Sumpfink serious came up

Sumpfink sewe-ous came erp dadey. 


Lukes loike dere is a projeck starten oop sumwar sumtym soon roon ere, an' I ge' ta watch et gRRow.
A noo hoose!.


Me Marvining billy-teez beder shu' doon, (or suppressed a lot) cos I don' loike failing me or ovuhs, y'kin?

So excited for the builders, I hope there is nothing I will miss.
Maybe I better get a building a hoose book.

Is is there a Supervising Building A Hoose For Dummies Book out there somewhere?

I am trying to do a weekly blog over here, or start another, better find that measuring tape!

Vast mismanagement discovered in a local vineyard!!

I thought I had some chardonnay in The Portable Vineyard pots the last two years or more.
Wrong.

Not green, Not chardonnay!

netted today- renegade pinot at right

With some verasion occurring in the crop ( of two pots...) this last week (!) since they last were watered (it has been wet down here), this means they are Pinot instead (I think).
Or cross pollinated? 


I thought I had it all sorted AND labelled last year... 
I had separated the pots (5 + 4) according to the then ripened fruit displayed into 7 and 2, but now...


So I have (potentially) 9 Pinot Noir vines and maybe up to 12 baby vines coming along...


I am hoping to get more fruit than last year- I made nearly a whole litre and a bit, that turned into vinegar... 
But even then, it was a Great Tasting Vinegar!


So apart from probably no chardonnay after trying for nearly 5 years, I may have
A small amount fine wine or
B small amount fine vinegar  or 
C small amount of fine brandy...

Busier Than Joan of Arc

busier than Joan of Arc...

Busier than Joan of Arc!

busier than Joan of Arc

Apron Strings Away! Twang!

One of the hangers on around here has finished with me as of- well- soon anuf Oi say- or...

Well- you know. He - #1 - Zack or Mashakama or The Dinosaur Name ex-Expert- well he did well enough by the end of high school, and now wants to pursue different things. Or, Can!

Like, not domesticated things but.
Like keeping his old man and siblings alive through being The New Tiger Woods or sumpin, oh no.
[I guess one aspect  or characteristic that seems to have been passed on from Someone is 'The Natural Skeptic', or Cynical Lil Bstd Aint He. Or even the 'Easily Distracted by That Link' strain...]

Anyway- as noted elsewhere, I am going to miss him.

[Besides the point (I): Younger brother has his eye on the bungalow- well, no way, Hosê- a lil bit longer- trust etc etc. Need that bank full of credit.]

So everyday there has been calls, posts, reminders, or "you should..." from me or him or others.

His grandparents are well pleased too.

Next week the two of us are off for an afternoons autographical entertainment and putting future earnings into my retirement- nah joke, my firstborn is to be signing his life away to mining deep in the coal mines of media tertiary
"edumacation and atwanct thyme vastinks"-  until he digs his way out of educational debts before he retires, if he gets a job....

Each time I answer the phone regarding him, I seem to give the wrong answers, so the bill is going to be humongous this month.
Example- "Whats the accommodation contract going to be sir?". "This" I say.
No, 50% chance--- wrong. It's That! I cannot read his mind. Or I forget what he told me... Argh.
Maybe I better get a white-board with a white board marker and a permanent marker.
You see what I mean, and the lists, it's got to be in big writing...

[Besides the point (II): #2 wants to share party time with #1 next week. I.E. his friends Mixing with #1s? I don't see a problem. Besides the point (III): And the girls are level with the tip of my nose...]

Poor #1. He seems to be distracted. The fuzz need a trim. This has to be done, and give notice there...
Well, out of the frying pan and into the circus.
I will be here. Staring at the first swinging string...

small... once...

Just watched the Oprah in Oz show.

Not sure that the Prime Minister should have been in on it though- but- go girls...

It's a big world out there. I am glad Oprah has been here. I am pretty sure that she knew that the US was a big place, and now, she knows that there is a paradise over the water away from the horrible palin-esqued un-enhanced  shitfight imbued politicised-television non-news stories.... [sorry- Jon Stewart is the only news worthy source of the state of the US nation to me at the moment]. How can the American people put up with the one-sided not-news-worthy shows like Fox etc? I thought the nazi propaganda machine, and pravda too, were biased a little bit, and philipino newspapers were funny in their own rants, but Fox news? Is it not the world is too big for their biase to be mainstreamed (mainlined?) via TV into US homes ? And the US government- what is that crap the GOP is going on about not supporting First Responders? Maaaate...

Anyway. And what a uneventful day t'was.

Tried to help #1 organise for new life away from home. Difficulties.  For example- accommodation- If you placed a bond on a place/service somewhere- does that not mean it is returnable if you don't accept the offered service down the track a little later? No, apparently. If you change your mind, bad luck. Not happy with that policy AT ALL- but, hell, don't matter now. He is in No Matter What- see ya later jack!

I get mixed messages as if I was not needed and then I am.

Well. I will always be there. Here.

Uni type life will be different for him- new- it takes me back- twas a huge shock I think  to my folks that I even managed to get a place- it certainly did not occur to me ever back then that I would end up being a Geologist! I left behind all my school friends of 13 years- so hard to keep up with any now- makes me sad- and so I hope that #1 and his mates will keep in touch for a long time.

FB has been good though, for me- I have managed to catch up a lot of old friends and acquaintances- Skype was abused badly recently as well as my liver- thanks Marsh!

#1 was always sure that he would get to go to uni.

For someone that at 5 years old could tell the school all about dinos at an  assembly Monday morning, and pronounciate correctly all the names- he has really done me so proud and most of all probably his mum too- by achieving a place at uni.

Moving him on down the highway- do we 'economise' on his "Space" now?

Does #2 Get the Shed?

Do the girls get to Split up into their own rooms?

Watch this space...

Chiroptera

Took an evening off cooking to go to The Knob for a bbq and a nature talk with the girls, the boys were to eat sausages and veges.

But no- they had dimmys and canned spag. Oh joy.

Not Goths.....

It really looks like we are just Goths.

But the first load of a weeks washing, well, what else can I say?

Just mainly...blackish

Exciting- new kitchen appliance...

Today I haf goot nues, and I haf sum bat nues....

(First, please stand around before I notice you)...A bit more... A bit more.. okay the stack looks great.
Ah, hello? Hm, that person that said yesterday you could get that item is AWAY, so sorry.
But what about this slightly shop soiled item?
NO? I know there is no box, sorry. But there is a fitting for it here somewhere...
No, I cannot find the substitiute here... Oh you found it, yes, it's not quite what you want but at that price, its only a name after-all...
This other one? That last one? It is more expensive- and probably the same people make it too... Mmm, may not fit? Reduce it more? No, sorry. So that one will do?
Okay, thanks and bye bye.
Kerchink.

RRRgggghhh. Got it cheaper than the original and not a bad copy anyway. Next...

Bat Nues---

[I cannot remember a really handy plumber's name or number. He tipped me off a few years ago about a fitting that saved me HEAPS by still letting me DIM*. Bugger.]

First call goes to "PLEASE  LEA" and thunk!
Next call, 5 rings.....
Hi?
Yes. I need a replacement gas stove top plumbed in.
Ah well, I need to check the..
No, what about price first .
AH, um, no, I will have to see how it is to be put in...
No- it should slot straight in- you just check for leaks.
Um- well, it might take hours, alterations...
It really should slot straight in.
Yeah but...
Here's my number, call me and look at what has to be done so I can at least get a quote, no rush.
Okay.

Rrggghhh...

I will get a quote from two others as well, there    is     no      rush,
Gritted broken teeth, spit spit.

To be Continued...

My Tarn used to hate tradies.
I did not, even though they have pulled a coupla quickies on me- I.E. radiator filling cap left off at the filling station, the hot water gas system siphoning all the gas heater gas away so that Nothing was warm for a few days.... Well, to be fair, the second time they may have been misled. But they were still morons. Same with the third lot. Simple water dishwasher plumbing and I can still taste the thread compound ten years later. I can I tell you no-one else can- weird.

I really would put this stove top hobb plate thingo in myself, but it is a gas plumbing jobby, and I really cannot afford to lose the house because of a marvin type situation- this expert better do it efficiently as possible or I could be ranting for years....


*Do it myself

#2 sons pc

#2 sons pc was taking toooooo llllooonnnggg to boot up- and then was really slow as well. Like an old truck, took a while to get up to running speed.

I wonder whether it was all the bike and skateboard web crap he had been through, leaving nasty piles of stuff in there since the last exercise of formating his pc. Or the anti virus rechecking everything. And rechecking...

The computer shop would like nearly two hundred dollars to back me up on that.

That's nice I said. We did have proper anti this and that, thanks. 

He only had 5mb left out of 38gb, now really!

Out with old crap. Did that help? Nah. Took out a photo album collection- (a backup- 10gb)

Back up all the stuff you really want to keep. Okay. Weeks later- All backed up? Think sooo. 

Ah well. Bite the bullet, and bad luck as I am going in.... at two thirty Sunday afternoon. Start the format of said pc ( and have a shower while waiting- It was getting warm again) and started re-installation of the OS, AV and of course Chrome and to be done later--- iTunes. 

I was not going down the path of a five hundred dollar pc or netbook! No way! All the kid "needed" was music and a browser for hotmail and facebook... and maybe a wordprocessor. 

So, Microsoft still supported XP so there was monstrous downloading. Rebootings

In the meantime, after a time away for my TV time, and even after I said No Not Yet to iTunes because I was trying to get the little box going properly, there it was-  a search for music by iTunes- ARGGGG! 

Rebootings. Ad infinitum! I think there was duplication in there, but really, so much time.

And then, this morning. Finally, a last patch download and Hi Nibs Music finally transferred from the backup, and another rebooting...

But. NO SOUND, dad, iTunes did not work! 

So was the speakers plugged in- yes. Ok then, after work I will check it out.

Get back and... smaller speakers jacked in... and not working. 

The sound board was not included in the installation for some dang reason. So back to the hoarded boxes of old pc gear, haul out the motherboard installation cd, another Rebooting and LO and Behold, SOUND.

Eight hours at hundred bucks an hour... maybe that's why it is so expensive- psychological couch time for the experts after fixing up a dang machine......

Any thanks?  ... waiting.

Looking after the rels place

My sister in law is building a new home on the edge of town overlooking a Billabong.

As they are away a lot, they asked if I could see what's going on out there when they are away while it is being built. So I intend to do a little blog week by week on it- for posterity.

From the photo- nothing yet, coupla empty blocks along the road above the billabong. Their neighbours are by themselves.

Unfit for service- marvined sailing

Yesterday my friend Harry called about lunchtime to see whether I would Like To Go Sailing.

I spose so after work I replied.

I got to Lake Wellington by 4pm, and the wind was a gentle constant warm movement through my fingers.

The other fellows there had sails set already, about  6m size. So I brought out my 13 year old veteran racing sail and a bump and jump board that is seldom used.

The new harness lines on the boom were to be set up weeks ago! So there went ten minutes, and then once out on the water the setup was wrong. It was back to the beach to reset them properly and out again. Three times. At least the water  temperature was nice- Hawaii nice!

After nearly an hour, so much frigging with the rigging and falling in with wind dropping on a gybe, I was tired. On the plane was good and fast, but in fresh water- the whitecaps are deceiving. I think the wind velocity was dropping.

The last run out, I was getting some cramps in the legs trying to start in the shakloows and water starting. It had been a few months since the last sailing outing, and my ftness had decreased more!

On the last gybe of the day, started well and then kerplonk. Back in the drink, and the wind had fallen off. I could not raise the sail. For about twenty minutes the other guys sailed around me, okay? they asked- yeah. Then they disappeared.

I did not get to sail home. I drifted in to the shore. I walked back along the shore, managed a little sail, and then swung the rig and board on to my head and stalked out of the water to some grass, threw the kit down, tore off the seat harness and stomped back to the van, where a coolish light carbs & low alcohol beer awaited, or cola. Guess which one went down pretty fast...

The others had nearly packed up. My friend had gone down along the shore in case I quit further away to pick me up- onya Harry, but I made it back. Not often I cannot!

Not to stew, had a yak with them, then drove off to rig down and pack up the gear. Arrived home to make pizzas for the kids and me at about 6.30, in time for the tomorrows weather...

Moving Pics from there to here abouts

For those that care.

I am reducing the Netspace Easter Photo site.

The Easter Clan Pics are here now:

Taggerty Clan Easters 03, 04, 06 08

Moranghurk Clan Easters 09, 10