Into the Xmas spirit.

Olivia and I went to Rotary park tonight to sing a few carols at the ceremony to switch on Ingham's Xmas tree lights.
Olivia loves getting her photo taken with Santa.

We got there early so I didn't have to lug our chairs too far. Later wed get on that little stage with the chairs to sing.

Soon the girls started arriving.

Even our Mayor Rodger Bow had his photo taken with Santa.

Looking back from the stage. I set a camera up on our white chair to record video, pity Jimmy didn't remember the microphone was on, he spoke way too much.

Mayor Rodger getting the young folk in town to help him switch the lights on.

And then there was light.

Not Rudolph.

No red nose so this reindeer I spotted in Coles the other day must be another one of Santa's,
It appears that the xmas exercise forthcoming could be rather welcomed too.

A big day in Townsville.

First stop was a discount pharmacy so Olivia could get some pills priced way below our punitive prices. I saw these rather expensive NRL branded tissues, naturally they didn't have any Cowboys ones left, I suspect that even if the Cowboys hadn't won the competition last season they would have still sold out quickly.

Then to a shopping centre to kill some time in air conditioned comfort. Olivia met Santa.

Then Olivia wondered what Jimmy had seen in the decoration.

It was a bird relaxing among the baubles.

I like the way they've stacked the boxes here, the images line up nicely.

Daisy was hot when we returned from the comfort zone, off the dial hot.

Then onward to the Hospital where unexpectantly they decided to proceed with her little operation that we thought would be done on another date. Happily for me they had a Phantom comic in the waiting room, and even better it had two Wilson McCoy drawn stories (and a later not so good one), he was my favourite comic artist, the stories were always good back then too.

I hope I never use a wheelchair that big.

Wear and tear.

I replaced the LH bit of wire holding up our street number sign a short while ago, now the wire on the other side has rusted out, only to be expected but at least a simple fix. Next time it happens I expect the sign will be due for renewal.
The LEDs give it a lovely glow at night.
It's very dry here lately hence the brown grass, but soon enough the wet season will start and our thoughts will turn to flooding.

Related?

Every time I look at this USB power adapter that has powered my bedside tablet for some time I think of a very well known TV character.

A touch of luxury for Daisy.

I saw a universal centre armrest available on-line and thought it could add a bit to Daisy so grabbed one.

I had to remove the console to fit the mounting plates, a pity was no instructions came with the kit, these black screws I figured later were meant for the middle section, but the self tappers meant for here were not suitable.

All bolted up ready to go in but the quality of the joint between the upper and middle section was ordinary and broke just as I'd finished tightening the console back in, frustrating it was but I took it out and fitted new screws and it now seems OK.
I'm happy with the result but can't recommend people do this unless they've plenty of confidence.

Bargain.

Reduced for a quick sale 10c each. We grabbed their last six cans, yummy.

Ruined by Jim.

Olivia bought the old clock from the Salvo shop yesterday for $5, it didn't work but since I had a couple of spare mechanisms here I thought it'd be a pretty simple job to replace the old one, I was wrong as per usual.

I would have thought all mechanisms were pretty much the same but the old one extended further through the hole meaning I had to deepen the mounting cut out. If I had a router it would have been simple but I uses the natural for me rough method of drill and chisel.

 Which of course resulted in a bit of breakage, however I don't think it matters very much and the end result is still a fine looking bit of craft despite my rough treatment. I had to paint the hands yellow so they would be visible, at least that job wasn't my usual ruinous one.

Olympus SH-25MR sensor dust.

I noticed things were a bit spotty with Olivia's photos from the military bash so I gave the lens a bit of a clean but there was still a couple of dark spots in the same place of every shot, a sign of dust on the sensor that happens to pretty well all camera's sometime but it takes a bit more effort to clean the sensor of a compact. You can see the rather large chunk of space dust on the sensor here.

Gaining access on the Olympus SH-25MR is happily a fairly simple procedure, just undo the 8 screws around the outside of the case, that allows the back to open up as shown, then undo the 3 screws that I've pointed to in yellow on the left of shot, that allows the sensor to swing out to enable cleaning.
Olivia has become very attached to this camera and was whimpering when butcher Jimmy advised of the operation needed, much relief when the patient survived.

The army exercise finishes with a display.

We've had a few weeks of military fun and games about town but now as a finisher they relaxed and put on a show. The music was good, that's fairly unusual in these days of bands striving to use extra powerful amplifiers so people can't actually hear them. This band probably has a commander who has some taste.

Jimmy talking to Lance Corporal Lee, after his training is completed he'll become a Lieutenant, and I think a fine officer.

 Olivia enjoying being on the boss end of a machine gun. Private Dunn seemed to enjoy the girl power concept.

But having the pointy end aimed at her wasn't as pleasant.

Unlucky here, a brass bullet casing has punctured this tyre on an amphibious carrier. It sealed OK until the end of the casing wore though from the road.

Shakoy.

Olivia's first try at this Philippines treat, the ingredients aren't anything special but the result is superb, the magic must be in the twisting. Do a little Googling for the recipe, very simple and well worth a try.

Next time we'll try a tighter twist.

Something new, and a use for the old.

I broke the handle of the old shovel a couple of days ago and bought a new replacement as it was only $10, surely cheaper than a new handle.
To stay in touch with my repairing mantra I welded the old handle to our old fork that has been in a sad state ever since I ran the mower over its handle many years ago.
The condition of the fork's metal handle however is now very poor due to corrosion so I didn't do a fancy job of welding the D thing to it as I expect further failure in the near future, about the only good thing is a feeling of doing something nice.

Filling fell out.

Last night when taking what should have been an innocent bite one of my new fillings that was in my front tooth shown on the left here fell out. Far worse was to come when I saw the hospital this morning, it seems that since the work was done that our dental system has retreated back to how it was when I was waiting 10 years to get them serviced, but with some extra changes to make access harder.

This is the filling that fell out, I'm thinking now that a good option may be to buy some superglue and try to stick it back in place.

These little car starters work.

I had a chance to use this little unit I bought a while back the other day when a door on Daisy wasn't fully shut and the inside light drained her battery over a couple of days, it worked fine and is nice and easy to carry around for when required.

Mega birthday.

Happy birthday to brother mega today (9th Nov), a bit of a shame things have been a bit tied up for up to make a trip to celebrate.
Looking at this old scan made me think that even 30 years ago when I bought that jacket (which I hope you got a good run out of) I preferred colours other than the semi-universal black.
A pity I never did a better scan of that photo, it's a good-un.

Speckled.

Olivia spurred me into doing some painting the other day, some of it even managed to hit the wall instead of me.
I'm getting very saggy looking as I age.

Flowers for Manay Linda.

These are flowers that Olivia and Jim bought for Linda's funeral, being in the Philippines they were a reasonably fair price (about $10), I like Philippines.
The photo was from Linda and Olivia's nephew Mac, a very handsome and talented chap that I wish a long and happy life to, still single too I believe girls.

Vale Linda.

Much sadness today as Olivia's sister Linda, who out of respect is always called Manay (elder sister) Linda died after being very ill for a lengthy period.
I only met her briefly whilst I was in the Philippines and this was my only photograph.
Now she is free of pain and suffering.

Olivia and Van dressed up for the Melbourne Cup.

Olivia is well on the way to becoming an Aussie, and there's nothing more Aussie than Melbourne Cup.
I hope they all have a good day, especially Olivia for reasons I'll post later.

Exercise comes to Fairford Rd

This is as close to exercise as I care for, taking photos of an army exercise.
A few minutes after this team grouped here I heard plenty of bullets being fired, tomorrow I'll check the house for bullet holes but given the nature of exercises like this I think the most thrilling thing I might find is a virtual bullet hole made by virtual bullets.

Broken buckle.

The buckle bit of Olivia's lovely blue watch snapped, so I used my old melt a bit of wire into the plastic repair, one that has worked pretty well for me over the years.

I just pushed a component pigtail into the plastic using a soldering iron, hopefully it'll be serviceable for a while.
The watch has a name brand so it can't have been bought by me, I have a bit of an allergy to paying any name brand premium, particularly if it has an i as a first letter.

Three Birthdays.

It caught my mind that my Grandmother Mollie would have been having her birthday today the 1st November, yesterday would have been brother Mick's birthday too if he hadn't died 31 years ago.
In eight days time Brother Mega (the bearded one) should be able to tick up 60, but we've had to defer paying him a visit for it.