Does anyone know about chimneys?

Posted on 6 November 2012 by SJPONeill

How cool would it be if this was an in-flight shot of the tail of the jet bike I built in the garage over winter?

Although it is notionally summer here now…notionally…and we have just had a week of beautiful sun (probably more than we saw all last “summer”), we still have bouts of quite cold weather when our drill is to put the fire on when I get up at 6 to warm the house up and again in the evening if necessary…

Our problem is that the large wood-burner in the lounge that heats the house has taken to smoking continuously and, just like with teenagers, you just can’t tell it not to. We had it refurbished at the beginning of the year, including replacing the flue, removing the damper on the flue and replacing all the seals around the doors. We did this at the same time we re-roofed the house but a few months before deciding to re-roof we asked if ‘hats’ could be placed over the tops of the upper arms of the ‘H’ cap to stop rain water washing soot and much from the inside of the cap onto the roof where it had, over time, created an ugly stain running from the base of the flue down to the edge of the roof. At the time I was surprised that the hats were so small and so close to the opening of the H-cap but figured that our installers knew what they were doing.

You can’t really see if in the picture but there is also a layer of wire netting stretched across each external opening to prevent birds either dying in the cap or building their own little home sweet homes in it – for the first four or five years that we were here, we never had a problem with birds then all of a sudden the chimneys were like avian condos…the gauge of the netting is half-three-quarter inch so is unlikely to be THE problem but may be a contributing factor to the possible lack of draw across the top of the H…

We didn’t start using the wood-burner over winter til around May because, although we had a non-summer, it wasn’t that cold, just wet. But we were surprised that after only a couple of months the wood-burner started smoking worse and worse and so we got the flue swept – twice because the first time they did go hard enough and left a thick layer of creosote scaling on the inside of the flue. The folk who swept the chimney took the hit for not doing the job properly the first time around but were also critical of our wood supply as too wet. Looking back, I think that this is a stock answer as the same wood supply also feeds out wood-burners in the laundry and the guest house, neither of which has any problems with smoking. We always has a wet and dry side of the wood shed and it is possible that they only looked at the wet side i.e. the stuff drying for next winter.

I have been doing a ton of research into this issue on the net and have read up about positive and negative drafts and pressures inside the house. I have tried the fire with windows and doors open to see if it is a draft issue and doors/windows open or closed makes no difference other than to help clear the smoke that pours out the door every time we open it to add more wood.

I keep coming back to the two things that have changed: replacing all the seals on the wood-burner and adding the hats onto the H-cap. From my research it seems that the better sealed a wood-burner is, the more efficiently it operates which brings me back each time to the hats. What I’m wondering is if they need to be lifted higher above the mouth of the H for better wind flow across the top and to offer the least amount of resistance to smoke coming through the H-cap – the caps are, after all only there to stop rain washing soot etc onto the roof…

So I’m hoping that perhaps someone in our global community might actually be a subject matter expert on this topic and be able to offer up some definitive advice that doesn’t include:

pre-warming the flue by stuffing newspaper up it and lighting it,
getting better wood (there is nothing wrong with our wood supply)
replacing the wood-burner or
just hardening the heck up…

Faster than…

Posted on 2 November 2012 by SJPONeill

Just for perspective, the upload and download speeds here are twice those we were getting with satellite broadband; the ping is almost 20 times faster!!

It doesn’t seem so long that we used to get excited at home when the dial-up download speed got anything over a mighty 6kbps…it’s been our curse to never live (for any period of time anyway) anywhere with fixed line broadband…then, one day early in 2010, the nice folk at Telecom rang up and said we were just inside the coverage for the XT network (after they got ALL the bugs out of it, of course).

Contrary to all the bad press that Telecom gets, they were very nice about it and offered to send out an XT modem for a month’s free trial. Couldn’t say no to that and all of a sudden we were in the world of broadband…not without its issues though: we only had 2Gb a month to play with and the only reception was in one room of the house (fortunately the study: working from home could have become interesting if it had been the bogger!!). XT worked really well for us for almost two years but as I reverted to working more and more from home (the great thing about policy analysis and doctrine review is that you can pretty much do it anywhere), we more and more started to exceed our 2G monthly allowance and the cost started to spiral upwards…

We had been aware of Farmside and its satellite broadband options for a while but hadn’t considered them as cost-effective as the XT option – plus they had (and still do) this annoying habit of answering emails with phone calls which is nice if one is at home but of limited use if one is spending a lot of time away from home and thus not able to answer the phone when it rings…By the end of 2011, though, their satellite and home line bundles were starting to look pretty attractive – the all-up costs were about the same as what we were already paying but the big bonus was a much larger monthly cap albeit with 25 of the 30Gb only being available offpeak between midnight and 2PM – that actually wasn’t too bad as I normally start work at 6AM to catch the back end of the US working day.

Once we established comms – after more email/phone tag – the Farmside sign-up process was swift and efficient and the installer turned up the day after Boxing Day. We would have preferred to have the dish placed further up the wall of the house so that the modem and cables would be out of sight/mind in the loft but still able to wifi through the house…but the installer didn’t come with a long enough ladder (even though we had advised that the wall was pretty high) and we think he may have been a little scared of heights…but the job was soon done and, apart from more lights than the flight deck of Concorde where the modem and router had been placed in the spare room, we achieved another plateau in the quest for decent broadband. The only downer with satellite broadband is that it is high latency – about 800 milliseconds, or the better part of a second – which only meant that pages took a little longer to access and load unless one uses a VPN for work as I do in which case it can be quite frustrating and tiring using a real time mouse and keyboard on pages lagging about a second behind.

Just before I went overseas in September, our phone went off for the day – late in the afternoon, someone claiming to be from Telecom rang and apologised for the disruption of service, attributing it to some errors when our local cabinet was cut into the new fibre network. Fibre? Did someone say fibre? You would think that finding out if we could now access fixed line broadband would be a simple thing mais non…both Farmside and Telecom fobbed us off with “We will tell you when these services are available” responses. To their credit, when we nudged Farmside again after a month or so, they came to the party and advised (after more email/phone tag) that it looked like we could now access proper broadband.

Those living in urban areas will be all “hohum” but these are the things that are important in rural areas where connectivity = communication and the ability to do business from home…the ADSL modem arrived this morning – and didn’t work. Five calls with the really helpful customer service staff (thanks, Chris and Jess) later, we had narrowed the problem down to a modem that had not been configured before it had left the store. All that was easily fixed and by lunch time, it was all up and running, and we were able to kill the Concorde lights in the spare room for the last time. By close of play today, I had been enjoying the rapid response of web pages and had indulged in a long ‘test’ Skype with Rowland from Hawkeye UAV. Now that we have decent 24/7 broadband, we plan on using Skype a lot more and possibly reducing our homeline calling plans – more

So all that thinking and fault locating made me a might peckish….I didn’t quite get the angle right in this picture – I should have reduced the angle so that the whole is silhouetted against the white of the plate – so it doesn’t look as nice as it actually did and certainly not as well as it tasted. All it is is some kumara hash brown mix left over from my kumara and salmon stack the other night, and a chunk of fresh-fried lamb I found in the fridge with a squirt of Carmen’s homemade chili sauce…the curry in the hash brown and the chili sauce blended deliciously…so I made another and it was just as good…

Sitting back now, watching Lost in Space (the original, not the sad-as movie with Joey from Friends) after a great dinner of pork sausages with a cheese omelette….

They live!!!

Posted on 1 November 2012 by SJPONeill

Just been up the road for a coffee and endured yet another nutjob spouting off about why New Zealand just has to have fast jets if it hopes to have any credibility internationally. I’m not going to get into that argument although I will admit I do kinda miss the sound of tortured air as 75 Squadron crank across the Rangipo Desert…but…this nutjob made the comment that the Skyhawks are just rusting away, neglected and forgotten, down in Woodbourne. And that’s not true….so just for the record…

A while back, someone emailed me a PDF that had clearly been a copied and pasted Word document drawn from an internet or print article – there were no identifying links, or names or anything to give away the source. If anyone does recognise the source, please let me know so that I can credit the source and link to the original item…so, just for the record, everything from here on in italics and the pictures are all someone else’s work…not mine, not at all…but I do think it’s all pretty cool…

“There has been lots of rumblings in the military aviation community about the future of the Black Diamond Jet Team and the possible establishment of a commercial adversary support arm of the group, known mysteriously as Draken International. It is now clear that Draken International and its team, which sports famous names like a Dale Snodgrass in its roster, is deadly serious about jumping into the fickle commercial adversary support/contractor air services industry, with an armada of blazing afterburners to prove it.

I have written at length about the coming storm of demand for commercial adversary support services. As America and her allies transition into an almost all 5th generation fighter inventory, fighter wings will not be able to afford to accomplish all their required training tasks using “in-house” aircraft as they have done in decades past. 5th generation fighter capability comes at a huge cost, not just in the upfront purchase of the aircraft, which will cost at least twice as much as a comparable fourth generation fighter, but the operational and sustainment costs of these cutting edge machines will be absolutely crushing for users around the globe. It simply does not make sense to send an F-35 up to train on basic radar intercept procedures against another F-35. Incredibly valuable airframe hours are consumed
needlessly by doing so and aircraft operating costs for such sorties will be astronomical. Further, having a state of the art 5th generation fighter mimic an inferior threat is not only inefficient but it is also somewhat problematic. This is precisely where commercial adversary support providers will come in to alleviate these fiscal and operational pressures, providing simulated threats and other support duties that can be tailored cost effectively to each individual sortie’s training goals. Further, outsourcing such duties instead of expanding current military adversary support squadrons or establishing new ones will create an elastic on-demand force that will be much more cost-effective than a standing military force alternative. In other words, by outsourcing adversary support duties to a commercial entity an air arm only needs to pay for exactly what it wants, when it wants it. If they become dissatisfied with their provider or someone else shows that they can provide the same service better or cheaper than they can take their business elsewhere. Such an arrangement is a proven economic and operational win-win for all those involved, the problem is that there is simply not enough supply of these services right now to fulfill what will become a huge demand by the end of the decade. This is where companies like Draken International are beginning to step into the picture, possibly taking what has been a niche industry and thrusting it into the mainstream international defense marketplace. Draken International’s fleet of aggressors is simply eye watering:

29 MiG-21BIS/UM: This is a lot of supersonic threat simulation aircraft! The majority of these jets are ex-Polish birds and are equipped with the dated by today’s standards, yet still capable RP-22 radar set, as well as a radar warning receiver. The MiG-21 in this configuration is roughly similar to the F-5Ns currently serving in the aggressor role for the US Navy. With the addition of a capable electronic warfare/jamming pod, the MiG-21 is known to be a dangerous jet to engage with on an air to air level even in modern times.

8 Ex-Royal New Zealand Air Force A-4K: Yes, some of the New Zealand’s Skyhawks have finally been sold to a loving new home after years of busted deals and “tire-kicker” inquiries. These are the most capable Skyhawks ever produced and sport an advanced version of the F-16A’s APG-66 pulse- doppler phased array radar, hands-on-throttle-and-stick pilot interface, a full-fledged heads up display, a capable radar warning receiver, 1553 digital bus which will allow for carriage of advanced stores, and even mid-air refueling pods. These A-4Ks will obviously be Draken International’s high-end threat simulation mainstay and will bring a capable radar set to the commercial adversary support industry for the first time, which is a true game-changer. Also, seeing as these jets are equipped with refueling stores, they can offer that capability for fleet training or to enhance their own aggressor capabilities where “time-on-station” is a big selling point for potential customers. The A- 4Ks are slated to be operational by early 2013.

3 A-4L Skyhawks: Currently wearing “zebra’ camouflage and Draken International titles.

9 Ex-Royal New Zealand Air Force MB-339: These advanced jet trainers are equipped with similar sub-systems as their A-4K cousins, such as an advanced HUD and 1553 digital bus, albeit without the APG-66 radar and other combat oriented gear. Slated to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2012.

5 L-39: Presumably these are the same aircraft that are flown by Draken International’s non-profit aerial display and exhibition team.

When you look at this fleet in comparison to other contractor air services/commercial adversary support providers you realize that Draken International has procured a diverse and flexible combination of aircraft that matches more advanced threats, and in greater volume, than what is currently available on the market today. The MiGs are fairly cheap to procure and are a good match for simulating enemy anti-ship and cruise missiles, some of which now possess solid supersonic performance. The Skyhawks will be a an affective “jack of all trades” and will be especially useful at presenting a cost-effective fourth generation fighter threat in the beyond visual range arena, a capability that is currently sorely lacking in the CAS industry. The MB-339s, and even the L-39s to a certain extent, will be good for lugging around jamming pods and presenting rudimentary radar targets for aircraft and ships, as well as providing close air support training for JTAC/FAC schools at home an abroad.

What is most astounding about Draken International’s business plan is the sheer amount of aircraft in their inventory and the endless
potential of how they could be mixed and matched together to form an incredibly diverse and capable aggressor force. With so many airframes of different capabilities, including those which can mid-air refuel and supply a persistent radar picture for their red air team, Draken International will have the ability to supply an enemy air force “on demand” for large force employment exercises that mirror the capabilities of many potential adversary nations.

In business they say timing is everything, and in Draken International’s case that key ingredient may remain illusive due to a faltering F-35 program and shrinking defense budgets both at home and abroad. Yet these same factors, which may seem negative at first glance, could very well end up being Draken International’s proverbial ace in the whole, as the F-35 program is almost unstoppable at this point and costs related to it will continue to balloon, thus resulting in smaller fighter fleets than originally planned for most nations involved in the program and less cash available to fly the jets once they are purchased. As a result hiring companies like Draken International will be absolutely necessary for providing continuous training support at comparatively minimal cost.

One thing is for certain, with firmly entrenched contractor air service providers like Top Aces and ATAC already holding substantial market-share and burgeoning new startups like ECA Program and Draken International just stepping onto the stage, the biggest dogfights for these companies may no happen high in the sky but in corporate boardrooms and DoD contracting offices instead. Competition will be furious for the as yet to grow adversary support pie, but once a new, much bigger pie, in the form of the F-35 program, finally gets served it will be good eating for many for years and years to come…”

PS: Why place this in ‘The Thursday/Friday War‘ category and not ‘Playing with Toys‘? Easy…I think that the relationship between commercial and traditional military providers of capabilities to nation-states et al is just getting started and won’t stop til it gets us to the days of Falkenberg’s Legion and Hammer’s Slammers (look ’em up)…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

Posted on 20 October 2012 by SJPONeill

I am looking after the girls this long weekend so will bang this out before I get overrun…it’ll be all on after breakfast so some quick thoughts on ‘silhouette‘…

I was visiting the USAF Armament Museum last year when these things kept banging out of Eglin AFB next door – or maybe it was the same one doing touch and goes…

MQ-1 Predator (pointy-down tail) at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington…

This Warbird DC-3 was doing joy rides out of Taumarunui in 2010 – snapped it as it flew overhead on a circuit of the Mountain…

This isn’t a silhouette…just Lulu in the snow last year…last time we had real snow at home…call the last few months a winter?!?!

A man and his dog

Posted on 6 October 2012 by SJPONeill

REID, Piers Martin. CBE, DLitt(Hon), MDefStud, Reg.No.U30723, Major General, of Palmerston North.

Some sad news in the inbox last night as Massey University’s Centre for Defence and Security Studies announced…

It is with sadness that we advise that a friend, colleague and mentor to staff and to many students over the years, Major General Piers Reid, passed away at 21:00 (9.00pm) on 2 October 2012.

A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Piers served a double-tour in Vietnam, and then proceeded to advance to Chief of Army. He was with our Centre for more than a decade, including Director in the first half of the 2000s, after which he continued to lecture in defence studies and military history until this semester.

Some weeks ago, Piers was diagnosed with a serious illness (cancer). At his and his family’s request, this information was not distributed widely, and so we were not in a position to use Stream to advise people of his illness. Piers remained independent until the end, and his death was dignified and peaceful.

Friends are invited to attend a service for Piers at the Beauchamp Crematorium Chapel, 167 John F Kennedy Drive, Palmerston North on Monday October 8th 2012 at 2pm.

Piers Reid succeeded Tony Birks as Chief of General Staff just after I was commissioned. Almost his first act in the job was to scrub the previously approved proposed new service dress for the Army which a. made my life as the new SO3 Clothing really interesting and b. was probably quite a good idea as I am not sure how how long the Zoot Suit Riot look would have remained in vogue before it just looked silly…the service dress that the Army wears today, more traditional in both style and colours, is the result of that decision.

Noting that nowhere in a general’s job description does it say anything about making a young lieutenant’s life easy, seeing the clothing projects through to completion in his administration was not too burdensome and never dull nor boring. Before anyone starts bleating about ‘loggie generals’ let’s not forget that this ‘loggie general’ signed off on an awful lot of good kit for soldiers including:

Decent combat boots
DPM combat clothing that didn’t change colour between batches or like like it was an end run from some third world banana republic army.
Mustang knee-length Goretex socks.
Running shoes as an entitlement for all soldiers putting an end to the need for soldiers units with a higher requirement for physical fitness having to buy their own.
Reflex wet weather clothing designed by Kathmandu (apologies to all the self-appointed experts out there but at the time this was a better performer than Goretex.
Windproof Ventile smocks.
Nomex fleece fleece jackets that wouldn’t burst into flame as soon as a lit cigarette or Hexi cooker looked at them.

Not a bad legacy for just a ‘loggie general’….

He also brought back the classic peaked cap for officers – for a whole six months until his successor killed it off again…

In the course of these projects, I got to know Piers Reid quite well, learned of his time in Vietnam, a story not well known but probably not mine to tell…it turned out that we both loved military music and I recall one afternoon chatting with him at the rehearsal for the Remembrance Day Service in Wellington Cathedral – the band struck up Scipio, the traditional slow march and , as the introductory drum roll ended we both smiled sheepishly as our right legs reflexively shot forward for the first step of the slow march – Scipio for those not in the know starts with two drum roles, the ned of the second being the cue for soldiers to commence marching, using just the beat of the drum to stay in step…

Even those I was never any drill maestro, we did have drill down to an art form in those days, often just working off cues in the music as commands and that memory from that day in the Cathedral is always the one that springs to mind first when I think of Piers.

I would see Piers from time to time when I was working at Massey and it always struck me how fit and well he looked and so it is all the more a shock to hear that he has passed away so quickly…

FX Stolen from Auckland NZ

Posted on 1 October 2012 by SJPONeill

Posted on behalf of a friend…

Stolen from Birkdale on the North Shore area of Auckland, New Zealand, this weekend.

Please contact Auckland Police on 09 839 0741 .

Only one of this colour and layout in the area so if you see it, its the stolen one.

Last time an FX was stolen it was spotted outside San Francisco Hospital emergency department with 12 hours…let’s see if karma and keen eyes can do the same this time!

This is a little more than just the “…Only one of this colour and layout in the area…”: it is actually a very rare and unusual preproduction prototype…what really narks me is that the lowlife scumhead that has stolen it will have no idea of what it is…I am actually quite proud of my very minor contributions to the FX’s development in the last few years and so am just a little protective of it…

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…

Five Question Friday! 9/28/12

Posted on 1 October 2012 by SJPONeill

OK, here we go for 5QF this week – have just arrived in Brussels after 36 hours on the go via Changi and Heathrow – couldn’t check in for a couple of hours so put our feet up at Blues Corner bar and acclimatised with three or four Leffe Blonds…don’t have access to my image library while on the road so probably no pics this week unless I see something relevant from my window as I type…

1. Do you prefer to drive to your vacation spot or fly?

If it’s in New Zealand, and in the North Island, then almost certainly drive – we are heading way up into Northland for Christmas and driving up in Lil Red and I am so much looking forward to it. A holiday in the South Island, we would probaly fly down and get a hire car from the APOD…anything overseas would be fly in-country and then see what we see vis-a-vis further mobility…

2. If you could live any where in the world, where would you go and why?

Well, having been all around the world a few rtime, I am actually pretty happy just where we are – if I had the money we’d dam up the valley a tad so that we could have a bit of a lake front but that’s about the only thing we miss where we are up on the Mountain i.e. the lack of significant swimmable/boatable water…

3. Should grown women wear leggings?

Well, from a purely superficial male perspective, only if they’ve got the legs for them; if not, we ll, somethings just don’t go together, y’know…

4. If you could change your name to any other name, would you? And what would it be?

Dunno, Luke Skywalker is already taken and nothing else really appeals – guess I’m happy enough as is…

5. What magazines to you have subscriptions to?

Right now I am subscribing to the Fighter Aircraft series because I liked the little 1/72 scale Spitfire than came with Issue 1 last year; I am getting a bit cool on it now because they seem to be sliding towards more and more 1/100 models which don’t go with my collection and which I think are a lazy way of cost-cutting, and b. because the companies quality assurance is the worst and many of the models are damaged within their protective packaging i.e. they were already damaged when they were put in the packaging…am just getting over it as we live too far from town to easily take back damaged items.

I am hoping for official approval to get a two year subscription to the new Airfix magazine, Airfix Modelworld as I really enjoy its articles, the articles are across the spectrum of modelling, it is a worthy successor to the old Airfix Magazine, and it comes with a free model…

Five Question Friday! 9/21/12

Posted on 25 September 2012 by SJPONeill

I was a bit slow off the mark with this edition of Five Question Friday over the weekend…too busy baking for Carmen’s birthday dinner on Saturday and then we had the twins on Sunday, and Monday?…Well, I was just knackered and still had the annual accounts to do – yes! I do know that the financial year ended in March!!

1. What is one grammar issue you cannot let go without correction?

Absolutely and positively, apostrophe abuse…for example, the difference between it’s and its – why don’t people just get it!

2. What’s your favourite thing about fall?

Here, in civilisation we call it autumn (if it ain’t broke…)…best thing about it for me is looking forward to that first snow of winter…assuming of course, that winter actually arrives…it took its own sweet time this year and while this looks pretty chilly:

…this was as we had the next morning:

Pretty pathetic really and now that the days are getting longer and flowers are starting to pop out, it’s unlikely that we’ll get any more this year – unless of course, I shift all the delicate plants out from their winter shelters…

3. What’s your favourite dish to take to a potluck?

For Carmen, it would have to be one of her uber-pavlovas, either au naturel or deconstructed…for me, on the those occasions when I might be allowed to take my cooking out of the house, probably my South African curry (options of vegetarian or not).

4. When do you start Christmas (Holiday) shopping?

Despite great aspirations every year, normally the fortnight before, although the greater panic is not so much the shopping as getting everything all wrapped up and in the mail for those family not in the immediate geography…

5. Did you move homes a lot growing up?

Nope…not once…my parents are still in the same house that I grew up in and left home from…

…to Invercargill in 1983, then Burnham, Singapore and Linton up to the mid-90s, then Trentham and Khandallah, finally in 2004 to where we are now in Raurimu…

Of course, it has changed just a little since we arrived….

Weekly Writing Challenge: A Few of My Favorite Things

Posted on 25 September 2012 by SJPONeill

This is a toughie…since this popped in my inbox ~~early this morning~~ a couple of weeks ago (have been dillydallying – yes, it IS a word – over a simple thing like taking the two photos), I have been keeping an eye out as I have drifted around the house, an eye out for a few of my favourite things…well, there’s Kirk and Lulu, of course, who follow me all around the house…except for when Kirk disappeared ~~this morning~~ a morning a couple of weeks ago after breakfast: we got a possum on a couple of Sundays ago and so I think he’s kinda hopeful of getting another – I don’t know if he’s noticed yet but Lulu and Deeda have already stolen Sunday’s possum from where he buried it – tarts! – and there’s not much left of it now… (nope – Lulu was last seen with a bit of possum snout sticking out of her mouth and that was all she wrote)…

So…favourite things…I’m always rapt to acquire another book to replace one of the many that went missing or were ‘borrowed’ while I was on the move in the 80s and 90s…I now have all the Airfix Annuals again less #3 and thought it was a real coup to score a full set of the short-lived (all four!) Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine from the late 70s, complete with the posters…this was the one that, in each issue, analysed a modern (70s) science-fiction movie, one from the 60s and one from the 50s and merged themes from each into a poster in each issue….I still smile when I think of the article that tried to calculate the physical size that the Enterprise’s computer would have to be to hold all the information retrieved from it during the Original Series of Star Trek, drawing the conclusion that it would be impossible by virtue of its sheer bulk for any computer to hold that much information…meanwhile 35 years later…

I still have odds’n’sods from soldiering days…my Gerber ‘letter opener’, various bits and pieces of web gear that might be useful one day – Carmen was quick to commandeer my secateurs and folding tree saw pouches onto a belt for her forays into the Lodge’s garden/forest – and I still jealousy guard the original day park and vest webbing we developed in 1 RNZIR…oh, yes, and of course, there’s the hat collection that graces the big beam running across the study, acquired from here and there…thirty odd years of military head-dress…less the warmer stuff that has found its way into the cold weather front line of hooks by the back door…

But the thing is, I’m not really that attached to any of it…sure, I don’t want it to just be binned because each represents memories…my favourite cup when I was in Waiouru was the classic ‘cups’ canteen’ partly because it held a lot of coffee but also because some fairly brutal attrition and experimentation showed that, of all cup types, it was the absolute least likely to be stolen…I don’t think that I have any one thing (non-breathing anyway!) that I would be desperately cut up about if I were to loose it…I’d be hacked off to loose my photo collection but I’d get over it, and ditto for the book and movie library and my still growing model collection (although I am getting better and slowing down on acquisition)…

Some things you just can’t beat…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

Posted on 25 September 2012 by SJPONeill

A traditional rural long-drop ‘dunny’…a great place for solitary introspection…but kinda scary to navigate to by night with only a flickering torch or candle – rule of thumb: the darker and scarier the night the greater the rate of flicker – it’s a physics thing…

And this…

…a single solitary Bambi that used to visit over the summer of 2009/10…he was pretty bold and sometimes would come right up and look in through the front door…we’re sure that he is still around as we get occasional sightings on the front lawn…