The Old Tin Shed

Every now and again, a song comes along that changes the very way you think.  The way you see your world, or even more importantly made you feel something you hadn't before.  In my life I am happy to say there has been many of these songs.  I often relate a place and a time in my life to the discovery of that song. An example of this, though not a song is Fanfare for the Common Man.  To me it goes back to when I was a very small child, when it was the opening music for the ABC news in country Victoria.  I would get excited because it meant that dad was back from milking for the day.  As I grew older my music tastes changed from top 40 to stuff that was far darker.  By my early teens I was heavily into heavy metal music (the devils music according to some).  I look back at this period of my life, and I was searching.  Searching for what I don't know, maybe the real me, the one who wasn't the show child for my parents. The first heavy metal...

Not the most in depth post ever but, considering I try to do this often. I do know quite a bit about it. I have owned a lot of cars in my life but have loved very few of them.  Two cars stand out for me but for two completely different reasons. First of the stand outs was a Ford AUIII TS50 Tickford Falcon.   I got this brand new and in black,  It was an amazing car, so damn quick it make your head snap back and forward as you went from braking to acceleration.  5.7Ltr Injected V8 last of the Windsor engines in Australia.  I loved it, you really had a road presence, overtaking could be terrifying should you plant the right foot to hard.  From 80Kms/hr to 140Kims/hr was done in under a car length.  With the manualised automatic it was something to be feared.  I had owned a HSV before hand and it was a complete bucket of crud in comparison.  The Ford ate it in every important category.  Had quite a few mates who were Holden fans th...

This topic has been covered in multiple movies over the years, but it is still something that fascinates me.  Most people think it would be great, and yes it has it pros but it also has its cons. On the pro side, you would get to see history, the passing of great vast amounts of time far beyond that of the human experience.  You could gain huge amounts of financial wealth.  Just the fact that you can live longer than everyone else means you can earn for longer.  Wouldn't it be an amazing thing to wake up tomorrow and say "that last century was amazing".  But to me it would be the attraction of seeing massive changes in the world around me.  Living through and experiencing mans development both good and bad.  Not being able to die would mean you could learn so much, experience so much. There is a bad side.  The hardest one I would think to get used to is that everyone you ever know, friends, lovers etc will all die before you.  Even worse ...

Was thinking earlier today about the amount of effort it takes to get a small business off the ground. I know its different for each business and is heavily dependent on what area of small business you are intending to operate in.  The easiest of these is of course the franchise, where financial numbers are provided by the chain operators.  These are generally taken as is by the banks when loaning to open one.  There is of course all the pre-work of employing staff and ensuring build/fit out are to your standard. Franchises are generally a safe bet, but you loose a lot of the flexibility that comes with business ownership.  Things like supplies and pricing are often set and may not represent the best value to market. This post however is more about the time that small business owners invest in the months even years before the opening of the doors for trade.  There is always a list of things as long as ones arm to do.  These will include formulation of...

Well this is the first of one of those heavy life changing blog posts that I will do from time to time.  This topic is very close to my own heart and what is my meaning of family. Some 38 years ago my parents picked up a baby boy blue eyes blond hair.  He was not born to them but to another woman. For reasons still unknown to that child today, she decided that she should give me up for adoption. They say that children make a family, that they are often the glue that holds a family together when times get tough. My family wasn't like that. Within a year of my adoption my sister joined the family she was also adopted. What did I mean when I said my family wasn't like that.  Its not that my parents were bad parents, in fact they tried their very best.  But they had one hurdle that they could never possibly cover.  That both of us showed psychological signs of illness because we had been adopted.  Most if not all children who are adopted have some kind of...

Achmed the Terrorist Jingle Bombs This is just funny.

So considering buying a new printer.   Think it should be easy, just buy whatever is on special at the local store ?  That decision could cost you hundreds extra over the life of your printer. These days printer companies have made their latest model printers cheap to buy.  I have seen locally inkjet multifunction printers for as little as $45.00.  You say what a bargain, a brand new printer for $45.00. When a printer ships to the store they have first run ink cartridges these are typically less than 50% full.  So you don't get a full set of ink when the printer is new.  The companies do this to get you to buy new ink as soon as possible.  Now this is when you see the full cost of owning the new printer.  Cartridges vary in price, but you can be sure that a black ink could set you back $50.00 (example) .  Hang on you say that's more than the cost of the printer.  Yes it is.  Now if you have a single color cartridges these...

Was reading through news.com.au today and stumbled across this article Click here . This happened in my town, in the mental health system that is supposed to be looking after me also.  How damn bad have things got to get before we do something about the underlying reasons for this happening.  Its not a doctors decision that was incorrect but his need to have free beds in the unit. The unit is under immense pressure to provide services and it realistically is only half the size it should be.  When someone comes in sick they should be placed in a bed for at least 24 hours so that they can be monitored not thrown back into the community. The Australian Governments track record on mental health is nothing short of appalling, even NZ our smaller neighbor spends more than we do.  We are just damn lucky this man didn't kill someone. Shame Australia Shame, you bitch and moan about your tax burden so you force government to give you tax breaks.  That has to come...

Waiting to pick. Phill up from airport.  That view is hard to get used to.  The island is magnetic island

Why is it that everything to do with my family has strings attached.  I will try and make this a brief as possible but I need to give you some background first. My father passed away recently after a long protracted fight with cancer, I hadn't been down to see him or mum in several years, so I made the effort.  I hired a rental car and drove the 3500kms to see my parents.  The whole time I had not seen them they made out the me that they had no money that their cars were falling apart and that they needed help.  I arrive in the driveway to find not 1 but 2 new cars one only months old.  I didn't get upset or anything just let it go because dad was failing.  I stayed a two weeks then returned home with a promise I would be back at Christmas, another 3500kms and I was home. Week before Christmas in my brand new Suzuki swift, I drove down to see them again.  We had a wonderful Christmas, the first time we had all been together in many many years....

Waiting to pick. Phill up from airport.  That view is hard to get used to.  The island is magnetic island

Well its that day we wont forget.  Me like millions of others today will post about the events of September 11.  Me personally, I lit a candle and said prayers this morning that those who we lost that day and since in the war on terror.  I prayed for guidance, for clarity and common sense. The world in general changed this day 10 years ago in a way that we could not have imagined.  The old world order collapsed and a time of insecurity and fear started.  I was reading Boundless Salvation which called for open dialogue between all the faiths for calling out of those who use religion as an excuse for violence.  I in part agree, but I don't think we will be able to see this in my lifetime.  While there is such grave injustice between the haves and have not's in the world, and while dictators steal from their people, the west and all it has will be seen as evil and something to destroy.  A reason for their misery.  Add to this that some religi...

So, the theory goes like this.  Your traveling along in life, you have been getting gradually better and better wages and your lifestyle adjusts, the new house, the new car, the boat etc etc etc.  You borrow more because you have the ability to pay back more, ie 4 credit/store cards not one.  So you work to live so you can pay your bigger bills. So what happens when it all comes undone.  You lose your job, you fall ill, someone uses your credit and marks you for life. I have been there, I had all of the above and more, had a great business I had built, and one day my illness got the better of me and I lost everything.  Took a while but it did happen.  I was making a big salary had the cars and all the toys.  Went from that to nothing nearly overnight.  What I find interesting is even though the money wasn't there any more I continued to spend as though nothing had happened. I remember thinking I will get out of this, I will think of somethin...

I for one am a heavy user of prescription medications, 6 years ago I was diagnosed with a serious medical condition.  It means I take 7 different medications daily and it will be that way for the rest of my life.  On top of that have two other medications that I take on an as needed basis. Up until I became ill I hated medications hated even taking antibiotics, even then I wouldn't take the whole course (yes I know that's a bad thing to do).  The medications I take are expensive, and if it wasn't for the PBS scheme I would not be able to afford them.  One medication is over $250.00 a packet.  I go through one of those every 10 days.  Now there is a frightening cost. Anyway what i wanted to talk about was medication addiction.  I have an addiction to one of my medications that means that I must take that daily regardless of if I would need it.  Now this isn't a bad thing, and my doctor has said he would prefer this situation than me not havin...

This unlike thousands and thousands of blog posts is not a tribute to those that were lost on that day but more of a reflection of what has happened since and how our worlds changed forever. This month Discovery Channel have been running a series of programs as September 11 draws closer and 10 years have passed.  I remember like millions of others watching the whole thing live on BBC World, I remember the horror as the second plane flew into the towers.  I remember thinking oh my god please let them get out. Even today nearly ten years on I cant watch documentaries that show any images of that day, I simply burst into tears, in fact even writing about it now is upsetting.  In those short hours our worlds changed for ever, our feeling of safety removed.  I was interstate on September 11 the following day I attended half a dozen meetings and it was all surreal, no one wanted to work, we were in a state of shock.  One of the meetings that day was in North Syd...

Hi all; Yes I have been away for quite a while, I gave social networking a go and it didn't quite suit me.  I like my posts where I can talk about anything and posts I know are going to get read by at least someone.  But not just someone, someone with enough brains to formulate an intelligent well thought out response.  I found on social networking sites it was all about who had the most friends, who could find the stupidest things to post, or even more annoying the person who does 30 posts a day and still says nothing. My aim now I am back is to put at least one intelligent post down a day, what I will cover only god knows that, the world has changed my life my relationships and my world has changed as well.  Im sure amongst all of that that I can find something to write about. So to those who are seeing this for the first time, Im back and this site will be kept active, so why dont you pull up  a camp chair, I will boil a billy tea, and we can sit b...