Elaines Dodgy Knee

Elaine has spent the day in hospital getting her left knee sorted out, she will explain the technical details later.

She had the right knee sorted out about 6 months ago, so hopefully she will now be able to walk for miles on the towpath with no pain, you never know I might even get her to come snow skiing with me.

haha -  Elaine here - the day after !  Dunno about that ski-ing lark - just maybe along the towpaths in winter time (with the aid of our two 'mini-huskies').  I've been pretty dopey all day - so have been bludgin' around watching daytime tele - mostly on the sofa with my legs up!  The left knee has been a bit more involved than the right - it had gotten pretty bad as I think has been taking the load from my right knee all these years ! I blame Jane Fonda for the original injuries - which shows that I am talking a few years here !!

This op was also an ilio tibial band release plus removal of a plica and a general clean up - should be as good as new I hope !   I start physio tomorrow and will see the surgeon so will get the full story then !  Wasn't too good last night after the anaesthetic - made a dash for the loo in the laundry when Paul dropped me at the back door - didn't quite make it and - tune out here if you don't want the gory details - but managed to projectile over the laundry door before I could get it open !!  Yuk !  Pretty good today though all considered !!

Our Real Estate guy is coming to see us tonight - not sure if he has any buyers for us for our auction on Thursday - so maybe we will just have to have the place up for sale for a while ... anyway - we will see what he has to tell us tonight - hopefully someone has come up with an amazing offer for us !  

That's me for now --- back to the tele :) Elaine x

Tourists For A Day

As today was a public holiday we thought we would be tourists for a day and go over to the city and have a walk around the Rocks area, which was the first part of Sydney to be inhabited by the white man over 200 years ago.

We started by walking over the harbour bridge ... you can walk over the arches of the bridge but that costs a lot of money plus you can't take the dogs with you!  (In actual fact you cannot take anything whatsoever with you just in case you drop it onto the roadway below)!

So along the free and dog-friendly walkway we went.

The bridge consists of, from left to right ... a cycleway, 2 railway tracks, 8 lanes of traffic and 1 walkway.

You get a fantastic view from the bridge deck.  You look east over the harbour, Circular Quay and, of course, the Opera House.

Just imagine this chap cruising along the the canals...now that's what I call a WAKE!  The bloggers would go into meltdown.

Looking back towards the city is Circular Quay and the Passenger Terminal for the cruise ships. The green and cream boats are the harbour ferries with the larger one being the Manly Ferry, which is classed as a outer harbour ferry. The cruise ship was the Volendam out of Rotterdam. I doubt if there are many cruise terminals in the world where the ships are moored right in the middle of the city. 

You get a nice view of the Opera House from the bridge

The Manly ferry sporting the Go Manly banner from yesterdays Grand Final, which of course Manly won, woohoo !!

We walked back across the bridge and down to the passenger terminal and checked out the Volendam - I think she is based down here for our summer, doing Pacific cruises. Nice looking ship.

We then headed off to walk under the bridge - there are always lots of groups walking over the top of the bridge - they are all tethered on to a continuous cable, so if you have suicidal tendencies forget the bridge climb, you are wasting your money. They also have to wear grey overalls so they blend into the bridge!

We stopped for an ice cream whilst Bombo rolled around in "Bat Shit" - he was in doggy ecstasy !

mmmmm deodorant!

Had to take some pics of the dogs and yours truly with interesting back grounds. 

I see no bridge!

Wot's that stickin' out of my ear !

 
 There was a nice tall ship passing under the bridge (it was built in 1922 in Denmark of danish oak frames.  Its original name was 'Svanen' and she traded as a grain carrier between Denmark and Greenland for the Tuborg beer company until 1969.  She was then purchased in 1969 as a private vessel and extensively refitted to make extensive ocean voyages and charters on Sydney harbour. She first came to Sydney in 1988 for the bicentennial...I think. She is now called Southern Swan).

We only spotted 2 brides today, mind you it is Monday, on a normal Sunday there are shed loads of brides grazing under the harbour bridge and its environs. A few years ago we counted them for a laugh, we got up to 17 groups all looking for that different special shot. Can't really blame them as it is easily the most beautiful harbour in the world! 

Nice day for a white wedding yea

Lastly we went right under the bridge - this is a pic. of the concrete bases and bearings that hold up the bridge - 4 altogether, 2 either side; the bridge weighs approx 60,000 tons.  The pylons either end are purely there for aesthetics.

Last bit of useless information.....Paul Hogan used to work as a rigger on the bridge!

Manly and all that Jazz

Its a long weekend this weekend, plus its the Manly Jazz Festival and today is the Rugby League grand final and it just so happens Manly is one of the teams. The Rugby League Grand final is one of Australia's premier sporting events so this weekend is huge in Manly.

One slight problem re the jazz festival was that last night and most of the morning there was a huge storm and torrential rain.
We had a late start for our walk down to Manly and breakfast,

The sea was angry that day my friends

The sea was rough and the beach deserted! Normally at this time of the day the beach and walkway is packed, with both locals and tourists.

It was blowing a bloody gale as we made our way along the deserted walkway.

Streamlined Sam

The dogs were looking very streamlined

Wot no tourists

El striding into the gale!

Once we got down there the stages were deserted but at least the rain had stopped.

The Corso palm trees had the Manly team colours wrapped around them

We spotted a lonely jazz man looking for somewhere to play.

We got to our regular Sunday breakfast cafe and the lonely jazz player met up with his mates

So we had a lovely breakfast being serenaded by the 4 piece jazz band

  

We walked back home past nearly deserted  cafes, such a shame they should be packed.  

We are now home and the weather has improved a lot, so we are about to have a few beers and watch the Grand Final

GO MANLY!!!!

Last Open House

We had the last open house today ahead of Thursdays auction, we had 8 groups go through which was a good number for the last one.

That was the good news! Bad news was that the house across the road went to. auction on Thursday night and SOLD but for a real crap price!! Apparently the vendors are really spooked with what's going on in the world and just wanted to cash up in case the real estate market crashes very shortly.

So today we went to an auction with a friend who wanted to buy an investment apartment, result....passed in but not far off the mark, Then this afternoon we went to a house that was being auctioned about 10 mins drive from us, not such a good post code but a nice area and it was a absolutely  fantastic fully renovated house, this place was just stunning....... result.....2 bidders and passed in at nowhere near the reserve! We left like a couple of stunned mullets came home and had a few beers, and decided to go out tonight and have a good few more.

So to next Thursday and we really haven't got a bloody clue on what will happen, what will be will be, could always be worse, we could live in some hell hole, chin up and all that.

Wish us luck!

Manly Ferry Trip

The Manly Ferry Trip was acknowledged  in a US travel mag as being  one of the worlds most beautiful journeys in the world....not bad for   $6.60! Click Here

Lets hope the good ship NB The Manly Ferry carries on the tradition! I think she might cost a tad more than $6.60 though.

Lovely old poster ... not a new Ferry !

Narrow Boat Stern Glands

The majority of narrowboats seem to use the old stuffing box type stern gland with replaceable gland packing. They have to be constantly filled with grease which is a pretty grotty and dirty job plus they leak!

I wonder why boat builders and owners are not changing over to a more clean and modern system.
We sell stern glands of all different types and the main selling point is that the bilge keeps dry.

When I was still on the tools a few years ago I fitted a bellows type to a yacht that was going on a world cruise, he sent me a letter when he was half way around stating that he had dust in his bilge!!
I wonder if the reason they are not used is because canal water could be classed as abrasive? It would be interesting to know.

So a few types of gland seal...
The first one is a the Volvo Penta seal affectionatly known as the "dogs dick"
Dead easy to install with very little maintenance it has a built in bearing and 2 floppy seals

Volvo Penta Seal 

The next seal is a manecraft seal, English made, easy to install no maintenance pretty expensive in Oz but probably not too bad in the UK  

Manecraft seal 

The last seal is a Lasdrop Gen11 seal, we sell heaps of these, USA made easy installation and no maintenance

Lasdrop Gen11 seal

Dont get me wrong Iam no trying to sell any of these products, just wondering why they are not being fitted. 

3rd Open House and a Very Rainy Sunday

Another open house yesterday, and another good turnout.  Had a meeting with Sasha the real estate God and he gave us a list of  feedback from the last 3 open houses (including Saturday). Basically everyone loved it but not suitable for the majority because it doesn't  have the obligatory kiddie friendly garden. So far 2 contracts have gone out and he thinks another will go out on Monday, fingers crossed.

We  also went to an auction yesterday click here not one bloody bid except one from the vendor for $980,000 I really thought it would have gone for over a mil, it was in a great location, one street away from the beach, but.....very small and  only 2 bedrooms and no parking.

So we are as ever optimistic.....12 days to go!

As for today, it absolutely pissed down all day like we haven't seen for a while and only got up to 14 degrees!
We went for a drive and a bit of a walk with the doggies but it was just too wet, so we got back home just after lunch cracked open a bottle of bubbly and we sat by the computer doing different spreadsheets on what to do with our cash once we sell........buy a property here plus Aussie term deposit or buy a UK property and Aussie term deposit or just an Aussie term deposit. And what did we decide on? Lets sell the house first and work it out from there.

And lastly as I am typing this we are listening to Canalside radio from Bollington....sad or what.