Khe Sanh

Cold Chisel
Khe Sanh
Words and Music by Don Walker

I left my heart to the sappers round Khe Sanh
And I sold my soul with my cigarettes
To the black-market man
I've had the Vietnam cold turkey
From the ocean to the Silver City
And it's only other Vets could understand

About the long forgotten dockside guarantees
How there were no V-Day heroes in 1973
And how we sailed into Sydney Harbour
I saw an old friend but I couldn't kiss her
And she was lined, and I was home to the lucky land

And she was like so many more from that time on
Their lives were all so empty
Until they found their chosen one
And their legs were often open
But their minds were always closed
And their hearts were held in fast suburban chains

And the legal pads were yellow
Hours long, paypackets lean
And the telex writers clattered
Where the gunships once had been
But the carparks made me jumpy
And I never stopped the dreams
Or the growing need for Speed and Novacaine

So I worked across the country from end to end
I tried to find a place to settle down
Where my mixed up life could mend
I held a job on an oil rig
Flying choppers when I could
But the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend

And I've travelled round the world from year to year
And each one found me aimless
One more year the worse for wear
And I've been back to South East Asia
You know the answer sure ain't there
But I'm drifting North, to check things out again

Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone
And only seven flying hours, and I'll be landing in Hong Kong
And there ain't nothing like the kisses
From a jaded Chinese princess
I'm gonna hit some Hong Kong mattress all night long

Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone
You know the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone
And it's really got me worried
I'm going nowhere and I'm in a hurry
You know the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone

Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone
(Yeah, yeah)
You know the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone
(Well) It's really got me worried
I'm going nowhere and I'm in a hurry
You know the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone




The above is as close as I can make it to what I hear--as sung by Jimmy--when I listen to this classic pub song; your mileage may vary... :)

For the "official" lyrics, follow this link (hosted on Cold Chisel's official site).

For a rundown on what some of the lyrics mean in the first verse, follow this link to a Wikipedia article about the song and its popularity and history.

And if you're really that curious to hear the song, you can watch it below... just ignore the slight time sync problem between the audio and video :)

Happy Guy Fawkes Night (??)

Not sure what the correct celebratory name is for Guy Fawkes Night (aka Bonfire Night and/or Fireworks Night) but happy celebration anyway, Britain, for yesterday (5th November).

Strangely enough, I wouldn't have known about this, except for a friend from the UK asking me whether my dog had been scared by the fireworks. :) I was at a bit of a loss to work out where the fireworks came into it, as the only fireworks around here are usually let off July 1st (and then intermittently every now and then during the following months as some stupid git finds an unexploded cracker or cache of fireworks and decides to annoy the hell out of his neighbours...) :(

Anyway, for all the Brits (and I believe the Kiwis and some Canadians too, who've inherited the tradition from their past as colonies of Britain) I hope you had a great Guy Fawkes Night.

Update

:)

Just for you, Matty.

P.S. Stop staring at random strangers during lunchtime...! Sorry, mate, couldn't resist. :)

MD

MD is a friend (and ex-colleague) of mine who moved to Groote Eylandt (Dutch for 'Big Island') in the Gulf of Carpentaria.


(the island in the middle of the green square is Groote -- click on the picture to make it larger)

He has a photoblog of his island home, which is well worth checking out. Besides the really nice scenery of the place, his photoblog shows some of the other attractions of Groote. In particular, fishing and the GEMCO manganese ore mine (also worth a look).

So, if you're interested in checking it out, head on over to My Eylandt Oasis...

Shout out to MD if he's slumming it here! :)

Catch up...

I had something of a momentous nature occur last week. Over a three day period the following happened:

• Thursday, 29th June: Final day working for my (now) ex-employer
  
• Friday, 30th June: First day working for my new employer
  
• Saturday, 1st July: Dana's birthday & Territory Day (2-for-1 deal)
  

I guess I should explain that Dana's my dog... :) She's a 5 year old chihuahua/fox-terrier cross, and my beautiful baby! I'll try to dig out some good photos for a future blog, but I don't want to bog down this blog as a showcase to my dog. :)

Sadly, Saturday was also 'Territory Day' (note: this is a link to a PDF document), which is our self-government annual celebration (harks back to July 1st in 1978 when the Northern Territory was granted the right to make its own laws and govern itself (for the most part), instead of being governed from Canberra...)

I say 'sadly' because it's marked each year with public firework displays--anyone can buy and let off fireworks on July 1st, between the hours of 6pm to 11pm, even though lots of people don't follow these rules, nor do they heed their own or other peoples' safety--which cause a lot of grief to pets, especially dogs. Poor Dana suffered in fear most of the evening, and nothing I could do could really settle her down... :(

Anyway, this is just a catch up posting in case anyone is interested <grin>... it's not often that three days in a row like the above occur. :)

Pete.

Happy Birthday, Sis...

[She's going to kill me...!] :)

Happy Birthday, Maria. Many Happy Returns!

*hugs*
Pete.

Fair round

In what I hope is a full on trend reversal, I actually managed to tip more than 2 correct games in the AFL on the weekend! *shock* *gasp* *horror* :)

I got 6 out of 8 this past round, which is about 4 points better than I've been doing in recent rounds. Just wish I had thought to use my 'double up' (which doubles your points effectively), so I could have got 12 points instead of 6 for this round. Sadly, we only get one chance to use our double up, and I wasn't game to try it after the appalling lack of luck I've had with the AFL tipping recently.

In related matters, I'm not doing too badly in the NRL tipping competition (similar to the AFL comp., but obviously for Rugby League instead of Aussie Rules), and even used my one double up chance this past week. As I got 7 out of 9, that was effectively 14 points points for round 11! Yay!! I'm really pleased with that. It got me higher up the ladder, but sadly I'm still about 27 tippers away from the top of the leaderboard. :( Still, I'm happy with my progress on the NRL tipping... just wonder why I'm not doing as well with the AFL... *sigh*

And we breath a sigh of relief...

Unless things change drastically, it looks like Monica's over and done with. In the end, even though Darwin was 'hit' (i.e. she passed over us), by the time she reached us she had pretty much blown herself out and was only a tropical low (rain depression). We only suffered some not-so-unusual windy gusts and a lot of rain. Better than the alternative though.

The communities of Maningrida, Milingimbi, Oenpelli, and Jabiru were all affected, and will require assistance with clean up, power/water restoration, rebuilding, etc., but thankfully (and I hope I don't hear otherwise) no one was killed or badly injured.

Let's hope that's an end to it.

Update: STC Monica

For those who are interested...

STC Monica Photo Archive (especially the 'Satellite Photos' album)

In particular, the following photo shows how well developed and clear the 'eye' is...



Just wish it wasn't bearing straight for us... :(

Monica

Well, the next 24 hours should prove interesting...

Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica (aka Typhoon 23P), a Category 5 cyclone, is heading this way.

I'm hoping we won't feel the full brunt of the cyclone, but it seems likely there'll be an impact on Darwin, even if only marginally. Worst case scenario doesn't bear thinking about... :(

The links to the Bureau of Meteorology site will likely become invalid after the cyclone's gone, but in case anyone is interested right at the moment, I've included them below.

• Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica Advice
  
• Current Track Map (showing where she currently is)
  
• Forecasted Track Map (showing where they predict her to be in the next while)
  

Note: the above links have been removed, as they are no longer valid [28/04/06 - Pete]

Wish me, and everyone else in Darwin and the Top End, the best of luck.

Online library of public domain classics

A mate of mine overseas is reading an old classic at the moment -- Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

That prompted me to include the following link, which is to Project Gutenberg, an online library of public domain literature. Classics like Dracula can be downloaded in a variety of formats (can include PDF, HTML, plain text, avi movie file, mp3 audio, zipped and/or unzipped versions)¹ for your enjoyment. You'll be amazed at what's on offer from the Project Gutenberg library...

Note ¹: available formats vary per title, but at a minimum there will be a plain text version of each title...

Happy Easter

For all those who celebrate Easter, have a happy Easter. For those who will celebrate Easter next week (i.e. Greek/Eastern Orthodox Easter, which falls on Sunday, April 23^rd, this year) have a happy Easter next week.

And for everyone else, try not to overindulge in chocolates... *lol*

Envious of the Brits...

I am so envious of the people in the UK and Ireland at the moment...

In a matter of a few short hours, they'll be able to watch the first episode in the 2^nd series of Doctor Who (on BBC1) entitled 'New Earth'. There's no official word yet when the ABC (our equivalent of the BBC) will screen the series -- at least when I last checked...

The other thing that bugs me about all this is that the ABC hasn't purchased the rights to the supplemental programmes (i.e. 'Doctor Who Confidential' and 'Totally Doctor Who')...

On the bright side, at least they will show the 2^nd series some time this year... that's a start.

Just wish I could have seen it today as well...

Don't ask... Power Rangers: Mystic Force theme song lyrics

Power Rangers: Mystic Force - Theme Song

Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers...

All right, let's go, it's time to turn it on!
To set the record straight, rock on to go right the wrong! (Yeah!)
Fight evil, Rangers' powers standing strong!
We got it going on! (Mystic Force! Yeah!)

Stop, breathe, Rangers here, there's no need to fret.
We're the one's that will make a way; here to make a change.
When there's troubles we don't play, we come together to save the day.
Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go (Yeah!)

Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers! (Mystic Force, Go! Yeah!)

Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers! (Go, go, go, go, Yeah!)

Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers! (Yeah!)
Here come the Power Rangers! (Mystic Force Let's Go! Yeah!)

Note: Just don't ask why I've posted this... :)

I knew it

Well, not surprising really... Collingwood were soundly thrashed by Adelaide (by 34 points no less!)

Still, I hope that means I've used up my store of atrocious luck, and things settle down for a while. I can only hope.

On a brighter note, St. Kilda's loss doesn't seem that bad anymore... *lol*

I should've stayed in bed...

Bad, bad, bad day today...    :(

Nothing's gone right... breakfast, well that was fun...! The lady making my sandwich toasted it (though I didn't want it to be toasted), then dropped it on the floor. She then tried a 2nd time, and once again toasted it. I also bought a sausage roll for breakfast [the link is for anyone who doesn't know what a sausage roll is -Ed], but that ended up on the floor too, this time once I got into work. *sigh*

I popped out a little while later to get a coffee from the local Gloria Jean's franchise, and my bad luck continued -- I suspect the milk was slightly off. Was too down (or resigned maybe?) to bother taking it back.

In an attempt to limit my run of bad luck, I did not step out of the office until it was time to go home.

I'm just hoping the bad luck doesn't extend into tonight... I've tipped Collingwood to win tonight's match against Adelaide, and if they don't win, then I'll only have 2 points for the first round of the AFL (out of a possible 8). Not good.    :(    Mind you, 3 out of 8 isn't that much better...

Anyways, there you go. Hope your day has been a lot smoother sailing than mine.

Welcome

Just a quick explanation of the blog title... though I'm jumping on the blog 'bandwagon', I'm not someone who spends a lot of time jotting down his thoughts, impressions, or stream of consciousness. :)

This means that the blog will be updated (at best) in a 'patchy' fashion... unless of course the 'blog bug' bites me big time and I start posting more frequently. I wouldn't bet on it though... :)

So, "Infrequent" seems an appropriate title at the moment.

For those of you who read this first post, Welcome! :) And thanks for taking the time. I hope you manage to get something out of this in the future.