Res Publica

Taxi Travails

I catch a couple of cabs a week to get me to and from Townsville airport and I'm getting to see a fair cross-section of the cab driving fraternity.  They vary considerably.

Several of us jumped into a cab last night and then proceeded to listen to the tedious cabbie telling us a whole load of earthy jokes (NZ sheep jokes etc) which were amusing but only because we're adults and work on a mine site which implies a certain tolerance of earthy humour (otherwise you'd have to get a job elsewhere). Anyone from more genteel surroundings could quite easily have been very offended. None of the jokes were new and I even cut one short by telling everyone the punch line at which point he chastised me for spoiling everyone's fun !  The funniest thing about it was that we were clearly in a cab being driven by a complete wally.  At one stage he even went on about how important it was to keep the customers happy.  How true and how easily achieved if he'd just driven us where we wanted to go and maybe made a bit of small talk.

Later that evening I caught a cab back to my hotel and the cabbie got to telling me how the Queensland Govt. has just bought in new residency requirements for cabbies.  Apparently you have to prove your residency if you weren't born here by obtaining immigration details.  This he has to do by getting a document from the State Archives which could take a couple of months.  Until that arrives he can't renew his taxi driver's licence which expires in less than a week.  He arrived here in 1951 from the UK at the age of 6, has been driving for 30 odd years and has owned the cab for well over 10 years.  Sometimes you can only shake your head.

More Far Horizons

So, Mauritania and Guinea don't shape up as likely candidates.  I'm sure the jobs are fascinating but I'm not big on the kidnapping prospects.  The promising Botswana option has gone on hold so I've been working my way through some other options.  There's a fantastic job going in Oman but the roster is very unfriendly, 6 weeks on and 3 off, and, for the first time my age has popped up as an issue.  Laos is another option but it's a big company and I'm not sure I'm a big company employee.  South America is also beckoning but they're not keen on offering a fly-in fly-out option.

Something is going to come up soon, it's just a matter of time.

The Best Muesli Ever

These guys make seriously good muesli and I'm sure they won't mind me borrowing one of their images for a free plug !  A couple of good friends were raving about this stuff recently and asked if I'd like some when they put in their order direct to the manufacturer.  I'm a bit of a muesli fan and couldn't resist it. I've now finished off the old stuff we had in the cupboard and I can now savour the morning delights of what has to be the best muesli hereabouts. They actually sell this stuff down town where The Handbrake and I often have lunch, a snip at $35 (retail) for 1.5 kg but you can get it cheaper if you shop around. That's a hell of a lot to pay for muesli but you definitely get what you pay for. It's lightly sweetened with 'bush honey' and definitely doesn't need any added sugar.

I always 'soak' my muesli in boiling water and then mix in some runny yoghurt (that's pronounced yog-urt, not Yo Gert ! - as it is regularly mispronounced in Australia).  It ends up being close to the Bircher muesli style without me having to be horrendously organised and soaking it overnight.

Storage Space

We've always been a bit behind with storage space on our home computers, partly because we're cheap but also because we usually hang on to them for so long that they're nearly obsolete when we finally upgrade.  When we bought this computer with its massive 80 Gb hard disk a few years ago, I took the old 8 Gb hard disk out of my dead 2000 Dell computer and used it as a backup hard disk.  That worked well until I started scanning all sorts of old documents and negatives and 8 Gb simply became too small for requirements. I've done a few full backups onto CD but that takes ages and is frankly quite tedious.

So today, in retaliation at The Handbrake's blatant demonstration of extravagance in replacing her 30 year old sewing machine, I decided to get us a new hard disk for backup storage, all 250 Gb of it.  It took an eternity to format it but we now have oodles of storage space.  Time to get scanning.

I nearly fell over when I was told the price, $115 (I was mentally prepared for about twice that).  Not that long ago a box of 10 1.2Mb floppies (5.25") cost that much.  How times change.

Far Horizons

The time inevitably comes when moving on looks good.  Sometimes it's sooner, sometimes later but eventually the balance tilts and moving on starts to look attractive.  I've got maybe 10 years of a career left and using my skills to get me a plane ticket to places I've never been seems like a good option - so long as I get to spend plenty of time back home in between times with The Dear Handbrake. Of course there's places I'd go to happily and other places which I may have gone to 30 years ago but I'd probably steer clear of now. So I put out a few feelers.  Mauritania and Guinea presented themselves as early options so I checked the Governments Smart Traveller web-site to get some basic info...

Mauritania

• We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Mauritania because of the high threat of terrorist attack. We continue to receive reports that terrorists are planning attacks against a range of targets, including places frequented by foreigners.
• Recent credible reports indicate that terrorists may be planning to kidnap foreigners, including Australians travelling between Mauritania and Morocco or who may be close to the Mauritania / Mali border, and to conduct attacks against oil facilities in Mauritania.
• We continue to receive reports of planned activities such as kidnapping by Al Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). We advise Australians to heighten their awareness and use caution, and also to take increased security precautions when in their homes or cars and watch for any suspicious or unusual activity.
• Armed men fired on the Israel embassy compound in the capital Nouakchott on 1 February 2008. Three people were wounded when the same gunmen fired on a nearby nightclub frequented by foreigners.
• In December 2007, four French tourists were murdered in the Aleg region, close to the border with Senegal and three Mauritanian military personnel were killed in a clash with gunmen believed to be linked to AQIM. Security considerations led the organisers of the Paris-Dakar Rally 2008 to cancel this year's event.

and Guinea

• We strongly advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Guinea at this time due to the unpredictable security situation.
• If you do decide to travel to Guinea, you should exercise extreme vigilance at all times. If you are in Guinea and concerned for your safety, you should consider leaving if it is safe to do so.
• Police officers began a strike on 16 June 2008. This strike is the second major disturbance by security forces in less than a month. Violent clashes between the military and striking police officers have been reported.
• You should avoid unnecessary travel to areas near police or military bases. If you are in an affected area, you should find a safe location, remain indoors and heed local advice. You should continue to closely monitor local information sources for information about possible safety and security risks.
• The airport could close without notice and flights may be cancelled or postponed. Australians intending to travel should confirm with their airline the latest situation on flights.

Back to the drawing board then.