My thoughts about going to Egypt and Jordan at the beginning of the year was because I always wanted to go, and another reason was that it seemed to be the right time to go because it had been relatively peaceful in the neighbourhood.

I’m glad that I went.

Hamas attacked Israel the other day and everybody is shocked and is standing in solidarity behind Israel publicly at least. Questions are being asked,

“Why did they do it?”

The answer is so clear that even a blind person can see clearly. There are many reasons why the Palestinians as a nation of people are angry and frustrated, although nobody wants the current situation.

In recent years Israel has persecuted the Palestinians, continued to steal and build new illegal settlements on their limited land and the international community has more or less ignored it. It’s more like an Apartheid situation and all the while Israel antagonises the Palestinians and the Israelis can do no wrong. And no one can say anything against the Jewish Community or you are seen as anti semitic and it signals a death sentence for your career or life as you know it.

America has the back of Israel, which seems to make it think it has carte blanche to do what it wants and it usually does. The right wing government run by Netanyahu is one of the most racist governments in years and has made life more and more difficult for Palestinians and I think has led to the current situation and he is enjoying every moment.

Israel has set siege to the Gaza strip, the people there will be like fish in a barrel. The Israeli government could not give a rats about the civilians, as far as they are concerned everyone belongs to Hamas. They have told civilians to leave the area but how can they when borders are sealed. The images coming out of there are horrendous as too are the accounts of what has happened to innocent Israelis massacred by Hamas.

I don’t support Hamas and never will and I don’t condone the violence. I don’t think war solves much, although it does make a few people very rich at the expense of the innocent.

Their is no easy answer, but when this war is over there needs to be a discussion on the future of how Palestinians can have a future without having Israel having so much control over their destiny.

I’m sure most folk won’t agree with my thoughts but I think it’s about time the international community calls out Israel when it does something wrong and hold it accountable so that life in that part of the world can change for the better for everyone.

Yesterday I got out before the sun got too high in the sky to put another coat on the stairs. I then cut the three treads needed to finish them off; made sure they fitted and then put a couple of coats on the bottom side of the tread. One of the treads looks a bit moth eaten but after a lick of paint it looks not too bad, and the timber still has plenty of meat left in it so it will be around for many years to come.

After a bit of lunch I headed up to Brisbane to meet Julie for our afternoon walk around the Brisbane River. When I looked at the route on Google maps it came back with a figure of about 10 km and so this should have been a couple of hours at the most. I told Julie that we only had a couple of hills to negotiate, which was true, and the rest of the walk is by the river.

At the top of Highgate Hill the line on Google Maps follows down to the west of Southbank crossing the river at that point to the North Side. But when we reached Highgate Hill I turned left to go down to the river more directly. I have cycled this route many times over the years and I’m very familiar with the area, however I didn’t quite realise that when walking, and of course not following Google the extra distance was close to 5 km. By the time we reached the river the penny dropped that we still had many more km in front of us. Julie was not too happy about this and neither was I to be honest.

My GPS tracker stopped as we came through Highgate Hill and so I don’t have an accurate distance, but basing it on the number of steps it would be around 16 km or there about. We crossed the river and the final walk along the river was fairly brisk but it was great to finally make it back to the car. We were going to go for some noodles but it was nearly 6pm by the time we got back to Julie’s place and so I headed off home.

I woke up early this morning, around 6.30 and just had to get up. I had breakfast, I was starving but tired. After breakfast the couch beckoned and I once more drifted off into the land of nod for another hour or so.

So today will be a very lazy day. The stairs will get finished tomorrow and then I’ll figure out what to do next. Still got more painting to do and another part of the retaining wall to fix.

We got rain and storms one day this week, which was marvellous for the garden and also to wash the dust off the car. The water tank is nearly a third full which should be good to keep the garden watered for a week or two. And they are predicting more storms I think on Wednesday next week which is fine by me, one day a week is just grand. The top layer of the ground was soft and damp and so it was a good time to pull out many of the weeds that had appeared overnight. Three buckets later I had removed most of them.

I’ve been working on the new stairs beside the garage this week and I even put the columns into proper footings with real concrete and everything. Not the best footings I must admit, however if they last for about two years then I will be happy with that, because I think I will have moved on by then. Tomorrow I’ll cut the treads and fit them, but I’ll have to do a bit more painting before I finally stitch it all together.

I bought Pale Eucalypt paint to use on the retaining wall. This morning I finished off the western side, which is the part that has been repaired and even after one coat it’s looking great. In a few weeks’ time I’ll get decking oil and I’ll use some on the new posts too and maybe on the older part although I might just use the Pale Eucalypt.

One pleasing thing I discovered this week is that I seem to have almost every tool, screw and attachment needed to do all these different jobs. I have finally reached a zen moment of construction…..very happy…….

One of the posts is a little bit rotten inside and rather than replace it I’m going to cut out the bad section, put in a new piece of hardwood along with Builders Bog which is a multi purpose filler that sets fairly hard and this should seal some of the damage. I was told that I should use some engine oil in the internals of the the post and this will put a little bit of moisture back into the timber and therefore give it a bit more longevity.

I had a very lazy Sunday and did nothing, a bit of a rest due to digging holes and moving earth over the previous days. The reason for all this graft is that I want to create a small flight of steps in part of the retaining wall that is damaged.

I had to install two uprights which I’ll then use to attach a couple of stringers for the stairs. I made a small framework which will double up as the formwork for the concrete needed to secure the uprights.

I went to Tradelink and picked up four bags of concrete but only paid for three because one was damaged and would have been binned anyway. I forgot just how heavy a 20kg bag of concrete is, and I know that sounds a bit counter intuitive but concrete always seems heavier than it is.

I mixed three bags in the wheel barrow and packed it around the posts and now I’ll just have to leave it until Wednesday and then the concrete should be set enough for me to continue me stairs.

Tomorrow I think will be a day for a walk after breakfast and then I’ll move onto painting because I need to finish the front fence before moving onto the retaining wall.

Thirty three years ago I started driving a truck. I worked for a company called DJ Foods driving out of Riverwood in Sydney. I worked with Steve and I was the offsider, sharing the driving and work.

We delivered frozen foods to all the RSL Clubs and many Chinese Restaurants throughout NSW. On the first day we drove to Tamworth after leaving at around 10pm. We drove through the night taking about five hours or more and then we’d catch some shut eye for a few hours.

Deliveries started around 9am after breakfast and would take most of the day until we finished at Armidale just in time for tea. I would stay with Catherine and Steve went to the motel.

From Armidale we went to Moree via Guyra and Inverrel. We stayed at the biggest motel in town owned by a mad Chinese guy, a very big character but very likeable although dodgy. This place was built with a lot of laundered money from China. I liked staying here and I guess it’s no surprise that I ended up living in China.

Dubbo, Narrabri, Warren and of as far as Nyngan before heading back to Sydney via the Blue Mountains.

Driving a four wheel steer refrigerated truck weighing around 26 tons with a Road Ranger gearbox was good fun and lucrative too.

I did this job for two years and then I left because Steve retired and I could not work with the dickhead that replaced him.

Oh I nearly forgot…. We stopped at the Murrurundi Roadhouse for supper/lunch on the way through and I would often get a burger with the lot, including pineapple and the other delicacy was toasted cheese and pineapple which was introduced to me from a very good friend called Lynn from my distant past.

And 33 years later the food is just as good 🤗

Driving the Putty Road north heading to Armidale is an absolute joy, it’s got to be one of the best driving roads in Australia and I guess that’s why so many motor bikes use it. It’s around 178km of concentration and if you drive at speed you cannot afford to break your focus for a second. Many have died on this stretch of road because they use it as a time trial and also a test of man and machine. This time however I drove very sedately adhering to the speed limit and not pushing it through the corners, after all the Olde Ford has 460,000 KM racked up and it would be silly and unfair to drive like a looney with my old friend. Give me someone else’s car and I will give it a go for sure. Many moons ago, back at the turn of the century or even before that I drove this road many times and one time I decided to give it absolute laldy and I drove the 178 km in under two hours which is quite an achievement really. Many have come a cropper and I nearly did too when I was flying down this straight just after the Halfway Roadhouse and some kangaroos decided to wander out from the grass and stand in my path, I couldn’t stop and so I waited till the last minute before swerving to the left to avoid them. They’re fickle creatures and as daft as a brush and more often than not they will turn towards you rather than move away……Thankfully they went the other way. At times it feels as if you are in a video game and the trees and roads are just a blur as your focus is directly ahead, it feels as if you are at warp speed and if you make one mistake, then you are fucked! The road has a lot more restrictions now than it did all those years ago mainly due to the many deaths and accidents, but there are some sections of the road that are utterly sublime and as you accelerate up through the series of sweeping bends , holding the car in the appropriate gear it’s just magical. This is a road where a manual car will excel, as there is only so much you can do with an auto. If you have a Golf GTI or equivalent then it would be a riot!

 

This is a walk in the lower Blue Mountains and I’ve never done it before and it’s the first difficult walk that I’ve done since I sprained my ankle at the start of the year and it was quite a challenge.

My left hip was giving me a bit of grief after walking down about 300 steps but I put a bit of pressure on it with my hand and it definitely helped me get down.

It was hot today and the sweat was running off me and I was needing more water. The last two k’s were slow and steady as my calf muscles got a workout and I’m going to regret this in the morning I think. When I finished I got a Vietnamese baget and black coffee to recharge and fuel up.

My first big walk and my ankle is complaining slightly and so after my shower I put on my compression bandage. But I really enjoyed getting out and doing this wonderful walk in the Blue Mountains.

Caught up with Pamela in Camden, it’s been a long time since we last met and she hasn’t changed a bit. Great time chatting about the good old days, plenty of reminiscing to make the soul feel good and all of a sudden the memories are vivid and real.

For lunch I had a big breakfast, marvellous apart from the hash browns which I really don’t understand and Pamela had a fancy poached egg thing which I can’t remember the Italian name for.

We sat for hours and hours and the time flew by and before you no it we had to depart. I hope it’s not another 8 years before we meet again or we might both have zimmers 🤗

Jenny, Brett and myself jumped on the River Cat from Rydelmere to Circular Quay which is a great way to get into the city and at the the same time see how the other half live. Some of the houses on the river are just amazing and I could very easily slip into that lifestyle.

When we arrived in the city the smoke was thick from the many bushfires around the city, but luckily it was heading out to sea.

We wandered around the Rocks and went to The Orient pub for lunch and it was bloody delicious. I had spicy chicken on a roll and scoffed the lot.

I enjoy the River Cat, it’s just brill👍

I arrived in Penrith yesterday from Bateau Bay via the old Pacific Highway over the Berowra Ferry and then via Windsor where I bought dark chocolate Caramel Wafers 😍. I then went for lemongrass chicken for lunch and then off to see Jenny and Brett.

Today Brett and I did the river walk around the Nepean River and then had lunch at the Log Cabin which sits on the banks of the river. It was absolutely delicious and filled me up for the rest of the day.

Haven’t had a beer in the afternoon for ages and I thoroughly enjoyed it and could have easily sat here for many hours, but alas no.