Homeward Bound (2)

 General Ramblings, Home and Hearth  No Responses »
Jan 222008

Well… they’re off and by now most of the way home. Leaving was… uneventful… well it was if you ignore the noisy squabbling brought on by the stress of finally uprooting and leaving.

Did they enjoy themselves? Hard to say. I wouldn’t say anyone except the youngest grandson was particularly effusive in their desire to stay so who knows?

Will they come back? That depends on two things… one them putting in an application… and the other getting it accepted. First step it to apply so ball’s in their court.

Us? We’re just still here as usual :)

Posted by Welsh Dog at 8:42 am  

Pictures? Sure.

 Home and Hearth  No Responses »
Jan 212008

The wife suggested it might be a nice idea to upload a few small images of the family – always happy to oblige so here they are! :)

(Why the dots next to the pictures?To be honest, right now I can’t stop the ‘word wrap’ working so if I *don’t* do it, the caption for one picture is alongside the image of the previous one… I’ll sort it out, but in the meantime… It’s a bit dotty!:))

This first was taken not long after their wedding and just after a satisfying meal atop Centrepoint Tower, Sydney. As you can see, both bride and groom are still wearing their wedding attire.

Happy Family

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How about this one… ‘me with possum’. As usual we after dinner we all trooped off to Hyde Park to see if we could persuade a possum to come down to be fed and petted. This one obliged and we all stroked him/her until it got bored and zoomed off back up a palm tree! :)

Me with Possom!

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This one is a little fuzzy… no not Kelly or Lea… the picture! Same place, same time, same night. Kelly is the wife’s brothers daughter… so a niece! She and Lea are spending a year or so in Oz to get to know the place and since we’ve not seen her since she was 6 she’s getting to know us again too.:)

Kelly and Lea

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Last… but by no means least… a picture of ‘me and mine’. No idea why we didn’t get one of all of us together, just forgot I suppose!

Me and Mine

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There are hundreds more of course but these few seemed apt as a starting point. There are a few of the marriage ceremony that might look good on here… and loads of the folks travels around NSW of course. There aren’t as many as I’d have liked, but I’ve ‘mislaid’ my own camera – again so didn’t take snaps in the usual numbers!

Actually I keep expecting it to turn up at any moment, perhaps whilst clearing out the piles of boxes we’ve accumulated, so don’t want to buy another until I’m *sure* it’s gone. Bearing in mind how many boxes I have to sort through it could take a while before I’m sure and able to go shopping!

Having said that, just before Xmas I saw a beautiful little video camera that would have suited my needs for a while. Small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, yet powerful enough to take high quality stills and video pictures… and it came with a 10x *optical* zoom! Sadly despite only being in the $400 range, I couldn’t afford it before Xmas… though it was a real wrench to say goodbye to it.

Maybe I’ll have saved enough to by it for myself for my birthday eh?? We live in hope!! And by then who knowthere’llbe there’ll be one available with even *better* specs!!

Anyway, as per the last post… less rambling. Bye.

Posted by Welsh Dog at 6:53 am  

Long posts!

 General Ramblings  No Responses »
Jan 212008

Nothing to do with fencing… don’t be silly! I was just looking at the blog from the ‘other side’ and realised how long some of the last few posts have been. I suppose that’s partly to do with having a lot of ground to cover… but maybe more to do with my not having been able to write so much lately that it’s now pouring out of me!

I’ll try to keep my rambling mind in check and separate the threads a little so that you can read something coherent and cohesive… and also be able to read them in short bursts. Some of these missives have overwhelmed *me* so lord knows how it looks to you!

Sorry. :)

Posted by Welsh Dog at 6:30 am  

Homeward bound (1).

 Home and Hearth, The Jinx  1 Response »
Jan 212008

Moving away from the sadness of the last post, we come back to my ongoing struggle with reality. Almost literally moving from the sublime to the the ridiculous.

We discovered in short order just how much of a problem the collapse of the car was to be. To begin with, our Chrysler Voyager is a seven seater. On a day to day basis, it’s *more* than big enough to suit our needs carrying all of us, the dogs and assorted bags or shopping etc in air-conditioned comfort. We can even get the mothers wheelchair in there with no problems and *still* have room spare.

However… for the past few weeks there have been eleven of us which makes a seven seater a little inadequate for the task of transporting us around Sydney

As I wrote earlier, we all went off to Sydney on Saturday, watched a film and spent an hour in the rain watching something bizarre. Naturally afterwards we needed to get home. After a quick conference we decided the wife and I would take all the kids home to get them to bed, and leave the adults to come home on the train (Central Station isn’t far from Darling Harbour). After some additional discussion we decided to take the daughter as well because her kids were getting fractions and we felt the baby would be better off with her mother than with us.

So, sometime around 9:30 p.m., eight of us (yes I know it’s illegal, but needs must etc.) set off for home. Little traffic on the road meant that we were back by 10:10 p.m. or so and were quite pleased to be back. Of course I wasn’t ‘home’ as such because I had to go back to Blacktown train station to collect the others when they arrived.

In fact, as we pulled up at the house the phone rang but the wife wasn’t able to get to it before whoever it was rang off. She assumed it was the others calling to tell us they were at Blacktown waiting for me so despite being exhausted, I zoomed off.

Because they were waiting I put my foot down and arrived less than 15 minutes later… and saw nobody I knew waiting for me!

I call the wife… who calls the nephew… who doesn’t answer the phone. I wait, and chat to the wife.

After a few minutes the phone rang. It’s the ‘others’. Where are they? Still at Central Station in Sydney. Eh what

Seems despite it being Saturday night there was only one train going out of Sydney and even that one wasn’t due to leave until 10:20 p.m. I groaned… settle back… and wait contemplating as I do the wonderful workings of the jinx and how it affects even the simplest parts of my life. :D

I spent the next hour drifting in and out of sleep leaning against the window hoping any roving yobs wouldn’t decide I was fair game for a laugh. Obviously of course they did arrive and we left for home… yet again.

Of course, being a Saturday, the youngest had to go to her ice-skating lesson early so I’d been up since 5:30 a.m. and was feeling a little tired by this time. However, the night before I’d prepared the final ham of the year studding it with cloves and getting it ready for the oven. So at 5:30 a.m. I ‘d put it in a slow oven, maybe 160ºC, with the rind on to protect it and left it to cook when we went out.

Four hours later it was ready for the glaze, and not long after that, it was sitting on the worktop in all its glory ready to eat. It was covered with a gauze umbrella to keep the flies away, and left to await our return!

This meant when we *did* eventually return… at midnight… it was there to provide us with an extremely tasty and satisfying snack.

Am I complaining? Nope. I was happy to suffer all sorts of inconveniences in order to have a few slices of a well prepared ham… and besides… I discovered that instead of crawling off to her bed, the wife had waited up for me to make sure I was home safe. Awww…. nice! :)

Posted by Welsh Dog at 6:24 am  

Lister Arrowsmith: sad news.

 General Ramblings  3 Responses »
Jan 202008

Regular readers might recall that a while ago I related the tale of how my father was finally reunited with the Australian airman who piloted the aircraft, and led the team he flew with at the time he was wounded some 60+ years ago in World War Two.

To recap a little, when he was wounded he lost touch with the rest of the crew. Secrecy was paramount at those dark times and so once off the air base, all contact, all ties were lost. This secrecy was so intense that even after the war my father was unable to trace the whereabouts of any of this former crew mates and despite searching databases in the UK *and* Australia was unable to determine their fate.

Despite the lack of respect Bomber Command has received for it’s efforts on the country’s behalf since the war, it ought to at least be remembered that the attrition rate for fliers was almost 50%… i.e. almost one in two didn’t make it through. Was he the only one of the crew to survive? He didn’t know.

One thing he did know of course was the names of those he served with and luckily the pilot’s name was *very* distinctive… Lister Arrowsmith.

Nevertheless for years he could find no trace of them until one day I found a site (now lost to memory) on which I found the name and his home town… Townsville, Queensland. Ok after 80 years it was unlikely in the extreme that he would be living anywhere near… yet I looked him up… in would you believe… White Pages. And there, was Lister Arrowsmith!

I called him, explained who I was, who my father was and asked if he could ring. I told him my father would call straight back… without asking the father if he even wanted to talk to him! I called the father in the UK, he rang Lister and they kept in touch for a few years. :)

Last year for the first time in over 60 years these two old soldiers met up when my father finally made it up to Queensland. No real idea what went on up there but each was pleased that the other had made it through and lived long and fruitful lives.

As you know, this year, the parents couldn’t come to stay over Xmas but the father sent a card to Lister wishing him well. However, when he tried to telephone him he discovered the number wasn’t working and thought perhaps he was calling an old one.

A couple of days ago however he learned what had happened. The address he’d sent his card to *was* an old one, six years old in fact but fortuitously it was collected by a neighbour who remembered Lister fondly from that time and was able to pass news back to my father that his old comrade had sadly passed on some six months ago.

Sometimes it’s curious the way fate works. There were all sorts of barriers in place that could have, prevented these two from ever finding each other let alone meeting again. The sheer distance between them was possibly one of the greatest, and had I *not* been living in Australia, or *not* been Internet savvy etc then it might never have happened. Had he *not* sent his card to the old address it may be he’d never have learned Lister had died!

Also, just as importantly, had my father *not* gone to visit Lister, it may well be that his log book of the time (which covered, for example, the time my father was wounded) would have disappeared forever. But my father asked if he could borrow it to make a copy, and one was made that he now has back in Wales. I hope he remembers to have a copy made and passes a copy on the the Imperial War Museum for their records. I’d think they’d be more than pleased to have a copy of the log book of an Australian pilot!

With Listers passing the only surviving member of that air crew is my father. As I said to him, much as I mourn the loss of his friend, if anyone was to win the tontine… then I’m pleased it was him. However, we have to remember that with every passing year the survivors of those who gave their youth for us to be free is slowly decreasing. We really need to let them know how much we value the sacrifices they made on our, and our children’s behalf.

Rest in Peace Lister Arrowsmith.

Posted by Welsh Dog at 3:34 pm  

The car collapses.

 Home and Hearth  1 Response »
Jan 202008

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this yet, but the daughter and son in law bought an old car while they were here to last them over the holidays. We worked out the cost of hiring a car, and decided it would be cost-effective to buy one that cost no more than that, then sell it at the end of the holiday recouping some of the cost that would otherwise have been lost.

All has gone well with the car (a 1990 Mitsubishi Magna) since they bought it. It looks good and handles well. Well ok it *did* do both until the other night… three days before they were due to leave… when it died. The son in law has been quite conscientious about looking after the basics. Each day before they set off he’d check the oil and water levels just to be sore there were no leaks. He was obviously ‘gutted’ that the car should develop a problem.

All that happened was that the daughter and family had gone into Sydney for the day with nothing amiss, and after a good day, set off for home. As they drove home up the motorway at around 10:00 p.m. the car overheated, the radiator exploded, the head gasket blew… and the car slowed to a crawl… and stopped, never to go again.

Consensus  from the people we’ve rung is that the head has probably warped and the minimum cost for repairing it will be $500 – $600 since they’ll have to strip half the engine apart just in order to check the head. Since the car was only $1500 to begin with it seems excessive to pay a minimum third of the purchase price on a repair that might not work. If the head *has* warped… it will need skimming to flatten it again… and *that* cost could be well above $1000.

The result is that what appears to be a well maintained, attractive car is now sitting at the bottom of our drive, a mere shell of it’s former self, awaiting collection by a scrap merchant who will, no doubt, crush it.

What a waste. It’s a waste not just of the money… it’s the car itself! Other than that *one* slight problem it’s fine.  :(

Posted by Welsh Dog at 3:08 pm  

Sydney Festival 2008: Ilotopie – Water Fools

 Entertainment  2 Responses »
Jan 202008

If ever a name suited a group of people then this was it… especially the ‘fools’ bit. No, not the group doing the performing, *us* for standing around in steaming in the rain for 45 minutes watching them!!

No doubt you’re wondering what I’m on about, so I’ll explain.

Because the weather has been so bad, we were all going stir crazy. To help relieve the stress, yesterday we all braved the rain and went into Sydney. After a sojourn at The Australian Museum, surely one of *the* most tedious museums ever to open its doors, we meandered over to Darling Harbour to visit the iMax… surely one of the most misused marvels available! Misused? Well yes. The film format is breathtaking with a *huge* ’8 storey screen’ yet the films available for screening are pretty mediocre most of the time. Anyway, this isn’t the time to moan about the iMax… there are other things of greater import afoot! :)

Once out of the iMax we went off for a quick bite to eat and a cup of hot tea… both needed to restore the system in the face of the rain that had/has been drizzling down almost continuously for the past 8 weeks. We’d decided to stay until 9:30 p.m. in order to watch a free showing of ‘Water Fools’ performed by the French visual artistic group Ilotopie as part of the Sydney Festival 2008.

We stood there at 8:45 p.m., alongside the harbour… in the rain… steaming… and waiting. And then it began. A car slowly drove across the harbour. It was followed by someone ‘pulling’ a waste bin and ‘brushing up’… then someone riding a bicycle… street lights popped up out of the water… it looked as if it was going to be quite interesting. All we needed was for the narrative to start to let us in on what we were supposed to be watching.

Ok there *was* music loud enough to be weapons grade… and I think I mentioned it was raining… but it looked… interesting. e needed a narrative.

Then it started to get utterly surreal. A woman rowed a four poster bed out onto the harbour, which collided with the car. The car burst into flames and the woman on the bed started throwing feathers everywhere. We looked on in amazement waiting for something meaningful to appear which explained it all. We waited in vain.

There were flames everywhere… all sorts of things were alight. Out came two small barges with what *I* thought were a devil and an angel on board. The ‘devil’ set fire to the wings of the ‘angel’… and from somewhere a ‘paddle wheel’ began moving about on which was a ‘woman (?) who appeared to be wearing a bright red dress. She was 15 feet off the ground and the dress covered the entire thing.

By now we were all just gobsmacked. This was beginning to look like *the* biggest load of crap I’d seen for four or so years when I’d suffered through some wierdo’s rolling huge transparent balls across Homebush! Like those balls, Ilotopie was I assume intended to look ‘arty’. My interpretation is that they really need a capital ‘F’ in front of ‘arty’ to make it truly descriptive of what we watched.

Don’t ask we to decribe any more. My mind was already filled with odd images… e.g. the naked people covered in grey paint who were drifting about. Full frontal nudie? Well of course… they’re French. Ewww….

Eventually there were fireworks… not many it’s true, but some. Sadly there weren’t enough to make it worth hanging about for an hour in the rain to see.

Was it worth waiting for? Nope. Did I enjoy it? Nope. Would I go to see it again? Nope.  It’s one and only saving grace, if you can call it a saving grace, is that it was ‘free’ in that we didn’t specifically have to pay out cash to watch it. If we *had* paid I’d have gone and demanded my money back.

In my opinion, Ilotopie was without doubt *the* biggest load of crap I’ve seen in many, many, *many* years!!!

Posted by Welsh Dog at 2:54 pm  

The Wedding of The Year.

 Home and Hearth  No Responses »
Jan 182008

Actually, for a change, there’s really not a lot to say about the day itself. It may not have actually been ‘the wedding of the year’ but for us it’s probably the only one we’ll be going to this year… or next year… til whenever! :)

So, following on from the previous post, the son-in-law-to-be (SIL) eventually becomes coherent enough to drive and off we go… far later than intended. I’m dressed ready to go in my best trousers and shirt. I even have a tie on… and the temperatures are 37ºC. It looked the bride and groom would have the sun shining down on their union after all. In all that heat it was hard to believe it wouldn’t last.

We leave, we get to the petrol station, we realise they don’t have their passports, we go home, we collect passports, I smother myself in deodorant (well it was hot and I was… perspiring a little) I spray cologne on… forgetting I’m allergic to it.

We get back in the cars, and we drive off… me sneezing like it’s going out of style.

We get to town, we park at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), we start to walk. I explain it’s quite a long way to the Registry Office across Darling Harbour etc and *again* explain the plan re the Powerhouse Museum which I outlined in the previous post (no I am *not* going to rewrite it here). We get through Darling Harbour dragging the kids away from the climbing frames, paddle boats, McDonald’s etc and make it to the ramp leading up towards the Museum.

The wife rings. Her meeting finished early… she’s on our way. Hooray! Something is going right.

The daughter starts to get a bit concerned. Yet again she has mistaken my suggestion about going to the Museum and thinks (a) they have to pay to get in, and (b) the kids won’t have time to look round and/or play. I explain *again* we’re members so we can go in, get changed, and get out all free of charge. Ahhh… I see. Ok.

We get there, I explain to the security person what was going on… and all go off to get ready leaving me with the task of standing around quietly waiting for the wife. Something I’ve never minded doing.

The wife arrives we go to meet and get the others who are changing in one of the toilet blocks. The kids and guests appear, we say hi etc and tell them how nice they look. The daughter appears wearing a very nice brownish patterned dress. We tell *her* how nice she looks… well she did! The groom appears. Everyone looks a little taken aback.

The groom is wearing a shirt and tie… and black shorts. Errr…. ok. We all ask him where his trousers are and discover this these are his ‘formal’ shorts.

Away we march down Harris Street towards the Registry Office. Stragglers get left behind, then catch up… you know the drill… and we get there. What a dump!!

For the only government building in Sydney where people register happy events like births, and marriages…. and deaths (well ok not all happy) this place looks dire!!! It’s all bar next door to a clinic for ‘interesting diseases’ and has clearly seen better days… long since past.

Still, we’re there.

After some confusion over their ID sorted out quickly using the passports they’d almost forgotten, we sat down to wait.

In some ways the ‘ceremony’ was a bit of an anticlimax with the ‘celebrant’ who looked a bit like Lurch as drawn by L S. Lowry belting through the vows at a rate of knots.

You may be asking where the photos are. Well it was *just* before the ceremony I discovered I’d left both the still camera *and* my small video camera on the front seat of the car back at the QVB. There are times I really worry myself about myself. How on earth could I have forgotten to pick up the camera when I was carrying so much other junk around *and* I carry the small video camera with me *everywhere* usually??

Luckily there are photos. The niece took her camera and the eldest of the youngest daughters used the camera of the eldest daughters… oh dear that’s convoluted… to take some as well. I took some on my PDA… but I’m yet to see how they turned out.

Ceremony over, we walked out of the door,  and into the rain. Yup… yet again.. rain. This has to have been the worst Xmas for wet weather in 10 years!!! And it had to happen now. What was more amazing was that it happened after such a hot day!! Not a clound in the sky to begin, baking searing heat… and then, there we are a little later in the afternoon running for cover with not a single umbrella between us… except for the wife’s that is and she was keeping that one. :)

This of course put paid to our plans of walking through Chinatown, Hyde Park etc and we were forced under cover back to Centrepoint where we arrived an hour and a half early. Not a good idea as it turned out.

For the next instalment… stay tune4! :)

Posted by Welsh Dog at 5:02 pm  

So… the ‘Stag Night’.

 Home and Hearth  No Responses »
Jan 182008

As with most things I’ve been associated with, the wedding didn’t go exactly according to plan, and even the ‘stag night’ didn’t quite work out as smoothly as it might have.
Because this was really an ‘informal’ affair with just immediate family I’d sort of assumed that for the wedding day itself we’d just go into Sydney, go to the Powerhouse Museum for the morning then meander across to the Registry Office in the afternoon. Sounds a little ‘simplistic’ I know but we’re ‘members’ of the Museum, and it’s only a short walk from there to the Office.

It all seemed to fit in nicely. We could go in early, let the kids lose some steam, and an hour or so before the ceremony we could all go to the Members Lounge to get organised. The ladies could get their faces on, and we could all get changed. We could have had a glass of wine, fruit juice, or a cup of tea and biscuits… (all free to members :) ) and then saunter slowly to the Registry Office for the daughter and husband to meet destiny.

The first thing that went wrong was that during the afternoon I suddenly came down with some odd virus that made my stomach feel queasy, my head and throat hurt, and my BP raising so my head was pounding. I put the dinner on (fresh salmon… mmm) but had to go to bed without eating any. As ‘medication’ I had a bowl of yoghurt and Manuka honey which (oddly enough) seemed to settle most of the problems. I lay in bed, watched a DVD and when the wife eventually came to bed, drifted off to sleep.

What neither of us knew was that downstairs a chaotic scenario was gently unfolding.

Obviously, it was the eve of the son-in-law-to-be’s (SIL) wedding as well… so it was his ‘stag night’!! Being a long way from friends or family there was only the ‘nephew in law’ (NIL) around. I was missing in action and doubt I’d have been interested anyway. The days when I was prepared to get alcoholic poisoning in the name of tradition are past… sadly. :)

The details are a little sketchy… I’ve not tried to go into details… but as far as I can make out the pair of them went off to the local pub for a few drinks. Came back for a few drinks… and then had a few drinks more! And then rounded it all off with a few drinks… and a swim in the pool!!!

No complete info on what happened as I said, but I *do* know that the NIL managed to get the SIL out of the pool eventually and up to the bedroom.

In he slides… only to be met by a certain level of hostility from the daughter who told him he stunk and we wasn’t going to sleep in their room and make her feel sick all night… so he mumbles something incoherent about the daughter being his ‘ex-girlfriend’, and went off to sleep on a mattress in with the grandsons (GS1, GS2), one of whom (GS2) woke up. Seems the conversation went along these lines:

GS2: What’s that smell?
SIL: Go to sleep son… it’s just me.
GS2: It’s terrible it makes me feel sick.
SIL: It’s just me.
GS2: It can’t be you daddy. If it was you… you’d be dead!

I think that paints enough of a picture on it’s own. :)

Next morning of course both the SIL and NIL were still very much worse for wear so there was no chance at all of us going anywhere in the morning, let alone driving into the City. Both the daughter and niece we less than impressed with their beau’s, but I think they figured the effects of the alcohol more than covered any ‘punishment’ they might have in mind.

By lunchtime both were more or less coherent and able to function so off we went… Sydney and the wedding were calling. :)

Posted by Welsh Dog at 7:46 am  

LCD TV’s… good value?

 Home and Hearth  No Responses »
Jan 182008

For the past couple of years the oldies have been coming to stay for Xmas. Because my mother isn’t physically 100% right lately my father has to spend a lot of time with her in their room and being alone can be quite miserable – well I think so anyway. To help out, we thought it might be nice if they had a TV in there so that the old man could watch the box or see a DVD while sitting in bed. Magic!! :)

So… anticipating their return this Xmas… we bought a small (19″) LCD TV which has an integrated DVD player. The thinking was that these things have a *very* small foot print compared to the old CRT’s so wouldn’t overpower the room . We had visions of it sitting at the foot of the bed, or on a small table next to him so that he could access the DVD without having to get up. We also have a ‘spare’ pair of wireless stereo headphones which would keep the sound levels in the room down to a minimum, so thought (for once) we were organised.

Of course *this* year was the year the daughter and her tribe decided to visit us over Xmas, so the old man felt it wise to stay home where it’s quiet. In retrospect I can’t say I blame him, several times the noise levels here have reached the point of causing hearing damage and they’d have gone crazy! :)

Anyway, we bought this thing not long after they’d left last time… April 2006 I think… so it’d been sitting in it’s box in our walk in wardrobe for ages waiting for the right time to be brought out in triumph and installed. I’m not sure what finally prompted me to unpack it but it wasn’t until last week I decided it was time for it to be used, but out it came!

It took just two minutes to get it set up and *working* which was a real treat in itself! The DVD player is ‘upright’ on the left side of the screen and works with no problems whatsoever. It has the usual sockets such as AV in and out, as you’d expect and also a ‘computer mode’ so in theory at least I could connect it to the wife’s lappie which is sitting behind it. It probably won’t be used for that, we’ll be moving her back downstairs once everyone has left… and might well move *all* the computers into the oldies room until just before they return next Xmas… assuming they do… and assuming we’ve not gone off to Uluru or Surfers for the season… or something! :D

The picture playing DVD’s is as good as I could wish for and the sound is more than adequate for the purpose, though I’m yet to connect those wireless speakers to test them out on it. For the time being though I’m *very* pleased with it. It’s ‘pixel perfect’! I just wish the old man could be here to watch it instead. Still, next year maybe? :)

Posted by Welsh Dog at 7:03 am  
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