Tuesday, December 18, 2007

STOP PRESS! SANTA IN TRAIN WRECK !

News Just to hand, Santa was found today trapped in the Locomotive Cabin of his Christmas Express Train.



SEND HELP!


Suspect caught on camera earlier ?



Sunday, December 16, 2007

Internet scammer and my response....

An internet scam got through the "filter" today so I read it and responded... as follows

From Mrs.Asiyah Ahmed Hassanal Bolkiah
Royal Family of King Haji Omar Ali Sadul Khairi
of Brunei Darussalam.

GOOD DAY,My dear, Please read very carefully, It is with tears that I am writing this message to you from a hospital bed far away from my home where I have no mother,father, sister , brother or any relative, in the mist of strangers with a diffrent language that I don't understand, imaging how painful it is being a cancer patient, Firstly let me introduce myself to you.

I am Mrs.Asiyah Ahmed Hassanal Bolkiah, a widow to Late Sheik Ahmed Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darussalam, I am 45years old and I have a son of 16years of age who is at the moment in Benin Republic and I am suffering from cancer of the lungs which I will soon undergo the operation, I want to also let you know that I am writing you this mail from a private hospital here where I am taking my part-time treatments, what will you do if your doctor come up and tell you that you have only few weeks to live? you can imagine the kind of pains I am going through.

My husband is the first Son to the last wife of King Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sadul Khairi Waddien, the former Prime minister of Brunei Darussalam, the tiny oil-rich country on the Island in South-Eastern Asia,let me save your time by not amplifying my extended royal family history which has already been disseminated by the international media during the controversial dispute that erupted between my Husband and his step-brother, the sultan of Brunei H.M.Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah who is the present King/prime minister of Brunei.

As you may know from the international media, the sultan of Brunei accused my husband who is his step-brother for financial mismanagement and impropriety of US$14.8 billion dollars and this was as a result of the Asian Financial crisis that made my husband's company Amedeo Development Company that was inherited by my husband and government owned Brunei investment company to be declared bankrupt during his tenure in the office.
However my my husband was kept under house arrest by his own step brother, our bank accounts and private properties including a crude oil export refinery were later confiscated by the sultan and to worsen the whole thing, he has to assassinate my beloved husband and I was placed under house arrest by the sultan so that I will not tell the international community what has happened and that is where I developed this cancer of the lungs which is killing me now but I still believe that it is the will of God that life treat me this way.

To avoid further prosecution and sufferings from the sultan and his security operatives since I have lost my husband and I have my only child to keep me happy, I decided to leave my country Brunei to Benin Republic in West Africa where my husband has deposited the sum of ( US$15 Million Dollars) in a reputable bank but unfortunately for me this my illness has became worst and I have been placed at the hospital for medical attention here, so I am planing to fly to abroad for good medication and a perfect surgical operation because according to what my doctor told me that I may not live for more than a month without this operation,I am so scared about this because she has made me understand that I have only 20% chance to survive this surgery and for that reason, I want to make a future for my only son before undergoing this surgery so that even if I die on the process of this surgery, my son will be taken care of by you.

The reason why I am contacting you is to know if you can arrange for a better hospital over there so that I can come there for a better surgery and aslo to know if you can take care of my son when I will be undergoing this surgery, I have decided to give you this sum of (US$ 15 Milion) that I inherited from my late husband so that you can invest it in a very lucrative business in your country, we never can tell what will happen during the surgery, so that in case if anything happen to me during this operation, my son will have someone to take care of him and a business/funds to inherit for a good future or if this surgery goes well, I will have a business that I can use to take care of my only son.

Please note that this fund is lying with a reputable Bank here in Benin Republic of West Africa and as I am writing this message to you from a hospital Bed, I am not sure that I will survive this operation but even if I have to die, first I want to secure a future for my only son. You may ask yourself why am I saying all this but I believe you never experience this kind of problem either have you meet anyone in this kind of situation,have you ever use a lap-top in the hospital to write a letter to a stranger for help? from a foreign land where you have no father, mother or anyone who can help you? In the mist of people that speak entirely different language? when all the people you trust become the people after your life? well, you may not understand but I want you to take this more serious and urgently important.

All I WANT FROM YOU IS TO TAKE THE MONEY WITH MY SON AND INVEST IT SO THAT YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF MY SON IF I DID NOT SURVIVE THIS. please get back to me very fast so that I can tell you what to do because my days now is being numberred. May the peace of God be with you.


Regards,
Mrs.Asiyah Ahmed Hassanal Bolkiah


And my response....

Dear Asiyah

I am very sorry to hear of your illness, but unfortunately the medical system here in Australia is *overloaded*, and I would not recommend you come to this country for treatment. Australian citizens are dying in their hundreds waiting for a hospital bed for life saving operations. Perhaps if you were to make a sizable donation to one of the Australian Hospitals instead then you may have a better chance here! or better still try a country with a better run Health System....

Once again sorry to hear you are ill, and hope you get the operation you need. Good Luck!

Cecil


(Now, sometimes when (if) I respond to these things (and its always tongue in cheek) I get a reply (they don't get my sarcasm) so if I get a response to this I will post it.)

cheers Cecil

and here it is...

Dear Cecil,

Thank you having good interest to help me and my only son, first I will want to assure you that this transaction is 100% risk free and the fund in question belongs to me and my husband before my husband was killed by the King of my nation and after the killing of my beloved husband I escape from my country to Benin Republic where me and my husband deposited the fund in question.

The deposit document of this fund is made in my name and is still with me to prove my legitimate in this transaction I will make this document available to you as soon as I receive the bellow information from you.

1 Telephone and fax
2 Occupation or name of your company
3 Age/ Full Name
4 Home and office address

I will also like to inform you that according to the doctor my chance to survive after sugary is 50/50 and that is why I will want you to make sure my son Ali is well taking care of even if I did not make it after the sugary operation. Thank you for your understanding.

I await your reply with understanding

Mrs Asiyah Ahmed

hmmmm, seems we have forgotten how to spell surgery since our first email..... but then again a sugary operation may have something to do with diabetes?

....more



Dear Cecil may the paece of GOD ALLAH be with you,
Please i am directing this latter of reminder to you regarding the massage i sent to you on last sunday please comfirm to me if you received it as i have not heard from you since.
thanks
mrs.asiyah ahmed

Allah now? hmmm
....a latter? ....and a massage? (sounding more like Peter Sellers)


...perhaps I should give them some details....like
Cecil Pitts age 47
Internet Fraud Squad
and the Phone no of the local cop shop...he he !

(Q. if her Son is 16yrs old, why is she so worried about him?, He's probably more than capable of fending for himself!....struth! , they marry them off earlier than that over there don't they?)

Cecil


Saturday, December 15, 2007

vehicle signage

Signs on back of vehicles and what they could mean......

"Caution, May Reverse at any Time", ....truck owner cannot afford gearbox repairs?

"Caution, Vehicle Frequently Stopping", ....I need a mechanic!

"You are passing another Fox", ....Lindsay Fox bought underpowered trucks?

"If you cannot see my mirrors, I cannot see you" ....Like I check my mirrors, Ha!


There's bound to be more......

Jack is off his Perch?


Mike's budgie, Jack, is getting on in years for a budgerigar. At around 9 1/2 years old, he is at the "average life expectancy" for a bird of his species.
Of late the 'ol bird has seemingly been losing his balance / grip occasionally, and getting in a right "flap" when trying to extricate himself from being stuck upside down between his feed tray and the cage! I've had to rescue him a couple of times, reaching in and freeing him from his predicament before he flapped himself into heart failure! As tame as he is , the poor old fart is still a bit wary of being handled and sits quietly for a while contemplating the proceedings just past...seemingly in shock..
How much of this can he take?....don't really know...
We have been preparing Mike for the inevitable, telling him he's had a good innings and he's getting old now, and one day he'll be dead in the bottom of his cage. (tell 'em straight I reckon!)
But I feel deep down he is a survivor and he may bat on for some years yet, as he recovered quite unexpectedly from a traumatic incident years ago that we all thought he wouldn't recover from, where he was "drying out" after a "bath" in his cage on the trampoline and one of the dogs got a bit curious and knocked it off to the ground and tried to maul him through the bars...he lost some of his larger wing feathers and was very subdued and quiet for weeks and weeks, but slowly he came back, got active again, and started talking to us again.
(14 or 15 years is not unheard of for a Budgie and the record is around 20)
If we are lucky he should see a few more yet....Go Jack!

Saturday, December 08, 2007

The other blog...

I am going to try to do more regular updates on my Vegemite blog. "Vegemite and the Dark Side of the Moon", as it has been dormant for some time...any photos or input would be appreciated.

Cecil

The air in Japan?

I was driving behind a Nissan Patrol the other day ( yeah, bad luck eh!) and noticed the sticker on the rear window "Genuine Nissan Air".....lovely thought...they must install a canister of air captured from some Japanese cherry orchard on a crisp spring morn and have a button somewhere so you can release it when the smog is just too much to bear.....
BUT
then i thought ...no it's probably a warning! those tyres have been filled with Japanese air at the factory in Japan so if you get a flat, you should probably call the EPA 'cause who knows what was in that air when it was pumped in! I mean we all know Horse Flu is rife over there, the wind could have been blowing from a racecourse over the Nissan factory that day and captured the Flu spores right into those tyres....
Thanks Nissan...how responsible of you!

Friday, November 23, 2007

Diet industry shake up

Seems I've missed out on getting in on the ground floor of the "Pharmacy Weight Loss Program" boom...
I can't get over the number of different programs one can choose from, in fact if the idea of consuming the same 'ol diet shakes day in day out turns you off, there would have to be enough different ones out there now to be able to do a different "program" each day of the week....Variety!!!
I suspect the next step will be the fast food chains will align themselves with these brands, selling the diet shakes over the counter...so you can stay on your "program" when out 'n about... ;-p
Cecil

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Vegetarian Persian

Our Persian Cat, Garfield (aka Fluffy Nuts,.... yes, he answers to that name!) (Cruel aren't I!) has recently exhibited a very strange behavior.... When let outside a couple of times recently (He is an "indoors" cat) he has come back to the front door, very vocal, with a "prize". Not unusual for a cat you say..yes... except you see, his "treasure" is a dried up Camellia flower, all brown and crispy! I have not yet figured out why, but the obvious theory could be taste or texture? The first time he did it I just opened the door and he scampered past me, back to the cats retreat, the Laundry, and was very reluctant to release the dead flower, exactly the behavior shown by our current champion "mouser" Bingo when she has collared a rodent! On the theory side, another possibility may be he has seen a small skink lizard or bug disappear under the copious amounts of dropped flowers under one of our camellia bushes and just chomped into what he thought was his snack!

I don't think he's the brightest feline around, he still thinks he can catch the "Laser Pointer" light (which Bingo just totally ignores, she even gives you a "look" as if to say "yeah...its a light, so what!")
... and its not like he is a kitten anymore either at 3 yrs old!
All in all, I guess he's just another kooky pet in our menagerie! with his own odd-ball quirks and as such fits in well around here!!!
Cecil

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Whether or not the moon affects the weather

Heard an interview on 2NC radio yesterday with a bloke named Ken Ring who does long range weather forecasting based on the Moons Cycles/Phases.
His website is : http://www.predictweather.com/ .
I find what he has to say very interesting and will be following this theory with much interest. He apparently predicted the heavy rainfall we experienced here in June, in his 2007 almanac.
He also has a staunch anti-global warming stance and has lots of thoughts on the matter, an interesting read !

Cecil

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Football (soccer ) Season over for 2 Potholes

Our football season has now drawn to a late close (due to being delayed by the bad weather) with Mikes team making the finals but were eliminated in their second finals game on Saturday. Heath also has now finished his season after playing 2 Gala days on the last 2 Sundays.

Both parents are now fully over it for another year, and now we look forward to summer sport...

James has been going to Tennis lessons and will continue to do so as he is enjoying it a lot. Horse riding lessons will still be on the cards for the coming holidays also (equine influenza permitting ;-) )

Heath will probably be going back to swimming lessons this summer to increase his confidence in the water.

Mike looks like he will be doing indoor soccer with some of his mates and may sign up for junior cricket....

cecil

Monday, June 11, 2007

What a loooong long weekend!

Well its been a very long drawn out Queens Birthday Long Weekend here at the Pitts house!
Newcastle and the Hunter Valley was hit with extremely bad weather last Friday resulting in a coal freighter, the "Pasha Bulker" being beached at one of Newcastles best beaches "Nobbys". Then the continuing worsening of the weather resulted in absolute havoc in the Hunter region with flash flooding, trees down, and countless power lines damaged. Then finally the inevitable major flooding as the river(s) try to cope with the massive rainfall we have had.
Our own experience has been the loss of power since the early hours of Saturday Morning (about 1:30-2:00 am) until it was finally restored to our suburb about twenty to five this afternoon(Monday). This brought about some challenges , but we managed to get by with candles and the trusty portable gas powered camping stove! (that I've had for over 25 years!)..and sponge baths as our hot water is normally electrically heated...

"Cabin Fever" as the locals dubbed it set in on Sunday so we set out to do some "rubbernecking" , checking out the Pasha Bulker and other storm damage around the area.
The Pasha Bulker aground at Nobbys Beach Newcastle

We also ate out at on Sunday after checking back at the house to find we were still blacked out!
The lack of power for 3 days certainly made the weekend drag out, especially with the "potholes" being without TV, Computer, Playstation etc... The good aspect (for the adults anyway) was the excellent radio coverage provided by the local ABC radio station 2NC, their continual coverage of the events of the weekend has been hugely appreciated by the residents of the Hunter region. Keeping us informed of all aspects of the aftermath of the big storms from rescues to the restoration of services and more...well done 2NC!
Perhaps the next long weekend we get will be less eventfull , we may even be able to enjoy it and relax!
Cheers
Cecil

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Our Melbourne Trip

A quick report on our short holiday in Melbourne....
We had a 4AM start from home to check in for our 6:10 JetStar flight out of Williamtown Airport. It was just a little foggy driving out there, but by "boarding time" the fog had rolled in big time!

The "announcement" advised that visibility was 400m and the pilot needed 800m for take off. When the sun started to rise there was promising evidence it was going to be burnt off, but cloud cover soon stopped that!....The boys (thankfully) handled the delay quite well and four hours after our scheduled time, we took to the skies. It was a smooth flight and we arrived in Melbourne at 11:15. From the airport we caught the Skybus to the city and a train to South Yarra where we stayed.

By the way, the fog delay wasn't our only transport dilemma . . . .

...whilst touring around the city on the Tourist Shuttle bus we came to a complete standstill at one of the stops due to the automatic doors malfunctioning! After the driver radioed for assistance / advice, to no avail, we abandoned ship and waited for the next shuttle to carry us on our way.

AND, whilst on our return journey on Puffing Billy, we came to a sudden screeching halt!...on sticking my head out the window I realised why....The Engine had disconnected from the carriages and was coming to a stop further up the track!! (According to our Conductor it hasn't happened before!...yeah sure! we believe you)


Some of the places we visited and things we did were:

Cooks Cottage / Garden (Mike recently studied Captain Cook at school and was keen to go here)Brighton Beach Huts ( I've always wanted to see these . . and yes that is hut no. 47 in EELS colours and all!)

Lots of Tram Rides, Old ones and New ones (James was keen on this)

Puffing Billy (we all enjoyed this)

Rialto Tower Observation Deck - - - - - - >

The Great Wall Exhibition at the Museum

Queen Victoria Markets

Federation Square

Our accommodation at Darling Towers was a bit substandard, (Modeled on Basils establishment?) a bit run down, with a few things not working properly like the burners on the gas stove and the clothes dryer didn't heat the air, and some of the electrical outlets/switches were very dodgy...AND for a non smoking appartment it just reeked of cigarettes!!...live and learn.... although on a positive note.. it was large enough for all of us with 2 bedrooms, kitchen and lounge room, 2 TV's with some Foxtel channels as well as free to air TV, and was only 1/2 a block from the station.

Melbourne did turn on its renowned poor weather, but we didn't let this ruin a good holiday, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay...

Cecil

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

ADSL2 exchange info

Here is an interesting site for anyone interested in going to ADSL2+....(in Oz)

Monday, April 30, 2007

Open !

Just got my latest Open Office . Org newsletter....
Couple of interesting reads caught my eye, the first being Michael Dell's personal use of Ubuntu Linux and the second being "Microsoft's Men in Black" article , with regard to lobbying politicians in Florida to reject the adoption of OO.o's open document standards in preference to Microsofts product.
The first is of particular interest to me as I have been a Ubuntu advocate for a while now, and with the CEO of Dell now using it personally we may soon see Dell PC's being shipped with this Operating System as an option? Ubuntu as I have stated previously, is an excellent Linux Distribution that has a level of refinement and simplicity of installation unmatched by other mainstream distros.. It just works, without fuss! and without needing intimate Linux knowledge to get it going.
...and the Men in Black...just typical of the monopolisation practices of Microsoft, and highlights part of my reasoning behind not wanting to pay for / reluctance to use its products. I'm more than happy with Open Office. It does all I want...and its FREE ! (and yes its compatible with Microsoft written documents so you can still exchange documents with your "non open source enlightened" friends)

Open source rules!

Thursday, April 05, 2007

...lets blame global warming?

The Weatherman said there would be showers in the Yeast!,... must've been a Brewers /Bakers warning!
then there's the "Graziers Alert"...look out for those rampant graziers!
and of course we cant forget the early morning Frogs...
;-)

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Can't see the Forest(er) for the trees ?



...well, it's just that i haven't taken a decent photo with the digital camera of my new car yet..so the image quality aint that good coz I took this photo with the mobile phone the day I picked it up ...and the shade from the tree makes it a bit hard to see the car well...I've enhanced the "fill lighting" with Picasa, so it's not too bad, but I'll post a better photo once I've got one

cecil

Sunday, February 18, 2007

New Blogger?

Finally switched over to the new blogger .....guess i'll have to see whats different about it...

cecil

Friday, February 16, 2007

Killer Joules

I finally get the joke now...with that "Biggest Loser" show...
The host of the Australian version is "Ajay Rochester"
Rochester is a brand of Carburetor for car engines,... otherwise known as "Carbs"
Carbs are the bane of any dieter....

...Well...I thought it was funny anyway

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Go west young man!

The Princess Bride and I made a snap decision to venture out to Dubbo for a couple'a days to take the Potholes to the Western Plains Zoo....
We left in the wee hours at sunrise on a Monday and had a fairly good run out to Dubbo, stopping for morning tea at Dunedoo.
After luncheon we visited the Old Dubbo Gaol...Mick was fairly scared to walk through the cell buildings, but other than that we all enjoyed learning about the prison system of the early colonials.

We then ventured out to Traintasia, a little model railway hobby shop that has an impressive working model railway setup to look at. Jimmy D is train mad! and was very impressed!

On Tuesday we arrived at the gates at 9:05 am and made our way in for our first day at the zoo...
We elected to drive our car around the zoo, safari style, although one can ride a bike or hire an electric buggy...Most of the animals were out and about, despite the hot weather, which was adelight to all, and we managed to catch feeding time for a lot of them on the way around...

The best thing about this zoo, is it's designed so you can get uninterupted views of the animals in a more natural looking enclosure. We left the zoo after lunch and headed back to the caravan park so the "potholes" could have a swim, then had a rest before heading over to my Brothers place for a barbeque dinner with his family.

Wednesday was our biggest day, leaving early (6:20am) to be at the zoo for a guided early morning walk. This was recommended by John (my brother) and was well worthwhile as we went behind the scenes on the walk, guided by a zoo volunteer, who had heaps of stuff to talk to us about the animals etc on the way round!!...even hand fed the Giraffes!

The walk was topped off by a cooked breakfast at the zoo restaurant....and no, the captives are not on the menu!

After breaky we left the zoo, packed up at the caravan park and headed to Parkes to see "the Dish", well worth the effort to see, with a very nice visitor centre, and excellent cafe with fantastic blackberry jam scones....yum!..recommended!

We then proceeded home via Wellington and Gulgong, (the ten dollar note town), not that going that way really saved us any time but Michelle had never seen Gulgong and its really narrow streets....
In all a very educational few days, enjoyed by all....

Camping is intense.....well... in tents anyway!

Took two of the potholes camping for their first time the other week. We borrowed a friends "big" tent as my 25 yr old A-frame hiking tent would not have been big enough...The elder of the two had been looking forward to a camping trip for yonks, but his 1 year younger sibling wasn't so keen and took a little encouragement ("you're going!").

I decided to take them to the Watagan Mountains, which are not too far from home, and have plenty of camping grounds to choose from. We set up camp in "The Pines " camping area, which was quite serene and appeared better kept than others nearby we looked at.
The boys were excited and couldn't wait to erect the tent, (we had put it up in the front yard days before as a trial run so we knew how it went together!) and we had it assembled in no time!
As it has been very dry I didn't expect there to be a lot of water in the creek, as was confirmed on our afternoon hike down to the swimming hole, with just a trickle of water flowing, so we continued our trek east for a while, enjoying the shady track through the forest. On our return the first sign of discontent was apparent...with..shock horror ..the Pit Toilet!.."I can't sit on that toilet! I'm scared I might fall in!" Mikey exclaimed "and it smells!"....It took several trips and some convincing to get "the job" done...oddly enough his younger brother had no real issues with the pit toilet!

Dinner was a fairly easy sausage sandwich affair cooked on the gas stove and dessert was chocolate pudding made in the drinking cups with cold milk from the esky. Yum! and a nice warm hot chocolate at suppertime....it was fairly cool at night up there!
The lads were itching for me to light the gas light, as they had never seen one before, and pestered me until sunset, when I finally felt it was dark enough to warrant ignition! They were heaps impressed by the light output and were happy that it shed enough light to make them feel safe from predators around the camp...lol:-) Mind you, were none too happy when I extinguished it to do some star gazing later in the night!!
They slept well in the tent (phew!) and I was only disturbed once in the night for a "tinkle"...
I woke around 7:30 am and they around 8am...Breaky was full on bacon n eggs n juice,... nothing like a cooked breakfast to kick start the day!
That morning we went on a hike of a few k's up to the picnic grounds and around in an arc following tracks and roads back to the campsite. "Jimmy" was not really impressed with all the walking and was ready to "go home" well before we arrived back at camp!
We packed up the tent and crammed all the gear back in the "family truckster" and headed off to take a leisurely route home looking at Boardinghouse Dam and some spectacular lookouts on our way back.
I think they'd do it again (they said they would) and next time I'll take them to the beach to camp and we'll take "Herbie" our five year old as well to see how he goes....