General embuggerances
I hate to sound like a whinger, but ..... I must've killed a Chinaman in a past life. Had the car fixed, as noted in a previous post. Then on Monday last week we had to go to Port Macquarie, 60 kms away, to take the Old Chook to the haematologist. We went early and had a tasty lunch at one of the bowling clubs there, the women shopped a bit, and we presented ourselves at the specialist's office at 4 PM. Finished all that, and took to the road home. Two thirds of the way home, on a curved section of the highway, with a 6 foot (2 metre) drop on the left side, the car started to go 'rakka rakka rakka' which doesn't look good on the page and sounds even worse coming from the engine. I slowed down, on aforementioned long sweeping curve, and the %$#@^&%$#@$%^&ing thing stopped! So here we were, 84 year old Chook in the front seat, Missus in the back, and B-Doubles roaring past at 120kph, and we're halfway off the road.
"Oh dear," says I (in the car) and when I got out, it was a lot more colourful, let me tell you. I rang Richard and asked him to come and get the women, and then luckily was able to get hold of my garage (three minutes before closing) and ask them to arrange a tow truck for me. In the meantime, I walked back up the road about 40 or so metres and started waving off the traffic in the near lane, to avoid the car with my women in it being cleaned up by a roaring semi-trailer. This went on for about 40 minutes or so, and by then I was jumpered up and waving off cars and trucks with a torch.
The women were evacuated and about twenty minutes later the tow truck arrived. I finally got home and collapsed in a heap. Sheesh!!
The previous Friday we went up-river and had a delightful lunch at a place called Bliss In The Bush, which is miles from anywhere in a big tin shed which was purpose-built as a pottery. The owner went broke as a potter and leased the place to the present owners who started up a restaurant. It does a roaring trade, and the place also takes consignment craft works, so The Missus took up some of her unique hand-knitted Poodle Boots (TM) and got a cheque on the spot. Unfortunately, when we got home, and put up the soft-top on the Ford Capri, the soft-top catch broke in my hand. I was able to source one on the 'Net .... for $20 more than we sold the Poodle Boots for !!
Anyway, back to the following week - the car was off the road, and I had a friend coming up for a few days on the Wednesday. He duly arrived and on Thursday we tootled up the river again to a local vineyard, in his car. He tasted and bought a few bottles and we then retired to Bliss In the Bush for lunch again. Back home and played some music, all very satisfactory. Then on the Thursday, he rang home to check in, and things at home didn't sound too good. He has a son who has gone off the rails and it appeared that said young dickhead was working himself up to another psychotic episode. Isn't it funny how amphetamines can rot yer brain!! So Ray hurtled back here, picked up his gear and departed for Sydney at a rate of knots. Poor bastard, he doesn't deserve to have that crap happening to him, he is such an upright and honourable man. Anyway, so much for the pleasant relaxing couple of days in the country.
In the meantime, the garage rang up. It's never good when they ring you, and in this case it wasn't good news. Off the road till at least next week, as the water is still gushing out of the engine somewhere inaccessible.
Went fishin' Friday night, lovely still moonlit night, and the only fish caught were very small tiddlers. Saturday was quiet, and Sunday's plan was to get some Chinese takeaway and have lunch with the Old Chook for Mother's Day. Except I had a call from her friend Joycie, who said the old girl wasn't very well, so we got ourselves dressed and headed out to see what was going on. When we went outside there were some blokes there to cut the trees in our driveway where they hang over the fence of the Masonic Hall next door. We exhorted them to be careful and not cut too much off, as we had heaps of birds nesting there. Went up to the Old Girl's place, she wasn't too bad, but will need to go to the doctor again next week. We were away an hour, and we left one dog inside, and two outside.
When we got home, the dog greeted us very sheepishly ... and my study door was open, as was the corridor door to the lounge room, and several lights were on that hadn't been on before .... the fucking burglars had been in, while we'd been away for an hour on a Sunday!!! We asked the workmen next door if they'd seen or heard anything, and they said they'd gone down to Bunnings to buy one of those limb-lopper things, so the window of opportunity was no more than twenty minutes. In that time the burglars got in, turfed out the drawers in both bedrooms, opened drawers in several other rooms, and got away with a MIGHTY haul!! All the one and two dollar coins in the cookie jar (about $20) and my brand new 4gig MP3 player (all of $69.95!!). They walked past a digital SLR worth $900, a laptop, several musical instruments worth a fair bit, and all the Missus's jewellery - not all that much but there are a couple of pricey items there. So these ace crims scored $20 in cash, a cheap MP3 player with old fart music on it, and ... wait for it!! .... TWO expired pink nail polish bottles!!!
Now if you were to be politically incorrect you could probably make a guess at the ethnicity, age, and general intelligence of these criminals. But I'm not going to do that. All I know is that they had 'eyes on" to be able to pull off this heist in the time we were away. And there's only one place they could be from .... the public housing flats across the street where the multi-coloured trash comes to live when they've been kicked out of all the other public housing premises in town, and the caravan parks won't take 'em.
So I am cranky. And I care not for any apologists for these low-life welfare-rorting school-avoiding social misfits. Exterminate ! extirminate!!!!!
"Oh dear," says I (in the car) and when I got out, it was a lot more colourful, let me tell you. I rang Richard and asked him to come and get the women, and then luckily was able to get hold of my garage (three minutes before closing) and ask them to arrange a tow truck for me. In the meantime, I walked back up the road about 40 or so metres and started waving off the traffic in the near lane, to avoid the car with my women in it being cleaned up by a roaring semi-trailer. This went on for about 40 minutes or so, and by then I was jumpered up and waving off cars and trucks with a torch.
The women were evacuated and about twenty minutes later the tow truck arrived. I finally got home and collapsed in a heap. Sheesh!!
The previous Friday we went up-river and had a delightful lunch at a place called Bliss In The Bush, which is miles from anywhere in a big tin shed which was purpose-built as a pottery. The owner went broke as a potter and leased the place to the present owners who started up a restaurant. It does a roaring trade, and the place also takes consignment craft works, so The Missus took up some of her unique hand-knitted Poodle Boots (TM) and got a cheque on the spot. Unfortunately, when we got home, and put up the soft-top on the Ford Capri, the soft-top catch broke in my hand. I was able to source one on the 'Net .... for $20 more than we sold the Poodle Boots for !!
Anyway, back to the following week - the car was off the road, and I had a friend coming up for a few days on the Wednesday. He duly arrived and on Thursday we tootled up the river again to a local vineyard, in his car. He tasted and bought a few bottles and we then retired to Bliss In the Bush for lunch again. Back home and played some music, all very satisfactory. Then on the Thursday, he rang home to check in, and things at home didn't sound too good. He has a son who has gone off the rails and it appeared that said young dickhead was working himself up to another psychotic episode. Isn't it funny how amphetamines can rot yer brain!! So Ray hurtled back here, picked up his gear and departed for Sydney at a rate of knots. Poor bastard, he doesn't deserve to have that crap happening to him, he is such an upright and honourable man. Anyway, so much for the pleasant relaxing couple of days in the country.
In the meantime, the garage rang up. It's never good when they ring you, and in this case it wasn't good news. Off the road till at least next week, as the water is still gushing out of the engine somewhere inaccessible.
Went fishin' Friday night, lovely still moonlit night, and the only fish caught were very small tiddlers. Saturday was quiet, and Sunday's plan was to get some Chinese takeaway and have lunch with the Old Chook for Mother's Day. Except I had a call from her friend Joycie, who said the old girl wasn't very well, so we got ourselves dressed and headed out to see what was going on. When we went outside there were some blokes there to cut the trees in our driveway where they hang over the fence of the Masonic Hall next door. We exhorted them to be careful and not cut too much off, as we had heaps of birds nesting there. Went up to the Old Girl's place, she wasn't too bad, but will need to go to the doctor again next week. We were away an hour, and we left one dog inside, and two outside.
When we got home, the dog greeted us very sheepishly ... and my study door was open, as was the corridor door to the lounge room, and several lights were on that hadn't been on before .... the fucking burglars had been in, while we'd been away for an hour on a Sunday!!! We asked the workmen next door if they'd seen or heard anything, and they said they'd gone down to Bunnings to buy one of those limb-lopper things, so the window of opportunity was no more than twenty minutes. In that time the burglars got in, turfed out the drawers in both bedrooms, opened drawers in several other rooms, and got away with a MIGHTY haul!! All the one and two dollar coins in the cookie jar (about $20) and my brand new 4gig MP3 player (all of $69.95!!). They walked past a digital SLR worth $900, a laptop, several musical instruments worth a fair bit, and all the Missus's jewellery - not all that much but there are a couple of pricey items there. So these ace crims scored $20 in cash, a cheap MP3 player with old fart music on it, and ... wait for it!! .... TWO expired pink nail polish bottles!!!
Now if you were to be politically incorrect you could probably make a guess at the ethnicity, age, and general intelligence of these criminals. But I'm not going to do that. All I know is that they had 'eyes on" to be able to pull off this heist in the time we were away. And there's only one place they could be from .... the public housing flats across the street where the multi-coloured trash comes to live when they've been kicked out of all the other public housing premises in town, and the caravan parks won't take 'em.
So I am cranky. And I care not for any apologists for these low-life welfare-rorting school-avoiding social misfits. Exterminate ! extirminate!!!!!