The Trump caliphate is born a new,

The gullible and ignorant,

Born again Christian hypocrites,

Beguiled by smoke and mirrors and the lies and greed of a con man,

Pushing their world to the brink and affecting ours,

The Orange nutter at the helm once more,

Will bring chaos to the streets,

A country divided,

Red and Blue,

Black and white,

Endless violence with no end in sight,

The world has watched this circus for years,

Sometimes we laugh, but mostly it’s tears

I wrote this last night when it looked like Trump was going to win and maybe he still might, but I have been astonished at the gullible ill informed Americans that can’t see Trump for what he is. As the rest of the world sits and watches the unravelling of their shattered democracy and way of life, the death toll rises from the violence and covid…… It looks like the American dream has finally ended….or maybe the nightmare will continue…..

I made a complaint just over a month ago about next doors dogs. I sent recordings of the howling that takes place almost religiously. A month passed and I heard nothing apart form the dogs howling.

Yesterday I made a second complaint about another dog in the street and also asked about my first complaint that I lodged. I got the email below in regards to the new complaint

I then got a phone call from a typical government nyaff. The phone call did not go well…my response to the council about the call and the current complaints:

I got a call yesterday in regards to the complaint and the one that I lodged over one month ago. I noticed that the status of the first complaint had been closed without being contacted further by the council to give me any updates. The gentleman that called me yesterday, and I use that term loosely,  was not someone that I was comfortable dealing with. It took me all my time to keep my tongue in check I got the impression that he had already made his mind up that I was just a complaining old git. Any explanations given were done with a tone that to me was dismissive and condescending. I should have reminded him that I am one of many that contribute to his wages each week. I was not looking for a fight but a solution.

When you have a problem that needs resolving a little empathy and understanding is needed when you deal with one of your customers. After all it’s not the customers fault that the dogs are barking. I got given the whole process about why we need a diary and how we can go to court and blah blah blah. I don’t want to take anybody to court, I just want some peace and quiet. Funnily enough next door was very quiet today, maybe my friend that called me knows my next door neighbour and gave them the heads up, either way it was very pleasant to have a quiet morning.

As I told your esteemed colleague, keeping a diary is just stupid because they can be fabricated, it’s not difficult to write down a whole bunch of times and dates when you know your neighbour is out…………a diary is no proof. All I ask is for the council to send out a letter to the dog owners, maybe contact the neighbours in the street for comment. run a campaign on the next rates notice to highlight the problem. And in regards to the letter below, the dog is big and black and I have no idea who lives there or how many or what ethnicity and to ask if there is any substance abuse is just ludicrous………in this day and age where you get sued for looking at someone the wrong way so you think anyone will answer that question seriously.

Oh I also got the story about how your systems were updated and could not find any previous complaints, an old one but a good one. One of the dogs is the same dog that I have complained about before. I even notified the council that they had four dogs at one stage and this was done before I left in 2016 to go overseas. This problem with 20A has been going on for years and the only reason my tenants that were in my house made no complaints was because they had two dogs.

I hope that you may look at a better solution to dog barking in general. There are many dogs in this neighbourhood that are a nuisance, three happen to be near me. I just don’t think it’s fair that the rest of the community need to suffer and when we ask for help to address the situation you are made to feel like you are the problem. 
Regards

Not sure what kind of response I’ll get but I’m sure someone will have a chuckle when they read it 🙂

Doug and Rodney finished the work on the house on Friday the 16th, but the work is far from being complete. They have kindly done all the structural work, building the walls, laying the slab, jacking the house up to make it level and then making the place water tight.

Now it’s my turn to finish to off and there is plenty for me to keep busy for a while. I need to get the insulation sometime this week so that I can then fix the gyprock, but today I focused on getting the stair treads ready for staining and painting. I have removed years of dirt and several layers of paint taking them back to bare timber. I have left the underside slightly unfinished because I will paint that part black and then use a natural would gloss to cover and protect the timber. I’m hoping to have them ready to be put back on by the end of the week.

I’m looking forward to be able to walk up the front stairs once more after I have entered through my new front door or if I have been driving then I will access the stair via the internal door from the garage. Either way it will be good.

Even before the insulation has been installed the difference in temperature downstairs is very noticeable so I think all the hard work will be well worth it when summer arrives which a vengeance

At the back of the house the water tank has been rotated through 90 degrees and by doing so it has created a sun block and made the underside of the deck cooler. The sliding glass door from the front of the house has been relocated to the rear which just makes such a difference. The pavers outside the door will have to be re-laid and I think I’ll start to tackle that over the weekend because they are predicting rain for the weekend and so I’ll try and finish up the drainage and a seal the window surrounds before then.

I took a day off on Sunday and headed to Brisbane and cycled around the river via St Lucia and New farm stopping for coffee at Southbank on the way through and all in all it was a great way to unwind after a busy week. As a perfect end to the day I ordered a large pizza which was duly scoffed in no time at all, well I did cycle up quite a few hills on this circuit.

I’ve lived here for 16 years and the house is now around 40 years old and in need of some maintenance. The house has been built on “Black soil” which is quite unstable and so if it’s raining or dry for too long the house will move slightly, especially on the front left hand corner which has always been a problem.

The front door will often not close properly and this was the case when I returned a few months ago. The screen door would catch but the glass sliding door did not. I got a new lock fitted and this fixed the problem. The screen door was also adjusted but just two weeks ago it began to play up once more.

The renovations are being done mostly to give me a space downstairs where I can hide form the summer sun. The summers in Ipswich are becoming hotter and often reach over 40c. Even although I have air conditioning it is still not comfortable to be sat inside and so I am hoping that this year will be better once I have finished the downstairs area. It will be more sheltered from the western sun because of my next door neighbour’s house and of course because it’s on the ground floor it will just be cooler.

A new slab was laid and a large footing was constructed to once and for all secure the left front of the house. The house was raised up 50 mm on that corner to get it level and it’s good to finally see the floor and the skirting board once more coming together.

I was going to do the bulk of the work myself but then I decided to get the outside done by the professionals and I will complete the interior. I can line all the walls with gyprock and do the painting etc., the only thing that I’m not allowed to do is the electrical work. Once I have figured out what I need I’ll get someone in.

I’m looking forward to getting started on the interior once the outside is complete which will hopefully be around the middle of next week.

I was up bright and early this morning, a few minutes before the dogs next door started their daily ritual of howling in unison. I recorded them as I sat outside having breakfast and then I sent it onto the council to support my complaint that I have lodged.

This has been going on for years and nothing gets done about it and I’m sick of it, so if they can hear how annoying it is then maybe just maybe they will be silenced.

But at 7am I headed to the train station to catch the train to Ipswich and then got the bus to Lover’s Lane a few minutes later. By getting off at this stop I can access part of the BVRT. It’s about a kilometre to the track and when I got to the old Borallon station I headed for home, only 19km to go.

The track is easy and very uneventful and would be better suited to the bike which I might come back with but I’ll have to deflate the tyres a little because 60 psi is just too hard on the gravel surface.

They predicted over 30C today and it was hot but bearable. I got home after 5 and half hours and my feet were certainly ready for a rest and my stomach ready to be fed after which I had a siesta.

First local bike run today. I read that the bike track from Brassall has been extended in my absence and I thought it was time to check it out. Yesterday I did quite a lot of heavy lifting in the garden and so today was a sort of day of rest.

The bike track starts just passed the Workshops Railway Museum and this section has been here for some time. It’s Magpie season and this is where I had my first swooping attack, this one was quite determined and came in top dead centre and pretty hard. He must be a new start because the more experienced ones will come in from the side. A bit further on behind the shopping centre I had two more of them chase me that these two were just fucking around they had no real intent and soon left me alone.

The new trail to the BVRT heads off to the right which is north I think. I didn’t know what to expect but it was great to ride along and not have to worry about cars for the most part and of course Magpies. This section has only recently been completed and the new turf at the side of the path along with the young Bottlebrush will look a lot better when it all settles in.

The path was a lot longer than I thought it would be and then eventually the concrete runs out and there is the official start of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

This trail is the longest trail in Queensland at 161 km and is popular with cyclist as well as hikers, this is definitely something I would like to try but my bike is not designed for too much gravel and off road, so maybe I might walk some of it instead.

As you can see some of the indigenous Ipswichtarians have already made their mark, death is too good for these people. I also met one of them on the way home. As I came up to the roundabout I signaled that I was going to the right hand lane as I was turning right, there was a car coming up behind me but was far enough back that I caused him no problem.

He arrived beside me in the left hand lane as I waited for the traffic on the roundabout. He drove a black Lancer, had a shaved head apart from what looked like a dollop of blond cream on the top. Black T-shirt on and a face like a well skelped arse. He says, in some local dialect, “Mite get orf the fuckin’ rowd” I looked and said nothing, he said it again “Mite get orf the fuckin’ rowd” I said nothing and just stared at him. The road then cleared and we both headed off. You know if they can’t speak the Queen’s English I really don’t see the point in trying to engage these creatures in conversation. I fuckin’ hate this noise that they make and the sad thing is that it’s not only in this area of Australia, they are all over the place, it was so good to get away from it for a while and if I ever heard this Australian call on my travels I gave it a wide berth.

However i will have to do a bit of research on the BVRT and see what options there are to walk it or cycle it for that matter.

I haven’t been out on the bike for nearly two months or so, today I went into Toowong and rode from there to Hamilton and back. It’s around a kilometre to the river from the car park and you have no choice but to use the main roads but as it’s well travelled by bicyclists it’s usually pretty safe but it does have challenges from time to time.

As I passed the park on the left of Sylvan Road I was approaching a black BMW coming out of the car park. He was becoming impatient because he could not get out into the traffic and so as a gap appeared to his left he decided to go and then he saw me coming from the other direction and slammed on the brakes and then waves me round, how kind……….

An omen for things to come.

The bikeway along the Brisbane River is great, it’s well used and the road markings telling everyone where they should be and leave you with no doubts. There are many “Tour de France” wannabes out and about today, full lycra and racing colours and riding like fucking idiots. The first one that passed me on this really wide bike path first of all rings his little bell and then says “Passing” Fuck off ya fuckin’ numpty……….I fuckin’ hate these pricks.

I had a rant as I watched his lycra clad arse disappear into the distance and then before you know it I’m at the Botanical Gardens. Lovely place and the trees are just magnificent. The plants here have all had their DNA taken so that they can try to trace them if there is any theft……clever.

Down to the Storey Bridge and on to New Farm and all the way along the riverside we are still on a shared path, bicycles must give way to pedestrians…………..however the problem with the TDF numpties is that they ride as if they are the only ones on the path and are often doing in excess of 35 kph which is way too fast for here.

It’s around 18km’s to Hamilton and along the way I had a few more “Passing” and I said “Fuck off” They didn’t hear me but it makes me feel better.

After the Wool Store you have no choice but to leave the riverside and head up to a main road for a few hundred metres and then turn right back to river. Some cyclist will still use the narrow pavement instead of either using the bike path detour or the road. I used the detour and as I came back down to the pavement, which you need to ride on for about 20 metres before rejoining the new bikeway. I look left and no one is coming, I look ahead and to my right and there are two people walking and as I pull out and head towards them two fucking’ Lycra clad degenerates are powering down towards me and shouting at me. They were behind the two pedestrians on a pavement no more than two metres wide and they must have passed them doing around 40kph and they have the cheek to give me an expletive and a dirty look…………areseholes!!!

These fuckers have no respect for other road users or pavement users for that matter, how dare they travel at that speed along such a congested narrow pavement. Today was busy, there were many families out, people walking dogs, children running around shouting at the Ibis and of course other cyclists that just want to ride along the side of the river for a bit of fun and not to knock two seconds off my best time. Fully clad Lycra cyclists are a problem at the best of times but just now it seems that they are just impossible. I used to go out very early in the summer months mainly to avoid the heat, it can be 26C at 6am in Queensland and so it’s good to get a ride in before the heat of the day, but I stopped going so early because you would often meet a Peloton consisting of at least 30 riders which used the whole path and just didn’t want to give way to an old guy wearing an old cotton business shirt that was flapping about in the breeze. I hate these fuckers and so do many other folk. They are a nuisance to other road users and they believe it is their god given right to be arseholes and to show absolute contempt for other road users. No wonder most of the time that you hear of a cyclist being killed or injured it is the fault of the cyclist, although there are many car drivers that are a hazard. But this is why we use the bikeways because it is supposed to be safer but when you get these fuckers on it, it can be absolutely deadly.

Oh and I got drookit on the way back just to cool me down a wee bit. I was hoping that maybe the TDF numpties might end up skidding all over the place and landing in the river or better still under a bus. A huge black cloud could be seen in the distance and so as I left Tenerife I thought I could make it back to Toowong but as I crossed the Storey Bridge I felt the first drops of rain and by the time I got to Kangaroo Point it was belting down.

When I got back to the car I cranked up the heater as I sat in the car dripping all over the place and then decided to order a large pizza which I would pick up on the way home, well I think I deserved it after today………oh and I scoffed the lot……………….

Every year I go for my check up with the doctor, get an MOT as it were. Over the last few years that’s been easier said than done simply because of my travelling, but when I return to Australia I will see my GP and get a full service. This is usually routine as I’m lucky to say that my health has always been pretty good apart from the left nostril of me nose which is completely fucked…………

I’m not really keen on having a blood test but I’ve tried not to be such a big Jessie over the years and just to get on with it. The young girl that has replaced the “Old Girl” is equally as good and after a sharp intake of breath the needle was in stealing my blood. Mind you even although it was relatively painless I bruised quite badly.

A few days later I went to the Doc’s and got the results, always a little bit tense at this stage. We went through the first page; all OK…..second page, all Ok and then on the third page a red flag. Fuck, that’s not good me thinks………. it looks like my Iron levels are slightly high approximately 0.02 whatever’s higher than it should be. “What’s that” I say……..Doc “it’s your iron levels that have been flagged and they are just above normal”

He sends me for another blood test to check out if one of my genes is broken or to find out if I’m in trouble. This is not the kind of news that I was expecting or wanting to hear. I’ve always had a sense of dread going for medical tests and the older you become the more broken the body seems to get and so it’s only a matter of time before they find something……….isn’t it?

Don’t Google anything like this because it throws up more information than you can comprehend and it only leads to anxiety and despair. So I Googled anyway…….There are hundreds of possibilities, too many to mention and my mind is in turmoil. My whole future is up in the air and there ain’t any happy ending me thinks. Doc tells me that if there is nothing to worry about I’ll see you in 12 months, however if we need to discuss the results of the new blood test he will call me.

A week passes and nothing and therefore I’m breathing a sigh of relief. “No news is good news”, that’s what the Doc said. Two days later the phone rings and it’s the Doctor’s surgery telling me that the “Doc” wants a word about my second blood test, when can I come in? I put the phone down and my heart is racing and I’m thinking that’s it life as I know it is over and I’m fucked. Now I’m angry at Covid for upsetting my travel plans this year, I knew that I should have been travelling this year. The year of the “Rat” is still throwing punches…………

I don’t sleep well and I wake up at 5am. The appointment is for 9am. I sit out in the car my heart racing, pondering scenarios…………”What’s he going to say?”

I like my doctor, Dr Muhammad is from Pakistan. Over the years I have always had an “Ethnic” for a doctor, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, India and now Pakistan. We both have to wear masks and so there are no facial expressions to read and the body language is minimal. He is methodical and does not rush with what he wants to tell me. He prints off a few things and then says to me “I will explain everything”

So this is where I hear for the first time Haemochromatosis. He tells me that you can be a carrier and in which case I personally don’t have to worry or I could be suffering from this and then it would be a different story he tells me. I’m a carrier…….

This means that if I had children then they me be at risk of something more serious developing in the future but to all intents and purposes I am OK. I have to ask him a few times before the relief washes over me and I realise that this blip is only a blip and life for me will go on as normal.

I sat in the car and dried my eyes, listened to the radio and pondered what to do with the rest of my day. The news was good, no need to worry and yet I felt that I had just dodged a bullet. I can’t go back to the house. I fire up the old Ford and we head west towards Grandchester and Laidley driving on the back roads and keeping away from the highway. A Radio 2 podcast is playing and I’m listening to the protest songs of the 60’s and I wind my way down the open road not knowing where I’m going and to be honest I don’t really care, I just want to drive and to relax and to realise that this scare that I had was just that and nothing else. Life can go on as it always has and I can still make plans for future travels without a dark cloud hanging over me.

200 km’s later I pull up in the drive bursting to go to the loo and feeling like I could eat a scabby headed horse, it’s just turned 1pm. Luckily I have leftovers. I plank myself in front of the TV, after going to the loo of course. and watch “Wheeler Dealers” After coffee it’s time for a siesta…………life is good.

I changed the oil in the old Ford yesterday, it hasn’t been done for at least four years so I thought it was about time, well I’ve been out the country for a while. I bought the car in 2002 and yesterday was the first time I have done an oil change by myself as it turns out.

It’s not that I don’t know how to do it but when I bought the car it was under warranty and so I used to get it serviced on a regular basis. After the warranty ran out I just could not be bothered getting my hands dirty and I would take it to my local mechanic who would not only change the oil but do all the other preventative maintenance. Time was short and I had more money then.

Now I have more time and not so much money and so I thought I would do it myself, I mean how hard can it be? I hate crawling under cars, I have never liked it. To reach the sump plug I had to jack the car up a little. I have a trolley jack so it’s quite easy.

I then went to remove the oil filter but as usual you have to be a cripple or contortionist to do so. I could not access it from the top so I jacked the car up a bit to try to access it from underneath. Easier said than done. I fought with the filter for quite some time before I decided to call a halt and have lunch.

Refreshed from lunch, left over stir fry, I preceded to tackle the problem at hand. If I could just get more purchase on the filter I would be ok. I decided to remove the air filter box which is on the nearside of the car which allowed me more access to the oil filter. I was able to reach the filter but could still not get a grip on it to turn it. I put on my fancy rubber coated gloves which have more friction than my hands and I was able to finally release the filter and I felt the strain through my arms and stomach when it finally gave way.

I was pretty chuffed that I had gotten it off, even although it put up quite a fight. I’ve been watching “Wheeler Dealers” on TV and this has given me the inspiration to tackle such jobs, next job will be to add an oil cooler to the gearbox but I will have to watch a few more YouTube videos before I tackle that.

The air filter was replaced, new engine oil and filter and when I went for a drive today the old girl seemed to rejoice.