Saturday, August 26, 2006

And To My Great Uncle Michael

My fathers mothers brother Michael Peile died in action at El Alamein - flying RAF hit by shrapnel as a soldier. Now I know the manner and the action in which he was involved and died - I am suddenly saddened personally by the loss. It never really touched me before - he was just my grand mothers dead brother, now he's a hero!
Thanks Uncle Michael!


Posted by: Jethro | 4:28 AM |

Choked up

I have tears streaming down my cheeks.

For the last three days I have read Tobruk whenever I had a spare minute. Tonight I had to finish it. It is 4am and I have just finishd reading what is probably the most moving book I have ever read. The number of times I have cried in the last few days...

I'm still sniffling.

If you didnt know.
Tobruk is a new book just published in Australia by Peter Fitzsimmons telling the story of the mighty men who fought and died in Tobruk, buying relief for Egypt and the Suez Canal with their blood. The only battles that Rommel and his Afrika Korps couldn't win.

The awe inspiring story of Australia's first ever VC awarded posthumusly (as they usually are) to Jack Hurst Edmonson who saved his mates life after 4 bullets had ripped through his body; of Jack Johnson who died running relief to the men in belegaured positions, leaving a wife and 8 children. To the curious mateship that sprang up between the men of the Afrika Corps and the Rats of Tobruk that still exists today.

Hail you mighty men of valour! May we always remember your deeds and your lives of courage and honour.

Lest we forget...


Posted by: Jethro | 4:05 AM |

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Lebanon

My brother Dave wrote an interesting article about the conflict in Lebanon
I also wrote a comment that I have reposted here

hey dave

innoncence can certainly exist in this sort of situation
think of all those under age of reason or who live at home and have no choice but to be there: they are certainly innocents.
think of all the landholders and business powners who lived there prior to the hezzies moving in - they may have no where else to go, or no where withall to leave
think of the non combatant personnel - the nurses and doctors, the accountants even! some of these may be volunteering to be there, some may be there for other reasons.

life is never quite so cut and dried and black and white as we wish!

still good questions you raise - and certaionly food for thought that we don't become complacent. I'm reading some history of the second world war and the lead up time was significant as the major powers were basically very complacent toward Germany, although Hitler had been active since the 20s in politics.


Posted by: Jethro | 12:18 AM |

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

back and broken

Dear Diary
Well I’m back - sorry about being away.

Lots of stuff happening
I need to blog more often
My new contract has blocked blogger as a website - so ill have to write in notepad and email myself to blog from home
I've got lots of good stuff to post too - check the other spy journal sites for that.

Broken - I broke my little toe tonight
Serves me right I should have known that kicking the shower tiles wouldn’t actually break them!
So I spent 5 hours at emergency waiting - good thing I took a great book to read. I recently bought the new book Tobruk by Peter Fitzsimmons. From what I've read so far it is fantastic. So well written - almost novel like. It is the factual accounts leading up to and including the battles at Tobruk by the Australian armed forces in World War 2 where we held out against Rommel's Africa Korps.
The author has spent 2.5 years in research and it shows. It is fantastic!

Anyway toe is bandaged and needs to be kept that way for a week before I go to my GP for a check-up. I’m currently buzzing along quite nicely on painkillers! Seeing as Jude has gone to bed I am in the theatre room listening to music while blogging, emailing and doing some work I" was supposed to do tonight and didn’t cos I was at the hospital.

In other news - there’s been a lot happening. Church has taken a huge amount of my time lately. Apart from the fact that I have a contract to supply their accounting and reporting (I am the Finance Manager) there have been lots of other issues. We have just gone through a leadership crisis.
Our Senior Pastor is now on extended leave for psychiatric care and rehabilitation. This has created some gaps in leadership. Some of us men have felt called to work into these gaps and this has meant some time. I am also the coordinator of the missions team, the website coordinator, IT champion for the office, Finance Manager, a home group leader and run the monthly LAN parties. That’s enough!

I have been enjoying kicking the AFL ball in the park with my "play date". Bloke up the road and I take the kids to the park - they play we kick - though it will be standing still catching Frisbee for a while now with the broken toe. Pity too because I was starting to get good at taking one handed marks.

Ok the rest of the news can wait til another time. It’s all good though! Really - even the broken toe is good! I just need to wait to find out why.

Later diary...


Posted by: Jethro | 11:44 PM |

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Old and new

We have had a lot of old and new lately.

I have finished my contract with the coal mines for at least 6 months. I have started a new contract at QIC amongst a lot of other business that is coming our way at the moment. We have several people working for us on projects at the moment.
Here is a picture of my desk at QIC.


I got a new laptop recently as the old one died after a car hit a power pole near our place causing a power surge. So I have had the pain of having to set up and install applications. Still its nice to have a new one!

We recently upgraded our sound system.
We went from a home thearter in a box type of system with a a rear projection TV to a full home theatre. I bought:
Yamaha RX-V1600 7.1 dual zone THX AV amp
Sony DSTHD500 Digital Set Top Box
Samsung DVD HD860
Dali Speakers
Concept 8s for the front, Concept 1s for the rears, Center Concept and Sub Concept
Benq PE7700 DLP Home Theatre Projector
2C See IT Projector Screen
I have used Pure AV HDMI cable for component internconnet
and 40 metres of speaker cable at $6.50 a metre.
Then I threw in a Soniq 19" LCD TV for the kids to replace the little old 34 cm TV.

Now go and add all the retail prices up! I paid a lot less!


Posted by: Jethro | 10:54 PM |