Glittering prizes: Gold Badge with one diamond

Posted on March 14, 2014 by John

Yes! I did it. This morning my new gliding achievement badge arrived in my mailbox. My Federation Aeronautique Internationale gliding certificate has been stamped with Gold C Badge No  1701.

It also says “The holder is entitled to affix one Diamond to Gold C No 1701 for each of the following awards: Diamond Goal for a goal flight of  311.8 kilos.” (I think they mean kilometres).

The Gold Badge and tgoldhe Diamond were both achieved on the cross-country flight I made in the DG303 on January 19 from Forbes to Lake Cargellico, Bogan Gate and back to Forbes.

I’m very pleased about my achievement. Now I need the other two Diamonds – for a height gain of 5000 metres and a distance flight of 500 kilometres.  That’ll be fun.

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Flying over Forbes: The Documentary

Posted on March 2, 2014 by John

I’ve managed, at last,  to put together a few video clips from my adventures at the Southern Cross Gliding Club’s annual camp at Forbes, NSW. It’s 12 minutes long, so feel free to skip some of the boring bits. What am I saying! There are no boring bits!

Here it is:

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And now the bad news . . . . Work!

Posted on February 22, 2014 by John

Work has raised its ugly head and is now interfering with my retirement lifestyle (sigh!). A while back I did some work for the performing rights organisation APRA AMCOS after being contacted by a former Sydney City Council colleague now working for them. I rewrote some words for their website and reworked a couple of information pamphlets – now they want me to do lots more.

They need a series of Plain English guides to their music licencing. It’s a complex subject so the work is challenging but enjoyable. From next week I’ll spend Tuesdays and Wednesdays in their office in Mountain Street, Ultimo and also work some days from home. Should last for a month or so, I’ll see how it goes. I’m an external contractor so I charge a daily rate.

The people are good to work with so I think I’ll enjoy the return to an office for a while. It’s a jeans-and-shirts workplace, very relaxed as befits us creative types. Unfortunately it will (horrid phrase alert!) negatively impact my work-life balance and interfere with my leisure pursuits of gliding and golf.

It’s hard to turn down paid work when it is offered up on a plate – the lure of money is too strong (Come here my Preciousssss!)

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Blown away by The Boss

Posted on February 20, 2014 by John

What a night! We saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Allphones Arena at Sydney’s Olympic Park and were blown away.springsteen

As he told us, The Boss is now 65, but he’s full of energy, bouncing on and off the stage and crowd-surfing! The music was fantastic, especially as they played his entire fourth album Darkness on the Edge of Town, one of my all-time favourites.

My former colleague Bernard Zuel, a Sydney Morning Herald music reviewer, was full of praise for the show.

It’s a communal thing. A two-way street. A give-and-you-shall-receive understanding we all grasp, on stage or off. It’s why this night is not really like any other night. It’s not just Bruce Springsteen, it’s not even just Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; it’s them and us as one sweating entity.

Darknesson

You can read Bernard’s full review on the SMH site here.

The musicianship was amazing from Bruce and the whole band with some fantastic guitar work. Absolutely loved it all.

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Home again

Posted on February 17, 2014 by John

We’re back home after our lovely break by the beach. It’s an easy run on a weekday. We had breakfast at the Boatshed before we left (bacon and eggs for me, yum!).boatshed

The restaurant there is much better than it looks from the outside. Their coffee is outstanding – I bought some of their Belaroma coffee beans to bring home for my espresso machine. I took this picture of the Boatshed in the rain with the tide very high. You can see the water is almost lapping at the feet of the diners!

If you click on it you get a bigger pic and can see the lone pelican on the post. I’ve added the menu from the Valentine’s Day dinner to this post.menu

Trying to post from the holiday house via phone data was a bit difficult and my iPad app didn’t want to send the pictures for some computery reason.

We had another special meal at Tillerman’s Restaurant in Tea Gardens on our last night. We’ve been there every time we’ve been in the area, and Tiillerman’s also has great food.

Here’s a coincidence. Read Jane’s comment on the last blog entry and you’ll see she was reading Donna Tart’s The Goldfinch at the same time as me. Spooky, eh!

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