Happy Australia Day, 2010!

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The weather today has been written into the script of a clichéd movie about Australia and Australia Day!

Fair dinkum, mate - it's 31+ degrees at 1:30 PM on the 26th. of January 2010 and the traditional Oz Day b-b-q has been held, sitting at the table in the backyard, protected from the sun by two large umbrellas.

Now - note all the "Aussie" things in the photo:-

• To start with, the two Aussies - myself and wife of 36 years, Shirley.
• The Aussie cap on my head.
• The (genuine Hawaiian) summery shirt.
• The glass of, and bottle of, Aussie Shiraz.
• The mug of Aussie tea.
  
• Aussie lamb chops and  beef sausages.
• Aussie Saxa-brand salt (sorry about the American Kraft and Newman's salad dressings!)
• Wife's glass of Aussie beer.
• All sitting at an Aussie hardwood table and on Aussie hardwood seats.

About the only things missing are an emu and a 'roo!

We didn't finish the meal off with lamingtons or a dessert of Peach Melba, I'm afraid, so we've let the team down on that score.

But never mind - this afternoon my wife is going to see an Aussie movie - Bran Nue Dae - and I'm going to watch the Aussie Open (tennis) on TV.

Bewdy!

Australia Day "weekend".

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It's Oz Day on Tuesday the 26th. - that's in 4 days time. A public holiday held - like Anzac Day - on the actual declared date and not on the Monday closest to it. There's no official long weekend, in other words.
Yet, like millions of other Aussies, I will be having a 4-day long weekend.
The company that I work for has decided that on Monday the office will not open and we will take a day out of our annual leave, thereby giving us an extended break.
Not that I object, mind you. I think it makes sense because, in this Land of the Long Weekend, there will be a heck of a lot of people who will do the same thing whether their employer closes their business or not.

Many years ago - back in the 1980's - the company I worked for had a new Managing Director (they weren't called "CEO's" back then) come down from the USA. Fred was his name and Fred hadn't a clue about Australians, our idiosyncracies, our "sensayuma" or our public holidays.
He wanted to have a meeting with some people here in Canberra and I was asked to set it up on a particular date.
Unfortunately the date that Fred preferred fell on Canberra Day - a local public holiday - so that buggered his plans.
Then Easter interfered with his alternate choice, so that frustrated him too.
So finally, when he chose Anzac Day and was told that was also a public holiday he lost his cool and blew a fuse, berating the Australians for having too much leisure time.
That little performance was followed up by a few other examples of his intolerance over the next couple of years and he left our shores without regret, I'm sure.
I know that we didn't regret seeing him go.

Anyway - a happy Oz Day to one and all and may you slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen, slap on a hat, seek some shade and slide on the sunnies, because it looks as if it's going to be a scorcher.

Enjoy a lamb chop and a coldie!

Christmas 2009 - a family affair.

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We played hosts for the traditional Christmas Day lunch - with the traditional turkey and ham and plum pudding.

This year we also had pavlova - a traditional Australian dessert!

(the stupid "spell-checker" has just highlighted "pavlova" as being a non-word. Bloody American-English!)

So son Drew, daughter Lauren, son-in-law Chris and the two grandchildren, William and Matilda, all enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared by wife Shirley. The entree of king prawns and the pavlova were brought to us (literally) by Lauren and Chris.

 And what a lovely day for eating as soaking rain fell throughout the day and into the evening. More than 40mm in less than  36 hours; the best Christmas present of all.

Oh dear! I HAVE become a motorcycle collector!

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As much as I love my Honda CM400A, it is a semi-auto (no clutch) and so I am not getting any experience in co-ordinating clutch operation and gear-changing.

If ever I gain my full license I want to be able to widen my choice of 'bikes and, apart from scooters, there are not many automatics out there. You can count them on the fingers of one hand, in fact.

The CM250 that I bought - back in September as a non-going project - is in pieces whilst I try and source a replacement 430-pitch rear sprocket and chain to mate with the drive sprocket on the CB250 engine. So I can't use that and anyway, it may just end up becoming a stock of spares for the CM400A.

So I decided to buy a small 'bike with a manual 'box.

But it had to be a classic, in good condition and less than $2,000 including delivery to Canberra.

Just before Christmas I bought the two-stroke Suzuki A100 seen here.

It is a 1980 model, but these 'bikes were manufactured with only minor changes for almost twenty years, so the latest model is similar in appearance to the earliest. Here is a link to some brochures.

My bike is not 100% original. The rear shock absorbers have been replaced with YSS units and the handlebar with a cut-down Renthal item. The top end has been rebuilt (slight overbore, new piston & rings), brakes redone and new tyres fitted. Finally, the bike was repainted red over black.

It looks the goods, in my opinion, and the first ride was a real eye-opener for me, as I had not ridden a fully-manual 'bike since doing the Stay Upright course back in August.

Co-ordination of clutch and throttle was practised up and down the driveway, first gear only.

Then, when I had become familiar with the friction-point, I took it out into the cul-de-sac where I live and did figure 8's, looping back and forth and around as I familiarised myself with the low-speed handling and gear changing between 1st. & 2nd. and back again.

That went on for about half-an-hour.

The next morning (Boxing Day) I launched myself out of my street and into the Big World, doing a few laps around the suburb and actually changing up and down through the gears.

Neutral is indistinct - maybe the selector detent is worn - and there were a couple of times when it revved it's head off as I idled along in what I thought was 2nd. but was actually No Man's Land!!

Along one of the local 80 kph stretches of road I did see an indicated 80, the little engine buzzing away at untold revolutions (no tacho), the wind whistling through my raised visor and a couple of cars ambling along behind me.

The experience is totally different to that when riding the Honda.

The CM400A cruises along; the Suzuki definitely does not cruise!

I will continue to practise on this little machine but I would like to have the gear selector looked at, as I think it needs to be more definite in its operation, certainly in that area between 1st., Neutral and 2nd.

When I pop it into a gear, I would like to actually feel it go there, not be left wondering!

A Pause for some Philosophy

(Photo from the internet)

Sunday morning and I was reading the papers over a cuppa coffee. Two headlines shared the front page.

One, which made up 80% of the page, consisted of a photograph and a line (enticing one to read more inside) about Tiger Woods' indiscretions. The fact that such rubbish should be on the front page shows you how low we've sunk as a society - and that neatly segues to the second headline, a bottom-of-the-page "banner", which was about the national weekend crackdown by the various police forces on anti-social behaviour associated with drinking.

I looked at this page - the Sunday edition of the Canberra Times - and said to myself "No wonder there's a bloody problem - we've got our priorities arse-about-face".
What has happened to us when the newspaper from Australia's capital city puts the rutting habits of a sporting personality above (literally) a major social problem?

There is a very simple solution to binge-drinking and the anti-social behaviour that is associated with drinking.
All that our elected representatives need do is modify the licensing laws:

• Ban the sale of alcohol at supermarkets and similar retail outlets. Limit it to hotels and clubs and restrict the "take-it-away" trading to licensed bottle-shops attached (physically as well as by license) to hotels or clubs.
  
• Limit the trading hours of pubs 'n' clubs to 10 AM - 10 PM Sundays through Thursdays and 10 AM - 1 AM Fridays and Saturdays.
• Completely and utterly ignore the screaming that will result from clubs, pubs and those bleeding hearts who proclaim that freedom of choice and civil liberties will be blown away.
• HAVE THE GUTS TO STICK WITH IT!

The solution is staring us in the face and is amplified by today's Sunday Times (Canberra).
When Tiger Woods' "plight" takes centre stage and pushes all else out of the spotlight, we have a real problem.

The bike gets new pipes!

(Both photos, Sony DSC-F717. Click to enlarge)

Remember my Honda CM400A?
Well, it was necessary for me to replace the exhaust collector which sits underneath the engine and into which each exhaust header feeds, with the mufflers connected to the output end.
The outlets had rusted over time and the previous owner had used muffler putty as a temporary repair.

I had a used replacement collector (provided as a spare when I bought the 'bike), in good condition, but I thought I'd veer away from stock-standard and apply a little customising.

My age lends itself to memories of Triumph Bonneville's and Norton Commander's and BSA Lightning's when they were new, so I did a bit of a search on the 'net and found a place here in Australia that was selling a repro set of Dunstall "reverse cone" exhaust pipes.

A little over AUS$220 and a week later I took delivery of a beautiful pair of replica Dunstall's and, in the space of a Saturday afternoon, had the old set off and the new one's fitted and bolted up.

Now, when the 'bike is fired up, not only does it look a bit British, it definitely sounds like a Trumpy.



For anyone who might think that the originality has been sacrificed, never fear.
I have kept the original mufflers and have the replacement collector box, so if the CM400A is ever sold, it will be done so with these original items.

In the meantime, although I can't afford a Commander or Bonneville, I can at least sound like one!

Summer has arrived...........

(All photos - Sony DSC-F717. Click for full-size images)

............with a vengeance, too.
We had some record temperatures during November. Spring? No way - it was full-on summer!



It was a year ago that we decided to redesign the front yard due to water restrictions and the continuation of the dry weather. The grass (or weeds, more to the point) just had to go.
So in November 2008 we started on the project, finishing the job by Australia Day 2009.

The grass was poisoned and then after it had died we spread what seemed like three million cubic metres of forest mulch to a depth of at least 100mm over the entire area.
A brick pathway was laid from the front border to the side walkway along the northern wall of the house and it joined up with the existing paved area at the front under the English Elm.



Over the past year - and particularly over the past two months - Shirley has been busy planting a variety of hardy shrubs and ground covers through the area. She has also added some lovely blue pots as features.



So the result is a front garden that appears to be doing very well under these drier conditions.

It will be interesting to see how it fares through to the end of this summer.

Tiger, tiger burning bright...........

Not quite a tiger....this cat is at least approachable.
It's a cheetah and I had the wonderful experience of meeting her live, in person and very up-close.
This opportunity to pet an endangered wild animal came courtesy of the National Zoo & Aquarium here in Canberra. They have a "Meet A Cheetah" scheme which, for a modest payment, allows an individual to spend about 20 minutes with one of these beautiful creatures, accompanied by two keepers.

My wife gave me a gift certificate for our wedding anniversary at the end of September and, after the school holidays were over, I booked the visit for a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago.
All visits are made between 2:00 and 4:00 PM (the animals are fed in the morning) and children under 12 are not permitted........the reason became clear later on.


There are four cheetahs in the enclosure - three were in one area and the fourth (pictured) - a female - was in a separate section.
The three together were a bit unsettled - patrolling the perimeter and not settling down - so the keepers opted for the female in her own enclosure. She was more relaxed, allowing for a more successful meeting.

It was amazing to be stroking and petting what is the Ferrari sports car of the animal world, capable of speeds up to 110 kph for 20 to 30 seconds.
I was really captivated by the cheetah and astounded by the loudness of the purr. Apparently it is the only wild cat to purr - lions, tigers etc. don't have this ability. The noise sounds like an outboard motor!

I asked the question, "Why can we get up close and personal with the cheetah when we can't do it with other cats" and the answer was very simple - we (adult humans) are too large and slow to be seen as prey. Note the adult reference; children - particularly small, young children - are just the right size and have just the right behaviour (excitable, nervous, jumpy) to be considered by the cheetah as a viable food source.


(All photos Sony DSC-F717, by animal keeper)
The visit came to an end all too quickly - twenty minutes had passed before I knew it.
A fascinating and, as the advertisements for the Zoo say, a "touching" experience!

Have I become a collector?

(Camera - Sony DSC-F717)

Another 'bike has been added to the stable........a 1982 CM250 Custom. (Click on image for full-size).
I had original thoughts of buying this to strip for spare parts to support the CM400A (they are identical except for engine capacity) but on reflection have decided to refurbish it instead.

Two reasons for this decision :-

• It's in too-good a state to butcher and needs very little in the way of anything to make it usable. After all, it only ran out of registration three month's ago.
• Second is the fact that the cost of registering a motorcycle in the ACT is determined by its engine capacity. Anything over 300 cc costs TWO AND A HALF TIMES more than anything under that capacity. To register the CM400A will cost (next February) $511 yet to register the CM250C will cost a mere $197.

As I am only riding a motorcycle for pleasure and leisure I have no desire to cough up $500+ just to stoke up the coffers of our local government, so I'll do a mild restoration of the smaller-capacity 'bike and then register it.

The plan is to have this done within the next three to four months.....but plans have been known to fall apart before!

I'll update in due course.

Father's Day 2009.

Weather-wise, just a superb early-spring day in Canberra and, with the weather warming up, an opportunity to continue getting to grips with my motorbike.

This was only the second weekend on which I'd had a chance to ride it in good conditions, so I ventured forth into Sunday traffic at about 10:00 AM, heading off into the city to a favourite second-hand book-store.
The experience was exhilarating and I was reluctant to get off the 'bike after returning home, some 25 kilometres later.

This afternoon, when my children & grandchildren came over for a traditional Father's Day b-b-q, my son-in-law took these two photos - the first of me on the 'bike.

He was very kind in not taking a shot when I gently laid the machine down on its side as I ran out of momentum whilst trying to do 360 in the cul-de-sac outside my home!
But I learned a lesson - one cannot turn a motorcycle if it is not proceeding in a forward direction.
I also discovered that I can lift the CM400A back into an upright position if I drop it.......something which I was wondering about.

My son, Drew, asking me how come I dropped the 'bike!