Benji – Page 10 – Edgar's Page

Funerals and Ships of State

27/01/2017 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Driving to Mount Gambier was “interesting”since I at one point I had the A/C on because the outside temperature was 41C and at another I had the heating on at low because it was chucking it down and a bit on the cold side. In fact I sat at the table in front of the window at my hotel and watched a major storm break over Adelaide – 35,000 homes and businesses lost power – again. First time I have stayed in this Motel since this was the period of the Major Bike Race “Tour Down Under” and everything was booked. Normally, I would not have been traveling to Mount Gambier at this time but this was a Special Meeting. It was a hectic four days, alternating between very hot to cool to cold to very hot and the demister on because the windscreen was fogging up. It was a strange and tiring five days. And no the five was not a mistake. I arrived home on Sunday afternoon to be told that one of our elderly ladies had died and her funeral was at the church on Monday 10am. It was a fairly big funeral and the church was filled to capacity. Poor Benji, I abandoned him for four days and I took off again at 9am Monday and didn’t get home until early afternoon, then back out again to take Annabell shopping. By late afternoon I was back home and able to sit down with him – me with my feet up and him on my lap. We did not go out on Monday evening for our walk simply because the forecast rain that had held off all day came pouring down. We had heavy rain all night.

This morning (Tuesday) I took BJ out and there are dark and heavy clouds everywhere, and it was really very cool. I had a look at the satellite image and it looks as if the large rain band will go across the top and although we might get a few spots, I think we will miss the bulk of the rain this time. I’ve had people from Queensland wanting to know what Rain Dances we are doing in South Australia, because they could do with some of the wet stuff up there. The week began with a funeral and it will end with a funeral. The man I mentioned some time ago as having cancer and not expected to be with us at New Year, was, and passed yesterday evening. The funeral will be on Friday at 11am, so what was a hectic four days turned into five days and has now turned into nine days. Tonight I will start to put the order of service together. Presbytery was not popular because I was away and couldn’t do the Order of Service for the funeral on Monday so they had to put something together without me. Isn’t it nice to be missed? :o)

I have not commented at all on the US Election, the President or the Women’s Marches, nor the comments made by celebrities, however as I am told that this is a global issue and I should “Jump in “to the debate I find that I cannot. Having said that I will contribute this:

In the darkest days of World War Two, when Britain was on its knees and everything looked bleak and dark, the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wrote to Winston Churchill and with the official letter he also included in his own handwriting the following extracts from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – “The Building of the Ship” thus my contribution to the debate is to return these words to you.

Sail on, sail on O ship of State
Sail on, O Union strong and great
Humanity, with all its fears
And all the hopes of future years
Is hanging breathless on thy fate.

Sail on nor fear to breast the sea
Our hearts and hopes are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears
Our faith, triumphant oér our fears
Are all with thee – are all with thee.

The Sands of Time

06/01/2017 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

April – a month that will live in infamy – well not quite. After all some wonderful people were born in April – like me for example. However, April was when we acquired the WaWa, or rather, when we (I) agreed to look after the WaWa for a limited period. It’s almost January – nine months later – and she’s still here. We have not heard a word from Sooha since she went back to South Korea. We have written to her and sent emails to the address she gave – all of which have bounced back. I do not know what we are going to do. WaWa is a playful, friendly and loyal little thing and now that I have made contact with the new vet I will talk to her and see what we can do with regard to her attacking Benji and whether a .oo soft muzzle will help – at least it will stop her nipping at his back legs. And I really can’t understand this- I mean it has been eight months. I would really have thought that things would have settled down by now and she would have gotten used to Benji being around. Jealousness continues to be the main problem She can be a real pain in the tuchus, but she has to stay – anything else, however well meaning , would be unconscionably cruel. I have no regrets about taking her – I am being honest when I say she is a lovely dog, friendly, playful, loyal – I just wish we could sort out her jealous attacks on Benji and stop her barking at the least little shadow.

Aside from dogs, 2017 will be a year of change – changes that will be generated by me. There are some things I have let slide and I intend to change them. However, as the Rachel Hunter add

Mandevillia ( not mine - sadly) — Mandevillia ( not mine – sadly)

once said – “it wont happen overnight, but it will happen”. And here I mention that after months of pretending to be just a stick stuck in dirt (potting mix) the two Frangipani have started to grow. There are leaves and other bits sprouting – which I am very pleased about. The four Mandevillia are also growing well and the Poinsettia is still a vibrant Red. My Almond tree is good and I would like a Mulberry Tree, which I will look for when I am down in Adelaide soon. This afternoon, the dogs and I, Benji and Yogi, went to the garden shop and bought new plants – two South Australian Natives and six Geraniums. I will plant them this evening when it is a bit cooler. I use raised planted beds and potting mix because my soil here is not good. When we moved here and I looked at an area with horrible black bark on it, I decided to clear it all off and turn it into a Rose Garden. I did all the things, prepared the soil, bought rose fertilizer and spent a fortune on rose bushes at the garden shop. Every single one of them died. I tried other things and they died too. The soil, it seems had been poisoned – or sterilized – same thing really. The White Ceder tree has taken off again, so this time I will really have it sorted out – no more being nice.

I’m still having problems with the aftermath of the knee operation and have difficulty kneeling on the ground – or indeed kneeling at all. Still, as a famous Australian politician once said, “Life wasn’t meant to be easy”. And on that note it must be said that our current crop of “fly by night” politicians are doing everything they possibly can to make certain that is how Australia will be under their watch – claw $2.5 Billion out of pensions – a crisis with Centrelink and millions $$ being demanded in repayments , which no one understands, but the good thing is a pay rise for politicians and government staff and the $2.5 Billion they ripped out of our Seniors’ Pensions should help to fund the pensions, lurks and perks for politicians.

Sooha and Kongsoon - now called The WaWa — Sooha and Kongsoon – now called The WaWa

Since I started this, we have heard from Sooah and although she is well and still working with the Immigration Department to achieve a return to Australia, there is no indication when that will actually happen. What this means is that the WaWa will be here for the foreseeable future. Yogi will be going home shortly as the friends return from Perth in Western Australia on Friday week and I will pick them, up from the Airport. The week after I head off to Adelaide and then Mount Gambier and an extra-ordinary meeting. Oh come now, what’s a 1300 mile journey and three hotels for a three hour meeting between friends? Still it gets me time to have a wander in Adelaide and I have a pile of Bunnings Gift Cards to use and a Mulberry bush to find.

And finally – we are in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures hovering around the high 30s to the low 40s – what joy..

Can it be that it was all so simple then?

09/12/201611/12/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Isn’t it amazing how the simplest things can take you back to your childhood? Of course, for some of us that’s no great transition since we have never really left our childhood :o) But I made a comment the other week that caused me to remember things we did as children and I used the word “Naughty” and It occurred to me that this word has an entirely different meaning for children than it has for adults, thus anything I said is of a child version not an adult version. Where I grew up we were surrounded by fields and woods and we children used to play in the woods or do things along the river bank. What I meant by naughty is the fact that some us were wicked in that we stole things from our mothers. Oh relax !! – what earthly use did we have for money? No, every so often some of us would sneak into the pantry and “steal”a couple of potatoes from mum’s potato bag, then we would all go off to the woods. Since most of us had been camping on a regular basis, we knew how to set out a campfire. Once we had that lit and going fairly well, we would put the potatoes we had pinched round the side of the fire and cook them. A bit of salt if someone thought to bring any and that was our “feast”. In those days potatoes were cheap and were measured not in pounds but in stones. A Scottish stone was equal to about 16.5 pounds. Our mothers had a separate bag for potatoes because mainly they were unwashed and were bought in either a stone, half stone or quarter stone. Potatoes were dirty so they were not kept in the nice, clean grocer but in the back of the fishmonger in great metal tubs, scooped out, weighed on the big scale then dumped into the potato bag. Not like today where everything is washed clean and sanitized and put in plastic bags so we can all have the fun of adding to the landfill. Thinking back, in the world I lived in I had a great childhood, good friends, good school and collectively we hated dentists. Doctors were a necessary evil but dentists were just an evil. Still don’t like dentists. Ah sorry, it’s probably a generation thing. You know, we thought we were so clever but thinking back,I’m quite sure our parents knew what we were up to.

Very strange thing happened to me a short while ago – by short I mean within the last hour. I was going through my mail and other stuff and I could hear Benji pottering about in the background. Never really took a lot of notice as he seemed to be ok doing whatever he was doing. Anyway, I finished what I was doing and made the momentous decision that a coffee would go down well now. I swung my chair round to get out and go make the coffee and that’s when I discovered what the Benji had been up to. All around my chair he had placed all his toys. I don’t know what to make of that – coincidence, seemed like a good idea, no meaning whatsoever?? I don’t know, I really don’t know, but it does seem an odd thing to do.

The weather continues to behave in a weird way. I took the boy out for his walk at 5:45 this morning and instead of light, the sky was very dull with dark storm clouds moving around and the wind was quite cold. About halfway through our walk I felt a few spots of rain as the clouds seemed to get darker. However, nothing came of it but the dark clouds are still lurking about and the top temperature for today is 21c. As it happened, the dark clouds passed, eventually, the sun came out but it stayed cool all day and we reached a top of 23c well below average.

The ladies have their coffee evenings on a Tuesday and coffee mornings on a Wednesday. They each pay a few dollars – some of this goes to the hostess for coffee, tea, and so on, the rest gets set aside for charity. This year they will present $1000 to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), $1000 to Anglicare (Church of England Charity Service) and $1000 to the family, here in the community, of a little child who was struck down with Meningococcal. The child lost several limbs but he survived and will require on-going medical treatment. All of the local community have been great and have been fund raising on their behalf – a community in crisis, uncertainty, concerned about the future and almost 10% unemployment – but we can still pull together to help one of our community who needs us.

Looking Back – Looking Forward

06/12/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

For more years than I care to remember I have used ring planners. For a period I went through the Palm Pilot craze but in the end I came back to paper and ringed planners – mainly Filofax. Of course my planners did not survive the move from Scotland to South Australia being limited in what we could bring (weight) However, like much of our things they were packed in Tea Chests and stored in my Father-in-law’s cellar. The idea was that once we were settled we have the teachests sealed and shipped out to South Australia. Sadly after we had been here a few months and were starting to settle down, my in-laws house was broken into and most of the things from the cellar were destroyed or stolen, that also included all my photography equipment and the photograph

albums. The photographs were of no use or importance so we suspect they were dumped in the nearest safe trash bin. Very little of the crystal and none of the silver we had been given as gifts remained. None of my planners remained. The thing that upset us the
most was not the glass or silver or photograph equipment, but rather the photographs themselves. We have no photographs of the
boys as babies or little children other than what we have taken in Australia. Before we left Scotland Annabell and I took the boys all over the country and took photographs of them at various places, Fort William, Loch Ness, Stirling Castle, Edinburgh Castle and Mons Meg, Sweetheart Abbey, Jedburgh Abbey, St. Giles Cathedral, Elgin Cathedral,
Dornoch Cathedral and Dunblane Cathedral, Paisley Abbey and Dunfermline Abbey, Bannockburn and Robert Bruce, Duart Castle, Loch Earn, The Rannoch Moor, Glencoe and, of course, Glasgow Cathedral and other places too numerous to mention. Photograph of Annabell’s family and my family – all gone.

Here in Australia the Palm Pilot was the thing so I went through a Palm Pilot phase and I think I still have a couple hanging around somewhere. But I tired of that and went back to Ring Binders again. I have been there ever since. Generally I used a Filofax and did so up until a few years ago when I started to use an Organizer from a Dutch company called Van der Spek. Generally I change my Organizers/Planners every two years and I have just ordered my third Van der Spek and for the very first time ever, I have chosen something that is neither black nor brown. I have chosen a colour called French Blue. People thought I was being silly when I asked what colour/shade French Blue is as there are so many shades of Blue. All I got in reply was “Blue” which didn’t really help. It should be here in a few weeks and I am anxious to see what it looks

like.

This time last year I had great hopes for the coming 2016. I had lost both Chienne and The Man and there was still much sadness there but there was Benji and I looked forward to life with him. I suspect one day I will get out of the habit of referring to him sometimes as Chienne. There has been much sadness in 2016 but there has also been joy and I will see the year go with mixed feelings. My one shining light has been Benji – as it should be. I have lost friends this year, some fur-friends, some human friends, some who have passed and some I have just lost and they are the saddest of all. But I have also found new friends and that helps with the sadness of loss. Again I look forward to the coming year and hope that 2017 will be a better year, but like all years there will be a mixture of joy and sadness, laughter and tears, but we need them both, one to balance the other, and all we can really hope for is that the joy will be more than the sadness and the laughter greater than the tears.

I have no doubt that there will be other posts between now and the end of the year, but for now, I want to say thank you to all of you for being here and for your lovely comments and conversations. I hope we can share 2017 together.

Playing Santa – Toys for Benji

04/12/201604/12/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Let me tell you that I lurve you and I think about you all the time :o)

The reason I went to Adelaide by coach rather than driving down was that I wanted several things and I believed that I only needed to go to one place, Muno Para Shopping Center, and I could attend to them – Telstrashop (New Travel Modem) Bunnings ( Garden things) and some things for the Benji. Well, I guess two out of three is not bad – although having said that, I could get these two things anywhere but not the Bunnings things. Well, I got the new Travel Modem – I got things for the Benji and discovered that Bunnings Muno Para has closed down and moved to another area. I had been to this particular Bunnings in Muno Para several times before and now, it was gone. Here’s the rub, had I been in the car I could simply driven to another store in another part of town, – Modbury, Mile End or Pooraka- but relying on public transport and having to watch my time for the coach home, kind of put paid to these notions. I suppose I came out ahead, but not really because I actually NEED the units that I was going to get in Bunnings. I did not have the time to go elsewhere and getting there was not all that crash hot on public transport. As I said, I have

The Lower Flinders Ranges from Highway 1

driven to the Muno Para Shopping Center several times before, so when I went over to the train station in Adelaide I got a ticket to Muno Para – seems logical, yes?? Well no! I got off at Muno Para Station in the middle of nowhere – almost. I happened to see a person and asked them where the Muno Para Shopping Center was and they informed me that the Muno Para Shopping Center is in Smithfield – which was the last stop. So I had to go over to the other side of the station and wait for a train back to Smithfield. Agreed, not difficult to do – not rocket science – but time consuming.

After I got the things I was looking for (except the Bunnings things) I went back to the train station and took the train back to Elizabeth and had a look for some things there. Did buy a second toy for Benji so that was good. I have this theory that a dog can’t have too many toys. Also had a belated lunch. I was back in town by 16:40 and spend three quarters of an hour at the Central Market where I finally found a collapsible water bowl. Overall the trip wasn’t a complete loss but a lot of time spent traveling and getting nothing done. I mean 11 hours in coach travel alone. Why Bunnings – why not get what I want elsewhere – because like Ryobi Tools in Australia, there are things that are exclusive to Bunnings – what I wanted was part of that.

On the journey up as it got dark I was puzzled by all the lights around us, then I realised that it was the farmers working into the night – under lights- to get the harvest in whilst it was still dry. This was on both sides of the highway all the way up through the farming areas. After the wettest spring on record, you can hardly blame them working hard to get their crops harvested in case the weather breaks.

Travelling to Adelaide by coach these days is very much a waste of time. The coach leaves at 6 am – arrives in Adelaide at 11:30 am and departs again at 4 pm – not really a lot o

f time to do much other than wander around Rundle Mall. Thursday the departure time is 6 pm so that certainly helps – although it used to be at 6:30. I can understand the coach company reducing services – last Thursday, for example, there were six people on the coach leaving Adelaide. Four left at Port Pirie, one left at Port Augusta, so for the last 80 klms I had a 44 seater coach all to myself. -With the driver, of course. Still, two new toys and a water bowl for Benji – seems like a good day out to me :o)

Adelaide and Forever Easy

02/12/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

As expected the weather has been cold, wet and windy and to add insult to injury, the area in front of the house is about to be dug up as the Fed. Govt. workpeople lay in the National Broadband Network (NBN) cables. They are not quite up to my section yet, but they are about seventy meters away – our section is next, probably in the next few days. I am concerned in that there are many people I know who have been discussing the NBN and how slow it is and yet it is being touted as being able to deliver Internet connections, better and faster. Most of the people who are complaining I know and will probably see some of them in the next day or so. I think you actually have to apply to join the NBN and if it is as they say, I shall delay that for as long as possible.

Tomorrow I start working on another problem – that of finding a new Vet. Not that I need one and could probably put the issue off for some time, but I think I should do this now – when I don’t need a vet. The problem is that Mustafa – our vet for many years – has gone back to Turkey for an indefinite period. His mother is very ill and he has gone to his family home to be with her and at the moment there is no indication when he will be back. I have heard good things about the Vet at the ABC Village, so I will probably go and see her and ask if she would accept Benji as a patient. As I said I don’t need a vet right at the moment but it’s good to know that there is one around that you can call on if needs be.

Yesterday the boy and I drove to Port Augusta. It was a warmish day (33c) but I kept the A/C on most of the time so it was a pleasant enough drive. I got some of the things I was looking for at Better Homes, but I still need a trip to Bunnings to get the rest of what I need for the back garden. On the way back up to the main highway we stopped off at a park and I took Benji for a walk to stretch his legs for a bit and this time I did remember to bring a water bowl with me.

Amazing – truly amazing! Yesterday – as I said – the boy and I drove to Port Augusta and back – it was warmish to hot and we drove with the A/C on. Today, it’s chucking it down and the temperature is about 19c and this is the last day of Spring and whilst it is now in the records as the wettest spring ever, perhaps it’s giving this last rain storm – just to make sure. The interesting thing is that the long range weather forecasters have consulted, whatever it is they consult, and suggested that we are going to have a long, hot summer and that a hot summer means hot north winds off the desert – increased levels of Hay Fever. Not fun in the sun.. And talking about illness, I discovered something new – well new to me anyway. There is this thing called Thunderstorm Asthma, which I had never heard of until a few days ago. Apparently it is caused by the pollen absorbing moisture, which then breaks up into smaller fragments and dispersed by the wind. The smaller fragments can reach the lower areas of the lung and cause terrible consequences. From what I was reading there have been 8 deaths in Victoria ( Melbourne area) in the last few months. Bit scary.

Yesterday (Thursday) I was in Adelaide and arrived home at midnight last night. I did not drive down as I normally would but went down by coach. I decided to have a quick check of my on-line mail before my taxi arrived. To say I was in shock is an understatement – Easy Gone!. How, why what… My taxi arrived to take me to the Bus Terminal and all the way down to Adelaide on the coach I thought of little else. The last thing Easy asked was for us to make a short travel post for his unwell cat friend and I was thinking about that and how I could sent the cat to Mount Gambier and the Blue Lake and I will do that. I think we are all still in shock with the suddenness of events and I am so very, very sorry. I wish there was something I could do. Our thoughts and prayers are with Easy’s family and when I came home last night, I gave Benji an extra hug.

Weather, Mice, Men and May Babies

21/11/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Three and a half days – that’s how long I was away – three and a half days. The way Benji reacted you would think I have been away for three and a half years. He went absolutely ballistic – the WaWa wanted to say hello but he charged right at her and knocked her out of the way to get to me. I had to sit on the floor and try to attend to both of them. It took us ages to get Benji to calm down and he ran around the house like a mad thing, and heaven help anyone – including a WaWa – that got in his way. This is the longest I have been away from him and Annabell tells me he was not a happy puppy. Since I came home, he has hardly left my side. Odd thing is that as soon as I go to bed he jumps down from the bed and goes into his own bed and no amount of coaxing will get him back up beside me again – although he does stay on his bed and watch me, which is odd – very.

"Just one Cornetto - Give it to me"... — “Just one Cornetto –
Give it to me”…

Generally I have taken Benji with me when I go out – provided I am not going to be too long – and leave the windows partly open and he enjoys the drive. He is not a demonstrative dog so he is not up at the window or sticking his head out, but he just curls up quietly on the seat. I mentioned this to Annabell and her comment was that he’s with his daddy, so he’s quite at peace curled up. However, as the weather gets hotter I can take him out less and less – example was Thursday when the temperature topped 37c. Much too hot to take him out and leave him in the car – even with windows open. Driving is ok – we have the A/C on when we are driving and we did go down to the beach for a walk and some Ice Cream. I am not sure if dogs are allowed Ice Cream, but he enjoys it and I enjoy my Cornetto.

Now that the weather is hotting up I hope to get outside more and get some work done. Sounds strange working in the hotter weather but up here that means very little wind and you can do a lot when there is no wind. I have plans for part of the area and although I have a picture of what it might look like in my head ( that’s a worry!) I just have to wait and see it it works out. I am part of the way into the plan in that I have cleared the area and laid down weed matting and ordered the artificial turf. But then as the poet ( Robert Burns) wrote, “The best laid plans of mice and men go aft agley and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy” and what all that means is that that’s the end of the hot to warm weather for at least the next ten days, back to rain, wind and cool days until at least early December.

Generally the family all come over here for dinner on a Sunday. It has been this way for years. However this Sunday Andrew called and said that we were to come to his place for a Barbecue. We chatted around while everything was cooking and when we sat down at the table Andrew got the wine, poured a glass for me, poured a glass for John and was going to pour a glass for Patrica (Trish) when he moved the glass away and said quite clearly “no you can’t wine – you’re pregnant”. Talk about dropping a grenade on the table!! Annabell was sitting next to Trish and hugged her, Trishs’ mum just burst into tears, my word but it was an interesting meal – and of course – at the end of the food we got to see the scans over coffee. The baby should be born late May, early June – we think she is about 12 weeks. I never thought this would happen and I told people “That ship has sailed” It seems that there is yet another tide.

Road Trip and Ice Cream

14/11/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The weather today was a warm 34c. I took the Benji on a small road trip of about 100+ lkms – wandering around the region and ending up having Ice-Cream at the Foreshore Cafe. He had a small tub I had a Cornetto. Well, we sat outside since we couldn’t go inside in the

cool but that aside, we enjoyed our Ice Cream and it would have been much easier if a certain someone hadn’t kept trying to eat the wooden

spoon as well as the Ice Cream. My predictions are going to prove right and already on the first warm to hot day and the flies were ferocious. We finished our Ice Cream and were glad to get back into the car again . A few flies in the car but they went as soon as we started driving with both windows open. Inovation… I brought water but I forgot a container for Benji. Well I did what they did in “The Lighthorsemen”I took off the Akubra and emptied the water into my hat and he was quite happy to drink it from there. – Yes, push in the crown to make a bowl and it can hold water.

Just shows how quickly things change – or how media get things wrong – not really sure which at the moment. Yesterday it was announced that at the meeting of shareholders it was agreed that Arrium would be sold as a whole company. Now, this morning it was announced that Molly-Cop is to be sold off to an American company for $1.6 Billion in a separate deal with the funds being used to pay back creditors – about $0.50 in the Dollar. But this is the last I will mention this because it’s all a mess and things change from day to day. . However, Molly-Cop is being sold (now sold) to American Industrial Partners – but here again there is confusion in that the “Australian”says $1.2 billion while the Arrium Administrator says $1.6 Billion. But there is still a group of shareholders that are opposed to Arrium being sold off now that the Iron Ore Prices and the Steel Prices have risen. They want the company to be handed back to the shareholders and that the company continue to trade and thus trade itself back into profit again. Yes well, As they said in “The Castle” – “Tell him he’s Dreaming”. The idea that we go back to trading and perhaps in a few years go through all this trauma again ( probable) is not really appealing. The idea, I thought, is to mitigate the pain, not increase its severity whilst prolonging it. But as I said, last mention.

Thursday and I head off to Mount Gambier. First stop is Adelaide where I will stay overnight before heading off to M.G. on Friday morning. After the warm and sunny 34c the temperature crashed and it has been cold for the last couple of days. This morning, when I took BJ out I put on a heavy jacket as protection from a cold, biting wind. In our walk there is a section of ground that I walk across to take me from one area to another. I do not know why, but when we went onto that ground, about 15+ feet – Benji goes bottom up, head down, digs in his paws and will not move. It could be the yellow, stubble grass(?) that hurts his paws, but he will not move and no amount of talking or pulling will make him move. Well that’s the way I want to go so I do what any daddy would do, I lift him up and carry him across. Well, you know what they say – He aint heavy, he’s my brother” o:) That apart, it’s a good walk.

The interesting news of this week is that the Electronic Patient Administration System, crashed across most of the major hospitals in the State. Fortunately no patients were at risk during the 10 hour crash ( this time) but doctors and medical staff have been complaining about the system (American) that’it’s clunky. chunky and slow. Not only that but in the new, much vaunted, third most expensive building on the planet, plagued by constant delays. running over budget, New Royal Adelaide Hospital, the builders and designers never included any provisions for storing patient records – all of which will have to be stored off-site. Ah, the joys of living in South Australia.

Getting out and Walking.

30/10/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

This is our "Back Yard" — This is our “Back Yard”

Benji has had a good day. He had not one, but two good walks today. We went down to the Wetlands and had a good walk around the main pond. We even used the new bridge. I brought him back and had some supper and then went out for a walk around the block – not as good as our original walk, but a decent start. All in about 5.5 klms. At the start of next week I hope to feel good enough to be able to go back to our morning walk – probably not the full walk yet but we will build back up to the 10 klms per day we were doing before the knee problems.

The weather has been clearing up and the temperature tomorrow will be a nice 34c. Couple of days like that and the rainstorms will be forgotten. Sadly it wont last at the moment but it will start to do so as the season wears on. I should be able to get some work done in the garden for a change. This last week has been a sad and horrific week for news. First there was the disaster that killed four people at Dreamworld in a horrific accident. Also in Queensland, a man waiting at a bus stop, got on, threw some inflammable liquid on the driver and set him alight, then sat down on the seat at the bus stop and watched. Others helped to get passengers off the bus. When the police and fire truck arrived the man was still sitting on the seat and still watching. It has been reported that he has a criminal record and has mental health issues. The driver died. Here in

It's been a hard days night :o) — It’s been a hard days night :o)

South Australia there is concern regarding the number of home detentions that judges are handing out – car driver kills three people, judge rules it was not careless driving but simply a moment of inattention that caused the head on collision, so he gets home detention – a whole five months. It’s even more of a joke because there are not enough people to run the system and monitor home detainees so you might as well tell them to just go and sin no more and try to be a good citizen – “and what’s that – you need your license because your brother-in-law is an alcoholic and needs you to run him to the bottle shop, well that’s very community minded and I believe we can grant that for you.” Also in SA the Building Company Collapse that has left over 200 houses in limbo, has debts of quite a few millions. And on the subject of millions there is now an investigation to determine whether the Arrium board were trading whilst the company was insolvent. But buyers are now lining up so we might have a sale before Christmas and a hope that this will bring some stability to the town.

Saturday: After yesterday I decided that I had put this off long enough so rather than to wait and see how I feel next week, I got up, got dressed and took Benji out for his morning walk at 6:30 am. It was not a long walk but it was a start and each day I will go a little further until I get back to our full route again. He lay there watching me and as soon as I lifted the track suit, he was up and at my side all ready to go. We did part of the old route and he got to check the mail, so he was quite happy. It was warm as predicted but the wind kept the temperature down and it was still a coolish wind. We did much the same as we did yesterday about 5.7 klms , so we are about halfway there. I am quite happy with my reduced route for the time being.

A week after the storm —-Warning Photograph Heavy..

08/10/201608/10/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Friday:

Was a near perfect spring day here. Bit of wind but 33c – warm and sunny. That being so I decided that it was time. Got into the car with the Benji and we drove out to the wetlands. I did a circuit of the main pond then did a half circuit and used the new bridge to cut back to the car. I pushed but I didn’t want to push too much. It was slow in places and I rested a little AND thank goodness for drinking fountains for humans and animals. I did not take the cane with me even although it was suggested by certain people that I should. As far as I am concerned, it has served its purpose and will now go quietly into a corner and stay there.

On Monday afternoon I have to go to the hospital for an Echocardiograph Last time I had one of these done I had to travel down to Adelaide to the Flinders Medical Center. Yes we have all the equipment here – we just don’t have the professional people to operate it. Why am I having this done – well the simple answer is that it has been a year since it was last done and my Cardiologist likes his tests. I go see him in three weeks and one hour before the appointment, I go for an ECG – ho yes, he likes his tests :o)

Saturday:

There were more things going on up in the grass so that’s where most people were at the time. The Whyalla Players are rehearsing “Mary Poppins” and they asked people to turn up today with an umbrella and they would take a series of photographs as a promoting thing. That’s why I was down there – no I am not from the players, just an interested citizen with an umbrella.

I didn’t have Benji with me. Only 29c but too warm to leave him in the car – even with the windows cracked open. Was different yesterday – we were out walking and driving with the A/c on.

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