More Pictures

Around the house

Bad luck birthday

Yalkula Station

Battle of the Bands


The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.

-- Henri Cartier-Bresson

Up to Speed

So yesterday we finally get our high-speed internet hooked up and what do we do first? Catch up on long-neglected correspondence? Check bank account balances? Search for and install necessary software updates? Upload photos for friends and family? Nope. Our priority was to download and watch the first four episodes of LOST Season 4 back to back. We ate up all our allotted high speed limit for the month in one shot and have been knocked back to a slower rate. But it was so worth it. And we still have two episodes to go before we catch up. Don't think that just because we now have to wait 17 hours for each remaining episode to download we won't do it either. At least we can use the telephone at the same time.

In the meantime I am slowwwwwly uploading bunches of photos to my Flickr account (beginning with our Christmas trip to Florida), checking account balances, and sooner or later, though later being more likely, I will get caught up on all my correspondence.

Here are some pictures to get you started...


The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre
Observe degree, priority and place.

-- William Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida)

Shut down

Tuesday’s flight was rescheduled for Wednesday. Wednesday’s rescheduled flight was set to go out at 11:00 AM. Then 2:00 PM. And then 7:00 PM. When I finally heard from Jorge, calling, I assumed, to say he had safely arrived at his destination, he was still at the airport. They were now estimating a 9:00 PM departure. He was going to forget it and head home. Two hours later, when he had not arrived, trying to discover whether or not they did indeed take off, I had to go through a ridiculous series of phone calls. The airline 800 number is only active Monday through Friday 8:30 - 5:00. No help there. A call to their reservation service, handled through another major airline, produced a drone who would not tell me whether or not the flight had actually left the airport due to “privacy policy,” despite this information being readily available online and I was stuck on the phone with her to ensure that at least, with only dial-up, I would hear the call waiting signal if Jorge tried to reach us. Another call to a slightly more helpful rep, who placed her own call to the actual desk agent at the airport, who in turn supposedly contacted the flight control tower, and relayed the information that they now expected the flight to depart the airport at midnight. Alas, four of their six aircraft were grounded for repairs, one was grounded due to inclement weather, and the only operable plane was coming in on a flat tire. We apologize for any inconvenience!

This morning, after 8:30 AM, I was told they flew out last night at 7:40 PM and the return flight, arriving at 2:00 PM today, was expected to be on time.

Right.

Meanwhile yesterday, the bus never arrived to pick up the girls in the morning for school, our local bank branch was closed because of staff shortages, the attorney was late coming back from lunch, other key airline employees were absent from work, and two of our favorite eateries were closed, all supposedly on account of the weather, yet Jorge and I were both able to navigate numerous landlslides, flooded areas, and road washouts, and Jorge reached the airport via time-consuming, labryinthine detours. Makes you wonder how much of our current weather crisis is legitimate and how much an excuse to shirk responsibility.

Phone and internet service are prohibitively expensive and internet service is still predicated on usage and contracts with heavy cancellation penalties. Even the fastest connections are not capable of keeping up with the rest of technologically advanced society.

It’s pretty third-world here, for a developed country. How do businesses manage to get work done?


Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

-- Benjamin Franklin

Currents

The girls and I got a little too excited this evening picking out electric dog training collars online. Elle romped around the living room until Grice’s command “Stop!” and a loud buzzing noise caused her to drop and writhe on the floor. We compared prices and features opting for the models with the longest range. A Rhodesian Ridgeback is nothing but fast and is quickly out of sight chasing kangaroos or your landlord as she zips by on her four-wheeler enroute to the horse paddocks.

Sarabelle played her first gig on the electric bass this past Friday. One of the area dads, a musician himself, put together a night to showcase our local junior talent. While the weekend edition of the big city paper had several stories about drunken teenage parties getting way out of control, here were our kids, and their families, having a terrific night out with soda, chips, and some surprisingly good live music. It may turn out to be a regular event. Sarabelle’s friend, who is also a boy, played in another band with his two brothers. They had groupies. Screaming girl fans. It was hilarious. But Sarabelle did not find my musings as to whether her American thighs were the inspiration for their cover of “You Shook Me All Night Long” nearly so funny.

Jorge has been here to finalize some real estate dealings and help us move and was able to catch Sarabelle’s performance. Tomorrow, provided the flight is operating, not like today when it was cancelled because “the plane was broken,” and he can even get to the airport in the first place given the huge amount of rain that has fallen in the past 24 hours, he flies over to a little outback town to manage some business interests and then will return to Cairns just in time to say a quick goodbye before heading back to Florida. The plan du jour is for the girls and I to stick it out here at least until July 23, when we can finally make our application for citizenship.

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
-- Marcus Aurelius