A riding acquaintance is Herb. Rides like Lance Armstrong at the age of 87!
Pretty active chap but how active? Well at coffee after a ride he was missed. Where's Herb someone asked, and another replied...He dropped off to go to his 55th daughter's birthday party.
29.7.05
26.7.05
Christmas in July
The town of Young is situated in the south west region of southern New South Wales, and for the more pedantic, 34' 18" south and 148' 18" east. For the cyclist, a more informative description is that it lies at a point for which no matter route you take to leave, there is an uphill climb of 3 to 7 kilometres, phew, it's hard work to leave the place! It's a rural center and before rationalization and globalization, an industrious little city.
So Young was where so 40 of us gathered on Friday night to partaketh in the annual Xmas in July ritual and for the unitiated, this ritual is ride most of Saturday, have Xmas celebration Saturday night and then ride again all day Sunday before coming home.
The Saturday ride was reasonably hard, east to Murringo and then north to Bendick Murril for a break at the pub for some morning tea, though some found better things to drink at the pub. Then off again, up an endlessly log hill to the 'Sunnyside Rose Gardens'.
This place was quite unique, a restuarant catering for I gather mainly bus tours, but we and our 40 bikes were made most welcome. Lunch of soup and sandwiches followed by cake and tea. And then, the owner gets up and gives us a speil and tells us he's a bit of a poetry reader and off he goes, Mulga Bill of course followed by a few others, he was just great and a fine time was had by all.
Then off we went again, up even more hills to a ridge line where most took off to see a castle, but, like a few other saner people, I turned south to head for home. There were some big hills, and the only saving grace was the downhill ride for the last few Ks into Young.
Christmas dinner went off OK, we had our crackers and caps and christmas pud and all in all a pleasant evening. Went to bed early, though the young ones played on and watched the TDF. I needed my beaty sleep!
Sunday saw an 8:30 start, up a 7 Km hill, it just went on and on and after about 20 Km in all we turned right into Barawang Rd and dropped into 'Sheppards Moon Vinyard'. It was a welcome break but as a non drinker, vinyards aren't my cup of tea so as to speak. Then we headed off to the twin towns of Harden/Murrumburrah, more hills!
Lunch had been organized at the 'Terracotta Restaurant'. A quaint old place well decked out. Soup, sandwiches and coffee were provided for our eleven dollars and we were about to leave when mein host announced that he was a bit of a poetry reader and off he goes with a few poems, excellently presented and throughly enjoyable. Guess poem reading is all the rage in that part of the world!
So that was the end of the weekend, I had come down by car with another rider and he had done an early morning run to position the car at Murrumburrah. Just a couple of hours we were home again. Great weekend.
So Young was where so 40 of us gathered on Friday night to partaketh in the annual Xmas in July ritual and for the unitiated, this ritual is ride most of Saturday, have Xmas celebration Saturday night and then ride again all day Sunday before coming home.
The Saturday ride was reasonably hard, east to Murringo and then north to Bendick Murril for a break at the pub for some morning tea, though some found better things to drink at the pub. Then off again, up an endlessly log hill to the 'Sunnyside Rose Gardens'.
This place was quite unique, a restuarant catering for I gather mainly bus tours, but we and our 40 bikes were made most welcome. Lunch of soup and sandwiches followed by cake and tea. And then, the owner gets up and gives us a speil and tells us he's a bit of a poetry reader and off he goes, Mulga Bill of course followed by a few others, he was just great and a fine time was had by all.
Then off we went again, up even more hills to a ridge line where most took off to see a castle, but, like a few other saner people, I turned south to head for home. There were some big hills, and the only saving grace was the downhill ride for the last few Ks into Young.
Christmas dinner went off OK, we had our crackers and caps and christmas pud and all in all a pleasant evening. Went to bed early, though the young ones played on and watched the TDF. I needed my beaty sleep!
Sunday saw an 8:30 start, up a 7 Km hill, it just went on and on and after about 20 Km in all we turned right into Barawang Rd and dropped into 'Sheppards Moon Vinyard'. It was a welcome break but as a non drinker, vinyards aren't my cup of tea so as to speak. Then we headed off to the twin towns of Harden/Murrumburrah, more hills!
Lunch had been organized at the 'Terracotta Restaurant'. A quaint old place well decked out. Soup, sandwiches and coffee were provided for our eleven dollars and we were about to leave when mein host announced that he was a bit of a poetry reader and off he goes with a few poems, excellently presented and throughly enjoyable. Guess poem reading is all the rage in that part of the world!
So that was the end of the weekend, I had come down by car with another rider and he had done an early morning run to position the car at Murrumburrah. Just a couple of hours we were home again. Great weekend.
17.7.05
Photography
Bought an SLR in 1969, took thosands of photographs, but as time moved on, couldn't even remember what some of the shots were all about. Eventually my usage of the camera dropped to a roll a year perhaps.
Then in March of 2004, did a cycling trip and borrowed a digital, that was interesting, and a few months later, borrowed it again for another trip. But for the third trip, I bought a 3.1 mega pixel special and just started clicking away.
You develop another mindset with a digital as no doubt all owners of digital camers know. No longer do you have to worry about the cost of film and printing. You just click away and delete anything not worth keeping. My grandkids borrow the camera when they visit. They take 100s and recently have been using it to make short movies. They think its great.
Now I am going to try and find out how to put one of my better shots on the blog. Mmmmm, I have uploaded something, but where is it? ..... a little later, I found it at the start of the post, and then re-editin the blog, I simply moved the relevant code to the bottom of the page where you will see it.
One of the grandkids
Then in March of 2004, did a cycling trip and borrowed a digital, that was interesting, and a few months later, borrowed it again for another trip. But for the third trip, I bought a 3.1 mega pixel special and just started clicking away.
You develop another mindset with a digital as no doubt all owners of digital camers know. No longer do you have to worry about the cost of film and printing. You just click away and delete anything not worth keeping. My grandkids borrow the camera when they visit. They take 100s and recently have been using it to make short movies. They think its great.
Now I am going to try and find out how to put one of my better shots on the blog. Mmmmm, I have uploaded something, but where is it? ..... a little later, I found it at the start of the post, and then re-editin the blog, I simply moved the relevant code to the bottom of the page where you will see it.
11.7.05
Agorithm::LUHN
My second problem this week concerns the generation of Invoice/Reference numbers with a check digit.
The finance organization required "details of the algorithm generating the check digit" and then as an aside said, for example "Mod 10 v01"
So a bit of googling and hunting around lead to installing Agorithm::LUHN off CPAN.
Works real fine
The finance organization required "details of the algorithm generating the check digit" and then as an aside said, for example "Mod 10 v01"
So a bit of googling and hunting around lead to installing Agorithm::LUHN off CPAN.
Works real fine
Config::General
Couple of problems this week. First was find a simple method of storing and accessing a home grown configureation file in the style Description Tab Value.
There are probably a 1000 different ways of getting at the contents of a such a file.
This is an example, a simple text file and while I could write a small program to parse and feed the Description=>Values into a hash, thought I would try Config::General Turns out to be an OK program.
and this little program results in the output below
-------------------Program-------------------------
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use Config::General;
my %config = ParseConfig("rcfile");
while ( my ( $key, $value ) =
each(%config) ) {
if ( ref($value) eq "ARRAY" ) { print
"$key\t@{$value}\n" }
else {
print "$key\t$value\n";
}
}
__END__
--------------------Output--------------------------
----------------------End--------------------------
I don't recommend anyone include monetary charges in easily amended configuration files. Too easy to change!
There are probably a 1000 different ways of getting at the contents of a such a file.
This is an example, a simple text file and while I could write a small program to parse and feed the Description=>Values into a hash, thought I would try Config::General Turns out to be an OK program.
horse grey
banana yellow
cow brown
cow blue
MainPhone 4556666
FaxPhone 3337777
SecretaryFullName "Helen Smith"
SecretaryName Helen
MembershipFees $40.00pa
and this little program results in the output below
-------------------Program-------------------------
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use Config::General;
my %config = ParseConfig("rcfile");
while ( my ( $key, $value ) =
each(%config) ) {
if ( ref($value) eq "ARRAY" ) { print
"$key\t@{$value}\n" }
else {
print "$key\t$value\n";
}
}
__END__
--------------------Output--------------------------
banana yellow
cow brown blue
SecretaryName Helen
SecretaryFullName Helen Smith
MainPhone 4556666
FaxPhone 3337777
MembershipFees $40.00pa
horse grey
----------------------End--------------------------
I don't recommend anyone include monetary charges in easily amended configuration files. Too easy to change!
7.7.05
Farewell Tom
People come into your life and sometimes they go, leaving you to muse "wonder what happened to...". Well in Tom's case, he came and stayed and it was a pleasure to know him and say farewell today at a lovely service with his kids giving a naturally emotional eulogy.
His coffin was draped in the the flag of his homeland, Norway. In his youth he had been part of the resistance, and there were many ex servicemen there to honour him. Later he came to Australia, married and by the time he left us, his eldest grandson had turned 21.
Eric and Allison were the older children, Paul and Marie, twins, were the youngest and it was through my eldest daughter and the twins that I came to know Mr B as he was affectionately known.
Farewell for now Tom
His coffin was draped in the the flag of his homeland, Norway. In his youth he had been part of the resistance, and there were many ex servicemen there to honour him. Later he came to Australia, married and by the time he left us, his eldest grandson had turned 21.
Eric and Allison were the older children, Paul and Marie, twins, were the youngest and it was through my eldest daughter and the twins that I came to know Mr B as he was affectionately known.
Farewell for now Tom
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