That Life-changing Event

I went into retirement yesterday after my position with the business for whom I've worked since 2006 was made redundant.

Retrenched for the second time in my life - the first was in 2001 when my employer shut up shop here in Canberra in a knee-jerk reaction to the World Trade Centre disaster, where they had their New York offices.
So in 2002 I left management for a while - five years, to be precise - until February 2006, when I commenced the job from which I've just been dumped.

This time I'm looking at the retrenchment as being life's way of easing me out of the workforce, at least on a full-time basis.
After nearly 50 years earning a living, I suppose that it's time I accepted that I am now allowed to step back and relax.

A Giant Leap into Retro-technology!

(All images enlarge to full size when clicked)

One of the technical marvels of the 1960s, all of the 1970s and most of the 1980s was the IBM Selectric typewriter, with its innovative "golfball" font element which travelled across the paper, instead of the traditional method of all typewriters up to that point, where the paper travelled past the point struck by the type levers.

The office out of which I worked in Sydney between 1977 and 1984 was equipped with these machines; every typist had one on her desk and the chatter of typewriters was part of the normal background ambient noise of our office, and zillions of others worldwide.

Quite recently I became injected with a dose of nostalgia whilst watching several episodes of "Mad Men", in which IBM Selectric's are quite conspicuous in the office scenes.
So after several attempts I managed to find someone in Australia who is an ex-IBM typewriter technician and who very kindly offered to refurbish one in his collection and sell it to me.

The opening photo (above) is the machine - an IBM Selectric II circa 1976 - as it appeared just a few days ago, prior to its disassembly.
(This machine was assembled right here in Australia, at the IBM plant that was established in 1976 at Wangaratta, Victoria).

The above photo was taken just today and shows the partially-stripped Selectric removed from its housing.
I never realised just how complex these things are, never having seen one in this state before today.
The amount of mechanical componentry is remarkable, as can be gauged from the photo below showing various bits 'n' pieces in the dishes and boxes on the workbench.

This final photograph shows the assembly soaking in a fluid to degrease and clean the parts before any reassembly can be undertaken.

I am really looking forward to being handed the keys to this amazing machine and can't wait to hear the hum of the motor and the chatter of the typeball when I fire it up for the first time here at home.
That event should be sometime in July, when she makes it to Canberra from Perth.

Here is a short (2 minutes) video - done for a friend of mine - of this marvellous machine in action:-

A sad evening - Friday 27th. April

Normie, our cat of 11 years, died this evening in rather sad circumstances.
I arrived home from work at 5:15 to find him laying on his side in our driveway, unconscious and hardly breathing.
He had been diagnosed with a heart condition less than a month ago and although on medication for same there was always the likelihood that something would happen.
I shot him down to our local vet - literally less than a minute away by car - but the verdict was that he was too far gone to expect recovery, with fluid on his lungs and faint, erratic heartbeat.
Rather than continue his distress I  had my little mate put to sleep.

Normie had a habit of coming into my study, jumping up on the desktop and then staring at me until I rested my legs on the desk, so that he could then climb onto his perch and have a snooze, or luxuriate in having his ears and chin scratched.

People say that cat's don't really attach themselves to you and that they don't show affection.
That may be true - I don't know. But I do know that tonight I really miss my little furry friend because if he didn't show affection then what he did show came bloody close.

"And how are you today?"

Don't you find this to be an odd greeting when attending a doctor's surgery?

I had an appointment this morning and the (very pleasant) receptionist greeted me with that line, to which I replied "Well, not really great, otherwise I wouldn't be here", which was met by a look of surprise.

What else did she expect? I was ill!

In a similar vein is the "Have a nice day!" that the checkout-chick throws your way at 5:30 in the evening.

In both cases it's habit, I know, but in the former "How can I help you?" and in the latter "Thank you." would be more appropriate.

Indy 500 1965 - Jim Clark's Lotus 38

Back in July I posted a small article about a model of the Ferrari P4 prototype sports-racing car and mentioned two others, one being this model - the Lotus 38 crafted by the (now defunct) Carousel 1 company.

Although rear-engined cars had been raced at Indianapolis prior to 1965 - Jack Brabham starting the trend in 1961 in a Formula 1 Cooper - it wasn't until Lotus and Ford mounted a major effort in 1963 that success finally eventuated two years later with renowned Grand Prix driver Jim Clark taking first place in 1965 in the Lotus type 38, seen in model form below. (All images enlarge to full size if clicked).

Generally considered to be one of the most beautifully-proportioned designs ever to race at Indianapolis, the Carousel 1 die-cast model, in 1/8 scale, replicates those lines perfectly and is looked upon as the Holy Grail of the Lotus 38 in model format.

It is superbly crafted and detailed - with even the individual buckles on the racing harness being accurately presented - and is finished in the exact green and yellow livery, complete with all sponsor's decals, as the real car.

Carousel 1 created quite a few models of the cars raced at Indianapolis and they have become highly sought-after since the demise of the business some years ago.
If you are looking for one, they regularly come up on Ebay, which is where I found mine.

Matilda's Last Christmas at Pre-School

My grand-daughter Matilda - who turned 5 in October - had her end-of-year Christmas pageant yesterday with the traditional nativity play, after which she received her "graduation" certificate.
Next year she starts kindergarten and a new chapter in her life's story opens up.

Matilda asked me last week if I would go to watch her in the play so of course I said yes and as well as videoing the performance for posterity - she played the inn-keeper and her lines consisted of "No, no" when Joseph asked for a room - I also took a few photos............

After the play was over there was a bit of a party, with appropriate food, balloons and face-painting.

Reflecting on the past 5 years?

Our peace has been breached!

Well, Mr. Obama has finally set foot in Canberra after two previously-cancelled trips and the usual semi-load of American hyper-crap has been dumped on us.

In a similar fashion to the Bush visit in 2003, we have a permanent - noisy - fighter aircraft circling the ACT for the next 24 hours, just to guard against sneak attacks on the American embassy.
Why can't they simply have an aircraft sitting on the ramp at Fairbairn, fuelled up and ready to go at a moment's notice?

There are 300+ security personnel here!
THREE HUNDRED!!!

At selected intersections throughout the capital sit black, unmarked and unregistered vans.
Why?

Perhaps the most insidious thing is that mobile phone reception around Parliament House/American Embassy has been disrupted.

Like many other Canberrans who don't give a toss about this visit, I will be glad to hear Airforce One depart tomorrow afternoon.

Matilda's Fifth Birthday

My grand-daughter, Matilda, recently celebrated her 5th. birthday and asked for a 10-pin bowling afternoon to be part of her family party.

So we headed off to the Tuggeranong Bowl for a couple of games, during which Matilda would only let Drew (her 27-year old uncle) help her with the targeting and rolling device.

Here's a lovely shot taken by Matilda's mum (my daughter, Lauren - Drew's sister) on her iPhone.
A bit blurry but it captures a nice moment between the two.
(Click on the image for a full-size version)

Canberra to Bonny Hills in 13 episodes

In late July I ventured north for the annual reunion with sister and brother at Bonny Hills.
The following video clips document sections of the trip, from 7:30 AM to about 3:30 PM.
Fortunately the weather was perfect for the whole 700+ kilometres.

MGM, Warner Bros, Paramount and J.Arthur Rank - Eat Your Heart Out!

Over the past couple of years I have travelled frequently into the Snowy Mountains as part of my job - I usually visit Cooma, Jindabyne and Guthega one day per month and then, a week or fortnight later, do an overnighter that takes in Cabramurra, Khancoban, Talbingo and Blowering Dam (near Tumut).

During these drives I occasionally mount the little Canon camcorder inside the windscreen and record some of the region, as seen from the driver's perspective.

In addition to my regular jaunts through the Snowy region I do an annual drive up to Bonny Hills (near Port Macquarie) for a get-together with my siblings. That region - bounded by the Hastings, Camden Haven and Manning rivers - was our stamping ground for 50 years, from early childhood through to senior-citizenship.
So I also do a similar thing - record with the camcorder.

All of those that I have made publicly accessible I have uploaded to You Tube so I thought it about time that I provided links from this blog.

They are in chronological order - most recent first.
Remember that you can view the clip in much larger format by clicking on the YouTube logo, bottom right corner of the screen.

Here are a few from the Snowy Mountains runs...........