Barbie Time Is Here!!!

Well it certainly seems that bar-b-q time has arrived in sunny Queensland, even though it is deemed to be "storm season". The weather does what it does best here --- one day beautiful and the next day WIND AND RAIN!!! You all thought I was going to say PERFECT, weren't you???
It was great to have friends around for the afternoon on Sunday. I flashed the barbie up and the kids took over. So I just sat back chatting with my mate Brian and sinking a couple of cold XXXX Goldies.

Zarina and Brian

Zarina had a bit of a scare on yesterday and was rushed to hospital, but fortunately, she is now well on the way to recovery. We are all thinking of you love.

Mariam and Adzlan

Mariam and Adzlan did most of the cooking on the barbie and we feasted on fried chicken, bar-b-q chicken and barbied 2 inch thick tuna steaks. A feast fit for a king.

Mimi and Aina

 These two girls did a lot of the preparation inside after they arrived at home. The care they took in making the fruit and vegetables look so inviting was phenomenal. Well done girls. You are welcome in the kitchen any time.

My hard working wife Kay

Kay worked from about 8 am preparing the inside-cooked meals and preparing the meats for the barbie as well (except the tuna, which was Adzlan and my job). You can always count on a feast when Kay decides to entertain and I don' utter one word of complaint. Its almost like being back in Malaysia. Everything is so authentic.
I also did my bit during the morning by cutting up the chickens but I mainly spent my time outside tidying up so the place looked presentable.
So, just to finish, I would like to recommend to you that if you get an invite from Kay, please don't turn it down because you will regret it when you hear what was laid on!!!!
Those who didn't come or couldn't, EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT!!!!!

Nursery Rhymes

When my daughter was in kindergarten, I had only recently been discharged from the Navy. As you would know, sailors have a very bad habit of changing words and phrases to suit their needs. It so happened when Katrina was learning nursery rhymes. I sort of taught her the rhymes we used to say in the boozer (ship's bar) to help pass the time.
Unfortunately, she recited them at kindergarten and told the other kids that they were saying the wrong words. Consequently, I received a "request" from her teacher to "refrain from teaching Katrina sea shanty style nursery rhymes".
So I thought that seeing that it has been a time since my last entry, I would regale you with some old and bold sailors' nursery rhymes.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And a bloody great onion right in the middle!!

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie.
He put in his thumb
And pulled out a bicycle and said
"Whoa. How did Santa fit that in there."

Little Boy Blue come blow your trumpet
If the sheep don't like it
They can bloody well lump it.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses
And all the King's men
Had scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Little Miss Muffett
Sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her
And she said "Piss off hairy legs".

So as you can see from this smattering of rhymes, I could not have possibly been popular with the teacher!!

Be back in a while with more glittering repartee for your enjoyment.

Cocka-Bloody-Toos

I enjoy watching and listening to the birds that flock around our house each morning. From the tiny wrens to Willie Wagtails to parrots of every imaginable colour to the noisy Indian minas. And of course the handsome cockatoos.
There has been one cockatoo in particular that has been hanging around for a week or two. He (or she) sits on the fence or in a tree and carries on a conversation with no one in particular. I have enjoyed immensely the bravado of this bird as nothing seemed to annoy it except me trying to get close to it.
That was until this morning ..............
I was reading the paper and the cockatoo, as usual, perched on the fence and began to sidle along, getting closer to me in the covered entertainment area. It reached the passionfruit vines and hopped onto the covering foliage and then, without any delay, ducked its head into the foliage and came back up with a very ripe passionfruit in its beak!!!!!
So much for my envisaged friendship with this bird!!!!
It is nothing but an opportunistic THIEF!!!!

OUT OF THE DOLDRUMS

At long last I can see clearly now. That seems like maybe a good name for a song!!!! I seem to have spent so long down in the dumps and very confused with myself because of this dreaded PTSD. I finally got jack of it and spent quite a session with my doctor. He proposed that I see a counsellor to see if that would help. And, lo and behold, after several sessions I feel as if a great load has been lifted from me.
I have had counselling before and that was when I was finally diagnosed with PTSD. I went to the VVCS or Vietnam Veterans' Counselling Service (now known as Veterans and Veterans' Family Counselling Service). The people there are absolutely wonderful. They have been trained specifically for dealing with veterans and their inherent problems rising from war service. This time I went back to them and the counsellor I am now seeing is ex-Army and ex-Police Force (or should I say Police Service???) so he knows where I'm coming from. He didn't see active service but dealt with a lot of bad stuff while in the Police.
He showed me how to control my temper and mood swings by breathing. This brought on another problem of sorts. When I was studying for my teaching papers, I developed a series of breathing exercises to allow instrumentalists and vocalists control their breathing, which seems to have been very successful as some of my ex-students still use the process. Anyhow, while doing the relaxation breathing, I found I was falling into my own exercises and that seemed to increase the value of what I was doing. The counsellor seemed quite pleased with that although I thought maybe it would be wrong.
He also encouraged me to get back into things I used to do, so, after a couple of sessions I got up the courage to go to the RSL and volunteer myself for anything that I could do to help them. It seems that at the moment they don't have much going on, so I will just wait until they need me. But at least I have made a start.
Another thing he encouraged me to do was to get interested in music again. I composed a march while I was studying in 1982 and I have barely looked at it since, until now. I am in the process of re-writing it and I have found that it is an enjoyable pastime. Of course I don't have the skills on hand as I had in 1982, but they are coming back bit by bit.
I have been lucky to find a music writing programme on-line for a reasonable price, so I can now write music and listen to the results, which sometimes are horrendous, but usually easily fixed. It seems that my ear for notes is still with me to a certain degree. One day I might even find a concert band to play it. The local RSL has a Youth Band, so maybe they might be approachable. I have spoken to the bandmaster and explained to him that I wanted to volunteer my services somewhere, and when he found out my musical history, he sort of hinted that maybe, just maybe, I could stand in for him as conductor when he wasn't available. Now that is something that I could do pretty well!!!!
I have also been told by my doc that physiotherapy is a must. So I have been for the first assessment visit and see him again tomorrow week for the first agony session. The physio was quite amazed that I hadn't been referred to a specialist of some kind like a neurologist or surgeon when I first injured my leg. Maybe that could be on the agenda too.
So much going on and so little space to write about it. I will keep you informed as to how I progress with everything as time goes on. So, until the next time, just please be glad for me and my little success in recovery.

Want More Trivia???

Some from around the world

Beer is made by fermentation cause by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating. In other words, it's a nice tall glass of bacteria doo-doo. (Well... I didn't know that. Maybe if I had known I wouldn't have got to like it so much!!!!)

There are more psycho-analysts per capita in Buenos Aires than any other place in the world.

Newfoundland's time zone is half an hour off of all the others. So are Iran's, bits of India's, Afghanistan's, Burma's, and Nauru's.(And some other islands. Like Australia.)

The first man to distill bourbon whiskey in the United States was a Baptist preacher, in 1789. 

The ancient Egyptians recommended mixing half an onion with beer foam as a way of warding off death. (That concoction would kill you anyhow)

The Chinese, in olden days, used marijuana only as a remedy for dysentery. (Almost give you the shits, wouldn't it??)

During his or her lifetime, the average human will grow 590 miles of hair. (And I'm struggling to keep my one and a half inches of what's left of my hair)

The average Human bladder can hold 13 ounces of liquid.

You lose enough dead skin cells in your lifetime to fill eight five-pound flour bags.

Your thumb is the same length as your nose.

The storage capacity of human brain exceeds 4 Terabytes

Now from Australia
The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin.
 

In 1940 the Fauldings pharmaceutical company developed Zinc Cream, the iconic white sun block made from zinc oxide. (Now authorities are warning Australians that by using sun block you have successfully blocked out the life-giving vitamin D from sunlight. Can't win can we??)

Bats always turn left when leaving a cave.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is over 8 kilometres in circumference.

More than 85% of Australians live within 50 km of the coast.

In a lifetime the average Australian will consume half a tonne of cheese, eight tonnes of fruit and ten tonnes of vegetables. (The never mention beer in these HEALTHY stats)

The name "Australia" is derived from the Latin "australis" meaning "southern".

The hottest day in Australian history was in Oodnadatta, South Australia, on the 2nd of January 1960. It was 50.7 degrees Celsius.

Australia's coastline stretches almost 50,000 kilometres.

Australia has the greatest number of reptiles of any country, with 755 species.

Australia has an average of three people per square kilometre, making it one of the lowest population densities in the world.

The explorer ship, Endeavour, Captained by Captain James Cook, was originally designed to haul coal.

The 'dingo fence' in Australia is the longest fence in the world. It is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China.

The first telephone exchange opened in Melbourne with less than 45 customers.

The first radio station in Australia was known as 2SB, broadcasting out of Sydney in 1923.

Kalgoorlie in Western Australia embraces the world's largest political electorate, covering a mammoth 2.2 million square kilometres.

That's about it for your trivia fix this time. Keep watching for more to come. And don't forget to read my previous blog about Googie Withers.

Googie Withers

News has arrived that the great actress Googie Withers has passed away.
She was a wonderful actress and I remember seeing her in many films in my younger days although she sort of disappeared from our screens in the 70's I think.
Another thing I remember from that time was the advice given to young men aspiring for an acting career:

"If you want to be an instant movie star, sit in a cold bath of water until your googie withers!!!!!!"

The "Last Post" Discussion

There seems to be a lot of confusion about whether the American bugle call "Taps" was ever called the "Last Post". I am not an expert in this subject, but to my knowledge, Taps has never been referred to as the "Last Post".
Having spent 9 years as a trumpet player in the Navy, I did my fair share of bugling duties (which were also referred to as "BUNGLING" duties, depending on the ability of the bugler or bungler), and I also carried on that tradition for many years after my discharge in civilian life providing the bugle calls for ANZAC Day, Remembrance Day, Ex-Service Days and funerals.
The Duty Bugler was detailed as duty for one week at a time in HMAS Cerberus and there were usually 4 or 5 of us on call, so we only had to look forward to a week of long days with early mornings. The day started with "Wakey Wakey" at 0530 for Recruit School and 0600 for the rest of the establishment. The usual routine for the day was then in motion with "Colours" at 0800 when it was wet weather, otherwise a band and guard would play for "Colours". Also, the bugler would play "Colours" on weekends. "Stand Easy" morning and afternoon, "Secure" and "hands to Dinner" at 1200. At 1300 the Ship's Company mustered  for the "March Down" to individual schools for afternoon training. "Secure" again at 1600 followed by "Men Under Punishment" and Libertymen". "Hands to Supper" at 1800, then "Sunset" at the specified time and then the always dreaded "Rounds" at 1900 where the Duty Lieutenant Commander (DLC) would inspect the accommodation blocks in company with the Duty Chief Petty Officer, Duty Petty Officer and bugler who sounded the "G" as we progressed to alert the masses that we were nearing your area.
Just to top the day off the last two bugle calls were "First Post" at 2040 and "Last Post" at 2100.
Now!!!! This is where the contention begins!!!!!

The melody of the "last Post has been attributed to Josef Haydn. It was reportedly written by him in the late 1700's to align all the British Military and Navy bugle calls. The call comes from a Dutch custom called "Taptoe" thus the phrase Military TATTOO was derived from this term. Taptoe originated by signalling the turning off of beer taps at the end of the day and it is quite feasible that the American "Taps" derived its name from this practice.
The Dutch bugle call "Taptoesignaal" is used for remembrance events, as is the "Last Post", but it is not the same tune as the "Last Post" and neither of these calls are to be confused with American "Taps", which has a different tune and origin. "Taps" has been used by the U.S. Army since 1862 and has never been referred to as the "Last Post". The term "Last Post" is exclusively British.
During my time in the Royal Australian Navy I had the honour of meeting and playing with many U.S. military bands. Being the inquisitive one that I am, I asked the question concerning the use of the term "Last Post" as an alternative to "Taps", and, Lo and Behold!!! None had ever heard of it referred to as the "Last Post".

End of discussion!!!!!!