Jim's Home Page

My friend Graham passed away today, after battling a brain tumour for over two years. Such a tragic loss at his age. My thoughts are with his family.

From my grandfather's diary, 25th April, 1916:

"Puddlewaite and Whitmore, two men from B Company were killed by shell fire.

Working parties on their way to the line are very exposed until they reach the entrance of a communication trench called V.C. Avenue.

It was here that O'Leary of an Irish regiment won the V.C. in 1915.

This trench is very well constructed and is well protected from shell fire, but the front line on this sector is only a wall of sandbags and we are continually repairing gaps caused by enemy fire.

Only three shells land in the camp area but not close enough to cause any harm."

Lest we forget.

I went and saw my mate in hospital today.

Thirty years ago I first met him. He was twelve and I was thirteen. We were both in the Australian Naval Reserve Cadets. I remember him rising in the ranks, just as I did. I remember us both being devastated when we had trained for months to do an armed guard for the presentation of the Queen's Colours at H.M.A.S. Narimba to the cadets, only to have all the media that was supposed to be at the presentation divert to the Milperra Bikie Massacre, which happened on the same day.

I remember sailing with him, and rowing (a 16 foot whaler! and kayaks) I remember rifle drill practice until we thought our arms would drop off. I remember nights when we were older, going out to Manly and drinking beers, playing pool, winning more often than not; talking to our mates. I remember back at his place, teasing Max the parrot and getting bitten by her, having a few more drinks, listening to good music and watching movies. I remember appreciating the brilliant aircraft models he'd made, displayed proudly on his shelves.

I remember trips out west with the telescope, and being blown away by the beauty of the skies, and freezing our tits off on one of the coldest nights Oberon has ever seen (as we found out the next morning). I remember drinking a beer in the Oberon pub later that day and saying "What an amazing night!" and he said "Lucky we didn't freeze to death!" And we laughed about it.

I remember what he was doing for a job, and another friend of mine and myself saying "You can do better than that" and riding him like a jockey until he finally succeeded in a better career; one which seemed to be lurking just around the corner, just waiting for him to discover it.

I remember getting a phone call from him when I was back on holidays from my job in America, and him asked me "Are you sitting down?" and being told he had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.

I remember thinking to myself "I've given up nearly nine years of my life working in America away from my friends in Australia. I've achieved my goals here. This is the trigger to bring me back to Sydney." And I came back.

And over the last two years, we've renewed our friendship. And everything even seemed to be going well after he was operated on, and he went into remission. I thought to myself, "Thanks to modern medicine, I'll enjoy my mateship for years to come".

Sadly, it does not look like it will work out that way, although I hope I'm wrong. Last Thursday, he had a seizure, and was hospitalized. I saw him today, and I'll see him in a couple of days time. And days after that. I'll be there for him, as he's been there for me in the past.

I went and drank bourbons and coke in his honour tonight.

God I'm upset.

Recently, Nancy and I went to the Old Manly Boatshed to catch the last bit of a Jeff Duff gig. I mentioned to Nancy that I'd love to see Jeff in front of a big band again, as that night he just had keys, bass, drums, and sax. And what do you know? Nancy called me the following day to say that Jeff was playing an upcoming gig at the Basement with the Ed Wilson Big Band. Wow.

So Nancy booked some tickets, but unfortunately for her, she had to go to Melbourne over the weekend, and I ended up going last night with John and Helene.

It was a wonderful night. Jeff was on form, and Emma Pask was singing as well. And the band was tight. The only problem was that I had to get an expensive cab home, as the ferries had stopped. Can't win them all.

Went and saw Steve Edmonds at the Steyne Hotel last night. Awesome gig. Lots of people there too, including Mark and Donna, Nancy, Dan, Pete, and Dave.

Wow, bit of a busy weekend just past. On Saturday, I helped the guys from Gyroscope set up for a gig at the Fisho's. A really long day followed by an awesome gig, including two great support bands: Red Distress, and Trial Kennedy.

Then yesterday, I went out to the one day cricket. I didn't stay for the entire match, but left at about 8 PM as it was getting a tad chilly at the ground. But as Australia batted first, I got to see all that, including a wonderful 124 off just 133 balls by Ricky Ponting.

I left when India was 4 for 58 or so, thinking that there was no chance for an Indian comeback. It turned out I should have stayed, as Gambhir scored a nice ton. But I was back in Manly in time to see the last 10 overs, and a (reasonably) comfortable win by the Aussies.

Turns out the slave hard drive on my primary PC had died in such a way that it wasn't allowing the BIOS to recognize the primary drive. After some troubleshooting, I discovered that unplugging the secondary allows the PC to see the primary again, and wiped my brow in relief as I didn't have to reinstall the entire operating system.

On the down side, all my music was on the secondary, so it's time to re-rip it all. This might take a while with approximately 1000 CDs...

Bah! Got up this morning early to go to the cricket only to find my primary PC dead in the water. The power was on, and the disk activity light was hard on. I left it powered down and went and watched the first day of the second test between India and Australia.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat, only to fall to 6/134. Then a great partnership between Andrew Symons and Brad Hogg saved the day, to see the Aussies 7/376 at stumps on day one.

A great day's cricket.

Happy New Year! I had a quiet night, just having a few drinks with some friends at the local, and was home in time to watch the fireworks on TV.

Hope you all have a great year.

OH NO! I've just discovered that 20th Century Fox have completed a movie to be released in 2008 based on one of the better science fiction books - and one of my personal favourites - "Jumper", by Steven Gould.

And it only gets worse: Hayden Christensen to play an emotionally and physically abused 17 year old with morality problems? The mind boggles...

Oh and forget that the movie plot has little or nothing to do with the plot of the book. I doubt I'll be hurrying to see this one.