Saturday 26th May 2018 Life

It was cold here this morning. 7 at 7 was what the weather man said. I headed out my front door with an extra coat, beanie and my radio. Four kilometres later I was back home. This photo is of Jacana Street Park. It is also known as Frank Street Reserve. You can see the mist on the oval. The sun was still sleeping when I set out. I got back just about 8. By then the sun was up and it was warmer.
In my attempt to read through the Bible in a year I am up to Song of Solomon. This is the raunchiest book in the Bible. Many pastors avoid this book or try to relate it to our Christian life. At the end of the day it is a story about the courtship of two young lovers. Fantastic book. But a bit erotic in places.
Stephanie got to try out her new mobility service in real life. It's called Aira and is an app on the phone which connects the camera of the phone to someone watching, who then guides you to where you want to go to. We went to Karingal Hub for lunch and Stephanie used the service to navigate her way around the food court, purchase her lunch and then find the table where we all were. A good, although nerve wracking time for Stephanie, was had by all.
What did the kids do? Spent all day looking for a phone charging call that someone had perloined. Oh, they did clean up their bedroom in the process.
Till next time.........

Monday 21st May 2018 Doing life.

Interesting day today. Waiting for my Quiky Popup rooftop tent to arrive. It's a week overdue. It has arrived at the freight forwarders. But they didn't have my phone number and so couldn't contact me. Fixed that issue and waited. And waited. And waited...... You get the picture. Late in the day I finally do get contacted. Did I have any missed calls they asked. No I said and the phone was with me all day. Don't ya just love sitting around all day waiting for a delivery? Now it is supposed to be here tomorrow.
So on to other matters. Cathy has a headache. A screamer. I am becoming convince she has migraine headaches. And that is not funny. So I spent time in her room tonight cooling her boiling forehead and holding her hand and breathing slowly in the hope that she would drift off to sleep. She has.
I knew from experience that a baby's temperature could be regulated by holding them against your chest skin to skin. I have done this. I also knew, again from experience, that one can reduce head temperature head to head. What I wasn't sure of was whether one could also control the rate of breathing by holding a sick child's hand. I think maybe so. Certainly tonight I got Cathy's breathing slowed down and got her calmed down.
And now for my next question. I have two blogs. This one and another. The other was to be for all by Christian thought. Unfortunately I can't access that because I have forgotten the password and also the email address attached to it no longer exists. So, do I start a new one or put all my Christian musings into this one?
Till next time.....................

Saturday, 19th May 2018 Camper trailer build and other stuff.

So this is the end of my third week of retiredment. This week I have really enjoyed, mostly. Attitude from some quarters has been difficult, but for the most, it's been good. I've "played" radio and had time for Stephanie. Breakfast together has been good. I have also done my first day at Coffee on Kareela. Wednesday is The Mothers Club day. That's the day that Stephanie and her friends have lunch together at Kareela. That's also the day I volunteer there. Usually it's fairly quiet. Not his Wednesday. We were busy, very busy, for a good three hours.
It's also been good watching Stephanie progressing with her content writing. Most days she has two jobs with the occasional three articles, just to make life interesting.
Michele has completed her last NAPLAN ever. She is in grade nine now. NAPLAN is completed in grade 3, 5, 7 and 9. Michele and Cathy have found the tests reasonably easy.
There is a section of society who dislike the NAPLAN test. I am not one of them. They give me an idea how my child is doing in an exam situation. In my day we had two full on exams every year. The final exam each year determined which grade and grade level we were placed in next year. There was no hype. One just did the exam and that was that. Now days in this "we must bruise their precious ego" or dent their self esteem age, exams are not seen as a positive. I'm not sure who is more nervous, the teacher or the student.
Now, when one retires it is always good, so they say, for one to have a project to occupy one self with. I have several. One of those is to assemble a camper trailer. So I have started my project. I recently purchase a 6 by 4 trailer and a pop up roof tent. It's meant to go on the roof of a car. I think the roof of a car is way to high to climb. But a trailer is fine. So now I have to "marry" the pop up tent to the trailer. Then there is the storage to work out. All the while sticking to a weight restriction.
Watch this space...............

Tuesday 15th May 2018 Retired

On the 27th April 2018 I attended my last day of work. Ever! That is, working as a paid employee.  After 45 years in the rail industry, I have retired.
I started in the rail industry at 07:30 on Thursday 2nd September 1972 at the West Australian Government Railways depot of Forrestfield. 45 and a half years for three companies in three states.
I worked as a labourer, painters assistant, wagon repairer, wagon examiner, train guard, train marshaller, train drivers assistant, train driver, train driver instructor and finishing off as an electric train driver here in Melbourne. My last shift finished at 13:58 on Friday 27th April 2018 at Carrum depot.
I said I started at Forrestfield. I moved to Bridgetown, Northam, Manjimup, Geraldton,back to Forrestfield, then to Merredin, Kalgoorlie, then to Flinders Street Electric Train Drivers depot, then Frankston and finally retiring at Carrum.
I am humbled that in my 45 years I was never involved in a fatality. For this I thank God for protecting me and the thousands of people on my trains.
This for a man, who at twelves years old, was told by his teacher that he would never amount to anything, much less drive trains. It is my firm belief that any one can do anything with the restraints they have. Learning for me was a walk in the park. Retaining what I had learnt was not. It took many hours, days, months even, to retain the knowledge. Especially academic knowledge. It is purely by the grace of God that I did what I did and purely by the grace of God that I got where I got. It is all of Him.
Thank Your Lord for the privilege of 45 years. Thank You for watching over me. Amen.
Till next time............

Monday 16th January 2018 - The mean dad.....

That's me according to some. Why? Because my children don't have a mobile phone or Facebook. We have been branded many things because of the stand we have taken. Including, according to one person, endangering our child's life.
We make no apology for the position we take. I think it is well known how much time some kids spend on a mobile phone and the lengths they will go to avoid detection of using one. Facebook and other social media are well known and have been well documented regarding cyber bullying. Just in the last month a young lass took her own life because of years of cyber bullying. Do I want that for my kids? Do you want that for yours? I think not.
We have three kids. Aged from seven to fourteen. They don't have and won't have a mobile phone or Facebook until they are sixteen. One reason is safety. I don't want my children subject to any form of bullying. Full stop. End of story. They face enough pressures in real life. I want them to grow up enjoying the world around. The natural pleasures and innocence of childhood and growing up accordingly.
Also we cannot afford the extra financial pressure of one more phone.
But I will still came back to this recent high profile suicide of a popular figure. She was the face of Acrubra hats. She was very pretty. And seem to have it all. But there was this dark side. The side most of us never see. And it was relentless.
I will happily be branded the mean dad. It's a badge I wear with honour and pride.
Enough...

Saturday 10th January 2018

This is from a friend's Facebook page. It is very relevant. All three of my kids are very good readers. I have always maintained that they were really just average kids who were given opportunities at the right time. They/we were in the right place at the right time doing, what to us seemed the right thing to do. I am not sure when I started reading to Michele our eldest. I was always concerned that she was fed a literacy diet of age appropriate Christian books. So I read to her. Daily. We painstaking Brailled books so Stepanie, who is blind, could also read to them. As time went by, Michele started reading for herself. I still read to her. Christian and none Christian books. They had to be short and have pictures that related to the text.
Fast forward fourteen years. Now we still read to each other. Daily. It is part of our daily devotions. Currently we are reading through the Book of Ruth from the Bible. We all have different versions of the Bible. No matter. We each read one verse at a time. Each takes their turn until we finish the passage. This is followed by open discussion and questions. No question is not allowed and there are no wrong answers. Respect for the King is required. This is followed by round table prayer. Each person is required to thank Christ Jesus for at least one thing and then ask Jesus for one thing.
Michele is 14, Cathy is nearly 11 and Timothy is 7. All are above average students. I don't believe any are particularly "gifted ". We just put into practice the words from the image.
Enough for now.

6th January 2018.

It has been a long time. A very long time. Our children are now 14, 10 and 7.
Stephanie has seen big changes in her working live. From teaching piano, to now content writing for various company's. Lots grey hair now. Me too. Is that caused by age or kids or both.
2016 was spent, in the first place, by keeping civil authorities happy due to an incident that occurred mid 2015. And ended with me in hospital with a ruptured lung. I am still recovering from that.
Michele is in grade nine this year. It will be a big year for her as she transitions from junior high to senior. She has done well with her education so far. More importantly, she is changing from a girl to a young woman. I believe she is more mature. Still defiant, but not so much. Why? Her age. Plus years of training and staying the course. Also recognising that she is changing. She is more dependable. And so is given more responsibility.
Cathy is 10' 11 at the end of February. She loves cooking. Also serving others. Our church, St Luke's Anglican also runs a cafe. Cathy would live there if she could. Grade 6 for her this year. Last year at Karingal Primary School for Cathy.
Timothy is 7. All boy. Lots of noise. He can be full of energy. But then he surprises us all. He will tidy up without being asked. He is the one at school who is the cooperative child. The helpful child. At home he can be the same. If I am in the garage pottering around, he will be close by.
For me this year brings big changes. My plan is to retire on the 2nd September. This will be an anniversary date. I started with the West Australian Government Railway on Thursday 1972. That will make it 46 years in the rail industry. Long enough?
So our current Prime Minister doesn't think we are entitled to an age pension. He's right. I earned my age pension. 46 years of paying taxes. I have never drawn unemployment benefit. I have been in taxe schemes to try to dodge paying my fair share of taxes to support our country.
I'll get off my soap box now. For now.