The Thorn Birds

Colleen McCullough lived on Norfolk Island for over 30 yar.  This would be a good place to write books. The Thorn Birds is a bit of a saga.  It can't be compared with the "Never Never" except maybe for drought. That one was a real story.  Sagas tend to drag on and this one spanned over 50 years. Still as an Aussie classic it needs to be read.  There are some places that are real like Lake Eacham but I think Matlock Island is a trick.

Beach Amateurs

I've been holding my tongue. But I can't any longer. There was the once a year joggers who have bought the very latest athletic wear and haven't run a step in their lives.  But you have to start somewhere.  I didn't see them again the next day. The walkers who are hogging the bike lane in both directions when there is a good beach just over there for walking on.  But the ultimate was the guy this morning who was parked in Barwon Heads and had to get the Melways out to see where the beach was. They discussed it for eight minutes and the last comment was "I don't even have to cross the bridge".  Amateurs.

which way to the beach?

Steam and Fog

The morning jog was into a bank of fog but it was still 25 degrees at 7:30am.  Later we were riding to Point Lonsdale around 11:00am. The rain was cooling but within 10  mins there was steam coming off our backs. The same thing happened on the way back however we made it back before a thunderstorm broke around midday. And all the while the cricket continued uninterrupted at the MCG.

Fog  Runner

Pasquini Steamy

Collendina Report No 1124

Crazy weather here. We spent the first few days getting rained on including all of this morning. Then the north wind came this afternoon and the temperature went to 38. We spent a few hours over the beach but the bugs and the wind eventually beat us.  The water was good though.  Our TV here would not turn on.  It was bought from Coles a few years back but it was not going to be coaxed. So we found the Good Guys in Geelong for a new TV and another visit to Little Creatures.

Fat Tyre Move

Collendina Report No 879

There are new rules about using the toilets. There is a cleaning regime where the toilets need to be vacated for a nine hour period each day.  This will still allow plenty of time to do the business.  For instance there is a two hour window for you to do the morning bog conveniently located mid morning however there will be no bowl sitting between 6:30 am and 9:30 am or between 11:30 am and 2:30 pm. Please hold all peeing until the afternoon session. This is a more generous 4 hrs, particularly for the midday "sun over the yardarm" drinkers. But from 6:30 pm until 9:30 pm no pointing Percy at the porcelain.  Thank You and may the flush be with you.

Toilet Humour

Bed Time Story

Last week we spent a some time at IKEA mainly trying to get out. This place is a rabbit warren.  We bought a Tarva which is one of the cheapest beds we could find.  It was a long day driving down to the van, dropping the bed off then driving back again.  Putting it together was another three hours with Hostyle's help but that included a huge cleanout of the cupboards and wardrobes.  At least this will be a much more stable bed than the one we had for the last 15 yar.

Swedish Bed Making

Boudoir

Back to Back Pud

Have never tried two full on Christmas Dinners two days in a row before and I don't recommend it. I have made it to Boxing Day a bit bloated.  I'm not sure how long it will take for this to where off.  At least it feels a bit cooler this morning, two 35 degree days of hot food can add to the drowse. Packing up to go down the beach is a slow business.

Christmas 2016 with Timer and Tripod

Macbeth Revisited

I saw last years film version of Macbeth.  I have often bemoaned how films can stray too far away from the book. It seems that not even Shakespeare is immune from the screenwriter's licence.  They had rewritten chunks in Ye Olde Speake which is hard enough but at least the story was essentially being maintained.  I was patiently waiting for the conversation between Banquo and Fleance about the concealment of night.  Not only did Fleance miss out on that line, he does not utter a single word during the whole film and yet mysteriously arrives in the final scene to take Macbeth's sword away. And Macbeth doesn't even lose his head in this version, although he does get stabbed to death for his sins.  The Scottish scenery in the film is worth it. The aussie actress Debicki has a burning role in this film.

King Duncan

Calipers

Caliper Caliper what do you know 

I held the brake when I should have let go

There is nothing like the feeling you get when you are driving along and you go to apply the brakes and there is hardly any resistance. Alarms start ringing inside the car from the dashboard.  Other cars have stopped at the lights already. There is a right turn lane completely empty right alongside, so I can swerve into there for extra stopping room.  After the third pump on the brakes there is a slowing and I do come to a stop. Driving is not going to work right now, so I move into the right turn lane and crawl around the corner into a car park.
The RACV man arrived in 15 minutes. The way to tell which wheel is the problem is to take off each hubcap and feel the rim. Sure enough the rear right at the back was very hot.  He arranged for me to go to the mechanic nearby where the brake assembly could be dismantled. The drive there was slow but the brakes had cooled so I had partial braking. Turns out a caliper was still holding the brake while driving, causing it to overheat. Once that was released, off we could go.  Always make sure you have your RACV membership is up to date.

Disc and Caliper

Outback Bookkeep

We are always up to our necks in Bookkeeping and Bookkeepers around here.  I am always noticing the spread and depth of the industry.  I have to quote this book I'm reading

"Mum is going to be the Drogheda bookkeeper, instead of Harry Gough's office. He's going to send someone out to teach you properly. It's quite complicated apparently. You've got to balance the ledgers, the cash books, the journals, record everything in the log book , and so on."

If they only had Pure Bookkeeping in 1930, Colleen McCullough may have had to write this passage differently.

Pounds and Pence

DAT Revisited

After an interruption of around 1 month due to the need to replace my laptop and also the 10 days or so bike riding around the Great Vic, I am now back onto the seemingly endless number of 1hr DAT files that have been laying idle for years.  This is an excerpt from 2003 showing some beach scenes at Collendina.

Sandridge - No Go Dog Zone

Sandridge Beach behind the Surf Life Saving used to be a fairly quiet spot, but the dogs today were driving us a bit dog eared.  Particularly when the council has declared it a dog free zone.  We confronted a woman whose greyhound was running amok, interfering with families, the usual stuff. When it came at us, I slapped it with my thong. The woman just yelled that it was a dog beach and the dogs were allowed to run. I am going to take the below map with me next time not that it will do much good. I have emailed the council asking for "No Dogs Allowed" signs to be put up.

Far left red zone

And stay out

and keep off the grass

This is not a dog pole

Garden State & Rice Queen

The Uber rides are a mixed bag. We have had some that work well and others have gone in the wrong direction, like our ride from Flinders Lane to Fitzroy where we crossed the Yarra twice.  There is a review system where you can be refunded if the route is deemed unnecessarily long. We got $6 back. The Garden State is a rabbit warren of a bar where the beautiful people gather. Saturday nights are busy.  WhoolyDhoolyJulie moved the party over to the Rice Queen in Fitzroy. This is not a restaurant but another bar. Cocktails seem to be the rage here.

A tooth for a booth

Sling Queen

Johnny Q from Ninth Island

4 Day Dilemma

Don't ever say 80 yar olds can survive without the internet.  We spent 4 days trying to workout why there was no connection to the Internet.  The main culprit was a Telstra pre-paid wifi modem that stopped working.  Or was it the Pryon unknown brand desktop.  After several calls to somewhere, maybe Singapore, it was determined the modem was faulty.  This resulted in a new modem being purchased. However it made no difference. This now points back to the desktop machine so the maintenance guy for this, suggests that the latest wifi drivers for the desktop's  Atheron device needs to be installed.
When I locate these via my laptop and get them across to the offending Pryon, Windows tells me that the driver already installed, is the latest.  So we go back to the Telstra support and they now say that the new Modem should not have had the original SIM moved across but should have used a new SIM.  So another drive to the Telstra shop is required to get a new SIM installed. All along both the old modem and the new modem have worked well within the environment of the Telstra shop. So we go back to try this new configuration and it starts to work.
Nowhere along the way can you identify what the problem actually was. The old machine, modem and SIM would nor work together. But separate them and they would work again in other environments. Not sure what the moral is but isolating each component helped.

Wi Oh Wi

The Last Days of Night

I started reading this book during the GVBR so its looking a bit tatty after 9 days of travel by truck. The characters are well known, Tesla, Bell, Edison, Westinghouse.  How they all came together to fight out a court room war between AC and DC is the story line from the point of view of the lawyer. The author Graham Moore said he used some licence to fit the story together but essentially it all happened and the General Electric and Westinghouse companies are still here to prove it. I think this book is to appear as a film soon.

 

Emergence

One thing you couldn't miss at the start of last weeks GVBR was the cicada noise in Halls Gap.  It was country no big deal. They live below ground for 10 yar, then emerge, shed their skin and fly off to make noise.  But I have never noticed it in our front yard before.  There is evidence of numerous emergings and sheddings then I interrupted a bird who was eating a fresh green cicada.

Half chewed Cicada

Shedding

Day 9 Queenscliff to Geelong 63km

The last day was actually shorter than advertised as an officially sanctioned short cut was allowed. We're not silly.  The organisation of an event like this is a challenge. Bicycle Network have improved on each year. Safety aspects, logistics, site selection, route selection, food delivery are just a few key areas.  I tried to get the size of it by the truck movements. Six semi trailers to move the two mega tents, one leap frogging the other each day. Two garbage compaction trucks. Eight semi trailers for luggage. Eight semi trailers for showers and toilets.  Two water tankers. There were too many food and beverage trucks to count. These were just at the camp.  Overall we made it OK. I have been asked already if I would do it again. I have done it twice now but maybe I could do it again on a bike with disc brakes and electronic gears.

20 Kg per person allowed

Day 8 Bellbrae to Queenscliff 62km

A short day. Even shorter as we only went as far as Collendina. But we will catch up with them all tomorrow. The Bellbrae paddock was interesting last night as there was a manmade mound with an observatory like dome on the top. It looks like there is a farmer who takes his stargazing seriously. The cycling was slightly easier more so with the tail wind.  We had enough energy to last through to the last song of the U2 Show.  Even then it is lights out at 10:00pm.

The Dish - Not

You Too can cycle U2 can play

From Observatory Hill

Day 7 Apollo Bay - Bellbrae - 88km

We started out in drizzle on a delayed timetable due to 8:00 am road closures. Time for extra coffee in town. this was the winding Great Ocean Road but closed to traffic. Lunch at Lorne was a 2hr affair due to more road closures at 1:00pm.  The drizzle went away and I am typing this in a hottish tent. This camp is at least 2km long with showers at one end and the Spokes Bar at the other with our tent in the middle. I was passed by a seven year old who only just started today. He was being pushed and I did pass him again later.

Lorne invasion

Mt Defiance lookout

Day 6 Rest Day - Apollo Bay

Well I am sitting here on the 2nd floor of our unit in Marengo.  I am looking out at the bay view at a small island where I can see the seals diving off the rocks.  We were down on the beach before where a pair of binoculars was being handed around. Before that it was beers and pizza for lunch in Apollo Bay. I have just gotten out of the spa tub which has aided yesterdays woes. What a difference a day makes. The forecast has altered so officially its nothing but blue skies from now on.

Landing on this reef is prohibited