Mr & Mrs Taylor

Yes after all the planning, not that I did a lot of that, Mr & Mrs Taylor have emerged from the Treasury and the Marriage Certificate is here to prove it. There were many highlights starting with the Limo. This car was longer than our house is wide. The French Saloon gave you the taste and look of Europe and the Adina Apartments were a good way to finish but Laura and Rick were the stars.  Soon the real Europe will be the focus.

The Long Haul

Wedding Update

The 11;30 report is that Rick is still in his pyjamas I on the other hand are completely changed and ready to go. I packed my belt into the suitcase that has already been placed at the hotel.  So I was quickly despatched to get another one. I have found the never worn Pierre Cardin watch but the battery is dead. I have found my sister Kai's hand made steam punk cuff links and this time I will try not to lose one.  There is much hair frissing and makeup fussing

Links restored

Just been out the front hanging the wedding dress in a tree!  We hesitated about steaming the dress and now its hanging in a tree.

Migrating Books

I have seen book coops before such as in the workplace where anyone can bring their books leave them on a shelf (library) and can then help themselves to another book and put it back when you have read it. Retirement village libraries are bulging.  I found a similar scheme in a cafe where you don't necessarily have to put the book back where you got it.  It can be put back in the system at some other venue.  For example there is one in Essendon and another in Moonee Ponds.  This sounds simple but there seems to be a lot of admin.  I notice over 800 books were added to the BookCrossing system in Australia last month.

Queens Street Rescue

Not sure what this name has to do with a rescue but the Hokey was certainly a good eating fish. It is also the venue for our big breakfast on Sunday morning and I have confirmed that all those booked into the Adina Apartments can get a $20 voucher to contribute to the breakfast.  You can also receive a book to read in a brown paper bag.

QSR

Cutthroat Razor

Haven't sat in a barber's chair for at least 40 yar. A very close shave with a blade is not the most pleasant experience I can recommend.   It took well over an hour to do a hair cut and shave.  There are not that many hairs to cut.  Throw in that he was getting distracted by a screaming kid and the mother kept yelling he was a beautiful boy all the while he is working the knife on me.  I was glad to come out with only one red knick. He was warned to stay clear of the recent surgery.  Although I was scratching a bit on my forehead yesterday and a stray piece of fishing line got pulled out as far as the next knot from inside my skull.  That will need to be attended to shortly.

The Golden Gate

I read a  lot of Alistair Maclean  and was right into it when this came out in 1976.  I have got San Francisco on my list but haven't managed to get there yet.  This one is not a whodunit but more in the vein of a Die Hard style, where an army of thugs take over a bridge not a building.  This one never got to be a film.

Mr Tulk

Had another ride into the State Library.  This time I was trying to get into the map room but it is not available at the weekends.  I wanted to see some of the  MMBW 1:2500 series that I drew back in the  80s as the Library seems to be custodian of at least a microfiche copy. Not sure where the originals are.  Sorry,  they are not on site anyway, we would have to bring those in from storage.  We did get to peruse the 4th level displays and add some pieces to the jigsaw puzzle.  We also ate lunch at Mr Tulk's cafe.

From Mr Tulk's Tower

If you make a rowdy racket
You can't hide among the jackets
To avoid the icy glare of Mr Tulk

If your reading is a slow rate
You'll wish you were illiterate
Under the focused laser eyes of Mr Tulk

Though the books are stacked in piles
And you try hiding in the aisles
There's no way around the guiles of Mr Tulk

From the tiered central tower
And emanating on the hour
Is the searing look of power from Mr Tulk

So don't come there for the thrills
Or you'll get the look that kills
That's the crazy hazy chill from Mr Tulk

Tulk's Tower

More Aliens

Covenant means agreement. I can't see how there is anything much agreeable in Alien films.  There never seems to be much hope.  They are literally hopeless in that no matter how someone fights to survive against the nasty creatures they always end up dead.  There is a pattern to these films. Heroines beat off the bad guy and make it to the end of the film only to be killed off before they even get into the next film.

And another thing: Androids seem to be more trouble than they are worth

Sarcomere Web Page

Last century I started a web page following the exploits of Team Sarcomere. It is now 20 yar old but I have not paid it much attention after the retirement of the team and also my freebie disk space allotment was getting close to full but I still paid the registration fees during that whole time.  Some months back I got an enquiry about selling the domain name!  I was not sure how serious this was but the buyer is back again so I have had some valuations done and appointed GoDaddy to look into this further.

Team Sarcomere as seen by Pablo

Blacksmiths forging ahead

Rode to the blacksmith festival today.  It was close by right on the bike track in Footscray. There is a permanent Blacksmith works there but for this show they spread out and take over the road.  One of our PB staffers helped to organise the event.  The sunshine was warm and when you add to it around 20 coal burning gas fired furnaces then this is a hot place and dangerous, including stamping machines, blow torches and hot anvils.

Nick's Bar

Griffiths & Baird

Stamping a hot bar

Leaky Tub

I previously showed our Crowded House (Spa) photo, well it will be Six months in a Leaky Tub if we don't fix the leak. We have cleared out some space and opened up the panels to give some access to the workings where we have fortunately located the leak. However the mechanism that is dripping seems quite tight.  The water is pooling all through the support woodwork and cabling.  We have bought a $7 seal,  and replaced the old one which appeared to be creased and letting out water. We saved a $150 service fee.

The leak is on the left side below the handle

Captain Rock

This is an Aussie work that I bought 40 yar ago.  The track I have featured below was a bit of an anthem when ever the group got together.  It is more remembered for "The Home among the Gumtrees".  The Pirate reminds me of Jack Black from that other School of Rock.  Converting these old records to digital is taking longer than I thought. This one does not have silence between tracks but a series of jokes and other voice overs.

John Fawkner to be Revisted

Had some stitches out today which I thought was the end of the procedure. Not so fast.  Seems that one of the areas that was removed, has sent out some shoots as it were.  Means I have to go back and do the procedure all over again.  This one has a particular name of Morphoeic.  Bottom line is don't get sunburnt. Seems it takes years for these things to grow bigger but those spreading roots are the start.  The diagram illustrates my problem exactly, even showing what was cut (dotted line) and the roots left behind.

RMIT revisited

Went for a ride to get the circulation going and ended up at RMIT. They are still squeezing more buildings into an ever decreasing space.  But at the same time there seems to be more green lawn around than I remember.  They have taken over Melbourne Gaol for one thing. We were at the gaol for a Christmas Party a few years back and there were no students lounging around so it must be a recent development. A previous expansion of RMIT into the gaol's space unearthed 13 bodies in unmarked graves originating from the gallows pole.  It was always a good story when we went into the building they put there.

Marquee for Gaol House Rock

More Grass

Audacious Music Conversion

The Audacity software would have to be one of the best freeware programs I have downloaded. It is used to record songs on vinyl and convert them to digital MP3s.  I have finished the stack of 45s which amounted  to 80 records for 180 songs.  Around 10 were EPs .  It took another 5 days to get through that lot.
I have now read the manual  prior to trying an LP. Sgt Peppers was the first on the shelf.  The multiple track process works quite well but is still a fiddly thing when entering track titles etc.  I would estimate around 1 hr per LP for its conversion to MP3s.
My Sgt Peppers is one of the original editions complete with the paper cut outs in mint condition. This is one of the more valuable copies but there are still thousands out there. I paid $4 for it.

Warrior of the Isles

This book was destined for the scrap heap but I retrieved it.  A lot of these fantasy yarns are hard enough to keep track of, with the various family lines and histories merging and parting. But when you throw in ancient Scottish language that you need to translate all the time, it adds to the confusion. Bairn means child, ken means know. The're always going wee this and bonny that.  This was a debut story, I don't think I will seek out her next book.

Old 55

Continuing the digital conversion theme, I have started on the ancient vinyl record pile that accumulated over the years before CDs. I have waded through 64 songs from last century and that is only about  one quarter of the 45s that are in the cupboard.  The quality is reasonable but there are some "noisy" recordings.  Do any of these ring a bell? Aussie bands like Axiom, Madderlake and Chain.  These 64 songs took me three days to convert to wav files.

I remember when I was Young - 1973

The Skin you're in

Just spent 7 hours in the John Fawkner hospital getting a few facial skin issues excised.  The actual excisement was 15 minutes but the first four hours was in a chair until a bed was available.  My main problem was a spot on my cheek that wouldn't heal.  Wearing hats and applying sunblock doesn't stop these BCCs appearing if you were sun burnt when you were 12 years old.  I started a new book and got half way through.

BCC begone