A New Life

Hello to all my very good friends from a very humble recipient of all the love and caring I have been getting lately, being ill is pretty much a new sensation for me as I have been blessed with good health all my life.

I felt it might be an opportune time to jot down a few of my feelings and thoughts, these will be in random order as they occur to me rather than an orderly list... much like my life has been.

The obvious first thing is the mix of fears and emotions that the news that the bowel obstruction you have is "Cancer", still in my mind more of a sentence than a word, and it would take a braver man than I to hear this without "fear" being a part of what you felt.

I'll repeat.... my health has always been good and until this last 10 days I had never spent a night in hospital, if you chose to you could say that translated into "I had never before been totally humiliated" I was pushed and prodded in places that should remain sacred, I had tubes, digits and various pieces of equipment inserted into these same areas, one of these insertions was enough to clear the obstruction (Cancer??) in my bowel which in turn led to the worst night of humiliation of my life, during that night I managed to soil myself 13 times creating an unofficial Nambour Hospital record!!!!

The other side of hospital culture which I knew nothing about was the absolute dedication and caring so generously given by all the staff members that I came into contact with.

Then there was the strength and cheerful acceptance of their lot by long term patients who had been through more in their sometimes short lives than it seems anyone should have to.

As the last few paragraphs should show this has been a learning experience for me and while its true to say I would very much have preferred not to have been here it has been a strengthening process that will be of a long term benefit.

Then there was the humor!!! from Cleaners, Wards men, Nurses both male and female, in short from almost everyone you contacted, made you smile or often laugh out loud at a time in your life when you felt less inclined to laugh, especially after abdominal surgery!!!

Above all else has been the love and devotion shown by my family and friends, how can you say thank you for love like this??

The preparation and treatment period begins early next week and I have no idea whether this will leave me inclined to more posts about the progress I'm making or not... time will tell.

Again I thank you for your concerns, well wishes and prayers.

Peter.   

9/11 Eight years on.

Project 2996 for this year, 2009 has come around, who can believe that it is now 8 years since that fateful day 9/11/2001.

This year when I gladly volunteered to again do a tribute to some of the heroes of that day I was given the names;

Rudolph N. Riccio.

Lt John R. Fischer.

James R. Paul.

Now of course I didn’t know any of these men personally but I had no trouble locating their names on countless lists of victims and honor roles.

When I went in search of more personal details though I ran into trouble, all I could find was that Rudolph was 50 years old, had a wife named Joanne and 2 sisters named Meg, and Fran, he was an IT employee of the firm Cantor Fitzgerald, they had offices on floors 101 to 105 in the North tower of the World Trade Center.

American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, struck the North Tower at 8.46am, impacting on floors 94 to 98, we now know that anyone on floors above 98 were trapped, this included over 600 Cantor Fitzgerald staff.

Those are some of the cold hard facts of that day and the man Rudolph N Riccio, we can only guess at the sheer terror that gripped the people involved, but we have heard of the countless acts of heroism performed and I have no trouble in seeing Rudolph in the role of hero.

John R. Fischer

John Fischer was a little easier for me (an outsider) to trace, as an officer at the Manhattan Fire Station where he served for 7 years John was the epitome of a hero on a daily basis.

John was promoted to the rank of Captain posthumously on September 17.

John who was 46 years of age, is survived by his wife of 16 years Jean, their 3 children who were aged 14, 12, and 9 at the time, also 3 brothers and 1 sister, our thoughts and prayers go out to you all.

The men, women, and children that his life touched as a Fireman, and in his personal life have been privileged to know him.

James R. Paul.

James was 58 back in 2001, he was married to Pat and they had 2 daughters.

He was born in Kentucky, after graduation he spent 20 years in Chicago working for Dean Witter, he then transferred to New York where he spent the last 8 years of his life; he worked on the 92nd floor of the WTC.

James spent some time in the Army, he was the author of a book described by many as "necessary reading".

I am pleased to add my tribute to the many that have been paid to this wonderful man

May the souls of all those who were taken from their loved ones rest in peace safe now in the knowledge that the world will cherish them and never forget them.

I am reposting a poem by an anonymous writer which I posted back in 2006 because I believe this simple poem says so much about resilience and the depth of feeling world wide for the act of terrorism of 9/11

A Dad’s Poem.

Her hair was in a pony tail,
her favorite dress tied with a bow.
Today was Daddy’s day at school,
and she couldn’t wait to go.

But her Mommy tried to tell her,
that she probably should stay home.
Why the kids might not understand,
if she went to school alone.

But she was not afraid;
she knew just what to say.
What to tell her classmates
of why he wasn’t there today.

But still her Mother worried,
for her to face this day alone.
And that is why once more,
she tried to keep her daughter home.

The little girl went of to school
eager to tell them all.
About a Dad she never sees
a Dad who never calls.

There were daddies along the back wall,
for everyone to meet.
Children squirmed impatiently,
anxious in their seats.

One by one the teacher called
a student from the class.
To introduce their Daddy
as seconds slowly passed.

At last the teacher called her name,
every child turned to stare.
Each of them was searching,
for a man who wasn’t there.

“Where’s her Daddy at?”
she heard a boy call out
“She probably doesn’t have one”
another student dared to shout.

And from somewhere up the back,
she heard a Daddy say,
“Looks like another dead beat Dad,
too busy to waste his day.”

The words did not offend her,
as she smiled up at her Mom.
And looked back at her teacher,
who told her to go on.

With hands behind her back,
slowly she began to speak.
And from the mouth of this child,
came words incredibly unique.

“My Daddy couldn’t be here,
because he lives so far away.
But I know he wishes he could be,
since this is such a special day.”

“And although you cannot meet him,
I wanted you to know,
all about my Daddy,
and how he loves me so.”

“He loved to tell me stories,
he taught me to ride my bike.
He surprised me with pink roses,
and taught me to fly a kite.”

“We used to share fudge sundaes,
and ice-cream in a cone.
and though you cannot see him,
I’m not standing here alone.”

“Cause my Daddy’s always with me,
even though we are apart.
I know because he told me,
he is forever in my heart.”

With that her little hand reached up,
and lay across her chest.
Feeling her own heartbeat,
beneath her favorite dress.

From up there in the crowd of Dads,
her Mother stood in tears.
As she proudly watched her daughter,
who was wise beyond her years.

For she stood up for the love,
of a man not in her life.
Doing what was best for her,
doing what was right.

When she dropped her hands back down,
staring straight into the crowd.
She finished with a voice so soft,
but a message clear and loud.

“I love my Daddy very much,
he is my shining star.
And if he could he’d be here,
but Heaven’s just too far.”

“You see he was a policeman,
he died just last year.
When those airplanes hit the towers,
and taught Americans to fear.”

“But sometimes when I close my eyes,
it’s like he never went away.”
And then she closed her eyes,
and saw him there that day.

And to her Moms amazement,
she witnessed with surprise.
A room full of Dad’s and children,
all starting to close their eyes.

Who knows what they saw before them,
who knows what they felt inside.
Perhaps just for a second,
they saw him by her side.

“I know you’re with me Daddy.”
To the silence she called out.
What happened next made believers,
of those once filled with doubt.

None in that room could explain it,
for each of their eyes had been closed.
But there on the desk beside her,
was a fragrant long-stemmed pink rose.

A child was blessed in that moment,
by the love of her shining star.
And given the gift of believing,
that Heaven is never too far.

Author unknown.

If you would like to read my 2006 tribute, click on "Classic holtieshouse" at the top of my sidebar and select "911 Five years on"

The bushfires still dominate our news

You know its been hot when our native animals start leaving the country!!!!

BYE SKIPPY!!!

Cute and cuddly Koala's are very vulnerable to fire in their tree's.







These photos show clearly that native animals are quite prepared to accept help
when the going gets tough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the late news recently they had a segment on about a vet down in Victoria who lost her surgery through the bushfires. The very next day she opened up at what had been the local fish shop and was taking in injured animals, pets and native. She is treating the animals for free and is not asking people to make appointments - she is just taking them as they walk in. "The Vet Practice" is the name of her business and she needs donations to allow her to continue her good work.

Please pass this information on to all you know in the hope that more people are aware of what this wonderful woman is doing and may be able to send a donation her way so she can continue helping these injured animals. The web site is below:

http://www.thevetpractice.com.au/


Please cut and paste this link to your browser if you are able to donate
to this very good cause.

There are stories of heroism and acts of kindness coming out on a daily basis that make us feel very proud to be Australian's, sadly there are also a few incidences of the other side of the scale, these range from the scum who deliberately set the fires that cause so much heartache to so many, to the looters who are somehow able to plunder the very few possessions that some of the victims of the fires have, one can only wonder how they can live with them selves. Overall though it is the stories of kindness and valor that shine through in times of trouble.

He's Busting things up again!!

Some of my more popular posts have been about the misfortunes that have befallen me when I have
endeavored to "fix" something around my home, this is just another example of how I always seem
to make a simple task into a (usually painful) exercise of frustration.

It all started when my trusty ride-on mower developed excessively heavy steering, my ever alert
brain analyzed the problem and aided by the sight of a front tyre running completely flat deduced
that this was the cause of said heavy steering.
No problem thinks I, (do you already sense that this story is not going to end well?) I'll raise the
mower.. put some blocks under it.. remove the wheel.. fix the problem.. and replace the wheel..
Too easy.... bloody hell where can I put a jack under this thing?? OK I only want one wheel off the
ground... I'll lift it up myself.. AH here's a nice comfortable spot to lift from... Bloody Hell this
thing is really HEAVY...
OK just put your back into it and LIFT..... OOPPS that snapping noise sounded kind of expensive,
There's that analytical mind at work again, who ever would have thought that a great company
like John Deere would have made that front section out of plastic??

It may not be easily seen that the section below the bonnet (hood) is broken in the four places
that it bolts to the chassis, but you can take my word for it.... IT IS, John Deere, who by the way
have slipped down a rung or two in my estimation of their engineering excellence, refer to this
broken piece as the bumper bar.... What the hell are you gonna "bump" with a lump of plastic??

A trip to the local John Deere dealership brought forth the somewhat surprising fact that they
had in stock a replacement part this and the statement that it wasn't such an unusual request
that I had made, this part gets broken quite often!!!!!
It was when I told them my story about how I had broken mine that the fact that they usually
get broken in a collision with a tree or a fence post rather than torn off with bare hands came
to light.

It was when I went to pay for the new part that my admiration for John Deere was restored,
without a single blush they chared me $68.40 for my replacement plastic bumper bar, for a part
that in their own words, breaks pretty often, that's a nice little earner and shows that the US
spirit of free???? enterprise is still working.
The parting words I heard were.... "Better not have any weet-bix for breakfast tomorrow."

To some overseas readers that reference to "Weet-Bix" might not make much sense
but in my country "Weet-Bix" is recognized as the breakfast food of champions and
many of our sporting legends are judged on how many "Weet-Bix" they do for breckie.
The great "Thorpedo" Ian Thorpe claimed that he did 14 every morning.... no wonder
he was a great swimmer.... its all about floatation!!!!

Now I know there will be some dismay that I have only told the tale of breaking my
mower... not fixing it.... there are 4 bolts to bolt it back to the chassis and 2 more
which attach the bonnet (hood) to it... even I can fit 6 bolts.... if not... there will be
a follow up post, but don't hold your breath!!!!!!

I am taking this opportunity to say farewell to the many friends that I have made
around the world by the medium of this wonderful thing we call blogging, it is with
a heavy heart that I say this, I have enjoyed the wonderful friendship that has come
to me from everywhere I look, but sadly maintaining "HoltiesHouse" has become
something of a burden rather than the joy it was when I started to blog in 2005.
Just a few stats to finish off with this is the 775th post since I began on April 4
(nearly became an April fools day thing) 2005.
Unbelievably there have been just slightly less than 9000 occasions when one of
you have taken the time and trouble to make a comment on something I've written.
A quick glance at my sidebar blogroll will show that I am not alone in my decision
to quit blogging.... At least for now, who knows what might happen in the future?
there are many names there that have been a part of my life for most of the 3
years who are also posting far less often than in the past, so perhaps for some of us
blogging has a finite life time?

Please feel free to use my email address should you wish to stay in contact, or just
to say G'Day and if ever you are in my neighborhood please call and say G'Day in
person.

To my newest group of friends, "The Fun Monday Gang" thanks for the memories
and if someone wants to take over the "Fun Monday Registry" I will gladly forward
all the names and details to you.

Perhaps for the last time from the throne room.

We're Not Lost (we just don't know where we are)

I’m home at last and pleased to say that everything on the home front was OK when I arrived, the last leg of the journey (the bit that included Wazza) was pretty typical of our normal visits, lots of laughter and a few stuff-ups.

I had visited IKEA a couple of times with Vicki while in SA and as seems to be normal had quite enjoyed the experience, there has been an IKEA store in outer Brisbane for many years but they have moved to a bigger and better store now, I had become enamored of the idea of replacing the wardrobe in my bedroom (not a built in one).

So I set of on Friday to inspect the range (while Warren was at work) the address was Logan Central on the Pacific Highway, in this area the highway and Motorway M1 intersect a few times and previous experience had taught me that I would almost certainly have trouble finding it, no worries say I, my GPS will guide me there!!!

And it well might have done too…. Except for the fact of about 6 months of non-use saw it with a flat battery and unable to locate a satellite…. So I was left to my own sense of direction…. Regular readers will recall that this is an unerring guide to failure!!!!

After about two hours of battling the traffic, all the while becoming less and less inclined to shopping at IKEA, I gave up in disgust and went to do some other shopping for the afternoon.

When I got back to Warren’s he was highly amused by my tale of frustration and offered to take me there next day as his brother lives nearby and he knew the area, this seemed a suitable arrangement so we set forth next afternoon and proceeded to retrace all the errors that I had made the previous day, I must admit that I was highly delighted by this as it seemed to offer a glimmer of hope for my sanity.

Eventually we did find the store, which is HUGE and parked in the carpark which is even HUGER, we found the right department and even managed to find just the wardrobe I had in mind but as we were in Wazza’s small car we couldn’t pick it up, it, and most things that IKEA sell is in a flat pack which we determined would fit in my Subaru wagon.

So back we went next day… yes we did find it OK this time… and bought the wardrobe and a matching set of drawers, there was some slight confusion about where we would pick up our purchases, we had to pick up the drawers en-route to the check out, so we collected an industrial sized trolley (with the inevitable bad steering!!) located aisle 21 and location 29 loaded our two flat packs on and headed for the checkout, from there we were sent to the customer reception desk.

I expected a delay while they sent someone of to collect the wardrobe flat packs, but was pleasantly surprised to find they were there waiting for us on yet another trolley, we were then directed into a huge elevator which took us and the two trolleys down to the carpark.

Those who have been paying attention will recall that I described this carpark as bigger than HUGE and guess what…. We were on the opposite side of it to where we came in with two uncooperative trolleys to guide while we searched for a familiar landmark!!!!

It didn’t take long for this to become a bother so I told Warren to stand guard over the flat packs while I searched for the car, a security guy told us that there were three colour coded carparks and all we had to do was pick the right colour and aisle letter, Warren thought he remembered seeing yellow letters and as I didn’t have a clue I started with the yellow area…. Needless to say the car wasn’t there so I headed for the blue area, located the correct aisle (fittingly “F” aisle) and at last found the car, I even found Warren and the trolleys again… after only three wrong turns.

Next came the loading up of the flat packs, we knew that with the passenger seat in its useable position we would not be able to close the rear door so we had brought some stretch straps to hold the door down while we drove the few miles back to Warren’s. once there the plan was to push the passenger seat forward and incline the back rest so we had sufficient space to close the door.

Fate had not quite finished with us yet, we had put the longest pack second from the top and the door wouldn’t close!!!! We needed another inch!!!! So out came the top two packs and we swapped the longest one to the top position which gave us just enough space to allow the door to close.

These flat packs by the way all weigh in at the same weight as I would expect a small car to weigh so throwing them around was good fun…. They are still in the car BTW until I recover from my strained back and take them out.

click photos to enbiggen.


I didn't think about photos until after it got dark but they came out OK anyway.

You left your wallet where?

Hi all, we are still in filler mode here until returning to Adelaide on Sunday so that Vicki can have more tests next week, so what’s been happening??

The current batch of shearing finished on time today, there are still 1000 unshorn but these don’t get shorn until September, tomorrow’s task is to drench, inoculate and tail 500 lambs.

I’ve been putting off a confession about this trip, it bears a striking resemblance to the one referred to in the link below, I left Gympie last Sunday morning with plenty of time to drop my car of at Warren’s and have him drop me at the airport…. BUT…. There’s that word again, when I got about 150 klm from home I suddenly discovered that I didn’t have my wallet or mobile phone with me, sounding familiar??

http://holtieshouse.blogspot.com/2007/03/return-trip-across-nullarbor.html

I didn’t have time to return home for them so pressed on and rang a friend in Gympie and asked her to post them on to me at Vicki’s, they had access to a key and were only to pleased to do this, thank you Ken & Jackie, there have been many suggestions as to how I could avoid this happening but then I wouldn’t have anything to blog about.

My burst of honesty was brought about by the fact that I took some photos to use on this blog and then somehow lost them to the mystery that is Windows Photo Gallery in Vista, I’ll find some in Rex’s files and post them later.

Lost Warship HMAS Sydney Found

A 67 year maritime mystery was solved n March 15 2008 when the
sunken remains of HMAS Sydney was discovered in 2500 meter
deep water 150 klms off the West Australian coast.

After a naval engagement with the German Cruiser Kormoron
which was disguised as a Dutch merchant vessel, as the Sydney
approached to within 1000 metres the Kormoron attacked with
artillery and torpedoes, in the following battle the Kormoron
was sunk, survivors from the Kormoron were the last to see the
Sydney which sank with all crew on board.

There were 645 Australian naval personnel lost with the Sydney
and the location of the wreck has been a mystery all these years since.

Click on photos to enbiggen

There is a magnificent memorial to the Sydney in the WA coastal city of
Geraldton, it has a memorial wall with the names and ratings of all
who were lost from her, there is a domed structure with 645
stainless steel seagulls in flight adorning the roof, this represents
the 645 men lost on the Sydney.

The final resting places of both the Kormoron and the Sydney have been declared "War Graves"
and as such are forever protected from looters and souvenir hunters.

starting fresh in 2008

The Christmas New Year season is over for another year, I’m finding it a bit like the holiday that you really enjoy… but BOY its good to get home and settle back into whatever your comfort Zone is.

As we get toward the finish of 2008s first week, (thus far with no scars on my personal world) I am thankful for the family, friends (both personal and “Blog” kinds) The peace we enjoy within Australia, the beauty of nature that surrounds us, and the health that I’m blessed with.

Our major supermarkets have maintained their marketing genius by flooding their shelves with Easter “Hot Cross Buns” this week mixed in with the “sale specials” for Christmas wrapping paper and decorations, this marketing fiasco which began last October will finish at the end of March, after Easter.

The saga of the moving garage to accommodate the new Hungry Jacks (Burger King) store is nearing completion with HJ commencing to trade on Christmas Eve and the Garage re-opening early in the new year complete with their new office/amenities building and concrete driveway etc completed. Here is the original story.

Ready to re-open I reckon.

Hungry Jack's rear entry and car park where the Garage was located

To bring the building news up to date, the excavator returned and completed most of the work on the land next door to my house a few days prior to Christmas, they are obviously taking some vacation time now as the big ol’ Hitachi is resting peacefully at the rear of the block. Here is that story.

I finally got around to filling the third picture frame with photos of more blog buddies, the first two are here if you are interested.

This time the faces belong to;

Miss Cellania, Pamela

Jerry aka lz, Mike - Hale, Moi

Muzikdude, Natalie aka TLP

John Earle, Marti

Karen, Olive, Willowtree

Raggedy, Lucy

That feels better, all 2007 stuff tidied up here now I think.

A day in the life of a farmers wife

AH the joy of living in the "outback" or at least on the edge of the outback, that place
where you "take care of your own problems"

Let me set the scene for you, my daughter and son in-law live about 5miles out of the
small SA. town of Wudinna which is located about 800 kms west of Adelaide, about
all you need to know is that they are farmers in an area which offers them no services,
they need to be self sufficient when it comes to things that city folks take for granted
they will have provided for them.
Basic things like a water supply (they store collected rainwater in huge tanks) garbage
disposal (they have to organize their own) which brings us to the point of this post,
because there is a danger of fire in the Summer months Rex had just spent several
hours on the back-hoe digging the rubbish pit that you see here.
The pit is about 12 feet square and 8 feet deep, its purpose is to provide a safe burning
pit which over a few years will gradually fill with burnt household rubbish, the pit then
will either be emptied or more likely replaced by digging a new pit.

To illustrate better the size of this pit that is my favourite daughter Vicki in the pit.
Rewind about 1 week when Rex came in from finishing a day on the header at
9.30 pm (quite dark by then) as he pulled into the car port he thought he heard
someone calling out but dismissed the idea as they have no neighbors within 2
miles... must have been something on TV. he was about to go inside when once
more he heard what sounded like Vicki's voice.
Investigation soon found that it was indeed Vicki's voice shouting in a muffled
way, "Help, get me out of here Rex" yep, you guessed it she had taken some
rubbish out to the pit an hour or so earlier and tripped and fallen into it, because it
was such a new pit there was nothing to heap up and climb out on and because
Rex is a perfectionist in all he does the sides are very nearly perpendicular and
offered no footholds to climb out.
Fortunately Vicki was unhurt in this episode except for a few small cuts and
scratches, she could easily have broken an arm or leg and had serious
repercussions.
I spoke to Vicki for almost an hour last night and heard nothing of this episode,
about 5 minutes after I hung up the phone it rang and this time it was Rex
reporting the incident, after establishing that she hadn't been hurt, I asked
whether there were photos so I could blog the story, (Rex takes thousands of
photos so it was worth a try) he said there weren't any... but leave it with me.
Tonight these photos turned up, my brave little girl had reentered the scene of
her recent captivity so that Rex could take photos for the blog... thats dedication!

Fun Monday... A Buggy Ride.

Karisma and Kids, set the rules this week; here they are.

"I want you to take a trip down memory lane, and keep right on going, right back to your childhood. And I want to hear "THAT STORY". You remember the one? Yes, you do! The one your parents, siblings, extended family or friends, would never let you forget, live down or get over!"

Like most of us I had an exemplary childhood with absolutely no embarrassing stories to tell.... well apart from perhaps this one.
When I was about 13 years old we lived on a farm in north east Victoria, I had a horse at the time and on the property there was an old four wheeled Buggy which I sometimes hitched the horse into.
During the occasion in question we had a cousin the same age as myself staying with us, we had decided to take the horse and Buggy for a drive into the local town so set forth for this adventure, all went well until I let the horse take a breather and graze on the grass at the side of the road, when we were set to go again this wily old nag decided it was time to go home, he turned sharply for home causing the buggy to lurch violently onto two wheels and prepare to tip over.
While we were not very experienced in the art of buggy driving we figured it was safer to leave the buggy at this stage and jump clear, which we did, as luck would have it this allowed the buggy to straighten back onto its four wheels and with a much lightened load the horse took this chance to trot of down the road towards home.
Thankful that at least we didn't have a wrecked Buggy to explain we set of after it... expecting to find the horse grazing contentedly not to far down the road, we did find him waiting patiently at the gate at home some five miles further than we had expected him to go.
This fairly harmless adventure grew into an urban legend within the family with the more elaborate versions having us jumping for our lives before we were killed in the wreckage while other versions stuck fairly closely to the facts but highlighted our horsemanship to an embarrassing degree

This is said Buggy, cousin and rear end of horse, with me (at this stage) in control.

This picture proved so popular I've included a couple more



Self and Danny


Click to enbiggen.














My sister Merle, a pet lamb, me (with two pairs of pants on???) and cousin Danny, of buggy
ride fame. This one several years younger?? Definitely farm kids!!!!!

The Hoop Snake

Please go for another visit to Wazza's Place
where you can see yet more of his thrilling
adventures.

This time it is the attack of the deadly hoop
snake that has our hero in grave danger.

Drop Bears

There is an Australian epic movie to be seen at Wazza's.................
DO NOT MISS THIS.

A Visit to George.

In keeping with todays post, a medical theme.

Click on picture to enbiggen.

I made my bi-annual visit to the Doctor yesterday, our conversation started out something like this;

me; G’day George, how are you?

Dr: Fine thanks Peter how are you?

me; I’m great George.

Dr; Well why are you here then?

me; I need my blood pressure pill prescription re-newed so I can go on feeling great. (He gives me a prescription with 5 repeats when I visit, thus the bi-annual visits.)

We sit and chat for ten minutes while he checks my blood pressure and reviews the results of my last blood tests while deciding whether to send me for new tests (usually every 2^nd visit, or annually.)

I look on George as a friend, over a ten year period we have probably not spent more than a couple of hours together but he is always cheerful and I believe he has helped keep me well so why wouldn't he be a friend? he has also led an interesting life, having spent 5 years in the outback as a doctor with our wonderful "Royal Flying Doctor Service" which keeps the remote areas of Australia safe.

We exchange farewells as I’m leaving the surgery and another chapter in my medical history is written, I don’t want to brag about it but my health is excellent…. (the hell I don’t!! I’ve never been in a hospital except to visit and I’ve never been sick in my life…. Why wouldn’t I want to brag about that!!!).

This has been a matter of good luck much more than good judgment I smoked cigarettes for forty years (a pack a day, starting with packs of ten and finishing with packs of fifty, in fact pocket size probably had a lot to do with my quitting) since my twenties I have avoided exercise diligently, I am overweight to the tune of perhaps 30/40 pounds, but bugger it… I don’t get sick.

While I can continue with the existing status-quo I don’t have any intention of changing anything in my life, now I’m no Mr. Apollo, physical exertion of only a moderate level leaves me short of breath (thanks a lot Philip Morris) but if I regulate myself I’m as good as new.

My boast of “never been sick in my life” has a few minor blips on the screen too I suppose, I have had 5 or 6 kidney stones over the years, thankfully none for about 10 years now, these are not fun… and if childbirth is worse, as I’m assured it is, then I’m eternally grateful for being born a male.

There have been a few doses of the flu etc that have been unpleasant, (one memorable case where my hair ached!!!!!) anyone who snickered when they read that… I hope your hair never aches, cos let me tell you there is a whole world of feelin’ crook that precedes that.

I had most of the childhood diseases as a child, took a few tumbles, some bordering on serious, some bloody hilarious but as I said at the start I don’t feel like I’ve ever been sick.

As a direct result of yesterdays visit with George I am now on two new medications, the first is to help with a problem I have in bed…. no nothing like that….. after I’ve been at rest for a couple of hours my feet get hot, I’m talking about a feeling that someone has set them on fire, so I hang them out the side of the bed for relief… at this time of year... Winter..... a couple of hours later I wake up with two big blocks of ice on the end of my legs, George had a name for this, pathological pain or something like that so I’ popping pills in the hope they’ll solve this issue.

The other new medication is to try and get rid of my shakes particularly when I raise an arm to eat or drink, with the price of booze these days I can’t afford to keep spilling it like I do, at rest there are no shakes so he assures me that rules out Parkinsons disease, but in the hope of becoming a less messy eater I’m also popping pills for that one.

He who hesitates is a damned fool.
Mae West

Thoughts Deep Still

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Washing Day.

This one is mainly for the ladies, some of the guys will know about this but it would seem too much like asking directions for them to be interested.

The topic is Washing or Laundry day, we are in the tenth year of a drought here in Queensland and our water storage dams are running perilously short of water so the government has brought in several water saving schemes which attract a rebate or payments for people who adopt them, these include a subsidy on the purchase of a rainwater tank that is plumbed into your laundry and toilet, a rebate for people who purchase a front loader washing machine, and this is the one I want to talk about.

As a concerned person I decided that I should buy a front loader, which for any of you who have this type of machine will know are very frugal on water use and are also quite energy efficient as well, (or so we are told anyway).

I thought seriously about seeking your advice about this before leaping into the abyss of yet another new technology to have to learn about, instead I researched the subject on the Net and talked with the sales people who were selling these items, as with most sales people I found most had an axe to grind and this influenced their advice.

By a process of elimination I did manage to sort out which machine I should buy with the things that I felt were important, like spin speeds, water temperature details, water and power usage, simplicity of use, (did I really just say that?) and washing times.

WAIT a minute, did I just say Washing Times? I was told that a front loader washed very gently and thoroughly therefore it took longer!!!!

OK I had been saving my laundry up for the new front loader to strut its stuff on and found I had 3 loads to do, admittedly by the time I set up my new toy and got it all leveled up and hot to trot it was about 10am, expecting about 90 to 120 minutes per load I thought no problems, the days are starting to get longer now and it’s a lovely day for laundry, sunny with a gentle breeze (see I do know a little about this subject after 13 years of living alone) I hadn’t allocated extra time for reprogramming when IT decided I must have changed my mind about doing the laundry and switched off requiring me to start over with all the buttons and knobs, nor had I expected the 120 minute maximum to blow out to 150/170 minutes.

The upshot of this was that my second load finished at about 4.00pm and I judged it to late to complete the 3^rd load today so I have launched into another learning experience, that of programming an automatic start up in the morning via ITS wonderful start preset facility, who knows what IT will do in the early am hours with out me there to admonish IT.

I am thinking that IT needs a better name than IT so I would be most appreciative of any suggestion that you care to make, it’s safe to say that profanity has been tried already, and found wanting.

All this has added a new dimension to WASHING DAY for me as it now takes all day to do what I used to manage in my trusty old twin tub in a bit over an hour, that’s progress for you!!!

On a closely related matter I recently bought some new bed linen, this was expensive but of undoubted quality (the sales lady assured me of this, say no more) it is 600 threads per inch Egyptian cotton and feels like heaven when you slide between the sheets (stop it now I’m getting excited) my previous bed linen was 180 threads per inch and was quite good quality, just in case you are not familiar with the thread count system.

Anyway this was in the first load of washing and when I hung it on the line to dry, BTW after about 6 minutes of spinning at 1000 RPM stuff is pretty near ready to wear straight from the machine, I found both sheets on the grass half an hour later, the material is so smooth the pegs were slipping off, (they are new pegs also, Hoo Boy my life is getting exciting) so next time I’ll have to search for some of my old trusty pegs for them.

Now I’m sure you have all been enraptured by my laundry day and I thank you for your interest, (my new machine is an LG if that helps with the naming process).

UPDATE; the self timing for IT to start its wash cycle worked perfectly
however this load (which is no bigger than the other two) is going to take
2 hours and 57 minutes (177 minutes!!) there are some long laundry days
on the horizon at holtieshouse!!

This is the first photo of....................??

Here's one of the slippery little suckers.





Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.
Mae West