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Old 11-05-2019, 09:46 AM   #781
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Default Re: tell a Model A related story

Quote:
I don’t know what Q**** is?
I suspect that it starts with quee and rhymes w/beer
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Old 11-05-2019, 02:32 PM   #782
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I suspect that it starts with quee and rhymes w/beer
Hi Katy. How dumb of me not to have considered that.
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Old 11-09-2019, 05:59 AM   #783
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this story follows number 776.

Dogs.

Following my story on Woofa my friend Sharon called to say “I know why I like you, it’s because you like dogs? And yes, I do like dogs. I miss Woofa terribly and did replace him with a kelpie I named Wags. I love kelpies, alert, smart, energetic and wanting to work. My house yard is a little smaller than one acre and this was simply too small for a kelpie. In fairness to Wags I gave him to a farmer and I miss him too. I envy farmers who get around their farm on their motor bikes or 4 wheelers with dogs riding on the back. My friend Gerry talks to his dog and says that is not a sign of madness but quite normal behaviour. Some have great personalities and unique behaviour, in the case of Woofa he was entertaining.

Some dog owners have paid considerable money to buy a “pure bred”. The world is full of these dogs and some of them are pretty dull. But a cross or mongrel is usually much brighter for example a popular dog - a labradoodle, a cross between a Labrador and poodle is smart. My neighbour, who, in his working life was a dairy farmer says the best dogs he ever had were mongrels given to him. Dogs he bought were never as good.

Dogs make good companions. They wag their tails and not their tongues. They greet you when you return home. I hear of a town worker who arrives home to his 5 dogs but only 1 greets him, a blue dog. His wife says when Blue hears the motor car at the front gate it beats up the other 4 which run to hiding leaving only Blue left to greet the master. Dogs also alert you when you have someone entering your yard and warn them they are under surveillance.

If a dog is troublesome it is generally the fault of the owner who hasn’t trained it or spent enough time with it. Some take their dogs shopping. Do dogs enjoy shopping? I wouldn’t have thought so. Some dogs have had their station elevated to equal or greater than their owners and deservedly so for some have a higher IQ.

Regardless of all this a dog will reward the owner in many ways if treated well. They are great company. Woofa was not permitted in the house nor in any motor car with the exception of the Model A and on the floor only. He considered riding in the A was his birthright. Do check out the link below and you will be astounded at the skill of a working dog during a display at half time at a footy match. One viewer comment is posted below

The Eagles game ought to be the halftime act for the dogs' show.

The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txiR7oEVGd0

Woofa is pictured. Courage, loyalty and taunacity all found in one companion.
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Old 11-09-2019, 09:38 AM   #784
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Woofa was a great looking dog and I'm sure matched his looks with personality. They do not live long enough and I'm sure you miss woofa greatly

. I love dogs, always have. I like cats too but they are similar to women, especially our female cat and can be, ah, independent??.?? Before our son left for college his mother got him a German Shepard because she thought, he will make tracks home every chance he gets to see the dog . The German Shepard is with me almost 24/7. I let her ride in my trucks, she stays in the house and she knows her surroundings within a 40 mile area (on the hiway) better than my kids did when they got their driving licenses. She is soooo smart, BUT she chases her tail when she's happy and shadows and reflections drive her nuts. She takes two large rocks in our landscape, one inback of the house and one in front and takes her front paws and rolls the rock toward her and literally talks to the rocks as she's doing it. I have video if anyone wants to see as I'm not sure I can post it directly here and only a dog lover wants to see it anyway. My son was helping me move several tons of large rocks (by hand) on a bank so we could put drain pipe under it. The German Shepard had large rocks strewn everywhere as she spoke to them.


Wife ran over my little pound mut last thanksgiving and it killed her and it almost killed me. I've never had a dog that loved me like the little one. She would walk around 50 people and come straight to me. The German Shepard loves me for the rides
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Old 11-09-2019, 06:26 PM   #785
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[QUOTE=History;1819377]Woofa was a great looking dog and I'm sure matched his looks with personality. They do not live long enough and I'm sure you miss woofa greatly.

Wife ran over my little pound mut last thanksgiving and it killed her and it almost killed me. I've never had a dog that loved me like the little one.

__________________________________________________ ________________________

To loose your dog is devastating. It's loosing one of your family. Post us a picture of it and your German Sheppard along with your A. cheers, gary.
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Old 11-09-2019, 08:45 PM   #786
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We've got a part Pyrenees, part chow, and part lab that was a wild feral dog in Savannah, GA at 9 months before going thru dog rescue. Amazing how smart dogs can be, and still have some irrational fears of things also.

She loves riding in cars though.

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Old 11-10-2019, 01:26 AM   #787
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We've got a part Pyrenees, part chow, and part lab that was a wild feral dog in Savannah, GA at 9 months before going thru dog rescue. Amazing how smart dogs can be, and still have some irrational fears of things also.

She loves riding in cars though.

fried okra
post us a picture fried okra of you and dog and car. and I curious to know how your name fried okar came about? cheers, gary
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Old 11-10-2019, 01:32 AM   #788
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Katherine.
I well remember a girl in my school class by the name of Katherine. I’ve seen her only briefly only once since I left school in 1965. I heard she was living on an island in Queensland and I intended to meet with her after 54 years. I called her brother for contact information and he advised she died only 10 days previous.
Well it was today I visited the island on which she lived. Yes people knew her and liked her. Her husband had apparently died many years ago and she lived with a “partner” for many years. I asked a woman ambo who knew her well and she spoke about Katherine in a commendatory way. I asked about her partner and was told she could not divulge information about him or others. I pointed out to her I had not seen Katherine in many years and I would like to find something of her life. No, rules were rules.
The ambulance is a semi government organisation and being staffed by government servants the initiative they may have had is killed when they started this job. That is a shame and I guess that is the reason government is so bureaucratic and inefficient. What is that song? Little boxes? Whilst many of us are gullible not everyone will yield to forces that compete to control us. They are of course the government and the trendies who call themselves progressive and the elites. They are also found in universities schools and the media. Do I call them progressives and elites? Certainly not. Infact quite the contrary. What was the quote from a former American president about fooling people? Yes, you know it.
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Old 11-10-2019, 02:32 PM   #789
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Default Re: tell a Model A related story

I tried posting a few photos and all need to be resized. It's such a pain on an iPad or iPhone.

[QUOTE=woofa.express;1819596]
Quote:
Originally Posted by History View Post
Woofa was a great looking dog and I'm sure matched his looks with personality. They do not live long enough and I'm sure you miss woofa greatly.

Wife ran over my little pound mut last thanksgiving and it killed her and it almost killed me. I've never had a dog that loved me like the little one.

__________________________________________________ ________________________

To loose your dog is devastating. It's loosing one of your family. Post us a picture of it and your German Sheppard along with your A. cheers, gary.
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Old 11-10-2019, 08:40 PM   #790
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woofa.express/gary.....okra is a popular food in the southeast of USA and is particularly good when cut into small pieces and fried. It's one of my favorite foods but takes a lot of effort to prepare so don't have it often.

When asked to pick a moniker for a forum its hard to find one that's not already in use over various forums. But "fried okra" seems to work on most any motorcycle or auto forum I am on. So, that's why I use it

Will post pics of the '31 Tudor and Pyrenees mix dog when I learn how to post pics!

fried okra/Vernon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okra
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Old 11-12-2019, 12:19 PM   #791
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Part 1 of 2
Lake Victoria and Possum.


Lake Victoria is a naturally filling shallow lake in south west corner of NSW. This water is captured when the Murray River is running high and later released for South Australia when required. It was sometime in the early eighties when I spent a day mustering cattle on a property joining the lake. I took my son Dennis, who was 15 at the time but a short time into the job he wasn’t feeling too good with all the tight turns. I found a semi flat area on the bank of this lake and dropped him off. He spent the day there with only stale and stagnant water of the lake to drink. I did feel a little sorry for the young boy. Today he flys many trips west to Perth and views that location where he waited in the hot sun. But that’s not why I am telling this story.
There is a grave yard in the sand hills nearby which a local grazier pointed out to me. He spoke about a grave and a fellow berried there known as Possum. He sounded like an interesting fellow and I have had reason to check him out on the internet. Rather than relay it I am going to include it verbatim. Here it is below.

“POSSUM” is a bush legend of the 20th Century.
Born David James Jones, (Jimmy), on April 19, 1901, in Ruapuna, New Zealand, he migrated to Australia in 1924 and worked as a shearer for the Stock Owners Association.
Possum became a recluse during the great depression, (1929), after having his money stolen from a boarding house he was staying in. He declared himself unfinancial when couldn’t pay his Australian Workers Union Ticket and therefore was retrenched as a shearer. Disillusioned and disappointed, he turned his back on society and relegated himself to the bush.
Possum was widely known around the Wentworth area. For over half a century he roamed the surrounding bush, having numerous camping spots along the Murray and Darling Rivers. He lived in isolation, preferring his beloved bush and the company of animals, to any human contact. He was renowned for his independence and the long distances he travelled by foot in relative short periods of times. He was often seen climbing trees in search of honey and sleeping in tree ‘hides’; these habits led locals to refer to him as “The Possum”.
Possum was a shy, gentle person who didn’t do any harm. He always kept himself clean and fit and his pride would not allow him to accept food or shelter. Station owners often found fences and gates mended, wood chopped, sheep crutched, weeds cleared and newspapers missing (although always put back a few days later!). The only payment he ever accepted was salt and matches. He was well trusted, although if no-one was about, he also habitually released station dogs which were chained up
Possum died at the age of 82. His body was found against a large gum tree on the Victorian side of the Murray River, just up from Lock 8, on August 4, 1982. It is believed that he had been dead for at least four weeks. A funeral was held, paid for by locals, and was attended by over 250 people, including local and national media. He lays at rest at the Wangumma Cemetery. His headstone simply reads: “David James Jones ‘Possum’ 1901-1982 – at rest where he roamed”.
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Old 11-14-2019, 01:40 PM   #792
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Part 2 of 2.
Lake Victoria NSW. Continued.


Lake Victoria NSW is about 50 miles WNW of the Murray River town of Mildura. I spoke about it last story. Mildura has an airstrip which was a war time pilot training base. It was common practise for trainee pilots to fly 2 at a time and “shadow shoot” which meant the second aeroplane shooting at the shadow of the first. The purpose being to practise on a moving target. Of course aeroplanes and pilots were lost, one in the lake. Local fishermen offered assistance to locate the wreckage but the military declined because they knew it all. When the fruitless search was abandoned the fishermen located and recovered it.Today there are no commercial fishermen on the Murray River system. European Carp were introduced to keep the river free of weed. Whilst this was a success it made the water turbid as well as decimating native fish population and it changed the whole ecology of the river for the worse. We are now in early summer. Lake Victoria has been drained. The lake systems on the Darling River have been drained. Why? So as the South Australian lake towns can have fresh water for recreation. These lakes have been traditionally salt water, estuarine, as they form part of the river mouth to the sea. The S.A farmers have had 100% of their water allocation and I don’t begrudge them as there was sufficient water in the Murray system to give all farmers upstream a full allocation as well. Our local farmers and others have a nil allocation for now the second year. Because of drought the dams have not been replenished. Farmers at Menindee who irrigate from the Darling System had their lakes drained for the same reason, recreation, and have lost their permanent plantings of vines and almonds. Tens of thousands of river fish have perished and the nation is hostile about this. The South Australian state government had an enquiry as to why. They had a whipping boy in mind before they started. It was cotton farmers on the Darling who took more than their water allocation but they hadn’t used river water for more than a year.

And it's all for recreation. It’s quite political, it determines how South Australians vote. Food and fibre production doesn’t seem important these days nor do the lives of farmers and those who live in the small irrigation towns supporting farming. The last high flow on the Murray was recent. It has nearly drained the Hume Dam. It was an environmental flow to support duck and frog breeding. There is more to this story and it is disgusting.

Now back to the Lake Victoria story. The night prior to the muster I mentioned previously we stayed in what was once a grand old homestead. This was in the process of being restored by the property owner’s daughter and her husband. Their story intrigued me and here it is. They had a large service station with a diner. The agreement they have with a partner is the interesting story. Partner A would work a fortnight and this was intense and exhausting. A would walk out and partner B would take over control and work for the next fortnight. Etc etc. It is my experience that if one wants to succeed in business one has to be married to it and this working plan provided for that matrimony and would avoid much business partner irritation. It might also save the other marriage, the one with your wife.
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Old 11-17-2019, 03:52 PM   #793
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Peter’s story.

There’s some strange stories and some funny stories that come out of Africa. Here’s one.

Peter Hamilton was and engineer who serviced our aeroplanes in Sudan. We were flying the Rockwell Thrush which is powered by a Pratt and Whitney R1340 (9 cylinder 600hp radial). These aeroplanes were ferried from England to Sudan the previous year and did not involve me. One had engine failure in Egypt so a newly overhauled engine was airfreighted to Cairo. Peter was sent to install it but had difficulty with bureaucrats at the airport when he wanted to collect it. Nothing seemed to work for him until he had a light bulb moment. You know those business cards that important people or those people who think they are important carry. They were once white cardboard but today they seem to have gone upmarket with colours and are laminated. Well Peter took one, the cardboard type and with a cork top from a bottle of cognac he inked and smudged an impression on it and signed over it. Well that got him entry to the airport warehouse and he collected the engine, but his difficulties weren’t over. He couldn’t get to the downed aeroplane because it involved transit through a military zone. Eventually he got written permission from the Egyptian equivalent of the minister of defence. Yes that got him through but he was stranded there for the permission didn’t say he could return through their zone. The modified business card described earlier overcame that difficulty.

Initiative can be powerful when used well and if that fails add a little bullshit and a claim becomes compelling.

The pictures are of a Rockwell Thrush, taken in Sudan. I don't know which aeroplane it was. There were 12 in all. The second is of a Pratt and Whitney R1340 on a test stand. This picture from the internet.

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Old 11-19-2019, 08:44 AM   #794
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One clear cold day, in mid January, three of us decided to drive my '29 A to a lighthouse in Lake Eire. The ice was good, thick and safe . We got about halfway to the lighthouse (1.5 miles) and it was noticed that we were almost out of gas.
Turn back and as we got closer to shore, we saw a big wide crack in the ice with a 6" or 7" lip. The crack went for ever parallel to the shore line in both directions.
We are now out of gas ! Only one thing to do "JUMP THE CRACK !!!"
One on the driver's side running board and one on the passenger side.
Back the A up and got to at least 38 mph, hit the crack , went air borne, came down and went through the ice ! The A floated up on solid ice, both of them on the running board had wet feet ! Knocked a whole in the ice 4 times the size of the A.
We stood there laughing as our testicles headed to our throats.
Good thing Henry used wood in the construction of those beautiful cars.
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Old 11-19-2019, 10:04 AM   #795
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So, Tim.....you got the A off the lake somehow I guess?

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Old 11-19-2019, 06:29 PM   #796
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Hi Tim. you recovered the motor car from the ice? How?
Here's me complaining about the hot spring we are having. How does it go? I once complained I had no shoes until I saw a man with no legs.
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Old 11-22-2019, 08:01 AM   #797
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During the seventies I worked for a Queensland spray company that based me at Miles. The secretary and general dogs body was a delightful woman by the name of Sharon Bridle. I wrote about Sharon in story number 130 and it's worth a read.
I have written about man's best friend, the dog and I'm posting Sharon's reply story on same.

My Dog.
My very first dog when I was a small child was a Dalmation called Spot and I really loved that dog. The day my Mum decided to leave my father and return to Toowoomba from Newcastle we packed up and as we drove away Spot sat in the middle of the road with the saddest look on his face. I reckon he knew he would never see us again. I grieved for years for that beautiful dog.

The first dog in the clip reminded me of a lovely dog called Nip that belonged to a man in the next flat to us in Dalby. At 4 o'clock every afternoon that dog would go out the front gate and wait until he saw Phil come into view around the corner. Anyhow one weekend Phil and Rose had to go to an army reunion in Toowoomba, so it was left to me to babysit Nip. Sometime that night Nip started to cry and wouldn't leave Phil's old boots on the front porch. I could not understand what was wrong with him. The next day we found out Phil had died in Toowoomba that night.

Also the dog in the clip looked just like our first dog after we were married. Lisa was a very small baby when this little pup wandered into the yard. I just had to keep her, we called her Minty. In 1966 we moved into a flat on Drayton Street - the main thoroughfare through Dalby, so lots of traffic. One day Lisa came running in to me saying that Minty had bitten her, but then I heard the old lady next door calling out to me, no she said Minty did not bite her, she had grabbed her arm and pulled her off the road. After we moved to our present address there was a young couple across the road with a little baby boy and Minty would sit by his pram for ages if Judy had him out in the outdoor area. If they got visitors Minty would not let anyone go near his pram until Judy came out to say it was OK. Another Judy lived up the road and her daughter Nerida would come down to play with my kids. One day Judy came to collect Nerida, she was very angry as she had told Nerida not to leave the yard. As she walked her home she smacked her on the bum and on seeing this Minty went into action running up the road and getting in between Judy and Nerida and growling at Judy. Judy always said it was pretty bad when you couldn't reprimand your own child. When she got very old I picked up another stray at the day nursery, he was a black lab. we called Nugget. Each morning when the kids went to school and I to work Minty and Nugget would hot foot it off to spend the day at Bob's Mum's place. By this time Minty was quite blind and Nugget would gently push her off the road and make sure he was on the road side as they walked along.

Our next dog was another Dalmation also called Spot, a gentle gorgeous dog that never did anything amazing but did cause problems in the summer as he was scared stiff of storms, whips, fireworks etc. We had him on medication all summer. The stress caused his old heart to give out in the end.

Next we got a cross between a Border Collie and a German shepherd. Bob called him Dog, because he loved "Footrot Flats". He was gorgeous and really loved one of our cats. One day I could hear him barking and whimpering out the back so went to investigate. He was looking to the sky and jumping up into the air. The dog has gone crazy I thought. The next thing I saw was an eagle swooping on my poor little cat on our spare block of land. I yelled and jumped the fence to pick up the very scared cat.
When I put her down Dog kept licking her and didn't leave her side for ages. Dog was 17 when we were forced to send him to heaven. Bob cried.

Bob said no more dogs ever but I saw a pound dog's photo in the paper and begged to go and get her - Bob was not pleased - but now just loves her to bits and she is his dog. She is called Peppi, the name she had from her previous owner. She also loves our two cats but particularly loves kids. Only trouble is she wants to lick them and some little ones get scared when I take her to the creek parkland for a walk. Bob really missed her when he was in hospital so an OT there got us to take photos that she laminated and put on the wall. He reckons it made him miss her all the more. She is a lovely black & white short haired border collie who greets everyone - even a thief who came into the house one night and stole my wallet. The police reckon I had one good guard dog!

So these are my Dog stories.

Cheers, S
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Old 12-05-2019, 03:32 PM   #798
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There is one quote I never miss the opportunity to drop.

I are discussing with a farmer the paddock to spray. Farmer informs you that pilot “Jack” sprays this way or pilot Jack does things this or that way. Farmer has chucked me a challenge because Jack pleases the farmer. I’ll make the point by an example.
Sometime in the early 80’s I was to spray cereal for the late Allan Hawkins at Tocumwal. The paddock had a kidney shaped lagoon on the north and Allan asked if I could start at the lagoon , working south maintaining the curve I’d track on the first run. Continue to fly the curve. Well I’m not that good but I can maintain a straight line between the markers, starting with two short runs, getting longer until they meet.
Well that didn’t seem to please Allan and he informed me the last bloke I’d sent there could maintain a curve, and in this very same paddock. “who was he I enquired.” Came from Victoria somewhere in Gippsland.
Maybe, I said, Bob Landsbury.
“Yes, yes, that’s the bloke” Allan responded.
Now here comes my punch line. And I love to quote it.
“but Bob’s a much better pilot than me”.
That just gob smacks Allan and kills his point and generally ends with a laugh or chuckle from the farmer.
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Old 12-07-2019, 03:03 PM   #799
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Looking for grasshoppers.

It was 2015. December. I was asked to do a grasshopper survey. From Wagga Wagga to Broken Hill, south to Mildura and east to Yarrawonga. A perimeter length of 1100 miles and an area of, by my estimate of approx 4000 square miles.
Grass hoppers are easy to spot. They eat in a band and this stands out like the dogs proverbials. But the grass must be short and green. In December there is no green grass with the exception of farmers front yards. It’s all hayed off and of course straw in colour. Just stupid to think we were going to find any grasshoppers. I did tell the firemen they wouldn’t find any grasshoppers with these ground conditions. They reported that to the Ag Dept chief but he said to continue because he had to tell the minister he was doing everything possible.

This survey was undertaken by the state Dept of Ag. The Ag Dept had some pretty good ground people. They were titled ‘rangers’ and were either former farmers or farm workers and they knew their job. However one day one of them became airsick so “fire attack officers ” were sent. They knew grasshoppers because they had been to a 2 day course at Dubbo on identifying grasshoppers. One day I took a ranger as well as this fire attack officer. The ranger was relegated to a rear seat, not a front window seat simply because he “hadn’t been trained”. What bullshit.

It was a pretty boring job and one kept on nodding off. There was absolutely no chance of finding a grasshopper. This may have well have cost nearly 10K a day. Aeroplane hire, wages, first class accommodation, first class dining and another fireman at Wagga base to check every half hour that we hadn’t crashed. More bullshit. This in despite we were being constantly tracked back at the operators base and carried a survival beacon.

One morning base manager (fire department) asked me if I had enough time left in my log book to conduct this days flying. I don’t know, I don’t add it up. Just fly dawn to dusk, who cares? Did I have my welfare. Welfare? No. I can and need to work even though I am past retirement age. No no he said. I mean do you have lunch and water with you? Dumb man. And could you taxi past the terminal building so as the media can get a shot of you. This was to get max publicity that we were doing a good and responsible job. Each day a bulletin was made to tell the community what a good job we were doing. Even more bullshit. And bullshit is thick when it comes from the government.

That went on for either 3 or 4 days, can’t remember now. What I did see however was farmers going flat out on headers trying to harvest and beat thunderstorms coming through. They weren’t having a good year with drought both this year and last and now thunderstorms at harvest time. With the Ag Dept trashing this money each day I felt quite ill since these farmers were financing this wasteful exercise.

I am aware this is airing the laundry in public, but so be it. I feel ill at the continuing stupidity in the wastage of public money by government departments. This is not new we all know who said this: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe!

For those of you who are amused at the town name of Wagga Wagga let me explain. Wagga is aboriginal for crow. Wagga Wagga is many crows.
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Last edited by woofa.express; 12-07-2019 at 03:11 PM.
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Old 12-10-2019, 02:42 PM   #800
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Default Re: tell a Model A related story

Who discovered Australia?

Well that depends on who you ask doesn’t it. Ask an aboriginal and they will point out to you that their race did since they were here centuries before Christ. The Indonesians have been visiting the north western sector for centuries. The Portuguese colonised Timor in 1550, then sighted Australia shortly afterwards, or so the internet tells me. Then in 1606 a Dutchman by the name of Janszoon shortly followed by another Dutchman by the name of Tasman. Captain Cook mapped the east coast and proclaimed it as British. They, the British arrived in many ships in what is known as the first fleet. We became a dumping ground for English crims of which both my ggg grandfather and gg grandmother were just two.
Cook’s expeditions took him to Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Antarctica, Canada and Alaska. Following these marvelous fetes his last point of call was again Hawaii. He needed to remast his vessel but stayed too long. His crew were apparently making eyes at the local girls and that irritated the local blokes. They ate him and in return and in acknowledgement of their history flew the union jack on the top left of their state flag.
The Australian flag too has the union jack in just the same corner. For many years many Australians have been agitating to become a republic and independent at Britain. We had a referendum some years back and it was decided to stay as is. I think it would be better to be independent but voted to remain, why? Each time a change is made the government seem to acquire more power and authority. They have more than enough now. Many would like the flag changed as well, mainly the removal of the union jack and that is why I have mentioned the Hawaiin flag. Many Australians are trying to become Americans as fast as possible. There is considerable American investment here and it is welcome. Many American flags waved in the form of McDonalds and Starbucks and more, TV programs where kids start preschool on a knowledge diet of Sesame Street then progress onto Seinfeld and Miami Vice etc.
I like America and Americans and do wish to maintain a good friendship with them but I also with to remain Australian and retain our own culture.

Quote. Who said this? Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
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