Author: Bearsy

A Queensland Bear with attitude

I am delighted . . .

. . . to find that WordPress have finally upgraded their comment preprocessor so that images can be posted in comments by merely including their url – a facility that was always present in posts but sadly missing from comments.

I am equally delighted that a Charioteer has discovered this and used it to good effect, and published the information for the benefit of others.

WordPress are always making changes, some good, some bad – such as the recent loss of numbered comments and the quote facility, and the new post creation page.

I am somewhat less than delighted by the disparaging comments about the help – hundreds of hours of it – provided by Boadicea and me in assisting others to post images and videos and slideshows and writing easily understood guides for the Menu Bar.   We worked hard on a load of technical thingies during the early days of the Chariot and we are saddened by the ignorant dismissiveness that appears to be the contemporary meme.

To quote Old Bill from The Bystander, “Well, if you knows of a better ‘ole, go to it.”

O tempora, o mores.

😦

So you thought you were going to win at last?

Second ODI between England and Australia.

The ninth wicket fell at 244, leaving James Faulkner and Clint McKay to face the music for the last six overs, 57 runs behind the target of 301.   Now James is a recognised bowling all-rounder, but Clint is, let’s face it, a nice guy, a good fielder and a talented bowler, but he’s not quite sure what a bat is for.   His batting average is about 10.

Everyone – on-field spectators (35,000 or so), media commentators, yours truly and the entire England squad – was convinced that England were just a few balls away from their first win of the tour (no, the game against the Prime Minister’s XI doesn’t count).   The Barmy Army all had beautific anticipatory smiles on their faces.

Five and a half overs later, after the most enthralling demonstration of how to avoid being out by facing as few balls as possible, from Clint, and an incredible master-class on how to hit effortless fours and sixes when the chips are down, from Faulkie, we had won, with three balls to spare.

The most exciting and mind-blowing one-day-er I’ve ever watched. 😀

How Things Change …

Bangers and Mash

When I arrived in Australia, some 23 years ago, one of the first things I learnt was that sausages were never called bangers.   Their colloquial name, all over the Lucky Country, was snags.   Never mind why, or what that word means to you in other contexts, in Orstrayia, saussies are snags.   Full stop, end of discussion.

Continue reading “How Things Change …”

Well, how about that?

Today was the day I’d been waiting for, with equal measures of hope and dread.   Following the MRI scan and a few other tests, the chief neurosurgeon consultant was finally to deliver her verdict and my sentence.

As it happens, she was away on maternity leave, so I was seen by her deputy, an austere and awe-inspiring gentleman by the name of Brunovski (or something equally mid-European); he was as Aussie as they come, however.   We sparred a little and he told me that my grasp of medical terminology and anatomy were crap.   “Not so bad for a software engineer, though”.   He ignored this and brought up a succession of images from the MRI on his computer display.

“Look at that,” he cried.   “Can’t you see how absolutely normal it is?”

I couldn’t even see what it was, let alone judge its normality.

The bottom line is that I am no more likely than any other normal person to have another subdural haematoma – and no less likely either.   “Forget it, put it behind you and carry on like any other normal person.   Of course you can drive again.   No, no paperwork necessary.   Goodbye, good luck – and I’m quite sure I shan’t be seeing you again.”   He had the grace to grin broadly as he shook my hand and ushered me out of his office.

Boadicea and I were stunned.   It’s true that this is the outcome we had been hoping for, but it was so rapid, so clear-cut and so definite that we couldn’t take it on board immediately.   Five months to the day, exactly, and life has returned to normality.

Wow! 😀

So as you know …

Boadicea and I will be absent from The Chariot from some time early on the 11th July (next Wednesday) until the evening of Saturday the 14th (3 days later), if all eventuates in accordance with the promises of  our various service providers.   When we reappear, it will be from our new home.   Actually, on the 11th and 12th we shall be staying with elder daughter, so we may possibly pop up  for a short while by hitching a lift on her WiFi.

It hasn’t taken long to sell, buy, settle and move, has it?   5 weeks from start to finish – wow! 😀

Thanks everyone!

It’s been heart-warming to read (now that I can read again) all your good wishes and remarks, and it’s about time that I thanked you, individually and as a group, for your support and encouragement.

Thanks!!

Six weeks and a day ago, someone turned my lights off – put my processor into hibernate and pulled the plug.   That was the last I knew until about two weeks ago, when it began to occur to me that I was a person tucked up in an intensive care ward, that the wonderful caring person who helped look after me each day was in fact my angel of a wife – Boadicea, and that it was time for me to fire up the backups, reboot my software, engage the language routines and start behaving like a human again.   It took a couple of days to get going, but, touch wood and whistle, it’s been upwards ever since.

So, a week ago tomorrow I was released to continue my recuperation at home.   I am indebted to the paramedics and ambos who took me safely and swiftly to the emergency theatre; to the doctors and surgeons of the team who spent three hours reconstructing my cranium, and to the nurses and specialist technicians who kept me functioning while I was away with the fairies in cyber, hyperspace where time has no meaning.   To my GP and all the other experts who did their essential best.   Thank you all.

I’ll spare you the details – and I’d probably get them wrong – but if you met me you’d probably be hard pushed to detect anything wrong (though there are still a few things that have yet to put themselves right).   Perhaps I’m a little more polite and tolerant than I used to be, and readier to acknowledge other people’s point of view, but there again, perhaps I’m not.

Best wishes to all Charioteers. 😀