what heatwave?

It seems the rest of the country is having a heatwave, well today we have had sea mist and about 10 minutes of sun,so it seems our summer is on hold till winter in Oz.

Just picked!

We picked these in ten minutes on three bridge lane about half an hour ago,I confess we tried quite a few before weighing in these,but I guess its built in to the price. Living here in the country does have its advantages,especially in summer,downside is lots of lots of day trippers are on the roads at the moment heading for the lincolnshire riviera(Mablethorpe),the weather has started off misty but the sun is breaking through a little and its quite warm.,good training for our winter visit to Sandra and Sam the poms and crocodile Mick's we had a few minutes of entertainment this morning watching the hens showing the chicks how to eat and drink,sheila came in a minute ago to tell me she gave the broody hens some sweet corn(maize) and they picked it up in their beaks and gave it to the chicks,according to some websites they do'nt feed the chicks but this seems to disprove that theory,for further feathered revelations see Sheila's blog.
Football on tv tonight is South Africa v Brazil,and tomorrow its the under 21's euro final,us against the old enemy Germany!!trouble is it spoils the entertainment value of the game because it is more than a football match.

Here we go! here we go! here we go! again

Total is a French oil company who arbitrarily sacked contract workers on their site in humberside,an action which would have resulted in massive action by French workers if it took place in France,but thanks to the Thatcher anti union laws which the so called labour government to their shame did not repeal,Total are able to take this kind of arbitrary action,to their credit the workers have responded with a walkout,which if the union makes it official leaves the union in breach of the anti union laws,it should be noted that successive British governments have opted out of the social contract which is enforced in all other european countries,result is no protection in law for unions in this country,but every other european country has this protection through the social contract,the Conservatives like to project themselves as patriotic and against brussels having sovereignty over the British,but really they just do not want the social contract imposing here.

It was just like watching Barnsley

Watched the Brazil Italy game yesterday on BBC 3 it was a onesided affair,Italy were not much good and Brazil were their usual delight to watch,I only like 2 teams to beat Italy,one is England ,the other Brazil,I imbibed acouple of small glasses of the special cask whisky bought for mr by gina for fathers day,diluted with water in a 50% of each mix it was still potent,and helped my appreciation of the football.
The computer fairy has been active on our computer but the problem was soon resolved by Andrew,and a stern lecture was given to the computer fairy telling her not to download willy nilly.
Sandra the Pom is saving up to buy some wine for our visit,but really there is no need as I shall be replete with alcohol after two weeks in the west australa outback with "Crocodile Mick" it seems they live on fish which he catches daily from his boats,so the much lauded fish and chips in Queensland might be a bit of a busmans holiday,though I do like a grilled marlin steak ,or swordfish,not a great fan of cod though.
After trying for over a week to obtain an e visa for oz on google,I installed (under supervision from Andy) firefox,and was able to download the visas straight away,I even e mailed the aussie embassy to find out the problem but they were not willing to admit it existed,I did think of reactivating my 40 year old application for assisted passage(ten pound poms) but feared it may upset the aussies and militate aganst my being granted a visa.
The strawberry picking took place on three bridge lane and we hardly ate any whilst picking them,as we feared they would weigh us and charge for them,though I am told they were very nice.

Bowling

Had fun watching under 21 football this week,there have been two games on every day but today no game just as the weather turns to winter again and outside is not very welcoming.
I went bowling yesterday and bought some bowls off Sid who is a nice cockney bloke I share a joke with,he used to be a cook in the army but was injured in suez and left after a while to fry chips in London,he is not too keen on me singing "chippy tea" to him after the first couple of times and politely asks if I will desist,which of course I do,I wanted the bowls to try outdoor bowling as I have not played outdoor bowls since I was 18,and I played with my two brothers at brinsworth working mens club,(our Joe and our Gordie to you Mary Sue).
Largely because I was teamed up with the crafty cockney Walt who is a top man at the game,we devastated the opposition,which included Le Grande Edwarde who is reputed to go home and kick the cat if he loses at bowls,I detected a little wink from Walt at the end of the game I think he was a little pleased to put one over on Ed. and his team.

Two puddings rooney

It's the morning after the hog roast and no ill effects from the four pigs feet and mushy peas,and two puddings one which looked like sick but tasted like trifle,the other pudding was south african bobbity,which is like christmas pudding and tasted wonderful,I turned down the chance of a third in the interests of my image around the village.
Alchohol was limited to 250cl of german beer which did leave rather a large hole in the alcohol reservoir section of my belly,and not to be recommended.
To the delight of that poor lad in KC I shall be having a day free from voluntary work,and returning to normal mode.

Hog Roast

Yesterday was an afternoon of unpaid community work erecting a marquee for the village hall hog roast,today has been sunny and reached 82 fahrenheit,the hog roast is this evening and we shall be off shortly.
Last night one of the hens went walkabout all night(notice the"strine" creeping in),as I looked out this morning there it was ,it had laid a soft shell egg and was eating it in the compound,so I removed the egg and called the hen a few names,a pointless exercise but I needed to do it,this evening they have all strolled in for the Sheila Special evening treat,so no stop outs tonight.
Thats it for now so off to the hog roast we go,such night life we have here in the outback.

Down Under

Yesterday we finally got in touch with the relos in oz,we were on the skype audio visual link which is far superior to the other ones,I thought the old bloke who showed up on the screen was somebody they had found in the local geriatric home,but no it was crocodile mick in a funny hat, it seems he had been fishing and then lubricating his throat with victoria bitter,one of his sons came on camera and told us he had just been surfing(its winter) and the temperature was +21c here it was 13c early summer!having just installed the equipment they had a loose wire on the mike,it was left to Debbie to fix it (croc mick is an electrician)so I told him its just as well he has sold up and retired.
The upshot of it all is we are visiting them next year he wants us to bring Gina and Andy as well but I don't know if they are ready for his rich vocabulary without some previous exposure via the skype link,threats have been made to take us fishing on one of their three boats,they have two dinghys and a 30ft yacht,so there could be a little sick on the ocean waves to come.
Just out of interest we are obviously a family of some consequence in Australia,as there is a promontory in Sydney named Millsons Point.

Crocodile shoe

The previous blog is another hi jack by Sheila ,I never divulge my charitable work,it's bad for my image,to business now,we are just back from the hospital and the pot has gone from the lady's foot so no more milking it from here on in,the foot looks like the title of the Jimmy Nail song ,"crocodile shoes"though after a soak in a bowl,which I had been using to mix cement in, it looked much more like human skin than crocodile.
At the clinic we met up with cockney lil,the lady who fell on the plane returning from Florida breaking her ankle in two places,and we have now passed on the wheelchair which I delivered to their bungalow this evening before a celebratory martini.

graham Bowling.

This is my good deed for this decade!