Dylan.

Our first cyclone of the season. We're on the friendly side of its track so I'm not doing any panicking about Dylan, It's just managed to gather itself together into a cat 1.

Anniversary.

Olivia has just advised me that today is also the anniversary of when we first contacted each other.
It's been a very long year for my new love and I but the internet keeps us in contact and we both long for when we can be together again, for some reason immigration just keep all spouse visa applications in a holding pattern until madness sets in, hmmm maybe that's the reason. The USA people would be able to protest that but we don't have any rules against cruel and unusual punishment.
I may have posted this pic before but this eatery was great and they have plenty of them around Philippines, pity things were so hectic on my visit that it's a pity I didn't eat like this more, I wasn't brave enough to try eating at one without my mate and guide. The prices are down to my level.

From the past.

It's dear old Grace's birthday today, but she's not here any more to enjoy it.
There was a time years ago we would travel and see places, hopefully soon I'll be doing that again while I still can.
Some people may recognise the unusual building behind Grace.

New clock.

This was reduced to $5.80 at Overflow, the price was right but I had plenty of trepidation as I find clocks can be too loud, they have a habit of ticking every second, happily this one is silent from a few millimetres distance.
Why buy? O.H will be Olivia's initials when she can finally be with me and properly become my wife, it's way too awkward for her to adopt a married name yet, and Alemania is a bit too long for Jimmy to consider.

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.

I'm less fussy these days.

Younger Jimmy would avoid any label hinting at a trendy reduced something, but older Jimmy's eyes are more tuned into the bottom line price these days, and a four pack of these delicious little mousses were too tempting despite the scary label.

Expired.

This arrived in a packet with the part I ordered on-line a fortnight ago.
It's already a week out of date, pity as I've found these useful in the past

Gym, scared me for a moment.

But the no entry sign restored peace of mind.
I had an appointment to see the taxpayer sponsored paupers dentist today but true to form I found it had been cancelled and is now rescheduled to February. I should have known this close to xmas it would have been only a fantasy appointment intended to make them appear productive. In their favour some more teeth may slip beyond the point of no return, thus saving the taxpayer from a wasted effort trying to prolong their wretched existence.

 On a happier note I spied these delicious and cute looking mushrooms alongside the walk to the the tooth house.

Peace of mind.

After an *ahem* incident last week I thought it may be best to have a fire extinguisher in the house.
These are a well priced special at Supercheap auto for a couple more days, I suspect now because the test label has a 2013 starting date.

Too tempting.

That Stagg tin of chili in the photo of my last post got my interest when packing the Harvest tins away.

 So I decided to use half a tin of it on toast for dinner. For those in shock there's no need to worry about carefully spreading butter, the heat of the tinned stuff will soon melt it anyway.

Verdict delicious, but then again I was hungry so it'd have to be poor to score a bad mark.

Prepared for the wet.

The Harvest tins here are on special at Coles this week, I consider $2 a pretty good price so I stocked up a bit.
We've had a bit of rain over the last few days and it feels like the wet season is starting. Unlike the people who live further out of town and merely get cut off by floodwater, we who live on Fairford road are isolated and actually in the flood water when it comes, but those who are merely isolated get assistance, like army rations while we have to fend for ourselves and watch help pass by from our porches.

The sign has been erected.

Now this intersection should be safe, at least from the ambiguous nature it previously had.
It only took 15 months for the council to react to my suggestion, the pity is as I see it that when extending the road it should have been obvious to at the time that uncontrolled intersections are an instant fail and have been since a change in the road rules 30+ years ago.

Water meter.

I got to thinking about how much water we've used over the years, I checked on some past photos and noted the new water main and meter were installed back in February 2010, I also noted that the gang who installed them was led by a former mayor and were very productive, unlike almost everything else I've witnessed of late.
Anyway we've now used 152 kilolitres, so I suppose about 40 kl per year but I make a bit of an effort not to waste too much. Considering about 200 kl falls on the roof every year a person has to wonder about the compulsory expense of town water.

True.

This plaque is at the memorial site to the Coral sea battle at Cardwell.

Cardwell.

Went for a drive this morning to check out how it has recovered from cyclone trauma in recent years. It looks very smart thanks to sizeable cash injections but sadly the trip was almost a total waste, firebreak burning had rendered the air into a hazy ruin quite useless for taking photos.

Nearby Hinchinbrook Island was barely visible in the background here.

Delicious.

A pity these are considered seasonal but with only 15 weeks till Easter it's close enough.

Cute dinosaur.

I've never tried posting a video here before so here's a first for me.

I noticed the video had a horrid flicker from the LED lighting but I liked my commentary so just resized it.
Edit: It appears they reduce videos posted even further than I was game to, sorry about that, it's now like free TV in Australia, just a blurry imitation of the video it once was.

On this day 14 years ago...

My dear old grandfather died after having a fairly good run, but more people would be familiar with the dog Seymour in the Futurama episode Jurassic Bark, who began his lonely waiting period for his friend to reappear.

For some people that episode brings forth copious streams of tears, but since it's a dog all I notice is the wonderful background song "I will wait for you" by Connie Francis.
Now with 14 years up I imagine Seymour has done a Greyfriars Bobby and shuffled off.

BTW I always feel my Grandmother was a little hard done by in that plaque, she was always called Molly (Mollie?) and was born 1st November 1903 (not so coincidently being the date her own mother died). The B.E.M being the British Empire Medal, about the lowest level of honours dished out, but conversely also about the highest honour that ordinary non-important people could attain at the time.
A fortnight short of a decade later the last of my Grandparents died, in hindsight triggering me onto another phase in life.

Cool.

I suppose there may be a few places on earth that actually get temperatures below zero at this time of year but I cheated and used the freezer, we never see minus numbers at any time otherwise, yesterday was a rather warm 37+.
I've made it to another year and am hoping for a change to the holding pattern I've been living for months, may we all have a good 2014.