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!

Doing our bit for the hole in the ozozne layer.....

Still another set of lights to go up yet..........

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

ADSL2 exchange info

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

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!

...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...
;-)

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

New Blogger?

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

cecil

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

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....

Holiday Motorists ! ( a breed of their own)

The annual Silly Season on the roads has hit us...and out of hiding have come all the incompetent, got their licence at woolies, motorists...and the, "yeah, she'll be right for the trip" type who's car only putt-putts to work n back, who you invariably see ...broken down, hood up etc. with a clueless look of despair flagging down help..
.The run down the freeway has given the ol car a major coronary....
"you want me to go 110?....after all this time?... and I havent been over 70 for over a year?...you sure?...cough cough...what about my coolant that hasn't been changed for years! all these kids and luggage sure are heavy!!....and the sludge, er oil! or lack of it should I say!.. and why am I pulling to one side I hear you curse?...um..perhaps before you loaded me with a ton of people and accessories you should have checked my tyre pressure......
...and road rules? what are they...we're on holidays!, we're allowed to drive with no peripheral vision and no consideration for the other motorists, we have to get to our destination as quick as we can! there's last years record we have to beat!
You see them....bucket hats are a giveaway!, poorly levelled caravan hitching is another, drifting in and out of lanes without indicating, trying to u-turn to go back to the exit they missed...
A bloke has his work cut out, just keeping clear of these idiots to go somewhere to get his work done!
Can't wait for it to be over...I'm over it!

ho ho ho

Christmas comes but once a year, and yes, my fridge is stocked with beer!

...Ahh, another year nearly over, and the potholes are quite exited at the impending visit of the Jolly Fat Man. ..no political correctness here...;-)
I tend to think the 8 and 9 year olds have it figured, but they will still happily sit on the old buggers knee for a photo. The youngest "Herbie" (5) ..well.....this was the first year he actually sat on Santa's knee and smiled, last year he frowned and sat off to the side, and previous years, the Princess Bride or Tim have had to sit in on the shoot just to get him to co-operate...mind you he's been a stubborn l'il bugger for a few years now, but his first year at infants school in Joeys (early learners) has improved his social participation mildly. (still some way to go here!).

All 3 got good school reports this year, which is a relief considering some of the discussions with the youngest pair's teachers over the year....|-( I mean, they aren't bad kids, .. we try not to stifle their individuality..we don't want them to all be the exact same product so to speak...but some teachers just don't seem to know how to cope with kids who are a little off centre to the "norm"..but other teachers can take their nuances and run with them for outstanding results...

Miss Elle has had a full on year with her "rent a toddler" (daycare) job and deserves a good break....as nice as some of the little tikes are, there always seems to be one having an off day or terrorising the others or sent to daycare with a contagious disease loosely disguised with panadol so the parent thinks they can get to work that day....(or worse still have a day off to themselves)

Tim (..our ex-pothole..now a fully fledged Pitts), appears to be making forward progress this year, with regular weekly visits for a chat over dinner..still hard to contact during daylight hours, he keeps a mainly nocturnal schedule of online gaming (World of Warcraft ), participating in "raids" as part of the "guild" he is a member of.

I've taken on some contract work that has been pretty full on in the weeks up to Christmas, which has been a bit of a shock to the system, seeing as though I haven't been out in the field on a daily basis for 12 months plus...

Well, here's to stuffing ourselves stupid over Chrissy, Watching the Yacht Race and Boxing Day Test, eating leftovers for a few more days, have a brief pause, drinking ourselves to oblivion on New Years Eve...and then tackling 2007.... YAY!!!