Month: July 2018

Benji, sunny days and passing lanes

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Despite the blood red moon today, it’s cold. Strange though, it was quite mild when Benji and I were out early (05:00 – early) because I wanted to see the blood moon – freaky.. So  we decided to go for our walk since we were out anyway. As I said it was really quite mild but as the morning progressed it got colder. I was forced at 8:30 to put the heater on.

Benji catching some rays from the winter sun.

Although today was slightly unusual  as generally  it has been cold all night and through into the morning. The days have been  mild, so much so that Benji took up residence on one of the outdoor chairs and sat facing the sun and lifting his head so the  warmth could get to his chest. It looked strange, but he sat that was for quite a bit. We had a morning out at the lighthouse and then on Wednesday we drove through to the Port and spent the morning there. No Arid Lands Botanic Garden (ALBG) because dogs are not allowed in the area,  well, in the carpark is the limit,  and since the carpark is a  fair bit away from the shop and the nursery, I wont leave him in the car for that length of time. If it is my intention to go to the ALBG then I will not take Benji with me.

I  think I did mention that my niece has come back to town. Anyway I picked her up yesterday and took her to the airport to catch a flight to Adelaide. She asked me to look after and feed her cat, a black and white cat called Felix. I agreed to do this. It’s  been great fun – and I have the blood on my ankles to prove it.  The thing attacks me from under the table and I am so glad I was wearing a track suit and not just trousers, otherwise there might have been more blood. It’s like walking into a room with a snake there – it hisses.  Generally I have no problems with cats, but this is one oddball animal.

You may remember that I talked some time ago about the Passing Lanes for the Whyalla-Port Augusta Road. Well the Feds gave most of the money for construction, the State Labor government procrastinated and delayed the project for three years.  then, just a few months before the State Election, the project was started. The intention was to boost the Government’s chances of re-election. It didn’t happen and we had a new government to pick up the mess left by the last spendthrift government. Work continued on the  bypass lanes and they were finally finished a few months ago. Almost immediately there were complaints about the quality of the new roads, great indentations where the road met the bypass lane – making it dangerous particularly for anyone on a motorbike – and after a mere three months potholes had developed. There are concerns about the quality of the road surface. The bypass lanes are partly closed, or  are very reduced speeds, until urgent repairs are carried out. I did say, when I got home, that I was not very impressed with the bypass lanes, period. I thought the surface was poor and underwhelming. Talk about cheap and cheerful. Anyway the arguing has already started regarding who pays for the  repairs – the government or the contractor. The contractor are doing what many contractors do –

Benji on the Hill

blame someone else. In the meantime the roads are partly closed.

Flinders Drive and the entrance to the Medical Center

Towards the end of this week we will have Yogi again. No idea at this stage how long for but it might be a while until they return from Adelaide and Jim recovers from the operation at

Flinders Medical Centre. He is very casual about it, which I suppose is a good thing, but it seems to me that having a cancerous liver removed is not casual thing – but then, perhaps that’s just me. I don’t mean that you should  make yourself ill by worrying but I just think it requires a little more “respect”.

I have lost several posts. I contacted the people concerned and they tell me that I am still with them and they are still sending to me, but I am not getting anything. Of all the UK posts I only have one remaining. My computer guru ( No. 1 Son) has gone thought my Outlook Express account and can find no changes, so I don’t know what’s happening.

Visitor, Hospital and Cold, Wet Days.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Yogi and Benji on the Garden Swing

Well I survived the week and all the questions and on Monday I had the stitches removed. Next week we should have the report back from  Pathology and I will be a lot happier once that’s in. Overall, however, it has been a fairly busy week – apart from being cold, miserable and wet.  One of our friends has  suspected cancer in his liver and he and his wife are currently down in Adelaide for a biopsy. Annabell and I are looking after Yogi, their dog. They left on Monday and should be back tomorrow (Wednesday) Generally I am  happy to take Yogi and this time has been no exception, however I have not had a lot of sleep since Yogi is getting older, misses his people more and cries most of the night. He’s alright during the day, nights are not so good. He and Benji get on well except when Yogi forgets his place in the scheme of things and tries to take over the spot in the bed (next to me) that Benji occupies. Usually I have to intervene only once.   Anyway, this is the husband of the lady who picks up Annabell for the coffee evenings and morning. She, herself, has been unwell so I have been filling in for her and doing the taxi thing. Annabell herself is well, so that’s always good.

We still have Yogi – I think he is going home today (Friday) sometime, so instead of two days  ( Monday night & Tuesday night) we have had him for five. The reason for the extra days was simply that  the results at Adelaide were not so good and it has taken them a few days to come to terms with what has to happen now. Jim has Cancer of the Liver, which is not so great. I suggested to Annabell that we offer to keep Yogi over the weekend but, it would probably better for Jim if he has his dog with him. I know I would. But, Yogi has actually settled down these last couple of nights and slept through the night. Jim is now just waiting on the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Surgeon being free and then he will be down to Adelaide again. We will most probably look after Yogi while they are down in Adelaide and I expect for a little while once they come back – as Jim recovers. That’s not a problem – well not for us humans but it is a little bit of a problem for Yogi. He was a rescue dog and as far as we know he was shunted about the place, so he has a thing about getting put in a car. I discovered this when I took them both to the Wetlands last time he was here and he whimpered the whole time he was in the car.

Benji and The WaWa

It has been a year today since Sooah and her husband came back and collected Kongsoon (The WaWa) She has been back once for a brief visit and the WaWa was looking  well. Yes she she was a handful at times, but overall she was a lovable little character.  I think of her often and I miss her – don’t think Benji does though.

We had some high winds and rain over the State – well, Adelaide and the lower Peninsula.  The storms passed beneath us and although it was a tad breezy and did rain  a fair bit, it was nothing like the storm damage in Adelaide and surrounding areas.  Mostly the storms and the like miss us. They come across the Great Australian Bight and cross the Eyre Peninsula beneath us.  So really it’s not too bad. Yes it’s cold but we don’t get the storms that Adelaide gets. The other side of that is that it gets a whole lot hotter here in summer than it does in Adelaide.

Cutttlefish and Cold Water Diving

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
The Ten Year Cake
Giant Cuttlefish
* not my photograph*

The AGM of our local RFDS Support Group took place on Monday. This is out tenth of operation and, of course, we had a cake to celebrate. Also highlighted was the fact that for a small group we have raised, over our ten years, $315,000.oo, which is not too shabby.  It being the AGM, our Coordinator, from Central Operations was here.  Now a new year begins  for us and it starts off with four days looking after the cuttlefish divers, the last three days being this weekend. It started a few years ago with only a handful of people brave enough to endure the coldness of the winter waters. Now it has grown with people coming from all over Australia to take part in going out to see the Giant Cuttlefish which come to this area year after year to breed. Although it is classed as “diving” it is not really. The majority of people are only about twenty or so feet  out from the shore, on boards, face down and the only part of you that is under water is your head – and you use a snorkel – but the water is so cold that you have to gear up in a diving suit as ‘protection’ from the cold. We are out there for all five days of the dive providing hot food and soup. No – I am not making a mistake it was five days, but one day was in the last month 30th June, with the remaining four days in July. I am not on duty this weekend but I will probably go out anyway – even if it’s just to take photographs. I did some years

Some of the diving at the Point.

ago, but I can’t find them – probably in another hard drive.

However, we did drive to the Cuttlefish area, along Cuttlefish Drive only to find the wind was quite strong, the water fairly rough and the place deserted. I had a look around and found a notice  tied to the table that said that due to the water conditions the diving had been moved to the other side of the point where the  wind and the water were calmer. We headed off round there. I was very surprised in that I had taken Benji out here many times ( just down from the lighthouse) and I never suspected there were cuttlefish here and so close to shore. It was a fairly quite dive when we were there but I was told that it got quite busy in the afternoon. Actually, as we left the carpark, the cars were starting to arrive.  After

Our day out

this we had a wander to the lighthouse, had a bite to eat, then headed off to the Wetlands for a further wander before heading home. We had a good morning out. This morning (Monday 9th) we spent three hours up at the hospital and Annabell bravely sat in the waiting room for this time while I underwent a  procedure to cut out a  melanoma from the bridge of my wee nose. It was deeper than first thought so it took  longer than expected but  it was all out and I was all stitched  up. The offending bit of me will be sent to the lab in Adelaide and I’ll get the result in about ten days. Apart from stitched and plastered ( in a nice way)  I am fine; some pain and discomfort, but nothing I can’t live with.laid I will get the stitches out in a week or so. All the stuff is now starting to wear off and it hurts, but I am told that this is normal and will fade in a little while – although I think there might be a variation between their little while and my little while. Go on – ask me what idiot put on a white shirt this morning  :o)

Today is Annabell’s shopping day and we generally go out in the morning. Of course, that was off but we did go out mid afternoon, which I was not keen on doing mainly I didn’t want to meet people and keep answering questions about the plasters on my face. Anyway, it wasn’t too bad and I got through the shopping. Home and I lay down and my dog laid down beside me and Annabell said he was a sook.

 

 

Things Fall Apart

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I have to be honest and say that Benji and I have not really done very much of late. This is the coldest winter period we have had in many years  with the overnight temperature and the early morning  down to 1c. The Port was down to 0c and over the last few days this has been the morning temperature and just too cold to go wandering  around in the dark, and to be honest I sense a lack of keenness  in Benji to go wandering in the cold morning. Like me, he sticks close to the heater.  Daytime temperature is around 13c / 14c, which,  for us is cold. However, the winter sun sees us wandering abound the Wetlands and observing the progress – or lack thereof – of the new kiosk. I don’t wish to be negative about these things, but can you come back next year. The local council own and run the wetlands and the local council are building the kiosk. I mean, it might be very nice when  it’s finally finished but at the moment it looks like two side by side shipping containers.

The Ferry today with the Tall Ship in the background

I recently read a post  that, apart from the mention of a place I had never heard of, wandered around Glasgow to places I remember, yet don’t remember. The

Now this is a ferry !!

places and things I remember have gone or have changed beyond recognition. One example of this was the Govan Ferry, which today, I think,  is a smart boat that crosses the River Clyde in next to no time unlike the BIG Govan Ferry I remember, which was slow and ponderous.   I worked for HM Customs and Excise. I was stationed at the White Horse Distillery in Port Dundas. Part of the Bonded Warehouses had been built by Prisoners of War  – French POW who fought for the Emperor Napoleon. You felt that the place had been there forever and would never change – yet it is gone – flattened, the Distillery and the Bonded Warehouses – I have no idea when but it’s all gone. “Things fall apart” to be sure. On of the men in the church took his two daughters back to Scotland  and when they came home he wrote a piece for the “New Voice” the church magazine which I edit. In it he talked of his holiday and the places he and his daughters visited. Before he left Jennifer, one of his daughters,  asked if there was anything I would like from Scotland. I asked if she could bring me back a few postcards from Glasgow. Anybody asks me, that’s what I always suggest. I use them as monthly dividers for my Filofax. Anyway, they travelled across the British Isles and finally came back to Glasgow – Govan, where John was brought up. It was mostly about Govan he wrote and expressed his sadness that the places of his childhood were gone. He tried to find the houses he and his wife lived in when they were first married, but they too have gone. Certainly the official buildings are still there, but other places are  destroyed and built over. Some of the places he talked about I knew, particularly the Cinemas – none of which remain. The Govan he remembers has gone forever.

I miss  the Dear Green Place, and I really do believe it is true ‘You can take the man from Glasgow, but Glasgow from the man” I get irritated with people who bag Glasgow, particularly a Minister, who I will not name,  who bagged the city just before the Commonwealth Games. Which, I understand , was an outstanding success for the games and the city.

Not a lot of progress on the Kiosk

But things do change – even here. As I said before, when we moved here this was the last house in the town. There was only bushland beyond us. The Mining Boom happened and what was empty land became a private housing estate and places I walked the dogs, were now gardens. I don’t see the Kangaroos as much.  But the mining boom has been and gone and went, and so has the big pay packets. They can no longer afford the big boat, or the Jeep or even the five bedroom house – so the jeep’s gone, the boat’s gone and the house is up for sale. Sad but no one thought to put money away it was just earn and spend. And they borrowed – so what they get for the boat, vehicle and house will mostly go to pay debts. That is the sad aftermath of the mining boom for some.