And That Was 2006 ... !!!

Well here it is, the 31st December 2006, my mum's 93rd birthday ... Happy Birthday Mim ... and both she and I have survived another year. Frankly I think she will outlast me but that's another story.

It has been quite a year on many fronts, both at home and in the world in general. The Sunday papers are full of the Saddam Hussain execution and I for one join in the millions who wish him a speedy descent into hell. No doubt the bleeding hearts will carry on about the death penalty and all that but Saddam was a cancer on society and like all cancers, had to be cut out and destroyed.

Anyway, as I look back on the year I find a couple of significant events in our corner of the world. I guess my biggest thrill for the year was going to India back in September with my mate Ian Finlayson. The trip of a lifetime and although the Himalayas were shrouded in cloud, there were other things that made up for that. Meeting Tamkey the Tibetan monk and his sidekick Lekshey was one of the highlights of not only the trip but of my life. We correspond by email regularly and his simple, gentle words are a calming force in my otherwise often frantic life.

Of even more significance for 2006 is the fact that Nicholas and Liz escaped uninjured when his Hilux rolled in the wet conditions on the first Sunday Ian and I were away in Darjeeling. They didn't tell me until I returned and I don't even want to think about the consequences if they had been injured but suffice to say, maybe the Himalayan gods were shining all the way back here on that fateful day.

Andrew (Tip) and Heidi were engaged after his proposal on the 7am Sydney to Coolangatta Virgin Blue flight. Once again, this was while I was away so I don't know what that all means. Anyway, congratulations to them both.

We were all anxious at the news that my step-brother Max has a serious illness and we all wish him the best in the difficult months ahead. If you are into it, a prayer wouldn't go astray.

Except for those memorable events it was otherwise, a pretty normal year. A few birthdays, anniversaries and family events rounded out the important stuff. Who knows what 2007 will bring. Maybe some of Tamkey's compassion and gentleness will rub off on me and maybe I will handle things a bit better. That's my resolution anyway.

Have fun and be safe.......

So this is what Rain looks like!

I'm not sure if anyone actually reads all this waffle but for what it's worth, I hope you had a pleasant Christmas and I wish you a safe and happy New Year. Hard to believe that 2007 is only days away. Was a time when I reckoned if I made it to 2000 I would have done well.

Anyway, as most people realise, we've had a one in a whatever-hundred years drought in Australia (who kept any records all those years ago!) and we're down to 30-something percent in our main Sydney Dam, Warragamba. The morons running the show have the foresight of a house-fly and I reckon they spend most of their time praying for rain hoping we won't string them up when the water finally runs out. But we have our own little water storage project happening here at The Purfleet Annex and as I write a bloody great thunderstorm has just passed through with hail and rain and wind and all those other natural wonders. The smell of fresh ozone lingers in the garden and the birds have ventured back to sing their thanks for a thorough drenching. Even Toka looks happy.


In keeping with the Balinese theme of our garden and having just returned from the Himalayas I was keen to hoist a couple of Tibetan prayer flags. So Simon and I ventured out to Maraylya and grabbed a couple of bamboo poles (each about 20 feet long) and erected them on the Bali Hut. Sensational ... even after a thunderstorm!!!

In Our Lifetime

My recent post about the moon landing and the momentous events that have occurred in my lifetime got me to thinking ... always dangerous ... What other important events, discoveries, milestones and inventions have happened in your lifetime. To start the ball rolling let's start from 1906, exactly 100 years ago this year, and see what we can come up with.

The kind of things are those that will go down in history as important events and people will read about them in hundreds of years time. They should be events that have happened IN YOUR LIFETIME not just the past 100 years.

To jog your memory here are some of the things on my list ...

The First Man in space
Man Landing on the Moon
The destruction of the Berlin Wall
The Beatles
Finding the Titanic

Leave your list of things that have happened in your lifetime as a comment and we'll see where we end up.

Anna's B&B Redcliffe

My Brisbane client MTAI hold their annual Christmas party in late November each year and I've been to the last eight but this year is their 20th Anniversary so a big event was planned. Liz had 4 days off so she decided to come along for the ride but MTAI CEO Terry Behan graciously invited Liz to the gala dinner to be held at the exclusive Brisbane Club.

It was a chance to take Liz's new Mazda 3 for a good run and we'd see Mim along the way so we headed north on Monday and drove through to the Twin Towns at Tweed Heads where we stayed for a couple of nights. The resort is sensational and world class so we can highly recommend it. The cost is not much more than what the local motels are charging for a bare-bones room with old facilities. The buffet breakfast in Signatures restaurant is worth the price of admission alone.

A couple of years ago I read an article in the SMH Travel Section about Anna's B & B at Redcliffe on Brisbane's north side. So I booked online and we arrived at Anna's on Wednesday. It's located just one street back from Sutton's Beach and only a short walk from the main coastal township of Redcliffe.

The two chooks (garden ornaments) guarding the entrance is an indication that this is not an ordinary B & B and indeed Anna Joyce's penchant for the unusual can be seen everywhere from the detailed figurines adorning the bedside tables to the daily feeding of the young magpies at the kitchen window.

There are 3 guest rooms, each with their own ensuite and comfortable beds but the attention to detail was not lost on us as we admired the fresh soft towels and washers tied in white silk ribbon carefully placed on the pillows.

Breakfast is served on the upstairs balcony and it's self-serve but fresh yogurt and cereal is available followed by a full cooked breakfast which puts to shame the normal scraps served up at most motels.

As well as excellent accommodation you get to meet a real character, Anna Joyce, who has lost none of her Irish accent and she will enthrall you with wonderful stories of her childhood in Ireland and other interesting times in her life. We could spend hours chatting with her and next time we will.

Redcliffe itself is an interesting seaside town with a swag of eateries and coffee shops and it's only about 45 minutes from the centre of Brisbane. Definitely a place to stay out of the city and we will certainly be staying at Anna's next time.

Thanks Anna for a very enjoyable stay at your excellent B & B.

Here's the website for those who are interested... Anna's B & B

Try This Neat Trick

Here's a neat site with a challenge...

www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.html

Give it a try and then, tell me how they do it!!!

I know, but can you figure it out?

The Pink Wall

Couple of nights ago the boys and I went to the see the Pink Floyd Experience at the Enmore theatre in Sydney. All of us being rusted-on Pink Floyd fans (even Charlie who was born the same year as the last genuine Pink Floyd tour to Sydney) we were keen to check out this New Zealand PF tribute band.

The gig was billed as the most authentic PF band touring today so we forked out $65 each and hoped something pretty special. Well, at the end of the night, we reckon the show should have been billed as a Pink Floyd "The Wall" musical performed by a group of average musicians with a lot of extra theatre thrown in. Ok, there was indeed a wall, 124 cardboard boxes stacked across the stage as the show progressed, and there were some pretty spectacular lighting effects, but it didn't quite get there for us.

Fact is, The Wall only has about 3 decent tunes in the whole thing. Most of it is Roger Waters whinging about who stuffed him up during his life. So the show was mainly The Wall plus a couple of extra songs from Dark Side and of course, the almost obligatory Wish You Were Here anthem. Including interval of 20 minutes the Pink Floyd Experience runs to about 3 hours and frankly, we all reckoned we could have spent our time better doing something else. A Pink Floyd Experience ... I don't think so.

Now if you really want to see the definitive Pink Floyd tribute band then Shine On - The Pink Floyd Show is a must for any Pink Floyd purist. These guys perform rarely but we saw them at the Doyalson RSL back in August and trust me, close your eyes and you'd think it was the real thing.

I Wuzz There!

The Aussie movie The Dish was on TV tonight and although I've seen it a few times it still brings back memories of those magical days back in 1969, when I was in Year 12 at High School and half the school crowded into the theatre to watch Neil Armstrong step onto the moon.

The images were grainy and not like the crystal clear TV pictures of today but while I watched the film I had a thought. In all of history ... I was there when the FIRST man flew in space and I was there when the FIRST man stepped on the moon. I have lived in interesting times.


I watched Uri Gagarin's Sputnik streak across the Sydney night sky on April 12 1961 and I watched Neil Armstrong land on the moon on July 20 1969. Amazing stuff even after all these years.

Is That It?

I do enjoy a good joke or funny story and indeed I've been known in days past to dish up a couple of hours worth of rib-ticklers from blonde to blue. Indeed as a young bloke 30 years ago I had few peers when it came to joke telling and that's no idle boast even if I do say so myself. However the years have not been kind, memory loss as you get older is real folks, and these days I almost need a secretary to take notes and remind me of the best funnies.

And there are few stand up comics who can get my attention, I've heard them all before and it seems to me that most of the so-called new breed of comedians rely totally on embarassing toilet and anatomical humour for most of their material. Not that there's anything wrong with that but they need to be told well and they don't need to be the main theme of the act.

Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano and Billy Crystal are three of the best live comedians these days I reckon and I've never really been impressed with Irish import Jimeoin who is big in Australia and I'm stuffed if I know why. I think it says more about the audience than the performer. Anyway, last night we went to Panthers to see Jimeoin Live.

Jim old mate, I know you are Irish but you've been here for a few years now and you really should ditch the mumbling Irish accent. For most of the 2 hour show I couldn't understand a word he said... he mumbled in some unintelligible cross between Irish Brogue and Aussie English and I could see others in the packed Evan Theatre were as underwhelmed as we were. The sight gags were ok but the whole show never really got going and although there were a few good laughs, it didn't rock the place at all. At the end of 2 hours I was asking, "Is that it?"

Jim's first outing in an Australian movie The Craig was a big letdown and unfortunately his latest live show wasn't any better.

But, Big Sis Wendy and Bro Nick were good company and it's always good to see them so it was a good night all the same.

Best Pizza in the Mountains?

So ok, by now you reckon I am a food nut. Well I can't argue that I do like food and in fact one of the first jobs I had even before I left school was learning cookery at Zachary's Restaurant up at Terry Hills. I even started working at Qantas Flight Catering when I left school but the low pay and production line style of cooking left me cold. I did however enjoy the Lobster Thermidore or Lobster Newburg we would have on freshly baked bread rolls for morning tea, sitting in the flight deck of a 707. Those were the days before jumbo jets and all the airport security. Anyway, I digress...

Another favourite is a good pizza and fortunately after trying many of the pizza joints around Penrith and the lower Blue Mountains I found Monte's Pizzeria at Blaxland... (15A Great Western Highway Blaxland, just next to the Glenbrook Hotel 02 4739 6969)


Nick and son Joel run this award winning pizzeria which has been featured in the SMH Good Food Guide and has a loyal local following. They will do your traditional pizzas but you can also get one from their popular Tropical Gormet Menu. Islander Special and Reef-N-Fruit are sure to please as are any of the standard pizzas ... my favourite is Monte's Special with the lot but not a word to my Cardiologist!

These guys are the real deal and their pizzas are sensational but as always, it's the people who make it special and Joel and Nick are friendly and always pleasant ... just plain good blokes!

35 Years Ago...

35 years ago ... on the 13th November 1971 to be exact, I and 129 other fresh-faced hopefulls entered the NSW Police Academy at Bourke Street Redfern and became Class 129 of the NSW Police Academy.

On Saturday we had our 35th Reunion at the Arms of Australia Hotel in Penrith and despite the ravages of time which saw the passing of a few and the incarceration of several others, about 60 or 70 of us turned up to remember the good old days when the local copper was not always liked but was almost always respected... even by the hoodlums and crims.

Anyway, the following Rogue's Gallery is evidence of those who managed to attend... just click on Lone and Anita's image...

Class 129 Reunion

Tip and Heidi's Engagement Bash

Well after 3 years, Tip and Heidi decided to put us all out of our misery and they announced their Engagement. Actually it was a bit more involved and Andrew proposed to Heidi during a flight to Coolangatta back in September. I was in India and missed the excitement but it was all hands on deck last Saturday night when the formal Engagement Party got going.

Click on the image to see all the party pics.

Tip and Heidi's Engagement

All the India Trip Photos

Click the Photo to go to our Web Gallery.

Ian and Dave's India Trip Photos

Click this link for our Inja or Bust Weblog

Does Anyone Actually Read this Stuff?

Just a thought.... does anyone actually read this Blog or is it a self indulgent waste of time? Leave a comment.

Photos on the Net

I've recently discovered a couple of nifty services (all free) which allow you to publish your photos on the net. If you click on the Tabblo ... that's the image with all the photo thumbnails below ... you'll see what I mean.

That display was done with Tabblo and is pretty neat. It allows you to post photos and text so you can virtually publish a book online for all your friends to see. Great for showing your latest photos of trips, engagements, weddings ... Hey, don't we have some of those coming up soon? Anyway you can check out what Tabblo has to offer at http://www.tabblo.com/studio

The other online photo publishing service I've used is Picasa's Web Album. You'll need to get the free Picasa first from Google and trust me, for a free program it's pretty neat. I'm using it to catalogue and manage all my photos now and it's even got a neat photo fix option. You can get Picasa at http://picasa.google.com

Then there's Flickr which is Yahoo's online photo publishing site. Not bad but I reckon Picasa Web Album does just fine. You can check out each of them with my photos and decide for yourself which suits....

My Tabblos ... Click on the Tabblo image over there on the right to see all my Tabblos.

My Picasa Web Albums ...

http://picasaweb.google.com/snowy.whiteman?pli=1

Have fun folks...!

A Rose Amongst the Thorns

These photos were taken on a recent trip we made to the South Coast of NSW.
We visited the Nan Tien Buddhist Monastery at Berkley near Wollongong
and it is hard to believe that such a serene and peaceful place exists
amongst the dour and dismal industrial landscape which  surrounds
the area.
... See my Tabblo>

The Search for the Perfect Laksa

Anyone who has been around me for more than a few years will know that I have a special eating place down in Chinatown where they serve the absolute best Laksa in the known universe (and probably a few unknown ones as well!). I used to go there with poor old Gazza who has since gone to the Internet Chat Room in the sky, and Paul, who has gone to Tamworth. There must be a link there somewhere?

Don't know what Laksa is? Click Here



Ever since I tasted this Asian delight about 15 years ago I've been looking for the perfect Laksa and that obviously requires a rigorous testing process. Over the years I've tried and tasted Laksas from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur and from Brisbane to Calcutta.

And just today I went to De Laksa in Parramatta where, according to Matthew Evans the SMH Food Critic, they supposedly have the best Laksa in Sydney, but sorry to say, the Prawn Laksa was a big disappointment. Now this place is supposedly run by Mary who is from Singapore and I'd expect something pretty good from an expat Mallaca chef but, compared to the fragrant bowl of heavenly Seafood Laksa cooked up by the Phnom Penh Teo Chew Noodle House down in the Dixon Food Court off Little Hay Street, it was little more than an insipid bowl of slop.

If you don't live in Sydney or don't intend coming here very soon then you are out of luck... you are missing one of life great pleasures.

This Time Last Week

This time last week, I'd been back home just over a week. Although work started almost immediately it took me a day or two to get back into the swing of things but soon enough it was as though I'd never been away.

It's amazing how quickly the time passes and even now, it seems incredible that I was away for a couple of days short of a month.

It's all there in the InjaorBust blog and I am waiting for Ian to finish his course so he can update it with his adventures.

This time tomorrow.........

This time tomorrow, barring any unforseen last minute problems... Ian and I will be getting ready to arrive in Kuala Lumpur.

Hard to believe that the last 6 months have indeed flown by so quickly and it seems only yesterday that I was thinking, only 3 months to go etc.

So, keep tabs on us couple of lunatics at our Inja or Bust blog and make sure you send us an email or two just to remind us of what is back home.

Dave - snowy.whiteman AT gmail.com

Ian - icfinlayson AT gmail.com

(Don't forget to replace the AT with the @ symbol... done to avoid the spammers)

Check seat belts and start your engines... Cheers and see you soon....

Inja or Bust

Well it's just over seven weeks until Ian and I head off for India and the trip of a lifetime. The recent bombings in Mumbai haven't dampened our enthusiasm but it makes you realise what a great place we live in here with only an occasional street mugging. Oh yes, there is the Cronulla riots, the MacQuarie Fields riots and the Redfern riots... seems all the dickheads here want to do is riot which I guess is better than bombs on trains.

Still, if we changed our plans to suit a bunch of morons we would never leave home so we're throwing caution to the wind and pressing ahead ... "Onward Taifur and don't forget the tea and sticky buns old chap! " "Most certainly sahib."

You can catch up on our Inja or Bust blog here --- > Dave and Ian's Indian Adventure

The QEIII Heads North

Saturday 24th June saw me load up the QEIII for a trip to Brisbane and some work with m,y clients. This may be the last trip before India so had a few things to sort out. Also Liz decided to fly up after her 4 nights work and I'd pick her up at Coollangatta on the Wednesday. It would be a nice break for her and we'd spend a few days with Wendy and Nick.

As usual I loaded the QEIII and headed off up the New England. I have a number of spots along the highways which are ideal for an overnight stop and after calling in to see Bill at the Guyra Roadhouse and having a hot coffee I ended up at the Heritage Park rest area just north of Glen Innes.

It was bloody cold during the night and when I woke at 7am the side glass was thick with ice. When I managed to open the slide door this is what I saw...

Clear skies and sub-zero temperatures during the night high up on the Great Divide had resulted in a heavy frost covering the landscape and it looked magical.


The video and digital cameras got a workout and my scenic overnight camping spot meant I caught a cold which lasted the rest of the week.

Very picturesque but you need those woolies!

Million $$$ View

Dave, Liz, Wendy, Len, Judy, Nick

We decided to take Liz for a smart lunch for her 51st birthday and what better place than Ripples restaurant right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This sensational eatery is right next to the Olympic Pool and Luna Park and while the food is great, the view is even better.

Sydney from Ripples Restaurant.

A Boy and his Dog

Charlie and Toka in the back of his ute on a recent day out to Rod's farm.


She looks a lot calmer than when we were driving along the highway. Yapping and chewing at the side of the ute.

Tip at Rod Crane's new farm

I went with Tip on one of his country trips and we stopped in at Rod Crane's new farm at Cullen Bullen on the way back. A magical spot and we're looking forward to a few weekends up there very soon.

The Capertee Valley near Cullen Bullen. Supposedly the 2nd largest valley in area after the Grand Canyon. 

Fish at last!

We gave the boys a day out on a charter boat for Christmas presents and they came back with a bag full. 

Australia Day 2006

Australia Day, 26th January, is the day we celebrate the official claiming of this great country by Captain Arthur Phillip in the name of the United Kingdom. The aboriginal people hate the day and what it stands for but frankly, it's really just an excuse for a party so they should join in and forget what happened 200 years ago. Nobody can change what happened and we are not all about to line up at Mascot and scarper back to good olde England.


Wendy Nick and Liz all jazzed up for our Australia Day cruise on Sydney Harbour.



Liz and I onboard the cruise boat and looking forward to the seafood buffet.

End of school

Charlie's last day of school at Nepean High... October 2005.

Raymond Terrace - October 2005

Liz and I with Wendy at Raymond Terrace north of Newcastle October 2005. This is the last day of Wendy and Nick's around Australia trip and we'd promised them we'd bring the QEIII and escort them and the Princess back into Sydney at the end of their 10 month adventure.

September 2005 - The Blitz Completed

 

September 2005 - Finished!

The plinth with my vege garden well under way with tomatoes and herbs.




 

Charlie on the Compactor

Charlie using the compactor to level and compact the path base. 

The Mighty Dingo Digger

Charlie on the amazing Dingo Digger which was used to strip 100mm off the whole back yard. That adds up to a total of just over 10 tonnes of dirt removed so we can level the yard ready for paving and lawn. 

All Hands on Deck

It was all hands on deck with Liz, David Wright, Tony Wright, Tip and Heidi lending a hand with the landscaping.