in their pools and drinking to excess. We went down to Carlene and Ian's and the kids spent the whole day... (and I mean the WHOLE day in the pool). When they arrived, they were kids, when they left they were prunes!.
One thing that happened was that the adult women were seen to apply little Australian flag tattoos to their upper chest. Madison put one on each side just above the hem of her dress. Ian said 'nice tats Maddy!' Guffaw guffaw! (Hmmn, perhaps you needed to be there) We had a really nice day, Cindy's Mum 'Auntie Cass' was there from NZ, Daile hasn't seen for years. Hilton, Ian, Johnny and I sat at one end of the table on the deck drinking beers and generally being grumpy old men. (Guess who's the best at that!)
Today was the first day back at school. (I have some pictures for you Mum). Now this is enough to bring a smile back. This is what it's all about my friends. This is what pushes the boat out when you're a parent eh!
Phoebe was really excited about going and not even slightly worried it would seem. When we got there a few minutes early, she sat down at a table that had kids drawing and immediately began to document her trip to the school. She gave it to me, and that is also reproduced below. Both of them declared that they'd had a really good day.
As Feeb's little class set out on a tour of the school, I thought... 'this is it. This is the first day of her school life. All that time in front of her. All that work, and all that upset, all that growing to do.' I hope it's a good one Feeb.
The implications for all of us are similar though and I can assure you that it is difficult to take the current dearth of financial good news and concoct a sunny outlook for my own future employment, future business, future house building finance or future - period. Sad isn't it, that our fortunes are so closely associated with a system that is so fundamentally flawed. A system that is being administered by others of Fred Goodwin's disposition to spreadsheets and complex risk instruments. They are all too flawed, just like me, just like all of us - yet we trust them to keep our future 'bright' even though their heads, like most people's are full of meaninglessness. Aah but what can we do about it, save pull up at the side of the rat run, cash it all in and buy a little small holding as far away from the affected conurbations as possible. And the funny thing is that if you did that, everyone would say you were mad. Pause here to take a belly laugh, if you can muster one. What's the worst that can happen?
Well the thing is its not me you understand that its all about. It's the kids. It's Josh and Moll and Matilda and Phoebe. It's all still to happen for them eh! Welcome to the real world...have a nice day!
So, this weekend was Australia day. Buggered if I really know what it's all about. I did get a letter from the Open University asking if I could write about what it's all about. I did consider finding out and writing it here, so that you'd all be the wiser, but then I thought 'Na stuff it'.
No one seems to know what it's all about if you ask them, and most people go to the beach or hang out in their yards taking dips in their pools and drinking to excess. We went down to Carlene and Ian's and the kids spent the whole day... (and I mean the WHOLE day in the pool). When they arrived, they were kids, when they left they were prunes!.
One thing that happened was that the adult women were seen to apply little Australian flag tattoos to their upper chest. Madison put one on each side just above the hem of her dress. Ian said 'nice tats Maddy!' Guffaw guffaw! (Hmmn, perhaps you needed to be there) We had a really nice day, Cindy's Mum 'Auntie Cass' was there from NZ, Daile hasn't seen for years. Hilton, Ian, Johnny and I sat at one end of the table on the deck drinking beers and generally being grumpy old men. (Guess who's the best at that!)
Today was the first day back at school. (I have some pictures for you Mum). Now this is enough to bring a smile back. This is what it's all about my friends. This is what pushes the boat out when you're a parent eh!
Phoebe was really excited about going and not even slightly worried it would seem. When we got there a few minutes early, she sat down at a table that had kids drawing and immediately began to document her trip to the school. She gave it to me, and that is also reproduced below. Both of them declared that they'd had a really good day.
As Feeb's little class set out on a tour of the school, I thought... 'this is it. This is the first day of her school life. All that time in front of her. All that work, and all that upset, all that growing to do.' I hope it's a good one Feeb.
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Are you pulling my pisser?
OK....
take a good look at the image below;
... what do you think?
Do you think, as I did that it's a snap of commuters or some such? The sort of picture you might find accompanying copy about the arrival of some person that is appearing in court to explain why they have been involved in a multimillion dollar scam or something like that. Not particularly notable as an image methinks....
Well it is actually one of the Queensland's GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) acquisitions! I kid you not. Below, I've copied and pasted their blurb about it:
Beat Streuli
http://qag.qld.gov.au/collection/recent_acquisitions/beat_streuli
WHAT A LOAD OF OL SHIT!... as 'Nan' might say!
take a good look at the image below;
... what do you think?
Do you think, as I did that it's a snap of commuters or some such? The sort of picture you might find accompanying copy about the arrival of some person that is appearing in court to explain why they have been involved in a multimillion dollar scam or something like that. Not particularly notable as an image methinks....
Well it is actually one of the Queensland's GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) acquisitions! I kid you not. Below, I've copied and pasted their blurb about it:
Beat Streuli
Bruxelles 05/06 2006
At the impressive scale of 200 x 280cm, Bruxelles 05/06 2006 is one of Beat Streuli’s largest and most recognisable works to date. First exhibited at Galerie Erna Hécey, Brussels, Bruxelles has also been displayed — within a billboard of Streuli’s works — as part of the 2007 ‘Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now’ exhibition, held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Born in Switzerland in 1957, and now living and working in Zurich, Brussels and Dusseldorf, Streuli is highly regarded for his photography, billboards and transparencies, which present striking images of urban citizens and environments from diverse cities ranging from Sydney to New York, and Tel Aviv to Tokyo. Exploring the crossovers between portraiture, advertising and fashion photography, and employing a serial, almost pseudo-documentary style reminiscent of early ‘point-and-shoot’ photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Streuli is an expert in crafting strangely intimate crowd scenes. Through these, he reveals a fascination with individuals, while at the same time proposing an epic dimension to humanity.
In Bruxelles, three men walk through an urban environment, each engrossed by their own inner world. Motion is stilled so that we can inspect the physiognomy, the gait, the clothes and the expressions of each man, anonymously and unselfconsciously going about their business in a crowded city street. Their downcast eyes, grouped by the frame of Streuli’s lens, are recorded at the precise moment at which we can imagine them looking up to meet our gaze. The photograph evokes both movement and time. Here, we can be a voyeur who does not get caught out. We can also discern other atmospheric conditions in this work — air temperature, for example — and become aware of our own snap-judgments based on appearances.
Streuli’s work plays on contradictions between the natural and the stylised, documentary and fiction, publicity and privacy, human dignity and mass alienation, the contrived and the prosaic. Capturing scenes through a telephoto lens allows him the critical distance, without confrontation, to select his subjects. The privacy and anonymity of subjects in a crowd is shown to be violable through his lens, and it is precisely our judgments and histories that complete the portraits, which, oddly, on a grand scale, allow us to share an intimate space with Streuli’s subjects.
WHAT A LOAD OF OL SHIT!... as 'Nan' might say!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Making some progress...
Now that the garage is finally in order, and with the Easter holidays not all that many weeks away, I thought it prudent to go and fetch the boat that I'd bought from John Horman all those months ago, with which I'd done nothing due to it being in stored at the amazingly chilled Bob and Bette's back yard on the Gold Coast. To date, no one including John have seen the boat actually work. So with apologies to the grass at the front of our house, I nudged it in there for what I hope is a relatively short time.
After first clearing away all the leaves, errant bags of bolts, and oversize washers I was able to have a better look. The first thing to do was to swap the burnt out motor from the lift and trim mechanism and rewire the limit switch. On the little boat that we already had, the motor has to be readied for transport after a voyage by pulling it out of the water (from within the boat) before you actually hoist the boat onto the trailer. The motor doesn't actually get taken off, it is simply rotated around a fulcrum. It's a fairly heavy lump of metal so even though it's only a 35hp you know its not made of feathers shall we say. On the new boat, the motor is 140hp and physically much larger. You have to push pretty hard to get it to lift manually, even from the outside with it disconnected from lifting arms. So you need to have a lift and trim mechanism, which is a combination of 3 hydraulic rams, to initially move its orientation to the boat whilst its actually pushing it (the Trim) or to lift it up away from the ground (the Lift). It was a bit trickier to do that I'd expected, but eventually, Phoebe was able to operate it using the trim and lift button on the still unmounted throttle arm.
There's a fair bit of work to do on the boat to make it right, but the fundamental things like the strength of the hull seem to be good. We felt that the important thing to do is to get all the functions functioning and try it out as is, before going to any effort to do it up. The control systems are all over the shop, and the priming bulb and some of the fuel line was corroded to a point where it was leaking, and inflexible respectively. I made a last minute dash to BCF to get a replacement bulb and then once that was fitted, cleaned the plugs, and had a try at starting it up. It turned OK but nothing fired. I took off the water cover from the mouths of the 4 carburettor intakes, found a fuel tap hidden behind it and manually primed the motor after cracking the butterflies slightly open. When I turned this time it sounded like it was going to fire - so I fitted it with ear muffs and fired it up. (The ear muffs are rubber cups that fit over the inlet / outlet for the engine cooling system. It sucks water from whatever the boat is bobbing about in, be it salt or fresh water and circulates it. Out of the water, you have to put the water there manually with the muffs - supplied with a garden hose). The motor had been readied for storage by John, who had filled the cylinders with oil. When the engine fired up, there was a massive plume of white smoke coming out of the exhaust (which exits from the centre of the propeller) as this was burned out, and oil was spattered over the grass. (Sorry grass) The fantastic thing was that the engine sounded like a very large two stroke motorcycle reving. The response was very quick and very encouraging. I can't wait!!!
After first clearing away all the leaves, errant bags of bolts, and oversize washers I was able to have a better look. The first thing to do was to swap the burnt out motor from the lift and trim mechanism and rewire the limit switch. On the little boat that we already had, the motor has to be readied for transport after a voyage by pulling it out of the water (from within the boat) before you actually hoist the boat onto the trailer. The motor doesn't actually get taken off, it is simply rotated around a fulcrum. It's a fairly heavy lump of metal so even though it's only a 35hp you know its not made of feathers shall we say. On the new boat, the motor is 140hp and physically much larger. You have to push pretty hard to get it to lift manually, even from the outside with it disconnected from lifting arms. So you need to have a lift and trim mechanism, which is a combination of 3 hydraulic rams, to initially move its orientation to the boat whilst its actually pushing it (the Trim) or to lift it up away from the ground (the Lift). It was a bit trickier to do that I'd expected, but eventually, Phoebe was able to operate it using the trim and lift button on the still unmounted throttle arm.
There's a fair bit of work to do on the boat to make it right, but the fundamental things like the strength of the hull seem to be good. We felt that the important thing to do is to get all the functions functioning and try it out as is, before going to any effort to do it up. The control systems are all over the shop, and the priming bulb and some of the fuel line was corroded to a point where it was leaking, and inflexible respectively. I made a last minute dash to BCF to get a replacement bulb and then once that was fitted, cleaned the plugs, and had a try at starting it up. It turned OK but nothing fired. I took off the water cover from the mouths of the 4 carburettor intakes, found a fuel tap hidden behind it and manually primed the motor after cracking the butterflies slightly open. When I turned this time it sounded like it was going to fire - so I fitted it with ear muffs and fired it up. (The ear muffs are rubber cups that fit over the inlet / outlet for the engine cooling system. It sucks water from whatever the boat is bobbing about in, be it salt or fresh water and circulates it. Out of the water, you have to put the water there manually with the muffs - supplied with a garden hose). The motor had been readied for storage by John, who had filled the cylinders with oil. When the engine fired up, there was a massive plume of white smoke coming out of the exhaust (which exits from the centre of the propeller) as this was burned out, and oil was spattered over the grass. (Sorry grass) The fantastic thing was that the engine sounded like a very large two stroke motorcycle reving. The response was very quick and very encouraging. I can't wait!!!
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Nature versus Nurture
There has, for many years been an ongoing debate about the function of 'nurture' versus 'nature' in the formation of a child's characteristics. It's not an easy call. Like all these 'one thing or the other' debates, there have been many attempts to delineate some kind of once and for all answer, and like all debates like this, none (to my knowledge) have been successful. Those of us who are not living in academia suspect that it is a bit of both.
However, the subject has long been of interest to me since Josh was always inclined to play with girls toys, and reject boys toys. Ali and I even considered (very briefly) having him looked at by a child psychologist. (We went to meet one, and he freaked us out.. so we decided that Josh was 'his own man' and left it at that!). I for one, have always respected him for taking on the whole establishment and in my own little way, I identify with the fight to be acceptable as 'different'.
Daile and I have given a great deal of thought to the conundrum with regard to Matilda who is very like Josh, but the other gender! She considers herself to be a boy, and frankly... she IS very like a boy! Whilst Molly was complemented by Josh's predisposition to play dress up etc, Phoebe is by dint of being a sister to Matilda, frustrated in her expression of her girlishness. She is constantly foiled in her attempts to play girly stuff, because it doesn't compute for Matilda, who being verbally dexterous, tends to put it (and Phoebe) down.
We've tried to point out to Matilda that Phoebe has her own agenda, but it's a difficult one for Matilda, who genuinely finds 'girls stuff' abhorrent!
So, in response to constant pestering by Matilda, this weekend we conducted our own social experiment. Matilda and I went camping... and for Matilda it was VITAL that no 'girls' came. Daile decided that she and Phoebe, would hang out and do 'girly stuff'.
Well, Phoebe was IN HER ELEMENT! Poor little squirt! Made us realise how desperate she was to express herself in ways becoming of a self respecting girly girl.
So here it is, pictorially...
Daile had been out to get pampering gear. Face packs, massage oil, little make up pack, that kind of stuff... setting it all up was a thrill to Phoebe!
The bed with a towel on to catch the oil...
Then on to the smelly bath oil impregnated joint bathing... complete with feathers inside see through pillows!
Nail painting...
Dressing up, and going out....!
The next day, Phoebe was up at six, raring to go for it all again! Ha ha. Poor sausage!
Matilda and I drove to the ferry at Cleveland (about 30 mins). It was the 'Big Red Cat'. We went up top, and it was really windy!
The boat lands at Dunwich after about 40 mins. If you look (click on it) at the north of the map, just to the right of Amity is a red 'x', which is were we camped. (Flinders beach)
We were camped just in behind these bushes... (below)
A while ago when Wayne and Dette's fence got nearly blown over, I used our guy ropes to bring it back to vertical. So we went down to BCF to get some more rope. BCF is up there for me with Bunnings. It stands for Boating, Camping and Fishing. Whilst we were there, Matilda talked me into buying her a fishing rod. They were really cheap. Hers was $29 and mine was $50 (so about £12 and £20 respectively. They came with reels ... so what could I do?) When we were in Amity, we got chatting with Steve at the local store and he told us that a good place for us to fish as newbies would be off the jetty. The wonderful thing about the jetty is that you can see the little fish nibbling on your bait. If you're lucky, a bigger fish comes along and you can catch it. I actually caught one! (But it was only about 6 or 7 inches long so we threw it back. (They have to be over a foot long to be able to keep them). Matilda caught a Moray Eel (small one about 15 inches) but it dived into the rocks you see in the picture below. Whilst she was trying to pull it out this ray swam past. It was AT LEAST 5 ft wide! (OK maybe 4ft!)
Beautiful! Such grace.
Here's a self timer pic, with the camera balanced on a tree bough.
Note the makeshift chess table.. the easel.
Matilda made frequent field trips with the new bait box over her shoulder to collect things. We got a lot of shells and pressed several flowers.
Then one of these strolled into camp! It's a Goanna, and is about 3 ft long. There must have been a family cos we saw several over a ten minute period. Matilda decided to track them. They are masters of disguise though, and excellent tree climbers.
Kookaburras...
Little yellow crabs live in these holes... scuttle out and in quickly. Matilda found lots of skeletal evidence in the shape of bleached white claws and the like.
Lacewing... (below on the rope)
Arranging Cicada shells (the skins of cicada's) which are so delicate that we keep them on the dash.
We stopped here to look at the view. Here we were near the 'N' on 'North' on the map on that dotted track. Matilda was writing something....
...and then giggled.
On our way back to camp we saw what I think was one of these... thin, and just less than a metre long.
.jpg)
Either this, or a Taipan perhaps. This one is an 'Eastern small eyed snake' and it's highly venomous. My camera was in the back of the Ute, so telling Matilda to watch it from her window in the cab and tell me if it came my way, I went out to get the camera. (The snake was at the front left of the ute). As soon as I stepped on the deck, it slithered off to the bush so we didn't get a picture).
This is the Eastern end of Flinders, near to Rocky Point.
... and this is how the Aussies go to the beach! .... Sod the deck chairs and ice creams.... they take the 4WD and a freezer!
We'd taken a couple of easels, and went to paint at North Gorge, which the cafe owner at Amity had told me might be a good place to go.
By this time, we were really short of time on the Sunday, and had to rush. We had about 50 mins.... and this is what we painted.
...then we headed back down to the jetty, at speed to cram in a last desperate fish. Matilda really wanted to catch one, and is now a committed fisher[person]. Unfortunately we didn't have any luck. We had to rush for the ferry, with Matilda in tears at the injustice. We nearly hit a Koala that ambled onto the road... and we pulled up for a few seconds to look at her. Matilda perked up at that.
This was the view from the boat as we arrived back.
So, now we're all back. There is an air of having had a good time all round. We need to find a way for us all to go next time. However, an interesting experiment eh?
However, the subject has long been of interest to me since Josh was always inclined to play with girls toys, and reject boys toys. Ali and I even considered (very briefly) having him looked at by a child psychologist. (We went to meet one, and he freaked us out.. so we decided that Josh was 'his own man' and left it at that!). I for one, have always respected him for taking on the whole establishment and in my own little way, I identify with the fight to be acceptable as 'different'.
Daile and I have given a great deal of thought to the conundrum with regard to Matilda who is very like Josh, but the other gender! She considers herself to be a boy, and frankly... she IS very like a boy! Whilst Molly was complemented by Josh's predisposition to play dress up etc, Phoebe is by dint of being a sister to Matilda, frustrated in her expression of her girlishness. She is constantly foiled in her attempts to play girly stuff, because it doesn't compute for Matilda, who being verbally dexterous, tends to put it (and Phoebe) down.
We've tried to point out to Matilda that Phoebe has her own agenda, but it's a difficult one for Matilda, who genuinely finds 'girls stuff' abhorrent!
So, in response to constant pestering by Matilda, this weekend we conducted our own social experiment. Matilda and I went camping... and for Matilda it was VITAL that no 'girls' came. Daile decided that she and Phoebe, would hang out and do 'girly stuff'.
Well, Phoebe was IN HER ELEMENT! Poor little squirt! Made us realise how desperate she was to express herself in ways becoming of a self respecting girly girl.
So here it is, pictorially...
Daile had been out to get pampering gear. Face packs, massage oil, little make up pack, that kind of stuff... setting it all up was a thrill to Phoebe!
The bed with a towel on to catch the oil...
Then on to the smelly bath oil impregnated joint bathing... complete with feathers inside see through pillows!
Nail painting...
Dressing up, and going out....!
The next day, Phoebe was up at six, raring to go for it all again! Ha ha. Poor sausage!
Matilda and I drove to the ferry at Cleveland (about 30 mins). It was the 'Big Red Cat'. We went up top, and it was really windy!
The boat lands at Dunwich after about 40 mins. If you look (click on it) at the north of the map, just to the right of Amity is a red 'x', which is were we camped. (Flinders beach)
We were camped just in behind these bushes... (below)
A while ago when Wayne and Dette's fence got nearly blown over, I used our guy ropes to bring it back to vertical. So we went down to BCF to get some more rope. BCF is up there for me with Bunnings. It stands for Boating, Camping and Fishing. Whilst we were there, Matilda talked me into buying her a fishing rod. They were really cheap. Hers was $29 and mine was $50 (so about £12 and £20 respectively. They came with reels ... so what could I do?) When we were in Amity, we got chatting with Steve at the local store and he told us that a good place for us to fish as newbies would be off the jetty. The wonderful thing about the jetty is that you can see the little fish nibbling on your bait. If you're lucky, a bigger fish comes along and you can catch it. I actually caught one! (But it was only about 6 or 7 inches long so we threw it back. (They have to be over a foot long to be able to keep them). Matilda caught a Moray Eel (small one about 15 inches) but it dived into the rocks you see in the picture below. Whilst she was trying to pull it out this ray swam past. It was AT LEAST 5 ft wide! (OK maybe 4ft!)
Beautiful! Such grace.
Here's a self timer pic, with the camera balanced on a tree bough.
Note the makeshift chess table.. the easel.
Matilda made frequent field trips with the new bait box over her shoulder to collect things. We got a lot of shells and pressed several flowers.
Then one of these strolled into camp! It's a Goanna, and is about 3 ft long. There must have been a family cos we saw several over a ten minute period. Matilda decided to track them. They are masters of disguise though, and excellent tree climbers.
Kookaburras...
Little yellow crabs live in these holes... scuttle out and in quickly. Matilda found lots of skeletal evidence in the shape of bleached white claws and the like.
Lacewing... (below on the rope)
Arranging Cicada shells (the skins of cicada's) which are so delicate that we keep them on the dash.
We stopped here to look at the view. Here we were near the 'N' on 'North' on the map on that dotted track. Matilda was writing something....
...and then giggled.
On our way back to camp we saw what I think was one of these... thin, and just less than a metre long.
.jpg)
Either this, or a Taipan perhaps. This one is an 'Eastern small eyed snake' and it's highly venomous. My camera was in the back of the Ute, so telling Matilda to watch it from her window in the cab and tell me if it came my way, I went out to get the camera. (The snake was at the front left of the ute). As soon as I stepped on the deck, it slithered off to the bush so we didn't get a picture).
This is the Eastern end of Flinders, near to Rocky Point.
... and this is how the Aussies go to the beach! .... Sod the deck chairs and ice creams.... they take the 4WD and a freezer!
We'd taken a couple of easels, and went to paint at North Gorge, which the cafe owner at Amity had told me might be a good place to go.
By this time, we were really short of time on the Sunday, and had to rush. We had about 50 mins.... and this is what we painted.
...then we headed back down to the jetty, at speed to cram in a last desperate fish. Matilda really wanted to catch one, and is now a committed fisher[person]. Unfortunately we didn't have any luck. We had to rush for the ferry, with Matilda in tears at the injustice. We nearly hit a Koala that ambled onto the road... and we pulled up for a few seconds to look at her. Matilda perked up at that.
This was the view from the boat as we arrived back.
So, now we're all back. There is an air of having had a good time all round. We need to find a way for us all to go next time. However, an interesting experiment eh?
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