A year ago...

12 Months ago this week we flew to Brisbane to look for a new house to live in before our big move to Queensland. Hasn't time flown by!

It was a busy week, we visited more than 20 houses in the week, many that did not meet our requirements, went to some theme parks and then watched my beloved Hawks lose a Grand Final, to top it off we sold our house over the phone. Towards the end of the short stay we decided to make an offer on a house that we had quickly inspected, in the end it became our home.

No need to fast forward 12 months, as it seems to have been so anyway, this week I hope for a change in fortune for the Mighty Hawks, I won't be watching... I am sure my short temper and frustration will ensure I wouldn't enjoy it anyway. Instead I will get out into the garden and get back into the long list of jobs to be completed.

We have not done a lot in the last few weeks, we have been doing any number of things, many to avoid the hard work needed. Last weekend I went pig hunting, wasn't the most successful trip but we had a great time anyway. The property has plenty of pigs on it but not many that we could find, the only one we saw crossed our path while all firearms were secured and unloaded in the ute. Needless to say he had all but made good his escape by the time I had unpacked and loaded the BLR. An off hand fleeting shot at him as he disappeared into the thick dense scrub was not accurate enough to pull him up. The Cocky's game camera mounted on his pig trap indicated we were minutes away from a mob of 30 odd pigs when spotlighting but alas we did not see them and for the life of me I can't think where they disappeared to!

The pool has been swum in everyday and we are loving it, the solar has warmed the pool up to a balmy 28 degrees Celsius, so warm that we had to adjust the temperature set point to prevent it becoming a bath. The girls are swimming like fish and are loving time spent in the pool, they have invented any number of games to play and keep themselves amused. Much to my chagrin, my swimming ability is on par with that of a rock, however I have taken some time over the last few weeks and have successfully taught myself to swim properly. The pool is big enough to allow me practice my breathing and stroke, however I am yet to get the whole tumble turn thing.

You may recall that there was a Magpie by the name of Graeme that was making my working day a Hitchcock inspired nightmare, the little black and white prick chased me over a combined distance of more than a kilometre during which time he would swoop and peck, or hit me or my helmet more than 50 times each day! Thankfully Auspost decided that it was a safety issue and organised to have the bird relocated. I was informed Monday afternoon that there had been a successful capture and relocation of Graeme on Friday! It was amusing to see the reaction of the boss when I told her that the $600 spent to move the bastard was spent on the wrong bird and in fact Graeme was still dive bombing all over Kingfisher Park to his hearts content. This morning I was rapt to get a phone call from the bird catcher letting me know that this time she had indeed got Graeme, not convinced I met her at Kingfisher Park to confirm his entrapment. It was him and the smile on my face was a mile wide, I truly enjoyed the rest of my day, while Graeme was in transit to the Sunshine Coast, good riddance you cowardly feathered fiend.

You might also remember I had a run in with our Crimsafe screen door, what a saga that has turned out to be. I have had heaps of trouble getting the installer out to repair the door, obviously they are not happy having to honour the lifetime warranty. Finally after three weeks and many phone calls they came to have a look. Surprise surprise the stooges have squibbed on the warranty, claiming a door of that size should have a centre stay and the previous owners must have waived the warranty to have it installed thusly without a centre stay. Can't really argue about what might have happened six years ago when installed, but I do find their reluctance to cover the warranty and the fact they have weaseled out of it pretty damn poor. Needless to say that I reckon Crimsafe is not worth a pinch of hot cocky shit! Scumbags!

It's a Small World...

We have had a few of the it's a small world moments since we have been up here!

Firstly Karren came home from work and asked if I knew a bloke called Hambly who used to work at Mars, yes was the reply. It turns out that Karren now works with his son in law.

The second it's a small world moment involves a long and detailed story that I am about to regale, or bore you to death with.

I saw a video produced by the Ballarat RSL, a story of a man called Bull Allen. The video tells the story of a brave Ballarat man and his gallantry during WWII, the link was posted by Bruce an old workmate of mine. The video inspired me to search for similar stories on YouTube.

One video that I found was titled Tribute to Australian Soldiers in Afghanistan 2012, and was posted by MozfromAus. At the time it meant nothing to me but I kept searching. Later I returned to the video to read some of the comments and I had a WTF moment. MozfromAus was a bloke named Ken.  Those of you who went through their secondary schooling at Sebas Tech with me and escaped unscathed will probably, no certainly remember a larrakin called Ken, who left school to join the army. I don't like posting the full names of people on Blogs and the like so if you can't work out who I am on about send me a message. One of the last times Ken and I were in touch, he sent me some photos and a letter from Namibia where he served with the UNTAG forces.

Photo from the Australian War Memorial Archives.

I had been unsuccessfully searching for ways to connect to Ken to no avail. MozfromAus was a clue that would eventually enable to me to connect with Moz on Facebook after not being in touch with each other for more than 20 years.

So last night I was next door having a BBQ with our neighbours Jason and Danielle, Jason was ex-army and he handed me a stubby holder that was emblazoned with a Combat Engineers insignia. I was sure that Ken/Moz was at some stage a member of the Combat Engineers when he was in the army. I thought it was a remote possibility that the two gents would know each other but asked the question of Jason anyway. The answer didn't really surprise me, Jason "Killer" knew Ken "Moz" very well, they great mates in the army and have known each other for years.

I find it amazing that I now live next door to a bloke who is mates with an old mate of mine from the other end of the country from more than 20, nearly 30 years ago. I reckon it's a great story, but I will certainly not be asking why Killer is so named.

It has been some time since my last post, nothing of real note has happened.

We fired up the Chimenea to roast some marshmallows, one thing led to another and soon I had consumed the best part of a bottle of Bourbon, Karren a couple of bottles of Vino, the girls a bag of marshmallows, they also ended up with a couple of little burns from the molten marshmallow as well!

mmmmmm fire.... so pissed I couldn't even hold the camera straight!

 That night I did explode the myth that Crimsafe screen doors are Crimsafe! I was a little joyous after consuming three quarters of a bottle of Devil's Cut and walked straight through a closed Crimsafe door. Crimsafe they might be, pissed idiot safe they certainly are not!

Didn't hurt at the time!

Last weekend I had my 44th Birthday, a forgettable one, the only positive is that I keep having Birthdays, getting older is better than the alternative.

For my Birthday treat we went to the Brisbane Boat Show and dreamed of what we would buy if we won the Lotto, then we followed that with lunch on Sunday arvo at SouthBank. My luck was out and we had the misfortune of picking the single worst restaurant in Brisbane, thankfully is was so bad I have forgotten its name, or is that old age, anyway where was I.... we tried a few establishments that were too busy, then found one that wasn't. 

The fact that this restaurant wasn't busy should have rung alarm bells, but once we saw our food it became immediately apparent why it was so quiet. I ordered a seafood basket, one would think a safe enough choice when on the coast near some of the best fisheries in the country! Alas my seafood basket consisted of some crumbed and fried fish, calamari and prawns all thoughtfully prepared and frozen by Birdseye or some such similar company many many weeks before my birthday! The fish fillets were hardly fillets, instead more like a oversized fish fingers. The food was so substandard Karren and the girls were also unable to completely finish their meals - which is highly unusual for Emily and Rosie! The restaurant proudly proclaimed to serve Australian cuisine. If by Australian cuisine they mean cheap and nasty food that tasted like crap and was prepared by chefs too lazy to batter and fry some seafood, they nailed it!

Karren's Birthday is Tuesday so I need to get my backside firmly in gear and organise something special for her for dinner. Processed and frozen seafood is not on the menu!