@matigo Egypt was a staging post, no enemies or fighting. In Syria and Lebanon the conflict was against the Vichy French. Dad only actively fought against Japanese, bureaucracy and disease.
Today, November 11th in Australia is Remembrance Day. We honour the lives of all who have served this nation with a minute of silence at 11am.
I remember and honour my late mother’s father, who lied about his age in 1915 and went to war in France and Belgium aged 17. He was wounded in his left leg and walked with a limp for the rest of his long life before being claimed by pneumonia in his 91st year. He worked seven days a week to keep his family safe, secure and educated and was never financially secure until he and his wife were on the aged pension.
I remember and honour my late father, who served in Syria, Egypt, New Guinea and Borneo between 1941 and 1946. Never a big man, in the Shaggy Ridge campaign in New Guinea, he lost four stone (28 pounds) in weight when he contracted malaria. Once you’ve had that, it never leaves your system. He suffered frequently from this in later years, succumbing to cancer twenty years ago.
Went hunting locally for a 1-litre vacuum flask today. Had to go two suburbs west to find one, then decided not to buy it as it was of lesser quality than pricier items.
Settled for a 1.2-litre one instead (which could have been purchased locally).
A couple of days ago the sun was out and I took the mobility scooter for a trundle, taking a thermos of coffee and my Kindle. I found a nice shady spot and the one regret was I ran out of coffee because the flask was too small.
@variablepulserate The clip failed, weak return spring. I should have been using the more modern belt which had a clip fitted with a safety catch.
@variablepulserate It was the day I stopped smoking. Tuesday, February 20th, 1990, 1:30pm. I was on a ladder at a utility pole which was beside (almost touching) a newer one. I had to transfer the telephone cabling and fittings from the old to the new. I was leaning back into my pole safety belt and realised my level was too low. I leaned forward and flipped the bight of the belt upward behind the pole, climbed one rung higher and leaned back into the belt. No good, still too low. Lean forward, flip belt climb higher, lean back.
Next thing I know I'm leaning impossibly far back and the belt clip is no longer retained and has vanished behind the pole.
With an almighty thud I landed on the only wooden fence post, the point of impact being 70 cm left of my lower spine. All other fence posts were steel star-pickets, so I had at least avoided impalement.
Then I bounced off the post landing back first onto a concrete footpath. I soon determined the most comfortable position was with my left knee raised and the left foot flan on the ground.
My workmate called an ambulance which took over 45 minutes to arrive from its depot 8 km away. I was taken to a major hospital where X-rays revealed I'd dislocated my right hip and fractured the left pelvis in three places.
I spent the next 16 days in hospital on strong painkillers every four hours. I was away from my regular workplace and duties for six months.
Thus I can claim broken fingers as minor injuries!
Damned arthritis in three fingers is happening today. These fingers fave suffered fractures in minor industrial accidents over the years.
On Monday I deleted my Twitter accounts. I’d had enough of the bitterness and poison.
@variablepulserate That and an arnica level around 20x that of similar products offer. What that list should have shown was those figures were per millilitre of product.
