A week off

No, I don't mean I haven't written for a week, although I haven't for a while.

I mean I don't have to go back to work for a week. I've got a few days down in Armidale doing a geology residential. Okay, it's not really a holiday, but it sure beats going to work. I can even sleep in till seven in the morning before going to class.

I've got a map interpretation assignment to hand in on Wednesday, the first day of the residential. So I've had the coloured pencils out all morning, colouring in a map. That's in between multiple trips to the toilet. I'm not sure if it's something I've eaten or something going around, but my wife, Donna, has been a few times as well.

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm planning to get a truck licence. I booked some lessons and the test the other day. I'll be spending a day and a half driving a Volvo dump truck around on the 21st and 22nd of November and I'll do the test on the afternoon of the 22nd.

If I pass I'll be qualified to drive any size truck as long as it's rigid (not a semi) and I'll be able to tow a trailer with it as long as it's less than nine tonnes. I'll also be able to drive buses on that licence, including the articulated ones, but that would obviously involve extra training with any company that might employ me in the future.

That will make four licences, as I'm also licenced to ride a motorbike and fly aeroplanes. I don't do much of either of those these days though.

I fell off the bike early last year and slid for about fifteen or twenty metres down the road before hitting the car I was trying to avoid. That tends to put a dent in your enjoyment of riding a little bit. You suddenly realise just how vulnerable you are and it hurts even with all the protective gear on.

With the flying, the government is intent on making it harder and harder for private pilots to fly, especially since 9/11. The nearest airport is about forty minutes drive from home and it's just too much trouble.

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On the topic of driving, I saw an old Holden station wagon (estate for the British readers) on my way home from work yesterday. It was like this one but not in as good condition.

It had bench seats, column shift and those useless quarter pane windows that never let enough air in. The thing that I noticed the most though, was the handle on the tailgate. It was one of those that you had to flip out and then turn to wind down the back window before you could open the tailgate.

Boy it brought back some memories. Dad used to have the model after this one, in fact it was the first car we got when we emmigrated from England back in 1973. That was the year before our house went under water in the '74 floods, but that's another story.

Both my stepdaughters have latish model cars with electric windows, airconditioning, power steering and other mod cons. I think they're missing out in something by not getting to drive something like the old Holdens.

I guess that's the same as those of us learning to drive buses or trucks that don't have a crash box, or even manual transmission, or those of us that learnt to fly in Cessnas rather than an old Tiger Moth that had to be hand started.