Sport

Posted on 08/08/2013 by admin

We are soon going to be at the start of the cricket season here in Australia. This means that for me (David) I feel the need to become slightly less useless as a member of the lowest division cricket side for Glenbrook-Blaxland CC in the local league. So I have been having a couple of “net sessions”, facing a bowling machine in some indoor nets in Penrith. The first session wasn’t too bad, although I wasn’t turning in to face the ball enough as I batted, and was hit a couple of times just inside and above of my left knee (I bat left-handedly). When I went back the next week our coach wasn’t there, so Andrew set the machine going for me, and although the speed was about half of what a professional fast bowler would manage, the first ball was WAY too fast for me, and hit exactly where the bruises were just going purple from the previous week.

I hope that Andrew was already familiar with the words that I used ….

Nick, meanwhile, is continuing to enjoy his hockey. His side will be in the “finals” (actually, as four sides progress to the “semi.s” out of a total of six teams in the whole league, this doesn’t mean a lot in itself. However Nick’s side are coming second. As you can see, it takes three people to get the ball from Nick.

Artwork, etc

Posted on 03/08/2013 by admin

I mentioned in my previous post about how Sue and I had to make investments to create a pension. When I realised that our shares-type investments were all doing badly, I decided that the time had come to “diversify” as the jargon goes.

At about the same time, a company sent me an invitation to invest in some established-artist artwork. Now I know nothing about this, and so was extremely cautious about the idea. However it seemed like a good concept, after enquiries into the company (Collins and Kent) and into the whole idea. One of the troubles for someone like me is: how does one know what an item is actually worth? There is no easy way to tell or find out.

To cut a long story short, we bought a short series of signed prints by Joan Miro, the Spanish artist, called the Graveur prints. One is shown above, here are the others:

They are each about 60 x 90cm

What are they worth? No idea. What did we pay for them? Compared to the second question, I have no idea about the first. How will we turn them into tangible assets (ie money) when the time comes? That, I now realise, is the key question to which I have no answer!

Canberra, and our new investment property

Posted on 03/08/2013 by admin

It has been a while, so I will put in several items of interest (interesting to me, anyway).

Looking from the War Memorial towards Parliament.
Click to see how tall Andrew is now.

We visited Canberra a couple of weekends ago. It was very cold, but we were able to go to see the visiting Turner exhibition at the National Gallery, and also went to the Australian War Memorial (where this picture was taken). It doesn’t sound very exciting, but the AWM is the equivalent of the Imperial War Museum in London, and was very interesting to visit.

One of the aspects of Australian society which is a bit of a trap for the unwary immigrant is the tedious but important subject of pensions. Basically there are none. If one talks to an Australian about a “pension” they think of a compensation-type pension, a disability pension, or sometning like that. Fundamentally there are no old-age pensions. There is a form of social security for the over-65s with no income and no assets, but that is basically at bad as that sounds. So if you want to have a comfortable life in retirement, it’s up to you ….

Fortunately the situation is not quite as bad as this sounds, in that all employers are obliged to pay 9% (currently, and increasing to 12% over the next few years) into a superannuation fund, which the individual has very little access to until they reach retirement age.

I say all this to explain why Sue and I have had to become property magnates and art collectors! I started off by putting our Super. money (sounds good!) into managed funds, to pay someone else to look after it. The problem with this is that all such Funds are doing very badly over the last few years. So instead we decided to put some savings into property instead. This is the property which we have bought in Sydney:

Double click to see a bit larger ….

Of course this is an investment property, and the fact that it is firstly near Sue’s workplace and secondly somewhere that we would like to have a base in Sydney, has little to do with it. The picture is taken from under Sydney Harbour Bridge, and shows the position of our unit in a 1970s block of flats, just high enough to have a view of the harbour, although the house in front does get in the way a little, as the second picture shows.

View from our unit

Has anyone got a little bit of dynamite?

The view over the Inner harbour is better.

View over in Inner Harbour

View from the unit over Darling harbour

Protected: Andrew as Vice-captain

Posted on 20/06/2013 by admin

Protected: School Event

Posted on 05/06/2013 by admin

Video files

Posted on 18/05/2013 by admin

I have spend this weekend doing gardening and playing with the computers. I’d like to think of it as working with the computers, but it isn’t really: I have been working out how to put video files on the website.

Actually putting the files on the website isn’t at all difficult. The one I put on “Australian Family pictures from the 2000s” (of Nick debating in Youth Parliament) was easy, partly because someone had already put it on YouTube.

I have been doing movie “clips” of my Scale Seven model locomotive, and it’s difficult to get the format, resolution, frames-per-second settings right to load onto the ‘net. The first two are relatively small files:

William Francis 1 small

William Francis 2 small

The picture quality is poor, I think. Beware, though, the two below (my first attempts) are very large files and “froze” my Windows PC when I tried to open them. Given time, patience, and a Mac, and they open nicely though, with much better detail in the pictures. The problem relates to file size, I think. LATER: sadly I have also discovered that as they are mp4 files (chosen because they are the most compact format), Microsoft doesn’t like them. Using the VLC player or the Real Player may help, also. *&%$#@ Microsoft ….

William Francis 1

The second one is a little smaller ….

William Francis 2

Hockey

Posted on 28/04/2013 by admin

We have had a good weekend. Andrew returned from China on Saturday, and on Sunday Andrew and I went to Moorebank fof him to play hockey.

Andrew is now a very good defender (full-back) at hockey. His team aren’t high-flyers: they only won one match out of half-a-dozen today.

However it was a good day, and Andrew really enjoyed himself, despite being tired.

The other news is that Sue and I have put in an offer on a flat/unit in McMahon’s Point. An investment property, or (long-term) it will be a central Sydney base for us, we hope. East Crescent Street in McMahon’s Point, which is VERY central!

Model Rly Progress

Posted on 19/04/2013 by admin

I have constructed a test/running-in track, with automatic switching at each end to send the locomotive back in the other direction. Here the track is seen in our kitchen. It has reverse curves built onto a 2.4m long piece of MDF, to test running around curves, etc.

This has meant that I have been able to finish “running in” my Garratt. I’ve now lubricated all the axles and gears, etc, and it now runs very well: very pleasing. It will even run “dead slow” without hesitating or stopping! It’s there in the picture, half-way up the track. Also visible in the L&Y 0-4-0 tank engine.

I have also been repainting some wagons made many years ago by my brother John. Made for Nick, I think. Anyway, I have been renovating them (changing from Finescale to Scale Seven gauge, apart from anything else). Also repainting them Midland Railway grey and adding transfers.