Weekend Only Town

That is what we were told by one of the local traders here in the main street of Clunes. I have never been to Clunes. It is known as a booktown. There are many bookshops. We bought a book for $8. this is also the place where gold was first found in Victoria.  The main street is out of the 1880's. We are in Keebles Guest House which used to be a pub.  This is a cold day.

Keebles  former gold fields hotel

Islands in the Stream

Ernest by name Ernest by nature.  This manuscript wasn't found until eight years after Hemmingway's suicide. I saw Spencer Tracy in "Old Man and the Sea" .  That is the ultimate big fish story.  In this book Hemmingway revisits the fish action with much more modern equipment.  The writing is like you are in the boat trying to haul in the monster fish. Its almost three books in one finishing with a WWII hunter killer action sequence. Don't know how we got this book. It is a hardback completely green in colour and the dust jacket is falling apart but there are no markings to suggest a secondhand resale.

As in Caribbean Gulf Stream

Monument Pamplona

Engagement Heidelberg

What is the point of golf? Traditional sports where you chase after something had their origins in the hunt. I can't see cavemen taking time out to hit a small bone with a big bone into a hole. But I now realise after going to many golf courses, they are mainly venues to eat and party at.  Last night was a huge ballroom with leather couches no less and plenty of other chairs and tables and lots of food in the mix.

Cigars and Port

Heidelberg school of dance

Attack of the Rhoids

I don't mean asteroids.  I spent years at Brooklyn Pumping Station. We had a Poo Punishment Procedure (PPP) that sent them on the way to the Farm. Difficult cases were given the Turd Taming Tool (TTT). But they can fight back and I have the pain in the arse to prove it. So be ever vigilant like the two sewerage workers down on the Farm. They were working on the banks of East 115 Lagoon when a brown bobbing borrie broke free.  The turd said to them knowingly "Why don't you come in? The water is fine."  They looked at each other and one said  "Can you believe this shit?"

Shit Submission System (SSS)

PS We have all contributed something to this never ending stream

Living in the Seventies

This was a Skyhooks title when I was in School.  I am wading through another box of negatives and the pic below has to be sometime back then. What a group! Beer out of bottles and eating pies on the back of a truck. I think this was taken at Phillip Island and they are watching motor cycle races. Check out the hat. It would be interesting to know who associated with this lot. I have my suspicions.

Rev Heads?

House Sale Roll Up Roll Up

Yes a pre-owned but well maintained house is for sale.  There is plenty of space inside and out including 4 bedrooms, 2 lounge areas, formal dining and kitchen with a huge undercover outdoor entertaining area and a slab of grass. I can verify that the grass areas are mown and trimmed tighter  than a Dali moustache. $500000 should do it.

Electrically trimmed

Covered dance floor

Old Cop Shop

This station closed in 2005 but they have kept the gaol cells in good order complete with grafitti and a picture of the first lone policeman with his round bobby hat.  The food here was good and worth trying again.  The 58th birthday cake was passed through the cell door without incident so a file could easily have been smuggled in. See crims below.

Gaol Birds

Too much partying

Big Screen Computing

The Winstar HDMI display adapter worked OK for the video but the audio was not working and the the unit ran very hot drawing a lot of excess heat.  I tried a Simplecom device, plugged in both ends and there it was,both video and audio duplicated on the TV.  I would still recommend the  smart TVs apps from each TV channel for viewing purposes.

Simples com

PS That beeping ping is still beeping. It sounds like the end of battery life signal from a Smoke Detector. There is one of those nearby outside this room.  But when I move towards it I think it is behind me. This has been going off every minute for the last 5 days.

58 from 1958

Yet another eye ointment, I mean appointment (both) was required today. Not exactly birthday fair however you've gotta do what you've gotta do.  We did call into Puckle St for the Sweet Life (Dolce Vita) for a feed of quiche and chips (not feeesh and chips). Can't overdo it  as we are going to the cop shop for more food later. The swap over of an old eye for a new eye has worked well. Already there is an urge to take the glasses away to better see things.

One eye to go

Technobabble

Yes this house is riddled with network cabling as well as two WIFI networks getting the smart TV on the internet but even still having a laptop display with a second screen on your big TV is worthwhile. Also using the laptop's wireless mouse and keyboard is a lot easier than the klunky TV keyboard. Not so easy to do though.  The old TV provided a VGA port for easy plug in as a display. The new smart TV provides for HDMI no VGA.  I found an older gizmo in the cupboard that additionally routes the laptop display and audio via USB to the HDMI of the TV.  I got the display working however the sound does not.  The audio cable was also laying around in the cupboard. I have ordered a no excuses brand new gizmo that will do it via the VGA port.

USB display

There is a beeping sound in this room for the last two days that we can't find. There must be a dying battery in something.

Kororoit ride

Todays's ride was longer than previous outings coming in at 46km. The route was mostly bike trail with some dirt sections along the Maribyrnong. Melbourne's bicycle network is extending all the time. I used the Sunshine rail trail to connect the Kororoit trail with the Maribyrnong trail.  Around 1980 I drew maps of every creek and river in Melbourne as part of a report on Melbourne's drainage. There was no bike track on the map then.  The two tricky sections were at Sunshine station and Footscray West station.  Both of these stations have been rebuilt recently but too bad they did not consider giving bikes their own access over or under the tracks.

Cartography using CMYK printing

46km

Autobiography Fred Hollows

This copy is signed inside by Fred Hollows dated 14/5/92 a year before he died.  It also has the name Irene E White written there as well as a stamp from the Plenty Valley Library.  Other than that there are no other tell tale library markings.  The book tells the life of a larrikin boozer who was also good at eye doctoring.  He delivered eye services to the remotest parts of Australia.  Constantly getting dust in your eyes is a big no no.  Also worked hard in Africa where his foundation set up a lens factory in Eritrea.  That factory now exports lenses to Australia.  Perhaps its these we will use next week.

Weird glasses

Travel Agent

We have a rule about using a travel agent especially for a 5 or 6 week trip overseas.  The theory is that their expertise and contacts will ease the load and we haven't changed that idea.  However, just to refresh my mind, over the last two weeks I have been going at it using websites and email to book a two week trip to NZ. Even though it is 8 months in advance, half the accommodation I had chosen was booked out.  Road trips are notorious for bookings to be laborious.  I have a stack of paperwork now, some of which says fully paid, others where deposits only have been paid.  We'll have to be on the ball.

Beware Air BnB

Stuzzi

Yet another huge eatery in High St.  A good venue with a long table for Elyce's 30th birthday. Not sure about having a 21st on an outside balcony, squeezed together on a cold rainy night but that was their problem.  The Carlton Tower was a winner, an omen for more football results perhaps.

Carlton Tower

Network trouble

No internet access is the modern nightmare.  Yesterday our router just stopped working! It was around 10 years old.  At the very start of the Optus fibre roll out, around 20 yar ago, the idea then was you could only have one device in your house attached to the modem.  I got round this by getting my own router and a series of switches through the house.  In all this time the original Motorola modem has kept on working and it was still going yesterday after 20 yar.  Optus now concedes that multiple devices are the norm, so in 2011 they sent me an all purpose wifi/firewalling/routing modem, however at that time everything was working so I put the routing modem away for a rainy day. And today is it. The old trusty one is now in the box, the router is in the bin and the five year old modem has got me typing this post.

Freebie modem