Sad news.

I've just heard that my Auntie Beth has died. After a bit of a search I finally found a photo I took of her in 2005, here she stands beside husband Ken who is my Father's brother.
Beth was a very upright and decent woman.

Australia Day.

We visited the Shire hall this morning for the Australia Day singing, which somehow we didn't partake in this year, despite a lack of practice they were very good.

The controversy about this holiday isn't going to go away, the difficulty is that if we move Australia Day to its correct date of 1st January then it would create a difficulty with morning events like this.
We only had one new citizen signed up this morning, in a few years hopefully Olivia will get all the limelight.

Speaking of Olivia here she is about to return home, showing off her lovely colourful top.

A typo like I would do.

But on the other side the pink matches what the sign in the windows states.

This sort of error is something I'd do often enough.

The puncher here is from a 3rd party web author and I feel a bit sorry for the business as I would avoid something like this but it's out of their control now and he uses Facebook to get info out, I've advised him and he seemed friendly and literate, sadly there's a whole heap of Aussie businesses who got involved in using 3rd party companies to get a presence online and have sites that sit untouched for years. I would have written it as puncture but schooling was different back in my school days.

Pretty pink.

Olivia painted our old coffee table a very pretty pink, I love it.

These little starter batteries really work.

Lorna called us today to help her start her car, a Nissan Pathfinder with a 3.3 litre petrol engine. The battery was absolutely flat, which made me suspect a trailer brake accessory that had been recently fitted had a wiring error. I simply unplugged what I could see of it and hooked up my little starter pack which happily got things going.
I've checked things since for drain and it's OK so I'll look into the wiring sometime in the near future.
Meanwhile things remain slow with my posting as I've been very slow to shake off whatever illness struck me down just after Xmas, I'm still fairly weak but at least the coughing is vastly reduced, first the Queen and Prince Phillip, then me, and now GHW Bush and his wife Barbara, what a bugger of a thing, surely related to the flu epidemic of 100 years ago.
Oh and my hair has been a fail too, I tried a fancy cut the other week but naturally made a mess of it so it's back to bare skull showing again.

Overweight.

My current sickness which has ruined my health for 12 days now at least has a beneficial side-effect according to the BMI chart with my 169 cm height I have now snuck down from obese to overweight, possibly for the first time ever but certainly since I was anywhere near adulthood.
It seems I have the same health problem as the Queen, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody, although I suspect it may become epidemic.

I wouldn't.

Even if I had private health insurance it hardly makes any sense to tell a hospital about it.
Without insurance everything is free, with insurance you get the same service but are charged a fee which the insurer only partially covers.
Aussie hospitals also tend to have minimal staff or at least doctors between Xmas and Australia Day 26th January so it's best not to get sick then unless it's serious.

Not a fashion that I'll follow.

I saw this is Townsville yesterday, the lack of any tyre sidewall is a fashion without merit, having an uncomfortable ride risking tyre and wheel damage from any bump of the road isn't something for me, it wouldn't even handle as well as something with a bit of sidewall.
I feel I'm old enough now to reject any fashion that doesn't appeal to me, such as those hideous long shorts men wear that are fairly universal, with my stumpy Gunner Sugden type legs the look is cringeworthy but despite being unable to buy proper shorts I at least have the lovely Olivia to adjust these new abominations length to a less shameful look.
Posting a bit interrupted of late I've been fairly sick since just after Xmas, coughing like a heavy smoker, more reason to never become one of them, maybe it's Pneumonia or Whooping Cough but either way it's possibly showing signs of improving, at least some of my strength returned today.

2017 has started.

We've had some visitors tonight, here Lorna warbles a tune on the Karaoke while Annalyn constantly pecks at her phone and Olivia about to don reading eyes so she can find another song.
The good news is we've all made it into another year and I wish everybody a happy one.
Karaoke being a Philippine invention has also become their national sport, a shame tonight my voice was so croaky from chest congestion that laid me in bed for a few days until lunch time, but I enjoy this Karaoke thing.