"dear sir, I cannot but will try..."

"dear sir, I cannot but will try..."

paraphrased from a daily paper, sorry...

I could have had a "free uni education" after high school. [true]

I could have got into a okay job with that degree. [also true]

I took time out of the Oil patch for a pretty good reason. [true]

I put up with jibes [or 'those' looks] of chickening out [maybe true].

I took time to raise kids without a partner at the tax payers expense [true] so that four future taxpayers would contribute to the nations' GDP after a good education. [hope it comes true]

Now these days to get a job, you need to be at least 15yrs old to leave home to get a job stacking shelves, or pouring someones else's coffee for a buck. This is all that's left these days! No real trade teaching until 17 or 18! If you can get it, or if you do, can hack it!

If you do stay on to finish high school, job opportunities are nearly the same as above. If an apprenticeship comes up, it may not "pay well enough" to keep the phablet generation going- the pub and friends are pretty insistent on company, and the job could be lost due to lack of interest or funds available to afford the newest phone, as there is still a government support scheme... Or was.

No manufacturing cars, socks, pants, shirts or even stainless steel plant jobs are around for the growing  population of phablet holders - X gen or Y gen or whatever comes next.  It is cheaper to move that stuff overseas according to the boardroom boys and girls and the ever venerated bottom line. Or until their own GDP rises and their kids are left to pour coffee...

Of course further education can be found, the cheap end for plumbers or high end for lawyers. [we always need those two people- true?]

Really?

But now because the tightass end of town, the [Wall St?] "failures" have to keep their Mcmansions of course, lowered government incomes [less of the population paying tax as unemployment goes up and pay rates down for the rest] that held the purses for the cheap further education has actually tightened up the disbursements to that end, so that the kiddies get put on "the drip" to pay any further education costs back, once the threshold income has been attained... Once it was practically free...

Which also that means the lower end of the pay-scale people cannot afford the low end education, or even the middle class education type - accountants, philosophers, nurses and other professionals are being imported- meaning there are brain drains around the world. To here...

The point being "dear sir, I cannot but will try..." letters are being posted. 

Lots apparently.

Yes. The pollies are sick and tired of paying out dole money, and sick and tired of bailing out car  and shirt makers, and wont pay a paramedic or train driver to stick around all day waiting for customers... 

Apparently "the people" are sick and tired of those things too. 

And some are tired of the tide of migrants coming in to take "our kids' job". 

Hmm. Never give a sucker a chance, mon.  Hope the whingers are not second or third or twentieth generation descendents of immigrants either...

Share the loot mon, c'mon!

Betchya heaps they are Not, especially if they have teen aged kids to support and educate.

The notion that there are heaps of jobs out there is flawed. These days.

The notion that education will get you a job is flawed too. These days.

Certain pollies thinks [PS- WILL BE MAKING] that 250,000 odd kids (15-24) SHOULD BE applying forty times a month for jobs [they probably cannot fit into] AND THAT IT cannot be too hard, AND I think it will be a fact soon. Read the paper. As this is only an opinion, and having been there and done that, there are probably a bit more than that out there that cannot afford a ticket to even get a forklift licence let alone afford a bar keepers ticket to serve beer. poor bastards

And some company owners and pollies [both types that that have been silver spoon fed and breast fed til they left uni, in my opinion] think there are heaps of jobs. In the desert. Along the roadside.  Down at the rubbish dump.

If you are keen and can go without the phablet and telly and don't want to buy a house with cash [not in five years now but ten instead, mind], because sacrificing time from family like they could a few years ago is what they will have to do. That is, if they can afford a partner!

Maybe that is where HR comes in. A conspiracy theory - sure. They get to read the lots and lots of job applications and sort out the cans and cannots and would nots from the cretins and "no way man!" types, and maintain a certain percentage of success in catching the right fish for the job. 

Until the computers with artificial intelligence replaces THEM. Soon I reckon. Who need people skills anymore? Really.

productivity

computers

robotics 

I think I dislike that first word. How  long does it take to make a spear or tyre or a list? 'Cos the second word joined with the third means that one person can do a lot of other peoples' jobs, meaning the unemployed pool tide rises and productivity by less involved goes up... Ah, maybe that's the secret?

Oh dear, ranting to the converted or the naive? Or the spell bound? My current job aint writing for a living- research means I would never get pen to paper! Then, my job is one of those that is like the naomi campbell fashion model type jobs, if it aint paying that much mate, then I am not getting out of bed that week. 

Which is a bit tough. or rough? I had to accept the rate, I need to put the gels into a better school before something happens at the government school... And the rate is soooo much better than the previous day job or even the last self employed but government subsidized jobby. 

So back to the "dear sir, I cannot but will try..." and the forty job letters and associated CVs PER MONTH that the poor bastards have to do now just to get some government handout in this employment environment where there really is bugger all jobs... there are local government landscaping jobs. Even road improvements. But no manufacturing- for example, public transport, most vehicles will be imported, the rails imported, the software is imported... 

maybe it is a postal conspiracy, "dear sir, I cannot but will try..."
BTW- I saw a dpco on Gre Vidal th eother night- boy, is he into conspiracy theories!!

Not last Post

Not last Post

Thanks for the interest.

Added the rest of the blogs consolidating MS, winemaking, geology advert, and hobbies and weirdness.
all the things posted elswhere apart from wordpress blog- thinking on that, no last post  there yet- but should I put Everything on one site. I know links go to the old sites, so that just confuses people. leaving them on the net. I imagine so anyway.

The way I write is not scoring hugely I note with dissapointment- maybe I cannot write whre people are just wringing their hands and grinding teth- "Just where/when is the next one Tony?

DIS-ED

Dis-?

What es Dis?

Well, this is what I am lately!
Either up or down, not wildly swinging though.

Disappointed/ing,
dis-ingenuous,
disgusted/ing
disappearing/ed
dis-engaged/ing
dismissive/ed
disgruntled,
disapproved/ing

With people and government and overseas news.
With the kids a little.
With me sometimes.
Not with this cat, the other one at meow-l times anyway!


The flavour of Luck may come into it. I try to dream of winning lotto, not hard work, to make up my shortfalls in life. My swings and roundabouts are heavy hitters at the moment, but not enough to swerve off the road left or right! Driving or in decision making anyway.

It should all pan out, it's being the supportive parent that is bugging me a lot. Life is moving on, and I am swirling along, complaining about it while there are more worse off.

A good good belly laugh, more than I am getting now, helps.
[As of 28/12/12 Anyway or even a bit earlier- just tidying up my scats [hurhur, better mood today! 28Apr13]

UP AND DOWN

What can you do?

Looks like I am over blogging or the lack of motivation for doing it. A fair comment would help, like as in, "yep". But the stats say otherwise, so I have to rack my brain... But for this blog, really?

Well, I had put together a new PC, and add W8 to it, and not unhappy or happy- it is working but I am not using it as the office workhorse, the old W7pro machine is struggling, and with Office10 too, and so be it, it loves to freeze up, thus the new machine. But dislike the keyboard- until right then -when I noticed I had changed it out today... [it's dusty. Why?] Conventional Home-End etc at last- boy that previous KB annoyed me. I wondered tonight why it was bloddy dusty- remembered I actually swapped 2nd son's unused KB over, "so there- be happy Tone". Marvined meself...

I told some one the other day I was "slow", the usual reply- then thought, No, actually, I  am not!

I swap from okay to upset and back- and that is not because of the hardware here. Slow means even-ness to me. I am not.

One is the government wants to cut the carer's [my] pension, so it looks like I really will have to leave the kids alone with their big sib and their aunt for days or weeks at a time, so to make ends meet, by flying off to find oilpatch jobbies for a few grand a week rather than a few hundred a week.

Another is the MS medical treatment regime- self administered shots- "Choose a different place for each day of the week"- really? Really. The spots still hurt a little a few days later- I thought it would be a little like a blood test prick on the thumb- Oh No....

The list goes on- But I am happy to say I am still waking up and walking and talking- probably too much shite tho. Health wise: At least my left eye has a bit more going right- nearly back to what it was- I cannot look sunwards anymore- I was thinking "only need one sun-glass lens", that was how bad it was!

The kids are growing up, and the gels like to see how fast I am shrinking... The 2nSon wants to best me at drinking games- "Oh No we don't!". The eldest child lives a shadowy life beyond my reach [and control?] but touches base now and then- I am told not to worry- he is fine- I wish he had gelfren to bring home to show off to us [hint, wink?]

That's the other thing- Fails. I failed to tighten a wheel on a trailer the other month after getting the tyre repaired. The owner was a bit pissed off to see the wheel going past them down the highway. No one hurt. Me- Still alive, but now doubting meself. I tried to adjust the their pool lighting too, and managed to turn AUTO on and not able to put MANUAL back on- bludee heck, gotta leave those poor people alone!

After losing the second pair of reading glasses in two months, the worry may be increasing- I definitely had them today in a safe place so I could do the garden... The kids can't find them either.

The car is pissing me off- had the front wheel bearings replaced the other week, thinking- "Bearings- twenty bucks each and time a bit extra?"
 NO.
NEARLY "FOUR HUNDRED BUCKAROONIES MATEY". THANKS! Sticker shock, glad I did not try to do it myself after all as: Bugger me!Two times a new spindle-hub-bearing [and removal of old hub by a machine] and then and then- STOP, I am complaining- it's a safety thing, and it's only money... Sounds quiter as there was an exhaust tie missing- but today I though it sounded like a HOLEY MUFFER- by gott I am gettin' wound up now.. shshhsshsssshhsh...

I think I am getting ahead, and then it's BILL time again. AND BLUDIE Chrissy too! Power and gas and water and shire[county] taxes are not going up normally with inflation, I reckon anyway. But MORE. Maybe the sickening spiral of costs begetting costs has occurred!

Nevah feken endz!

Waiting to get on an oil;patch wellsite job after two applications put in by a recruitment company.
Nothing- unless some one else wants Chrissy off and then I might get a look see in.  I bbought a new laptop just for the new career- it's getting dusty.

The kids are doing well with minimal parental supervision or bitching or what ever, the withdrawal room should be padded up by this time next year though.

Three teeners... Oh, now they want to play any old vinyl records I may have- Oh boy. "You got any PinK Floyd we can take away and play" and then what? Actually, only Dark side of The Moon, on CD t'ank fek.

The Portable backyard Potted Vineyard is looking okay, but Not especially fruitful this year- about 40 shiraz pots now, so I should be happy. I think I've mentioned the lawn mower needed a new motor... Plus the new window glass... Plus Shite goes on forever. A nice bottle-brush native shrub had decided to grow over and then start falling on my orange tree in the back corner of the block- well- it went through the mulcher today [where I may have lost my reading glasses] after i cut it down last week. Tarn would have been mortified at the Extreme Pruning, but dear- you can't help.

I went with the kids on a Long Weekend for the point of being on a beach, nearly, with them. The hired holiday house was just a dune away from the ocean. Shared with my little bro and his family  and two or three other couples. Nice weekend. And it was near my favourite flat water sailing place too, a perk I thought. they had a boogie board and two surfboards, I had three wind-surfers- a beginners for the kids on quiet days, and two slalom/wave boards for me on the --wind---? on the win---, THERE was NO wind for three bloody days, and the boards were too small according to the resident expert... The new family tent for 6 from Aldi fitted Three Comfortably, apart from the HARD GROUND.

See. Don't like it.

Up and Down.

Marvini Oh Marvino My Van

Short as life is- Score for life this week
Zilch. Yeah, Nah, whatever...

Last fortnight I won a mark on the scratching post- fixed the laundry machine. Yay me. Won some money on a lotto ticket. How much you ask? Enough. For another ticket. Other good news? My nieces and nephews all had a good year. Looks like the latest ones to have finished high school are all off to university. That makes six! Out of Six at uni this year. And not counting the eldest that has finished her course and is starting in the circus of life this week at a Big Smoke Hospital!

But. My narcissistic and hubrisisckity life has become a little flat.
Haha- nobody loves me, I want to feed the worms... I am feeling mortality creeping up, as the kids are growing up so fast, with one one out of the house sort of, and the next one on the threshold of leaving high-school to be a chef, and the gels just starting high-school next month. And the MS effects are back, I see colours when I look down at night, and the left lower leg feels spongey when I get up... Dunno man.

But, see, well.. I have started the week off wrong though.

Last week I thought I had got a tire-shop to fix a punctured tire of my friends ride on mower- "wire in the tire"? Turns out--- twice! I went to check on it at the NuHoose a week later, and the bastard was flat. Again! Went back to the repair shop and said- OI U! Lookat at thart- eets FLART mate! They fixed it again, but we will see next time I'm oot thar...

This week I see on the social network that a cousin had gone past our town to a surf spot up the coast for The New Year. And got home safely too- or there would be no mention or pics.
Forgot I lived nearby? I would have dropped everything for a cuppa coffee with them, offered a bed etc.
Now I won't--- feel too bad, but it's the little things that get ya... Easter with the  extended family seems too much effort for me now. Eldest cousin in the clan, and well - snubbed?

A birthday gift- I have a hot air balloon flight to look forward to. Soonish.
But there was a bad hot air balloon accident in the NZ the other week, so I am a little bit hesitant about taking up the birthday present now...

My internet use was used up by the eldest child the other week by 25% of the monthly use in a few days!
I thought he was back from the Big Smoke to party!
He thought we had UNLIMITED data access... nah mate, after 2am, you can go for broke nearly.
So for the last week, Slow Days At Holiday Time For The Kids...
But surprisingly, they seem to work with that. I am not. Once over the plan limit, back to 25Kbs...
The worst thing, I could upgrade for 20 bucks and then downgrade back to the old rate, FOR THIRTY more bucks!
No data blocks to get! Sucks man, really sucks.
No blogging, just the mail mame.
He got a letter  today for jury duty next month.
Karma?

What else. While I am in the crappiest mood for weeks...

My niece's anniversary passed by, another one. Unbelievable.
Not many get what she got (Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)), an envitable sad time each year for us. Savvy would have been 13 this year.

The vines have been attacked by mildew or mould, and so the whole gallon of shiraz I wanted to make, won't be. Spraying the Portable Vineyard every other week with store chemicals and a homebrew mixture the other. Might get a liter of Pinot. wow...

Worst day of teh week,

The work vee-hee-cal has developed a whining screaming annoying sound lately, at low revs, and the aircon is shite.
I bought a new fanbelt for it.
Before looking to see of I could do it myself, and, well, I can't replace it mahself!
Went to a auto repair shop this morning- he said it's "dry". Interesting. But if it was gunna get worse, better pull the pulleys out. Right.

The second boy went to the surf today- tonight he looks like a lobster. Again. "Sunscreen wore off " my fat ass! Lazy butt head, hope he learns this time.

As the kids were all off with friends today, I thought I would drag out the old 12m yacht- I mean the radio controlled 3 foot thing, cos it looked to be nice after work to be on the lake with it.
The first hour was just fine.
Then the wind swung around and VOILA, the poor beastie was heaving and splashing in the huge 2 inch ripples like a rat in a bath with a cat.
And then the electrics inside it got wet, so it sailed sailed off BY ITSELF to the middle of the lake.
Well I was a bit p'd off!
In a huff I left it to fend for itself in the sticks and weeds in the deep end, if it did not sink first.
I sped off in the van to grab a kayak from home. Ten minutes later, the poor beastie was being hammered by the ripples and it had lost some gear overboard- the boom came out. I paddled out and brought it back.
I took off for home to the screaming kids, fighting cats and the ghosts, and stalled the bastard van at the roundabout...
Thongs and a manual with the seat in the wrong position don't work...

As I started off, there was a NEW sound! A horrible rumbling sound as if one of the pulleys mentioned before, really had stuffed up...

Dollars.........

Bah Humbug

Freezer check
Oh oh.

Looking for inspiration for the weegen menu.

Open freezer door.

Steak, chicken, mince, roast, bacon dim-sims... peas, corn, chips. Bread. Ice-cream.

What the? How much is in there? How Old too? And the "ones prepared earlier"?

Hmm, interesting. There is enough for a fortnight!

Viola- for your "edification", some meat products to be sorted and consumed...

I mean, four people, I am not buying a lot, but seem to be Not Cooking A Lot as planned at the start of the week! As the holidays are starting soon, I better get my ass into gear and turn out a few good meals, get some mates around, I dunno- Oh yeah, the last mass invite was a sham, three guests- at late notice too. But we did do a few homemades and had a cajun time! Thanks A-bell and Jen and AJ.

So the frozen pre cooked can wait for party- there's a few lunches. Some steak- and chicken- for stir fri, and the roast for another slow cooked Cajun/Mexican night.

Just gotta remember man! There is savings of at least 14 meals for four- at roughly eight to ten dollars per meal- say nearly $150 sitting there, not doing ANYTHING but consuming Power. Argh! A whole weeks groceries!

So egslaente, go shopping and ..member, remember, remem...

happy. or not

What a Question... 
RUOK? 

Wha! Me?
What about you?

me.
Dunno...
really!
listing ?  [...over...]

Not smokin, a hiatus...?
cut down the drinkin,  well...,  example I spose
no womin...woman.
which means/leaves more time for...?

got simplest job in the world, and can occasionally still stuff that up! today in fact
A Muttley situation, twice this week, geez...

complain complain complain

all my special interest and unread magasines
building a small skyscraper on the coffee table
car needs a good service
healthy as I can be
without too much undue exercise
kids as healthy as can be too
so that is excellent
whinge and whine

wanna have a GOOD BLAST down at sandy... last one so disappointing
have all I need without missing out on much
as much tv as I need
internet on tap, wilipedia and g.maps- the world at my finger tips- just ask me, show me!

need more job hours as the kids "need" more
cannot see that happening the way economy and job rates are around Oz

job is not getting me more contacts-
so there is some misleading advice, thanks whoever that was
not advertising, maybe a problem there, but the Net does not help around here, well a FB placement didn't

really, what have I to complain about?
some would say Nada, Zilch, sweet FA!
happiness level, dunno

on the other hand.

model sailing boat needs a good workout, spring is here!
the new house is 99.9999% ready for occupation, on me and ken's sayso

next week- a trip with the gels
their last camp at primary school
did not get to do it with the boys cos of the gels, so better do it properly
so the mags will get a read through on the bus! zo egzalen!

ok
things may get a bit smoother,
no matter the number of ubiquitous annoying little tweeners on the trip!

happiness,
not chasing it,
just expecting it
indubitably. unexpectedly.

10 minutes, a small fortune

I hope a test aint a waste
and the speed ticket was not fun either

I had to take A DAY OFF WORK TO do a special eye and brain test in the Big Smoke, and took some speed-sailing gear in case I was out early. I thought it was test three, the BAER, on the handout as the specialist seemed interested me in lying down for a few hours while technicians attached wires to me. Or a VEP or/and BAER.

No. Not that one, or the other one either. It was a VEP test. Not even a ten minute test. At their lab. In the city, well, nearly inner suburban.

Five minutes to hook two electrodes with thick glue to my scalp, stare at the monitor steadily with one eye, then stand up and read a poster a few yards away, [right eye - poor - two bottom lines hazy].

And That Was That. Out by 10:20am.

But that's not the only story.

That morning I arose earlier than usual, took off by 6:30am to get there by 9:30am. Yeah,  to drive through the frantic city bound traffic at the PEAK HOUR.

First, a petrol stop, [yeah, lack of planning there!] then off.

Bypass the land-slipped town and did not watch the hundreds of speed limit signs on the curvy country road... I was not watching the signs...

Pinged twice as a bluey followed me over the limit.  No idea he was there- how long was he there for, at least a minute or two at least, but long enough, and dang it if a lady driver had'nt flashed headlights at me a few minutes earlier...

The LAST time I went this way, a few months ago, I would have been fine.
Since the landslip, the road I wanted to use has been tagged and re-signed, with a big reduction...

I then noticed him, and he put the flashing lights on. Pulled over and got the licence ready. Bugger. "Why were you over the limit?" I was pregnant? Enjoying a country road? Did not realise that the limits were changed? As he went back to process my licence and registration, I was red from embarrassment and fury.

He came back and was almost laughing I think. He was so polite.
"Well, you were over twice and guess what else? The car registration was due last weekend..."

Silence.

"That could be a 655 bucks fine, but if you keep off the tollways and try to use your smartphone to pay as soon as possible, you will be okay..."

See? Nice, polite and so good.Maybe just a warning?

"But I will have to give you this one [a pink slip] though, so you only have this to pay- the speed fine"
"Uh. Um, well thanks", sort of... RRHGFRGH and %^#@ )(!*

As there was a child minder at home I called him to get the bill off the refrigerator and could he afford pay it for me ASAP? No explanation for why I remembered it...
"Yes, no worries."
"Thanks, see you as soon as I get back!" I said, fingering the spare cash I could have left at home for it.

So I cool off and REALLY WATCH the GPS- [speed limit data not updated of course- too cheap for that!] and get into the city traffic about an hour later.

The ABC radio traffic update warned me off the freeway- I knew that spot of trouble well, so took off on a different route.

Still late, not believing the GPS as I was looking for the wrong road just minutes away from My Destination... Lost me a few minutes as it insisted I was headed the wrong way in its muffled mode [woman, Irish, nice, but still a know all GPS thingo].
She was right as in Muttley like.
I turned the car around.

Got to reception after parking the wagon on the 2nd parking level [out of 5- so lucky], explained I was finally here late due to traffic problems, and told by a beautiful young woman, "Don't worry, it's okay..." Ahhh. Alright then!

Sat down to read for the indubitably long wait, read half a page of my Asimov mag and "Mr Marvin?"
Bugger- "Hi".

Off to the test, as above, a short test. Out by 10:20am and minus another hundred bucks for the test.

Oh well.
$9 for 37 minutes parking...

Oh well.

Took off. Time for Me Time after all.
Some speed-sailing at Sandy Point, if I could get there WITHOUT speeding!

GPS informs me, 1pm ETA, good.
On the way, avoiding traffic, through an industrial estate, mainly small to medium garage like shops, I spied a HOBBY shop! Squealing of tires NOT- "Just a quick look" and spent 5 minutes there, yum, and spied a model my uncle might want.

Got back on the road with all my money safe. Stopped for a Cornish Pastie, with sauce, that was not there in the end- did not squeeze the bloody bottle HARD enough, and arrived at Sandy Point. 1pm.

The tide was IN. Lack of planning. Severely!
Stuff it, I needed a bathroom quickly, and plowed through the small pools between me and relief...

Set up a sail, spoke to another sailor- "Not great".
Oh well.

From the files, but example- tide---  IN

Buggered around with the sail and mast rghrgh and got on the water, and planed fast enough down the course.
Up the course, there was only enough to slog back to shore...
Unpack and take off by 2:45pm.
Get back to town home, pay Son#2's dental bill, lucky for him and me they could see him at such short notice (Thanks) then off and reclaim the medical bill, go home and the gels get dropped off, with a pizza, and they kindly let me have two pieces...

What a bloody day!
Four hundred bucks for a 10 minute test. A ticket. A very short sail. And Is the optic nerve on its way out?
I better "fail" it... Or pass. Whatever.

Carelessedness-itis

I have a bug
With me
About me
Because:

I have so much
house things
I have to do
want to do
need to do
and don't care when it is done....Carelessedness-itis

Garden Blitzkreig UN-complete,
still have to rake up shit
cut up shit
move shit
with a shitty chainsaw
on an extension lead.
Where's Geoffry Peterson's dad Grant? Help!








Removing old shit caused
an outside feature to fall down
and that cost 40 bucks and
time fooling around and
making a huge mess at the backdoor
and a big Kludge on a rotten
post top. Extension anyone?





My Getting
my self bogged twice in half an hour with
my two cars in
my own yard was not on
my favourite things to do.
Last week.






Endless vacuuming of the hoose
The letter box made with
love for the child bride is
falling apart... 13 years is a long time?

The gels need desks for their rooms...?

So many
or
Too many [?]
Sc-Fi mags
National Geographics
Archealogical Diggings
Posts
- to finish

Paint eldest gels room
so she can move in
to her OWN room

[breathe in]

And
Paint the Bungalow too.

Wants.... well don't let me start.

And I find the time for this.............................. Ho Hum I wonder what the rich people are doing?

I know it was wet, see?

It rained and the ground was wet. 
Boggy, in fact. 

Yep, I knew that, but still...

There is a tree lopper making his way along the street, tidying up low branches of the nature strip trees. He has been doing it for a while now. I thought, at last, he is up to my place. I dutifully moved the family car further into the backyard yesterday so I could park the van after it. But, no, it was raining and no workmen doing the trees at my place

In case you don't keep tabs on it, the backyard here received another 35mm or 145points, or 1.45 inches of rain up to 9am today...

After dropping off the gels and their friends this morning, I drove right in again, and left the van out of the way too after the next grocery delivery run.

Well, not really...

I had swerved in to the front parking area a little too fast and moved sideways a little into the drain at the front gate.
And got bogged to the hubcap.
Freaking hell!
Spent 10 minutes rocking forward and back, throwing in dead foliage under the wheel, some flat wood pieces, a log, and then went away.

Tried to get the car out of the back yard to tow out the van.

BOGGED the wagon in the backyard too!

A bit of gravel, some gentle too-ing and fro-ing and swearing, and IT MOVED. T'anks a lot Marvin!

So then I moved the car to the van, looked for a towing rope [I had one somewhere] but made use of a new length of nylon rope I only just bought. A nice yellow one. Inserted tow ball into van tow bar, wrapped rope around it and the wagon's tow ball eight times, and tried to pull the van free. Very gently.

Ah. Nah. No way José. Too wet, bugger it, the wagon slipped--- so STOP!
Another driver may have helped at this stage!

Sucked it in, swallowed my pride, and asked the tree guy for help.

Yep- no worries! Just had to fetch his Ford F250 ute* from the garage across town... 10 minutes...

Yep! it pulled the van out no worries! Gave him a bottle of my best homemade red wine.

The van and the wagon left big tracks in the lawns, bugger it.

That was my hour lunch break- getting out of a bog of my own causing!
Yeah, the ground was soft, so I really did not think clearly about it, and shit happens.  Wet dirty shit...

Little ol lady, grrrr

Bile and sweat.
Little old lady said I should exercise.
More.
!?

I already do a fair bit of walking on the job, from the van to the store room where the goods are, about 150 paces in, 150 paces out, back in , back out, for three shifts a day.

For insurance purposes, now the crims can see see
what's available, instead of being able to hide behind
the shubbery and finding NOTHING HAHAHA

Which is no where close to the TEN THOUSAND steps the doc said I orta do...

My knees are either itchy or stinging with occasional pains, the back wanted to stop moving mid job today, I am not supposed to Crack My Back, like in when you crack ya knuckles...
I cut down the side hedge today between delivery shifts. Even got a sweat up! And NOTHING in the eyeballs this time. The poor electric chainsaw (I am in surburbia Marv!) lost it's chain a few times, but so far so good.


But the little old lady that never knows that when she says anything, I just want to leave. Age does not mean you act like you are absolutely correct and  and and ah wtf, it's my job, the client has to be coddled etc etc.

But still...I unfortunately got to know her and her late hubby, and just have to put a brave happy face on it. Bugger.

She had watched a Brit show about ex-celebrities from the 70's and how they are coping with old age... I have not watched it. Reaching the middle of my life span has not encouraged me to lift the exercise regime above getting out of bed, lifting the kettle...

I have been accused, justly or not, of being a lazy bstd, like, not concerned with making more money to send all the kids to a better school or even getting a better job. Or being told after complaining on missing the rig life and it's money, "that's your choice", with no apparent empathy at all expressed!  Or being a busy body and wanting something that is not mine. Hmph, once I needed a hand and given a backhander instead. What about being too nosy about something that concerns me and mine? Same thing.   Or being told on the phone "I would punch you..." Bloody great. I really do not have the words to "put people in their place", or make them shut up and think about things before they open their mouths for their So Important and So Quick Comments regahgh34r6242@#$% rage rant geZUZ!
Sorry.
Am I too nice, and just a floor mat? I do let slip inappropriate things, and suffer silently later-  You IDIOT!
Always comes back to haunt me! Or someone will kindly refresh me memory of the slip-up. Thanks. Or let what others do to me go, cos really, what the fuck is the point of the pettiness, theirs and mine.

Those people. They are not on my bbq list. I had wanted to be on theirs, like ie sharing a common lifestyle like oilrigs. Or you would think so. Been there done that high pressure job, and the next job down that line will be when the gels can be looked after and I don't feel so guilty deserting them just fore money... and the job will be what I can handle, but not what I can think I can handle! Limitations are appearing and maybe I always had them?

My kids: are fine; well adjusted- to me; well looked after- by me; are considered great kids by everybody. Well, that's what I am told. So thanks to all those who helped me or is helping me. But. Am I to be concerned, like, that's not what it is in fact...? Reality is completely arse about?

And now- the Sun Shines In. lot of shit to move though... :-(

I would like to shut the door and just go, but being a parent and a child of great parents and the partner of a great wife (RIP Tarn who Picked Me And The Hoose don't forget.) who also had great folks. I have to go on in my own way. Tarn's always there, like a bloody ghost I spose, or the angel/devil on my back.

Really don't see why I bother getting up. Not lazy, but losing focus on other big things that people choose to do? I cope, I know I have to make a bit more the next few years as I do have twin gels... I have things that others dont, and everything I need really. But I cut people out, don't like spending money at the pub or cafe anymore, I cannot keep up with Desperate Housewives or Parenthood or Brothers and Sisters anymore, and the bills keep chipping away at the rainy day money and and

Stuff it, some people think they know better, and well, Good On Them, thanks for that and now shut up "Front Door" Behind You and piss off. Wankers.

Digging through the past

Is it right to dig and send
Torn by what I think, the "ethicalness" of it all

As I have scanned through a mine field of memories, or should I say, recalled mind sets of yesteryear, I wonder at the clarity of the images my parents gathered while I was growing up, and can I post off images to old friends of renewed acquaintance. My poll question has no replies as yet- a reverberating, silent, NO?

So does digging through the past help me at all? Not that I need help! I mean, I think this: I treasure the childhood memories, and is it going too far, and who really cares. APART from me, dummy

With the scanning project- So far, I have got to my eighth (try spelling that a few times!) birthday party, and a group of kids sitting about a table singing or eating. I am pretty sure it was my first party with friends, and the images bring back memories of those kids. Thirteen years of being in the same classes with some of them.



No one has really bothered to keep in touch with me or many other people since I left that town, apart from using social network sites. Like as if, attending those Catholic schools did not engender a strong network of friends forever, compared to today. I have tracked a few people via Google, FriendsReunited and FaceBook, and now count them as names, not actual real friends, on a list as most just acknowledged me. But Robyn says ello now and again. Mick, Trev, Brigitta, Lisa Z and even others from uni are not into that tech thing I guess. Not that I would leap into the car and go see them for a drink.  A few thousand miles for a beer is not my sort of thing, nor flying them down for a weegen either! Once maybe... But then Chris and MArsh, I might- But I missed Chris' 50th and prob Marsh's too. Bugger.

I could not track Macca my best friend from the primary and secondary schools down at all the last ten years, and had to resort to search engines, found an email address that turned out to be his sister. That was cool- a tech win for me. What is funny is that my old girl friend, next went out with a guy, that next married Macca's sister, now they are divorced. Circles of shit. Maybe I am better off not knowing everybody's news, I certainly don't like my sad parts.

One image of the group has my best friend doing the bottle popping sound with finger and side of the mouth- Macca was famous for that. Up until the end of high school, we were mates. When I left our town for uni, but made few trips back, he was one guy from school I tried to remain in contact with. After a while we drifted apart, and only through our parents did I manage to keep track. learnt he has kids younger than me! Whoa there, really?

Me, keep track. Pitiful, scrounging?

Another kid at the party, Paul, was the adopted male son of boy-girl twins, Helen was his sister. Paul's dad attended a business school nearby, and when he was 10, they took them to America, to the land of the then very strange way of- "Commuting" - to work through the- "beltways" - of Washington. That I remember that strange word or two was because of a conversation dimly remembered between his mother and mine. On their return to Oz, he was placed in the Anglican secondary school, and we never saw each other again.

Gerard was there too, a nice kid, his dad was a cop. They were transferred elsewhere the next year, but I do use his name and face to remember that I had a childhood full of friends. The two other faces I cannot see properly, but I imagine one would have been Terry Tugboat, and the other, quiet Wayne. I made up Terry's name lying on the rye grass of a gently sloping playground, staring up at the blue sky and fuzzy clouds a few years later. Terry the Tugboat seemed pretty funny. Macca, Supermidget, Tug and Broomy.

The little girls I knew at the time are now either mother or grandmothers, maybe divorced and or childless. Some I liked back then, Lis and Kim, are divorced, which is weird. And if I say that now that I could see that coming back then- you would larf an larf in disbelief, ROFL probably. However, I was hurt to see those girls go through that shit.

So the question remains. Should I be a complete dippy nerd and search, and post off these images of these kids to their "parents" as it were?

marvined memory kitchen

Woke up this morning  lalala

Dishwasher stuck in drain mode last 8 hours.
Call-Forgotten to be at friends place earlier in the week for vine pull.
wash sort hang out
Phone calls left right and center
travel
Buy gels goods
travel
wash sort hang
fix bastard machine
hang out
travel
pull
travel
buy
washing in
tidy
catch up messaging
dinner for one

post.....

Strange is life

Strange but true
Woke up and did not want to

Insurance thing for the little business is a mess!
Besides that I received a email. From an old friend. Made me perk up a lot. And A longer than usual phone call from a newish friend just before that- while I was watching progeny#4s' team win a soccor match.


Msg excerpt-

I reminisced about my time working on the Maersk Valiant rig too.

Early this morning I googled ‘Gearhart Geodata Australia’ and came across your sites and also the photo I took of the Maersk Valiant (well, I think it’s the photo I took, as I’ve just compared it to mine and it looks exactly alike).  

Bugger me, I did a search and I was on top of the list! Well, my CV was!!!!!

Connections, is it an omen?

Will I ever get back to being a geo again?

I hope so, at a basic level anyway.
Nothing wrong with a bit dirt!


The call was about how crappy is life and jobs, and our kids (the young a-dult-s that is) next excuse for a drinkies- birthdays of course!


So thanks W and J for perking me up.

halfway

Big milestone over the weegen.
Halfway to a century old!


This is the Marvining site, where lifes' tribulations, some times tributes, are turned over, examined minutely and completely disregarded by me and the [other?] smart alecs*people. Well, I hope not. Lets KISS.



*Special note at this point. Looks like I hit the wrong key somewhere at this point in time and put published unfinished business out to air, another point to the post in any case, like how fast is the Alzymars catching me. And I was caught out in seconds by a friend!!!! LOL or what! Refer to FB entry of 5Jun11@10pm!


To continue... A. Ahem.


The Marvin highlights of the weekend. 
BEFORE the Weegen Away For Me. A Fiftieth Celebration


I was to get the old sailing dinghy out and tidied to take to dad's place. He wants to fix it up. I am not interested in it anymore. The kids were terrified of the open water and tipping over and It Was Not Fast Enough For Me... A lot of Marvin situations. So I pulled it out into the yard, hung the sails out to dry and let my attention walk away. Until Friday of course. On Friday, Work, then I washed it down, & tossed out any shite. Off to Work again. Back and cleaned more, and out to work again. Start of a comedy of errors.


Waited for the kids to get home from school, packed my crap, showered, coffee-ed up and got the kids to pack their crap in the wagon. 


Hitched the dinghy trailer to said wagon and tried the lights on the back of the boat. 
Nah. No working mistah! But it did six months ago!?
@$%^&& ! WD40 sprayed and nails and scratching and swearing and banging and then the second son seconded to watch duty as I tried desperately to get the shitful NEW light system going! 


"Brake, Left flasher, Right flasher, lights?" nah, yeah, maybe, nah, yeah. @#%$%^ !!
Gee-zars Iscariot, was I cross with me! Timetable was shot to shite!
"Ah, nearly all, forget about the left flasher, lets check the tires".......
Hmmm. Flattish. "BIKE PUMP?!" Hmmmm. Nah.


To the petrol station!


By this time the kids had been waiting for an hour, patiently mind you!
At the air filler. 8lb..15lb beep 10lb...16lb beep. Took ten minutes as the "SPECIALLY designed" digitally enhanced air compressor kept telling me THERE IS NO AIR in the tire, Fill, beep, off, on , fill,  beep.... To Son#2- "Whats the pressure needed?", "Wha?" "I have not got my glasses on me, what's the proper operating pressure?" "Um, 44?" Nah, I don think so, but stuff it, it felt hard to hit with a fist, and spent another ten bloody minutes doing the same thing to the other one, and then the car tires.


Finally-- LETS GOOOOO!!!!!!!!! But I did not check the spares.... Took off in a pall of sound and smoke. Not.


So I missed out on going to see a football match with Son#1, Son#2 and my second brother(Bro#2). By an hour. The whole point of going to the Big Smoke for the night! But if ya miss the first bounce, why the feck bother going at all! Boy I was pissed off. With me. Had a week! Ah well. Mind the size of a planet and the power is off, or, no-one home...


NEXT day-Travelling to Bro#1 place for a light luncheon and plenty of grog....


Early enough start.Two thirds of the way there, nearly breaking the speed of light up a huge fecking hill and passing everybody else chugging away CTYTY CHT TAGR GRTS BANG CHTHER!!!!!!! SCREETCH KAK KAK a KAKAAKA  WHAT now? Look behind and the Boat and Trailer are sitting behind me, sitting pretty on the road, not like a missing wheel situation, and no one flashing lights or banging a horn away at me, so What The? I better stop.


Pull over and open the door into the oncoming traffic, feck em, and walk back and see that the adjustable leg stand had fallen down to the road, and lost it's foot.... Thankfully, that was all. I had not put the fencing wire pin in properly, and it had taken four hours travelling at 100kmh [plus] to work loose and let the stand down. Boy. Retrieved leg. Stomped back to the wheel and screamed off again.


My boys were on a promise to ride with my brother that day outta town. After the broken leg and  missing foot of the trailer, time to swap pillion passengers at the next off ramp. Swap done. Then took off mad as a bat thru green fields and down country roads away from the freakin freeway [and did not turn left as directed...] 


But we got to where we were goin'. Bro#1s' place. Luncheon. So excellent. 


After lunch and a nap, and just before dark, my old boy, Tezza, was going to take the boat home, but no one had a cross-over for the trailer lights... He had a round 7pin plug and a round 7pin-to-5pin cross-over round type, and I only had a 7pin-flat to round... MARVINED!!!!! I could hear Muttley in my head... trailer departure another time, driver and place...


So a fine day of Wine and dine and wine and dine til nine[?] with three videos and then bed and at 6am- acid burps, fecking shite! 
Sunday, travel to see Bro#3 and my sis-in-law. The gps tomtom sent us the back way... MARVINED again, but what the hell it was a different way there from last time!
And. This time we only left a cheapo windcheater behind.


BUT. We all got home safe and sound.
And had a good weegen overall!!

Scanner scammed

 my friend D...

Addendum to last message for a laugh

I went to scan that pic for your dad, and the damn thing would not scan to the computer. 5 min

So i reinstalled the software, disk out of date, 

so got some from off the internet, 20 min

Still would not work, 10 min, bugger it.

NO, went back see what is wrong.

Reminded me to make sure was connected to pc,  sure, course tis.

And then, just in case...

Hmm.

Guess what?

Don’t tell your dad i wasted 30 minutes of his life waiting....

USB Wasn’t plugged in

Catch ya

Reply:

"ha, ok BLONDIE!!!!!"

Thanks D

Dishewasher :-(

When the home buying urge was finally satisfied years ago, Tarn set up about setting the house up.

A studious saver and really good miser as previously noted, there was a working on upgrading the kitchen.

Little did I know about dishwashers, but that was an ideal she was reaching for. Her folks had had one installed about when she was a teen I think. Out of all our previous lodgings over the years,  only one had  ever had one.  We were in Aber-budie-deen years ago, and there was one in the apartment, along with the Combined Clothes Washing and Drying Machine In One With A Difficult Door Opening Sequence...

[That is, WAIT for the machine to cool down before ripping the door handle off... That cost two taxi trips to the repair Shop...]

So a well known dishwasher was sought after.


I installed it into its dedicated spot near to the kitchen sink, after removing the shelving that was too deep and too many. Rang the nearest plumber we thought was okay to plumb it all up. We had cleared out the kitchen cupboard below the sink and the guy plumbed it to the kitchen sink cold water supply.

He cleared more stuff below to wipe up some water...

And there was the dedicated water pipe outlets for a dishwasher!

ARGH! Shizenhozer.

Well, I said- would that have been a better plan...?

I wish I had found it earlier, cos what ever he put on the pipe join got into the cold water. Forever! Whether it was a lubricant or sealant, I can always tell the water out of that tap.
No where else is there that "industrial" taste.

Of course I called the fella back, and he said that IF there was anything coming into the water, it would go away soon enough. Ten Years Plus Now, Buddy! No way I would use J-----s again, nor S-----------s after the hot water story.

After shocks. The kettle Has To Be Filled With Water From The Hot Water Tap, otherwise tea or coffee tastes really really shitty to me! And no-one else can tell...

The dishwasher has had some major repairs- a pump, the holder for the top arm, the soap dispenser. For a 800 dollar machine, there was outlays twice for an attending technician at roughly three thousand dollars an hour to look at it before ordering the needed parts and then installing said parts for another smaller fee....

Whatever- who wants to make kids wash dishes? I paid the ransoms.

Last month the kids were complaining that the top tray was broken!

It was going to collapse!

Was I going to get a new washing machine?

The latest ransom was for the rollers for the top tray. There were twelve. Eight in use. Cannot work That out. However, if one plastic roller managed to break/crack, there was a spare.


A fortnight ago I ordered some new rollers, 12 would be nice, eight would do, [I would have ordered online but that occurred to me NOW] and the price there was- GUESS? I was actually charged ten bucks less than what the online suppliers charged for little bits of plastic- axles that clip onto the tray, with wheels. Diameter of a large coin!

SIXTY bucks!

bloody wifi

Referring to setting up a wifi aroon' the mansion.

Little bro handed-up a wifi modem router he didn't need (has about 100 kilometers blue cable wrapped around through and over his new house with sockets every 6 inches) so we (my kids) could maybe commune through a Wii machine with his kids ....

Good if he could remember the password. It turned out to be a good combination that was annoyingly hard and easy... marvined again.

But the Wii connection between the kids was not really that great, I think there are better ways of exchanging children's messages that are so EASY c.f. the bloody Wii!

Arhhh- "EASY"  The word has turned up twice now...

If I may also refer to this recent edition, I thought about unwrapping the dusty modem from its cosy resting place, and employing it to see if some new consumerist goods would also work wirelessly.

It worked okay. Took a bit of a fiddle.

By midnight was thoroughly pissed off, as most functions did work or had worked, but the manual said to change this setting or that setting and then nuthin worked after all that cos I wanted something else to work and it would not. One app.

Some Foolrooms  forums on apple crap said probably wont really get it to work unless you have two alter egos, not one, as in email sign in names. Bloody great.

More fkn addresses and passwords, bajizus. It's only a an app that works on WiFi and that sort of annoys me.

Facetime equals AdvancedTimeWasting at the moment [  sortta like this :-)  ]

But they are Happy.

Today.

Had to reboot, reset, and reread the fkn manual, and the bloody app still aint workin. Fk um.

Still connects all the lil 'ol pocket toys but the DSis are indubitably probelematic.


Bye

wordless

I took gel#3a to the hairdressers during the week.

She wanted a slanty half a fringe, and split ends done. Okay, Leigh, got it?

Yeah I don't know either.
A preteen thing?

We walked out the place and went to cross to the va-hee-cal, and noticed that there was a red car standing in the street crossing space used by the wheeled people [wheelchaies, prams, walking frames etc etc], like a ramp to the road from the footpath.

I did sort of stare at the car/occupants with a frown/scowl/questioning look upon my countenance.

Not sorta. Did. It was a no standing place, not even for the blue-sticker-wheeled people people! That was next to it.

Cos I thought that unless you really could not park elsewhere, you could do a blocky while waiting for the accomplice to return from dropping the video off. Well, I would. The boys-in-grey already have got me for a minute overstay in the school three minute parking bays!

As we crossed the street, I looked back as the car pulled out.

The window came down on the drivers side, and a mean scrawny woman face appeared.

"Oh! Did I ruin ya day?" was called across the main street.

I don't think quick after a put down. From a stranger as well. So I did not respond with anything. Not even a finger.

What was worse was that I thought the woman was a mom at the kid's school. Great. Just fuckin great.

Now that ruined my day.
Stewing on that for days.
The term "That bitch!" just occurred to me, days later.