The crazed ravings of Splinter (Tony Castley)
For the first time in history Australia is through to the 2nd round of the would cup. In an extremely tight and hard fought game Australia managed to get the draw with Croatia to secure the spot in the 2nd round.
With the large number of Croatian decent people on both teams, and three Australians on the Croatian team a lot of pride was at stake and it showed. It appeared that by the end of the game at least 3 players had been shown 3 yellow cards and really should not have been on the field.
Well over the last 2 weeks it has been getting very cold in Canberra in the mornings.
Every morning has been below zero degrees Celsius and we have had a minimum of -4 one morning. You all might be wondering if I still think the scooter was a good idea.
Well I am still riding, still enjoying it and still not frozen solid. Actually as yet I have not had to put on my winter pants or my winter liner in the Jacket. I am wearing the rain liner to block the wind and a jumper under that, with the winter gloves and a neck warmer I am doing fine.
Nearly 11,000Kms on the scooter now and no problems at all.
Ok today I did the test to get my Provisional Motorcycle License and as you guessed I have passed!
So I have 6 months on my P’s plates and 12 months to a fully open license.
Richard Carlton dies while reporting the mine tragedy in Beakonsfield.
One of Australia’s most recognised reporter dies while working at Beakonsfield in Tasmania. He suffered a heart attack and collapsed during a new conference at the mine.
Ok so work has been worse the last few months than I could possibly imagine. However we just got the core of the project over and done with and things look like they might settle down. This is so overdue as my home life has been badly effected by the current work load.
Now I have posted up some more photos from the weekend away with the family and I hope you all like them.
See you in a day or two.
Ok since I have been so slack I thought I would do some updates.
Work
Recently I have had a promotion and a payrise, which was very pleasent. However this has meant that I have had a lot more work and pressure. Over the last 3 weeks I have been working long hours on very High Focus project. This is putting me very much in the face of upper management.
Home
Dani has been working 5 days a week at a local school so we are all busy and tired. Also I have an update on my Grandads war record, the other day I recieved it in the mail and am now currently going through the information.
Scooter
I have now clocked up 9,000 Km’s on my scooter and all is going well. I have added a headlight modulator which flashed the High beam light at about 240 times a minute during the day. This makes me so much more obvious to cars and I am having some move out of the lane in front of me while commuting. In addition I have added a brake flasher to make it obvious to following cars when I hit the brakes.
Photography
I have done little photography lately and am missing it. This weekend is the start of the Hot air balloon festival and I am going to be filling up many memory cards.
I promise I will keep this site much more up to date…. really,… honest.
Ok work has been pushing me hard, doing my stuff and others.
I promise within the next week or so I will update with some real information.
I have spent the last two day getting covered in Dust and sunburnt.
I Loved it!!!
Look here (set the time to 1 sec)
A few years back my Grandad died after a prolonged illness. During that time my Dad stayed at our place in Brisbane and travelled up to the north coast to spend each day with Grandad. Over the last few months we all spent more time with Grandad.
We all knew that Grandad was in the RAAF in World War 2, we knew he flew in Lancaster Bombers but really we did not know much more. However over the last few months Grandad showed us the “Golden Caterpiller” (a medal given to all that have been saved by their silk parachutes), the map he carried so if he was shot down over Europe he could move towards allied lines.
Today I looked for his service record in the Australian National Archives, however his record is not currently open to the public as it has not been checked for national secrets. It is not likely that my Grandad performed covert missions, just likely they have not got to his record to clear it.
I paid a small fee and they will now check it, copy it and send me the copy. In about 30 days I should know more.
I will keep you posted.
It is starting to get cooler in the nations capital and it seems really early this year. Each morning the Hotair Balloons show us just how cool it is floating over the city, providing colour and movement. The days are warm and mostly clear but the last few nights have required a blanket.
So it is Febuary, it is already starting to cool down. Looking forward to winter!
I just spent the whole day at the Canberra show with my Daughter, her friend and her dad. Boy do my feet hurt!
It was great to go to a country show again, more about the people the animals and the competition than the selling and the rides.
Time for me to sleep I think.
I just opened my lunch bag! Dani I love you so much and I know my world would not exist without you.
Well we have moved and we are connected to the world again. 🙂
We got all our furniture and stuff moved in about 4 hours, with the help of two very good friends and One Man Removals. So a big thanks to Jason, Robert and Jeff from One Man Removals. We were able to move all our stuff in two quick trips leaving only odds and ends for us to tidy up this weekend.
Every year about this time Canberra is infested with beetles that mate then die. This morning I heard on the radio what these little beetles are called.
Now fair warning this is the real common name and not a joke at all.
The “Cockchafer“, yep you read right, beetle is a member of the Scarab or dung beetle family. Their larvae live underground and come up to feed on crops at night.  The beetles live a short eventful life, they mate the male dies and the female finds some dung to lay her eggs.
Unfortunatly in and around the city they are attracted to lights and end up lin large piles against buildings, a lot like a large squirming black snow drift. The majority then die and start to smell a little.
One of the joys of summer in Canberra.
