Six hundred grams. A medium bottle of distilled water.

That is all I am allowed to lift with my right hand and arm at this moment due to my recent heart attack.

Here is my Facebook post of Wednesday 20 January at 13:35 [square brackets indicate additional thoughts not in my original post]:
Well, everybody else has been posting about me and my heart attack, so it’s high time I did so!
Firstly, thank you to all of those who have been sending their wishes, greetings, prayers, thoughts, and similar tidings. While I have to admit I felt pretty crook during Monday, with all you guys praying for me, I am now feeling better than I have for days, weeks, or perhaps even a long time!
I am still [20th January, 13:35]  in the Coronary Care Unit at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, but will be moved “upstairs” to a ward, probably some time today.
Perhaps it is a good idea to share about this experience so that if any others have similar symptoms they might seek assistance BEFORE they actually have a heart attack.
I go to the gym nearly every day and I noticed that I was having to slow down the treadmill because I just felt unable to walk as fast. I was gradually slowing over several weeks. At this stage I didn’t have any of the standard chest pains that are associated with heart attacks, I was just feeling less and less fit and more and more tired. When boxing with my trainer, my punches seemed to be losing strength, weights seemed to be becoming harder and harder to lift. I should have been getting fitter, but my general fitness seemed to be slowly getting worse and worse.
I had no idea that one of my coronary arteries had closed up until it was 99% blocked.
On Saturday 16th Wendy and I cleaned out the shed. I had to keep sitting down for a rest and my upper arms were aching terribly. I felt sure the physical work I had been doing shouldn’t have made them hurt that much. [I thought perhaps I might have pulled a muscle or two when my upper arms started to hurt really badly.  I had none of what I had thought of as the classic heart attack symptoms: shortness of breath, sweating, or chest pains. The niggling thought did cross my mind, “What if the pain is in your heart?” but I dismissed that thought with a silly comment like, “I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve!” So I just kept right on cleaning out the shed.]

On the Sunday 17th, I rode my motorbike to church and was surprised at how heavy the steering felt. In church I felt so much pain in my upper body it was like I was coming down with the ‘flu, but without other ‘flu symptoms. I was prayed for at church and had no more pain for the rest of Sunday.

Monday [18th January]  I went to the gym and was feeling very lethargic when I did my session with my trainer. I felt very week and was getting extreme pain in my upper arms.
Home again by midday I had so much pain I took a couple of pain killing tablets (and I literally never take those things) and went to bed. Upper arms were so painful I couldn’t find any comfy position to lie in to alleviate the pain.
4pm I took another couple of pain killing pills and noticed that the pain was across the top of my chest as well. Now thoughts about the possibility of a heart attack began to surface. But I was neither short of breath nor sweating and I assumed that both of those were signs of a heart attack.
8pm saw me taking two more pills but with no relief for the pain.
Midnight saw another dose of pain killers and Wendy said, “we’re going to the hospital.”
Only a few moments after arriving there, the doctor had determined that I was having a heart attack.
This post is already too long, so I shall continue the story in another post.
Sufficient to say I now feel very fit and healthy, although the health experts warn that I must now take things very easy.
The most important part of this post is to say, if you do find yourself getting weak and having unexpected aches and pains, have your heart checked before you actually have a full-blown heart attack! [end of FB post Wednesday 20 January at 13:35]

Here is my Facebook post of Thursday 21 January at 16:06 : Still in hospital where various procedures have resulted in various bits of diagnosis.
My first echocardiogram yesterday afternoon indicated the possibility of a thrombosis near the bottom of the left ventricle. That would have meant the need to take warfarin and have daily blood tests for the rest of my life. However the contrast echocardiogram conducted this morning cleared me of any thrombosis, so my medication will be much simplified from here on.
I shall be kept under observation until tomorrow morning and, assuming all is well, I shall be unhooked from this “spaghetti junction” of wires and technological marvels, and sent home.
I am really looking forward to that!
The tests have shown that my heart is now working at an efficiency of [36%], so I will need to be very gradual about returning to any exercise.
I will not be permitted to drive a car or to ride my motorbike and sidecar until a fortnight from the time of the heart attack, so I shall have to be chauffeured anywhere I need to go until 2nd February.
Later today a specialist in cardiac rehabilitation will consult with me to set up a program to strengthen my heart during the coming months.
So it is all looking very good indeed, praise the Lord!
Again, thank you to all of you for your many posts of encouragement and support, and for all the praying that has been going on.
My word of the day for today is: “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. … Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John chapter 14, verses 27b and 27a)
I memorised that quotation more than four decades ago (in the “correct” order) and it has always had a special meaning for me. Today I felt like I should reverse the order – maybe I am just a non-conformist! [end of FB post Thursday 21 January at 16:06 ]

Here is my Facebook post of Friday 22 January at 13:24 : “Free at last;
Free at last;
Praise God Almighty, I’m
Free at last!”

As I stated above, the most important part of this post is to say, if you do find yourself getting weaker and having unexpected aches and pains anywhere in the top half of your body, have your heart checked before you actually have a full-blown heart attack! It will apparently take me a long period of rehabilitation to regain my strength due to the damage to my heart muscle, and I will probably never attain the strength I had before the heart attack.

In a recent exchange of e-mails I got to reflecting on how my uncle , Ottar Abrahmsen and my father, Jack Smith taught me as a boy to do various tasks on motorbikes.

Specifically the discussion centred on how to start a Chang Jiang motorcycle. My background is that I have owned and operated a Chang Jiang for over eleven years. Now to quote from my e-mail:

I never use the choke when starting.  The coldest I have ever started it would be around 6 degrees Celsius.

• How to change a tyre;
• how to grind in the valves;
• how to decarbonise an engine;
• how to clean and adjust the carburettor;
• how to recork the clutch;
• how to lubricate the cables;
• how to grease a motorbike;
• or any of a dozen other things.

Looking at that last list, maybe there are some more articles I need to write while I can still remember the details . . .

This morning, Wednesday 23rd September, 2015, I was having a cup of coffee with my daughter at a shopping centre in Everton Park when a family walked past. The young daughter of that family, I guess about eight years old, a pretty slim girl with longish blonde hair, was wearing a pair of sunglasses. For some peculiar reason this shocked me for a split second and I wondered why.

I got to thinking about when I was the age of this young girl, say about 1952, what would have been said back then about a kid wearing sunglasses.

My Mum and my Dad both possessed sunglasses, and on fairly rare occasions we grabbed them and looked through them and marvelled at how everything underwent an apparent change in colour.  We would have liked to have had our own sunglasses, but in those days, sunglasses for children were absolutely forbidden.  We were told that if we wore sunglasses at all often, then our eyes would be ruined and we would no longer have normal vision.

The grown-ups in our lives, Mum and Dad, the occasional aunt or uncle who visited, our neighbours, the shopkeepers in our town, and so on, would basically wear sunglasses to cut down on glare when driving towards the sun in the morning or afternoon, but otherwise wouldn’t wear them at all. When we went to the beach, where the sun was reflected brightly off the sand and the water, then our parents might wear sunglasses even when they were not driving.

But even at the beach, sunglasses for children were absolutely unthinkable.

As we became older and our family made excursions to the snow, again our parents would use sunglasses to reduce the glare of the sun reflecting off the snow.  But sunglasses for kids were still impossible!

I remember getting my first motorbike licence on 16th July 1964 and beginning to regularly ride my old side-valve BSA to work every day. I wore a canvas flying suit, a pudding-basin helmet, and a pair of goggles to keep the dust and mozzies out of my eyes. I lived at Tyers and worked at the LVWSB in Traralgon. When riding towards the rising sun in the morning and again riding towards the setting sun in the afternoon, I would have to squint to be able to see the road ahead because of the glare of the sun. But I wouldn’t get sunglasses, because they were “bad for my eyes”! See how the mantra with which I had been brought up was affecting my choices as a near adult.

My family moved to Ballarat while I continued working in Traralgon and living at Tyers. Almost weekly, I would ride my motorbike to Ballarat to visit my family and then ride back to Tyers again for the next week’s work. Straining my eyes and squinting hard to try to see where I was riding was giving me a face-ache. I went to Safety House and bought myself some safety sunglasses to wear under my goggles. Wonderful relief!

In the “Green Horror” (universally popular nickname for The Australian Motorcycle News, which was, at that time, printed on green paper) I read an article about a scientific study or survey of some type in Britain which had concluded that motorcyclists lives could be saved if they wore yellow-tinted glasses while riding at night.  So it was back to Safety House where I bought some yellow glasses for night driving. I soon ditched my goggles and just wore safety glasses to protect my eyes while riding.  I also bought a pair of plain safety glasses to wear on dull or rainy days when I judged that darkened glasses were unnecessary.

During the sixties and seventies, I would wear plain glasses during the daytime, sunglasses during the couple of hours per day when glare was a problem, and yellow glasses for riding at night.  I would always made sure that all three sets of glasses were in my kit wherever my motorbike was at any time. So obviously, I still stuck to my childhood upbringing which said that sunglasses were basically bad, unless they were necessary to reduce glare.

During the eighties, I began to need prescription glasses.  For a short time I used clip-on sunglasses attached to my regular prescription glasses, but soon I had prescription sunglasses made for when I was riding a motorbike or driving another vehicle.  I asked about getting yellow prescription glasses made for night riding, but was advised that newer scientific evidence suggested that wearing any kind of tinted glasses or goggles at night was now strongly discouraged as being a dangerous thing to do while riding or driving. It’s funny how ideas change over time!

Now in 2015, my regular prescription glasses are multi-focal so that I can drive, read, and use a computer while wearing the same glasses, and they also change to dark glasses automatically when I am out in the bright sunlight. Additionally I keep two more pairs of prescription glasses in the boot of my sidecar: wrap-around prescription distance-vision sunglasses for riding into the sun, and a pair of wrap-around sunglasses frames with clear distance-vision prescription lenses for riding in normal daylight or at night.

So in practice, I am still more or less sticking to my childhood ideal of using sunglasses only when they are strictly necessary.

But what does everyone else do? My observation here in Queensland is that very large numbers of teenagers and even little children seem to wear sunglasses whether they need them or not.  It is more or less a fashion statement.  Somewhere in the last half a century, things have changed – whether I caught up with them or not!

So thank you to the little girl who caught my attention this morning. I have no idea who you are, but you certainly started this old bloke thinking . . .

I wonder how many ways in my life I am still sticking rigidly to what Mum and Dad taught me donkey’s years ago?

This morning, Fathers’ Day, Sunday 6th September 2015, I got to thinking about my own father who passed away in about the middle of 1979. One feature of being about to commence the seventieth year of my own life, is that off the top of my head, I cannot remember exact dates, even if they were important to me back then.

Dad had been born in 1923, so must have been about 56 years old when he died from a heart attack resulting from the diabetes that had caused him several strokes and had resulted in the amputation of both of his legs. He used to joke with us that God was taking him to heaven on an instalment plan, one piece at a time!

One Sunday morning, I was attending the Holy Communion service at the Church of All Nations in Carlton. When the Rev Dr Peter Moonie opened the altar rail for the communicants to receive the sacrament I went forward and knelt as normal and prayed quietly while awaiting my turn. Suddenly I heard a message: “Today, after lunch, your father will visit you. This will be your last time to see him in this lifetime.”

I looked around to see if anyone else had heard what I heard. There was no reaction from anyone around me. Apparently the Holy Spirit had decided to give me the gift of a Word of Knowledge ( see 1 Corinthians 12:8 )

My parents were not expected that day.

We walked home wondering about the message I had heard. I was searching my own heart to determine whether there was anything I needed to set right with Dad.

After lunch, indeed, there was a knock at the door and there stood Dad and Mum.

Almost straight away, even before the cuppa had been brewed, Dad asked whether he and I could go to another room for an urgent talk. While my Mum talked with my wife Wendy, Dad and I went into the spare room at our flat in Kernick House, Queen’s College, and sat together facing each other.  I did not at any stage mention the word I had heard at communion that morning and, although I am certain that he knew, Dad never mentioned that this would be our last meeting. He did, however, ask whether there was any resentment of him remaining in my life and whether there were any outstanding matters in our lives over which we needed to pray. Neither of us was able to recall anything about which we needed to forgive the other, but we prayed extensively for each other anyway.

After a cuppa Dad and Mum headed off to drive to their new home in Ballarat.

That was Sunday.

On Tuesday evening at about dinner time, the Rev Dr Doug Fullarton knocked on our door. He brought the news that my father had been taken to Ballarat Base Hospital after a heart attack and was not expected to live through the night. Wendy and I should leave for Ballarat immediately. As we knew Dad would die before we arrived, we waited for my brother Mick to arrive from Morwell and then the three of us rode to Ballarat on my motorbike and sidecar.

I had kind of done my grieving in the intervening couple of days so Wendy and I were enabled to be strong as we greeted friends, relatives and family and prepared for the funeral.

At the funeral, while delivering the eulogy, I read Dad’s favourite scripture: Psalm 18.  It is 50 verses long but, remembering that Dad would never, ever let me leave a few verses out to get through it more quickly every time he asked me to read it aloud to him, I read the whole psalm. While Dad himself preferred to hear the psalm in the King James Version, I elected to read it at his funeral in The Living Bible version in order for it to be more easily understood by the unchurched relatives who would be present. I read it fluently and with great strength until I reached verse 46: “God is alive! Praise him who is the great rock of protection.” at which moment my voice cracked and I began weeping setting almost the entire congregation crying as I did so.  After somewhat gathering my composure, I was then able to clearly read the last five verses and conclude the eulogy.

During those days surrounding Dad’s funeral, my mother told us that during the last couple of weeks before he died, Dad had been extremely busy contacting almost every person he had known in his lifetime to find out whether they held anything against him for which he needed to ask their forgiveness or for which he needed to make amends. From all this activity, she knew that his time was very short. Indeed, on the very afternoon of his last day he had contacted our family’s long time good friend Alwyn Sobey (always referred to as “Sobe”) to ask him to come around to see him as he wanted urgently to talk. By the time Sobe arrived at Dad’s place, the ambulance had just arrived to take him to the hospital.

I should probably write more about my memories of my Dad, but that will suffice for today and I shall get back on here with more some time later.

Around this time five years ago, I began receiving enquiries from a movie company about the possibility of hiring my motorbike to “star” in a movie.

Coming across a photo of my bike in the film today, reminded me of this and I decided to find the notes I posted in another place at that time and republish them here.

So here are some excerpts from my forum posts before and after the event:

Mon 27 Dec 2010 – 11:24  : I am about to be without my bike for the whole of January as it is being used to make a film about Nazi soldiers in WWII.  My bike is earning more per month than I am!!!!
Fri 31 Dec 2010 – 08:26  : Graham wrote: Are they going to paint the bike ???

The bike will be covered with a special tough plastic film and then painted Wehrmacht Grey. After the filming is completed the grey-coated plastic will be peeled off to reveal the original colour unharmed underneath. This process has been demonstrated to me by technicians from the company. They will also finish a couple of half-finished projects of mine for which I don’t have the requisite tools and paint them to match my bike:

The bike is being picked up on Monday morning 3rd January.

Sat 25 Jun 2011 – 12:47  : karen wrote: Phil, I seem to have lost track ….the last I read was your sidecar was to be used in a movie….what happened there, do you have another bike? I just can’t remember…the old age is setting in

Yes I was without my bike for the whole month of January while it “starred” in the movie Iron Sky which will be released to cinemas in 2012.
When it returned home at the end of January there were a few minor scratches on the paintwork, so they took it away again to one of Queensland’s top hot rod restoring shops for a fortnight and it came back looking like it had rolled off the factory production line that week.
Now I am enjoying riding it at least once per week, even when the temperature is below 4 degrees.

Sun 26 Jun 2011 – 12:21  : [referring to forum comments about my bike having been painted after the filming] It was a perfect match with the original People’s Liberation Army green paint too.
You can’t see where it has been painted or where those scratches were – It just looks perfect.

Sat 07 Apr 2012 – 15:41  : The movie is called “Iron Sky”.
http://www.ironsky.net/ [note, 9 Jun 2015: this is now the site for the next movie in the series which is now under production]
In Australia it is to be released by Hoyts, but the release date has not yet been determined.
My bike appears briefly in this edition of Director’s Diary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvRcrV87t7o&list=PLFD7317FE4B7290B6&index=52&feature=plpp_video

Sat 14 Apr 2012 – 15:53  : The movie will be released in Australia at Hoyts cinemas on 10th May.

Sun 13 May 2012 – 10:24  : Four more days to see “Iron Sky” – the movie “starring” my bike.

It is showing at Hoyts cinemas across Australia from 10th May until Wednesday 17th May.

Well as I mentioned in another post, I went to watch my bike making its movie début in “Iron Sky” on Friday night.

It was a pretty good, but not exceptional, comedy filmed in Queensland, Finland, Germany and New York.
Most of the appearances of my bike were in the first ten or fifteen minutes.
I must say it was great to see my bike being manoeuvred around by the stunt riders; because I am always the one riding it, I never get to see it out on the road.
It was good also to see the pre-war Volkswagen Beetle, which was also hired from an enthusiast in Brisbane, which appeared in the same scene as my bike.

For those who don’t know about the film’s story line, it is set mainly on the back side of the moon where the Nazis had landed in 1945 and perfected space travel and nuclear armaments. Their top secret fuel was called “Helium 3”.
They capture a black American astronaut, who knows the President of the USA.
I won’t write any spoilers here now, but the US President is a hilarious (yet quite possible) caricature that will give you a big laugh.

When you consider the comedic possibilities presented by a mid-twentieth century computer scientist that has never encountered a computer smaller than a house suddenly encountering iPhones and iPads in the twenty-first century, you will understand where many of the laughs are found.

Later in the film there is an all-out war as the Nazis attack New York. The President is very pleased at this, as it guarantees re-election!
Space weapons are launched by many nations (including Australia!) and there is an all-out space dogfight.

I found myself guffawing out loud many times in the movie, so if you really enjoy comedy mixed with some way-out science-fiction and a very unlikely story line, you should go and see it this week while it is still showing.

Fri 25 May 2012 – 20:35  : While I was half-way through fitting my new gearbox last weekend on Sunday morning, the stunt man who rode it during the filming happened to roll up and immediately recognised the bike. We had a good yarn about it and he told us how enjoyable it was to be riding it during the many, many takes that had to be done to get the perfect shots for the movie. The various people standing around admiring the bike were amazed to learn that my bike was a “movie star”!

Sat 20 Oct 2012 – 19:24  : [Following posts to pages where criticism was levelled at the film producers for using a post-war Chinese bike to represent a war-time German bike] Guz wrote: That’s not a mistake, it’s creative license. It’s only a mistake if the producers didn’t realise what the bike was.

Of course the producers knew what bike it was!
They searched all over the world for a suitable machine which looked like a WWII German bike. With the paint job and appropriate fake accessories it looked sufficiently alike to do the job – who cares where it was actually manufactured. Whoever wrote that criticism needs to get real – most of what we see in movies is faked to look like the real thing.
When my bike, an appropriate VW and an existing fake moon surface were all found within the space of 80 km, it made sense for the producers to use what was already available at a reasonable price.

So there are a few snippets of posts about the time my bike “starred” in a movie.

The Sunshine Coast Region of the Historical Motor Cycle Club of Queensland (HMCCQ) conducted a rally named The Sidecar Cruize on Sunday 24th May 2015.

As this was going to be the longest ride my bike had done in more than ten years, I did a lot of preparation work in the week before the ride:

• hit 160 spokes with a 7 mm spanner: dreadful cacophony; adjust more than half of them with said spanner: melodious harmony!
• blow up all tyres to correct pressure; they were all down to a greater or lesser extent
• top up all oils
• check all nuts and bolts
• grease under the fingernails: that just happens naturally while working on old bikes
• top up with petrol.

On the morning of the ride my alarm went off as planned at 03:45 am. Then it was prayer, Bible study, ablutions, breakfast, dress up like the Michelin man against the cold, downstairs, out through the garage, around to the motorbike shed, and wheel the bike out of the shed, down the drive, and around the corner so as not to start it outside Ben’s bedroom!

Rode around the block to Richard’s place where he was already seated on his Royal Enfield – Cosy outfit.

05:30 saw us out on the road and headed North towards the Sunshine Coast: Albany Creek, Warner, Young’s Crossing, Petrie, Kurwongbah, Dakabin, Narangbah, to Yvonne’s place at Burpengary where we rested half an hour.

Then with Yvonne leading on her left-hand-drive Dnepr outfit we continued North from Burpengary along lots of back roads via Morayfield, Caboolture, Elimbah, Beerburrum, Tibrogargan, and Glass House Mountains to Beerwah. An old bloke with a walking stick who looked at least a hundred by the side of the road at Beerwah, when he saw three sidecars travelling together, stopped his walking, dropped his jaw, and watched us motoring past with his mouth so wide open a squadron of flies could’ve flown in. From Beerwah we continued North through Landsborough, Mooloolah Valley, Eudlo, and Palmwoods to Woombye where we had a wee stop. Actually, it was a wee-wee stop and it turned out to be well that we made it, since the public toilets at Nambour showgrounds were all locked up.

From Woombye, we took the Nambour Connection Road, which I suspect might have been the Bruce Highway when Wendy and I went around Australia in 1982. We arrived at the Nambour Showgrounds a bit after 08:00.  At first, there seemed to be no sign of any bikes, sidecar outfits or otherwise.  Were we in the right place? Had we gone astray somewhere? No it was just one of those cases where those who drive the furthest arrive first!

After a bunch of other riders had arrived, I went to the servo and filled the tank; it took about eleven litres of petrol.

Back to the Showgrounds and took all of the photos attached to this article. I have spaced the photos out, rather than having a huge block of text and a huge block of photos.

About 09:30 we headed off for a tour of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. For most of the way, there were corner marshals to point the way so we could all stay together. At one point I saw an old Harley at the side of a road and wondered if he might perhaps be one of the riders on the Cruize, but he appeared to be just sitting on his bike meditating or dozing or whatever, but he most certainly wasn’t pointing us in any direction. A while after that I felt like I had passed a lot of confusing intersections without seeing a single corner marshall, so I decided to admit to myself that I was well and truly lost. Ah well, getting lost is part of the fun!

Lost on the Sunshine Coast without a map, without a route guide, and without the slightest clue what towns and places were on the Sunshine Coast or where they might be in relationship to one another. While driving North through Buderim, as I passed through an intersection I noticed some sidecars parked down the road on the left, but as I was in the right lane I had to keep going straight ahead. Divided road; nowhere to do a U-turn! I eventually turned left into a local street, did a U-turn there, returned to the main road, turned right and turned right again where I had seen the sidecars parked.  They were gone!

I did know that the morning-tea stop was to be at the Bli-Bli Castle, but had not the slightest idea where Bli-Bli was, except that I did know it was eight km from Nambour. I decided the best thing to do was to drive until I found a sign pointing towards Nambour, which I proceeded to do.

Now my engine was beginning to rattle in a way that suggested the oil level was low, so I was also looking for a servo.

Following signs I found my way to the Nambour Connection Road where I stopped at a Shell servo and bought a litre of oil and used a cut-down plastic  water bottle as a makeshift funnel to get the oil into the crankcase.  The cut-down bottle worked better than the professionally produced funnel that I paid good hard cash for and kept in my shed at home!

With the engine sounding much healthier, I drove to Nambour and then to Bli-Bli where I found my way to the castle where there were about half a dozen sidecars parked. Someone asked, “Did you get lost, Phil?” A lot of other riders had also gotten themselves lost. Eventually they all turned up and we had a coffee.

A group of us returned to the Showgrounds by the shortest route and then Yvonne, Richard and I headed back to Yvonne’s place for a cuppa.

Richard and I then headed home by the back roads. At Warner, as I was making a right turn, a dreadful grinding noise with accompanying dire-feeling vibration came from the rear end of the bike. Stopped but couldn’t figure out what the noise was. Decided to continue and, once under way, I swerved the outfit a couple of times and the nasty noise and vibes stopped as suddenly as they had started, telling me precisely what had caused the ruckus: a spoke in the rear wheel had broken and its broken-off head had jammed inside the brake drum between the drive spline from the rear drive unit to the wheel, which was rotating, and the backing-plate for the rear brakes which was not rotating. Swerving the outfit had distorted the wheel  sufficiently for the broken spoke head to be spat out onto the road. I was not about to go back and look for it!

At about 4:30 pm we arrived at my front gate where I bade good-bye to Richard.

Averaged 9.7 litres/100 km (10.3 km/litre) for the day. Normal fuel economy doing lots of short trips is 12.7 litres/100 km (7.8 km/litre).

Just over 300 km for the day: the longest single day’s ride my outfit has ever done in the eleven years I have owned it.

As a young man growing up in a small Victorian country town, I had never heard of a gym. In those days we walked or rode push bikes everywhere, we climbed trees and mountains, we chased our dogs around the property, we frequently went out rabbiting, or just went for walks in the bush. We got plenty of exercise.

During the decades that have rolled away since then, I have observed the proliferation of gyms spreading like cancers all around every city I have been to. I observed them, but took no notice of them.

Funny places!  People running like hell but getting nowhere, some rowing mechanical boats with nary a drop of water in sight, others contorting themselves into the most peculiar positions into a seeming myriad of enormous shiny machines with cables and weights and pulleys and levers and repeating movements over and over and over and over and … – well, if you have ever peered through the window of a gym, you’ll get the general idea. Funny places!

Some time ago my adult children who are not blessed with drivers’ licences started going to gyms and Dad had to drive them there. So I actually entered the doors of our local gym.

But it was very definitely for the kids; not for Dad!

In September last year I had a stroke.  This meant that I could no longer continue in the parcel delivery job that had me going up and down the front stairs of dozens of Queenslander style houses every day of the week carrying parcels ranging in weight from one to 40 kg. Instead, I was limited to sorting the said parcels in the early hours of every morning so the drivers of the vans could start loading by 05:00 am. The upshot of this change in occupation was that I was getting almost no exercise at all.

I could feel my body getting less and less fit.

Therefore, on Monday this week I had my first thirty-minute session with a personal trainer at the gym.  There was, getting myself into and out of various space-age looking machines and exercising my legs in this one, my arms in the next one, my chest in the next one, and so on.  At one stage as I sat back on a machine where some lifting of weights was involved, there was a giant floor-to-ceiling mirror right in front of me; there I received a real shock when I could plainly see how very large my belly had grown in the months since my stroke. That reflection reminded me how much I needed to continue exercising.  While I could certainly feel that each set of muscles was working hard, I did not feel any pain at all and in no time my half-hour session was over.

During the next few days, I could feel a sensation in my muscles that reminded me they had been working much harder than normal, but I still felt no real pain.  Wednesday morning I awoke with a simultaneous cramp in the quadriceps muscles of both legs.   That was the only actual pain I had.

My second session was yesterday, Friday 8th May 2015, and this time the weights in all the machines had been adjusted to heavier settings and I was expected to do more of each exercise.  Some of the activities were stretching me so far that I had to pause in the middle of the series to rest whichever muscle-group was involved. This time, too, I had my first go at one of those dry land rowing boats; well, not really a boat, but a machine that simulates rowing one. Again, the session seemed to be over in no time – I seemed to have hardly started when my PT said, “Time’s up!”

Today, Saturday, I again feel that sensation that my muscles have been working harder than normal, but still no real pain.

I reckon I shall continue with this gym business and gradually get a much fitter and stronger body.

The computer upon which I am typing this post is a very elderly Acer Extensa 5620 laptop which was given to me when it had reached the end of its useful lifespan as far as the original owner was concerned.  It originally came with Windows XP installed.

Windows XP failed years ago and was way too slow so I installed Linux (Ubuntu) which I kept regularly updated and always ran much faster than Windows.  Ubuntu always kept running with no problems at all.

But occasionally I needed to use a program that was not available for Linux computers – the eTax program once a year, and iTunes when I needed to repair the children’s iPads, iPhones and iPods every time they stuffed them up.  I also used a Windows program about once a year on average to make a DVD from a PVR capture (only because I knew the program from years ago and was too lazy to look up any Linux program to do a job which I very seldom did!).

So I partitioned my hard disk and set up my computer to normally boot into Ubuntu, but with a menu visible for 5 seconds at start-up allowing me to boot from the Windows partition if I really wanted to. My Windows partition has been loaded with Windows XP, Windows 7 upgrade, Windows 8 in various preview versions, Windows 8 Pro (which I actually bought!), Windows 8.1 in various preview versions and, until last week, Windows 8.1 Pro.

I have never been really happy about any of the Windows versions since XP; I have been working with menus on computers for more than thirty years now, and prefer them to having to click a mouse on “tiles” on the screen to start my programs. For this reason, although Ubuntu initially installs with the Unity desktop, I always use the Gnome Classic desktop, which is menu-based, instead.

So a couple of days ago, I decided to upgrade my Windows partition to Windows 10. I am currently running Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview Evaluation copy. Build 10049 (just in case anyone happens to be wondering).

My laser printer is a Brother MFC-L2700DW which does everything I want it to do and is WiFi enabled which means I can print to it from any of our four phones, five tablets and one iPod, as well as the MacBook Air, the Dell laptop, the Compaq laptop, the Asus netbook, and any visitors’ electronic devices.  I can also, at least in theory, print via the Internet from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection. I have not tried that last feature yet!

Our colour printer, an HP ink-jet item is also WiFi enabled, but I don’t give out the password as it guzzles ink at an incredible and very expensive rate.  So if anyone in the family wants to do colour printing they need to come and see Dad.

Because I have kids and visitors who own so many electronic devices I run five WiFi networks in the house two on 2.4 GHz and three on 5 GHz frequencies.

Now the Brother printer is only capable of connecting to the two 2.4 GHz wireless LANs; its system is totally unable to “see” the three 5 GHz LANs.

So no worries! You just use one of the higher speed networks for all your browsing and switch networks when you actually want to print.

Now I installed Windows 10 and discovered that my elderly Acer was only capable of connecting to the three 5 GHz networks, but not to the two 2.4 GHz networks which have one printer on each.  I have no idea why this is, but its system is totally unable to “see” the two networks that have printers connected.  Perhaps there is an applet somewhere in the Control Panel that allows one to choose which ranges of WiFi networks one wants to use, but I have not bothered to look for it.

In all the messing about this week, my laser printer “lost” its WiFi function so I decided to reinstall it.  I downloaded the latest drivers from the Brother web site and followed the prompts to set it up as a wireless printer.  Didn’t work, did it!

What I eventually had to do was install it manually to one of my 2.4 GHz networks, which was totally invisible to my computer, then uninstall the printer, then connect the printer using a USB cable and install it to my laptop again as a local USB printer.  Since my laptop never moves from beside the printer this was no hassle at all.

Every bit of electronic gadgetry in our house is now able to print successfully to the laser printer!

Now! Will somebody please tell me why, when I attempted to type the brand name “Asus” referring to my old netbook, the auto-correct feature kept on attempting to tell me that my netbook was an “Anus” instead?

The Fourth Session of the conference was focussed as follows: “What is our Christian response to the anti-association laws in Queensland and their enactment as well as to the spread across the country of these types of laws?”

Copyright notice: As I memorised scriptures from the NIV for more than thirty years, the majority of scriptures quoted will be from that version, therefore I include here the copyright notice for the NIV:  “Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.” Some that I wasn’t certain about have been copied in NIV form from www.biblegateway.com and others will be either KJV or my head-modified version of KJV, which was the version from which I memorised all scriptures until about 1978.

I must add that the reports in this post are very far from verbatim reports of what was said by the speaker. I took very abbreviated notes during the sessions.  I have filled out those very brief notes with what I think I heard the speakers say, not necessarily what they actually said.  It is more of a report on how what they said made an impact on me.

MC: Brady March – Longriders CMC Melbourne: Harking back to the theme of the second session this morning, he shared a very powerful testimony: His wife sent an e-mail to him which had as an attachment a photo of a leaf-drawing by his four year old daughter which asked the question: “Why is daddy always at work; always with Longriders; always at work; always with Longriders?” This arrived at his office at 7 o’clock at night on a day when he had been in the office since 7 o’clock that morning. The e-mail stopped him in his tracks and made him reassess priorities and get his life in balance.

Mike Tamplin – God’s Squad – Brisbane – quoted Matthew 22:15-22  “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.
They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.”
This scripture about giving both to Caesar and to God reminds us that we are to have respect for the laws made by the governments that are elected by us.
Also see Romans 13:1-7 : “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.”
This scripture relates to being subject to governing authorities. Scripture gives us God’s laws; man’s laws, on the other hand, are an ass! So is it right in God’s eyes for us to break man-made laws? We must be very sensitive in framing our response. God is just incredible!

Greg Pendlebury – Brotherhood Sydney: Media constantly re-use images of the Milperra and Sydney Airport incidents to constantly feed the imaginations of the public so they will believe how very bad, bikers are.
Media wants public to be fearful of anyone on motorbikes.
The government wants the police to appear to be tougher than the bikers.
Romans 13:1-2 “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”  While this scripture tells us to be subject to governing authorities, being subject to them does not mean blindly obeying everything they say.
We must resist laws that are plainly wrong; not ignore them, but resist them. The Prime Minister and Members of Parliament are not God, they are human, and can get things wrong. They have the legitimate right to make the laws, and we have the legitimate right to resist laws and argue against them when they promote injustice.
How do the anti-association laws measure up against God’s word? God hates injustice. These laws are unjust – they make taking part in community activities into a crime punishable by six months in gaol.
Proverbs 6:16,19 “… the Lord hates … a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”  There is no doubt that these laws stir up conflict in the community.
Proverbs 14:31 “whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God.” The whole chapter points out the results of oppression.
Psalm 11:1-7  “In the Lord I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
    “Flee like a bird to your mountain.
For look, the wicked bend their bows;
    they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
    at the upright in heart.
When the foundations are being destroyed,
    what can the righteous do?”
The Lord is in his holy temple;
    the Lord is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
    his eyes examine them.
The Lord examines the righteous,
    but the wicked, those who love violence,
he hates with a passion.
On the wicked he will rain
    fiery coals and burning sulphur;
    a scorching wind will be their lot.
For the Lord is righteous,
    he loves justice;
    the upright will see his face.
This psalm shows us it is not okay to oppress people.

Romans 13:1-7 was mentioned yet again: Romans 13:1-7 : “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.”
The Old Testament teaches us the concept of “Shalom”.
All crime is a breaking of the ten commandments.
The anti-association laws do not address crime but focus on breaking up friendships – the innocent are being punished – these laws are designed to punish people for what is not a crime – these laws destroy community and have a dehumanising effect.
The government has made normal everyday activity into a crime. VLAD is a tough law, but not a just law. Isaiah 1:17 tells us to: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed [or correct the oppressor]. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Our aim is to see the bad law changed. God’s views of justice should be reflected in the laws of the land. VLAD does not reflect the laws of God.
As we work towards this, we must keep the gospel at the top of our minds; our prime role is to make disciples of others.

Macca – God’s Squad Brisbane: What is a Christian response to the anti-association laws?
Luke 6:31 says “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
The anti-association law is an unjust law. We must ask God to give us a clear vision so that we know where to stand and what to stand for.
Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Psalm 133:1-3 : ”

Kev Daly – Tribe of Judah, Brisbane: He began by referring to 1 Peter chapter 2:13-17: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor.”
Good citizenship: we do not have to obey every law that is passed. The VLAD law does not specifically mention motorcycle clubs: any person with any criminal past may be named as a person with whom it is illegal to associate. It is possible that this law, as it is worded , could be used to make association with members of, for example a golf club or a football club, to become illegal. Could the Titans [Qld rugby league football club] be named as a criminal organisation?
In Oct 2015, the VLAD law is to be reviewed. The Attorney General of Queensland, Yvette d’Ath, also Minister of Justice, affirms that the newly-elected Labor government will see that the VLAD law is enforced. The government has also announced that there will be replacement laws announced by the end of this year. Which is right? Are we just being fed more politically expedient lies?

There was some considerable general discussion about our response to the anti-association laws. Several people were appointed to work on a statement from the conference over dinner.

After the fourth session, I decided not to wait around for dinner or to attend the meeting afterwards.

On the Sunday morning, I attended the breakfast and the biker’s church service which was held at Zillmere.

The letter which was agreed upon and signed by representatives from the clubs reads as follows:

“The VLAD laws in Queensland, Consorting laws in NSW, the old SOCCA laws in SA, and similar laws in other states, change the nature of the crime from ‘What you do’ to ‘Who you meet with’.

The laws result with people being punished for innocent activities. They make it a crime for some people to meet socially, have a meal together, or go to the footy. The VLAD laws apply to a club or a league or any other group of three or more persons, by whatever name called, whether legal or illegal.

Every Queenslander has the potential to be impacted. The National Christian Motorcycle Club and Associations Conference calls on all governments, Federal and State, to repeal all laws that punish people for association, rather than for crime.

All crime, no matter who commits it, should be investigated thoroughly, tried justly, and punished appropriately.

We do not believe these laws fit with the ideal of giving people a fair go.”