Double Feature

 

In order to entice the crowds back to the cinemas, one theatre is offering double features of "James Bond 007" at the usual price. 

Seeing these movies from the 70s at the cinema was a real treat. I really enjoyed it despite the air conditioning failing. I was offered my money back but since their business is struggling with pandemic restrictions I declined.

In the 70s I would ride my bicycle to the other side of town to see cheap double features of war movies and westerns.

Now if they would only do -
Back to the Future I & II
A Fistfull of Dollars / For a Few Dollars More
Funny Girl / What's Up, Doc?
The Graduate / Midnight Cowboy
The Time Machine (1960) / The Planet of the Apes (1968)
Doctor Zhivago (A double feature by itself)
Lawrence of Arabia (A double feature by itself)
Breakfast at Tiffany's / Sabrina
Ben Hur / Quo Vadis
Logan's Run / Silent Running
...

My main complaint about the internet streaming services is I cannot find the old movies I want to see.

Change of Guard

I divided a native bee hive into two hives on the weekend.

The stingless bees flying around my face can be distracting. So I wore a headnet. I had bought the net for outback travelling. But there was a problem - the net is impregnated with an insecticide which made the bees fly erratically and, I presume, die. I need a different net.

When I opened the hive I found that the hive of Tetragonula carbonaria bees had been replaced by Tetragonula hockingsi. The different species look identical to the naked eye. But carbonaria arrange their nests as a spiral and hockingsi nests are more higgledy piggledy. 

Another example of environmental change - hockingsi prefer higher temperatures and used to live to the North of Brisbane.

A photo from a few years ago showing a spiral Tetragonula carbonaria nest.

Work with meaning

I know a young woman working in marketing for a credit card company - she hates the job. She knows it is a rip off to the merchants and it is doing nothing meaningful.

In the Brisbane apartment boom it was soul destroying to work for developers. They wanted the cheapest build possible for a sale - they did not care what would give the least maintenance, say, or an effective fire alarm system. 

In dealing with solar panel installation companies, I am meeting people whose aim is to save the planet. They are enthusiastic for their work - it is refreshing.

A year in movies

 

 

1 Jan    New Year's Day        About A Boy

12 Jan    HAL 9000 B'day      2001: A Space Odyssey

26 Jan    Australia Day         The Castle

27 Jan    Mozart B'day          Amadeus

 2 Feb    Groundhog Day      Groundhog Day

14 Feb   Valentine's Day       Strictly Ballroom / Down with Love

15 Mar   Ides of March         Gladiator

19 Mar   Bruce Willis Day      Fifth Element

25 Apr   ANZAC Day             Gallipoli

            Easter Sunday         Life of Brian

 4 May   Star Wars Day         Star Wars

 7 May   Tchaikovsky B'day    Anna Karenina

19 May  Beloved's B'day        Breakfast at Tiffanys

25 May  Towel Day               Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

 3 Jun   Son B'day                Kingdom of Heaven

 6 Jun   D-Day                     Saving Private Ryan

21 Jun  Winter Solstice         Dark City

22 Jul   My B'day                 Casablanca

21 Aug  Son B'day                A.I.

11 Sep   Disaster Day           Troy

19 Sep  Talk like a Pirate Day  Pirates of the Caribbean

31 Oct   Halloween                Sleepy Hollow

 5 Nov   Guy Fawkes Day       V for Vendetta

11 Nov  Remembrance Day    All Quiet at the Western Front

19 Nov                                 Blade Runner

25 Nov  Son B'day                 Napoleon Dynamite

21 Dec  Summer Solstice        Lawrence of Arabia

24 Dec  Xmas Eve                  Die Hard

25 Dec  Xmas                        Love Actually

31 Dec  New Year's Eve          Passengers

Strawberries in tubs

 

Growing strawberries off the ground keeps them out of the dirt, and away from pests.

The Great Curse

In 1525 Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, cursed the reivers of the borders between England and Scotland.

"I curse their head and all the hairs of their head; I curse their face, their brain, their mouth, their nose, their tongue, their teeth, their forehead, their shoulders, their breast, their heart, their stomach, their back, their womb, their arms, their legs, their hands, their feet, and every part of their body, from the top of their head to the soles of their feet, before and behind, within and without.

"I curse them going and I curse them riding; I curse them standing and I curse them sitting; I curse them eating and I curse them drinking; I curse them rising, and I curse them lying; I curse them at home, I curse them away from home; I curse them within the house, I curse them outside of the house; I curse their wives, their children, and their servants who participate in their deeds. I wary their crops, their cattle, their wool, their sheep, their horses, their swine, their geese, their hens, and all their livestock. I wary their halls, their chambers, their kitchens, their stanchions, their barns, their cowsheds, their barnyards, their cabbage patches, their plows, their harrows, and the goods and houses that are necessary for their sustenance and welfare."

And then he got very religious and anti-semitic so I won't repeat it.

I stumbled across the polished boulder in Carlisle.

Cities in Disgrace

I recently re-read the Cities in Flight series of novels by James Blish.

The stories have not aged well they are particularly misogynistic and colonial.

Blish also worked for the Tobacco institute and died of lung cancer - poetic justice.

 

Harlequin

 

The cotton harlequin bug is fascinating in close-up.

Strawberry Flowers

 

In spring the flowers bloom and the the insects visit them.

Great Radio

 

My favourite radio. 

Accurate digital tuning.

Sensitive reception - from Brisbane I can receive all the Australian 50kW AM transmitters. Some I have to wait till late at night.

Good sound - from the 100mm speaker.

Extended battery life - from 4x D cells.

I used this radio when travelling as I can remove it from the RF interference in the caravan power systems.

Canali

 

Like Mars, my home is is covered with canali.

My home is on a slight slope and water flowed from the neighbours house under mine then to the shed (flooding it) and out the back corner of my property.

Formerly in the wet season the doors within my home would stick. I guessed that the moisture around the house stumps was lifting the house and so the doors were no longer swinging true.

My solution was to under take civil engineering works steering water away from under the house and guiding it passed the shed. 

I built embankments to gather the water from the neighbours yard and steer it to the backyard. I also built a Grand Canal under the house for the times of heavy rainfall to take overflow from the embankment directly from the high side of the house directly to the low side without pooling.

Investigating the shed, I found an old trench across the front to divert water. So I cleaned this out and reinstated it. I added a weather strip to the shed door to keep the water out.

The doors no longer stick in the wet season. And the shed flooding is minimal.

Caravan Improvements #3

 

I added a gas fuse between the gas bottle and the caravan appliances. It can also be used to detect gas leaks.

Caravan Improvements #2

 

Simple but effective - a level glued to the frame. But I did make a mistake - when the frame is level the bench inside the caravan is not quite level so I must compensate.

Caravan Improvements #1

 I have made several improvements to my caravan.

The original jockey wheel was solid rubber - the rubber split under load the first time I used it. Maybe the rubber was perished.

The replacement jockey wheel is steel with a rubber rim - it can withstand a larger load. The crank motion in the vertical plane is easier to operate than the original in the horizontal plane. The wheel diameter is larger so it is easier to push around. It can also lift higher than the original.

Joan Boynton - Who are you?

 

I love this illustration by Joan Boynton. I bought it second hand. At different times the moon, the clouds and the water reflections have caught my attention.

I know nothing about the artist.