Dr Lowry

 Has Winter come early?  We do need the rain so I should not complain. Our tank is back up to 50% so that must be good.  I have not had as much stamp time but given the non stop 24 hours of rain then that will drive you indoors. I put in a bid and won, some charity sourced boxes of stamps. You never know what you might get particularly from a charity but I have given them a go.  The contents are disjointed which is to be expected. They get donations from everywhere and pack them into boxes and hope they will sell.  I am half way thru this lot and the first surprise is a full on 200 page coffee table book from Stanley Gibbons. It is a glossy history of stamps. Also I found a small note from Alex to Dr Lowry, asking if he can have the stamps from his envelope. Now Doc Lowry must have worked in Europe last century, as the stamps are postmarked Monaco 1994.  It seems Alex never got the stamps, so maybe Dr Lowry is a tight, miserable bugger who is the world's most under taxed Monaco Medico or maybe he just forgot to pass them on.

Dr Lowry

Maintenance

 We tried to turn on the cooktop at Willie and it is dead. The serviceman does not want to know about it. He came for the oven one time but this is a totally enclosed electronic box and he is not going near it. So between visits for hospital checks, we have procured another cooktop, still in the box.  We got back here late and just as you would like to have a sit down, a fitting under the sink springs a leak and water is going everywhere. Good thing this did not happen when we were away for three days.  What is the collective name for plumbing pipes?  as this was a tangle of pipes. The leaky hose goes to the dishwasher and I bet the tap that isolates it has not been turned for 27 yar, because we could not budge it.  My fingers don't work the way they used to. Eventually with some pliers that were too big, the tap moved.  When it rains it pours and sometimes inside. I won't mention how we have heating trouble as well.

still time for exercising

More Boats

 Since I was in Williamstown delivering the 25kg of olives I had been harvesting the last few days, I thought I would get the bike out for a Tassie IV boat hunt. How hard can it be, large ship twice as big as the old one.  I was skirting the coast line and there it was again, the submarine was following me from Geelong and was now heading in towards Port Melbounre.  I turned a corner and bumped into the Tassie boat then went out onto one of the piers for a better look.  Very impressive.

HMAS Rankin

A neighbour of mine from the first few weeks that we moved here was discussing the naval Pier across the way and how he had observed Navy boats and ships docking there including a submarine. I have been waiting and boat spotting since then for something similar.  Sure enough the unmistakable form of a surfaced submarine was chooffing along and taking its leisurely time about it. The Navy wern't saying much but it has been hanging around Geelong for a few days.  I was expecting it to dock at the newly refurbished pier but not so far.  Submarines are boats not ships you landlovers. I wonder what you have to do to get a submarine named after you.

Silent Voices

 This book was picked out from a roadside library by my beach friend Jill.  This one is in fairly good condition but I have generally stopped using these as the books were mostly damaged and grubby.  I have watched most of the Vera TV series and found that you needed to pay a lot of attention. I think this book was more complicated. There are insights you get here that the TV doesn't do. Like thought bubbles.  Things going through Vera's brain are expressed in book form but not on TV and a lot of them are nasty.  I think it is the first time she has found a body instead of the usual dog walker or jogger. In her mind, fitness doesn't pay, she was trying to get fitter and look what happened.

Spirit of Tassie V

 Keeping track of these Tassie boats is quite a process. I spied something new yesterday as Spirit of Tassie V made its first appearance in Geelong after a seven week trip from Scotland where it was parked for 6 months. If I look out I can see it now bobbing across the way. Meanwhile Tassie IV is in Williamstown where it is also parked.  It seems that both need a final fitout before they takeover from Tassie I and Tassie II which are also nearby as they criss cross each other during the night.  Just for the record Tassie III was the one that was built for the new route to Sydney in 2003 but those Sydneysiders were not that much interested in taking a car directly down south.  These latest two boats will start in November, That's the Spirit.

three boats

Smoke Column

 I have been walking through areas of smoldering bush in the past and also driven through them soon after recent fire as well. These are places you do not want to be caught in. I unloaded some video that I captured from my deck, so this scene is close.  It is controlled burning however at it's height you might not think so. It would not take much to escape and these minders of fire must study wind directions intensely.  The smoke was the thing this time and you would not want it coming your way. There are houses so close. I get that aiming it away over the water is OK just don't be on a boat.