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!