Three 20 cent coins, similar but totally different.

I work at a Kiosk at the local Railway Station, selling Newspapers and drinks etc. As such, I handle a lot of coins. Not all are Legal Australian Tender however. These days many people travel overseas and bring back coins from other countries and either deliberately or accidentally these or some at least, end up in circulation. Some of the more obvious ones are easily detected and taken out but not all are so easily detected.

One day I picked out a couple of “strange“ 20 cent coins. But only because I saw their reverse side, which is so obviously different to the Australian coin, as to be noticeable to most people.

However when turned over with the “head" side turned up, it is not so noticeable on either coin without close inspection.

So If I was to put a Fijian, a New Zealand and an Australian 20 cent coin heads up on a table, I suspect very few Aussies would be able to pick the Aussie coin without inspecting them all closely.

This reminds me of many things in life. They are not the real thing but are often taken for and even used as the real thing. But they do not stand up to closer inspection and in the end are not “legal tender”.

What about you? Are you the real deal? Or are you just a facsimile of the real thing? Perhaps like the Fijian and Kiwi coins, you are the real thing in your own place but are currently in the wrong place? You may be getting away with it now but you will be found out in the end. Best to correct the situation now and if you are of the wrong currency, it is best to voluntarily remove yourself from circulation before someone else does it to you.

Because in the end, some one will notice and then it will be too late! Way too late. Over to you: Walter

Labertouche Caves.

While the tiny township of Labertouche is well signposted and only a couple of hours drive from Melbourne, the area where the Caves are, is rather remote, and unsigned and down three or four unnamed or rather unsigned roads. If you didn’t know where the Caves were, or didn’t have someone with you who knew the way, you would never find them. Even when you get to the right spot, you wouldn’t know it, as there are no parking areas or signs on the dead end track that passes for a road. Just a faint foot track leading down the bank! Down, near the top Cave entrance, is a sign warning of the danger of getting lost in the cave and advising hiring a guide. Despite this the caves are very popular. According to last weekends Paper, annually, they are the most visited caves in Victoria. The fact that it is still free and unregulated might help there!

Our son and his friends are into 4 X 4 driving, Hiking, Bush walking, Rock climbing, abseiling and also Caving. All in a small way only! Anyway about 18 months ago he came home and said he and a couple of his pals had just gone through Labertouche caves and were thinking of going back again later. I pricked my ears up at this, as I had gone through the caves previously with my brothers, as part of a bigger group, about 30 plus years ago and registered my interest in going again if possible. So did a few others it seems and on Australia Day 2006 a dozen of us went up there in three vehicles.

As there were so many of us, we went in in two separate groups, each led by someone who had been there recently. I was in one group and my son in the other. We abseiled down a few feet, in from the bottom end and worked our way up. As soon as the last of my group was in we went on through, while the other group waited till all there team was down before starting through. We did hear them a couple of times, but otherwise had no contact with them till they were out. We did one time, have to squeeze into holes and cracks, to let another team pass us as they came from the other way, and another team went in just after we came out. We went through with some difficulty, as in many places the way is tight and there were many false or misleading trails, all well worn by now. There were white reflectors at various places to mark the main trail, but they weren’t always obvious.

Anyway my team got through and then waited for the other team. We waited and we waited and close to two hours after we came out, they did too. They didn’t acknowledge that they were lost just that they missed the main trail and went a different way. That team, by the way, had two in it who had been through the cave only a month or two before. My team only had one, plus me who had been through 30 plus years before and from the other end.

This all came back to me over the weekend as three people, 2 who had been there before and familiar with the caves, were lost in the caves and feared injured or badly hurt. They went in for the 2-3 hour journey and were reported missing 7 hours later.

It turns out they were only lost and a Rescue team found them 11 hours after they went in, safe and sound. The sole lady with them reported that they were greatly relieved and cheered up immensely, when around mid-night they heard a cheery “Oi" from the searchers, to which they joyously replied to.

So it ended up happily for them but a few thoughts came to my mind as I reflected on both their and our experience. The first two are sayings that my Mum used to always say.

1. “Familiarity breeds contempt”. It seems that when we think we know what we are doing we just don’t take the same care and responsibility, and often find ourselves, if not outright lost, certainly on the wrong path.

Remember! Those signs are there for a purpose; To warn of potential danger! Not as a decoration or as a job for a Sign writer, but as a warning. So take heed and take care and don’t become blasé because of familiarity.

2. “There is safety in Numbers”. That is in the number of teams rather than the number in the team. It was good that there were three in the team but it still would have been better, as in our case, if there had been other teams around. Whether they be of your own group or even complete strangers

3.Another point was, after doing all they could, all they could do then, was sit there and wait. Hard to do when you don’t know what is happening. But sometimes not only is it all you can do, but sometimes it really is the best you can do. They were lost but not injured. Had they wandered around continually, they could have been very easily.

4. The last point I reflected on was the difference in spirit a warm and welcoming word can mean. It was obviously a little time still till the rescuers actually met them face to face, but that friendly “Oi” made a world of difference to the people lost. Knowing there were others there, relieved them of all their fears, and all they had to do was wait. Much easier when you know what is happening.

What about you? Are you perhaps over familiar with the events around you and not taking the proper care and responsibility? Learn now before it is too late.

Are you trying to be Macho and do things on your own when you should be part off a team? Or even Teams?

Are you just running around blindly, when you should be sitting still and taking stock of your situation and waiting either for help or the right time?

Finally are you perhaps in need of a friendly word. Perhaps even you might be in a position to give someone else an encouraging word. Sometimes that is all it takes to make a difference in someone’s life An encouraging word!

Who can you encourage today? Why not do so? Walter

Looking for a snake, expecting to find a Lizard, but finding ?

In my last article, (with a similar title) I mentioned that when I heard my daughter’s dogs barking, I went looking for a snake, expecting to find a Lizard, but found an Echidna. I also mentioned that upon finding out what it was and assessing it as being of no danger, both I and the dogs left it alone and went about doing other things.

As I was walking away, George was hanging back a little but I noticed that the other dog, Charlie was already away standing on the ramp looking up at the sky and barking. Upon closer inspection I noticed that he wasn’t barking at the sky, but at the Rainbow Lorikeets, eating pears in the old pear tree above his head.

They were so quiet that had not Charlie spotted them I would not have seen them either. As the pears are old, small and off no value, they were again not a problem and again left alone.

Rainbow Lorikeets although not native to our area have become rather common of late and no real surprise to see there, but they are very pretty and always worth a second or third look.

I wonder how many other things off beauty there are around us that we miss out on enjoying, simply because we are not either looking for them or not properly looking at all around us but simply focused on what we want or have to do? Likewise I wonder too how much we do miss because someone else has seen something of interest but has kept it to themselves rather than tell us about them we miss out on the pleasure we would otherwise have gotten.

What about you? Are there things that you have missed out on because you didn’t look for them, and only heard of later when it was too late to do anything about it?

Likewise, are there some things that others have missed out on simply because you never took the trouble to point them out to others?

This is not an invitation to be a sticky beak or to continually bother others with every trivial matter under the Sun, but if there are things of beauty or value around us that we know that others would value and appreciate, then we should make the effort to share that news with them.

What say you? Walter

Looking for a snake, expecting to find a Lizard, but finding an ?

If you have read my “Snappy Dogs and Blue Tongue Lizards” article, you will know that I regularly take our Children’s’ dogs with us when we visit my mother. Also you will know that when we go there, they occasionally stir up a Lizard or two which are harmless and encouraged, because my Mum believes they keep snakes away. You will also know that when the dogs bail up a Lizard they bark like mad and I always go and check, just in case they do actually put up a snake.

The other day we were up there and I was down at the woodheap when they started barking and I went up just to check. As the Title of this article suggests, looking for a snake, expecting to find another Blue Tongue Lizard, but initially finding nothing.

However I did notice a pot plant lying on its side by a cut down tank, now converted to an above ground veggie plot. At first I thought that one of the dogs, George must have knocked it over using it as a stepping stone to jump up on the Tank veggie patch, as he has done more than once before. So bending down I put my hand out to pick up the pot and suddenly jumped back as I saw what had knocked the pot over.

At first I didn’t know what it was, which is what frightened me. However I quickly identified the cause of the disturbance. It was not the dog. It was not a Snake. It was not even a Lizard. I kid you not, it was an Echidna. (Pronounced “Ee-kid-nah) Now an Echidna in itself, although spiny when aroused, was not necessarily dangerous to me, it was just so totally unexpected that I involuntarily jumped back. When I realised what it was and that it was not rolled up into a spiky ball I realised that it was not dangerous to the dogs or me if I left it alone. So I did. Also much to my surprise so did the dogs. When they found that the Echidna did nothing but try to dig itself deeper, they too left it alone.

Thinking of this later I realised that I was initially surprised, even scared of this unexpected turn of events only because I didn’t initially know what it was, nor was I even remotely expecting it. But once I knew what it was and that it proposed no danger to me or mine I was no longer afraid or even bothered by its presence and after examining it a bit, I left it alone and neither of us bothered the other, although we both remained in the same area for another 3 or 4 hours. I did however go and tell my wife and Mother about its presence so close to the house.

How often is this true of many situations in our lives? How often have we been frightened of the unexpected and the suddenness of events? But once known and assessed are no longer a concern for or to us.

How many times do we also stir up trouble for ourselves, like I or the dogs could have if we continued to annoy or bother the Echidna? Echidnas are Australia’s version of a hedge hog and commonly called Spiny Ant Eaters, as they both eat ants and ball themselves up into a spiky spiny ball when attacked.

Although this was the first I have seen so close to the house, (but the second sighting of this one,) they are not that rare in the bush, although not always so obvious in daylight. In fact I have seen at least 4 in the past couple of months. Obviously the ongoing drought has driven him to come closer to civilization during the day.

Again this is also often seen in our every day lives. Sometimes situations change and like the above mentioned Echidna, we also have to make temporary changes to our normal routine. This can also put us into new and strange and frightening situations.

The big question is how are we going to react? Are we going to be aggressive and attack everything new, strange, or unexpected? Are we going to curl up in a defensive ball? Both are equally negative results or reactions!

Or like me eventually, are you going to asses the currant situation, and when found not to be a danger or problem leave these non problems alone; and like this Echidna, just get on with the job at hand. In his/her case digging for ants.

Now I am not suggesting you give up what you are doing and start digging for ants, but simply to assess each and every situation, as it arrises, rather than attacking every thing new or unexpected, and simply get on with your life. More in another article: Walter

Headaches, pillows and a pain in the neck.

Back in the early 90’s, when in South Africa, I started getting mysterious stomach pains. After many tests it was finally diagnosed as a Spastic Colon (I think it is called Irritable Bowel Syndrome here) and put down to stress. From that point on my spastic colon basically behaved itself but I have suffered ever since from Headaches &/or Migraines.

Naturally due to the stress of our premature and totally unexpected return to Australia in late 2002, these headaches continued upon our return here. In fact during early 2005, despite less stress than previously, they seemed to get worse. After more medical tests I was advised by my Doctor to do some basic neck exercise, which greatly reduced my headaches and reliance on medication.

Earlier this year we heard of a special pillow for people with neck problems and even though expensive, I bought one and found it very effective and had used it ever since. (Not only that but recommended it to others!)

A couple of weeks ago, I started getting more regular and more severe headaches than I had had before. Early this week as I was driving for work I rubbed my neck and realized that it was sore. Then it hit me. Since I have had the new pillow, I had given up on the neck exercises and thus my headaches were back because of this.

This reminded me of a basic fact of life; whether it be our physical life or our spiritual life as Christians.

Often we know what we need to do to solve a problem or situation, and indeed do it for a short time, and then try something different and/ or new and then promptly forget about all what we practiced before, often, like with my neck, to our detriment. It seems that we have very short memories, and only remember “the Truths” of life when it personally touches or pains us.

Also with my neck, I also realized that now, instead of helping my neck, somehow, someway, the pillow was now stretching it to a place that was causing me problems. It seems that I may have used this special pillow just a bit longer than was both necessary and good for me.

This too, seems to be a factor in some of our spiritual life as well, where we sometimes have need of a “Temporary” aid of some kind but get so used to it that we “forget “that it was only meant to be temporary and we either forget or are reluctant to, give it up and rely on it longer than is necessary and even sometimes longer than is good for us.

What about you? Are you overly relying on a now no longer needed “Temporary” aid of some kind, instead of relying on God?

Every Blessing in Him, Walter

An unmade road from the beginning till now.

The area where My Grandfather bought property in the early 1900’s was long surveyed into blocks and roads marked on Maps, even if not constructed. The unformed roadway that ran past our house was one of them.

My grandfather first bought a house and land package of 20 acres, next he brought four acres or so across the Watson’s Creek, and then 12 & 20 acres next door and Dad finally added the final 20 acres in the 1960’s, bought from the daughter of the then deceased neighbour Mick, next door.

Although these blocks all adjoined and thus became one holding, they were all on separate Title Deeds. To add to the confusion, these blocks were spread over two Shires at the time. In fact the house was in the then Eltham Shire and the access (Supposedly) from an unmade Road, which ran literally through the Healesville Shire property.

I say supposedly from this road because when the Road was properly surveyed in the 1990’s it was found that the access track and Bridge over the Watson’s Creek, was actually in Dad’s property and not along the road reserve proper. (A fact that Dad had often recalled, to any who were interested!) When the track was first put in, it followed the path of least resistance and not a map line.

Anyway, originally all this Map marked road was, was a track to Grandfather’s house, with a bridge over the Watson’s Creek near the house. Apparently whatever bridge was there originally, was destroyed by the 1927 Bushfires that also destroyed the original house. (This fire is not to be confused with the more infamous fire of the year before in the same area.)

Thus the replacement original bridge that I remember was put in and maintained originally by the Healesville Shire. Sometime in the 1960’s it was repaired and re-decked, again by the Healesville Shire; but later, in the 70’s when a big Gum tree branch fell on it and broke one of the bearers, the Healesville Shire were slow to come to the party and repair it again, claiming they had no records of the bridge and that in fact it was a private bridge and not Healesville Shire’s responsibility. Eventually they compromised and provided a new wooden bearer for the bridge but Dad had to fit it and repair the bridge.

Now this bridge was only ever constructed from Bush timber and so although big was not all that strong and had its liabilities, so Dad came up with a system that worked well for many years. Although he, himself would use it for his own light truck, he would never allow heavy trucks to use it, for fear of it collapsing under the extra weight.

As I said, originally the “Road” only went as far as the house, but during the depression years, our neighbour Mick, as part of the Sustenance Program then running extended it by cutting another track from it along and into the side of the hill roughly along the line of the proposed road site, using a pick and shovel. Now Mick had two blocks backing onto each other stretching from the made Road in front of his house to this unformed Roadway at the back. When he did this Sustenance Program, he only cut the road along the length of our property and his and stopped.

(Apparently he had other plans to rent an adjoining property and remove all the timber for firewood, using this new access track. However it seems the owner of the other block got wind of his scheme and so when she leased it to him she had a clause put in preventing him from cutting down any trees, and only able to collect what was already fallen. But that is another story so we will go back to the original.)

So although this Road, according to the map at least, ran from a major artery at one end to a minor access road at the other, it was never even a rough track for the majority of its length.

Although Mick cut the track to have road access to his back block and the adjoining Timbered block, it was never really used by anyone until around the 60’s and even then more specifically & particularly, after the 62 fires, when it was used a lot by Dad, Mick and the neighbour with the adjoining blocks, and even then mainly to replace burnt out fences and such. It was used a bit more by us when dad not long after brought Mick’s block.(We kids also used it a lot in the 60’s to get to one of the neighbour’s Dams which he had turned into a swimming hole, complete with Diving board and Change Shed etc, but again, that’s another story.) Despite all this it was still not greatly used.

This changed greatly from the 80’s when the neighbour sold his property, also made up of many blocks, to Bob. Now Bob was into Earth Construction and also into subdivisions, so he put in a new heavy duty bridge just up from Dad’s, on the proper Road site and Bulldozed the road along much further, but also like Mick, he only went as far as the end of his property and now 6 homes/families, apart from us, use this Road daily or more.

Bob deliberately stopped at his property’s end, as he did not wish to have this road become a through road with its resulting extra traffic using what is still largely a one lane road.

Now when Bob wanted to subdivide, actually to re-subdivide as the original subdivisions and Title Deeds were already separate, the Shire told him if he put the bridge and road in, they would maintain both, which they have. So that is the basic history of "our" road, as I remember it.

In its long life time this originally long surveyed and named road, has had limited usage, because of various restrictions and lack of need. It is only recently that there has been a real need for this designated road to become an actual usable and useful road.

What about you? Using Road terminology, What type of road are you?

A line on a Map, but unusable in reality? Only partially constructed? A temporary structure?

One limited in usage? Or one that is versatile & permanent?

One that goes all the way? Or one that only takes you halfway?

Well that’s my musings for today. Over to you. Walter

Empty, Full, Halfway? What next?

Do you sometimes feel that no matter what you do, you can never win? It seems to happen to me all the time. I am in the habit of visiting my elderly mother every Thursday and along with visiting her, do some odd jobs around the garden including watering the pot plants and garden around the back of the house.

Being rural living, water is scarce and conserved where possible. Most of the watering is done by hose with Dam water. However water is also salvaged from the shed roof into an old Bath situated in the yard near where I water from. So as not to waste valuable rain water, I was in the habit of emptying the water every week when up there. Nothing had been said as to whether this was good or bad, for months.

However a couple of weeks back, my sister pasted on a message from my brother forbidding this, as he wanted the water left there for emergency supplies in case of fires, which recently was a genuine concern. So before leaving, I filled the bath up with Dam water, and went home. Since then it has rained reasonably well.

This week I went up there and my brother was home and lamenting that since I filled the bath up with Dam water, it rained and extra precious water was wasted because the bath was full. So the upshot is he now wants the bath kept, just a little over half full, so as to have a bit each way. Some water always there in case of fire, and some extra room for extra rain fall.

My problem is that I prefer solid rules that never change; and not rules that are not only flexible but are dependent on the opinion of someone else who is seldom there when you are, and so the rules can change without you knowing nothing about it but suddenly held solely responsible for an action that is not normally wrong but suddenly is, but by the next time you do it may be right again. Not good for the nerves!

So how does one deal with this? Actually you may be able to help me there, because normally I would walk away from a situation like this. If this happened at my place of employment, I would find another job in a less stressful situation.

However in a family situation that is not possible, and I am just going to have to put up with it as best I can. Sometimes, in Nautical terms, you just have to Trim your sails to the prevailing winds or stay off the water. It is not possible for me just now to stay off the water, so I will just have to keep hanging in there and keep tacking according to the prevailing conditions till I can remove my boat from the water.

I’m not happy about that, but sometimes hanging on in there is the only sensible way to deal with a situation. How about you?