I base my thoughts on the family of my grandma and grandad, who lived in Maple Road, half way up on the right hand side.  My grandma had both her legs amputated above the knee, so my Uncles Levi and Harold did her shopping for her.  They were both well built, and both mainly blind.  They dressed the same, with charcoal grey trousers, charcoal grey waistcoats, and a collarless white shirt.  One of them would set off for the shopping, and walk down Wales Road, doing the shopping on the way back.  Of course, time was of no importance, and if they had forgotten anything, then they would go back for it, or go the next day.  But time was not a major problem for most people at that time, it is only in much later years that we all rush everywhere, or use a car.  There were few cars in the village at that time.  It was never a problem for anyone to stop for a chat with a neighbour or someone in the village who they knew, and Levi and Harold would stop a number of times for a chat with various people.

Wales Road, where my Uncles did the shopping, but photo taken recently

Now if anyone wished to see them, or talk about any particular point, they could always be certain to find them sitting on the bench which at that time was between Chestnut Avenue and the lane which ran along the side of Les Hudson’s fish shop – though I don’t know if Les was in charge at that time – and then behind the houses on that side of Wales Road.   There was one point which always made me wonder.  They were both blind, but they went shopping.  The various shopkeepers would serve them, take their money, and then give them their change.  There was never the thought that the change given would not be right.  Even those few shopkeepers or assistants who may have had a shady reputation would be trusted in the case of my uncles to do the right thing.

Around that time, my mam and dad, my brother Jimmy and I lived at number 9 Thomas Street, which ran off Pit Lane just past the Post Office.  Come to think of it, Thomas Street still runs off Pit Lane but there is no Post Office.   It was a great place to live, as the back door opened onto the triangular field, which was the centre of entertainment for those in Thomas Street and South View.   In our case, it was our only door, as what would be the front room of number 9 was taken up as a shop by Edna Cheetham and you will all remember Edna.  She actually lived in number 7.  Along the west side of the field, there was a high wall, though it was not really a wall as such, but the back wall of the toilets and coal houses of Carrington Terrace.  That wall acted more importantly as our goal posts in football season, and with the judicious use of a piece of chalk, our wicket in cricket season.  When you think back, cricket was not shown on television, because there was no television, or heard on the wireless, but many of the young lads who learned their cricket against that wall became very good cricketers in later life, including two who played most of their cricket in Australia.

Les Vagg at a party in the early years of the 1990s.

There will be an invitation to all to attend the Dandenong Club after the funeral for drinks and nibbles when friends will no doubt remember all the good times they have shared with a great guy.

I was  first lucky enough to know Les Vagg in the 1970s.  I was still at the height of my cricket ‘career’, while Les was near or at the end of his.   We met on a monthly basis for a few years, when we both attended Cricket Association Delegates Meetings, and it was obvious that he was one who put in to all things in which he was interested.  It was no great surprise that he was given Life Membership of the Cricket Association in the late 70s, though by that time, he was already playing lawn bowls with Dandenong Central Bowling Club.  It was purely coincidental that in 1983, I also received Life Membership of the Cricket Association , and also whilst playing bowls with Dandenong Central Bowling Club.

In my first year of bowling, I played pennant as a second with Les as my Skipper, and he gave me, and all other younger players, all the encouragement that he could.   Bowls was at that time a very sociable game, with players from both clubs enjoying a sociable drink after the game.  It was during that time that I became used to seeing Les with his usual scotch and coke.  In fact, after the Dandenong Club moved from the centre of Dandenong to Heatherton Road, that scotch and coke became known in the bar as a ‘Vaggy’!

Les became a friend to everyone in the Dandenong Club.   It was hard for anyone to have a drink on their own, as he was quick to invite them to join us.   He was known to everyone, both in the Club and in Dandenong itself.

He, like a small number of others – Bob Boone, Frank and Eileen Nicoll and Mick Merigan – became honorary members of our family, and it became the norm for them to be attendant at our family gatherings.

He will never be forgotten.

Dennis and Pam

The above was taken on quite a warm day, hence dad’s open shirt look and flashing off his man boobs. (I know he’s going to smack me for that comment)

And below are the sensible people in the house, can’t you tell!

Stuart and Wendy

Who said life has to be taken seriously?

There was one year when we had to manage without an effigy of Guy Faulkes, which normally sat on the very top of the fire, which would normally be about 12 feet in the air.   In that particular year, we had been unable to find an effigy for the top of the tree – you know, something like the fairy which sits on top of your Christmas Tree, but she did not get burnt to a cinder.  Now in that year, our Jimmy was the proud owner of a toy rabbit made out of wool, and he had had it for quite some years.  I had spent quite some time before the great day trying to persuade him that he was by then too old to bother about a bloody toy rabbit made out of wool, and eventually, they day before Bonfire Night, he had promised that we could stick his rabbit on top of the tree.   Mind you I had told him that if he made this supreme sacrifice, he would get a super duper Christmas Present from Mam and Dad.  All went well on the day with the rabbit sitting on top of the tree, and Jimmy putting a brave face on the proceedings.  It came to put a light to the fire, and just after it had been lit, a small but fast streak of lightning hurtled across about 20 yards of field, ran up one side of the tree, grabbed the rabbit and disappeared down the opposite side.  I think that it was my little brother, Jimmy, but as I could never find that damn rabbit after that I could not be sure.

Anyway, all this as nothing whatsoever to do with yesterday, yesterday.

As I should have pointed out at the head of this small article, or blog, yesterday was the day when 14 of we Radio Operators at Volunteer Marine Rescue Southport were called by the Powers That Be to attend at the Base to take a First Aid Course conducted by the Queensland Ambulance Service.

We started the course at 8.30 in the morning, and worked steadily until 4.00pm, when we were all absolutely knackered worn out.  I mean, we had only had a morning ‘smoko’ break, a lunch break, at which I had only managed to eat two large sausage rolls and a sticky piece of cheesecake , and then an afternoon ‘smoko’.  So you can imagine that I was very tired and hungry by the time I got home.    And it was tiring, as there were 198 pages in the First Aid Manual we worked from.  I wonder if those books in Spain are called ‘Manuels’?

Anyway, we learned how to administer CPR, mouth to mouth, though we only used models – no, plastic ones, dummy! – tying our colleagues up in bandages, stopping bleeding, managing fractures, and all sorts of other first aidie things.   At the conclusion we had to answer a bunch of questions based on the day, with the pass mark being 90%.  I think that we all passed, though we shall not get our certificates for two weeks.  Why do I think that we passed?  Well, we all completed a page of the manual which told the examiners just how good the instructor was, just for a little safety net, if you like.  I will let you know how I went.

This photo was taken last Wednesday(not this Wednesday, 3rd November, but the one before, 28th October), and shows the extent of the digging at that time.  At that time, as you can see, the nearest holes were still without tops, but things will change.

This hole, a round one, is outside No. 17.

The fence is still around that hole, but we do, at least,  have access to our drive.  But how long will we have that fence, giving us a bit of a funny turn to get out.  Mind you, the actual work going on is far enough away so that we do not get much noise now at least.

While we and our neighbours can get in and out, there are still two sections fenced off, but we don’t really mind that.

This angle shows the view as you approach from the north, or the other way to the direction that the work is progressing.  You will notice, I hope, that there is a street running off our street at the barrier, and that is the way we usually have to go when we go shopping, etc.

The work will continue along the street for some time now, but at least, I will not have to advise the workers how to proceed from now on.  As I say, it is somebody else’s  turn, and good luck to them.

For those who don’t know much about my furiend, Willow, I want to just let you know a little bit about her. I rescued her when she was 4 months old and her earlier life she appeared to be a bit of a loner from what I could gather, not really mixing with the other kittens or older cats much. She kept to herself. Along I came and whisked her away from Sydney (I was down there on a trip), so a quick call to the airline “oh, there will be two passengers returning to the Gold Coast” (Queensland) and we flew back. She was really brave, I hated putting a young cat/kitten through something like that so young but she was of legal flying age for pets so we did it. Below is Willow not long after she’d moved in with me, she quickly realised she could share the bed.

I know most cats have similar characteristics, if you’re reading a newspaper, they want to lay across it to get your attention and various other things, well my little miss isn’t quite what you’d call ‘cat like’. Sure she does some things that would lead you to believe she’s a cat but they’re few and far between. She very quickly looked to me as her role model and tries to copy what I do with so many things. It’s quite funny at times.

You’ll see from the below slideshow some of her antics, she loves riding around on my back – not good for someone with a back condition, if I’m not careful and don’t know she’s about to jump on me, she can knock me to the floor. I don’t drink out of the toilet bowl though, she didn’t pick that one up from me. But one thing she has to do is share whatever I’m eating or drinking. She just comes along and helps herself to my glass of water sitting on the desk when she feels thirsty – even though she has two bowls of water around the house. She tries to work out what I do with the straw – how do I get the drink through it? If I’m eating, it doesn’t matter where, she wants to share it and will bug me until I do. I’m currently on a diet using one of those diet drinks (chocolate flavour), she loves it too and insists on sharing it with me. *sigh*

Whatever I pick up out of the fridge, or pantry she wants to know what it is and can we share it? She loves green vegetables too. Some things she turns her nose up at (thankfully) but other things she gets really excited about. I can’t do much without her zooming in on me. She comes to the toilet with me (I know other cats do that with their people), she actually isn’t a quiet cat, she wears combat boots, so whenever she jumps down from something, you can hear her easily because it’s a thud. She can’t hunt, she’s not sure how it works, she definitely hasn’t got a grasp on the stealth factor yet and I won’t teach her that one. She’s terrified of our pet cockatiel and our guinea pigs. She gets excited when she sees insects but sees them mostly as play things and has no idea how to catch them unless I catch it and give it to her, then they escape.

Her favourite insects are cockroaches, we get a variety of native roaches and introduced ones here, living near the coast unfortunately attracts them. Willow’s favourite game is to chase a cockroach, smack it until it lands on its back and then she pulls their legs off and generally will leave a leg or two under the covers in my bed for me (okay, that’s cat like), that’s how I know there’s a cockroach in the house to dispose of!

There are a ton of other things, but I can’t think of them now and this is getting long enough, so I’m going to share a few photos of her, some I’ve captioned and done lolcats of for added silliness (try and imagine how a cat might speak to understand it). Hope you enjoy! Some may have seen some of these pictures already, but I’ve got new ones in the mix.

Click on the thumbnail to see the larger picture.

Of course, there is a lot to do around this hole yet; the concrete has to be poured around the frame, for a start, and the various pipes inserted into it.  One lot will take the water away, while the smaller ones will bring waste water from the culvert, and into the drain for dispersal.   The ‘old’ pipe in the front of the picture is the one which was put down many years ago, but it is time that it was retired.

The photos above both show the 3rd ‘reservoir’ before having its roof put on,

and this one shows the inlet pipe from the culvert and our drive behind.

We can drive into the drive at least, with a little care.

The fourth hole?  Another one??  That is four in about 30 feet.  And from the end of the roadworks, at this stage, it looks like this -

It has been an interesting project, following the work, and Wendy sent an email congratulating the men on the work they had done.  Our neighbour has been complaining bitterly, even though he was the main instigator in having the work done in the first place.   There are idiots everywhere.

What’s funnier about today’s ‘bath’ was that he got himself so wet that he slipped into the sink, it didn’t seem to bother him at all. Dad picked him out and he sat there looking totally bedraggled. If he only has a small shower he let’s himself dry off but when he has a bigger ‘bath’ he likes mum to help him dry off with the hair dryer – check out the photos below. (Mum still needs to clean under his tail, he’s not as fussy about it as we are).

To see the full sized photos, click on the thumbnails to open the slideshow.

Teddy Bear made with hay bales

Picture Source: Teddy Bear © Copyright Galatas and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Today, the series starts off with a photo of …..

Stuart and Pam (I had managed to stagger on to the verandah with my heavy bag, of a packet of biscuits.)  Oh yes, it took all three of us, as the car was down the street, and there was plenty to carry.  I should have thunk quicker though, as I could have sent Stu back for another load, thereby making my job redundant.

It is late afternoon, or getting on to that, so the activity on the road is to pack up to go home.  I must admit that I have enjoyed watching the action – I have spent a little time out there over a few days – and the reason for that is that I love to see experts doing what they are expert in.  I like to see the way they tackle their work so easily, taking up so little time whereas I would still be thinking of what to do next.

This is the second ‘sink hole’, which will hold water from the roadway in heavy rain, as it releases it to the system of pipes under the road which I, and through my pictures, you have seen built into a waste water system.   This second hole is right outside our house, and opposite the gutter which has been pinched.  In this photo you can see a little of our drive in the foreground and the edge of the safety frame on the right.

The photo above shows – 1) the new pipe coming into the sink hole, or small reservoir, and in the foreground, 2) the very old pipe which as been the sole way of moving waste surface water from the area behind us (Dolphin Avenue and the Gold Coast Highway) in the past.  That pipe took the water across our street, under the garage of the house opposite, and through a small estate of homes, until emptying into a canal about 500 metres away, picking up surface water as it went.   You do not have to be too smart to know that that old pipe would have had great trouble keeping the water level down.  Of course, that pipe would have been laid between 20 and thirty years ago, so we cannot really criticise decisions made and work performed at those times, but there are neighbours who are doing, of course.  Not surprising, is it?

This is another view of the third sink hole, and the two pipes.  The old one on the right will be cut and directed into the hole, so that any surface water coming along that line will be collected by our new drains.  Then, that pipe will be blocked to avoid any water running back, which it shouldn’t anyway.

This shot is taken from our house – see our pink drive in the foreground – along the nature strip of the next house, No 17, and to No 19, where our car is parked behind the digger.  We might be able to get our car into our drive tonight, but …   I might go to the library today.  I say that only to say that I will be able to go out with my books, and then bring my new books back, having a good look at the work as I do.  That way, the workers will not get the impression that I am keeping an eye on them, even though I am.  Damn it, I have to wait for an hour before there is any movement out on the road.