This is the sequel to "The Motley Expeditions". I decided to produce a new of website to document our life after the Motley.

Towards Transition Barraba

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The Motley Expeditions

Views from the Other Side

Strolls in the Bush

Travels round my Family

My Life as an Engineer

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Eco-Camping Australia

The Australian Skeptics

My Daughter's Blog

My experience with Apple software is much less good than it used to be.

I need to scan all the 35mm slides I took in my time in England.

I have not been able to find a slide scanner with MacOS compatibility. We bought a scanner which has a Windows driver believing that we could install a partition with Windows on the MacBook so that I could install the Windows driver and scan the slides.

I was advised to use BootCamp to enable me to install Windows. I had considerable trouble getting BootCamp to install as I now run MacOS10.6.2 and I had to download a new version of BootCamp. When I did this I was amazed to see that the download was a .exe file rather than an Apple app. Every time I tried to get BootCamp Assistant to run I got an error messages that said "You must update your system software before using this setup assistant". I don't understand this as I regularly use Software Update to keep my system current and running Software Update again did not provide any system updates.

I tried to run the downloaded version of BootCamp (the .exe file) but it cause CrossOver (a program designed to run Windows apps in MacOS on intel machines) to take over without success. I guess I will have to seek help from others who have had the problem I and having with BootCamp. I am irritated that Apple offers the means to run Windows apps on intel based Mac computers but the software they provide spits the dummy and the error messages are incomprehensible.

I have been using MacOS since 1984 and have only had problems like this in the last couple of years. I know lots of products and processes have problems like this now but I believe that the companies and organisations which create these problems are not focussing on proper product or process specification and Quality Assurance. I know this sounds like I think the world is "going to hell in a basket" but that's because I do!

The Global Financial Crisis was a real demonstration of systems which are "broken" and the failure of most world governments to recognise that Climate Change and Peak Oil are looming problems that will cause massive economic problems if we continue "Business as Usual" is a very scary prospect.

More Culture in Barraba

Last night we went to the Playhouse Theatre for a live performance by a three man American group called Sound and Fury. Their piece was Private Dick which is a comedy about private detectives and their work.

The audience was so large that Andrew Sharp had to put an extra row of seats at the front of the theatre. Everyone enjoyed the performance and the cast were impressed with the enthusiastic response from the audience,

I did my usual thing of publicly thanking the cast for their contribution to our culture\al experiences and congratulating Andrew on his efforts to further the towns cultural development.

Eco-camping Australia is changing its registered proprietorship

I had a phone call from my partner in Eco-camping Australia. He recently paid the registration renewal fee. His accountant remarked that I was listed as the sole proprietor.

This was because I registered the business name when we were first establishing the organisation and the local Fair Trading Office used my name and address.

I visited the local Fair Trading Office in Tamworth today and they have given me forms to change the registration details.

News of the Barraba River Landcare Group

We had our first meeting of the year last night and were told that the application for the grant from the Namoi Catchment Management Group had fallen through because we could not get all the information required before the deadline.

The meeting agreed that we should continue our efforts to return the river to its pristine state by fixing up the problems of weeds and invasive species. In order to give ourselves other avenues for obtaining grants, we need to detach ourselves from the Tamworth Manilla Landcare Group and incorporate our group. This will require some funds so we agreed to raise an annual membership fee of $20 per family. It was proposed that we run a market stall to raise funds from the community.

I raised a couple of issues and was asked to take on the work needed to pursue these. One is a study of the techniques used by the Quirindi Landcare Group to achieve their great river clean-up. The other was to seek scientific evidence that the proposed project is the best way of dealing with the problems in the river. I will be happy to pursue these and hope to make significant contributions to the work of the group.

Yesterday I managed to finish the mowing of the back lawn which had grown about a foot high as a result of the Xmas rains. I was impressed this morning to see that the birds were really happy to be able to feed on the mowed lawn and I saw Kitty, the next door neighbour cat, happy the have somewhere nice to prowl.

I need t revise my approach to this site

I have been trying to rectify some problems with my iPhoto library and have had to use the information in the earlier version of this site to confirm information about times, dates, and places of events.

This use of the earlier entries made me realised that my present technique of simply writing essays when prompted by external information leaves the site lacking in any concept of the history of our lives.

From today I will try and return to the diary style I used to adopt.

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