Tag: ANZAC Day

OTT Restrictions, Ruby Princess, ANZAC Day

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Bin Night — I-so-late — I-so-late

I agree with much of the isolation, social distancing and lockdowns but I think some places and people have gone just a tad too far – slightly OTT. Understand, I am not whining and want them all to stay in place but some things I am concerned about. Let me explain: just before all the restrictive movement and other measures came into effect, Annabell was instructed by her doctor to  take her blood pressure reading twice a day ( morning and evening) over ten days and  record the results. At the end of the ten days, he wanted to see the results. Annabell had told him that I had a machine that recorded Blood Pressure and heart rate. So I did this for her over the ten days. We printed it off and Annabell wrote a short report. I was to take it to the surgery and  hand it in . The envelops was clearly marked for the Dr.. I arrived at the clinic only to find a locked door and a notice that I was to go to a window outside in the carpark where I would be attended to. I did this and was confronted with a window about seven feet from the ground, fly screen covered and looking down on me. I have to admit that her “what can I do for you”had a tone of “what do you want? I explained that I had a letter from Annabell that needed to go to Dr…..  Her comment was “I don’t think I can accept that”  I looked at her and said “Fine”and turned to walk away — “oh I have hand sanitizer and gloves on now so I  suppose I can accept it” I said nothing, handed it up and walked away.  I’m not impressed., really I’m not. I fully understand the need for social distancing and the need to keep our front line workers safe, but I honestly felt that this was just Over the Top, to have people standing in the carpark taking up to a flymesh covered window. I drove  along there the other day and there were still people standing at the window. Today (Thursday 23rd) we are in the throes of the full  treatment – Thunder, Lightening and heavy rain – I wonder if there are people standing outside at the window this morning? Okay – Okay, my whinging is over!!

The investigation into the Ruby Princess continues. The figures from the Federal Government indicate that 10.47% of all Coronavirus cases in Australia are directly related to the Ruby Princess. In South Australia the figure is higher at 21% of all cases in the state. The ship has been ordered to leave Port Kembla this afternoon and to leave Australian Waters. The really sick have been removed to hospital. —- The Ruby Princess left Port Kembla and headed out of Australian waters on Thursday afternoon.  I believe she is heading to Indonesia – not sure why.

Annabell is still well. I have been the one to go out and do any shopping or anything that needs to be done. I still take Benji out in the early morning and the only people I see at that time in the morning are a few people in

The Benji

cars heading off to work. These days we don’t go out every morning. Oh I get up and ready to go out, but he is reluctant to go and I don’t intend to force him. Sometimes I just sit down beside him – he puts his head on my leg and I sit and scratch his ears for a while. If we don’t go out in the morning I generally take him for a drive in the afternoon and we have a walk around the Wetlands which is also quiet.

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day and I have set up the letterbox with poppies and candles. In the morning I will go out at 5:55 and light the candles so that we  “light up the Dawn”  at 6am, then quietly repeat the Ode and a minute’s silence.  After that I’ll take Benji for a walk ( about 6:15) . On the subject of Benji – the Photograph theme for last week was the Letter  R so I submitted a photograph of Rascally Rabbits. Don’t know what I am going to do this week as the theme is the letter B. Verra difficult.  The rules are that it cannot be a photograph you already have.It has to be a new photograph taken after the  Friday  Theme release date. I have a week to come up with something.

An Interesting week.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
One of my beds.

Monday 22nd. April.  It rained for  quite a few hours from Saturday evening into  late Sunday afternoon. The rain has really not made all that much difference and we really need a lot more. I think, overall we received about 5-7 mil. – not a great amount. Certainly didn’t make much difference to the Wetlands. We had a bit of a “play date” this afternoon where we got to spend some time with Max, the Pug. Was both good and not so good. Started off well enough,  bit of sniffing and the like but all three walked well enough together – except Max is older and we had to stop a lot more and only went halfway round.  All of that was great the dogs were fine and  Jenifer ( his mum) was pleased. Only one dark spot was when  Benji jumped up on my lap and Max wanted to get up and Benji snapped at him. Other than that they were fine. Still no word about what’s happening with Dougal or if/when Sam is coming home. Today is 26 days since Dougal arrived.  I feel sorry for Benji and I don’t think I am being fair to him.   He was about four years  old when  I adopted him from the shelter and I am led to understand that  they were not  great four years. But now he is adopted, he has a home, a warm comfortable bed and food and a daddy who loves him. Then………… comes the WaWa and fifteen months later, she goes home and Benji has his  home back again. Then comes Yogi and after Yogi, Dougal. He has hardly had more than a few months of  having  his house and his toys and his daddy to himself. Now we have Max so he did get a bit miffed when Max wanted him to get off my lap so he could sit there. Benji is not an aggressive dog and perhaps today was his way of trying to tell me something. Over the next  little while, even as Dougal is here, I think I am going to give Benji a little extra attention.  As I said, Dougal has now been here, this time, for 26 days and he could be here for a while yet;  these two get on well enough but  I  think perhaps Benji is not getting as much attention as he should.

Friday 26th April.  I have been off line for the last week. My computer was hacked and  rather than  stuff about I  took it into the Computer tech and asked them to clean it. I also contacted the bank who asked me to destroy both  cards and  new cards with new numbers would be issued in due course.

Dougal – now gone back home.

It has been a difficult and concerning week but my computers were returned late this afternoon.  According to the Tech. there  was a few things on there that should not have been there but he didn’t elaborate and said that he has destroyed them  – he ran  several spyware and malware programs and was quite satisfied that the units were clean and could be returned to me.  The downside is that I have lost about seven or eight days worth of work, but the upside is that it could have been worse, much worse Yes it cost but I thought the cost was ‘reasonable”considering the work that he had done. Before we  parted  we talked about grandchildren ( he has three) and  showed each other photographs. What can I say – it’s a country town,,,  On  Thursday I attended the Anzac Day Dawn Service at the  Memorial Gates, and, since I can be lazy, I went to Maccas for breakfast rather than go home, cook something and perhaps disturb Annabell.  Later on that afternoon, Dougal went home, so Benji has his house all to himself again. However, I think Dougal will be back again for a little while since Ina is still in Adelaide.

Mount Gambier Part 1

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I was reading up about the wawa recently in the  and the page on the History of the breed began with the words  “If you have ever had a Chihuahua then you know that they are not hard to love at

Almost like brothers
Almost like brothers

all ” and I couldn’t help thinking to myself – Not this one – this is the sister of the wawa from Hell who currently resides in Arizona and who had another go at me last night. Fortunately I got my fingers away in time.  I tell you, it’s going to be a long four/five months. On the other hand, Yogi goes home tomorrow and I will be sad to see him go – he has really been no bother at all to look after and as I said before after a few territorial adjustments Yogi and Benji have got on very well these last two and a bit weeks.

Talking to Andrew last night and some things have been sorted out at Arrium.  Andrew is back in there again to continue on with the original contract,( which has been restored)  but the  Administrator is really going to have to do something about the management culture at Arrium which uses all sorts of tactics to avoid paying bills for as long as possible. This, in part, accounts for the fact that suppliers are owed so much money and some of these supplies are vital to the continued operation of the plant. If the administrator does not sort this culture out then it leaves the door open for this whole drama to repeat at some future date. I also think some members of the management have to realize that SA stands for South Australia, not South Africa.    Today is ANZAC Day and  for the first time in many years I did not attend the Dawn Service. Yes, I set the alarm; yes I did get up and dressed, but two faces looked at me expectantly and were quite excited because this was the time I usually take them out. My logic was that the  Dawn Service will be crowded, no one will miss me and I really should not be going to MacDonalds for Breakfast afterwards, and I delivered the ANZAC Service at Church on Sunday;   so yes,  I put on my jacket, put on the leashes and the three of us went out together and I thought, “that’s as it should be!”

Tomorrow will be my last morning walk with Yogi and when I come home I will have to gather all his gear – bedding etc., and have everything ready when he gets collected. It has been interesting with the two dogs walking and tonight it will be just me and Benji again.

Urgent email arrived late last night to inform all members of the Commission that there is no accommodation  within 50K of Mount Gambier. This is due to the ANNUAL Jazz Festival which takes place on that weekend. I put the word annual in capitals to emphasise it since the Mount Gambier people who arrange all this should have known that the Jazz festival was on that weekend and

The Lady Nelson - Mount Gambier
The Lady Nelson – Mount Gambier

either changed the venue or  altered the date of the meeting. There is nothing in Penola and I am not going to Naracoorte (109K). I have tried a number of places and I still have two to answer this morning – Dartmoor and Nelson. both across the border in Victoria. Heck at this rate I could have just about driven to Melbourne and back. Nothing available at Nelson but I  seem to have managed to get accommodation at Dartmoor Vic., which is about 55k from Mount Gambier. That’s not too bad. I can still visit the  Sailing Ship The Lady Nelson and the Umpherston Sink-hole Gardens on the way through to Dartmoor although I am so glad it’s Dartmoor Victoria and not Dartmoor England. However, if I get there and I meet anyone called Baskerville I’m out of there !! As far as I can see for a small rural settlement it has a lot of interesting things to offer and I hope my camera is kept busy

 

Adelaide ANZAC and welcome back.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Despite leaving Adelaide at the unconscionable  hour of 6:10am, the drive back home was pleasant. Rain had been forecast, but as generally happens, such  predictions are based on hope rather than reality,  and  the journey was without rain.  I love the element of uncertainty of weather forecasts – on Monday evening  they tell you that it will rain on Tuesday and on Tuesday evening, they tell you why it didn’t. Part of the reason I saw the fire trucks coming was that I was standing at the window – as I said- watching the rain because we don’t see it all that often in the Arid ands of the North of the State.  We don’t get anything near the rain that Adelaide and the “bottom” area of the state gets Anyway it was a nice drive  and it was nice to be home again, although herself didn’t really expect me until mid afternoon.   The dogs were pleased to see me and I sat down with them for a while. I was only home for one day and I was off to Adelaide again, this time with my son . He own property in Adelaide and was going down for meetings with his agent. . The one day I was home was not really a “free day” I was back up at 5am and off to Memorial Oval for the Dawn Service of Remembrance at 5:45.  Thursday 25th April is set aside as ANZAC Remembrance Day. I generally go to the Dawn Service then meet up with some people and go for breakfast at McDonald’s – mainly because it’s the only place that’s open at 6:40am.  Most businesses stay closed for the day but the supermarkets generally open at 12 noon as do other businesses who wish to do so.

Friday and we set out for Adelaide again. Twice in a week is very tiring and I am due  back there again next weekend. However, I’ve had enough for the moment so I think I might put in an apology for next week. I need the break considering that I will be spending the last week of May in Adelaide.

I have examined all my settings and as far as I can tell they are still in operations and I know that I have not made any alterations. I do know that, according to site stats, I have had no visitors since 6th April – which is a little bit of a concern. I still get  notifications from the sites I follow but not nearly as many as I used to. I don’t generally delete things but rather archive them so I still have posts from mid 2012 in the system——–WooHoo    welcome back…