Unusual in these parts.

I spotted this bumper sticker today after shopping, the car's owner arrived just as I took this photo, I mentioned it was most unusual, she said her neighbour thought she was brave, she however thought she was intelligent.
I suppose I am fairly dumb too often.

Another lesson for Jimmy.

The glow indicator on Cubby's battery never glows green any more, I suspected the fluid level may have been down a bit but like many these days this battery was sealed up tight.
I thought the cover plate might just pop off but it's actually sealed with adhesive, bugger.
Anyway it wasn't really low on acid, the makers of them seem quite justified to seal them now. I made up bungs to reseal the filler holes out of curtain rod and rubber from an inner tube but I think I shall buy another and use this one for my low voltage house supply.
I seem to learn a lot of lessons from mistakes.

26th January.

Today is Australia Day, the plus side being a public holiday for most workers to be taken on Monday.
This day has been pushed down our throats for many years and they even took the guaranteed long weekend off the workers in the late 1980s, and even a day off when it sadly falls on a Saturday.
In reality the true Australia Day is the 1st of January, the anniversary of when our lovely country was created.
Today is not a day the native people will ever take to heart because despite many gains from settlement their own sovereignty was lost.
So for a real celebration it's Joan Leslie's birthday today with the piccie from the movie Sergeant York 1941, with June Lockhart (yes the mother in Lost in Space)  and Walter Brennan, who always looked old. How times change, back then a lass her age was considered old enough to marry in a movie but now an actress her age would be told on-screen that she's grounded for life if she as much as looks at a boy.
She's now one of the few survivors from one of the best movies ever made, Yankee Doodle Dandy, the lovely Joyce Reynolds being about the only other of note, a crying shame they didn't make it in colour but 1942 wasn't a great year for colour films.
It's a good day for birthdays Some Canadians may have heard of an ice hockey player named Wayne Gretzky, Former Aussie cricket captain Kim Hughes turns 60, despite history perhaps not being kind to him he was a very fine batsman who rose to captain at a time of great turmoil.
So the day's not a total loss.

Oscar lifespans.

Since I'm a bit of an old time movie buff I thought I'd check on which best actor Oscar winners I've outlasted and it seems Robert Donat is the only male one thus far, though in a month if things go to plan I'll pip another very big name, Humphrey Bogart.
The female side of the Oscars is a quite different affair with myself having outlasted a handful of best actress winners but with some also having gloriously long lives, none better yet than Luise Rainer who won in 1937 and 1938 and recently turned 104, even at that age she's not the oldest Hollywood star.

Cooking therapy.

Maybe cooking will help me feel less depressed.

I bought some ham steaks that were handsomely reduced then put the brain into gear to come up with an idea of what to do, so I tried a similar thing to the Spam Wellington. I only had one sheet of pastry so used it frugally. Plonk a bit of sugar and mustard on top.

Whack a pineapple ring on top.

Then the rest of the pastry, I baked at 200° for 35 minutes.
Taste verdict OK but nothing special, however it got my mind away from the depression of the endless wait for Olive's visa for a little while.

I remounted my GPSes

Incredibly it's not illegal for us to use a GPS here, anyway I thought I'd make a nicer mount for mine the other day, using up some stuff I had around the place.
I have two because one is the usual street based holler out directions type, and the other is a map based one so I have a real idea of where I am, they're also getting rather old as it takes a bit of work to set them up and I haven't put any effort into it for years.
I then thought I should do the same for a passenger, something I've lacked for years but hopefully soon I'll have the joy of having a wife beside me again, even better that I may become the passenger later.

The passenger mount gave me much joy as I learned from the driver's one and simplified a little as well as reusing an old saw offcut to make a charming mounting point. I'm not a fan of the supplied suction cap mounts, for me they fail whenever I have to rely on them.
Keen eyes may notice the radio doesn't have a CD slot, however it does have a USB socket as well as a SD card slot for MP3 playing, something that's vastly more useful than CDs.

1000.

I noticed I was coming up towards my 1000th blogger post with google so here's a small amount of fanfare.
After years of weblogging the hard way I decided to take it easy a few years ago and wind myself down with this simple blogging application. It's even possible mine may have more than the average amount of posts but almost certainly less than most viewers, but I don't do it as a popularity contest it's just a hobby to give an outlet to my photos and help me to write a bit better. A pity to that is having lost a most wonderful wife and fantastic proof reader 15 months ago. Since then I've married another wonderful woman, Olivia, but (no) thanks to immigration I'm still without a proof reader to correct my little whoopsies.