The latest news & views
Oh wow, there’s an episode of The Goodies that I’ve never seen before. I finally got around to watching “Come Dancing” on the Tasty Box Set DVDs and discovered that it’s one I must have missed in all those years of watching reruns in New Zealand and here in Australia. Amazing.
Now I find that there were about 70 episodes all up – when do we get more on DVD? We’re hanging out here for them!
Yet again it’s over a month between entries – oh well – what can I say? Busy, not much to report, etc?
Same ol’ same ol’ here – employed by EDS as a Project Manager and working on a Telstra project (yeah, back at Hellstra :(
Kitt and I both have tax debts to clear plus Nykolai had to have a specialist eye check and now needs glasses. He has a 1-1.5mm congenital cataract in his right eye – not worth operating on at this point but the eye is actually far sighted (behaves like it’s short sighted) so we have to get glasses for that eye and a patch for him to wear at home.
I’m booked in to attend another of Rob Thomsett’s project management courses (his Masterclass course). It’s here in Melbourne in late November so I’m really looking forward to it.
Thanks to all this though I’ve not had enough funds spare to go flying, so once again I’m grounded for a while. Not happy but at least I can use the time to study (and gnash my teeth as I look up at the clear, blue skies filled with aircraft *sigh*)
That’s about it for now – I’ll try to let you know more about what’s happening as it comes along :)
I’ve just returned home from about 5 hours spent flying a 737-800 around Australia and NZ. It was, of course, a flight simulator – this time a fixed-base simulator that’s built around a collection of computers running MS Flight Simulator but with the “real thing” 737-800 cockpit with seats, controls, panels, the works. Three projectors drive the screens you watch from the inside and, aside from the lack of movement, it’s amazingly realistic.
Having been in a number of full motion sims, including the latest A330 sim that’s worth over $30 million, this one was extremely good and costs considerably less than that :)
The simulator belongs to Flight Experience here in Melbourne which is run by my friend Carlo. They’ve got the sim out at the QANTAS sim center near Essendon airport where it’s being tested and verified by the techs. Very soon now it will be relocating to its operational quarters somewhere in the CBD.
As a fixed base simulator it’s sufficient for procedures training and some level of official 737 training, thus it can be used by commercial pilots seeking their 737 endorsements to at least get a large part of the way there. This type of work represents about 5% of the market for Flight Experience as they’re targeting the general public, who can come in and see what it’s like to fly a jet airliner in and out of airports here in Australia. People can finally see what goes on behind that closed door up front, where they might get the odd tantalising glimpse of the “pointy end” :)
For tonight, Carlo and I were checking the unit out and having a lot of fun in the process, flying around Coolangatta & Brisbane, Christchurch, Melbourne and including some insane landings & take-off’s at Moorabbin. Fortunately, crashes were turned off, so we didn’t wind up splattered all over the virtual landscape as we probably should have (Moorabbin’s longest runways are somewhat smaller than those at Melbourne :)
All up it was great fun and I’d totally recommend having a session with Flight Experience when they’re up and running. I know I’ll be spending a few more hours in the unit when funds permit.
Last week Kitt’s mother’s partner Geoff passed away and the funeral was today (Monday) up in Tweed Heads. Kitt flew up on Saturday and will come back tomorrow night. I flew up first thing this morning for the funeral and then a bit of the wake before flying back in the evening, getting home around 9pm. Very sad and but a nice ceremony with the wake becoming a full on party (which went well past midnight apparently :)
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Meanwhile, Nykolai’s school was hosting a Harry Potter celebration with a camera team from Channel 9 coming to film the kids. The first cut-over was at 06:30am which was about when I was getting on the plane to Tweed Heads so we had a bit of a logistical problem.
Fortunately Nykolai was able to stay with a friend and they all went early to the school. I’d picked up a Harry Potter outfit and he looked quite the little wizard. He wound up being one of the first kids on TV and won a copy of the new book so he was VERY happy with it all. It was a shame I couldn’t be there – I couldn’t even find a Channel 9 TV at the airport. At least he had fun. |
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I missed my flying lesson last Saturday because I was sick – and it was a beautiful morning to fly. So, I booked three, yes, that’s THREE (3), lessons for this Saturday. I had 8am, noon and 3pm.
So, sure enough, a big fat high pressure system settles over southern Victoria with variable 5-10kt winds and, as I feared, we’re fog bound. 8am comes and goes with almost zero vis at the airfield. Noon comes and goes with 5k vis and 500′ cloud ceiling. Comes 3pm and I’m out there with haze around but it’s good enough to fly. We do the run up, taxi all the way down the other end of the field and I make the “ready” call at the holding point for 35R, just in time to be told “Winds shifted, go to 17L”
DOH!!!!
Long taxi all the way back down the length of the field to the 17L holding point. I’m first in the queue with 3 behind me and we’re waiting for all the other aircraft in the circuit that have sorted themselves out and come back onto the new runway heading.
So, now we’re waiting for another aircraft or two for our clearance when the report comes over “Southerly winds bringing fog in off the bay – airport may close to VFR in 15 minutes.”
NNNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
We’re cleared for circuits and we’re out, off and climbing. Sure enough, there’s the fog over there making its way to the airport. A few more aircraft join the circuit and we make our first touch & go (not a great one, but I’m getting there) then make our 500′ turn to cross wind early so we avoid flying into the fog – hmmmm.
It’s very hazy and the aircraft ahead of us is doing a wide circuit. ATC has a few goes to figure who’s who and gets the aircraft ahead of us to start their base leg ASAP ‘cos they’re so far out there. Yeah, we’re fine with this and we drop on his tail to come in on a full stop landing.
A few other aircraft waiting to take off are calling it a day and turning around so there’s a bit of a traffic jam down there near 17L – glad I’m not in ATC now :)
We’re on finals and get cleared to land – so much for an hour of circuits. Down, pull off the runway, clean up, ground clearance call and then head for the tie down spot. Suddenly it’s freezing on the ground and we can see our breath when we open the doors. Wow.
So far to go and so much to learn. I need to really get more study and rehearsal time in if I’m going to get this landing shit sorted out…
What the hell is it with the Vatican these days – it’s like they’re trying to undo all the great steps taken to bring catholics into modern reality. The latest is claiming that the Catholics are the most Christian of all churches. This is nuts! It’s not enough that we have major religions lining up to beat the crap out of each other (aka Christians vs Muslims) but now we’ve got Christians getting ready to once again beat up on each other over who is the closer to Christ?
As has been said many times, religion never ended any wars but it sure started a lot. To use another quote: “A war over religion is like fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.”
Can no one out there remember the one common bit of all these supposedly holy books that contain nothing but the truth?
Love thy neighbour
and
Do unto others as you would have done unto you
There are WAY too many people out there who take themselves FAR too seriously about their religion and get the stupid idea that they are right, the rest are wrong and it’s time to get rid of the rest.
Personally, I think it’s time that *ALL* religions took a major step back out of their collective arses and started doing something for the good of *ALL* humans, not just themselves. This “We’re better than you are” and “We’re saved, you’re not” and “We go to paradise/heaven if we kill the heathens/infidels” crap is pathetic, mindless bullshit.
Wake up dickheads – if there is a god, then it’s a god of ALL life in the universe, not your pathetic little interpretation of the deranged, heavily edited ravings of a bunch of lunatics. Start learning to appreciate that opinions other than your own may also be valid and we could all move a lot closer to global survival.
Yet another movie tonight – this time Kitt and I went with friends to see Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Quite an amazing movie – very Burtonesque although it’s Baroque, not Gothic – and there are no funky toys or equipment. A macabre story with some amazing scenes, concepts and developments.
The town-square orgy scene was most amusing (the crowd falls under the influence of the “ultimate perfume”) – especially the “morning after” moments, where everyone can be seen thinking “I drank what????” :)
Through out the movie I felt immersed in the development and it felt true to the period – very much as you might expect Paris and the surrounding country side of the late 1700’s to be.
Having names like Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman and John Hurt in it didn’t make the movie better or significantly detract from it, although it was amusing to see the parts they played.
All up, I found it to be a good movie, somewhat odd and captivating through out. Worth seeing, especially if you’re wanting a change from the usual Hollywood fare…
Until tonight I would have said that the spiciest things I’d eaten were those meals that made my eyelids sweat. Until now, these had been limited to:
Well, guess what, tonight they all got wiped out.
At home, we often have our “Stodge” meal – it’s usually done on a Sunday night in winter and consists of baked beans cooked with chopped onion, crushed garlic, stacks of cheese, a shitload of spices and so on. Definitely not your usual Baked Beans meal. “Normal” baked beans are what Nykolai has while we’re preparing the “Stodge” :)
Tonight, Kitt cracked open another jar of her mother’s “Chilli Jam” – one of the 2 or 3 we’d picked up last time we visited them up in Tweed Heads. Usually this packs a solid wallop and about 6 teaspoons of it can be counted on to make a nice, tangy “Stodge.” Well, I’m not sure about this jar – either it came from a completely different batch or it had been sitting longer than the others. Either way it packed one hell of a kick, that’s for sure!
I can now say that the spiciest meal I’ve ever had was eaten tonight. Not only did it make my eyelids sweat, it also fogged up my glasses. I kid you not – the lenses just kept fogging up ‘cos my face was putting out so much sweaty heat.
Not bad, eh? (and yes, I did eat it all – delicious! :)
For the past two months the guy downstairs has been rennovating his apartment by himself or with a couple of friends to help. This included knocking out a wall. It’s taking so long because he’s doing it on weekends only (except for the final bit of wall-destruction where he had a builder come through mid-week.
Fortunately the really nasty bits (using a mega-drill to gouge out the floor, etc) were done mid-week, but for most of the past 10 weekends or so, we’ve had pounding, drilling, hammering and so on from downstairs.
So much for quiet rest at home.
Thus, I say to you, if you’re contemplating DIY home improvements, seriously consider instead shelling out the $$$ and getting someone to do it all in one week working Monday to Friday. Trust me, the extra $$$ you spend to do it will be more than offset by the respect and happiness of your neighbours…
While Nykolai was away at Underbank Stud for his first week of school holidays, Kitt and I went to see the Transformers movie. Wow. I was very pleasantly surprised. For once, here’s a Michael Bay movie that’s actually really quite good.
It has some teen angst moments (could have cut about 1/2 of them down in size and still been a good movie), some Herbie Goes Bananas moments and an absolute shitload of action. As Kitt said, if you weren’t laughing at something funny, you were going “Hell yeah!!!!” at the action.
There were some majorly obvious flight-geek faults in the movie, specifically:
Despite all this, the movie kicks butt and is a lot of fun to see. If there are moments when you think you’d rather be somewhere else, just ride through it and wait ‘cos it’s going to get better real soon. If push comes to shove, the “leading ladies” aren’t bad eye candy, that’s for sure…