Adelaide and a Dinosaur

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Adelaide Arcade
Adelaide Arcade with the fountain in front.

Just after 1:30 pm Andrew picked me up and we headed off to Adelaide. We drove directly to Port Wakefield before we stopped for coffee and something to eat. From there we drove to Adelaide – Andrew to his hotel, me to mine. Fortunately both were in South Terrace – The Chifley and the Sage – Andrew in the Chifley. Why not in the same hotel, or even sharing a room? Well this was not a planned trip – Andrew was going down for a meeting so I  bummed a lift from him and I just booked to stay where I normally do in Adelaide, whereas Andrew’s room was booked by his  company. In the morning I made my way into town – had  scones (and butter) and coffee at the Coffee Club in David Jones. Refreshed I  went up the road to the Apple Shop to find out what was wrong with my laptop. Here I need to bore you further with an explanation. My Apple MacBook Pro is working fine – it’s great – no problems– however  (there’s always a “however”isn’t there?)   although it is working very well, it will not upgrade. I am running an operating  system that is at least three upgrades behind what I should be running and I am starting to find that some things I download will not operate because the OS is out of date. Why wont it update? Well, that’s what I was seeking an answer to. I didn’t get one – well I got one of sorts. After  going through it the tech admitted he had seem nothing like it. Everything is there but it will not upgrade and we don’t know why. They believe that the best solution is to  wipe it clean and start with a fresh install then upgrade that to the current OS.  That I could not do because I do not have a recent backup, so  we are back home again and I will do a backup before I go back down.

Andrew finished his meeting and I met up with him again. We went off to Bunnings and we both did some shopping there and I checked out some of the things I would like for the garden – which I need a trailer for. Leaving Bunnings we headed for home again stopping at Port Wakefield for fuel and food. We arrived home at about 9:40 – a long and tiring day.  I may do the backup this weekend and perhaps take a run down during the week and have the clean and install the new operating system. All I have to do then is put the backup back into the computer. Actually I might get

Sleeping with a Dinosaur
Sleeping with a Dinosaur

the Tech to do that for me – probably cost, but worth it. In Adelaide we came across   “The Pet Barn” a big pet accessories shop.  Well, yes, I did buy some new toys for BJ, one of which was a Dinosaur. Since I gave him the Dinosaur he has hardly let it go and he takes it up on my bed with him. I managed to  get it on its own for a bit and took a photograph. His duck was a bit grubby so I gave it a wash. Came out quite well and the squeaker still works.

Although I’ve been in Adelaide the weather up here has been calm and warm – today is a mild 24c and whilst the warmer weather is welcome, it wont last and we’ll be back to cold and wind again soon. However, I did take advantage of the warmer weather to get some work done and this morning I  hope to hook up the trailer and get down for a load of Granite Chips and make a start on the back.

The WaWa continues to go for Benji and the spray bottle is no longer having any effect; Yesterday was not a good day. The WaWa never shut up the entire day. Spent much of the day outside or driving – always with Benji with me – even if I was going to the hardware store, I took him with me. Keeping him with me and  stopping the WaWa from nipping at his back legs has become a constant battle and although I do not wish away time, October can’t come soon enough. Sooah  insists she will be back then – I hope so, I really hope so. I have to have something in place before November when I head off back to Mount Gambier and be away for  four and a half days and I wouldn’t be at ease worrying about him.

The line in the sand is here!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Finally, we have a government. As expected the government has claimed victory in the election with the opposition conceding defeat. It has been a very tight election with a rise in the major voting stats for the  minor/independent parties. I think part of the message is simply that the people in general are fed up with the constant sniping and point scoring that goes on in Parliament between the two major parties. I sometimes think they forget that they are there to run the country not waste time scoring points off each other. If they don’t learn this lesson then we are going to get a lot of close elections and hung parliament with the independents demanding greater and greater concessions. What we really do not need at this stage is “Meet the New Boss – same as the Old Boss!”

The race is on for a new Mayor to replace Jim Pollock who died recently.  People are looking to elect a retired member of the State Parliament as Mayor, which I am totally against. All the years she was there she was led around by the Adelaide Boys Club. She was made Speaker then stood aside so one of the Adelaide Boys Club could have the job instead.  I honestly believe she would be a disaster since she would simply do and speak as North Terrace told her to . I do not believe she would  be an independent Mayor and more than anything we need an independent Mayor not a party hack.

Just over a week now and the army will be gone. It has been interesting having them here and it has been fun doing the catering for them. Yes, they do have their own catering but they  wanted a number of “Not for Profit” groups to do catering so that they could inject funds into the local community and whatever supplies they did need, they purchased locally.

Adelaide is being battered by wild weather with more predicted tonight. This front is passing below us but I expect we will get a bit of the rain and some wind. — This is what happened. We did get some rain and some wind but nothing to really write home about. Adelaide took another battering with snow on the Adelaide Hills as far down as Handorf.

Andrew is heading down to Adelaide on Sunday afternoon for a meeting early Monday morning. I’ll get home from church, get changed and he will pick me up just after noon. He can go off to his meeting on Monday and I’ll get into the Apple Shop in Rundle Mall and either see about getting something done with my laptop or if it has reached the end of its life and cannot be upgraded,  think about a emplacement. My current laptop is at least two upgrades behind and I don’t know why it wont upgrade.  If it is a  replacement I’ll probably look at the MacBook Pro again.

Today I left the room. I could not watch the news. I know what has happened but I could not watch nor listen to it. I cried and found everything overwhelming as the tears ran down my face. I wept for the horror, I wept for the loss, I wept for France. The tears of sorrow gave way to feelings of anger together with my feelings for Angela Merkel – so better to leave it here rather than say something I may regret.

Cuttlefish and Cold Water

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
One of the Three Dives for the day.
One of the Three Dives for the day.

As I mentioned in another post,  the Royal Flying Doctors Service (Support) were catering for a three day diving course about 3 million miles out of town, in the middle of nowhere, right next to the sea and very little shelter. Man it was cold. Well, ok, a slight exaggeration on the millage, but it was a long way out of town. The dive was organised by the  “Experiencing Marine Sanctuaries  (EMS) Group” to view the  Giant Cuttlefish  in their

Giant Cuttlefish
Giant Cuttlefish

natural environment and to give people the opportunity to interact with them. The water in this part of the gulf is very clear and most people used a boogie board to allow them to get face down in the water  and a snorkel  for air. The more adventurous had weights and got down among the creatures – there were hundreds of them. They are a strange creature – weird looking with the ability to change colour at will to attract females.    The EMS Group kept trying to persuade  us to leave the catering Gazebo, don a wet suit and get into the freezing cold water. Oh did I ever mention that I do not have masochistic tendencies, plus the fact that it was quite cold enough where we were thank you. I actually would have  gone with them but not without any preparation – like very warm clothes to change into  and a cup of our own hot soup afterwards. They are going to run the course again next year so I may well take the opportunity to go out with them then. Also this is the first time we have been involved with this and we didn’t know what would be required. Next year we will be better organised. Like with the Operators- Advertising was not all that great and on the first day people bought their own food because they didn’t know we would be there. Apart from hot food we also provided, hot tea, coffee, chocolate and hot soup. There were three dives each day – 10am / 12 noon / 3pm. It was cold and colder when the wind

It was a very cold day at nowhere.
It was a very cold day at nowhere.

was coming off the water. The Cuttlefish mate in the cold water during winter.

The election goes on and will continue for some time yet. We still have no outcome although it is looking more likely that the government will survive – just – and that it may well have a workable majority although the wheeling and dealing with the independents continues.

I did say that the rain had passed and it has – sort of. It’s still wet but the rain has been reduced to a drizzle with the odd overnight shower, which means that garden work is mostly out for the moment. The army are still here and we have a group catering for them at their camp in Jubilee Park.  I don’t have  anything to do until Saturday week.

The WaWa continues to attack Benji and Benji will not defend himself. Annabell and I have decided that  if Sooah does not return to Australia, then we cannot keep the WaWa. It would not be fair on BJ. The WaWa is a friendly, playful little thing and is all over me when I come home after being out for a few hours. I can play with her and I can “fight”with her, but she hates BJ with a passion. I also have a fear that BJ will snap and retaliate and really cause some serious injury – and that bothers me more than a little because a snap and injury could well change the whole nature of Benji and I really don’t want that to happen. And to make matters worse, Sooah has not been in contact with us so we really don’t know what is happening.

Since writing this Sooah has been in contact with us and we now know what is happening. Her husband is still working on brushing up his English and should be good enough to get through

Benji & The WaWa
Benji & The WaWa

the English Test and all being well she hopes to be back in Australia by October of this year – or very shortly afterwards.  That’s fine and gives us something to work towards. I have also been to see the Vet and sometimes next week  we will get the WaWa up there and perhaps see if we can get a muzzle small enough as a temporary measure and protect Benji. Meanwhile we have a  water spray bottle to use, also as a temporary measure. We have tried that already and she definitely does not like that.

 

Elections and 4th July

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Well the rain finally stopped and although it’s been dry it has been cold. How cold? well an escaped prisoner in New South Wales telephoned the police, told them where he was and asked them to come and collect him and take him back to prison because he was freezing cold and worried about hypothermia. Of course, it does not ever get that cold in South Australia – at worst about 2c overnight and about 11c during the day,which is quite cold enough for me. It has rained a little bit – nothing quite exciting, but wet enough to soak the ground to a slight mud area. There’s really not a lot I can do about this at the moment. I really need a few days of completely dry weather to be able to work in the area.

We can see you!!
We can see you!!

The largest military exercise ( Operation Hamel) in South Australian history and one of the largest ever staged in Australia has started with almost 10,000 military taking part. The fictional Country of Cultania  is under attack by heavily armed terrorists and the Government of East Cultania have asked for assistance.  A task force of  Australian, New Zealand, British and American troops  are currently evacuating expats and other nationals to the now military secured Whyalla Airport. I believe 5 RAR have moved into the city center and more evacuations are underway. Annoying that the main camp at Jubilee Park and the Airport are not to far away, but the most I have ever seen was the  troops and equipment at the “Show and Tell” last Friday. I have not even seen any of their patrols day or night. Of course  the exercise has really only started and it will go on for a while yet.

So sorry to hear that a freak major storm seems to have paid a visit to the area around Denver Colorado. Not fun for poor Sam and some damage to the roof of the house – which is a worry. I think our wild weather has passed for the time being. Probably just as well or we would have a lot of soggy soldiers.   As I have said before, really serious storm are a rarity here. Generally storms pass above us and head into New South Wales, or below us and go visit Victoria. Now we seem to have settled down to our normal winter – cold to colder and dry.

Friend said the other day that he was all electioned out and he would be glad when this election is over. Well, it’s not over and wont be for a while yet

Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday USA

We are starting to look like Italy  and some of the other European countries with a multiplicity of political parties. Everybody wants to have their own political party and we are getting to the stage where neither of the major parties can govern without making deals for support from  independents. The Senate paper with all the independents looked very much like a Ancient Scroll  rolled up at the ends. I’m convinced half of them are  British Monster Raving Loony Party ( real registered party – honestly) in disguise. I don’t know why we don’t have a “Destabilize the Governance of the Nation”Party  According to  what I can find,  there are 57 “Parties” that contested this election. Hey I just figured it out – we’re a Heinz Country –  57 Varieties. However, not all of these parties or groups are contesting in every state. Some are purely state based but the fact remains that  taking so many votes has ensured that we have a hung parliament for the second time in six years and more chaos and possibly an early election. Wheeling and dealing and souls being sold for a financial advantage – irrespective of what excuse they give for accepting. What – me  Cynical? Never.

What will happen – whoever wins – is that we will have three years of no government. Well, yes we will have a government in name but a government unable to get any of its legislation through – a government that will run in the name of its political party but not a government that can function  for the benefit of the nation – a government that will be at the mercy of independents,who could change at any time. There are still seats that are not yet declared and at the moment the government party is ahead, but that will still not give them enough seats to govern in their own right. There are still over two million votes to be yet counted.  Interesting times…

PS: All the pundits are predicting that we will have a new election within 12 months.