March 9th, 2010 by dogbait
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I know some of my faithful readers like to follow the exploits of one, Holly Muppet, so just a brief report as to her progress.
She is growing up and maturing fast and she started school in early February which she loves. She was tested for her literacy and numeracy skills last week and we’ve been told she is above average and at the top of her class. Hardly surprising considering her parenting and we’d like to think we’ve had some influence as positive role models too.
I haven’t any photos to show you but I do have one of a lovely little boy, Jackson. Jack is our nieces little fella and a beautiful temperament to go with the angelic face behind the corn. Laura is also doing photography courses and has an aptitude for taking great photos and this one is no exception.
March 8th, 2010 by dogbait
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Sorry to sound like a broken record again but we’ve had 56mm of rain over the last two days and rain like that is most welcome in this dry and parched country. Tell that to the Banana Benders up north who have had no rain to speak of in years and now far more than they can handle. In fact, they have broken records too and their floods cover an area the size of the UK (that’s 1% of Texas) and their reservoirs and dams are somewhat full.
Some of that moist air in the upper atmosphere has been sweeping south and responsible for a heap of thunderstorms down our way. 28mm fell in half an hour on dusk last night and we had a river from the overflowing street gutters running down our path as it headed on it’s natural course to the lake. Fortunately we had some serious drainage works done a few years back but the intlet to the storm water a couple of doors down was blocked and it overflowed into a neighbours garage and garden. However, the storms in Melbourne have caused far more damage.
I was out in the deluge last night checking on things including the fish pond, which was fortunate, because it was starting to overflow and 13 little Nemo’s were about to join their cousins in the lake. Most of the heavy stuff has passed now and we’ve had a very pleasant morning.
Hold on, what’s that thumping on the roof? Not more bloody rain! Better get the camera……………..
March 7th, 2010 by dogbait
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A couple of photos that caught my fancy this week. Basement Cat doesn’t take kindly to his partners choice of doona covers. Sammy boy and his master slave have something in common there.
A fair whack of our superannuation fund is tied up in shares and the GFC made us all wonder how the stock market really operates.
This sunset a couple of days ago. “Red sky at night, Shepherd’s delight”.
Hardly, as we’ve had quite a bit of this.
March 6th, 2010 by dogbait
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As that wise and noble politician (is that an oxymoron?) Marcus Antonius once said, friends are like roses…you just have to look out for the pricks. Or was it Confucius?
One of my bloggers said recently that when the balance of what you put into a friendship against what you get out of it tips the scales, then it’s doomed to failure. Unfortunately, we have had our share of scale tippers and roses over the years, where, for no reason, we have turned into shit on their shoes. Dems da breaks.
However, Confucius did say, friends who behaves like an ass will be the butt of those who crack jokes.
March 5th, 2010 by dogbait
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I ended the week with a couple of meter reading rounds. The desperate call came through on Wednesday and the two rounds were only 4 hours each the added benefit was that it paid for all the bike gear we purchased recently.
This place had me puzzled. That meter box lid is new, has new hinges and a latch and is secure so what gives with all the woodwork? As my good Irish mum used to say, “Ejits”.
Our passports arrived this week and the postman was good enough to ride his motor bike right up to our front door. Lazy sod. It appears we only get the city of our birth on the front page and not the country so mine is just Haifa. Handy when the Arab terrorists storm the aircraft demanding passports and I’ll be screaming, “Palestine, Palestine!”. These new ones are biometric and we only have to twinkle the irises at the camera to be admitted into the land of Oz. Blink and you’re out.
And no, you’re not seeing my passport mug shot.
March 3rd, 2010 by dogbait
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Our Super Tuesday bike count went off without a hitch. Well you could hardly have a hitch when I only had to count 16 and MP had 7.
I was on a well established bike track on the Barwon River in Geelong and the 7am to 9am count was geared towards commuter riders but it took 30 minutes to get my first customer. This was my second customer. It was 9:02am and I was packing up and along came 7 more bikes so I suspect a count from 9am onwards would have gathered far more recreational cyclists.
I would have loved to have seen the guy at work on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets in the Melbourne CBD. 1795 riders in two hours! His counting sheet would caught fire! I presume they would have had to have four counters for an intersection like that. A bike track similar to mine along the Yarra river in Melbourne scored 1407 cyclists and here was MP and I sending one another bored text messages.
Anyway, hopefully a useful exercise and we scored a nice tee shirt and we ploughed our $100 back into the bicycle network.
March 1st, 2010 by dogbait
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We took the bikes down to Queenscliff today for a planned 60k bike ride to Geelong and back. We knew the “back” bit was going to be fun when we mounted our trusty steeds and we were doing 20 kph without peddling! So the out bit was a screamer with a 30 kph tailwind but that came to a halt 6k down the track.
We mastered the clip-on shoes and pedals very quickly but we need to train the brain that we actually have clip-ons and not conventional pedals. I pulled up to cross the Portarlington Rd and came to a halt without unclipping the shoes from the pedal cleats and I suddenly started to lean like that famous Tower except I kept on going. When you get past 45 degrees and you just remember you need to unclip, then it’s too late and Newton’s Law takes full effect.
The tumble didn’t hurt too much except for some shed skin but my new seat came apart and is beyond repair. I managed to do a temporary fix otherwise I was going to have one seat shaft embedded up a very sensitive place and so we rode on. We managed 20k out before the seat started to continually fall off and so we turned around and hightailed it home.
Well, “hightailing it” into the strong headwind probably wasn’t the right word but we battled on with me having to stop a few times to prevent “embedding”. MP decided to have a forgetful moment with the pedals too and joined me with some scrapes on the knee but we made it back okay and a trip to the bike shop is in order with their crappy seat.
Clip on, clip off. Clip on, clip off. Clip on, clip off.
February 27th, 2010 by dogbait
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February is usually the month from Hell weather wise but has been very mild and we’ve only had three days around 35c where you would have expected a few 40’s by now. Somewhat of a change from the Armageddon of last February.
This has helped us get out with the bikes more often and we’ve really got the bug back again after the last few weeks of enjoyable riding. I was reading where bone domes can deteriorate over the years, and since we’ve had ours for 12 years, we lashed out on new helmets, and golly gosh, have they improved in design. Dials at the back so you can tighten or loosen to size and far more comfortable than the oldies.
Our seats are originals and not that comfortable but we use gel seat covers and padded cycling shorts which help one’s numb bum and other vitals. We lashed out on new, quality seats and I forgot to use my gel seat cover and shorts over the the 50k (sorry, 49.9k) bike ride the other day and had no saddle soreness whatsoever. Now we have purchased clip-on bike shoes and pedals and yet to try them out but people swear by their efficiency so they will get a testing shortly.
We’re members of Bicycle Victoria and have signed up to be counters in Super Tuesday next Tuesday 2 March. This is being conducted over most of Oz where volunteers are being used to count bike usage to assist BV and Councils with the data necessary for planning and allocation of resources. We are allocated locations to count bikes over two hours from 7am till 9am and Geelong was included this year for the first time.
When we logged on to check locations, we noticed two locations in Ocean Grove and one was available so MP grabbed it. Her location is the path between OG and Barwon Heads along the Spit which seems unusual but we were told it was specifically requested by the Geelong Council. I suspect MP is not going to be too stressed with this location and the betting is whether she actually gets anyone to count. I have a great position along the Barwon River in Geelong where two tracks merge just a couple of hundred metres from that photo in my last blog post.
All the counting points are either four or three way intersections and we both have three way ones where you have to count bikes in and out of the intersection. Each road is given a number so a bike may go from 1 to 3 and you tick off that one on your sheet. I feel like Bitzer with his clipboard in Shaun the Sheep!
Now what I want to do is arrange for a big group of cyclists to ride along to MP’s spot and all diverge in different directions at the same time and that should make her head spin.
Anyhow, it’s an easy way to earn a nice tee shirt and 50 bucks each to one’s favourite organisation.
February 24th, 2010 by dogbait
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MP was backing the car out of the garage yesterday when the Google camera car sailed past. I heard they were re-doing Oz again and I told her she should have jumped out and mooned the thing. Now that would have made a great link on a blog post.
Another beautiful day today so we piled the bikes into the car and drove over to the car park on the Rail Trail at the corner of Curlewis Rd and Portarlington Rd and rode the Rail Trail into Geelong where it meets the Barwon River and then completed the 20k circuit around the river track.
A most pleasant ride and we even stopped for the obligatory photo shot and a latte at the riverside cafe before heading back to the start.
Our trip meters were showing 49.9 kilometres at the end so MP decided to ride up and down the car park a couple of times to get the 50k while I just picked up the bike and spun the front wheel until it clicked over 50k.
Yeah, I know!
February 22nd, 2010 by dogbait
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Last week we had exercise classes, long runs and bike rides and the long hike yesterday left us feeling on the stuffed side. I had plans for more retaining wall replacement starting today, but damn, this body is rejecting the notion. How about a nice jog on the beach, a swim afterwards, and a trip to the flicks to use up a couple of freebie vouchers. Sound good to you?
Another thing we did last week was renew our passports as they expire in June. We’ve gone through three passports in 20 years of travelling and two had to be replaced because they were chockers. I thought this could be a bureaucratic fumble considering my place of birth and pedantic nature but I started the process on-line which extracted ones records and created forms you printed out and took to the Post Office to arrange an appointment for an “interview” .
Well, talk about painless. We knew were on a roll when we walked into the PO and the place was empty. The Ocean Grove Post Office ALWAYS has queues coming out the door so we looked at each other and wondered if the end of the world had come and they forgot to tell us. A very pleasant and cheerful lady assisted us and said we could do the “interview” there and then.
So it was over against the wall for some mug shots, some form ticking and checking and then I tossed in the fast, curve ball. When I filled out my personal details form on-line, it didn’t have a country of birth as Palestine but it had the Palestinian Terrorities which was no good as that’s the Gaza and West Bank so it would only accept my country of birth as Israel. As many of you will know, my father was a British Palestine Policeman and I was born in Haifa, Palestine, in January 1948 (I’ll help you out here, it’s 62) and the State of Israel didn’t come into being until 15 May 1948 when the Jews kicked the defenceless Arabs out of their homeland and took possession, a trick they learnt from their own oppression in Europe. Don’t get me started as it could become a monumental rant.
So I told our interviewer that I took exception to “Israel” being on my passport, as for one, I wasn’t born there. She said countries of birth don’t go on passports anymore but I dug my heals in and said I didn’t want any record of Israel in my records. She said she would ring her contact at the Dept of Foreign Affairs and came back quickly and said they were happy to accede to my request if I just filled out a form explaining the circumstances. She had the form there and it was a done deal and we were out of there in no time and $416 lighter with a promise of new biometric passports within 10 days. It’s not often I can say dealing with government departments is a pleasure.
Well, for that price, it should be!
February 18th, 2010 by dogbait
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The weather over the last few days has been beautiful with days in the mid to low 20’s with a nice sea breeze. Days when it’s great to be retired with no thoughts of finishing off retaining walls or other sweaty work. It’s been a very mild February and the garden is still looking good and at this time of the year you’d expect everything to be burnt to a frizzle.
MP was off again socialising with her friends so I decided to jump on the bike and pedal over to Barwon Heads for a latte at my favourite haunt. Via the Bluff, of course, and I always feel privileged living in such a beautiful spot where the Barwon River meets the sea.
A few people have setup in the camping ground and I think some leave their holidays until late summer when the masses have gone home. Good thinking.
Hover your mouse over the photos for the caption. Clicking on them opens them up but you already know that.
February 15th, 2010 by dogbait
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So what were we up to today? Anyone with an eagle eye could tell me the the country pedigree of my mountain bike, or even better, the brand name. Certainly one of my regular readers from the northern climes shouldn’t have any problem.
Contrary to my recent rants about my Catholic education, I did have a couple of good teachers and one Brother in particular taught me to really appreciate geography, maths and English. My love of travel originated from my appreciation of geography and another interest was studying the weather. The weather dictates our lives and knowing whether your tootsies will get wet or you might get sunburnt on Wednesday is important.
Our nearest Meteorological Weather Station is 18k away at Geelong airport and I have always relied on that for my daily weather fix. I was going to buy a Davis Vantage Pro weather station to hook up to my computer so that I would have more accurate information. You can then register your weather station with Weather Underground and there are thousands of unofficial but very accurate weather stations around the world. This link overlays all the weather stations on Google maps and you may need to pan in to see the temperature appear to show you a station. If you click on the temperature it will take you to the full statistics page for that weather station and you can modify the map settings and set the page to the nearest weather station in your area. Hence, I have a weather station setup for all my regular readers and it’s nice knowing they are freezing their butts off while I’m out having a swim.
Lo and behold, the Ocean Grove Fire Brigade recently setup a Vantage Pro on the top of the fire station which is only 2k away and has been recording since mid January. Hence, I’ll be using that one, and on the right sidebar of this blog you will see the weather stats link for OG and you can click on that for the full history details. Below that are three links and one is for the beach web cam so it’s most important knowing if one can run along the beach at low tide or whether it’s worth taking the boogie board for the swim afterwards.
Now we just need someone to clean those windows.
February 13th, 2010 by dogbait
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Slaving in the garden on and off over the last few days has been productive. A retaining wall to the front door that was collapsing is now in good shape again and the muddy path down the side of the house has been lined with crushed concrete.
Also, a garden bed lined with bricks has been replaced with redgum sleepers and MP got more veggie garden. Unfortunatley, someone thinks it’s a great place to sleep.
We slaved all day and had just finished and put the kettle on when Muppet’s Mum drops in for a cuppa and a look-see. An hour earlier and she would have been swinging a sledge hammer. A good sense of timing, eh!
February 12th, 2010 by dogbait
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MP here. I’m sorry to report that DB went out meter reading and hasn’t returned. The humidity has been unusually high lately and DB kept complaining (more than usual) about how uncomfortable it is working in those conditions.
He didn’t return home on Thursday so I contacted the police who conducted a search of the area he was working and they came up with some clues.
February 10th, 2010 by dogbait
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On Tuesday, we decided on an easy rest day after our toil in the garden of late so it was out for a run where we finished at the beach for a swim in water that must be around 30c at the moment. We had it all to ourselves and what are the workers of the world doing today? Who cares!
I was sitting down to a leisurely lunch at 12:30pm and by 1:10pm I was over in Pt Lonsdale reading meters. I got the panic phone call to do three rounds, but firstly, another MR wasn’t going to finish a final day round so it was over to help him. It was easier to take the PDE and tear around at a furious pace while he leap frogged ahead grabbing readings on a notepad and we managed to finish with 5 minutes to spare. Don’t worry, that cost them a lot of money.
I did a round today and the humidity was stifling and I was drowning in my own sweat in the end. You may ask why I still do the odd bit of meter reading. Nothing beats power walking for 8 hours in tropical like weather to help lose a kilo or two, the “panic” money is good, and it gets me away from retaining walls and laying crushed concrete. Temporarily.
Now, what was that about the workers of the world? Oops!
