That Happy Feeling

Queens of the Sea

Today was a chance to take the ferry from Manly across to Circular Quay to catch a last glimpse of the Queen Elizabeth II, and a first of the Queen Victoria, two of the Cunard Lines superliners. Its 30 years to the day since the Queen Elizabeth II sailed into the harbour. The Queen Victoria got in yesterday and leaves tonight. When the QV leaves the International Terminal the QE2 will sail from its current berth at the Garden Island dockyard across to the International Terminal. The ships will pass each other either side of Fort Denison, just off Circular Quay and the Opera House. There'll be a ceremonial whistle salute, whereby the youngster, Victoria, salutes the ageing Elizabeth. Victoria will then continue its maiden round the world cruise and Elizabeth II will sail off, to retire later in the year from Cunard lines, and become a floating hotel in Dubai.

I would have like to have joined the thousands lining the harbour and foreshores at 6.30pm when that happens (*in about an hour) but traffic, trains, and buses after that will be bedlam, an absolute nightmare, so I'll watch it on the late news, see the photos tomorrow, and catch the stream on www.yahoo.com.au probably tomorrow as well.

A beautiful day today, a little windy, mid 20's Celsius, high 70's Fahrenheit. Have a great week folks.

Read That Line - What Line?

As the three week vacation draws to its inevitable end, I was finally able to get my eyes checked for new specs today.

Made and appointment with the testers for last Friday, got there - "Sorry we've tried to contact you, x call in sick". OK, no problems I made another appointment for today. Wasted some time in the city before my 11.30am appointment, only to arrive to "Aha, we've been trying to contact you, x had to go home sick". Forgettabadut!!! Walked across town to another branch of the same franchise, waited about half an eye, got the test, picked the frames, and they'll take about 5-7 working days, which will mean that hopefully by Saturday week I'll have new specs. This'll be great becasue i've had the current pair for about 5 years and I can notice a gradual degredation in my vision. Bifocals again, and both the near and longer vision is being strengthened so I'm looking forward to the new me.

Apart from that all is pretty quiet. I didn't say last week (forgot) but Sunday 10th February marked my 40th year of permanent employment (2 employers - Navy and Boys In Blue (law enforcement). 40 year old photograph is in the sidebar (bellbottoms and all). Retirement is stll a very faint light at the end of a very long tunnel, but I'm still enjoying the job (particularly whilst I'm on holidays from it).

Catch you later in the week.

On Your Bike

Enjoying the 2nd of 3 weeks recreation leave. Just pottering around. Last Friday I took the day train down to Melbourne, in Victoria for the weekend, just to get away for a few days. Came back on Monday's day train from Melbourne. Melbourne has a large Chinese population, so they do Chinese New Year in a big way. There's a fairly sizeable Chinatown in the middle of the city, with narrow streets, lots of restaurants and specialty shops etc. One of the wider streets was blocked off and there were a range of tented stalls and displays, and SBS radio pumping out the music. It was interesting, but crowded. Didn't do much else while I was there, but it was good to get away.

Picked up the bike from the repairer's yesterday (faulty derailleur)so have resolved to try to read at least 3-4 days a week, starting out at about 20 minutes a day. Hopefully that'll get the circulation moving and the weight down a bit, but we'll see. At the moment its a bit sore on the saddle and the legs are a bit shaky when i dismount, but that's to be expected in the early stages I suppose.

Choir is gearing up for a fairly hectic couple of weeks during the Mardi Gras season. Should be lots of fun.

Catch you over the next couple of days.

Wet, Wet, Wet

We usually get high humidity late January, and early February but this past week we've had the heavy rain to match it. The first 4 days of February 2008 had rainfall in Sydney which equalled the whole of Feb last year. It has partially eased the drought in some of the dryer parts of the state, which is a good thing, but sadly people continue to do stupid things in heavy rain and flooding. Quite a few cars trying to cross causeways and low bridges have been stranded with drivers trapped. In one incident on tonight's news a volunteer firetruck was trapped trying to rescue people and the fireys had to be rescued themselves, winched back through the cold torrents. There have also been reports of youngsters 9 and 11 years old missing, last seen very close to raging torrents, so hopefully they'll be found, but the outlook is dire with police and ambulance helicopters out searching, along with volunteers from the State Emergency Services.

Just before this latest bout, and following the last heavy rains which caused major damage across the state, there are still lots of houses with canvas and tarpaulin convering roof damage. The owners are stating that the Insurance companies are slow to settle, and the insurance companies are stating they've got a huge backlog of claims to process.

On top of all that, we've just had another Interest rate rise of 1/4%, which adds about $50 a month to mortage and rental payments. These seem to be happening every 3 - 6 months, and its been a long time since they actually dropped rather rose, or stayed steady. So the belt gets tightened a little, and the things I need take precedence over the things I want (which is as it should be).

Might need a new mobile phone (cellphone though), because my current one was water damaged yesterday. It still works though, but the screen is blurry, and when I power the thing up the adapter gets very hot, so I might have to toss it.

Off to Melbourne for a few days this weekend. When I checked the internet to book a week or so ago, there was very little reasonable accommodation available, and then I twigged it was the weekend of Chinese New Year, so that may be interesting. There's a large Chinese population in Melbourne, and it has a Chinatown in the centre of the city. The Chinese originally came out for the gold rush in 1851, and stayed, and have prospered in most of the capital cities.

Gung Hoy Fat Choy - and have a good week y'all.