More on hair styles.

Now come on gang... do I come over as a "comb over" type of guy?????
Surely you can recognize a joke without me having to use the iniquitous "LOL"

I would be wasting the opportunity to use this;

If a man has a bald patch at the back of his head, its because he is a great lover.

Photos will enbiggen if you click 'em.












If a man has a bald patch at the front of his head, its because he is a great thinker.













If he has bald patches at the back and front of his head, its because he thinks he is a great lover.

Hair styles of the poor & infamous.

Home as far as Wazza's in Brisbane after a 2.5 hour flight instead of a 25 hour drive between Brisbane and Adelaide.
As the weather has cooled down with the onset of our winter (mild though it may be by comparison with some other places) I have been letting my hair grow in the hope that it will insulate my head a bit, the supply of hair is fairly sparse so I’m working on a “double reverse comb over with a cow lick front and a degree of difficulty of 7.5).
At the moment its about 1 inch long instead of the normal 1/8th of an inch so in another month or so it should be about right to do the comb over from each side to the centre, I know you will all be anxious to see the result so I’ll keep the photos coming, my favourite daughter is most keen to see how it turns out I know so stay tuned Vicki.

Click on photos to enbiggen.

This pic shows Wazza and I sharing a glass of red to ward of the cold last winter.

This one shows the preparatory work that has gone into the double reverse comb over style that is to come.

It can be clearly seen that I come from good stock when it comes to the head covering that needs the above style, this was my dear old Dad at 90 years of age, I hope I got some of those genes as well as the hair style.

Christmas Adventure

For the first thing; I would like to thank all the folk who took the time to pass on their thoughts, and love for my favourite daughter Vicki and all of us, her family, thank you.

My long held view that the friendships we make in blogland are among life’s greatest treasures, I am often amazed by the depth of feelings that come streaming onto my computer screen; an example can be seen right here.

That sort of thing just overwhelms me!!

OK what else is new??

We had a very good flight between Adelaide and Perth, upon landing as we had to disembark on the tarmac Vicki was offered the use of the DPL (we guessed that this stood for “disabled persons lift???) and a wheelchair to the terminal, imagine the look on the faces of Brother Alan, ,SIL Lyn and nieces Jenna and Aimee when the very last people of the plane were us, complete with wheelchair!!

Once it was established that Vicki could still move under her own power as long as it is with a gentle pace they all relaxed a little and it wasn’t long before the much anticipated laughter was ringing forth, the first lot caused by Vicki telling of my mishap with a glass of Coke on the flight, I didn’t just spill a bit of drink.. I just plain missed my mouth altogether (how could you miss a mouth that size?) featured prominently in the comments, you really needed to be there at the time to see the full humour (with actions) but it set the tone of what has thus far been a very good visit.

Our main Christmas function is to be held on Dec 21 as that was the date when everyone could be available, this will be followed up on Christmas day with another celebration and a third and final one on Boxing Day, by which time we will be all partied out I think.

Rex hasn’t left Wudinna for his long road trip to Perth yet, life has a habit of getting in the way of plans especially if you happen to be a farmer!!!!

Already we have had some entertaining times while sitting around telling the stories of our lives, with suitable embellishments to provoke the desired merriment; this has reached the level of an art form between grand daughter Jenna and myself, I have even been tempted to try out as a stand up comic as long as Jenna (and her exuberant laughter) was part of the audience I feel that I would have a career there, some sense’s of humour are finely tuned to one another!!!

I’m guessing there will be more of this story to follow, so if you feel like coming back again you will probably get some more AND pictures too.

Another health update.

We are just about set to fly off to WA to begin the Christmas visit, I am sad to report that Vicki’s health is again a major issue, her body is wracked with pain almost all the time, she is only able to walk very short distances, her hands and wrists have lost most of the power necessary to perform even basic tasks. In short my favourite daughter while still alive,hasn’t got a life.

I’m finding this pretty hard to cope with, as any parent would, and starting to wonder about what my part can be in her life in the immediate future, she has begun a course at a wellness clinic which involves diet, exercise and chiropractic treatment, they are quite sure they will be able to help her, but the treatments are 3 times a week for the first 3 months with reassessments after that.

This is going to mean her moving over to Adelaide for a minimum of probably 6 months, and with the constant demands of the farm on Rex’s time will mean that she would be alone at the unit for much of the time, a situation neither Rex nor I am happy about, so there well may be another round of carer in my future.

The immediate plan is to get the Christmas festivities under way with the hope that some family love will cheer her up; serious planning for the future will then become the priority.

Sorry to launch all this onto an unsuspecting audience but I need to speak/write about it to help clarify it all in my mind, there will be plenty of chances to speak with other family members soon but the aim is not to spoil everyone else’s Christmas with tales of doom and gloom, rather to try to buoy Vicki’s flagging spirits.

I hope I can manage something a little more cheerful for my next post, for those that feel inclined, we would all appreciate the odd prayer and cheerful thought… Thank you.

Come A Waltzing Matilda With Me

Who’ll Come A Waltzing Matilda With Me?

Day 2.

Got away to an early start to what turned out to be a very long day covering almost 1300 Kms and getting me to Adelaide at about 10 PM, there was gentle rain for about 1 hour not at all like the "bucketing down variety" we have been getting in Queensland recently.
There was a lot of water lying in the paddocks along the road in some places and even a couple where the water still covered the road surface the trucks shown here took little notice of it and as can be seen by the cloud of black exhaust smoke in the first photo actually accelerated into it for the benefit of my camera.

Later while travelling through the area known as the Hay Plains one I got the feeling that the flat earth society may have been right after all, it isn’t tree-less like the Nullabor Plains, rather the small, 20 foot tall, trees that are here seem mainly clustered on the horizon, mind you its so flat that the horizon in any direction is quite close.
There are many earth works visible as you gaze around, most if not all are to do with water, storing it in dams for stock to drink, diverting it away from things that must be kept dry, diverting it to places you want to get wet, all these low levee banks or mounds of earth stand out on the stark landscape.
A couple of these stirred my interest, the first was a raised platform about 5 feet high, 20 x 15 feet long/wide with one side tapered away to nothing, Warren and I saw these when we were here recently and wondered whether they were for unloading stock or machinery… the placement in the paddocks convinced me this wasn’t their function on this trip, I mused they may have been "School Boat Stops" for times of serious flooding when the "School Bus" could not get through? The mind plays tricks when you travel long distances alone!!!
Another feature that had me wondering was what appeared to be a very long levee bank, it appeared to be running in the wrong direction and proved to be an abandoned railway line… complete with one rail left in place… a good starting point if someone comes up with a mono-rail with the rail fixed to the earth instead of above ground, as I said travelling alone produces some strange thought patterns.
A rather strange thing occurred about this time as I watched the road tapering away in the distance it suddenly turned into a lake of shimmering water, a quick glance behind showed that the lake had surrounded me, have I mentioned that this is a very flat area? Here I was on an island in what had been a stark dry environment just seconds before.

Some of the earthworks mentioned were about 10 feet tall and were as close to a hill as would be found in a hundred mile radius of this place, in fact the tallest feature I found was this "Mini" mounted on its tall pole.
In a rest area where I had lunch again my mind wandered to a fanciful thought that the guard rails on two sides of this structure were held together with 48 ½ inch bolts and nuts while the shelter itself had to make do with only 28 3/8 inch bolts, admittedly there were also some welded brackets… I never promised you intelligent posts… but you must admit they’re different!!!!!

While I ate my lunch and counted bolts a family of Emu’s wandered past, knowing that Emu’s are very curious birds, no, not strange, more of an enquiring nature curious, I clapped my hands and waved my arms about a bit, this encouraged them to come close enough to get a photo for you, I have no doubt that had I stood on my head and waved my legs about they would have come close enough to share my lunch, which I have no doubt I would have disgorged had I stood on my head.

I met up with a swarm of locusts (grasshoppers) who spattered all over the front of my car the photo does not do justice to the mess they made and the one I took of the thousands of corpses littering the road didn’t come out at all????

Catching up on holtieshouse.

A short story.

One day, long, long ago, there lived a woman who did not whine, nag, or bitch.

But it was a long time ago, and it was just that one day.

The End.

What's going on in my life at present?? in some ways much more than I'd like there to be, my favourite daughter is once again not very well, or rather is still not very well, Vicki is no longer under the threat of brain surgery and many of the symptoms of Cushing's disease have abated but she is still a very ill young lady.
The only good thing to come out of this is that she and Rex have asked for my assistance in getting her to WA (half way across this huge land) for Christmas celebrations with the family, this will be the first Christmas we have all spent together in about 40 years, so that's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
What else?? well my eyesight has been on the decline again so prior to getting new glasses I went back to my eye surgeon for a checkup, my left eye has healed perfectly after the surgery but there are cataracts on both eyes that may need attention, he has suggested a visit to the optometrist to see if new glasses are needed and if so whether they help my vision, so after Christmas we'll go down that track.
I had the first service done on the i30 a few days ago, it came through with flying colours (as would be expected) so will once again be of for another interstate trip very soon, I'm driving as far as Adelaide SA, about 2000 Kms, then flying to Perth WA with Vicki, Rex will drive over from Wudinna a little later.
South east Queensland has had some good rains during November, putting some much needed water into the reservoirs, the downside of this is that my grass needs to be mowed almost twice a week, this isn't a huge problem as my trusty John Deere makes short work of it, however as I will be away again for about a month I'll have to arrange to have it mown at least a couple of times during my absence.

November 24 2007

Update;
For some reason the link back to my previous post isn't working, if you would like to
read it scroll way down to "Classic Holtieshouse" on my sidebar and click the entry
November 24 1994

It is now my least favourite day of the year November 24 for any readers who don't know the
story behind November 24 and me you will find it here, that's enough of that... this year we
have a federal election scheduled for November 24 and while I am not a politically inclined
person or blogger I have a sense of unease about our national future.

This probably comes about because deep down I'm a Liberal (Conservative) voter and my
feeling is that they are about to loose this election after having had eleven years in office.

A part of me thinks that this length of government has them a bit stale and until the campaigns
got underway a couple of months ago a bit too sure of themselves.

We have such a traditionally stable country that I have some fears about the changes that a new
government will make, although both of the leading party's have talked only of future prosperity
and stable leadership we all know what happens after the results are in can be very different.


There seems to be an inordinate number of these vehicles on the road already, and one would only
expect to see more again after the election is over.

A one eyed view of the world.

This is as much as you want to see at the moment, bur at least it
proves I'm still alive.

Posted by "Pirate Pete" Oh aye lad, it's me Pirate Pete.

Thank you all very much for the well wishes, they were very much
appreciated, for someone like me who boasts of never being sick or
having been in Hospital in my life it came as a bit of a shock to have
to pay someone a fairly large wad of money to throw a handful of
sand into my left eye!!!!

That's what it felt like once the local anesthetic wore off, but praise
the lord for the local anesthetic though... having read the literature
on pteryguim (they damn near named the things after me by gum!)
surgery, I could see the hazy shapes coming towards my eye but
fortunately I couldn't see them clearly and more importantly I
couldn't feel anything.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my very good friend Jackie for
coming down to Coloundra, driving me home and looking after me
after the surgery, another friend, Margaret, who lives in Coloundra
met us and we had lunch together before heading for home.

Once the local wore off and the sand found my eye there was a few
hours where I had serious doubts that I had made the right choice
in having the op done, it's now 24 hours later and there is only a
very mild discomfort when I blink but as the eye is still very light
sensitive I have the eye patch on and the room as dark as practical,
typing this with one eye and two fingers is a new experience too.

There have been a few comments on posts while I was traveling
that warranted answers, I'll try to put some of them here, please
excuse the lack of links, you know who you are;

In no particular order.

Ann... The product you mentioned is probably the same one that
is marketed here as "Shoo Roo" supposedly scares the Roo's away
from the road with a super sonic noise only audible to animals,
but harmless to pets.. if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Jim... Wallaby's are to all intents and purposes small Kangaroos,
they vary in size from about the size of a cat and up to about 3 foot
tall when standing balanced on their hind legs and tail.

Robyn, Raggedy, Val... Sorry about the tissues girls, but I have some
Bowater- Scott shares and I need to keep them rising in value.

Marcus... Freda didn't throw any special celebration when she guided
me home to Duke Street, but she did have the sense to use the route
I would have chosen so we didn't need to debate the matter.

C'est Moi... The family was scattered over Australia by Divorce,
Marriage and the prevailing winds, we all started out in Victoria now
only my Sister lives there.

Joy, and anyone else who may have wondered... The Blog Awards were
decided on March 12th, Holtieshouse was sadly not the winner,
"the breakfast blog" was the section winner, see the top of my sidebar
for the address, thank you to all the folk who voted for my site.
BTW Joy and Marcus, it was a coincidence that the last of my Dad's
stories was posted on the anniversary of Ada's death, nice touch though.

Samantha... As you don't appear to be a blogger.. thanks for visiting.

Walker... We only have one town in Australia with legal brothels it's
Kalgoorlie in WA and I missed it by about 500 kms so didn't have to
avoid any collisions with hookers... just the Roo's.

Aimee... Thank you very much for visiting and "Hi" back to you.

Pamela... Just confirming your booking for the next trip as Co-Pilot,
Navigator (this should be a very easy job with Freda now installed)
the "Whatever" position sounds interesting, we must talk further
about this one.

Robyn... Freda doesn't have a saccharine voice or a strong accent
but we DO have an occasional CONVERSATION often ending with
me telling her to go to buggery, this came back and bit me on the
bum when I made a Freda type comment as Marcus and Carolyn
drove off for home... Carolyn wound down the window and said....
Go to buggery!

Lee... thanks for the advice to watch out and not get married while
enjoying all the weddings... twice bitten, thrice shy springs to mind.

Gwen... You're welcome! BTW did you notice you've made the
blogroll now??

Carolyn... How very fortunate you are to have such a good looking
neighbor!! Yes I saw Tuesdays with Morrie years ago and can see
the resemblance. Yes there are, or rather were, boxing Kangaroo's
that were trained to box, they used their front legs, which are quite
short, to pull their opponent in to them then balancing on their tail
would rake their opponent with their huge back legs and toe-nails,
an opponent to be feared when they stood up on their tails to about
7 feet tall, this is how the dominant male wins his position in the mob.

Hoss... I will give due consideration to livening up my Dad's story by
using your suggested opening line of "My Dad first got laid" we may
need to confer on openings for each chapter, thanks for your in-put.

2peter.... I think Sally sprang to mind from Satelite Sall, but Flamin'
Ridiculous Electronic Device Activation seemed a better fit eventually.

Cliff... While I'm a bit put out that you didn't reconsider your "Nut"
comment I am consoled by the fact that our Fathers seemed to think
alike in some ways, specially when it came to milking cows, my Dad
would milk a line for every last drop but wasn't keen on milking cows.

If I've missed anyone please put it down to having trouble with one
eye rather than being ignored for any other reason.

A comment on your comments

I am not too sure just how to attack this post, I’ve been riding on an emotional roller coaster for so long my legs feel a bit wobbly when they hit terra firma.

Sometimes when a post of mine has run it’s natural course I will come back to it and make a final comment, this is probably more for my own sake than anyone else’s, I don’t expect that you will keep coming back to my comment site for the epilogue.

So after the wonderful response to my posting “November 24^th 1994”

I felt I would like to respond to the kind words from my friends and family;

Hi Ivy, which I have shortened to Hivy, thank you for thinking of me as a “cool” person, your kind words and your brilliant sense of humor.

Hi Jules, you have a burden to bear that you don’t even know about, Jules, was my name for the lady to whom this post refers.
Take no notice of that fact, just elect me to that LSB as the “Sweet and Sappy Man” and all will be forgiven.
I made some brief efforts to not get involved with, “another Ivy” when I first found your blog, but your style and humor made short work of that effort, thank you FRIEND.

Hi Dave, like so many others you’ve hit the nail right on the head with the comment about the support the blogging community gives to one another.

Hi Bugs butt, you’re right about the depth of feelings that are aired while blogging, maybe it’s because we feel we can “open up” and yet retain some anonymity?
Regarding friends you don’t need to have many’ just as long as they are true friends.

Hi Lois, I am in awe of being in the company of Superman’s girl, and I am totally over-awed by being in your company, a true Super Blogger.

Hi Cliff, sorry my friend but I can’t help but chuckle each time I type that, when it comes to good old fashioned common sense you nail it every time.
In just a few words you have explained blogdom beautifully.

Hi Prerona, as you have said there is a sameness to us all and at the same time a difference to us all.

Hi Judy, you are the epitome of blogging friendship, thank you, and as usual so right with the comment that I’m not introverted at holtieshouse, perhaps it’s that sense of anonymity again?

Hi Meg, I would not normally associate the word courageous with me, but it’s ever so sweet of you to think that way, thank you.

Hi Marcus, thanks for the support during some of the down times, and the joy you express for the good times, I have probably been down the introvert trail enough for now so we won’t go there.
Much love.

Hi Merle, as my sister you were a player in the game back in 1994 you are well qualified to have an opinion, and I truly appreciate the love and support you have always given, thank you.

Hi Jamie, I truly do count my blessings as you suggest, it’s like the age old question, is the glass half full or half empty.
Thank you for the support.

Hi Hoss, I was very moved by the visit you made in what probably was your worst week ever, and can only concur that with b**g friends we seem to have tapped into the mother lode.
No need for further searching Hoss, there’s your pile right there.
Thanks for being a b**g bud.

Hi Stacey, this entry gave my spirits the greatest lift they have had for quite a while, I had lost touch with my darling grand-daughter for reasons that need not be detailed here.
Now here we are re-united thanks in no small part to blogging, there is no wonder why I love blogging, and my sweet GD.

Hi Zac, the world is really shrinking, here I am in Australia, getting a greeting from my grand-son in England, thank you Zac for your visit and sharing the love.

Hi Bob, I’m so pleased you are feeling a bit better, along with all our mutual and individual b**g buddies I feel privileged to have such a great group of friends who are so supportive of one another.

This part has nothing to do with the 24^th November 1994 post, It relates to the “Cynical Cyn” post, once more I am in awe of the kindness that abounds in the blogging community, many of you went to visit her site, I’m pretty confident that some of you will return there often and enjoy the visit.

If you didn’t get there yet because of the holidays, pop in when you get a chance.

November 24th 1994

November 24^th 1994

What’s significant about this date? For me it’s when my life
changed from being a part of “WE” to being only an “I”

On this day I separated from my wife of 24 years and
embarked on a life as a single entity, I have previously
touched on my feelings about this and I have no intention of
boring you with details.

In this post I will endeavor to tell the tale, ever so sketchily
of the 11 years since then, again I will not go into enough
detail to intentionally bore you;

My first mission in life was to personally confront all my family
and friends and tell my tale of woe to them face to face, don’t
ask why this needed to be done this way, it just DID.

OK, for some people this would not have been such a huge chore,
but I’m blessed with family and friends who are spread from
one side of this huge continent to the other, so this little project
took a month in time and about 7500 miles in distance traveled
to accomplish.

As promised not too many details, suffice to say I told and
retold the story of my heartbreak about 20 times, with snippets
thrown in to “anyone” who would listen.

OK, mission accomplished, my friends and family now know all
the tragic details, now WTF am I going do with the rest of my
life, seriously, this was the first time that I’d even considered
what to do after the “mission.”

As a couple we had wintered in Queensland for quite a few
years so I just automatically headed for there, the last on my
list “to tell my story to” was my Dad, as he lived in Queensland
that was another reason I suppose.

I chose to put down my first set of roots at a lovely little
fishing village called Tin Can Bay.

I just rolled into town, booked into a caravan park, and sat
back to see what would happen next, I’m not kidding about that,
my life over the next couple of years “just happened,” and I
went along for the ride.

The gods were kind to me in that, the caravan park I had
chosen?? Was a lovely Park and was filled up with lovely
people who nurtured me, whether they knew it or not, and
brought me slowly back to life.

I spent 3 mainly happy years there before the need for a
little more space became important enough to bring about
a move, (I/we had spent 15 years on a farm before the break
up, so living 10 feet from your neighbour was strange to me.)

An unfortunate part of my personality is that I’m introverted
and don’t make friends easily, so the close confines of the
Park were ideal, it’s hard to ignore people from that close
range, so I developed a new set of friends despite myself!

The last 8 years have been spent in Gympie, where with a very
few exceptions, I have again successfully hibernated from the
prying eyes of almost all people.

But now comes the “Cinderella” stage of my life, for the past
few months I have ventured into the Blog world, cautiously at
first, but with ever expanding abandonment, to my surprise
and joy I have found a new set of friends with whom I feel
totally at ease.

There is a small down side to this situation, that is, that our
contact is electronic via cyberspace rather than physical,
(in the nicest possible way) another aspect is that such a lot of
them live in other countries making the meeting up even less likely.

I do however consider this a small price to pay for the joy, and
sadness, that comes from my contact with this new group of friends,
the Blog community.