28 Mar 08 Purple Haze!

Annie and I took the kids and Annie’s Mum to the Adelaide Festival Theatre last night to see ASO plays Deep Purple.

The evening started with Jon Lord conducting a 3 movement orchestral piece starting with the first movement focused on the battle between string and electric instruments. The second movement showed the beginning of collaboration and co-operation between the 2. The third and final movement being focused on the joining of both instrument types in a fun and uplifting feel.

Jon Lord then rested while the Zep Boys took centre stage and performed a range of Deep Purple classics, smoke on the water being one of my favourites.

The 8 year old twins bopped and grooved the night away much to the amazement and amusement of the crowd around us I think!

Josh was awe inspired by Jon Lord and his final stage performance with the ASO and Zep Boys.

Highly Recommended!

10 Mar 08 oh…. the drama….

Close to 4 1/2 months after I started the drama of my hosting  service provider stuffing up my domain registration and basically barring me from backup, data access, blog updates or posting or anything I have resolved the issues to a point I can access my site and the data and post.

Starting with very unclear directions about what is in and out of a site subscription renewall the expiration of the domain moving to 3-4 months of struggling to get them to respond to emails, calls and eventually irate flame letters! Finally I have it resolved.

So I can now opoerate. In the mean time Cellobella at redsultana.com pointed me to the aussiebloggers.com.au forum where I posted a request for suggested “credible reliable value for money” hosters.

The responses were thick and fast. For convenience I have noted a list of the hosters the forum members noted as rliable, value and or credible.

• fasthit.net
• jumba
• web24
• ausweb.com.au
• Netlogistics
• digitalpacific.com.au
• “Homebrew”
• hostgator
• ozehosts.com

 Again, thanks to you all for your great help and responses. I’ll be working to backup and move to a new provider as soon as I have the time to relocate.

10 Nov 07 The hard working Aussie!

I find it very hard to accept the banks passing on more cost to the every day Aussie “Again!”

The NAB reported an annual profit of over $4b this Wednesday then 2 days later alerted the innocent consumer that the rates from the bank would rise by the RBA rate rise plus extra costs “in the next month or 2″  due to the cost of money lifting off of the back of the sub-prime mortgage issue hitting the USA!

Yeah, shareholder value and all of that is valid etc etc - but does it help the hard working families doing it tough? You can make your own mind up about that one.

Maybe some of that “Shareholder value” could be directed to the more pressing issues facing our rural families. As a young man I lived in a farming community and saw the effect of drought. Now I hear of the pure distress and anguish facing this same community.

04 Oct 07 Taronga Zoo

 

              

04 Oct 07 MAF Carnival Day 1 and 2

 The Masters Australian Football (MAF) carnival started for us at 8:00am on Sunday.

We played the ACT team who we beat at last year’s carnival in Maroochydore to win. They came out hard and played a tough game which eventually got them over the line by 12 points. Our carnival hadn’t started so well, but to our credit we had fought it out well to the end. A few skill errors had really cost us.

The second game was played against Vic Country yesterday (Wed) and was an equally good game with Vic Country getting up by 3 points. Our carnival had gone not as well as all had planned considering we had won the event last year with 3 straight wins. Regardless, we had a good game and everyone contributed well.

 On both occasions we had been playing on the #3 ground at the St Ignatius College in Lane Cove. This facility is amazing, but the #2 and #3 grounds that have been prepared for the event were sub standard as far as size goes. It played a critical role in restricting the game to a very tight and close encounter on both occasions which hasn’t suited our team at all.

We have learned that we will play our final game (a dead rubber) on #1 ground, which is a spacious and full size oval. That will make up for a lot of the angst a number of us have felt as a result of playing on the smaller #3 ground.

 The College facility as a whole is amazing and massive. It has been around for close to 125 years and is obviously an exclusive college that would be very costly to attend. Being out of the carnival running for a medal our team will concentrate on getting the win and finishing with some respectability.

02 Oct 07 Adelaide to Sydney

The trip from Adelaide to Sydney started well but came to a crushing halt only 4 hours into the drive. At Pinnaroo we stopped to take stock of the directions and next towns we would be driving through when I noticed smoke or steam erupting from the exhaust of Annie’s exhaust pipe, we were driving her KIA Carnival. After some consideration we decided to call the RAA to have a look at it.

 After looking at the exhaust and engine the RAA guy spoke to the mechanic who fixed our car and came to the conclusion that it was likely an overfilled oil reserve. The best way forward was to burn the oil out of the exhaust by driving. So, we trusted this advice and took off from Pinnaroo.

Not 6 km’s down the road, after crossing the SA/Vic border, we had to turn around. The engine temperature was red hot. We limped back to Pinnaroo, over the border, where we had to surrender all of our fruit, and stopped back at the same spot where we had the RAA guy come back out.

Incidentally, we had just had the heads and injectors overhauled in readiness for this trip. To say I was more than disappointed and angry is an understatement.

After another review and call to the mechanic it was diagnosed as a head gasket that had gone. Our trip to that point was over. After many calls it was arranged to have the KIA carried back to Adelaide to the mechanic who had done the heads etc.

While we waited for the tow truck Annie and I booked her and the 3 kids into the Pinnaroo motel for the night.  I rode the tow truck back to Adelaide (which took forever) and picked up a hire car. After a night in my own bed I left for Pinnaroo at 6am the next day where I picked up Annie and the kids, packed up the car and resumed our trip.

Away we went in the new car (Ford XR6) and had a very smooth and uneventful drive for the day ending up in Wagga Wagga. We stayed at a motel on the outskirts of town and had a very restful and enjoyable evening. The next morning up and away passing through Gundagai where we stopped to take a few shots of the tucker box dog.

 That evening we stayed in a fantastic motel in Camden Valley, just outside of Sydney. The kids had a swim while mum and dad enjoyed a few beers followed by a nice meal.

The trip from Adelaide to Sydney was made even more smooth and enjoyable for the kids due to the DVD player with dual screens we picked up in Adelaide. The kids had earphones and the DVD’s most of the way which made the KM’s fly by.

 The next morning we rolled smoothly into Sydney thanks largely to the Navman GPS I picked up before we left Adelaide. We headed to the company apartment in the rocks where we stayed for the next 2 nights. The views from this spot are amazing and it was a very enjoyable 2 days.

We watched the AFL Grand Final on Saturday, which was awesome. Well done the cats!

The next day I had to play my first game at the MAF carnival at 8:00am, which is why we come to Sydney this year.

21 Sep 07 Have P’s will travel

 Joshua has passed his P plate test and is now a registered driver on our roads.

I remember the surreal feeling of ultimate freedom when I first gained my P plates.  I remember thinking actively about things I could do in order to get out into the car and drive by my self again.

“Want some milk Mum?”

“Just going out ….  to look at the sign down the road…”

He has his own car, so at least we aren’t going to be second guessing if we have a car to use ourselves. You get so used to the ability to just jump in the car and go somewhere and do tend to take it for granted.

19 Sep 07 ITLAPD

Today is International Talk Like a Pirates Day and it occurs every Sept 19th. On my birthday….

…. me hearties! aarrrrr!

19 Sep 07 Pokies!

Cellobella posted on the Rabbitoh’s owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes plans to get rid of pokies. While I agree 110% with the move, I commented on the post that the flip side of this is where amateur sporting associations would suffer if pokies were to be removed.

My comment read’s:

Its more than likely they will be able to sustain the business by generating other forms of income due to its profile and public support. My observations are that in the amateur sporting clubs they will struggle to survive without a revenue stream like this. Not that I support pokies at all, but my own experience at a club that is pokie free is one of constant struggle and lack of any real progress through the ranks.

I’d be very keen to understand what the other revenue streams are?

As I said, sporting clubs find it extremely difficult to generate additional income without a “sugar daddy” sponsor who chucks in big dollars. Even then its not a reliable income stream due to the uncertainty of the next years income. BBQ’s and raffles can only take a club so far!

One that many people have struggled with for a long time.

19 Sep 07 Does life begin at 40!?

If it does, I’d like to know how and when this phenomenon starts and what physical effects it has on the 40 year old!

Any thing you know and are prepared to share is appreciated.