Patricia's 2008 Update

For Patricia the year got off to a bumpy start with Bert being out of work initially and uncertainty about what the future might hold. From the middle of January Bert was working again on a six-month contract and arriving home every evening with Garth on the train. At least during this period Garth's hours were a bit more regular as he caught the same train home with Bert most nights.

In between the odd hospital visit to try to get to the cause of long-standing problems Patricia spent much time looking after the garden, doing hand crafts, and keeping in touch with other people. Patrica has many visitors every day as here feathered fiends (sic) come calling to beg for food.

Mostly the visitors are Rainbow Lorikeets and Noisy Miners with the occassional Magpie family - particularly in the Spring when they bring their gangly offspring (technically know as 'dorks') around. However, we have also been getting a number of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos around.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo just outside kitchen window.

She has to watch these large birds because they can be quite destructive when they get bored (which is often). A news item recently reported on a Victorian family who had $50,000 worth of damage to their house due to bored Cockatoos.

Patricia has also noticed, during the winter particularly, an increasing number of older or deformed birds. It seems that word has got around the bird world that the Lancaster's place is a good spot for the aged and infirm to score some nosh. For instance this Lorikeet has a deformed beak and one deformed (broken?) claw.

Deformed Rainbow Lorikeet

This little bird has grown so accustomed to Patricia that it comes and sits on the kitchen window-sill and begs for food with chirps and 'tongueing' the glass.

From mid-July Patricia's caring skills were called into play when Bert had a cycling accident. Initially he could only eat meals that were substantially liquid due to his facial damage but gradually was able to go back onto solid foods over a period of several weeks.

Since Bert has been working from home since late July Patricia's daily routine has had to change due to him always being around the house except for Thursday mornings when he goes out for a meeting.

Bert's 2008 update

Well 2008 has been a 'fun' year for all of us.

For Bert it started off with the first couple of weeks out of work pending starting a six-month contract with Keane International transitioning our previous jobs to Bangalore. This, of course, followed 64 of our jobs being made redundant mid-December 2007. Half a dozen of us took up the offer of the six-month contract because, amongst other things, it gave us time to sort out where we individually wanted to go in the future. For Bert the decisions to be made were somewhat different to other peoples. Since he was nominally at retirement age the question was whether to keep on working at all, or work part-time, or take on a new full-time role which would require injection of much energy (which he would probably rather expend elsewhere!).

Eventually (well actually when the contract finished in July) things started to resolve themselves and Bert's future was sown up - more on this later.

During the six months of the Keane contract Bert was working at Surry Hills in the city. This was a novel experience requiring train travel to and from on a daily basis. Having experienced it for six-months he is not anxious to repeat the experience
.
However, working in Surry Hills did have some benefits. One of these was the ability to walk around an area of Sydney with a fair amount of history and some interesting domestic and commercial architecture. Here are some examples.

The Readers Digest building

The Readers Digest building architecture is quite interesting for a commercial building. As you pass along the left side of the building there are embrasures providing ventilation into the parking area. Fitted into these embrasures are large cast bone-like objects which allow passage for the air but not for bodies of miscreants.

The bones of Readers Digest founders

My conjecture is that these cast objects are actually the ossified remains of the original (alien) founders of Readers Digest.

Terraced houses

Many of the streets have these terraced houses and many of them have been renovated to modern standards. If you can afford it its probably not a bad place to live being close to the city and many restaurants and recreational venues.

Sandstone cottage

This sandstone cottage was coming up for auction and would probably have made a tidy sum for its owner.

No advertising necessary for this 'entertainment' venue!

The gaudily painted house on Riley Street is no doubt redolent of some of the more unsavoury elements of Surry Hills past.

One other architectural gem deserves mention - the former church owned at one time by Madame Lash. She commissioned the front doors of the building ("The Kirk" which is now used mainly as an artists resource centre. You can find out more about it here http://www.madamelash.com.au/index1-lash.html).

Doors of "The Kirk" - Madame Lash's Pleasure Palace

Shortly after finishing his contract (two days to be exact) Bert took a face plant from his bicycle and did some terra-forming with his face. The ground was little affected but not so his face.

Result of attempting Galileo's experiment with falling object (face/body)
form a moving platform (mountain bike) at ~ 30 kph

However, after a night in hospital following some very fancy stitching (about 15 external and 20 odd internal), and the passage of several months things are pretty much back to normal. One thing which is not back to normal is Bert's inability to whistle a tune having lost his pucker to scar tissue - ho hum. The amazing thing was that no bones were broken an, apart from a slightly bent gear change lever, the bicycle got off scot free.

Following the accident, and during the initial recovery period, Bert put in lots of time looking for a new job. About 10 days after the accident (and still looking like a child-frightening monster) Bert landed a part-time job doing programming work from home 60-65 hours a month. This is working out very well, although income is much reduced, and beats the tar out of commuting into the city.

Bert has recently started having jam sessions with Mike B. and Jase W. - Mike on keyboard/electronic drums, Jase on guitar and Bert on harmonica. More sessions are planned and they provide a bit of fun every few weeks. Bert has also started learning classical guitar (again) having had a period away from it due to inability to maintain fingernails because of rock-climbing. Now that he hasn't been climbing for a while the nails are able to grow and be shaped for the guitar. However, that is not to say that he won't go climbing again - maybe in the new year.

After all of the excitement of the first half or so of the year not much has been happening to Bert. He and Garth just undertook the Urban Polaris mountain bike navigation event in the ACT having entered under the 'Super Vet' category (combined ages > 100). They came a creditable 14th out of 24 in their category having spent 6.5 hours out on the course for a total of 84+ kms and racked up 210 points for 14 control points attained. It was a great day out and we will most likely do it again next year.

Bert and Garth are looking forward to getting in a bit more cycling during the end of year 'break' - maybe try out a few new routes. They cycle together three mornings a week for fitness - generally around the Meadowbank - Homebush - Olympic Park - Rhodes 20km circuit. Garth is trying to get his fitness up for an extended holiday in Europe next year which includes at least one cycle-tour component.