John’s own special page!

wed.JPGwed.JPGSue and I have enjoyed a trip to Melbourne to attend he nephew’s wedding. The groom has a very special dog  which he dearly loves and they do everything together! So the wedding just had to be on the dog beach at St Kilda so that his dog coukd attend! The weather was just great, rain had been forecast but the sun shone and about 70 friends and relatives assembled on the beach to witness a wedding with a difference! Our chior of excelent singers!wed.JPG The dog!!wed.JPG

  I am not what you could call an avid reader of books but as I have grown older I have come to realise what joy comes from being engrossed in a good book. For my birthday in May I was given two books, both of which I have enjoyed. This blog is about one of those books. It is written by a mountaineer called Greg Mortenson and David Relin.This is no ordinary book, it is a fantastic story about a most extraordinary man. He has achieved the impossible and almost died doing so. His story is one of the most inspiring tales I have ever read and I urge everyone to go out and find a copy of this wonderful book. It makes me feel like my life has been pretty useless when compared with what Greg has achieved. Go to www.threecupsoftea.com and follow the prompts it will give you some idea of what he has achieved! 

A photo of Annapurner mountain  from Tansen. 

As it is mostly family that access this site I am always looking for  bits of trivia that may be interesting. My dear Brother in Law, Chris is on a mission in Nepal and working in a small hospital in a town called Tansen. He is a retired surgeon who is getting a bit long in the tooth! (like me) so he will find the work quite exhausting. I have always admired medical people who spend their own money to go to work in less fortunate parts of the world so this is of great interest to me. The weather is warm and the power supply intermittent but Chris is very happy he has a proper toilet that you can sit on! A small but important asset. On his way to Tansen  Chris passed through Kathmandu which looks full of golden temples but Tansen is quite humble in comparison as you can see from the pictures that I have posted on this site.  As only one picture got published! (I am not good at this blog stuff!)   I have decided to add some parts of Chris’s mail as it has been fascinating. He only has one last week to go before his journey home which will be a great relief to him! It involves a drive to the airport over awful roads avoiding rockfalls! and steep drops and then a rough ride in a small aircraft over the mountains to Kathmandu. From there he flies to Singapore and then home. I hope to see some interesting photos.

My colleague Brad  has left and I have work to do. He is a nice chap but wanted to take all the work. I’m not here to compete but it is better to be busy. We lost a 4 yo girl from burns and pneumonia this am. They become sick so quickly so every one is upset. I’m sure these patients would do much better at home. I now have 4 very sick patients to keep alive.
        Some of the work here is totally unfamiliar which is challenging. The juniors are supportive but expect us to have the answers. One 18 yo boy with TB has a bowel leak, after surgery (not me this time) and has dropped from about 35 kgs to 29 kgs. I think further surgery would kill him at this stage and we have no means of feeding him other than through his mouth. I give all the sick ones an egg a day. Quite a few of the patients can’t pay there bills so they are kept in hospital until father comes good. Life is tough.
        Meanwhile, the rainy season approaches with heavy falls. I think this is the season when everyone fattens up. There are lots of people passing through, mostly Americans but a few Poms and Canadians. I get to meet some of them.
        The Maoist party is making concessions but the old guard are slow to respond. Their intransigence would not be tolerated elsewhere. The 84 yo prime minister, who was defeated wants to be president, they tell me he was totally corrupt even making his daughter -in law ‘minister without portfolio’ so she could collect a salary. Politically, it is very interesting for me

I meant to tell you that the mountains were visible for the first time during the week. Tonight they are very visible as towering peaks covered with snow. They make a contrast with the green slopes in the foreground. This is a picturesque place. The clouds above or below together with the frequent electrical storms add considerable drama. The thunder is continuous and the rain can be heavy. They don’t always come together.

I hope you all enjoy this blog, I will publish more pictures from Christopher’s trip later.

thanks to all of you who have left comments.    John

• My one week Holiday in Brisbane was really great. I left Adelaide on 12th April and was most surprised to find the weather very similar to what I had left. A little milder but beautiful! It really is not cold at night and the evenings are perfect for walks to the local eating places of which there are many! This first photo is of me with my grandson Sam who is a big lad and works hard in a local engineering company. 
• I soon started catching ferries on the Brisbane river which are like buses in other cities, and finding my way round. It was good to spend time with my son and his family and see where they have made their nest! a fourth floor unit close to the city.

This is the entrance to the garden. It is a very beautiful place right in thr heart of Adelaide. The feeling of peace and tranquility is strong and you feel like you have wandered into a different world. Nestled in the parklands on South Terrace many people pass it without knowing it is there. I love it and visit it as often as possible.

On their way home to Perth from yet another exciting tour of this wonderful land these two wandering people called in to this town and spent a few nights at McLaren Vale. It was great to catch up with my sister and her husband and hear the latest family news. On their return to Busselton they will start to plan for their trip to Europe! What a nice life!

To all those kind people who have made comments, thanks! I have just found out how to read them! I really do apreciate what you have said.

A little tip- click on any photo to go to my public gallery and see all the photos

Keep reading!

John

This was a very special day for me!Before we went on our French adventure I booked a visit to the home of the Airbus and Concord. Only a few of the visits are done in English so I did the booking early so as to understand what was being said. The factory is on the other side of Charles De Gaulle  airport and is a huge complex. They manufacture all the range of Airbus aircraft and have a production line which turns out 10 new A320 each week! It is hard to imagine the care and planning which makes that possible. The A320 is the most popular aircraft in that range and to give you an idea how popular, imagine this.They have 5,460 orders for the A320!They have delivered 3,236 A320’sThere are over 3,300 in operation throughout the world.Other aircraft being produced are the A318/A319 and A321. Not all in Paris as they have factories all overEurope.Now we come to the A380 This is a very large aeroplane, we stood in the largest building in the world and looked down at three A380’s being assembled. It was an amazing sight.  On 15th October the first aircraft was delivered to Singapore Airlines and will make its first run soon.

The most fantastic part of all this is how pieces of partly assembled A380 are shipped from England andGermany via road at night and canal. A special road was built to take the enormous trucks and many bridges had to be altered! All these giant parts finally get put together and six aircraft at a time are assembled. They have 165 firm orders and more being discussed.

We had a simulated maiden flight from taxi to take off and a 30 minute flight to assess how it handled. One aircraft has been tested to breaking point in a special hanger to see how the carbon fibre would stand up to rigorous bending and flexing. Most international airports have been tested to see how the A380 would cope with the runways and taxiways. Being a double deck configuration it requires some different loading ramps but most airports are ready. I would recommend this visit to anyone who is holidaying in this area as it is carried out in a very professional manner and very good value for money. As you can tell, I loved it!We were not allowed any cameras so I do not have any photos but I can honestly say it was a very memorable visit.   

The web site for more information is -  www.airbus.com/en/aircrsftfamilies/a380

This blog is different! Although I have loads more holiday blogs I thought I would share this with all the poor people who read this nonsense! I have sumitted several photos to different television stations with no success. However I have just recently, on Monday 15th October had one published!! Not only did it get a mention at 7.30pm with the weather, but again at 8.30pm! Wow! how about that.

If you did not see it (Shame on you!) here it is!  I called it Blossom in Glen Osmond

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Toulouse is a big busy city and has an excelent public transport system. All the busses that we saw in France are made by their own Renault company. They are rear engined and quiet and comfortable and go every where at intervals of about 15-20 minutes. Toulouse also has an underground train system which fits in well with the bus service. Many of the metro stations have a bus depot on the

  Waiting for a train

surface so you come up the escalator to a bus station! All this is not so unusual except to people like me from Adelaide where a public transport system is a joke. Perth has a very good system and is building a metro train system so why am I doing a blog on this? Well it struck me a very sensible to have a system on the metro platforms where you wait behind glass doors which open only when a train pulls in the platform. The doors line up perfectly with the platform doors so you step off the platform into the train! This makes travel safe and would prevent anyone falling in front of a train either accidently or otherwise. A very clean and efficient system of travel, also one ticket can be used for 2 hours on both trains and buses.