New York City!

Hi Readers,

A real change from what I usually dish up to you. This is all about my first real big thing that I've done since I retired a few months ago. I was always planning to travel overseas this year, but as one son and his wife and the two grandsons moved over to NYC a few weeks ago, I decided to bring my trip forward and wander over there to see what the the big deal is about The Big Apple.

I must have been in a daze the day I booked my flight to New York. A few options had me changing flights twice, with long layovers. In the end I just opted for a flight that flew via Singapore, 2 hour layover then a hellish 17+ hours to New York. It took me just as long as most other options presented to me, but that long flight was a killer.

What was I thinking!!!!!!!

After about 7 or so hours to Singapore, then a layover I boarded for the next flight to New York. I have done the long haul flight from London to Melbourne a few times, even Vancouver to Melbourne a couple, but this one just seemed to take FOREVER !!

A few times I nodded off and was thinking that when I woke the in flight map would show that we were only a few hours out, or about to land. As If !!

A couple of times I woke up and checked the map only to see that we still had 11 hours to go, then 9. We were only half way! I'm sure that the more I watched the flight map, the slower we went and the longer the trip was becoming. And to make matters worse I was seated in between two other passengers, so I had to lan my toilet visits around when they were going too, as it was too hard to climb over them due to how they had set themselves up. Still, a very pedantic thing to worry about, as I am just so fortunate to be able to do these things.

So I land in New York at Newark Airport, and now I have to find out how to get to my digs in Manhattan. I had absolutely no idea which train line to take, what sort of ticket I needed or where to buy one, but I found an incredibly helpful attendant on the platform who did everything but hold my hand as he organised me with everything. 

"Just keep this ticket in your pocket and wait for the next train in 30mins on Platform A"

There was no way I was going to forget that, and I must have chanted it over in my head a thousand times!

Imagine my surprise when another person came up and asked me a question about the train system. As if I knew anything!

My first view of the NYC skyline from Newark.. If you zoom in you'll see the Empire State Building

After getting off the train in Manhattan, the next challenge was getting out of the station. I had absolutely no idea which exit was best for me so I just took a guess and went the way in which most people were walking. After a few missed turns and walking the wrong way for 10 mins I was soon at my digs, dropped off my bags early and started to find my way to see our son, his wife and the two grandsons.

This was a pretty straightforward trip along 8th Avenue for about 20 mins, then a slight turn at a roundabout and I was there. For the entire walk I was fascinated by the sights, sounds and smells of NYC. I haven't been here before, so to see some buildings that I had only seen on tv or read about was just a treat. Picture one of those rubberneck tourists standing on the corner and just looking around and turning circles, that was me!

Some things I learned quickly.

• Crossing at traffic lights. The lights are just a guide. If no cars are coming and it is red, you just go!

                 

• Escalators. Stick to the right, and leave the left hand side clear for those in a hurry.
• There are just as many of those New York City souvenir shops as there are people in New York. They are everywhere. In one block I saw two side by side and another directly across the street.
• Everyone rides their horn in their cars on the street. No matter if the traffice is blocked and not moving, they'll still honk at the person in front to move, even if they are blocked. The tooting is constant!
• No-one will starve in NYC. If the shop isn't a souvenir shop, it sells food of some sort. If you can't find a slice of pizza here you have not looked at all!
• You are never far away from a policeman/woman. They are everywhere
• 
              

                                    Not the biggest of police cars, but I'm sure it gets the job done!

• If you can't handle the smell of marijuana, stay indoors. It is everywhere, probably the most common smell that I have encountered. Not only are there shops that sell it legally, it is openly for sale from sellers on the street. I was at the playground with the kids and even there it was rife. I'm hoping it wasn't the kids using!!

I could go on and on about the multitude of other things that I have noticed, but where would I stop.

A quick digression here Readers.

I'm currently at the airport waiting to board a flight, and the lady beside me has a little dog in a small case. It is obviously going on the plane!

The way that she is pampering it, talking to it etc is driving me nuts. Think of those over the top types who speak to their pooches in baby babble, and she is this plus more. Now the little rat is yapping and snapping at her. Heaven help me if we are placed beside each other on the plane as one of them might not make it off safely!!

And just now a second dog has appeared, a border collie. Be interesting to know where they will be sitting.

The next few days Readers have been just a blur of rushing around this amazing city.

As I was just looking through my photos, although I see quite a few that were taken at various landmarks and tourist attractions, the majority are photos of being with the family. I feel that these attractions will always be there should I want to look at a photo of them, but the memories created can never be created again. Random shots taken in the street, at the playground or in the apartment will bring back memories of the stories behind those shots, whereas shots taken of the Empire State Building or Times Square are just a reminder that I have been there. I know for sure which photos I will keep gong back to look at.

 I hope this clip from Times Square opens!!

Times Square is just always buzzing.

The obligatory shot of the old girl.

The 9/11 Memorial. Seeing the names made it really hit home.

My daily highlight was the time spent with the Grandsons.

Who wouldn't want to live across the road from Central Park, we just had so much to do there.

And some obligatory shots of some attractions...

From the Empire State Building

Empire State Building

Ditto

Grand Central Station

From the Rockefeller Centre

Looking towards Central Park and where the family is staying.

Great tour done here.

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

Not the Brooklyn Bridge, but a great shot.

My last night in NYC

Well Readers,

A fantastic week in NYC highlighted each day by the time I was able to spend with my family. While seeing NYC for he first time has been great, seeing them was my main reason for being here, and it gave each day a real focus.

As I sit here at the airport contemplating the next part of my trip which I will be doing on my own, it is starting to feel so different as this will be the first time that I have undertaken such a trip since losing Jen. There will be no-one to do the "Ooohs and Aahs" with, no-one to express reactions to when being amazed by something experienced, and no-one to make sure the bookings and organising is done properly!!!

This is my new reality, and it's just something that I will learn to cope with, I'm sure I won't get lost or deported!!! 

Stay tuned for he next destination Readers, not sure when I will make the time to sit down and write as I'm just too stuffed each night and bomb out at my digs. Lots of train time in the next few legs, hopefully I'll use that time wisely.

And my apologies for not checking for typos!!

Until my next post ,

Cheers😁

 Thank You For Your Service

Hi Readers,

Well this is something that doesn't happen too often, successive posts on successive days!

This morning while doing all my stretches etc I had the tv on and I was watching an episode of 'Shark Tank'

Various entrepreneurs (man, did I have to work on spelling that sucker!!) came and went, some getting deals done while others were quickly sent on their way.

One couple who came out explained their idea for whatever it was, and one of the 'Sharks' asked the bloke to explain his background. 

He then said "I was in the Navy......" and before he could finish his sentence, every shark immediately said "Thank you for your service" and gave a wave or gesture of respect and gratitude. And it looked sincere, not fake.

At this point I still can't remember what his product was, as their response to him having served in the defence forces was far more memorable.

I have seen this happen many times and heard similar accounts from others, and it has been on my mind all morning, hence this post. When I have something bubbling away I find that writing about it clarifies it for me and helps me to understand it better. Before I sat down with my laptop I took off on my motorbike for an hour, my place of peace so that I could churn things over in my mind and figure out how I was going to approach this post.

I have found that one thing that differs us from Americans is the pride and respect that we have in our armed forces, and the title of this post stems from the number of times I have seen and heard it being used whenever Americans encounter their service men and women.

Let me be VERY clear right now, I am not for a moment suggesting that Australians do not respect their armed service people, it's just that we do not really do it so publicly and with as much devotion as we see it being done by Americans. Please disagree with me if you want, but I can honestly say that I have never seen or heard another Australian say the same thing to our service people. We might feel it, but rarely do we say it publicly. There could be a multitude of reasons for this, but that's not my focus today.

So please don't think I'm saying that we have a lack of respect for them, complete opposite!!

I had a friend travelling overseas a few years ago who shared this account with me. 

A couple of servicemen in uniform boarded the plane and headed for their economy, or 'coach' seats as they are referred to in the USA. Immediately, a few people in the Business seats jumped up and beckoned to these servicemen to have their seats instead, all the while saying "Thank you for your service".

I have heard similar accounts of servicemen and women being given coffees or meals for free at establishments for the same reason.

So how can this apply to us?

I'm going to disregard service people now and turn the focus towards anyone that serves us, which is practically everyone we encounter.

Think of the number of people you come across in your day who provide a service of any sort, no matter how major or minor, and how you treated them.

I was in the bank the other day and there was a long line of people waiting to be served by one of the three tellers on duty. There was much grumbling and mumbling coming from quite a few of them, as they could see that although there were about 6 service counters, only three of them were open. I find it quite comical watching people doing this grumbling as they are looking for an audience to interact with them. 

The body language is a riot to watch at times.

A few years ago this would be me, until I heard a discussion on the radio that said that complaining about traffic is pointless, because you are part of the traffic. You are part of the problem, so complaining is pointless. The same applied to standing in this long queue. No point in complaining because I was contributing to the queue!!

A lady in front of me was 10 seconds away from exploding and as she was ranting to no -one in particular, we made eye contact. She was ready to take it to another level but I just smiled at her and said something like "I bet that teller is busting her arse to get this queue moving". She looked shocked at first, then calmed down and sort of agreed with me. She then said that she had a breathing problem and was having trouble standing for so long. There were chairs nearby and she said she wanted to sit down but didn't want to lose her spot in the queue, so I just told her to do it and that I'd save her spot in front of me. As soon as she moved away, I kept her gap open in front of me to show that it was there for her, but I could feel the people behind me shuffling forward and trying to push me further ahead. Also some more huffing and puffing, as if I'd doubled their wait time.

I was so surprised that some of them thought that saving a few minutes for themselves was more important than the health of this woman. After a few minutes she felt a bit better and rejoined the queue just as her 'spot' was next in line to be served. And getting stared down by others as if she was queue jumping!!

As she got to the teller she was much calmer, even smiling and was so respectful to the teller. If she hadn't had that period of rest I think that teller would have had their head bitten off!!

By the time I got to the teller she was a bit flustered, so I just said something like "Tough morning?" She said they were so understaffed and she was really feeling the pressure. When I asked if people were being rude to her she paused, looked at me and nodded slowly and rolled her eyes. It wasn't her fault that there was a long line of customers, she was smashing through them, so just by saying "Thank you for how you are managing this" and "I hope your day gets better" made me immediately forget about the time I'd spent waiting in the line, and hopefully made her feel a bit better too. 

If I chose to give her a serve when I got to the front of the line I wouldn't expect her to give me good service, and just by speaking calmly and kindly, she had me sorted in no time at all. I was thankful for her service👏

I pretty much bounced out of the bank and headed to my next appointment, this time at a computer shop where I needed to look at a device.

Readers, when it comes to technology I'm about as useful as a one-armed clown making balloon animals at a kid’s party!!!

I walked into the shop and was greeted by a young salesman ( everyone seems young to me these days!!) I basically told him I was interested in a new laptop, and then he bamboozled me with numbers and terms that I think I've heard before but completely forgot.

I feebly said something like "I just want to write my blog and have my photos, mail etc synced between my devices". And it needs to be sort of compact as I'll be travelling a bit.

To his credit, he gave a knowing nod, and if there was a thought bubble above his head it would have been saying something like "Oh dear, another techno nobody!!"

At the start he was probably thinking I was here...

But pretty soon I convinced him that I was here...

I'll have to admit that I was telling a few little white lies when I said things like "Wow, you are so helpful", and "Thanks for being so patient with me" and pretty soon his help level went through the roof. Rather than trying to get this older person who didn't know much out of the store, he was bending over backwards to ensure that I understood and which device he thought would be the best fit for purpose. And what pleased me most was that he wasn't pushy in chasing a sale (hope his bosses didn't notice) but was more concerned that I knew what I might be buying and what it could do, and what I understood about it. 

While I didn't purchase anything yesterday, the way that he treated me just from being kind and respectful to him means that when I do buy, I'll ask for him to do the sale.

Thanks Callum for your service👌

Readers, you must think that I'm an utter nuffy by going into shops and being as nice as I can when inside I may be feeling the opposite. My experience is that most times it calms me down, and usually it changes the attitude of the person serving me if they are having a crap day. Not always, but usually.

There have been times when the person serving has been really gruff and basically rude that I don't want to waste any kindness on them, but then I walk out angry too🤬

Even during those times when I know they are still rude when I leave, I just cling to that sliver of hope that a polite or cheerful 'Thank you, have a good day' might sit with hem and upon reflection they might be better to the next person, or to themselves.

Better to kill them with kindness than be like them I say.

Or another one I've read about

"Don't kill them with kindness. Kill them with blindness. Act like you don't see how they are acting'

I'm sure that you at times, just like me really don't want to be kind, and just want to give them some of their own medicine, but it's the sour after taste that I can't stand.

And when we think that our little problems are bigger than they really are, take one of these as needed!! (You might need to look at previous posts to see why I refer to these a lot!!)

Readers, these are just a few recent examples where I have been the beneficiary of great service just through the simple act of thanking others for their service. Sure, you could argue "That's their job", but to me it is disrespectful to not acknowledge someone else with respect if they have done something for you. I know we can all be quick to flip off an email to complain about poor service, and I get that that. I do it too, but also try to acknowledge that there might be reasons for it too that I might be unaware of.

In another recent post I spoke about a book that we read to our kids in Gr 5 last year and the year before, "Wonder".

A key theme in it is kindness, and this book has been a big reason why this resonates with me so strongly. It talks about the 'masks' we wear, meaning that we can't often tell how a person is really feeling just by how we read the look on their face.

So when you get the rude treatment by someone serving you, or dealing with someone on the phone, before diving in to get your pound of flesh, perhaps spend a dime and take a few steps down Kindness St with a positive comment, or something that might possibly distract them from whatever shitty thing that might be troubling them.

As I said earlier, it doesn't always work, or we don't give it a chance to work, but I find more often than not, it does.

This post all stems from just a random observation that I saw on tv this morning. I have seen how these 5 words, Thank You For Your Service, mean so much to a nation of people, but can also mean so much to each one of us as we go about our daily routines.

Give it a try, I'd love to hear how you go!

Until my next post,

Cheers😁

 Progress?

Hi Readers,

A different stimulus for this post, and from the most simple of sources.

I was having a FaceTime call recently with one of our Grandsons from NYC, and we were talking about one of the books that I had recorded online for him. It was all about a car and some animals that were hiding in it. At one point he said "This car is very different to our car", and this got me thinking.

If a 4 year old can easily pick out how things have changed in cars over time, what are some of the things that stick in our minds over time?

 

And do we consider it progress???

For some things my mind boggles at how far they have progressed, but at the same time I'm still perplexed at how to make the most of them as my mind isn't really keeping up at the same speed!!

There are things around the house that we take for granted, but have developed so much over time that we tend to ignore them or just not think about them.

Consider your cars and the technological advances in them.

What about the different devices around the home? In the kitchen? Listening to music? 

Security?

Leisure activities and equipment?

Food?

I could go on and on, but for today I'm just going to focus on a few that have really stuck with me, and tended to amaze the kids at school when we would occasionally talk about things like this.

So, here we go!!

TV

A few weeks ago I heard on the news that it was the 50th anniversary of colour TV in Australia. Something that we just take for granted so much now was a big deal back in the day, and I remember it well. I was just in JB HiFi this morning and was blown away by the colour tv's at our disposal now. The size, the sound and the connectivity they have to so many sources is something that we didn't even dream about back in the 70's.

A fairly upmarket version of the old tv's

We usually had only 3 channels, and for most of the day it was the test pattern, as shows didn't come on until mid to late afternoon.

Black and white test pattern. Little wonder we were often outside playing.

At the time, our parents owned the local pub in our small town, and it was one of the first places to get a colour tv. As such, when we got it, mum and dad decided that it was better to have it in the bar for the customers rather than in the private lounge where the 8 kids sufficed with the black and white tv.

In the days beforehand we would get off the bus from school and rush home to see if it had come yet, all to no avail. I kid you not Readers, it was more exciting than the night before Christmas!!! This was something we had never experienced before, and in some ways we thought that it was still not possible.

When we did get home one night Dad announced that it had arrived and was now mounted high up in a corner of the bar. As most customers didn't really start arriving from around 5.00pm, we all went in and had a look at it, in total awe at seeing COLOUR!!!

Just to see what colour the clothes were on characters or the sets was causing such excited chatter, and the next day we'd tell everyone at school what colour certain things were. The bar was certainly more crowded for the next few nights!!!

Colour TV comes to Australia

For the next few weeks we would get up super early and go into the bar before we headed off to school just to see if there were shows on of any sort, just to experience the colour again. Pretty soon things began to change a lot more quickly, and it wasn't long before nearly everyone in the town had a colour tv. And the folks even bought one for us kids to have in our own living area!!

But I still remember that excitement leading up to that first day of having a colour tv.

Music.

My eldest brother, who was always known as 'Moose' was given the most amazing present one year for his birthday. He must have been around 15 or 16 because at the time he was off to Boarding school, something that 7 of the 8 kids endured.

He was given a Cassette player!!!

I hear some of you thinking "What the...?", because cassettes are something you may be totally unfamiliar with.

A fairly whizz bang model, as it also had a radio!!!!

And the standard cassette that we would insert to play songs.

We thought the cassette player was just the duck's guts ( ie the best thing ever!). If you didn't want to hear a particular song you could just push the fast forward button and try and find the start of the next song. If you were really savvy, you'd use the tape counter, a type of countdown meter that would stop at the start of the next song if you knew what number to stop it at. I know this all sounds so weird to the younger readers, but this was our technology back then. We could also use blank cassette tapes to record songs from the radio, leaving every song missing part of the start and end as we tried not to record any voiceovers from the DJ's.

And for those who know what I'm talking about, the picture below needs no explanation!!

Over the ensuing years, the cassettes were still king compared to records, due to their portability. I remember having a large box in my little car that held around 40 cassettes as I fitted a cassette player into it. 

Fast forward ( even these terms entered into our everyday language) to the mid 80's and our technology changed again. I distinctly remember being at a friends house and he showed me the new way of listening to music...CD's!!!!!

No more pencils and tapes! Everything was magically on the disc! A little tray would pop out of your stereo and in your disc would go and play crystal clear music. The world was going nuts!!!

Soon we were buying stereos where you could 5 cd's into the one tray!!! 

We could have mini stereos fitted into our car dashboards that even had a cd player. One of our cars went so far as to have a cd stacker under the front seat where we could have 5 cd's to choose from!!

But this also meant that where we once had a box load of cassettes in the car, now we had even more cd's rolling around. And if anyone put a cd back into the wrong cover, well that was a crime worthy of starting WW3!!!

Technology was now moving at an astronomical pace, delivering ipods of various sizes so that we could now save all our music onto a device as small as a cigarette lighter and plug it into our car sound system.

And look where we are today where all our music is pretty much played through the cloud with the advent of Spotify. We can virtually listen to whatever we want, wherever we want and with few or no restrictions at all on availability.

I remember a few years ago making a flippant remark in class about playing 'records', and I noticed a few blank/puzzled looks on the faces of so many kids. I asked if they knew what I was talking about, which they didn't, (nothing new there!!) so the next day I brought in a batch of records and a turntable and we spent ages discussing the changes in technology. It was great telling them all about the olden days!!

School.

When I was going through my own primary school years, we would occasionally be given a worksheet to do. Not like the ones of today that are photocopied en masse, but ones that the teachers actually created themselves.

These were usually a purple colour on white paper, but the thing that stood out was the smell. They had a very strong aroma of methylated spirits, or something similar. The teacher would design the worksheet, writing it on paper that had a carbon sheet in between the 2 pages. This would create a further copy on the other page and this would be fed onto a roller in a type of printer that would then be hand cranked to produce the desired number of copies. Sometimes you could buy sheets already prepared and feed them in the same way.

I remember them being called Gestetners or Roneo machines.

Now Readers, here's the good bit!!

Because they used metho or something like it, often when you got the sheets if they were fresh off the printer, they would still be a tiny bit damp, but reeking of the chemicals used!!!! We'd have our noses going all over the pages having the longest sniffs and soaking in all manner of toxic poisons!!! 

I can still remember using one of these in my first year of teaching. It was a nuisance creating the sheets, but a bit of fun smelling the fruits of my work.

Imagine doing that today!!! It probably explains the behaviour problems of some of the kids back then, or why others were so relaxed!!

Oh those smells 🙄

Leisure

When we were kids our bikes were very rudimentary to say the least. 

One gear only. Good on the flats, but a killer in the hills!

If you wanted to brake, you just pressed backwards on the pedals. Great for doing skids.

                      Not great for doing mono's, but great durability and good for dinking!

These day we have multiple gears and we can go up the steepest of hills with ease.

Our brakes are all hand brakes now, so the days of doing big skids are practically gone.

Not totally gone though as I discovered recently. 

One of my new bikes has disc brakes on the front and back and I recently had to make sudden use of them when a driver decided that he didn't need to stop at a roundabout that I was going through. I quickly squeezed the levers on my handle bars and was surprised at how quickly both wheels locked up, saving me from another injury.

And not only do these levers act as brakes, they also act as gear changers, enabling me to sort through any of the 12 gears at my disposal. A previous bike gave me 15 choices!

And to think that we would be amazed at these Dragster style bikes that gave you 3 choices of gears. Yes, 3 !!

As I try to do a lot of cycling now, both on the road and on the roller frame, it's no longer a matter of just picking the bike up from the yard and heading off. On goes the lycra (Yes, I'm a MAMIL - Middle Aged Man In Lycra), on go the riding shoes with clips to attach to the pedals, set the bike computer on the handlebars that measures everything from speed, distance, temperature, duration and what to cook for dinner for the next few nights!!! Then there's what to put in the drink bottle, what goes in the shirt pockets, and once I'm ready to go I log my ride into the Strava App that records everything.

Here are some samples below from walks, rides and paddles.

The standard lycra - be seen or be hit!!

I can see where I've ridden, how long it takes etc.

Great way to time my paddles, even though it looks like I'm going in circles!

Even a walk can be recorded.

Because I can no longer run, I wish that I'd had this technology when I was training for marathons as it would have been a brilliant training aid.

Cars

Over the past 44 years I have owned, or part owned with Jen more cars than I care to remember. We'd change them over fairly regularly as we tended to really clock up the k's on holidays, sport with the boys and visiting family.

My first car was so memorable and some of the things I added to it are not even included in cars these days!!

For instance, it had a push button radio that would only pick up AM stations, and generally the reception was pathetic. That might be partly due to the coat hanger that was used as a makeshift antenna! The antenna on my latest car is just a smooth plastic lump on the roof.

I did add a cassette recorder to it, but this had to be bolted underneath the dashboard.

The windows were the old wind up model, but the driver's side would only go up if I held the glass from both sides with the door open while i tried to use the winder at the same time. As for the heater, it only blew out cold air, and when living in Ballarat for 3 years I became very accustomed to cold air. I remember once driving home from Ballarat with my brother to go and visit our parents and we both had socks on our hands and were wrapped in blankets to keep warm. The rubber around the gearstick was non-existant, meaning you could see the road as you were travelling. Not great in the wet!!!

But it served me well for 4 years, and I nostalgically wish that I still had it now.

Fast forward again ( there we are, using terms from our past in the present) and I am now totally spoilt with my latest set of wheels that I am still discovering things about. 

Both the van and the car have more bells and whistles that I ever thought were possible, and at times I wonder if I really need them to start with. But when one finds a time that they are needed, then they suddenly feel vital, and I wonder how I might have coped without them.

Back in the day when I was in the Datsun 120Y, if you had told me that in 2025 I'd be driving what I'm driving now I would have put you back in your straightjacket.

Yes, I am just so fortunate and that's not lost on me, but I'd swap all of these technological advances and material goods just to have someone back again.

Readers, I could just go on and on reminiscing about all of the progress I have witnessed in my life, and I hope I haven't sounded like one of those people who says "Back in the day when I was young...".

Much of it has been unavoidable, and I must admit that just about everything has made our lives easier and more comfortable. As I think back to what our Grandson said to me, I wonder what things he and his little brother will experience in the next 50 years? 

Just as I sort of wished for things like mini movie cameras on our arms, or cooking meals in a minute or less, we now find these things as standard for us.

Time travel?

Living even longer lives?

Self schooling?

Food being just pills?

No wars?

Richmond winning the flag this year?

They sound like pipe dreams, but as we all know, things that we once considered impossible or unrealistic are now par for the course.

Have a think about the things that have happened in your lifetime that you now just take for granted, but at one stage would have been considered impossible?

And what are your hopes for the future?

Another bit of random babble, but a great way to spend a few hours reflecting on years gone by while utilising a number of technologies that were not so accessible even as recent as 10 years ago.

The next few weeks have some big things happening for me, so I hope that my next posts will be a bit more interesting to read.

Until my next post,

Cheers😁