Reverend Billy Graham

The Reverend Billy Graham tells of a time early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy had told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, "If you'll come to the Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to Heaven."

"I don't think I'll be there," the boy said. "You don't even know your way to the post office."

Work for an operator

The following are real conversations Directory Enquiries operators had with callers, as revealed in interviews with staff at the Cardiff DE Centre.

Caller : I'd like the number of the Argoed Fish Bar in Cardiff, please. Operator : I'm sorry, there's no listing. Is the spelling correct? Caller : Well, it used to be called the Bargoed Fish Bar but the B fell off.

* * *

Then there was the caller who asked for a knitwear company in Woven. Operator : Woven? Are you sure? Caller : Yes. That's what it says on the label - Woven in Scotland.

* * *

Caller : I'd like the RSPCA please.

Operator : Where are you calling from?

Caller : The living room

* * *

Caller : The water board please.

Operator : Which department?

Caller : Tap water.

* * *

Operator : How are you spelling that?

Caller : With letters.

* * *

Caller : I'd like the number for a reverend in Cardiff, please.

Operator : Do you have his name?

Caller : No, but he has a dog named Ben.

* * *

Caller : The Union of Shopkeepers and Alligators please.

Operator : You mean the Amalgamated Union of Shopkeepers?

* * *

On another occasion, a man making heavy breathing sounds from a phone box told the worried operator: "I haven't got a pen so I'm steaming up the window to write the number on.

All Time Christmas Favourite with a New Face

If I was asked 'What is your most favourite song and performer at Christmas', (and Lorna will certainly agree with this) is Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli singing 'The Prayer'.

 Well, I didn't think anyone else could sing his part as well as Andrea, but have a look at this link and see for yourself.

The Prayer

A Sunny day at Point Gellibrand

Point Gellibrand in Williamstown Victoria was the site of the first Victorian settlement. At the time of settlement the land from Point Gellibrand to Wilsons Promitory was the roamed by a tribe of Aboriginals that became decimated and finally extinct by the advent of white man. Typhiod played a large part in the loss of this tribe.

Point Gellibrand was also the site of the first ship building yards in Victoria, and played a large role in the Victorian Gold Rush of the 19th Century.

The Point has good BBQ facilities, tables and toilet facilities, with views of shipping through the bay channel and paths to wander along the foreshore. It is an altogether pleasant place to go, very close to the city, and reachable via the two main freeways.

See photos here

The Worst Christmas Day Storm Ever.

Yesterday (Christmas Day) Melbourne and surrounding areas experienced one of the worst hail storms ever to hit Southern Victoria at this time of year.
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The storm was due to freak atmospheric conditions. Hail (no exaggeration) a bit smaller than cricket balls hit some areas. Thankfully, our area only experienced golf ball size hail, but that did some damaged to trees.

Tile roofs and car windows were badly damaged in those areas worst hit, and emergency services were swamped by almost 2000 calls over a period of several hours.

Even though this is unusual weather for this time of year, I do remember having bad hail storms in December in previous years, so there is no call for blaming changing weather patterns for the unusual storm.

ADDENDUM:
 After publishing this post this morning, I went outside to have look-see how the christmas lights survived the storm (they didn't), and found a huge gum tree branch had fallen across our new plants (see photos). I had to chop it up with an axe to get it off the plants.

Most plants (miraculously) survived unscathed. However, the new lime tree wasn't as lucky. I've patched it up and hope that it survives.

Just by the way, I have made 4 phone calls to Whittlesea council about getting them to prune the same tree which I considered far too overloaded with growth. Those calls were made from the period 30th September to the end of November. They still haven't done the job and the tree probably wouldn't have dropped the branch if they had carried out the work.

Sometimes I think we pay too much to councils when we can't rely on them doing the work they are paid for.

A Thank You To Stratco

Since moving into our new house in Epping, I have added quite a bit to the property and still have a lot to do. Most of this work has been done, or will be done done using Stratco materials, since we were so happy with the Stratco veranda we had at the old address.

Stratco have been very kind by upgrading a free BBQ that was part of the deal from a $300.00 unit to one worth $900.00.

Thank you very much Stratco and especially Paul Burrows at the Epping centre for all your help and kindness.


Our new Pagola

For information about the range of building supplies and kits, see http://stratco.com.au/

Photo Watermarks

After reading a post by Downunder Doug on FaceBook about having some of his photos stolen, I decided to investigate what was available for photoshop to batch watermark images.

I found the following link which provides an installable photoshop applet that does exactly what I was looking for -- however, for those interested, it will only work for photoshop CS5 and above.

www.russellbrown.com/scripts.html

I recommend this app. It works beautifully, and it very user friendly.

Here's an example of a watermark added to one of my images:

Bugga

I decided that I've done enough work so I dropped an angle-grinder with a metal cutting blade on my foot. 4 tendons sliced plus a few nerves. I was careful not to cut any artries.

Guess the work will have to wait for a few months. I've got this great big (Heavy) special boot on my foot to weigh me down.

I'd like to take this oportunity to wish you, one and all, a very merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous new year.

And please take my advice  --  do NOT resort to dropping an angle-grinder on yourself to escape work. It is definitely not recommended.