Wounded, some bits and away

 Hard to do home renovations without being wounded, and I was, just as my hospital injection and catheter sites were nearly healed. It was rehanging the metal sculpture with the mirror wot did it. My skin is becoming thin and my heart medication makes my blood thin and it takes longer to stop bleeding. What fun. That's my forearm btw.

When I was in hospital three and then two of the other four in the ward lived a long way from Melbourne. One had been flown in by an ambulance helicopter. I can only keep saying this. Don't move away from major public hospitals when you are old. Seachange or Treechange, just don't do it. 

I was very privileged to spend 15 minutes in an ambulance to be transported to possibly our best Melbourne public hospital. I received the Ambulance bill of $1285 and my health fund will cover that. If I did not have such coverage, I would have certainly been a member of Ambulance Victoria for not too much money to cover such costs.

I felt sorry for the man in the bed opposite to me. At times I heard his tremendous and productive coughing. Give up the fags man, I thought. Twice he was going to be transported back to where he lived, a road trip of ten hours, but then on the day I left he was going to fly home. I overheard a specialist tell him that he had mesothelioma and the I think the man knew that already. The doctor told him he could undergo chemotherapy and or radiotherapy which may prolong his life for a short time but there would be side affects. The patient said no. I will go in my time. The doctor said, it is probably the best decision. Mildura Base Hospital will look after you well and your suffering will be minimal. Fuck mining companies and asbestos! 

It's interesting how in North America the west coast is on the western side and the east coast is on the eastern side, whereas here in my State of Victoria, both our east coast and west coast face south. I suppose because each is east or west of Melbourne.

We are away for a few days to our west coast that faces south for family and friend time and to meet our newest great niece, now that our 25 kilometre ring of steel has been dropped. See you all in a few days. 

Falcon Progress

 The first Peregrine falcon egg was laid on the 26th of August. Not yet three months from fluff balls they are readying themselves for their first flights. It is unlikely they will return to their nesting site and their parents will teach them hunting skills, but once they make their first kill,  probably a pigeon, they will be on their own.

I tune in for maybe ten minutes every few days but it is amazing the information your pick up from the chat system.

While when younger they waited patiently in turn to be fed, in the last week they have become more impatient and one chick attacked Dad Falcon and took the bird carcass. Dad took it back and and fed another less aggressive chick. You can see that happen here. 

I expect the aggressive chick will be the first to fly. Today she (all three are she) hopped up and down the gutter while flapping its huge wings. They all sat for some time on the gutter observing the city in action. Even between Friday and today, Tuesday they have changed so much with down nearly all gone.

While I don't believe they have natural predators, their first year on their own is the hardest as they learn about human made hazards such as windows and power lines.

It has been a wonderful thing to see the eggs laid, the chicks hatch and nearly become fledglings. Thanks so much to the volunteers who maintain the camera, which now automatically switches from both boxes in the gutter as they chicks move around. And thanks to those who have offered knowledgeable comment in the chat and those who have stopped spammers and other chat nonsense.

https://www.367collinsfalcons.com.au/

Feeding time.

A few days later, nearly ready to fly. Dad Falcon closest to the camera. Expected first flyer next along the ledge. 

The Project

 I think I showed you a photo of the wall in our laundry cupboard (the real estate agent term is European Laundry) and it was a bit of mess. We bought some floating shelves to sit where the clothes dryer was once hung.

But firstly I patched the holes in the wall. As well as the clothes dryer mounting brackets, we had two different hand held vacuum cleaners attached to the wall and both needed their own holes. For a number of years we've used a stick vacuum cleaner, which made a hand held redundant and the stick vacuum is mounted within the cupboard but in a different place.

Yorkshire Pudding has recently undertaken some painting and I wonder if he agrees with my formula for painting. That is estimate the time required and the amount of paint needed and double both.

Anyway, the shelves are so easy to install. Drill a few holes in the plaster board. Don't use the supplied weak fixings but use butterfly bolts or gravity bolts. Twenty minutes max to install two shelves.

Two and half hours later with both of working on them, the shelves were installed. We put up the top shelf first. See the power point? I needed to find out which side of point the wires were. I hoped the far side, and my stud finder, settle down kiddies, indicated so, although it is not so reliable and is nearly as antiquated as me. I put on my rubber thongs, hey come on, they are footwear here, just in case of shocko. The drill bit became tangled in insulation material and stuck. Again the drill is antiquated and the bit is not clasped very tightly. Eventually got it right.

The right hand hole had me hit galvanised vent ducting. I had to drill into the metal so the butterfly bolts could go in deep enough. Again the drill bit became stuck in the metal work. I overthought it and tried to pull the drill bit out while spinning. I shut it off and it just pulled it out. 

We were pleased we did the troublesome top shelf first. The lower shelf was not really a problem, except for gravity bolts not dropping like they should have. Did I hear more than once 'for f**** sake' from both of us. 

The shelves were up and we had bought paint for the wall, and to also repaint another small wall. 

Tomorrow I have given Household Management a day off and we will brunch at Altona Beach, where we will also drop off surplus household chemicals we discovered as we cleaned out the laundry. at the nearest convenient place for us.

How floating shelves work. I never knew about them.

Holes are filled. Top shelf up.  I thought to put a detergent bottle in front of the sealed off extraction clothes dryer vent.

We decided the lower shelf was too high. Another hole to fill. 

Getting there. 

What a great idea of mine to put our paint colour information on the lid of the painting crate. What a shame we forgot that we did that and only discovered it by accident.

The area was painted and one coat was enough. Both shelves up and R covered up the vent with a piece of cardboard covered over by tin foil.

Grub screws went in the next morning but for some reason did not line up well. Maybe we will investigate why or maybe not ever notice that they are not quite right. The shelves were loaded and everything put in place.

Strangely these two walls were marked, so R whacked a coat of paint on them and touched up a couple of other marks on other walls. Job done.

Monday Mural

 It is rather a stretch to call this a mural but I quite like it. Chapel Street Prahran. Click to embiggen.

President Harris?

 In four years time Biden will be nearly 82 when he comes up for re-election. Just a thought, and even though I know nothing about Vice President elect Harris, maybe if she performs well as VP should he stand aside and allow her a shot at top office? 

I is a Swiss

 When you have blogging for a very long time, you can repeat yourself and it will be all new to your latest blogmates and your very time blogmates might have forgotten what you have posted.

I have posted a photo of this Swiss village before, but this is a much clearer photo taken by Frank Kaiser. (no it's not. It is the same photo)

Why the photo of a Swiss village? Corippo was where one of my great great grandfathers was born and he and his brothers emigrated to Waratah in the Australian state of Tasmania in the early 1800s. The family moved to Victoria and my paternal grandmother was born in Kew. At some point they returned to Tasmania and lived in Turton Street Devonport and View Street South Launceston.

Nanna Dorothy married my grandfather, who you might describe as a bit a rough trade and a great football player for Richmond. She had expensive tastes which did not match his income. They lived in a quite grand house with a croquet lawn in Lorne Grove Camberwell, but it was only rented. She ran away with one of her young music students interstate, hence her nickname I use, The Bolter. 

As each of her four sons turned twenty one she wrote to them to ask for forgiveness for deserting them as children. While my father was old enough, as was his younger brother to look after themselves, the two younger brothers were put into orphanages and in the 1940s into the 50s I think, well, I know at least one had a pretty rough time.

The Bolter went to the German and artistic town of Hahndorf in South Australia, where at a young age she had a stroke, resulting in her walking a bit strangely. From Hahndorf she and her second husband? the once music student moved to Balmain in Sydney and there she lived with a view over White Bay in Donnelly Street. Her second husband left her for a younger woman and as far as I know she lived alone until she died while sitting on her toilet. She was a well known writer of music and had minor fame. Buried at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney.

Father and one of his brothers flew to Sydney to sort out her estate. Some weeks later her piano arrived to our west Gippsland farm. It has travelled but is now in the possession of Tradie Brother and the nieces and nephew as younguns  have all banged away on its keys, as does the next generation. 

So maybe I am 10% Swiss but if you know about the southern part of Switzerland I am probably 20% Italian.

Here is a photo of a very distant New Zealand relative who shared my same great great father and she visited Corripo, population in 2018, twelve.