I Had No Idea!

Yes Cheeta was a big star in his day and is still seen on the little screen in your loungeroom.
I remember that we more than got our money's worth at the morning matinee. first we had GOD SAVE THE KING. Very formal and solemn, then a cartoon to get things rolling, then the first movie, followed by interval. Time for a milkshake and then inside for the serial, which always went for 15 episodes, and finally the big feature movie. What a brilliant way to spend saturday morning.

ABC minors we joined at our local "fleapit"

Howard

Went up the hill today to wait for a lift as my car is being serviced and a big guava tree brought back childhood memories. This is a rather large tree on a vacant block, not like the small trees I remember. Anyway I picked quite a few and Mrs Lomo put them through the blender . Delicious!!!
We used to gourge ourselves on wild cumquats, passionfruit and Queensland Nuts. Not many vacant blocks around these days.

I had no idea that we were now so influential. The Aust. PM Mr J Howard in a lecture said that he felt there would not be anything but friendly competition between the USA and China in the future as Australia is well placed to arbitrate on points of difference.
Very heartening and we may now all give a collective sigh of relief.

I had no idea that one could lock one's keys into a car using a remote central locking system. Here is how it is done in a Discovery.
We went camping last Easter weekend and Dave got out of the landie and while talking leant back into the car to press the unlock button to release the rear door to unload his gear.
He then closed the drivers side door.Went round the back and realised all doors were now firmly locked. Why?
The internal lock and unlock switches are next to each other on the panel and he had hit the wrong one, thus locking up the entire vehicle with his keys still in the ignition.
We had to smash our way in and Dave is up for some extra repairs.
However if Dave's wife had been home with the spare key we could have rung her on the mobile and by her depressing the spare key we could have transmitted the signal over the mobile and opened the car.
Unfortunately she was with Dave and the spare was in her handbag in the car.
Murphy's law strikes again.

One day a VW Beetle was parked right against the security barrier at the entrance to a large and busy transport yard at the end of a long, narrow and clearly marked, private lane.

A long queue of lorries, vans and cars began to build up behind the Beetle in the driver's absence. Nobody has a clue whose car it was or whether there might be a security risk. This was during the time the IRA were active in Britain and a bomb had already exloded in the nearby shopping centre.

As an ever-larger group of drivers assembled at the barrier, a pretty blonde came strolling innocently back to her car. She had come to collect a parcel as she had not been at home to accept from the van driver. Naturally she had been gone for some time waiting her turn at the parcel collection office.

Following a brief and rather heated discussion about her unique choice of private parking place she became flushed and angry and tried to get into her car to escape the criticism. It was only then that she realised that she had left her handbag on the car seat and had locked herself out!

The building mob of drivers, now on foot, became debutant car thieves. Trying to use bits of wire coathanger and other tools to hook the door locking system between the rubber door trim and the window.

Their performances were not the least successful and a few had to be dissuaded from simply breaking a window to get in! Meanwhile the apparently endless queue was still forming well out of sight. Causing a gridlock in the busy main street at the far end of the lane. Attempts to bounce her car to one side were completely fruitless in the narrow space and becoming potentially damaging to her pretty metallic paintwork.

Then I noticed that the large rear quarterlight of the Beetle was held by a simple pin and spring circlip. A borrowed nail-file removed the circlip and the pin was then easily withdrawn. The window could now be opened far enough to reach the lock release inside the car.

The flustered blonde jumped quickly into the car with her parcel and proceded to try a 3-point-turn in the narrow space! With many cheerful and not-so-cheerful professional drivers now looking on in complete disbelief.

It was eventually pointed out to her that there really was not sufficient room and her desperate attempts to drive backwards would involve the reversal of the complete queue of now indeterminate length. Eventually the security barrier was lifted and she was then able to drive into the carpark to turn.

She then left a further lasting impression as she tried to force her way back down the entrance lane against the incoming traffic flow.

Nime

Your post reminds me of a book about a central registary that records the birth, marriage and death of its citizens on cards kept in enormous filing systems.
The head registrar comes up with the idea that the most recent deaths should be kept closest to hand until it is pointed out to him that every record will have to be constantly moved to achieve this intention.

"I love you Chris- is- tine,
ever since you were Sis- is- tine,
I been thinking of you daily
since I saw you 'round Old Bailey,
I will send you flowers and can- an- dy
cos I love you mor' 'an Man- an- dy,
thank the angels up abov
you are through with Ivan- ov
Christine I love you".
A blast from the past...
Who was the performer and who were his associates? The record I mean.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
ABC minors we joined at our local "fleapit"

Howard

Remember this?

We are the boys and girls well known as
Minors of the ABC
And every Saturday all line up
To see the films we like
And shout aloud with glee
We like to laugh and have a singsong
Such a happy crowd are we
We’re all pals together
We're minors of the ABC.

Every Saturday morning without fail. What a way to develop a love of the cinema. I remember seeing the Adventures of Captain Marvel and thinking it was the most amazing thing ever. Some of the flying sequences were more realistic than in the Superman movies of the 70s and 80s. I bought it quite recently on DVD and it's still wonderful although the kids think I'm off my head!

Sounds like another planet nowadays, don't it.
Speaking of other planets and space adventures who remembers Flash Gordon and the beautiful Dale Lang[?],
Not to mention Buck Rogers and captain Video.
Bring back the Saturday morning Matinees.

Lomo,
Dale Arden was Flash Gordon's girlfriend. Maybe you're thinking of Lana Lang who was the object of teenage Clark Kent's lust.

Did you ever see the old Batman serials? The Caped Crusader looked like he was wearing his old man's long johns (complete with baggy knees) and his ears flopped about all over the place while Robin had frizzy hair. Not quite the way I had imagined the dynamic duo.

Obviously spent too much time reading comics as a kid!

Yes, Tom, Well spotted. I wrestled with that name and it wouldn't come back. I agree with you about Batman but he was never a favourite of mine in any case.
The Phantom is a well known character here in Australia
"Ghost Who Walks", " Man WHo Cannot Die", and wears his tights a little more gracefully, was my cult comic hero.
Apparantly he is read all around the world but has different names in different countries.
Colour of outfit, predominantly purple.
Early ancester was murdered by pirates and so the firstborn of each generation has the job of ridding the world of scum and dictators.
Also known as Mr. Walker and has a very large dog called Wolf.
alas, no equivalent of Robin but has at his side the Poison Pigmy People.
For those interested I am sure there will be a website devoted to him.

Some years back whilst dancing with an Aborigini lady in some God forsaken honkey in deepeast West Oz, where no (or very few) whites lived, she whispered in my ear, "yee know wot mate, I'm married to Superman", my girl who was dancing with him at the time (and didn't speak a word of English) told me later that night, "Wow that guy really was a Superman, the shit those people have to put up with, if I was them I'd move to Europe".

Fritz Von Strange how many middle class Kiwi Maori's & families I've met here in Europe (& UK now they're in it innit ?)who will never go back, and strange how many middle class Brit families move out there and Oz to better themselves, in other words feel Superior, innit, or maybe it's our Deanes Dole dosh they're after,and all the Ozzy lead free petrol yers can drink ? Bit like Swindon really (or parts of it anyway) totally insular to the real World : I blame the Liberals personally, especially those on Rottnest Island (which I've visited often) check it out, great for the kids, though expensive, and no Abbo's, except the workers of course.

I wanted to mention that a number Of Australian servicemen died recently in a helicopter crash while providing humanitarian assistance on Nias.
There is strong debate as to whether some medal should be awarded to them. Our RSL[veterans association] believes that this would belittle the 100,000 Australians who have died in wars and have only received service medals.
The criteria for receiving any other medal is to perform an act of bravery.
Other nations are more responsive, in fact the Indonesian President has awarded a medal from his country to each of the servicemen killed or injured in the accident.
Do other countries have a form of recognition for incidents such as this?

What would be far more appropiate than medals me old mucker is a decent bloody Widow's 'War'Pension, rthat the Yanks for instance give out, and the British do not, innit.

Fritz Von I presume Aussie doesn't either ?

According to the PM there will be substantial death benefits available to families of those killed, there are ongoing benefits for suvivors as well.
However he was unable to be specific.
Those killed in previous accidents have had to fight long and hard for adequate compensation.
However I suspect that a change has taken place as the Australian armed services are now a very strong component of Govt. strategy in the region for humanitarian and policing purposes and of course an even larger presence in Iraq.

I am reading a book on Africa at the moment [it is written by a black American National]. I give you a couple of items from early pages.
Concerning the Belguim Congo. He writes:
In little more than a generation,the Belguim king's yearning for empire and fortune might have killed ten million people in the territory-half of Congo's population,or more than the entire death toll in WW1.
Even today Japan continues to face international ostracism for its brutal imperial conduct in China, Korea and other parts of Asia in the 1930s which followed Leopold's Congo Holocaust by a mere two decades. And yet there has never been any remorse from Europe's drive to dominate Africa.

We here again about the Ebola Virus. this is news but...
More than a million Africans die each year from Malaria. To put this more graphically imagine seven Boeing 747s filled mostly with children crashing into Kilimanjaro each day, and you get some idea of the toll.

Plus millions dead from aids + smoking + starvation.

How many native indians died in North America? Aborigines in Australia? We don't hear much about New Zealand...?

Bit of a hue and cry on the news this week over Japan's failure to teach its young the truth about WW2 via their snow-white-washed history textbooks.

But the guilty have a remarkable ability to ignore the suffering of others, either in the present or the past.

It's a bit like the Homo sapiens versus Neanderthals match. The poor old Neanderthals are still getting a bad press from those who destroyed them.

Perhaps it has something to do with those who left the comfy jungles of the African Rift Valley having to become more aggressive in order to survive in more difficult conditions?

Isn't it inevitable that evolution would favour the most agressive survivors who got their hands on the best food and shelter. Those with the brains would simply use the most aggressive as pawns for their own survival. And so it goes on.

Nime

Keeping Count.
As a young fellow I played a bit of footie , and we would meet at each others houses for a drink and BBQ after the game.
Anyway we were at one of the married player's houses and I spied a jar full of matches on the sideboard. Being that it looked out of place I asked one of my mates why it was there. Well , he said, its to keep count. Every time he has a naughtie with his missus he puts another match in the jar.
Ask a silly question...

I'm trying to decide whether the wood had anything to do with this ritual. And exactly how large was this jar? If the cheapskate had put a fiver in every time they could have had a holiday. But even that suggestion raises an awful lot of potential disaster areas. So perhaps matches are safer. Just don't try this at home children.

Nime, you did'nt ask if they were slow burning matches.
And he did take his duties most seriously and you couldn't miss the jar.

But! Were they spent matches? We should be told!

No , they were still able to achieve the golden glow award.

Or is that reward.

Being out at the shops today I was struck , for the five hundredth time by the different styles in dress of the young ladies today.
Definitely petticoats are still out and bare midrifts are still hanging in, default, out there. This fashion has managed to capture most young ladies attention and shows no sign of abating. Maybe it is only applicable to Australia and the rest of the world has moved on?