How The West Was Wrong

“Rudd Got Burke To Arrange Function” screeches the front page of Monday’s West Australian print edition.
Seriously, it’s garbage like this that reinforces my resolve to dissuade my children from becoming journalists. If, as I suspect, they will ignore me, I hope they have success in rescuing the profession from the gutter.
The headline is not just a misrepresentation of the truth, it’s also in conflict with the story itself.
Interesting to note that the headline cannot be found in the electronic archives of the West. Someone has had a change of heart, it seems.
Thank goodness we also have access to The Australian in Perth, which reprinted more than just two emails to give a more complete version of the (non-)story.
Sometimes I’m so embarrassed by my former association with this morass of mediocrity.

Crossing the Tarmac

As I arrived at the airline lounge, a tiny, corner-of-the-eye observation piqued my curiosity. Is that *normal*?

The first thing I noticed was that, as they were moving to replace a food tray, one of the wait-staff was crossing themselves in the catholic tradition. Not an every-day occurrence, but not interesting in itself. Maybe the guacamole needed all the help it could get.

Then I noticed that in their line of vision, not my own, a plane was just in the process of lifting off the tarmac. It seemed to me that the server was observing some sort of traditional blessing on the departing aircraft with that action, and it got me wondering…

Does anyone know if that’s a tradition or superstition – that if you see an aircraft lifting off, that you bless it on its way? It it widespread?

I’d not seen it happen before today, so it can’t be common, but has anyone else encountered it?

And would it unsettle you to know that various ground staff are praying you on your way as you slip the surly bonds of earth?

The Take Over, The Break's Over

… in which David catches up on a few weeks of news items , for the benefit of casual and new readers.

(insert lame blog hiatus excuse here)

It seems like only 8 weeks since we jumped the car, praying that we had crammed enough sustenance and entertainment into the trusty Forester to last two, possibly three weeks of homelessness and cross-country travailing.

I’d done a few weeks of research into the many and varied challenges that might come our way, and it all seemed to whittle down to two things

  • is there petrol out there – and if so, where?
  • is there wildlife out there – and if so, will it keep away from my speeding car?

Despite all my carefully laid plans, we were forced to leave early, and we headed out from ‘Bancroft’ in Sydney with only a direction in mind. West.

I’m pleased to say that the most traumatic part of the trip was when we bought a bag of oranges only a few hundred meters from a quarantine checkpoint at which we were required to hand them back. We saw very little wildlife, the petrol was plentiful (and expensive : $1.88/l at Norseman!) and we completed the journey in just 4.5 days of solid driving. A great adventure.

On arrival in Perth, we had a few days of bunking with family before beginning to camp in ‘Griffin’ – our 2008 home in Perth. We enjoyed a few days of box-free existence before our movers delivered hundreds of cartons which, at the time of writing, still grace some of the less-trafficked areas of the house. It’s a nice place, and by the looks of things, we’re lucky to have a rental property secured.

Caleb, Allanah and Charlotte have returned to their former schools, replete with stationery and uniformery, and are also setting back into their DanceSporting routines, too.

Ainslie had the misfortune of breaking her wrist a second time before leaving from Sydney, and returned home just in time to attend her older sister’s funeral.

Me, I’m back at work , and have suffered through trips to New York, Dallas, Melbourne and Sydney while all this has been going on.

There’s been a lot of changes, and a lot of sad and bad news over the last few months. We’re taking stock, and deep breaths, and looking forward to a big re-settling year in Perth. Bring it on!

My new year’s resolution? Once again, it’s to be writing more. This year, it’s more about music and relationships. I’ll be blogging less (if that’s possible) and emailing more, and getting some of these musical ideas down in writing or soundwaves, somehow.

I hope you’ll accept this humble entry as a blog-amnesty, and we can get on with the news-at-hand.

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

… Does anybody really care?

The posts have been few and far between recently, because I haven’t been able to trust BONWAG. Rebuilds failing, posts going missing, and me without the time to debug. (This has been a wild couple of months. More on that later.)

It seems that one of the reasons BONWAG is having conniptions is because it’s taking too darn long to look back through 13 years of posts and try to put them in chronological chunks (called months). And, come to think of it, it’s not really important. I’ll switch it off and see if anyone complains.

And come to think of it, there were too many darned categories too. They’re gone. I’ll have to see if tags are any more useful.

Fonts? Colours? Images? I think they’re window-dressing too. I’ll keep them in for a while.

I’ll see if there’s any loyalty to wring out of my current web hosting provider before I start sniffing around. You’d think after more than a decade with an organisation they’d be keen to discuss options to keep you a happy, paying customer. Nope. Not with these competitive margins, bud.

And in unrelated geek news, I’ve decided to dip back into the world of MySpace to see if anyone has figured out how to write web code. First impressions are good – interesting what a dose of web standards (to wit: OpenSocial ) can do for a team of wallowing developers.

Oh, and just for a bit of a laugh – I’ve written this post with the new Windows Live Writer. It seems smoother and less klunky (but with fewer features) than my current favourite – w.bloggar – but we’ll see if Microhoo is also producing the goods.

UPDATE: Oooh – there’s finally been an update of w.bloggar after a year! I might have to compare and contrast. :-)

Go West, Young Man 2007

Who says I haven’t learned my lesson? Yes, we’re going back for more.

As we’ve told a few family and friends, our time in Sydney has come to a close, and we’re returning to WA for the foreseeable future. I’ll be keeping the same job, just working from a different place, and Ainslie will have to find another way of keeping herself amused. Again. Maybe she’ll take up writing.

In reviewing our snapshots of the last few years, we’ve achieved so much and also seen so many places other than Sydney. I’ll have to collect a Brag Sheet together before we leave.

However, we’ve saved the biggest adventure until last. We’re driving.

Yep – it’s one of the great road trips of the world, and we think the Forester is up for it. it’s over 4200 kilometres of some of the most boring countryside on the planet, but it’s one of those things you need to be able to say you’ve done at least once in your life. For me, this will be three. For the rest of the gang, it will be one.

Anyone done the journey recently? Any tips?

Hurlstone Film

I can’t believe it’sa taken me a while to look this up, but there are a few Hurlstone videos doing the rounds on YouTube. (These search results will show what we have learned at dear old Hurlstone. Hurrah! Hurrah!)
When I find the many videos I have lying around here I might put some up from the 1980s :-)
Great memories for past students, terrifying blackmail for current ones, and excellent orientation for future Hurlstonians.

Bollywood on Long Island

Those Indians sure know to have a wedding procession.
–
I’m staying in a hotel on Long Island today – travelling on business – and find myself in the middle of some sort of wedding celebration… Lots of drums and silk and gold thread and shouting and singing and throwing of money.
There’s even a horse!
All this against a Long Island Autumnal backdrop and an ambient temperature of about 10 degrees.
Only in America. Okay, maybe one other place.