Venus Bay outing for pipis

Here's the scoop. It is about a great catch, but not of pipis but of my camera falling into the water.

Last Sunday was a great day for pipi catching at Venus Bay. The water was not too cold and the mid-morning sun was not too hot. The pipis were large and plentiful at the low tide. I had to work fast as the tide was coming in quickly and the strong wind was creating waves about two feet high. I was getting myself increasingly wet; first at knee level and then at waist level.

Alas, pipi catching and photography do not go hand-in-hand (was that a pun?). I was carrying my little compact camera with me, kept in a pouch tied around my waist. The pouch got a little wet at first. Not a problem. Then I got a phone call. While scrambling to fish the phone out of the pouch, my camera fell out. It hit the water, but due to quick action I managed to save it from drowning... fully submerged, that is. But the damage was already done. The camera still turned on but behaved oddly.

As hoped for, after three days of drying out by itself, the camera is back to normal now. This will be the last time I am going pipi catching with a camera. Besides, the strong wind on that day was blowing up fine sand and it would have been a disaster had I brought my expensive lenses and DSLR with me. The sand would have easily gotten into the zoom lens where it protrudes. I have learned my lesson. Get a Go Pro instead.

My garden shed

I have just finished building this garden shed with the help of my son. Laying the concrete slab was a very back breaking job. We eventually got around to it after procrastinating for many months. Assembling the shed was the fun part, which we took just a day (yesterday) to complete. I spent half of today bolting it down to the concrete floor, as well as cleaning up the area.

One of life's irony

I went to the chicken shop today and bought 3 pieces of fillet meat. It was just under a kilo. Noticing the price that says "$7.90 per kilo (min.1 kg)", I asked for one more piece of fillet. Instead of paying for the extra piece, I was given back $0.85 instead. I didn't need so much meat, but I have to take more in order to pay less. Ironical.

Incident at a fruit store this morning

While at a Vietnamese fruit market this morning, I heard a man shouting at one of the shop assistants. Apparently the shop assistant saw his daughter touching the cut watermelons on display and she tried to stop her. The man claimed his daughter was pinched on the arm. The sales assistant apologized unreservedly, but the man just wanted to vent his anger. That would have been the end of the scene, except that the owner of the shop came into the picture and denied right away that the little girl was pinched (and the owner wasn't even there to witness it). I spent another few minutes half-amusedly witnessing the exchange of words, which went something like this....
Man: Your assistant pinched my daughter.
Owner: No, she didn't
Man: Yes, she did. See, my daughter is crying because she was pinched.
Owner: How do you know she was pinched?
Man: My daughter told me. She is a kid. Kids don't lie.
Owner: Do you always believe that kids don't lie?
Man: Yes, I do.

I can't help thinking that the two adults were acting like kids. The man's assertions were incredulous. One, his daughter could have cried out of fright, rather than out of being pinched. Honestly, she did not scream at all; if she was really pinched that hard. Two, kids don't lie? I'll have to think about that.

Something funny happened last night

I attended a friend's birthday dinner at the NGV last night. It was held in one of the gallery rooms. At an opportune time, I walked with a couple of friends to the gents. We had to pass through a some other galleries with 17th century painting displayed on the walls. As we walked, we heard church hymns being played in what sounded like piped in music. The sound of pipe organ and opera-pitch voices seemed appropriate for the ambiance. I was beginning to enjoy it. One of my friends naively commented that it was "classical" music. As we entered the gents, the music seemed even louder, and I thought it was quaint of them to pipe the music into the toilets. Upon leaving the toilet, a security guard pointed out to me that the phone in my pocket was ringing. I picked it up and saw that it wasn't ringing but the music player was switched on. I even commented to my friends that my player was playing the same music as the gallery's piped music! What a coincidence! Hallelujah! Surely there must be a divine message in this strange coincidence! But guess what? It was my mobile phone Mp3 player all along and there was no piped in music....

Buying a motorcycle for my son

Every parent must have the same angst as I did when my son asked for a motorbike. In no time, when you start talking about it to your colleagues and friends, you'll hear all the horror stories of people they personally know who have had an injury from a motorbike accident. How does one say no to a young adult? They want to experience the world. I myself have gone through the same stage in life and I ought to know the feeling. The only reason I gave in is because I trust my son to do what is right to avoid getting into an accident. Having said that, there is still the element of risk. I can only put my faith in God.

With that philosophically worked out, I went to look at some motorbikes with my son. He had already narrowed down his choice to the Honda RVF (a 400cc bike, which is the maximum permitted for a new rider). As this is not imported new into Australia, we could only look for used ones which are imported from Japan and sold as reconditioned bikes. The first one we looked at was privately owned. Cost: $8500. That was the first time I had an actual look at a real life RVF. I thought the size was about right for him, but we thought it would be prudent to check out the ones in a shop. Going to a proper shop gives you added confidence of after-sales service plus a six-month warranty. We found a few RVF's, in the colour we wanted, and costs $9100 (just a bit more). Happy with what we saw, we decided that was what we will get. I left that place thinking I would buy a bank cheque and come back for the bike the next day. Well, before the day was over, we ended up buying a new bike, but not from this place.

Here is what happened. We decided that the previous shop that sells the used RVF does not have a good range of motorcycle outfit. Before we went to the bank we decided to look for the outfit. After all, you cannot pick up the motorbike if you don't have at least a crash helmet with you. We went to a place on the Maroondah Highway. It was immediately an eye opener for us. There were several big motorcycle dealers there. We went straight to the Honda dealer. It had a huge showroom with all the latest Honda and Ducati models. The bikes were all so very attractive. I couldn't help admiring them. I persuaded my son to get a new bike instead of a used RVF. Fortunately he was sensible enough to let go of his dream bike and listen to me, which made it easier for us to start some serious shopping. For just $2000 more than the RVF, we got him a Honda CB400, which is also a 400cc bike like the RVF, but has all the technological improvements of better brake system, fuel injection, and a water-cooled VTEC engine. Of course, all that on a spanking new body, as compared to the 15-year old RVF we almost bought. What a day! Of course, we also bought the complete motorcycle outfit from them, which was why we went there in the first place.

(Uploaded picture on 10th July 2009. Here is Sean on his bike. Just got it today. Came with a beautiful number plate: HW 008)

A funny encounter

While at the Post Office this morning, a man hurried in to pay a couple of bills. He left his bills and $300 at the counter, and said that he has to go out and keep watch on his car, which was apparently illegally parked. One of the two bills was for a parking offense in another place. He came in moments later to pick up his receipts and bills. Obviously this man was dicing with the law. He knew the score, but he was prepared the pay the penalty if caught.

As I was relating this to a co-worker, two girls came up to the counter to pay a bill. I had to quickly smother my story, as they were also coming in to settle a parking offense. What a coincidence!