Lee Child sells out to the movie industry.

For many years one of my favourite authors has been Lee Child; his many novels featuring the character Jack Reacher have always been very enjoyable - as many millions of other readers have discovered.

One of the greatest things about reading is that we each establish a picture in our minds of the characters in a work of fiction and, when the central character is defined over time as to his/her size, weight, features, manner and so forth we each imagine exactly what that character is like.
Each of us has our own "picture" of that make-believe person.

I had long admired Child for not selling out to the movie industry and looked forward to the next Jack Reacher adventure with eagerness.

Not any more.
Lee Child has betrayed my imagination. He has sold out and I am contemptuous of him for doing so.
It's not as if he needs the money - he's certainly not poverty-stricken.

I could not believe it when I heard that (a) a "Jack Reacher" movie is being released and (b) Tom Cruise has been cast as the titular character!
TOM CRUISE?!!!

I never had a mental image of any particular actor as Jack Reacher - none at all. But if I had then Tom Cruise would not have even made the initial list, let alone a final interview.
Why?
Well, here is a summation of Reacher's physical attributes as gleaned from the various stories (courtesy Wikipedia):-

• Reacher is 6' 5" tall (1.96m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds (100–115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He has very little body fat and his muscular physique is completely natural (he reveals in Persuader he has never been an exercise enthusiast). He is exceptionally strong but is not a good runner.

Tom Cruise is 5'-7".
He does not have a 50" chest and certainly doesn't weigh between 210 and 250 pounds.
Jack Reacher is NOT Tom Cruise.

But now, when you Google "Jack Reacher" or "Lee Child", the majority of the images which appear are of Tom Cruise.

I will never be able to read a Jack Reacher novel again without seeing Cruise in my mind's eye and that is not only disheartening but also ridiculous.

No thanks to you, Mr. Child.

My grand-daughter at 100

She is six years old and in her last few weeks of kindergarten.
Her class was given a blank sheet of paper with the words "When I am 100 years old I will look like this!" at the top and then each child was asked draw a self portrait of themselves projected some 95 or so years into the future.

This was my grand-daughter's masterpiece..............

(Click on it to enlarge to full-size)

I thought the glasses were significant; a child automatically assumes that old people wear glasses. (Well, I do and so does my wife).
I was also impressed by the fact that she retains her natural teeth - obviously dental science will improve in leaps and bounds (and maybe the cost will reduce, too.)

I will keep this work of art and bequeath it to her so that when I'm gone and she has grown to adulthood she will have a reminder of her crystal ball-gazing in 2012.

Hello, Rosie.

I mentioned back at the end of April that I came home from work to find our cat, Normie, in distress and that his condition was irrecoverable.
That was a rather upsetting time and it took several weeks to accept that he was no longer part of our daily life after ten or more years.

Time has a way of easing the pain and we did get another cat - from the RSPCA - and she has now become ensconsed into our life, just as Normie did (and also our dog that preceded him).

Rosie, a spotted tabby, is the new member of the household and is now about a year old.
She is a very affectionate little thing and, like her predecessor, has taken to following me around the place and if I'm sitting here working at the computer, she jumps up into the space between me and the back of the chair, where she is quite happy to stay until I want to lean back!

So, this update is simply to introduce Rosie, whom I have dubbed "Red Rose Speedway" due to her love of racing up and down the hallway when in high spirits.

Rosie and grand-daughter Matilda

Jottings on recent happenings.

GOODBYE MONARO, HELLO JAZZ.
I have now been a retiree for almost three months, having departed the workforce on August 24th..
Over the past few weeks several changes have occurred in my lifestyle, not the least of which was saying "goodbye" to the Holden Monaro CV8Z that I had owned for just over twelve months.
After driving around Canberra and seeing Premium 98 fuel disappearing out the exhaust at the rate of 16.8 litres per 100 kilometres, I came to the realisation that this could not continue.

So just after filling up with the liquid gold a month ago I drove straight to the local Honda dealer and did a deal on a brand new, optioned-up Honda Jazz VTi 5-speed manual.
The reason for my choice was quite simply that, back in February of this year I had spent a week driving my sister's Jazz and was most impressed by it.
So when thinking of a replacement for the Monaro I had no hesitation in opting for the Jazz.
I've never been a "car shopper". I'll decide what I want from personal experiences and specifications.
Apart from the versatility of the Jazz (5-door and a multitude of rear-seat configurations) the fuel economy also was a major player.

Taking a break at Black Springs, on the return run to Canberra

Only this weekend I took the Jazz on its first long run out of Canberra, when I drove up to the Blue Mountains.
Since taking delivery of the car (19th. October) I had been getting between 6.3 and 6.6 L/100Km around the suburban streets of my hometown.
On the highway run to and from Leura the consumption averaged 5.6 L/100Km.
And this is Regular 91 fuel, not the more expensive 98.
To say that I am delighted with the cost savings would be an understatement.
I am equally delighted with the car overall; it was a joy to drive on that trip. I went up to the 'Mountains via the freeways and returned through Oberon, Taralga and Goulburn and the car was just a pleasure.

CATALINA PARK, KATOOMBA.
Many years ago, back around 1964/65/66, I and a friend used to catch the train from Sydney (I think we boarded it at Strathfield) to Katoomba to attend the motor-race meetings at Catalina Park circuit, literally in the heart of the capital of the Blue Mountains.

This was in the hey-day of its operation, when the stars of the motor-racing brigade would be in attendance, such as the likes of Norm Beechey, Leo and Pete Geoghegan, Bob Jane, Frank Matich, Ron Thorpe, John Harvey, Peter Manton, Brian Foley....et al.
Catalina was a top little (about 1.3 miles) circuit and very exciting racing was usually the order of the day.

When I was at Leura this week just gone I had the opportunity to revisit the circuit with a couple of old friends. We walked a full lap of the now overgrown and dilapidated facility, unused for its intended purpose for several decades.
But it was a most nostalgic moment and brought back many good memories as we reminisced for an hour or so.

The link above goes to a site that provides some excellent information and photographs but I provide a couple below that I took during my first visit after 40+ years.

Probably the most poignant item - the sign advising the permanent closure

Faint signs of the original "Craven A" sign-writing at "Craven A Corner"

Baby-Boomer Radio now has a blog

I have created a separate blog for the show and it can be found here:-

BABY BOOMER RADIO

Returning to broadcasting

UPDATE 14-October-2012
On-air sessions: Mondays 0900 - 1200 and Fridays 1400 - 1700

Back between December 2002 and January 2006 I had a two-hour radio show with local Community Radio station Valley FM 89.5.
The show centred on music from the 1960s, although the edges were fuzzy and included stuff from the 1940s, 1950s and 1970s. "Easy Listening" music also formed a part, as did old BBC radio shows such as "Hancock's Half-hour", "Round The Horne", "Take It From Here" and "The Goon Show".

I received a lot of enjoyment from doing my thing and I know, from what feedback I had, that others also enjoyed hearing the type of music that we listened to every day as teenagers and young adults back in the 1960s.

In 2006 I re-entered the conventional "nine-to-five" workforce and dropped the show which at that time was being aired between 3:00 and 5:00 PM.

Just recently I retired after 48 years as a full-time employee and had the opportunity and desire to return to Valley FM and resurrect what I was presenting six years ago.
With over 200 LPs and a similar number of CDs, the contents of many of which I have converted to MP3s, the resources are capable of providing "Baby Boomer" material for some time to come, and that is the name I've chosen for this current foray into community radio.

We were very fortunate to have been born in what became known as the "Baby-Boom" period, the era usually considered to be between 1943 and 1960, coined by author Landon Jones in his book Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation.
This is an era in which music (amongst other things like fashions and social mores) changed dramatically, in both who was creating it and who was listening to it.
And it was sparked by the invention and mass production of a tiny electronic device - the transistor.

Until radios became portable - and that was only possible with the introduction of transistors, printed circuit boards and small batteries - music was heard on large mantle or console radios or played on gramophones/radiograms - furniture pieces - utilising large 78 rpm bakelite records.
So it was the adults who were not only the producers of popular music (large bands and orchestras with vocalists) but also the buyers of the records and the devices on which they were played.

The transistor changed all that because music became portable (and cheaper) at the same time as younger performers started doing their thing. They go hand-in-hand.
With music now being targeted at the younger generation, who could now listen to it on their transistor radios and play the new smaller and lighter 45rpm records on their portable record players, the Baby-Boomers determined the future of the music industry.
Once a young man by the name of Bill Haley came up with "Shake, Rattle & Roll" (1954) and then "Rock Around The Clock" (1955), popular music and radio became a whole new ball game and our parents coined the term "generation gap"!

We Baby-Boomers can feel very proud of our status.
We have had a profound effect on music and what started over 50 years ago is the basis for popular music today. Wonderful songs and arrangements were composed and written back in those fabulous 1960s and they continue to provide pleasure to our generation.
I like to think that when I am in a nursing home, instead of singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", we will be having sing-songs which include "It's Been A Hard Day's Night"!

My new show - now dubbed "The Baby-Boomer Show" - commenced yesterday, going to air between 9:00 and 12:00 midday, which will be the timeslot until the end of the month, when it will probably start an hour or so later.
I will update this information when that occurs.

Internet streaming is currently being tested by the station management.
Once it becomes established then no matter where you are located, if interested you will be able to listen to the programmes on your home or laptop computer via the internet - both of which, incidentally, were invented by baby-boomers.

After the first month.........

Retirement isn't too bad, actually.
I've been keeping myself busy over the past 3.5 weeks since leaving my employer of six years; plenty of things to be done around the home as we ease into springtime.
The garden has been attacked, with roses pruned, shrubs and trees cut back, dead annuals removed from garden beds.
The first lawn mowing of the season has been carried out, winter grasses and weeds treated and edges done.

The house has had its gutters cleaned out and a broken roofing tile repaired (no spare tile, so had to apply a patch) and all the windows cleaned, inside and out.
Next is to have the bi-annual spider and termite treatment carried out.....in October.

Housework is a natural for me.....carpets vacuumed, dusting done, clothes ironed (usually with a good DVD movie on the wide-screen) and laundry washed and hung out to dry.

So the almost-a-month that has elapsed hasn't been boring at all....even with the above tasks on my agenda I've still found time to read, do the daily crossword, browse the internet, go to the local shops and relax with a cup of coffee and the paper. All the little things that I only ever managed to get to on weekends and then ran out of time.

Yep....there's something to be said about being my age and finally easing out of a full-time job after nearly 50 years in the workforce.
I can recommend it. :)

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.