A Multinational Trojan Horse: The Trans-Pacific Partnership.
May 13, 2015
January 20, 2015
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 32 trips to carry that many people.
January 3, 2015
January 2, 2015
December 28, 2014
Hail and Farewell…
I’m writing this note to anyone who is still interested in reading this blog, to let you all know that this blog will no longer be available after New Year’s Eve, as I do not intend to continue paying for the ‘professional’ version of WordPress (no reflection on them at all, btw…) I’m not sure whether or not it reverts to the ‘free’ version of WordPress or not… If it reverts to the free version then perhaps this blog will still be available at astyages.com.au (note the ‘dot-au’ at the end!) And if not, anyone still interested in reading my work will be able to find it posted, as I did with this blog, one post at a time, on Tsu.com Hope to see you there! (BOTH of you! 😉 )
August 12, 2014
“God On Our Side” written by Bob Dylan; performed by Astyages.
It’s been a long while since I posted anything… Phew! December! How tempus fugits! Anyway… Lately I’ve been spending most of my time over on FB… doing a lot of blogging there in protest at the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel’s IDF… This song is my own personal rendition of an old favorite of mine from Bob Dylan, which expresses exactly how I feel about religion and war!
Enjoy! And please let me know what you think! 🙂
December 22, 2013
Life as a Dalek by Astyages
English: 2008 Shoprider Rainrider all-weather mobility scooter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With the most immediately important repairs to the city of ‘El Dorado’ completed I began to resent my inability to do much in the house or garden and being thus obliged by circumstances to hire others to do what once I could have happily done myself. But worse still was the inability to get ‘out and about’ due to the limits of my ability to walk and stand, which has made doing my shopping my one major fortnightly outing and one which usually leaves me stiff as a board with backache as well as extra-sore feet.
Then I had a revelation, as I opened the gates to ‘El Dorado’ to get my car in (no remote-control on these ancient iron gates…) when a passing dalek stopped and, instead of uttering the expected ‘EXTERMINATE!’ laughed to see me limping around opening gates to get the car in and said, “Ya orta get wunna theez mate!”
He was right, too! So I did.
In exchanging emails with my old mate, Phil Rebe in Perth, I decided that such a mobility scooter was going to be needed if I were to be able to negotiate the airport and wander around Perth much. I found daleks (as I prefer to call ’em instead of ‘gophers’… I mean, who wants to be a ‘gopher’? BTDT! But a dalek, now that could be fun…) can be taken on trains and even buses… thoughI haven’t been quite adventurous enough to try the buses… yet.
I can’t describe how much more freedom this little scooter has given me; I now go out for a ‘walk’ (well… perambulation, I suppose would be more accurate!) almost every day and can get to Elizabeth and/or Munno Para shopping centers easily; the large bag on a rack behind the seat carries quite a lot of groceries.
But to really show how much my mobility scooter spells ‘freedom’ to me, I can say it got me to Perth and back in good order and charge to spare! (Of course, the trains and planes helped a lot, too!)
An Imperial Dalek flies up a flight of stairs (from Remembrance of the Daleks) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I call them ‘daleks’ because I can just imagine how the notorious Daleks evolved from ‘wheelies’ like us (as the air stewardesses like to call us…) out of an extremely useful, but also extremely vulnerable, form of transport: First the armored exterior and bumper is added; then the weapon for self-defense (initially, at least) and the sucker is a good way to scab free rides from passing cars…
The stewardess who was pushing me through the airport enjoyed my theory, anyway. “You sound like you have it all figured out…” Charming girl… And I must say a huge THANK YOU to VIRGIN AIRLINES and their staff for all the help and care they took with me and my dalek… which are allowed to ride for no extra charge as ‘checked baggage‘.
I’ll write more about the actual trip and all the fun I had in Perth in a day or two; maybe even submit it to the Pigs’ Arms Bumper Xmas Edition, as editor Mike has requested a contribution from yours truly. I’ll see what I can do Mike! 🙂
Anyway, that’s all for now… Much more later!
Asty
November 14, 2013
El Dorado
Hacking my way through the dense undergrowth, I finally entered El Dorado… The city (read ‘my new house’) lay in ruins (a terrible exaggeration; but in need of some repairs anyway!) and had evidently been abandoned for some time. The ruins, upon closer inspection, showed signs of a recent battle and dark deeds done in the distant past… (read: there’s a flaming BULLET-HOLE in one of my bedroom windows, that I didn’t notice before… covered with sticky-tape! AND there’s what looks suspiciously like a bloodstain on the wooden floor of my lounge!)
The peasantry (sorry Peter! Just kidding!) was mobilized to clear the undergrowth (a much better description than ‘lawn’…), but professionals had to be brought in to deal with two enormous triffids that were attacking the city walls… The first attempt was less than successful even so as the monster-plant’s root-system broke the chainsaw and blunted the axe; reserves had to be sent for before the evil critters were finally destroyed, or so I am assured, so now work can start on rebuilding the city…
Most of the guttering was done yesterday, and the concreters have been booked and should arrive someday soon I suppose… My pergola is already dismantled and my lovely verandah out the back is going to have to be deconstructed before the hole can be dug for the underpinning… I’m told it’ll all be over by Christmas… Now where have I heard that before? (Seriously, I’m told it’ll take a ‘couple of weeks’… Hmmmm builders estimates… 😉 )
Speaking of which, I now realize their quote doesn’t cover the cost of a water-tank to plumb all my downpipes into either… so that’s a bit of a shock to the system… gonna cost up to another three grand… but there may be a local council rebate scheme… gotta check the council too for a garden waste bin… Crikey! It never ends… all these new responsibilities… AND I STILL can’t find anyone to come in and clean for me… floors need doing badly… Oh well… first things first… off to pick up my pension and supplies… More later.
Asty
September 23, 2013
Burning Boats
I’m sitting here now amidst the smell of burning boats…
Today the ‘cooling off’ period is officially over; so I’ve engaged a conveyancer and a removalist and, most nerve-wracking of all, posted off my notice to terminate my current lifetime (LIFETIME, Dave, you stupid prick!) tenancy with Housing SA and heading off to the relative insecurity of home ownership…
But they say there’s someplace up ahead called ‘El Dorado’, or some call it ‘Shangri Lah’… Or ‘Nirvana’ or some-such… So I’ve burned my boat on the shore and am heading inland… Egads! The jungle’s dense though! So much foliage to hack one’s way through (read ‘paperwork’!)… I begin to wonder if I’ll ever make it… with the Precious ‘n’ all… I can see the foothills of Mount Doom now… just up ahead… Oh well, here goes nothing! Just one leap into the void… now tell yourself Dave, “There IS a bridge there! There IS a bridge there!” Now, Dave, JUMP!
If I get the place fixed up properly now, with a bit of luck, it should be twenty years before it needs major work again; time enough to see me out, I think; but I’m gonna start saving the pennies anyway… just in case!
😉
July 16, 2013
Wagon Train
Wagon train HALT! Look… those vultures are beginning to circle… they’ve spotted prey… and I think it’s US! What’s that up ahead… looks like a bacon tree.. No! By Gar! It’s a hambush! We’re about to be bushwhacked!
Those bloody bureaucrats from the Death Star are after the Precious… but the Precious is MINE! They shan’t have it!
Seriously though folks… just when you think it’s safe to go back in the water…
I finally thought I had things settled with Centrelink and had fulfilled all their obligations etc, when I get another letter which effectively is about to take away any possible interest I may or may not make (it is deemed I do anyway!) on my ‘lumpsum’… which translates into a reduction in my pension of another $84 pf… I say another because I’ve just had TWO… count ’em, TWO hefty $30 increases to my rent from Housing SA on account of the increase in income represented by my being on the pension…
At this rate I’ll be back to living like I’m on the dole in next to no time unless I either a: start using the ‘lumpsum’ (the ‘Precious’) for living expenses or buy a house… and then the house becomes the ‘Precious’… in a different form, but one in which the value of the ‘lumpsum’ will not only remain undiminished but may, in fact, be reasonably expected to grow… and, best of all, as it is to be my primary residence, it will not be included in the assets test, and so I should return to the full pension rate.
Now, I’d kinda halfway planned on buying a house, but as that involves giving up the security of a ‘lifetime tenure’ with Housing SA, and as the Precious was earning interest (though not as much as will be ‘deemed’ by Centrestink!) I was rather taking my time; thinking I had the luxury of time to take!
However, it now turns out that the sooner I buy and move into a new house the better… so I’m going to have to pull my finger out and get my skates on!
Not sure when I’ll have the time to post anything ’til all the dust settles from the move… but I’ll post what I can, when I can…
In the meantime I must apologize for the disappearance of some of my more recent musical posts; I was deleting a lot of old recordings from my hard drive ’cause they were just taking up too much space and these must have been deleted along with them as ‘source’ files… No big deal; I have some very nice recordings that are even more recent and I’ll post them as and when, too… First couple should be up some time soon…
‘Bye for now,
Asty
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