Weekly Photo Challenge: Hope

Posted on 4 February 2012 by SJPONeill

Off the back roads of faith and onto the super-freeway of hope....

Had to think quite hard for this (actually last) week’s photo challenge until I stumbled across this memory from Exercise VELVET TOUCH which deployed a large chunk of the Army and Air Force from respective bases to Stewart Island (drive to the bottom of the South Island and keep on going) which, it was felt would offer some more practical challenges than the more routine drive to Waiouru or Tekapo training areas…

This fine building became Headquarters Alpha Company for the duration – it was warm and dry and that, for us, made it safe (enough). We swapped some ration pack boxes for a couple of bins of fish from a boat that pulled into the inlet one afternoon: they were well over fish and we were well over canned food so it worked out well for everyone although our warm and dry accommodation almost became warmer and drier when our artillery forward observer party started a roaring blaze in the coal range to start cooking up our kai moana haul. As it turned out the stove hadn’t been used in years and the reason that the fire was roaring so well was that the base of the range had burned through long ago and the floor board and joists were quite happily contributing to the blaze…every wonder just quickly a burning stove can be ripped out of the wall and ejected from a building…?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Simple

Posted on 24 January 2012 by SJPONeill

My first (decent) cup of expresso coffee....

I almost missed this week’s photo challenge: I’ve been changing all my contact details to my new email address (part of the whole ISP change thing, shifting to an email provider that is not tied to an ISP) – this is not a simple task, believe me, and somewhere all the way I dropped off some of my WordPress subscriptions including the one for the Weekly Photo Challenge.

Carmen bought us a flash new coffee machine for Christmas – not many bells but loads of whistles – and now the creation of coffee in our home has become something of an art form. Simple? Nope!! Not at first for me anyway!! Let’s just call it ‘simple – with practice’…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful

Posted on 19 January 2012 by SJPONeill

This week’s photo challenge is Bill the Bedford on his way to Gore on a very peaceful Kaikoura morning…funny sort of job….long story starting with a rimu spiral staircase that appeared on Trademe in 2008. Rimu staircases being somewhat rare, one’s with an opening bid of a dollar being even rarer, Carmen and I had a quick confab over the phone at work (this is when we were both in Waiouru) and tossed a fairly substantial maximum bid in on it with only a couple of hours to go. We were really surprised to win the auction for only $600…

A few weeks later, must have been just after the big snow of ’08, we took Oscar the Ssangyong on its first run to Wellington to pick up the stair case. Not only did we get the staircase but also a full set of rimu doors for kitcheb cupboards. The guy we got them off had just been made redundant and while unemployed was working his way through his ‘honey to-do’ list at home, task #1 being to remove “…that staircase that I’ve always hated…” His original plan had been to toss it on a bonfire but a mate suggetsed he stick it on Trademe just to see what would happen “…might be a bit of pocket money in it…you never know…”

So, we get this stair case home, all parts wrapped and numbered and it sat in the garages (migrating from the top garage to the bottom one as its installation date slipped further into the future…in mid-09, we got a joiner into to look at it to give as idea of what was involved in putting it in…he took one look and was dead keen to have a crack at it as “…things like this don’t just come along every day…” Next thing he’s shifted all the parts to his workshop in Turangi, along with some spare rimu to make a platform the top landing, as it needed to be assembled in a proper workshop where it could be supported. Apparently it became something of an attraction there once it has been assembled and polished with some interesting offers being made for it – well over our initial investment but by then we’d seen it too and we set on repalcing the front stairs with it.

What’s all this got to do with Bill the Bedford’s trip to Gore? Well, one smoke while it was being installed, the joiner mentioned that he’d sold Bill on Trademe but was at a bit of a loss on how to deliver him to the new owner in Gore. Carmen, at this point wasn’t working and promptly volunteered to drive it down for a small fee, staying with friends for a few days before meeting me in Wellington for Scale Model Expo 09. That was the year that Feral the Cat decided to go walkabout just as I was ready to leave home and we stayed at the delightful Belmont Cottage above the Hutt Valley…