Hey... you know it was bad a couple of days ago...WELL... today took the biscuit! Where to start?
Daile's car has been making a noise, a bearing noise to be precise, and I noticed it last week when I borrowed her car. It sounded like a quieter version of the problem that it had when we bought it, and that was the reason that we got it cheap. THAT time it was the bearing in the power steering belt tensioner. I watched the guy at the garage put a new bearing in, and thought he was a bit agricultural with the pulley when he took the bearing out. I'd been kind of expecting to hear the bearing again, cos he was less than gentle or scientific when he put the new one in. (The reason it was at the garage doing it at all was that we thought it was the air con... and after doing the air con in the Alhambra in the UK, I decided I'd rather have the time. (I was working then!).
I was going to fix it last weekend, but we ended up doing other things that just got in the way, and I was concentrating on photographing products for the website. So as a result she went off this morning with the radio up.
At about 2.20 I got a call to say she was broken down on the motorway. Steam pissing out and the engine overheated. She was on the hard shoulder but quite near to a slip road onto the motorway. I asked her to have a look under the bonnet and call me back. Whilst she was doing this, a tosser in a 4WD with a car trailer nearly stoved into the back of her, skidded but regained control! She was a bit shaken, she had her head under the bonnet when she heard the skids, and jumped clear to see him get hold of it and tear past!
I was picking up the kids, so I didn't get off until almost an hour later. After I'd been going about 5 Min's, and just before getting to the motorway, I got a call from Daile to see where I was. I explained, and was about to hang up when I heard the sound of a police siren, and flashing lights, and both were behind me. I pulled over and was told they'd seen me on the phone (big no-no here too!) They breathalysed me (cos, hey, you'd have to be pissed to talk on a mobile in a car eh!) and informed me that my car tax was four days out of date. I got a fine of $300 and 3 points.
La di dah. Not good then.
So, since we get a weeks grace here on out of date road tax, I was able to carry on. When I got there, I put some water in, and saw it pissing out the back of the engine. But I couldn't see where from. I decided to drive the now cold car, to the next exit. We made it. Daile went of in the Ute to see if there was a garage with a car trailer for hire as she'd phoned Andrew to see if its illegal to tow a car on the motorway here. He reckoned it is, but suggested the trailer hire option.
She came back a short while later empty handed. By then I'd determined that it was the water pump. It must have been the pump that was making all the noise as the pulley was wobbling about, and that must have caused the seal to pop. I couldn't sort that there and then, so we plotted a route that would get us the 30k home without going on the motorway, and set off. We'd got about twenty K with the kids in the Ute with me, and Daile doing an admirable job in the towed car. We were averaging a safe 35 to 40kph, hazards flashing on both cars, and using a proper tow strap that I got when I went to Frazer. Then from nowhere, a twat in a powerful car pulled right out in front of me and I slammed on the breaks. (Daile slammed hers on before me though, as I felt the car jerk) Despite standing on the pedal, there was stuff all to be done. I ploughed into him broadside. He tried to pull away, and drove into another car that had been behind Daile, but had swerved when she braked. I braced myself for the impact of Daile's car, but it didn't happen. As a matter of fact, when I got out, she was nearly at the full distance. The two other cars had pulled up on the other side of the road, and the slap head was examining his car. He didn't admit he was at fault, but he didn't say I was to blame either. I just gave him a considered look, not wanting to say anything that can be used against me (from past experience). Someone called the police, who said if no one was hurt they wouldn't be attending. (Too busy pulling up people for talking on mobile phones). Then as luck would have it, someone spotted a police car coming out of the same entrance the lad had come out of. They were clearly 'inconvenienced' by having to stop, and had no intention of getting involved. One of them organised for us to all write our details on a card each, she collected them and then proceeded to hand them out, mine went to the guy who'd pulled out, the guy he hit got his...and I got my own details back! SMOOTH! Yeah...er thanks for your help! Once we'd got that sorted, the young chancer had recovered his tongue and was trying to suggest that I was at fault because I was towing and that he thought I was turning left cos I was indicating (Hazards!!) Idiot. The police drove off, presumably snickering cos they'd managed to avoid paperwork.
At this point we discover that the boy racer has no insurance. Shortly after that I discover that neither do I! In Queensland, third party insurance comes with your road licence.. and whilst I was still covered for 7 days on that even though my road licence (Tax disc) had run out as I mentioned earlier, what I hadn't realised until I spoke to the insurance company was that 'third party' as in CTP insurance doesn't mean the same thing that it does in the UK. Whereas third party insurance UK stylee covers ALL losses incurred by the innocent third party, in Australia it covers you for injury only. There's a separate third party insurance for physical property (i.e the cars themselves). SO this means that since that's the kind of insurance that the racer has (otherwise known as 'no insurance') I'm going to have to either pursue the arrogant little shit through the courts for whatever I can get from him, (along with the other fella whose car he hit) or pay for the damage to my vehicle myself!
I'm hoping that the kids, who were screaming after the impact (from shock I figured at the time since they seem unharmed) don't get any inexplicable headaches or neck pains. (Matilda was complaining of a headache when she went to bed) All in it had taken us 4 hours from when they left school to get home.
What a day! You couln't make this stuff up!
What shall we do tomorrow? :-)
Monday 27 April 2009
Small white dog...person.
Dear readers, you may know that Mont(ster) has come to stay whilst Wayne and Bernadette are in NZ for a family funeral.
He's been minding his pees, but not his poos I'm afraid.
If you're eating...
Stop here.
Day one he managed to gleefully roll in the cat's 'doings'. He then paraded around like a King up and down the garden...
..and was surprised, not to say ASTONISHED to find himself on the other side of a pane of glass.
I took the kids to school and gave him a bath on my return.
Later he made his own offering on the kitchen floor.
Oh joyous small white dog...!
Personally, I think its a game he's playing with me. Daile (and everyone else) thinks he can't help it. But click on the pic below and look more carefully at his eyes!
Don't worry Dette, I didn't shove his nose in it...!
He's been minding his pees, but not his poos I'm afraid.
If you're eating...
Stop here.
Day one he managed to gleefully roll in the cat's 'doings'. He then paraded around like a King up and down the garden...
..and was surprised, not to say ASTONISHED to find himself on the other side of a pane of glass.
I took the kids to school and gave him a bath on my return.
Later he made his own offering on the kitchen floor.
Oh joyous small white dog...!
Personally, I think its a game he's playing with me. Daile (and everyone else) thinks he can't help it. But click on the pic below and look more carefully at his eyes!
Don't worry Dette, I didn't shove his nose in it...!
Sunday 26 April 2009
HP Source...now $2.95
I'm thinking of renaming the blog 'Angry Old Pom'. Today I got an e-mail from HP about some feedback I left them last week.
What happened is, I bought another PC last week from an online shop. Our current PC has developed an intermittent fault in the power supply that means that it switches off for no reason at all, and usually it's right when you're in the middle of something. It's been happening more and more, and since it's intermittent, I thought it probably isn't worth taking it to be mended. It will sit on their test bench and be good as gold until they conclude that they've fixed it when in fact they haven't, but they charge us for looking anyway, as of course they must....business to run etc. So I figured it would be safer to just get a new one. It's been about 3 years since we got this....etc.
However, given our current circumstances, I chose to buy the absolutely cheepest thing I could find. It's got quite a good spec, and 2 gigs of memory. Only thing is....it doesn't have a CD drive included at the price ($299). No worries I say to myself, I'll use one of the two top end CD/DVD drives that I have from the computer before this last one. Cannily, I think to myself, 'ah, but what if I get the PC and the drives don't work for some reason'? So I test them on the current computer. The Sony one doesn't work, but the HP one does. OK... the current computer is a HP, but you know... I put 2 and 2 together and got 435.
So the new computer arrives, and I switch it on ...to see what Vista looks like.. and try to connect the HP Drive. No recognise..y. I go to find the driver from HP. Ordinarily, HP and all the manufacturers have a support bit on their web sites that have links to drivers for all their products. No longer with either Sony or with HP.... that is to say HP do have something.... but they have it set up so that you have to send them $2.95 and they send you a CD with the program on!!!! Hey... 'scuse me, but I thought this was a company purporting to be cutting edge! Perhaps they'd like to send me the program on vinyl, or maybe on a wax cylinder!? What's going on! So I wrote to complain.
Today they wrote back acknowledging that I'd made contact and asking me to fill out a survey so that they can 'improve their service' which apparently they are 'always' trying to do. AH...THAT's what it's all about! I did wonder! "So lets see... 'If we make it really difficult for people to get hold of the drivers for our products, we'll be improving on the current situation where they can download them at will....! EUREKA!" They explained in their mail that the survey would only take 5 minutes! FIVE whole minutes of my time! I decided to write back:
So you want me to give my feedback so that you can improve your service...
but you want to charge me to download a digital file from you for a drive that I bought from HP in the past.
A digital file is a no cost thing that HP have already, and supplying it costs them virtually nothing. The good will they get is worth more.
But they want to charge....
Tell you what...
I'll give you some feedback... but it will cost you $2.95 and I'll send it to you on a CD.
How do you like them apples?
Idiots!
I love EVERYBODY except HP and Trojan Workfarce Solutions! Oh, and Optus... and Woolworths. AND not forgetting BCF of course... and....
What happened is, I bought another PC last week from an online shop. Our current PC has developed an intermittent fault in the power supply that means that it switches off for no reason at all, and usually it's right when you're in the middle of something. It's been happening more and more, and since it's intermittent, I thought it probably isn't worth taking it to be mended. It will sit on their test bench and be good as gold until they conclude that they've fixed it when in fact they haven't, but they charge us for looking anyway, as of course they must....business to run etc. So I figured it would be safer to just get a new one. It's been about 3 years since we got this....etc.
However, given our current circumstances, I chose to buy the absolutely cheepest thing I could find. It's got quite a good spec, and 2 gigs of memory. Only thing is....it doesn't have a CD drive included at the price ($299). No worries I say to myself, I'll use one of the two top end CD/DVD drives that I have from the computer before this last one. Cannily, I think to myself, 'ah, but what if I get the PC and the drives don't work for some reason'? So I test them on the current computer. The Sony one doesn't work, but the HP one does. OK... the current computer is a HP, but you know... I put 2 and 2 together and got 435.
So the new computer arrives, and I switch it on ...to see what Vista looks like.. and try to connect the HP Drive. No recognise..y. I go to find the driver from HP. Ordinarily, HP and all the manufacturers have a support bit on their web sites that have links to drivers for all their products. No longer with either Sony or with HP.... that is to say HP do have something.... but they have it set up so that you have to send them $2.95 and they send you a CD with the program on!!!! Hey... 'scuse me, but I thought this was a company purporting to be cutting edge! Perhaps they'd like to send me the program on vinyl, or maybe on a wax cylinder!? What's going on! So I wrote to complain.
Today they wrote back acknowledging that I'd made contact and asking me to fill out a survey so that they can 'improve their service' which apparently they are 'always' trying to do. AH...THAT's what it's all about! I did wonder! "So lets see... 'If we make it really difficult for people to get hold of the drivers for our products, we'll be improving on the current situation where they can download them at will....! EUREKA!" They explained in their mail that the survey would only take 5 minutes! FIVE whole minutes of my time! I decided to write back:
So you want me to give my feedback so that you can improve your service...
but you want to charge me to download a digital file from you for a drive that I bought from HP in the past.
A digital file is a no cost thing that HP have already, and supplying it costs them virtually nothing. The good will they get is worth more.
But they want to charge....
Tell you what...
I'll give you some feedback... but it will cost you $2.95 and I'll send it to you on a CD.
How do you like them apples?
Idiots!
I love EVERYBODY except HP and Trojan Workfarce Solutions! Oh, and Optus... and Woolworths. AND not forgetting BCF of course... and....
Friday 24 April 2009
Monday 13 April 2009
Wobble damn you!
I forgot to mention earlier that the big news of the week as far as Feeb is concerned is that she's got a wobbly tooth! It's only wobbling a bit... but she's SOOOO excited by this that she's already written her thank you note to the fairy! (No pressure then!) She's been wanting this to happen for AGES! Ha ha... bless!
Easter rain...
Rain it seems, is not quite as alien to Queensland as I'd thought. I'd go so far as to say that we probably have more of it than the UK, although I've not looked at the figures for exactly HOW much we get here. It FEELS like we get a lot, and so probably the major differentiator in weather terms is the ambient temperature. This last week or so it's been cool enough to put on a fleece, but its not normally something that I'd think about at this time of year.
Last year you may remember, we went to a campsite in Norther NSW at a place called Tweed Heads. Its a good site (or as a couple of NZers that came this year said "It's a good pozzy") positioned as it is on a river, and with a small and cute little harbour with a boat ramp. We got the exact same position as last year, but this time we were surrounded by mates. We had 8 families, with kids of all ages, and four boats. During the weekend, we all had visitors too, so at times it was really very busy.
Our tent is the grey and green one on the right... and all the tents you can see were in our group.
But the bugger was that the rain was very present for most of the time. We arrived on Thursday and pitched the tent in the rain, and our tent became a rather elaborate shanty arrangement of tarpaulins and ropes tied to trees and the Ute... (the pegs were not staying put). Luckily Andrew had a spare tarp for us to put on the ground of our 'outer tent' area shanty bit, but we were aware that the water was building up under this tarp as the ground felt very soft under it from Friday morning onward. All the tents had similar arrangements, but most of the others were more professional looking than ours... being more used to the vagaries of Queensland at Easter than I. Entrances all began to look reminiscent of the Somme by Saturday, and waking to yet more rain on Sunday was very depressing. Having armies of kids tramping mud from outside to inside is trying.. to say the very least.
On top of this, when I tried to start my little boat on Friday morning, it sputtered to life, only to stop again immediately, and refused to start, or even sound like it would start. (I hadn't managed to finish off the larger boat that I've mentioned here before, and which I'd been repainting and rebuilding. I had pretty much got it done, when the rain stopped me painting it, and when I did get a dryish spell, it rained on the new paint immediately after...rendering my work pointless. So I left it) The problem with the small boat was that rain had found its way into the fuel, and subsequently the carb. Moreover, the fuel, once mixed, has a relatively short life before it gets 'stale' and gummy. I'd put a six month old mixture into the engine. Once I'd cleared the carb and replaced the fuel, I started up, weighed anchor and set out of the harbour. I got only a few hundred feet before it conked again. I paddled back to the side and took out the carb... but was unable to actually get the jets, where I suspected some of this gummy fluid was. I blew out the thing as best I could and had another go. It seemed fine and we did some runs up and down. The more we did, the better the thing went. Finally, with 5 kids on board, it suddenly packed up completely and we drifted down river. Maddy (Carlene and Ian's 14 year old daughter) had finally condescended to be my spotter, after several promptings, only to be served up the embarrassment of an ignominious breakdown and subsequent rescue by one of the other boats. (A spotter's job is to let the driver know when the person on a ski or tube falls off, and it's law that you have one... that's 12 or older)
Despite all the weather, everyone was in high spirits, and we had a good time.
Phoebe cut her feet on oyster shells...
The mud was a real irritant as the weekend wore on, but everyone just made the best of it. This is a picture of the mud that was under our floor tarp after we taken it all down.
On Sunday I tried to do Wake boarding. I didn't even manage to get up out of the water. It's really hard to do it.
James and Matt made it look really easy. They grew up with a power boat...and learned as kids. Here's some pics of them. This is James...
as is this...
This is Matt, who was in the blog last year too...
...bit close this one!
Wa wa wa wa wipeout!
Here's some pics of Nigel on the tube. The boat is James's and it's VERY fast, but despite Matt's best efforts, we were unable to flick Nigel off this thing. I can attest to how difficult it is to stay on the tube, as I was flicked off it 3 times in probably less than 2 minutes, by which time I was wiped out. Nigel hung on for more like 6 or 7 mad minutes! Good lad!
All of us were aching A LOT from the exertion the next day!
This is Hilton and Cindy's boat, with Daile on doing the spotting. The lad on the knee board is Quentin, their eldest boy, who stood on ski's for the first time later that day.
Wet, but good cos of the people... bit like anywhere I suppose!
Last year you may remember, we went to a campsite in Norther NSW at a place called Tweed Heads. Its a good site (or as a couple of NZers that came this year said "It's a good pozzy") positioned as it is on a river, and with a small and cute little harbour with a boat ramp. We got the exact same position as last year, but this time we were surrounded by mates. We had 8 families, with kids of all ages, and four boats. During the weekend, we all had visitors too, so at times it was really very busy.
Our tent is the grey and green one on the right... and all the tents you can see were in our group.
But the bugger was that the rain was very present for most of the time. We arrived on Thursday and pitched the tent in the rain, and our tent became a rather elaborate shanty arrangement of tarpaulins and ropes tied to trees and the Ute... (the pegs were not staying put). Luckily Andrew had a spare tarp for us to put on the ground of our 'outer tent' area shanty bit, but we were aware that the water was building up under this tarp as the ground felt very soft under it from Friday morning onward. All the tents had similar arrangements, but most of the others were more professional looking than ours... being more used to the vagaries of Queensland at Easter than I. Entrances all began to look reminiscent of the Somme by Saturday, and waking to yet more rain on Sunday was very depressing. Having armies of kids tramping mud from outside to inside is trying.. to say the very least.
On top of this, when I tried to start my little boat on Friday morning, it sputtered to life, only to stop again immediately, and refused to start, or even sound like it would start. (I hadn't managed to finish off the larger boat that I've mentioned here before, and which I'd been repainting and rebuilding. I had pretty much got it done, when the rain stopped me painting it, and when I did get a dryish spell, it rained on the new paint immediately after...rendering my work pointless. So I left it) The problem with the small boat was that rain had found its way into the fuel, and subsequently the carb. Moreover, the fuel, once mixed, has a relatively short life before it gets 'stale' and gummy. I'd put a six month old mixture into the engine. Once I'd cleared the carb and replaced the fuel, I started up, weighed anchor and set out of the harbour. I got only a few hundred feet before it conked again. I paddled back to the side and took out the carb... but was unable to actually get the jets, where I suspected some of this gummy fluid was. I blew out the thing as best I could and had another go. It seemed fine and we did some runs up and down. The more we did, the better the thing went. Finally, with 5 kids on board, it suddenly packed up completely and we drifted down river. Maddy (Carlene and Ian's 14 year old daughter) had finally condescended to be my spotter, after several promptings, only to be served up the embarrassment of an ignominious breakdown and subsequent rescue by one of the other boats. (A spotter's job is to let the driver know when the person on a ski or tube falls off, and it's law that you have one... that's 12 or older)
Despite all the weather, everyone was in high spirits, and we had a good time.
Phoebe cut her feet on oyster shells...
The mud was a real irritant as the weekend wore on, but everyone just made the best of it. This is a picture of the mud that was under our floor tarp after we taken it all down.
On Sunday I tried to do Wake boarding. I didn't even manage to get up out of the water. It's really hard to do it.
James and Matt made it look really easy. They grew up with a power boat...and learned as kids. Here's some pics of them. This is James...
as is this...
This is Matt, who was in the blog last year too...
...bit close this one!
Wa wa wa wa wipeout!
Here's some pics of Nigel on the tube. The boat is James's and it's VERY fast, but despite Matt's best efforts, we were unable to flick Nigel off this thing. I can attest to how difficult it is to stay on the tube, as I was flicked off it 3 times in probably less than 2 minutes, by which time I was wiped out. Nigel hung on for more like 6 or 7 mad minutes! Good lad!
All of us were aching A LOT from the exertion the next day!
This is Hilton and Cindy's boat, with Daile on doing the spotting. The lad on the knee board is Quentin, their eldest boy, who stood on ski's for the first time later that day.
Wet, but good cos of the people... bit like anywhere I suppose!
Thursday 9 April 2009
Friday 3 April 2009
Sic note [sic]
This made me smile this arvo... not sure what Feeb was planning here... but she was a bit 'motional' yesterday. Bless. BTW, her teacher, Mrs Perry is leaving next Thursday to concentrate on her impending birthing experience, and a new lass is starting. Feeb says she's nice... so it's not that then!
Wednesday 1 April 2009
This n nat...
A quick vid. Went to Sydney, went for bike ride with girls and mate called Chelsea.
Been reasonably busy. Working a bit, working on the website a bit, and the boat, and the PhD, and the boyish charm... OK not the last ones.
Today I was working at the casino in town from 3.30am... yes that's right! We were installing a game and a stage, not actually working on the tables...
Crazy thing about the casino is that it's not populated with posh and wealthy people in penguin suits, but ordinary, often elderly people who look like the last thing they need to be doing is getting ripped off by a casino. I can't begin to imagine what the attraction is. You only have to look at the casino to get a big clue about who is winning most of the bets!... and it's doing it 24 hr a day. There a people turning up for flutter at all hours! If they're not old, they seem to be Irish or Oriental.
I must admit that it crossed my mind that the 3.30am start might have been an April's fool joke, but it turned out not.
Been reasonably busy. Working a bit, working on the website a bit, and the boat, and the PhD, and the boyish charm... OK not the last ones.
Today I was working at the casino in town from 3.30am... yes that's right! We were installing a game and a stage, not actually working on the tables...
Crazy thing about the casino is that it's not populated with posh and wealthy people in penguin suits, but ordinary, often elderly people who look like the last thing they need to be doing is getting ripped off by a casino. I can't begin to imagine what the attraction is. You only have to look at the casino to get a big clue about who is winning most of the bets!... and it's doing it 24 hr a day. There a people turning up for flutter at all hours! If they're not old, they seem to be Irish or Oriental.
I must admit that it crossed my mind that the 3.30am start might have been an April's fool joke, but it turned out not.
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