3 posts tagged “qotd”

Music-wise, what was the first 45, single or download you bought? 
Submitted by Paddy Melt Wagon.

Lily the Pink by The Scaffold.  45RPM, bought from a record shop in Sydney for $1 (Australian) = 1.5 weeks' pocket money.  How embarassing.

What are your personal memories of September 11th?

Extraordinary times. 

About 10:30pm or so in eastern Australia.  I was actually hooked onto my home dialysis machine (kidney transplant has since arrived, folks!), getting ready to go to sleep for the night.  A boring documentary on ABC [Australia] about Muhammed Ali's boxing match in Zaire.

I am fumbling for the remote off button when the ABC News traditional fanfare starts up.  Hello, a news flash.  An "unconfirmed report" of aeroplane has gone into the World Trade Centre, followed by vision of the WTC well and truly afire.  Maybe a repeat of the Empire State Building plane accident?  This sounds different.  Confused commentary.  I flick to Channel 10 where their tabloid Late News happens to be on.  No tabloid hype tonight - we all watch the 2nd plane go in live to air.  In the middle of all this somewhere, cut to vision of a burning Pentagon.  Another aeroplane is falling out of the sky elsewhere.  What on earth is happening....

By now I have sat bolt upright in my recliner - so suddenly that I have ruptured the line into my arm.  Thus I am dealing with a dialysis emergency on top of all this.  My wife, woken by the machine alarms, has sleepily stumbled out to assist, and has come wide awake in no time.  We have 1 eye on the TV whilst grappling with the machine and getting assistance from the nursing service via phone. 

The nurse has no idea what has caused our emergency, and indeed sounds like we have woken her up (which is OK - they're on 24-hour call).   When the problem solved, she askes standard question if everything else is OK.  I respond with telling her of the cause of my disruption.  She wakes up abruptly and scurries for a TV.

With a new line and 1 broken syringe in my arm. we sit back to watch the horror unfold.  Extraordinary.  No sleep possible now - not until about 5am or so.

I wake at about 7am and go to our doctor to have the broken syringe removed from my arm. A TV shows continues the horror.  Some patients are hearing this for the 1st time, having missed the news before going to bed the previous night.  I don't understand this.  Is World War III coming?

That morning, hardly anyone comes into the public library where I work.

There have been many atrocities committted before and since then - witness the 2 rounds of bombings in Bali.  But the symbolism of these targets (especially the WTC) certainly has everyone gripped. 

Tell us a little something about your first car.  Do you have any photos you can share? 
Submitted by tamara.

1971 Volkswagen Beetle

A 1971 VW Beetle.  What a great car!  Not very big on comfort, but what 1st car is?  Not very big on boot (=trunk) space, but I was single then so I threw everything in the back seat. (Pauline is trying to cure me of this habit now, despite having a boot the size of a swimming pool.)

The air cooled engine meant no having to fiddle around with radiator levels (although the car disliked hot days).  I initially thought the heater control (the used air from the engine cooling) was the seat height adjusting thingy when I first picked the car up, so I drove off on a hot summer's day with the heat going at full bore.  My, these Beetles are hard to drive, I thought as I sweated like a marathon runner.

The bubble roof made it very easy to find in parking stations.  I have since read that this is one reason why people buy 4WDs (=SUVs) now, for locatability in car parks.

This car just went and went.  It refused to stop, even when I took the key out of the ignition.  When I went overseas for the 1st time, I parked the car at my parents' home in Sydney.  It sat there for 2 months - no one went near it to turn the engine over.  When I got back, it started 1st time.  Meanwhile, my dad's Ford Falcon had to he coaxed back into life every time he parked it for 30 minutes or more.

Woody Allen

There was a scene  in the Woody Allen film Sleeper (1971), where, after waking from his 200-year sleep, the main character (Woody Allen playing the nerdy wimp who, by his own admission, is beaten up by Quakers) finds a VW beetle hidden in a cave.  It is very old, covered in overgrowth, with filthy windows and flat tyres.  He opens the door and finds a key - it starts first time.

Ironically, it died for non-mechanical reasons.  I wasliving in Orange (rural New South Wales) at the time of a very big hail storm that damaged most cars in the town.  The insurers were writing off cheap cars (including mine, alas) immediately in a bid to clear the backlog.  Came the day it was to depart, my Beetle  looked very sad and distressed sitting in my backyard - and it refused to start when the towing people came.  We had to push it out on to the street ...  I'm sure the car gave me a reproachful look as it was hitched to the tow truck .... I had a lump in my throat as it sailed off into the sunset,