Journal Entries

September 2008

29 September - I know, I know, months have passed without an update. It's disgraceful. Thank you to all the readers who have been sending me emails to get my butt back on track and maintain my log. The truth is that I've been so busy with work and as a result nothing very interesting has been happening in my life. I fear that the "ship's log" has become just a regular blog about a bloke living on a boat in the city. Definitely not what I had planned. I do intend doing some sailing in the coming months though and I also have a quick trip planned. So please be patient with me.

So firstly to bring you up to speed, Riverfire was on again last month. That great time of year when the council in their wisdom abandon all pollution regulations which they apply and enforce for all of their good citizens and decide, in the name of environmental awareness (go figure that one out), to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on fireworks which engulf the city in a thick cloud of smoke and reign ash down on anything within a kilometre radius of the city. I even had the great fortune to get some souvenir burning embers on my new sail covers. So not only are they stained with soot, but they have holes. What a great start to the month. Then there is the fantastic "dump & burn", when the airforce jet flies along the path of the river and dumps its fuel and sets it alight directly overhead. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that it can't be good for the environment.

Below is the beginning of the gathering boats to watch the environmental spectacle.

and some of the early gathering spectators

What a nice old cruiser this one is.

You will see in the photos above that it's almost low tide and it is always entertaining is watching all of the boats rafted together swing around when the tide changes. There are a few collisions and much cursing.

Ok enough with my negativity. Sorry, but I just can't get my head around it when we are all told to be good little environmentalists and they go and do something as crazy as this.

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Speaking of conserving the environment, I had to figure out a way to get Cutty around with me since she has grown pretty big. She is now 26kg. The solution was this special long tail bicycle. It's called a Kona Ute and it does the job perfectly. well almost. I put a big basket on the back and Cutty immediately took to riding in it. Here she is in the testing phase. I did some laps around the office to see how she would go.

Cutty adapts to things really quickly and is the most amazing dog (yes I am biased). She loves to go to the park at night to visit these possums.

she is perfectly behaved and has no interest in chasing them. She does like to get as close to them as possible and sniff them. I tell her to go very slowly and she creeps up, then stops when she feels they are getting edgy.

She then just lays down and waits for them to come to her.

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Instead of sailing the past few months, I've been getting into a routine which I really enjoy. Saturdays are now a really enjoyable day for Cutty and myself. We get the monster Kona Ute and ride out to the Brown Dog Cafe for breakfast. Cutty gets her ham & cheese and I get the eggs and tomato on turkish bread. Then we head out to one of the farmers markets around Brisbane, which is a few kilometres away. Cutty likes to run beside the bike for a while, but soon tires out. At that point she lets me know she wants a ride and I put her up into her basket.

Below is a photo of the farmers market at New Farm.

It's such a nice change to get real vegetables and not the usual sub average ones in the Supermarket.

I loved this big old strawberry truck.

The market has so much variety of gourmet foods.

and a few other bits and pieces.

I liked the name of this shop but didn't get any cheese.

After the market we head out to the other side of town for a long ride to the dog park. I am officially "the Weird Guy on the Big Bike with the Dog" or "WGBBD" for short.

Here is Cutty beside the Big Bike (minus the weird guy). Saturdays are great days and I think Cutty has as much fun as I do riding around in her big basket.

and just a couple more of the Cutty gone wild! She lives up to her breed and goes crazy when she gets near water. She literally dives into the water and will just swim around purely for the enjoyment.

She really loves to jump into the water and does this over and over again.

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Once again I'm sorry about no updates the past few months, but stay tuned as I'm back on track now and will be posting some updates which will be more boat oriented in the coming weeks. Thanks again also for the emails and support. It's really nice and always surprising who is actually visiting my website.

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30 September - By now we are all aware that the bail out bill in the U.S. was rejected by congress. For us in Australia the flow on effects are significant. But not to all. It's a really sad situation that so many people have put money into funds and shares and have lost so much, but for some all of this economic turmoil makes no difference. It struck me today when I was talking to someone who had a million dollar luxury yacht. He has been complaining for months that he can't sell it and that it was unlikely he would be able to any time soon. Today he was gleefully happy. When I enquired he said that it turns out that having your money invested in luxury motor yachts was a prudent investment move. Had he had the money in shares he would have lost most of it. Instead, he said I've had the use and enjoyment of my boat and it hasnt lost anywhere near the value I would have lost had I invested that money in shares. Interesting view.

It reminds me of a Bob Dylan song, 'when you aint got nothing, you aint got nothing to lose. For many people that will be the case and reinforces to me the beauty of simple living.