What made you happy today? Part II

[stui magpie]

Got mum a new phone today.

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/opel-mobile-bigbutton-m-4g-unlocked-mobile-phone-opelbigbtm

Her current one is 11 years old and 3G which means it stops working at the end of June when the 3G network gets turned off. Ordered a new Sim online as this takes the really small one.

Similar size, similar features and it also has a panic button which when you push it 3 times sends a pre-programmed text to designated emergency contacts and then calls them in order until one answers.

[nomadjack]

Last week I took a solo trip up to Bright to tick off a couple of bucket-list rides around Victoria's alpine region. Had a lovely trip through the Black Spur up to Mansfield and then through to Whitfield which is an iconic run through the twisties. Unfortunately, not far past Whitfield, Google Maps intervened and sent me on an 'interesting' 15 km stretch of dirt the back way to Myrtleford. I'm fully loaded on a large road bike but don't mind doing a bit of dirt so continue on with no real dramas. Get to Myrtleford and the bike is starting to feel a little strange and handling is getting hard to manage but I press on to Bright. Pull up in the main drag at about 4pm to check things out and barely a breath of air left in my rear tyre. Thinking about what the hell I do next that late in the day when an old guy pulls up on an adventure bike behind me. Uses a portable compressor to get some air in the tyre (barely 15psi) and then leads me around to the only tyre place in town. Guy tests the tyre and finds two large splits presumably caused by my 'dirt adventure'. Not repairable and he doesn't really deal with bike tyres or have any stock. It's now nearly 4.30 and 'm thinking my trip is screwed before it really begins. Shop owner has other ideas though - he rings a bike shop in Myrtleford to see what stock they've got, tracks down a tyre and then throws me the keys to his ute and tells me to drive 30ks to Myrtleford, pick up the tyre and bring it back and he'll fit it for me straight away - 6.30 Thursday night and I'm back on the road. Tries to charge me just $50 so I gave him 70 and put 40 in the ute. Bloody amazing service that completely saved my trip. Just when you think the world is largely populated by arseholes, people step up and go way beyond to help you out. Nice to get this sort of surprise occasionally to regenerate a bit of faith in humanity...

[stui magpie]

^

Nice bit of country hospitality. Mind you, he probably figured your bike was worth more than his ute so if you did a runner he'd be OK.

[David]

Great story, NJ. Love hearing about this kind of thing.

[think positive]

[stui magpie]

Got a mob who can 3D scan the device I built for mum to a CAD file. Once that is done I can get a CAD operator to tidy up my average worksmanship in the file and get something neater able to be manufactured whether by 3D printing or injection mould.

Next step then will be to look into getting the design patented. I have no idea what that entails or whether copyright would be better, but I'll look into it.

With the current emphasis on trying to assist the elderly to stay at home as long as possible before moving to assisted care, something like this could be a real boon and could make me a bit of coin.

[stui magpie]

Grandson just went home, had him for the last 2 nights. Great kid.

Pretty much stuck inside most of Yesterday and Sunday, few bursts outside playing footy, soccer or downball until we're both soaked in sweat then back inside to the aircon.

Better today so we did a project, repainted his Bike. 2 tone, gold and blue. Went to Bunnings so he could pick out the shade of blue spray paint he wanted, also grabbed some flower seedlings so he could plant them out for mum in pots to replace some dead ones.

At the Bunnings checkout, the woman looked at the spray paints and asked Ty if he was 18 while giving me a wink. The look of confusion on his face as he said, No, I'm 8 was beautiful.

Back home, got him on the tools, showed him how to remove the seat and wheels, then we painted the frame and wheels. he chose what colours went where and helped paint. While they were drying he planted the seedlings for mum while she sat and supervised, then put the bike back together and off for a ride.

Very nice couple of days.

[pietillidie]

Crufts! Every breed has its merits, and it's great they even celebrate mutts now. The all-border collie team winning the Flyball was a treat, especially how they won. Their top speed isn't as fast as whippets, greyhounds and the like, but they makes mistakes or get distracted. So, purely through smarts and not making errors, an unfancied team of borders (and border mixes) beat a champion team of whippets.

[pietillidie]

Anyone else watching Crufts? TP? I guess it's probably shown at some ungodly hour in Oz.

[think positive]

[pietillidie]

Lost 3.5 - 4kg over the past month. I know it gets harder to lose as you lose, but I've purposely timed my run to coincide with summer, which will see me out and about more and hopefully more active as it gets harder to lose.

I call it the suffering diet. There's no other way to sell it! However, I made the mistake of getting red wine this week. Normally, I have gluten-free beer or whiskey, but red wine has anti-inflammatory properties (sterols or whatever they're called), from which I can theoretically benefit as I have inflammatory arthritis, if I keep consumption minimal.

The problem is that wine has that in-between alcohol level, making it extremely hard (at least for me) to keep to 1-2 glasses. I reckon I'll go back to the beer despite the higher calories, because I can sip one beer for hours. Red wine is simply too damned moreish! That has always been my experience, but I thought I'd give it another shot. Nope, I still like it too much!

[stui magpie]

^

Get on the low carb beer. I mostly drink Pure Blonde these days, but there's others.

[think positive]

when a planned shot comes out exactly like it was...planned!
view from my cabin Wellington, New Zealand!
its an infinity verandah, so like a big window, and the top part slides down, its chest height so very safe!

[pietillidie]

^That is awesome!

How long have you been away or are you back now? So many picturesque spots. North or South Island (sorry, you probably said somewhere above)?

Edit, sorry, I see you said Wellington. It's basically nice everwhere in NZ, but the coastal points like Wellington are great. We lived in Auckland when I was a wee tacker, and I've done Auckland again, the Bay of Islands, Rotorua, Christchurch (just before the spate of earthquakes) and the Marlborough wine district. I've left Queenstown the/glaciers/sounds for one really big one.

[pietillidie]