Plains, Planes and a Pub

On Sunday 17th October, intrepid members of the Darling Downs Chapter set out to explore country backroads, aviation history, country pub hospitality and exercise their brain cells on a run to Brooksead via Oakey and Pittsworth.

I say "intrepid" because winter had returned with a vengeance and some members wimped it and travelled with tops up. Those who didn't are probably by now nursing various levels of hypothermia.

The convoy (mostly silver NBs with a sprinkling of NCs) left Toowoomba at three minute intervals, armed with a carefully crafted set of questions to be answered, in the first instance, on the way to the Museum of Australian Army Flying at Oakey and then on to Brookstead via Pittsworth.

 

These same questions were the cause of many domestics and plenty of colourful language for the rest of the day. We discovered, for instance, that odometers in MX5s record distance travelled irrespective of direction (forward or reverse) and this served to confuse and confound, given the amount of backing-up required to catch up on missed signs, and the fact that accurate odometers readings were vital to avoid getting lost.

Remember, we weren't in convoy - it's amazing how thoroughly you can get lost in three minutes.

The Aviation museum provided a dose of nostalgia for the ex-Nashos in our group. The aircraft have aged better than these same ex-Nashos. It's worth noting that if you have a spare $40000 you can buy one of the nine Caribou transport aircraft mothballed beside the museum.

After a warming coffee at the museum, and a queue at the toilets (there was a seniors tour bus there at the same time) we set off for Brookstead via Pittsworth.

More bad language and backing-up followed, involving a junkyard with Datsun 120Ys, a mysterious mural and badly-positioned road signs. Nothing daunted, we arrived at the Brookstead pub where the beer was cold and the hospitality country-friendly.

Over lunch, the questionnaire was scored. The winners were from Brisbane - so much for "local knowledge". The planners did a good job, and we all know a lot more about that particular neck of the woods.

As we left the pub one of the locals drinking on the patio out front requested a wheelie. Someone should have explained to him that MX5 owners are people of taste and refinement.

Vegetable Fritters

Wednesday morning was different.

The two kids I was working with were assigned to a cooking lesson, so if I wanted to do some observation and generate recommendations, I had to join the lesson.

These are both year five girls with physical impairments who spend the bulk of their time in a regular class, but are withdrawn (in the case of cooking - once per week) to work in small group settings run by a special needs teacher.

They're very well supported, and the SN teacher runs a highly organised programme so that every lesson is prepared to the max. The kids read though the recipe and instructions (in the form of pictographs because some in the group are still learning to read), are assigned tasks, and the teacher tends to stand back with arms folded as they do the whole job from go to whoa.

They start with a bare kitchen, so that even the tasks of getting the utensils, ingredients and various cooking tools out of the cupboard are part of the deal. The goal is the development of independence, but plenty of other skills - sequencing, counting, measuring, estimation, cooperation, verbal communication etc, are all in the mix - excuse the pun.

Both these girls have fairly major problems to overcome (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hemiplegia respectively) so succeeding in this is no small challenge for them. The upside is that they enjoy the practical sessions, so motivation is guaranteed. I think they look forward to these sessions all week.

The teacher was pretty pleased to see me, as the Teachers' Aide who normally helps out had called in sick and no replacement was available. I reckon I'd make a pretty fair Teachers' Aide.

It ended well. The fritters were great, although I'm no vegetarian, and would have preferred to sneak some meat into the mix. There was no chance - those kids have eyes like hawks.

My reports and recommendations were also much more comprehensive than usual, given the amount of information I was able to pick up during the process.

I might try to turn up with this group every Wednesday morning.

Election's Over

Now that the election's over, we've heard much less of the mindless "stop the boats".

It would be a good time to stop treating asylum seekers as political collateral, and begin to consider them as human beings.

We actually have a bipartisan approach in that both major parties see the issue simply as a political wedge. 

Wouldn't it be great if they could speed up the processing, shut down the detention centres, and let these people get on with their lives. Given that in this country we take a whole .4% of the world's refugees, I doubt anyone would notice - except perhaps the shock jocks and commentators like Blot and Blur.

That's wishful thinking, of course. There's always 5% of the population paranoid enough to swallow the slogans. And given the balance in the house, both sides will play it for the political advantage they can gouge from this 5%.

This makes interesting reading.

Giving Credit

Well, it's probably over - at least in the sense that the US is now able to extract itself from the bloody mess.
 
The War in Iraq, that is. And the Right in the US want to take credit.
 
They're welcome.
 
4287 Americans KIA and 30,182 wounded.




107, 152 civilian casualties.

 

1,785,212 Iraqi refugees.
 
The country still has no government.
 
The Coalition took its eye off Afghanistan in favour of Iraq, and we see the consequences. The balance of power in the Middle East has shifted in favour of Iran.
 
They want credit? They're welcome.
 
Click on the post title to watch an interesting Video

Bottlebrush

I planted this 12 months ago.

It's done well.

Keys n Things.

I've been skiting about how reliable the MX5 is.

Big mistake. After I'd said something like - "Nothing ever goes wrong with this thing" - something did. I have an excuse for my big mouth. After owning many Peugeots, the Mazda's reliability is a constant source of amazement.


What did go wrong was merely inconvenient. The car continued, as they say in the classics, to proceed.

It proceeded, however without benefit of radio or remote locking. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the battery. Both things failed at about the same time. This battery is original. As a 2003 model, it's getting on for seven years old. I don't drive the car every day, and when I'm working west, or travelling interstate, as I have been lately,it can sit for days (and over the last few months - weeks) without being started.

There is therefore a good reason why the radio started flashing "code" at about the same time the remote locking device also lost its memory. According to the techies at Mazda, if the voltage drops below a certain point, it can confuse the in-car computer which remembers stuff like codes. The strange thing is - the car continues to start first time every time, and it cranks over enthusiastically.





Because I'm not the original owner, I didn't have the radio code. It was necessary to take the car to an authorised Mazda dealer to have both radio and remote re-programmed. Apparently they plug a laptop into the system somewhere and mutter incantations as they reset everything.


I can't complain - it cost all of $21. I can't remember the last time I parted with such a small amount of dosh at a garage where something had actually been fixed.

The battery will cark it eventually, of course.

But now I have the magic code.

(Both these shots were taken with an iPhone).

For What It's Worth

Illustration: Andrew Dyson- The Age










I've refrained from commenting on the current controversy about the three Commandos charged for their actions in Afghanistan for two reasons.
 
One is that every second blogger has already done so; the other is that I'm not sure I have anything to contribute.
 
Having said that, the issue nags away, and I feel very uncomfortable about the whole notion of serving soldiers being treated in this way.
 
My memories of service as a rifleman are also a factor. The army must be a very different organisation these days from what it was back in 69-70. The notion that soldiers could be charged with manslaughter after an incident in which they were under fire would have seemed fantasy back then. This incident was not, I understand, a situation anything like, for example, My Lai, where without question action against the individuals involved was justified.
 
Personal recollection of being under fire is that the last things on your mind are the legal niceties. A whole bundle of more basic emotions kick in. Funnily enough, the relevance of the identity of the person doing the shooting tends to fade - I remember being so angry that someone out there was trying to kill me, that all I wanted to do was fire back. At the time, it didn't matter to me that the people doing the firing were "friendlies". Little lumps of 7.62mm diameter lead coming at you at supersonic speeds don't sound friendly.
 
We didn't fire back, of course, because we couldn't identify targets, and rules of engagement demanded we were sure of our targets - very fortunately as it turned out.
 
My point is that individual actions in situations such as these have to be viewed through a prism much wider than the narrow legalistic one apparently applied here.
 
Which leads me to some questions - hopefully someone out there can answer them.
 
Why were reservists involved in such an operation? Were they trained sufficiently? How well were they briefed? Did they fully understand the rules of engagement? How reliable were the communications used? What were their orders? At what level were these orders given, and how specific were they? What options did they have?
 
And in terms of how the incident has been dealt with -
 
Why has it taken so long for charges to be laid? Who made the decision to proceed? Did the person/persons making this decision have experience of combat as well as knowledge of the law? Are the rumours that the charges were laid to prevent the ICC from taking action true, or a media beat-up?
 
And so on…..
 
Until these questions (and many others) are answered, the whole question remains deeply troubling, and must be doing incalculable damage to the individuals involved in particular and morale in general.
 
And no matter what the Court Martial outcome, nothing will bring those kids back. This is something the soldiers involved will have to live with for the rest of their lives.