Pet Aversions ... by Appointment Only.

What are your regular pet aversions or pet dreads in life? My top two choices here have to be attending scheduled dental check-ups and taking the car for a warrant of fitness. Coincidentally, both my pet aversions happen to be twice yearly events, which means I can expect an average strike rate of 91.25 days between such events . Another similarity between my types of aversion are that dentists and mechanics still charge me between $100 and $200 for general maintenance. General maintenance is an optimistic outcome, since it means that I have no actual problems with my teeth or car. A major common denominator I have experienced when there are major issues or problems, is occasionally dentists and mechanics fix what doesn't need fixing and leave alone what needs fixing.

Here are some dentist quotes estimated to the best of my recollecting abilities:

When I was 15, the dentist said: "You' ll need you wisdom teeth out by the time you're 25 or 26."
I asked: "Will it hurt? and will it cost much?" Dentist replied: "Not really, as I will sedate and and anaethetise you. It should cost a few hundred dollars."

When I was 26, the dentist said: "Nah, you won't need your wisdom teeth out. Everything is fine."

When I was 32, I said: "My wisdom teeth have been causing severe pain across my face and giving me bad headaches." Dentist responded with: "We'll book you in for June 6th and have a look." [June was nearly 2 months away and he had no room for emergency bookings.]

My phone call to a new dentist: "I am in severe pain ... ... ... " New dentist replied: "Pop in at 4 o'clock, today."
New dentist shook his head and said: "My, my ... you should have had those out when you were a teenager." [ A month, a few x-rays and 2 visits to an orthodontist later, a specialist surgeon knocked me out completely and removed those darn suckers for a hefty amount ... but he did a great job and I was elated to have more room at the back of my mouth, once the swelling subsided.]

Quotes by the mechanic

Mechanic said: " You car is due for a new cam belt."
I replied: "Hang on a minute, didn't you replace the belt six months ago?"
Mechanic responded with: "Oops ... ... ... ! "

Mechanic on another day said: "Your car is fine, but ... ... ... " [and that was a very expensive 'but' - which rendered his first four words utterly pointless.]

Post your pet aversions here.

Mountains, Poles, 1979 and Aching Muscles

R.I.P. Sir Edmund (1919 - 2008). Picture to the left is his statue in Nepal.

What is probably less mentioned about Sir Ed these days is the fact that he was actually the first person to achieve the triple feat of becoming the first man to stand at the South Pole, stand at the North Pole (accompanied by Neil Armstrong for that one) and obviously stand on the summit of Mount Everest.

In November 1979 Sir Ed missed the ill-fated DC-10 sightseeing flight to the Antarctic, due to competing commitments. This tragedy was a real shock to the families and friends of the passengers and crew and must have been especially hard for Sir Ed, given that one of his friends took the flight in his place.

Speaking of 1979; I remember being at primary school and witnessing some of the destruction of 60 houses in Abbotsford via a landslide (I lived on a nearby hill). Overseas there was a revolution in Iran (which sparked another oil crisis), the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Skylab space station terminated its orbit with a thud in Western Australia.

Fast forward 29 years ... Sir Ed has passed on -- having reached his 89th year, Iran is playing naval war games with the U.S. in the Persian Gulf (oil prices have shot up yet again), the Afghan government is barely controlling Kabul , the U.S.S.R. is no more, the international space station is a mission to keep in orbit, Abbotsford is now probably the most stable suburb in the greater Dunedin area and you can still catch Antarctic sight seeing flights from Melbourne (you even get to swap seats during these flights, so that you always get a window seat at some stage of the journey).

I played tennis with my wife Kat today. I have a muscular strain in my back from a bad night's sleep, therefore I struggled to move around the tennis court, and even bending down to grab the tennis ball was a painful maneuver. It is amazing how muscle stress can be so debilitating. I am going to run a hot bath now. Enjoy your weekend.

It's a crazy world in sport out there

It seems that even with all the mud slinging going down these last few days between the Australian and Indian Cricket teams (allegations of cheating, low quality umpiring and racism ... is calling someone a monkey racist?), other games can still hit the dirt as well. Two Russian ice hockey teams had one of the dirtiest, most violent games in history recently. The winning team scored 7 goals which is miracle considering there wouldn't have been much time to play actual ice hockey as such. Ice hockey seems to be more brutal than that operatic stunt show they call World Wrestling and even more dangerous than good old rugby. Speaking of rugger, I was surprised to see South Africa's most successful provincial coach miss out on being appointed Springbok Coach. The previous national coach has gone, despite his World Cup achievement. Being "P.C." or satisfying that emotional tsunami that occasionally sweeps through sporting officialdom seems to be more important than long term planning or common sense.

Happy New Year and . . .

Hope you all had a great new year.

I am keen to read any weird stories regarding random events you may have seen on the street. Here is one for a bizarre occurrence that I witnessed today:

I ended up doing a double take when I witnessed this fellow walking along the street with a live seagull perched atop his hat. There were 3 or 4 more birds flying in close proximity to this character. After a short time the perched gull would fly away from the top of his hat, then either it or one of the other birds would land on his hat for a few more seconds. The gulls continued repeating this procedure for as long as the guy remained in my sight!

Is this random or what?