Sometimes

Sometimes you have nothing to say and it is best to say nothing and that is how I felt this morning. Just your average end of the week, day. Not having to work this weekend.

Then someone told me a story, here it is.

This guy used to have a guitar shop, here in Melbourne, he had gone to the USA to buy guitars. He rattled off names of the guitars mainly electric and semi acoustic. Good guitars, classics, made by Les Paul. Well he had got his haul of guitars, about 20 of them back to his shop and had them locked away in display cabinets, with a few still out on the shop floor. He had been back only 3 days. He came into his shop to find they had all gone. Stolen all of them.

Well he was beside himself. It was his life savings gone, they were valued at $4,000.00 a pop. He didn't know what to do. In desperation he called on a freind of his mothers who read coffee dregs. I know it sounds strange but he was telling the truth. The woman looks at the coffee cup and says you have had a big loss. A very expensive loss. He nodded and waited to see if she could come up with any answers to his problem. All she said was, 'Don't worry a woman with [white hair] has all the answers to your problem, and with in three days you will know more.

He was perplexed cause he didn't know anyone with white hair. Come Monday morning he is back in his shop, he has just opened up when a young woman with blonde hair came in his shop. Immediately he knew this was the woman the coffee woman had been talking about. She was known to him, so he went straight up to her and asked her what she knew about the missing guitars. She was taken aback, and asked 'How did you know, I knew.'
He just told her that if she didn't tell him everything he would go to the police. So she told him what she knew.

It turned out that a father and son who ran a TV repair shop down the road [about 5 shops away] had come across the roofs of the adjacent shops, [it was part of a terrace] and come down through a sky light and stolen all 20 guitars. They had taken them back to their shop and hidden them under the floor and in the attic.
He took this information to the police who found it hard to understand how he came to know how they had done the robbery. [He never told them about the coffee cup reader or the 'white hair’ woman.

The down side was the guitars were held by the police as evidence for 9 months. And seeing as some of the guitars were already for customers who had left deposits on them, he had to pay back the deposits and wait for the guitars to be made available.

Woof.

Rain

We had the driest and warmest August in living memory, maybe longer depending on the age of our oldest citizens and their ability to remember.
At last a night of rain over most of Victoria is a pleasant surprise. The Liberals are talking up another dam. We had the mother of all dams a few years back. [Melbourne will never have water restrictions again] type dam. Well that didn't last forever did it. We are addicted to water, especially in the suburbs, where large gardens and acres of kerb side lawns proliferate.

I've been thinking lately that, after years of growth on all levels, from size of our houses, cars, salaries, our kids, probably even our hose pipes. In a matter of no time we have been hit by drought, rising oil prices, and a lack of confidence of our future. Can you imagine a suburbia with no gardens, and empty roads, and people who have lost their ability to cope with adversity.

I remember being told as a kid that more than half the world carry their daily water needs from well to village. This bit of info was delivered after a childhood complaint about some modern appliance not being available for immediate use. Well we may return to those days. Already you can't build a new house or extension to an existing without providing a rain water tank. These were discouraged for many a year, by governments of both persuasions.

Rain is a welcome relief but a night of rain isn't going to get us out of the woods. We need new/old ways of recycling/reusing water.
As of September 1 we are on a higher level of water restrictions and Summer is on the way.

Woof.Ω

Bread of life

Grains just ain't grains.
Apparently if you buy so called, whole grain bread in the super-market. The chances are it has had it's fibre taken out of it and replace with some other sort of fibre. Now why they do that I do not know. But the end result is the bread is probably cheaper, can be cooked in a steam oven, lasts longer on the super market shelf, and you can use white flour which is easier to get hold of than a better quality stone ground wholemeal flour.

Two places you go to, to get parts of your life fixed that you have little or no control over the service and the costs. Are the Dentist and the Mechanic for the car. I suppose you could add other examples to the list. But those two come to mind. I have been ripped off by dentists, so many times almost as many as the mechanics, who come first.

If there is no live music to listen to on a Saturday night, you best make your own. Get to it.

Woof.Ω

Shaving

Every day I shave and now my son does too. I saw that he uses the shaving foam at a rate disproportionate to the number of shaves he has. Now that may sound petty, but it did remind me of my father and many other men over the years who have shaved every day.

Dad could make a stick of shaving soap last a year or more, he could work a ‘lather up’ with hard London water, using a shaving brush and his hand. He used the palm of his hand like a cup, to hold some water and soap, and then brush the two together building a lather which he would then apply to his face. He would also strop his safety razor, [double sided blade that fits into a shaver] by stropping his blade he could make it last twice as long.

Of course there were the Cut throat razors as we knew them, the type Sweeney Todd was supposed to of used on his victims. I knew an old barber [dead now bless him] who would use a ‘cut throat’ to clean up the back of your hair cut. He could also do a good job on the facial shave too.
So there you go son plenty of history to the old shave technique. I suppose it wont be until you have to buy the shaving foam and blades yourself, that you start to economise on the Soap.

Woof.Ω

Telstra Solutions

Telstra is the name we have for our national telephone provider. It used to be called Telecom and probably had other names prior to that. In Australia we have a unique situation when it comes to things like telephone lines. We are so large and sparsely populated that the government has to subsidise the provision of essential services to the bush, [outback]. The city folk who make up the biggest section of our population, have by and large not worried about helping three cousins in the bush, we all understand the need for telephones, especially in remote areas.

A few years back, the government sold off just under half of Telstra, now it wants to sell the rest. This time round despite assurances re the governments safety net on prices and obligations imposed on the Telco the people are not so happy to see it remaining half get sold. So the government has had to hive off about a third of the remaining stock into a ‘super fund’ as a sort of creche for unwanted stock.

In amongst all this we have a problem, and that is we need fast internet connections to compete and be compatible with the rest of the developed world. Instead we have an old copper wire phone system that would need a few billion dollars to up grade it to fibre optic style cable. I’ve come up with a relatively simple way of achieving this. But for some unknown reason the government nor the commentators have mentioned it.

The solution is to split Telstra into two companies. One would provide retail phone/internet/mobile, etc retail sales. Just like the companies it is already competing with, but also providing cabling to. The second Telstra company would be a cable company providing [yes you guessed it] cables.

I think both could be profitable. The government could use the sale of the phone company side to help finance the cable company. The super fund, that was set up to provide retirement funds for public servants could also chip in with long term bond type loans to get the whole thing happening.

In conclusion we would no longer have the conflict we have had in the past, where the same company has had to compete and provide in the same market and also have quite strict regulations over pricing and supply. Telstra phone could truly compete with the other phone companies, and Telstra cable could make a handsome profit in providing the infrastructure. I would personally want the cable company to keep that side of the business in public ownership.

Woof.

Niagara Café in Gundagi

I think this is the name of the café that we have visited on our way north. It is run by a family, I believe they are Greek. The location is the main street of Gundagi famous for the dog on the tucker box story. There is a monument to him not far from the township, from memory you can have a picnic there, appropriate really.

The first time we went there it was by chance [as with so many finds in life, a chance encounter and you can be hooked for life.] A car load of kids, a start of a holiday, lets give the kids something historical to see. What better than iconic Gundagi and seeing we were on the road there, the song came next, ‘On the road to Gundagi’ had to be sung as we drove the last few kilometres off the main road. Having got there it was a very ordinary little town. Main street with old shops and pubs, a playing field and picnic area down towards a river from memory. Having taken in the surrounds with a sweep of the main streets in the car, we decided first things first, fill our stomachs, that was the purpose of the visit.

I think we had a choice of a couple of eateries and a hotel or two. When I looked through the windows of the Niagara it looked like something out of the 1950s or 60s , with bench seats and fixed tables. Pictures on the wall of politicians was a bit different and mainly Laborites too. From memory outside was cold and inside was warm and welcoming. Milk bar counter and the front of shop and tables on the other side. The back was shielded with some panelling and fly trap type plastic strip doorway to a kitchen. Menus on each of the tables showed basic fare, including baked beans on toast and of course hot chips. A range of toasted sandwiches were chosen along with drinks and chippys, and while I waited I watched the family busy themselves around the shop and kitchen preparing meals and serving customers. A little disorganised to the untrained eye, but in a matter of no time the food was on our table and being devoured. The daughter who served us was beautiful in that dark Greek way. I think my eyes followed her around the room for the rest of my meal. She had a look of must get out of here one day soon. I imagined her wondering about the lives of her customers and their trips back to the city.

I think there was a picture of Bob Hawke or Paul Keating on the wall possibly saying “Hi” to the owner. Maybe it was both Bob and Paul in their buddy period.

Every time we go anywhere near Gundagi we call in on the Niagara Café. I hope it is still going and the beautiful Daughter I wonder if she ever caught a bus out of there and found what her heart is looking for.

Woof.

Spring has sprung

The weekend went by with a blur of basket balls and some good music down at the local. Fire and Theft are really hitting their straps now.

Ev and I saw some amazing coins in the Ian Potter museum up at Melbourne Uni. Quite unexpected having spent half an hour looking at out of focus photo prints we found these amazing little coins that date back over 2000 years. They looked new straight from the mint.

Well to the Spring, for the first time in a long time the morning walk with dog started in daylight and there was a mildness in the air that makes the nose tell the brain that spring is in the air. The elm trees are pushing out their new leaves that look like clusters of green flowers. The air is thick with smells of blossom.
Tomorrow it will probably rain and go all south wind cold again. But for today Spring has Sprung here in Melbourne.
Woof.

Grumpy old Dog: A first Time for Everything

Grumpy old Dog: A first Time for Everything

Poff thanks for your comment. I appologise if I didn't get the facts right re the reasons for the no vote. I was quoting a scientist I heard on the ABC. I still believe that we need to recycle our run off water and waste water. Your rates shouldn't affected by this the state and federal governments should subsidise these sort of projects.
Woof.

A first Time for Everything

For the first time in my life, I agree with John Howard on something. He is very easy to disagree with let me tell you.
John says we should recycle water. That is to drink. And don't give the voters a referendum on the matter, just do it.
Recently up in Queensland they had a referendum on reusing their household water. They came back with a 60-40% against, a strong no campaign won out. A scientist at the time said the recycled water would be cleaner than the current damn water they are using.

It ain't rocket science, London has been doing it for years and so has Singapore. So yes John on such a dry continent as Australia we need to recycle water, or we wont have enough to go around in the future.

Our damns are down to 50% capacity and the farmers are using excess to the river flows to irrigate their crops. And to top it off, we have an El Nino coming, and we all know what that means. Don't we????

So yes for the first time ever I am in agreement with our Prime Minister. Let democracy go to pot on this one, and just get on with collecting and cleaning our waste water, and city run offs.

Woof.

John's Motorbike race

I mentioned in an earlier blog a elderly engineer [now dead] who I got to know briefly before he died. He had stories of his life that went back to the beginning of the 20th century. One of his story was about his time in the middle east during the first world war.

As a young British soldier he was sent to the middle east. For a bit of fun the troops would play with their motor bikes. One thing was racing them as fast as they could over the sandy roads on the outskirts of town. One day John needed some extra ummph to win a race he knew he couldn't win using just the standard fuel. So using his knowledge of chemicals he made some acetylene which I think burns with a smokey yellow flame. But if you mix it with oxygen it can burn a hole in metal. This is the oxy-acetylene torch.
John somehow managed to get his acetylene mixed in with his regular fuel. I think he did it while riding the bike and leaning over the air intake and either tipping or infusing using a cloth. The result of which was to give the bike an almighty boost. Not for long but enough to accelerate away from the competition just long enough to win his race.

I think they also used it to frighten the beejezus out of the pillion passengers when they hit the gas and took off, sometimes leaving their back seat rider on their arse.

He told these stories with a dead straight face, only an occasional twinkle in the eye. But he would manage to pop in the name of Lawrence of Arabia as a fellow traveller and risk taker.

I think it made me realise just how lucky they all were to get out of there in one piece.

Woof.