Richmond Bridge

Painting by Jonathan Rochester. Oil on canvas. Circa 1991.

I will also note I didn't have a great interest in painting, and I am colour blind. I just wanted to earn some money to buy a new Haro BMX freestyle bike, which I did. As soon as I had my BMX I never did another painting.

The morning fog

So I drive 50km to get to the car that won't go that I am meant to fix. Soon after arriving I find the owner has also lost the remote, and I can't touch the car or the alarm will go off. Two problems. He searches high and low for the remote. I offer some direction, "it's in your other pants, which are in the wash." Sure enough the remote was found broken in the washing machine and after some stuffing around it was still stuffed. After only short discussion, I am given the go-ahead to remove the whole alarm system. The car was unlocked, I had the key, the bonnet was open, but I knew that as soon as the alarm was touched or key turned the siren would go off, maybe for a whole day unless we smashed it with a hammer (it has it's own battery). Of course I had time, tools, the birds chirping (peace and serenity) and was able to remove the alarm without it going off and restored the car to it's normal state. How hard would it have been if I hadn't had the key and daylight? Don't worry, it would have been very hard. Immobilizers are probably effective, unless someone wanted to use a tilt tray truck.

Coffee in Cronulla

Today I had nothing else to do so I went to Cronulla with Dave J. First stop was Grind coffee.

Bare floor boards. 70s chairs in poor condition. A church pew. Heshen coffee bags. Music was James Brown.

My small cappuccino. $3.

David Jolly was very interested in all this. Short black.

We had another coffee down the road. Strong enough to get a head spin. Dave had a third.

Upcoming blog topics

I will put some more stuff on my blog shortly, from a variety of topics. But since my youth is now gone, some of it will be retrospective. I wonder what brings most interest:

How not to loose weight.
How to loose weight.
Relationships and what went wrong.
Quick and tasty cooking for the single male.
Fictional stories about people you may know.
Targa Tasmania, how much $ do a I really need.
My 5 year plan.
Home crafts of the Puritans and Pilgrim Fathers.
The list of nice girls I haven't contacted, (excluding some that are uncontactable of course).

That is easy. Home crafts always rates the highest.

Time

How do you spend your time on the Internet? (Genuine question).

For most jobs or formal employment, you don't need the Internet much. You do need it, but only a trickle of info, a few e-mails and stuff here and there. Mostly, if your on the net, it's for hobby or social relaxation use.

If the government give us optic fibre Internet, will people have more time on their hands because they could finish their daily Facebook activities early?

For hobby/information/technical discussion use, I always am logged in to one or two forums. Plus one or two of my webmail addresses. Sometimes Facebook, or a blog. And e-bay and PayPal depending on the time of year.

I have a ton of stuff to put on my blog here, just not sure if it's worth it. I could watch TV, but that is passive, and not interactive.

Bike

Lets just pretend I swapped my Commodore for a bicycle. That is the end of my story.

Frame: 2008 Azzurri Torino, aluminium

Forks: Azzurri, carbon fibre

Groupset: 2008 Shimano Tiagra everything

Wheels: Shimano WH-R500

Seatpost: FSA carbon

Seat: Velo 1133

Bars and stem: FSA alloy

Pedals: PD-R540

Shoes: SH-R085

Computer: Cateye Velo 8

In all a basic setup a professional wouldn't touch. But I think it works very well. 9-speed on the rear shifts very quick and is enough gears for me. "Compact" cranks gives the smaller front ring I need as a novice in Hobart. The seat is my third one already.

The main problems are; Hobart roads are too rough, especially on the edges. And not many bicycle lanes are painted on the roads. David Bartlet has a plan to fix this.

Motorists: please remove your bull bars, external aerials and roof racks when not in use.

Tools in Commodores

I take no responsibility for the driver in this photo, but he seams to have it all under control. Doing a bloody good job actually judging by the smoke. Not sure who's car it is but.

This Christmas, pause and spare a thought for those that live in lower social-economic suburbs. Like the guys that have my tools, and Commodore. Small children will be opening their presents. One gets a 10mm spanner, another a 12mm. And another a 19mm socket, which is the size you need to remove the wheels from the Commodore they now have. Who are we kidding? We are all Australian, and all equal. Everyone has tools, and Commodores. I even bought some tools the other day. It was as easy as going to the tool shop and saying, "I am Australian, it's Christmas, give me tools". Almost that easy. I could probably buy another Commodore next week if I wanted, if I didn't buy cappuccinos for $3.70 each.