Tigerkraws Daily Blog

Back again after a break

2009-04-13T03:02:00.000+10:00

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I been looking for your Blogs
Where are you ?

Well I been away from my normal routine of Blogging, I tend to stray sometimes.
Things have happened Easter has passed and I'm Back talking to my computer again for anyone who stand my typing rambles.
Its been a busy few weeks, new things off Ebay, a new phone & bluetooth headphones.

Sony, a brand I have been on my shopping list for the last couple of months has moved in again this time a Walkman phone
its quite a fun item, but with this model a couple of small drawbacks, such as a smaller screen and a small awkward Keyboard for typing SMS's and Web addresses, not to mention playing java games like Bejeweled a little hard on the fingers.

Mind you it has been great fun downloading themes and games for it off the net, as there is quite a few of dedicated sites out there that
support Sony phones with lot of downloadable content.

Time to get serious again and find a phone that is

A: Keyboard Big Finger Friendly
B: MP3 player thats supports Bluetooth Headsets
C: A Screen that's bigger than 2 inches
D That has expandable memory
E: That's a affordable price range.

There is a couple of prepaid phones on my list already, sadly there are some that are just too expensive such as the Nokia N85
So I'll be reading a lot of reviews and customer feedback to find the ideal phone.

And winning so far is the Sony Ericsson W910 an upgrade from my current W890
Its a slider phone with a couple of extra bells and whistles, larger keypad but the adjoining keys above and below are still fairly close together. Apart from that it has a bigger 2.44 inch screen, so basically it has everything I want.

Whether I go this path or find a better alternative from Nokia, Samsung, LG or Motorola time will tell.

I've had withdrawal symptoms from the lack of Gingernut Biscuits, Patrick and Barbara are in Sydney.
and during the last week, Our Afternoon Tea has been a diet of Boston Bun or Hot Cross Buns, So much Buns
and NO BISCUITS ! I'm a deprived man.

Special Thank you, To all attended the Birthday Celebrations at the One Tree Hill Hotel for Patrick Dugan and yours Truly Larry Combridge.
It was a great day and a good meal. P.S. And thankyou for the Nice Presents.

On my actaul Birthday later in the week Stephanie & Jessica made Tea, Spaghetti Bol and a nice birthday cake, On to top the night off was Stephanies Rum Balls It was a treat.

Easter has come and gone, with just Easter Monday to get through, it has been a good week so far, We saw Jessica in the lion team Easter Torchlight Procession and she will be in the main Procession on Monday, Hopefully we can get some photos for you.

I'll finish off the blog with this a nice Photo of Michelle's Boys when they were here for a few days last Week, This Fantastic group shot was taken by Sandy.
See you soon.............

2009-03-23T02:27:00.002+11:00

22 March

Michelle & Family up for the weekend lots of photos

Well it’s been a few days since I blogged, Spider bite on my foot Friday, had me hobbling a little bit, was’nt sure until Sunday morning before could confirm it was some sort of bite as my foot was just swollen and red.

Michelle, Ray and the five boys came and visit us from Melton, so we had family for the weekend and a good chance to get some family photos in.

We topped it off with a really nice Sunday lunch with roast Lamb, roast chicken and Yummy chocolate cake for dessert with Ice Cream.

We also had Shane, Linda and Lisa with us as well, turned out an excellent day for all.

As promised lots of Family Photos for you enjoy.

I Will BE BACK SOON……………………BE GOOD

Rochester, new camera and The New Scales tells me I’m Fat

2009-03-20T03:40:00.001+11:00

19 March

Rochester, new camera and The New Scales tells me I’m Fat

Well the countdown is over the camera is safely home, Rochester trip over and a new set of Bathroom scales that tells me

I’m too heavy. Need some food to cheer me up :)

It has been a mixed day today, more good than bad though, Sandy and I looked at the Willow tea set at Big W, English brand made in China, most of it was OK but the poor excuse of a dessert bowl was disappointing, if you was lucky maybe one and a squashed second Weet-Bix could fit in the bowl, soup..well you would be lucky to get your Spoon wet.

Rochester trip went well, Neale scoring a ute full of computer gear, plenty of monitors, computer cases and heaps of parts.

I got a couple of pictures in the new camera, to show you from the trip.

We bought some bathroom Scales instead,of the Willow Dinner Set, as our last set of Bathroom Scales could not make up its mind on how much we weighed, When I got on it it would spin around a few times like a slot machine, the ding ding sound it made was not stating I won a prize, It was just groaning under the pressure of my two big feet and my body attached to it.

We had afternoon tea at Karen’s today, bought the new Sony camera along for some testing. Basically I wanted to try out some

Smile shutter shots, on some willing victims.. sorry family.

Mathew

BARBARA

PATRCK

I had trouble getting smile shutter to work, it worked on Mathew easily, but not on Old father.ti…..sorry I meant Patrick

Sandy worked it out for me and before long we had some nice Smiling shots.

That’s All for today, Take care, see you soon.

Wednesday Afternoon and a Kitchen Full of Family

2009-03-19T02:34:00.000+11:00

18 March

Wednesday Afternoon and a Kitchen Full of Family

Not everyday we bring in more chairs for our kitchen, with Sandy,Jessica, Stephanie, Karen, Patrick, Barbara, Mathew, Shane, Linda and lucky last Lisa, with yours truly as well.

It was a good opportunity to get some shots with Sandy’s Camera and fill up my blog files with some more family snaps.

Probably the last chance to use Sandy’s Sony W55, as time is ticking down to hours before my long awaited lay-buy will be finished and I will be a proud owner of my new pride and joy the Sony W150.

My mate Neale is going to Rochester tomorrow and I’ve been invited along to pick some some free computer gear from a deceased estate, thanks from Bendigo Free Cycle. On the way we are dropping in to Dick Smiths to pick up the camera and try it out on our road trip. Should be a lot of fun, and with a freshly charged battery from Sandy’s camera and my newly acquired memory card should be able to give the new camera a bit of a workout.

HISTORY OF ROCHESTER ………..The Rochester information has been cut and pasted from the net

The area around the Campaspe River, which was known as Yalooka, had been home to the Pinpandoor Aboriginal Tribe for Thousands of years when in 1836 New South Wales Surveyor General Major Thomas Mitchell located and named the Campaspe River.

The Port Phillip District as Victoria was then known was opened to settlement by Governor Bourke and by the mid 1840’s several large holdings had been taken out in the area including "Restdown Plains" and "Cornelia Creek’ which shared a common boundary near where the town of Rochester now stands. Early Settlers were mostly sheep farmers.

In 1852 Dr John P. Rowe who had previously sold his medical practice in Hobart, took over the lease of "Restdown Plains". Patrick O’Dea the lessee of the "Cornelia Creek" run, leased a small inn which had been built by J. P. Rowe on the eastern bank of the Campaspe River near the boundary of the two runs.

A small settlement known as "Rowes Camp" soon grew up around "O'Dea’s Inn". Traffic through the area increased dramatically with the Central Victorian Gold Rushes. The coach road and stock route from Hopwoods and Maidens Punts across the Murray River at Echuca & Moama passed by "ODea’s Inn", which was the second point for changing the Coach Horses after Strathallan.

During a visit to "Restdown Plains", Governor Hotham named the settlement "Rowechester’, a latinised version of "Rowes Camp". When the settlement was made official on October 24th 1855 a government clerical error led to the proclamation of Rochester which has remained to this day.

In 1864 the Melbourne to Echuca railway reached Rochester with the station being on the west bank of the river, which led to the focus of the town to shift from the eastern side of the Campaspe to where it remains today.

The coming of the Railway also led to the breaking up of the large pastoral leases and the advent of cropping on smaller holdings. In a few years Rochester became one of the leading wheat producing centres in the new State of Victoria.

In 1864 the Echuca Roads Board was established including the Rochester district and on May 26 1871 it was proclaimed a Shire. On 27th November 1909 after years of heated debate the separate Shire of Rochester was proclaimed. As fate would have it in 1994 Rochester Shire was amalgamated with Echuca and other surrounding shires to form the new Shire of Campaspe.

Drought and Flooding was an early problem for Rochester and the surrounding farming community. In 1890 the Campaspe Weir was completed on the Campaspe River about seven kilometres south of Rochester, around the turn of the century the then Water Supply Department constructed a weir on the Goulburn River near Nagambie with a diversion channel carrying water for storage in the Waranga Basin near Rushworth. The Waranga- Mallee Channel was completed in 1909 allowing Rochester access to Goulburn Valley water.

The availability of a reliable water supply led to a rapid expansion of farming activities including horticulture and cropping. After the Second World War dairying became established in the district as did tomato growing. Both industries have developed considerably and are important contributors to the area’s economy today.

In 1940 the Rochester Co-operative Butter & Canning Co. built a cheese factory in the town. Over the years it expanded until in 1963 it amalgamated with the Murray Goulburn Co-operative. This factory has gone from strength to strength after having completed $12 million & $40 million expansion programs from 1994 to 2000 it is now one of Australia's major dairy processing plants, with total milk intake over 750 million litres and peak daily intake in excess of 3 million litres and now employing over 200 people.

In 1954 Rochester celebrated its centenary with a visit from a newly crowned Queen Elizabeth 11 on Friday March 5th. Over two thousand people thronged the streets, crowds the like of which were not seen again until the 1994 celebrations for cycling legend Sir Hubert Opperman’s 90th birthday and the unveiling of his life size bronze statue.

Sir Hubert was born in Rochester on May 29th 1904 at what is now 1 Moore Street near the Rochester Hospital.

In 1964 construction of Lake Eppalock on the Campaspe River near Heathcote was completed. The lake provides a major water storage for the Campaspe Irrigation Area and is extensively used for recreation purposes. It also assists to control flooding in Rochester, which had at times been under as much as a metre of water in thc town centre. In 1967 a pumping station at Corop, 17 kilometres south east of Rochester was opened to pump excess water from Greens Lake into the Waranga Mallie Channel.

Rochester has continued to develop into a modern service centre for the surrounding agricultural area and looks forward to the future with confidence.

END OF CUT AND PASTE

New Family Photos

BACK AGAIN SOON STAY TUNED……………………………………….

Willow Dinner Sets and Other Kitchen Wonders

2009-03-18T04:30:00.000+11:00

17 March

Willow Dinner Sets and Other Kitchen Wonders

I remember back in the days when mobile phones were just a fantasy, and Mc Donalds was just someone's surname.

MY FAVOURITE DINNER SET ……….WILLOW

I had a favorite dinner plate , a blue etched willow plate made in England with Japanese artwork, telling a story about 2 lovers and a bridge. we did not have a full set just a couple of plates and a few bread and butter plates, maybe a bowl, my memory is not so good these days.

Many a meal those willow plates have been a part of my life, and in my mad rush to regain things from my youth, these plates have resurface again from my memories of life in another era.

KITCHEN HUTCH EXACTLY THE SAME AS MY DADS………

Strange how things can come out of the blue, we were just looking at a kitchen hutch, strangely exact same design and colour as my fathers, who also had a plate collection displayed on it, though not a willow design, My childhood plates was for general use in the kitchen.

So Willow Dinner sets are now on my list, of must have things to relive and remember times past

. I’ve just spotted a English Churchill Willow Dinner Set advertised online from Big W for $59,

Sounds like a bargain, So I decided to save up for a set, hopefully purchase it in the next few months.

SOME MORE FAMILY PHOTOS

Below is a rare picture, rare as in there is not many recent photos of Patrick, Barbara and their two daughters Sandy & Karen

pictured together in a family Photo, always seems to be one of those four holding the Camera.

FROM LEFT TOP TO BOTTOM RIGHT SANDY, BARBARA, KAREN & PATRICK DUGAN

SANDY

KAREN

BARBARA

PATRICK

That’s all for this blog………………Blogging your way soon.

My next Big Buying Craze

2009-03-17T02:52:00.000+11:00

16 March

I've been looking at a few odd things on EBay lately, with the purchase of the Sony Camera only a few days away, and just the batteries to complete the Camera setup, what's next ?.

Mobile for Jessica, though its hard to find the right one on EBay, in most cases it would be better to buy one new and local, with bidding wars so high, it just not worth chasing a secondhand one, with the possibility of making a bad purchase or finding one at a reasonable price, might be best left for Sandy to choose from a local store on special.

Ventriloquist Dolls, always has been a favorite dream to be able to throw ones voice and bring a puppet to life, but the high cost of a good Ventriloquist doll made it very unaffordable.

Meccano sets, good fun to make some models, but will it just used a couple of times and then stored in the cupboard, the same with the Irish whistle something I'm not sure about, but would like to try,

But at least the Irish whistle is rather inexpensive, well under $20 I cant go too much wrong that way.

learning to read music again would be a good worthwhile challenge for me, and may even get me to take the guitar out of the cupboard and start practicing with that as well.

Stay tuned over the next few days as the new Sony camera will take the limelight, with pictures and a hands on test.

Till next time take Care.

Family Photos on from the Sony W55

2009-03-15T00:54:00.000+11:00

14 March

Family Photos on from the Sony W55

Just added some family photos from Sandys new camera Enjoy.....

Jessica & Sandy using the self timer on the Sony W55

Sandy's Dad Patrick

Sandys Mum Barbara

Yours Truly The TigerKraw

I hope you like them more photos soom.

Sandy's Camera Arrived today.....yippeee

2009-03-13T12:32:00.000+11:00

13 March

Sandy's Camera Arrived today.....yippeee

Well against expectations, the Sony W55 is here, and its nice, it has little wear and the display stickers still on front of the camera showing off its features.

first thing was to reset the camera to try on fix the broken flash, guess what, IT WORKED !,

Thanks to research on the net, we turned a $30 Ebay camera into a $100 Camera, because the flash now works fine.

There is a slight crackling noise when you turn it on, I will research to see if that is normal.

Pictures and video are great with and without flash, some pictures for you from Sandys new camera.

Sweety Close Up

Tweety at Home

More of Sweety

MOV01057.MPG Small Movie of Tweety taken with the sony W55
Warning about 11 meg download, took a few minutes to download it here, also needs quicktime

Will try to do some family portraits next, will keep you posted.

Take care.................

Music boxes, Meccano Sets and Metho Engines

2009-03-13T03:50:00.002+11:00

12 March

Music boxes, Meccano Sets and Metho Engines

Now with the Camera almost in my hands, whats next for our intrepid prolific Ebay buyer.

Some things have entered my mad mind on what to do next. Music boxes, Meccano Sets and Metho Engines

Strange they all start with the letter M. Oh well Mad Mind also has Ms, must be an affliction when I was dropped as a baby.

Anyway to brighten up my Daily blogs I decided to add some Cartoons for you viewing pleasure, I hope you like it.

Have a good day,

I'll be Back Blogging soon.

Wednes March 11th

2009-03-11T17:38:00.000+11:00

Next week is not far away, with a Sony Camera coming in the mail by Friday or Monday next week, and a Sony W150 waiting for me at Dick Smith with $75.00 to go, we have an interesting week of pictures to take and post on my blog for all to see.

Life is dangerous at the moment, writing Blogs for all to see can lead to repercussions, mainly Sandy's Dad Patrick was not impressed on the look alike comparison between himself and old father time, insisting that his beard is much shorter. Though with a fake beard and a Sickle he would indeed look the part.
Joking aside, Patrick is a really nice man and I like eating his Ginger biscuits.

I had a bid on a Samsung S750 Camera on ebay, it has a great set of post editing and fun functions you can play with after you have taken the photo, I later learned that the 7.2 Megapixel Sensor is not that great, there is even a video on YouTube with that camera getting smashed by a sledge hammer.

Smashing a Samsung S750

I have now learnt my lesson and will now do much more research before bidding on a camera

time to cook tea, spaghetti Bol awaits....................Well the ingredients are waiting

I'll be back in the blog chair soon

Be good.

Public holiday slows down camera delivery :(

2009-03-10T17:55:00.001+11:00

So much for public holidays for Grumpy pensioners, kids home from school, and whats worse, the post office closed for the long weekend.
hopefully the Ebay camera will start to make its way from New South Wales tomorrow, and with any luck will be in my hands by Friday, or I'll be pulling out my grey hair one clump full at a time to pass the weekend.

On the Ebay bidding front, I put a bid on another Sony camera, The Sony DSC-W50, a six megapixel camera, almost identical to the W55 7.2 megapixel version which released about twelve months later than the W50, and the good thing is that the battery and charger is compatible with the other two Sony Cameras.

This Camera is currently in my bidding range of $20 and could possibly win it. That's if a bidding frenzy doesn't happen in the last few minutes, knowing my luck I'll be out bidded, because the Sony cameras are currently in high demand, either in working condition or seriously broken. There is definitely a market for these cameras

We got a new layout for our computers this long weekend, with the new desk to rest our computer gear and Xbox 360s, affectionately known now as Microsoft corner Bill Gates has taken over. No room for Apples and I-pods here. Thanks with the Help of Neale and Sandy who did most of the work.

Coming down to about ten days for the Lay-buy for the Sony W150, starting to feel a bit tense, and I thought going through puberty was bad !

Coffee has also changing in the household with the ever expensive Nescafe 43 now thrown out of the window as a unaffordable luxury, in its place is the poor excuse for dish washing detergent International Roast has graced our bench and our floor, I'm so bad with Tea Spoons, give me a dessert spoon any day.

Sandra's Dad, Patrick wanted a picture of old father time for the local band, I did'nt have a heart to tell him it was a portrait of his good self.

Thats all for tonight, catch you later, and be good

To Be continued.