Baggas' Blog

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Originally uploaded by baggas

Back from Adelaide now, after a good but all too short weekend away. I’ve uploaded some photos from the trip, as well as some other recent ones of the kids onto flickr.

Lunchtime view

Originally uploaded by baggas

Very wet day here in Rockingham. I got soaked between the car and the café. You can’t see it in the photo but there is actually an island a couple of kilometres across the bay, Garden Island. It is barely visible today. Just waiting for my oceanside lunch of fish & chips to arrive, hoping my patient doesn’t have her baby just yet…

Local shots 15

Originally uploaded by baggas

Well it’s been a wild, stormy day, but at least we’ve been treated to a pretty spectacular finish

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Originally uploaded by baggas

A while since I’ve posted any photos of Mia on the blog so here she is

Even this photo is a few weeks old. I’ll try and get some fresh ones onto flickr in the next day or so. It’s on my (new, paper based, super-functional and actually effective) to-do list.

Local shots 14

Originally uploaded by baggas

Well this is part of the memorial to HMAS Perth, a guided missile destroyer that served from 1965 to 1999, including distinguished service in the Vietnam war. Rockingham is the site of a major naval base, which is I guess the reason they put this memorial here. Also nearby there is a huge ship’s gun turret, presumably from the Perth.

In the background you can see the blue CBH grain terminal wharf, where I spent many summer days while I was in medical school. I had a job there most summers shovelling grain, unloading trains and loading ships. The top tower of that wharf has one of the best views around – was a great place to sit and eat my lunch or dinner, or just hang out when there wasn’t much work to be done.

About a month ago, with the aim of working on my health and fitness, I visited our local bike shop and got myself a reasonably good bike. The last one I had was a cheap one that rusted from disuse a few years ago. Well I haven’t been doing so great thus far, being so busy that I’ve only ridden it 3 or 4 times, and only short trips.

Well tonight I went out for a ride along the cycle path near our house, and was well rewarded with some great views of a gentle sunset over the ocean. All too often we don’t appreciate what a beautiful place we live in. I need to work at getting out on my bike more often, and scenes like this are a great incentive to do so.

Local shots 10

Originally uploaded by baggas

This one’s from last week – Shoalwater Bay. My friend used to live a street back from this beach so we spent a lot of time down there as kids. I particularly remember one episode where we got freaked out by an angry seal when we tried to swim to Seal Island. We ended up turning around and going back to shore. Good times.

Local shots 8

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Boring looking photo I know, but significant to me. This is the Safety Bay Scout Hall, where in grade 4 in 1984 I was part of the first ever class of students at Maranatha Christian School – we had a combined class of grade 4 – 7 students and around 40 kids total in the school.

Now I’m parked outside the current, much huger, Maranatha College waiting to collect my grade 2 son. I noticed the other day in the office here that they still have a few plaques with my name on up on the wall. Scary how fast time flies. Life is too short…

I need to get a batch of photos printed over the next few days. Usually if it’s just a few photos that need printing I’ll use our printer at home, which puts out pretty nice looking prints, but if it’s a bigger size batch I prefer taking them to a shop to get them done. I’ve used Harvey Norman printing a bit in the past because it’s nice and close to us, but the last time I went there the prints were awful quality.

SO, I’ll ask for advice… anyone have any tips on where is the best place to get digital photos printed, preferably in the Rockingham area (though other tips are welcome too)?? And if so, how do you get them done – glossy or matte? Do you use their “image correction” features or just print them as is? What’s your experiences on pricing and waiting times? … thanks

Local shots 7

Originally uploaded by baggas.

You could call it a beach, or you could call it a sea weed depository … either way Safety Bay is a nice spot.

Now let’s see if this works – the flickr blog posting is a bit inconsistent – the photos I send from my phone always make it to flickr, but don’t seem to then make it to blog every time. It’s a bit hit and miss – so here goes…

[yep - the photo made it to flickr but not to the blog. Although it's then easy to send it on using one click from the flickr website but it's a shame the mobile posting is not so reliable...]

Local shots 6

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Whenever my drug pushers disappoint and do not bring me lunch, I like to visit this joint up the road – Perth Noodle Wok. Always very tasty. Today’s meal – Phad Thai noodle box – and it was very nice indeed

Local shots 5

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Coffee, crossaint, ocean, and trees – a perfect breakfast before work… along with a good book of course!

Had a little case in theatre this morning so I’ve half an hour to kill before my clinic starts.

Local shots 4

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Sunset over the park near our home tonight. The photo just doesn’t do justice to how spectacular this was…

Of course using a mobile phone camera doesn’t help. 

Originally uploaded by baggas.

I’ve never spent a huge amount of time here, but for some reason this park has always appealed to me..

Any locals want to tell us where it is??

Local Shots 2

Originally uploaded by baggas.

My favourite shop in the local area. No prizes for guessing why

The kids know this as the “orange guitar shop”

Old style music

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Visited my dad tonight who had just been given a massive pile of old LPs by his brother, who was doing a big clean up. Amongst it all there were a few gems and I managed to grab a heap, some of which you can see in the picture. Mostly it’s 70′s stuff – Bowie, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, Deep Purple, Led Zep and many others. I also inherited a Yamaha turntable so I can play them – it just needs a new stylus. Was funny showing the boys how we used to listen to music in the ‘olden days’ when I was a kid, before CDs were invented. Strange how the world has changed so much in such a short space of time…

Local Shots 1

Originally uploaded by baggas.

I’d prety much forgotten about remote posting via flickr until I notced ob1 doing it the last few days. Nothing like some fresh photos to keep things interesting.

So here begins a series of random photos of my world as I’m around the traps. To start with, the focal point of Rockingham, where I have spent many many days since I was a kid – Rockingham beach.

Online refrigeration

Originally uploaded by baggas.

I know you can do an awful lot of things on the net these days but keeping things cold? Now that’s impressive! )

Hiring babies

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Now if you ever need to hire a baby you know who t call.

Saw this the other day

Just testing out the WordPress photo uploading feature which I seem to have fixed after some bugs. Here’s some photos from our camping trip down to Bunbury with my family last weeken. I’ll upload some more from the weekend onto flickr later today

We get them all the time – those emails that are endlessly forwarded on around the net. Funny stories, cute pictures, sickly-sweet poems, ‘fascinating’ articles or amazing photos. Occasionally they are interesting, but mostly they are either mildly amusing or just annoying. But I never thought one of them would contain me!

Yesterday I got an email from my mum which her brother had forwarded to her (after being forwarded many times prior to that)

Subject : Fwd: FW: FW: I don’t think so………… !!!!!!!!!

Message Body : In Zimbabwe, Africa, you will find the magnificent Victoria Falls, at a
height of 128m.

The location is known as the “Devil’s Swimming Pool”. During the months of
September and December, people can swim as close as possible to the edge
of the falls without falling over.

These falls are becoming well known amongst the “radical tourist”
industry, when more and more people search for the ultimate experience.

Would you dare?    

Underneath that a series of photos of people on the edge of Victoria Falls in Devil’s Pool (which is actually on the Zambia side, not Zimbabwe), many peering over the edge. And the first of those photos … me and Owen! Looks like we’ve been emailed around the world – at least we’re famous for being daring “radical tourists” and not for something embarassing. Probably someone has stolen the photo from flickr, where there are plenty of other photos of people at Devil’s Pool. This one is my favourite of the ones we took there…

It’s taken me a little while to get around to it, but here is Mia’s first YouTube video, from her first few days in hospital. Starting with footage from minutes after she was born, then meeting her brothers, her first bath, and her impression of a frog. Enjoy.

Also added a few more photos to my flickr page, like the ones below.. what I haven’t uploaded though is the video which follows of Owen taking off driving round the house with Mia on his lap!

Photo-sharing site bans ‘nude’ babies in nappies

Another example of taking things a little too far – online photo album site Photobucket has removed pictures of babies in nappies for violating their nudity code. Sure glad I’m not storing my photos with them – my recent photo postings onto the Flickr website include dozens of such ‘offensive’ photos, like this one, for example :

I’ve already introduced you to Mia, but my other new baby is a Fender acoustic/electric mandolin, which I got the other day.

I’m afraid I got a bit mixed up about which one belongs in the case though

Plenty more new photos (of Mia, not the Mandolin) online at flickr….

Time for bed after another good day, most of which was spent at the hospital with my girls

I’ve put more photos from today on flickr here : http://flickr.com/photos/pbaggas/sets/72157604054807202/ but here’s a couple of the cutest ones…

Just a quick note to say that our baby, Mia Grace, was born at 6am this morning, weighing 3014 grams

Will update more soon, but all is well.

More photos online here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbaggas/sets/72157604045019286/

First day of school for 2008 today. Owen started grade 2, and Luke had his first ever day at kindy – both looked super cute in their uniforms as you can see in the photos (more on flickr). So now we have both our children at school with no kids full time at home… at least for a few weeks until the next one comes along…

It’s another long weekend here down under, this time for Australia Day, January 26th. We’ll be having the customary lamb dinner tonight with some chops before yet another public holiday on-call for me tomorrow.

So far this weekend’s been good though. Jen and I went out for dinner and a movie on Friday night – saw Charlie Wilson’s War which is an excellent cold war political drama starring Tom Hanks. Full of history, humour, and irony, if you like The West Wing (my all time favourite TV show) then you’ll probably appreciate this movie. I also like the understated way the movie referenced the USA’s failure to capitalise on its victory over the Soviets in Afghanistan – as the characters discuss the dangers of not following through with helping rebuild the country, you hear the ominous sound of a jet airliner flying over Washington in the background.

Saturday we took the kids to Garden City Shopping Centre in Booragoon to do a bit of shopping and see a movie. Our only choice was Alvin & the Chipmunks which was not the best but the kids seemed to enjoy it. While doing that I dropped our Prado into a hand car wash they have in the undercover carpark there to get all the dirt off it from our previous weekend down south. The beauty of that place is not only do they do a great job for a pretty good price, but it saves me having to drive around for 20 minutes looking for parking. Now the car looks like new again, or perhaps even better than new

Speaking of last weekend, I’ve posted a video on YouTube with some footage I took while we were down south. Have a look here if you like :

In the next few days I’ll upload the rest of the video. Also I’ve posted all the photos from the trip on my flickr page.

Fairly quiet day at work thus far. No babies being born and plenty of gaps between patients. Which has given me plenty of time to catch up on some internet jobs – paid a few bills and started tidying up my Flickr photos. I’ve now given titles to all the photos in my Africa 2007 and Africa 2006 sets. As promised I also have a bunch of short video clips taken on my camera which I will upload to YouTube soon. These include videos of the lions in Johannesburg, kids in Uganda, church at KPC, riding a boda-boda motorcycle through town, and from the concert we visited. Because they are all in Quicktime MOV format, I’m just waiting til I get my new MacBook in a week or so because I think that will be easier to do than on a PC. But I promise to get them up ASAP. Watch this space.

This is my second attempt at using the internet today. The first was at the “best internet cafe” in town and I sat there for an hour with no connection – but at least I got my photos backed up and the last blog entry typed. This time I am at a cafe near our hotel that has failed me several times before, but actually seems reasonably quick tonight. Just shows how totally unpredictable the net is here in Kampala.

Anyway here’s a few photos from the past few days…

The view from the front of our clinic on Suubi mountain – breathtaking!

Some of the crowd outside our clinic – we saw over 160 patients today.

Two brothers we saw – no parents in sight. Very common for children of a young age to care for their siblings here like this, and very common to see boys wearing dresses – they can’t afford any other clothes.

This is the boy I discussed in my previous post, not long after he was brought in with a seizure on Tuesday.

And this is the same boy with his new shirt, given to him by our physio Mairin – looking much happier!

The view from our hotel the other night when we had a massive storm – you can see the Old Kampala Mosque in the foreground and the Kampala ‘skyline’  in the background.

Kampala is a very religious city. You see plenty of posters like this advertising various “crusades” (I hate that term- conjures up images of some of Christianity’s darkest moments) – anyway many of the look shonky and we found this one for “Pastor Augustine” particularly amusing – can’t decide if he’s a pastor or a hip-hop artist

Some of the many shops we pass on the road outside Kampala, with big piles of green ‘matoke’ bananas out front.

Well that’s all for now – time for me to head to bed. We went for an appreciation dinner with Watoto tonight to Kampala’s best Chinese restaurant- the food there is always tremendous and it’s a beautiful setting. Tomorrow is the last day of the medical clinics and I can’t say I’m sorry to be seeing the end of it. It has been quite exhausting work, although still very worthwhile. I’ll update again on the weekend if I get time.

A welcome change of pace today. The two doctors on the team, myself and Jess, went over to the Watoto Babies Home – Bulrushes, to do some checks on a few of the babies, whilst the rest of the team went back out to the villages to do various things.

The Bulrushes babies are in pretty good shape, considering these are orphans who a few months back were abandoned, some in terrible conditions. Like all Watoto children, they are well taken care of. Nevertheless, put 40 to 50 babies in the same building, especially ones who may have pre-existing illnesses, and various health problems are bound to develop. We saw about 15 or so this morning, most of whom fortunately had fairly minor problems. After that we spent a while just hanging out and playing with the babies which was fun. One of the babies I saw today I remembered from when we were here briefly in July. His name was Junior and when he was first taken in as a premature baby he was very sick with HIV and PCP pneumonia. Well, three months later with a bit of feeding, some antiretroviral medication, and a lot of love and good care, and he is doing well – gaining weight, smiling and in good health, as you may see in the first picture below. I continue to be incredibly impressed with the standard of care provided in the Bulrushes.

After we were finished there we took a walk along to the Garden City shopping mall for lunch and shopping. A call to the rest of the team revealed they are hours away from meeting us here so we decided to take a walk down the hill into the Kampala CBD before coming back here to the internet. Here’s a few photos I snapped on the way around. They’ve really been working hard preparing for CHOGM, the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, which is happening here in a couple of weeks – so much that asking a person if they are “ready for CHOGM” is a standing joke around here. From the state of most of the works though, I doubt if they will be ready on time. I’m not sure if our Prime Minister is still planning to attend CHOGM in the midst of the current election campaign, but I hope he does, if only for the chance to see a bit of Uganda on Australian TV back home.

The bottom picture is yet another local restaurant sign

Finally, I’m going to try and upload a few pictures from the clinics during the week, which I will add to that blog entry, so go back and take a look at that.

….well maybe that should be lion with a little “l”…

The highlight of an otherwise dreary day today in Johannesburg was a visit to the Lion Park. I got to cuddle a couple of 4 month old lion cubs. They gave me a good lick and enjoyed a pat and scratch, but then one of them started to get a bit carried away, chewing on my shoelaces, then my jeans, and then having a good munch on my arm and then my side. I still have the scratches to prove it. Jen seemed a bit worried when I texted her to say I’d been bitten by a lion

After “cub world” I got back in my rental car and took a long drive around the lion park. That was fantastic too. They had a big range of animals including zebra, antelope, ostrich and hyenas, but the highlight was once again the lions, of which there were probably about 30 or 40. I could just drive by and take pictures of them just a metre or so away. It was a bit nerve wracking at times when I had a bunch of lions either side of the car, trying to film one whilst keeping a a wary eye on the other. A couple of times they just got up and walked nonchalantly in front of the car. Very cool.

I’ve got a whole lot more photos. I’ll upload them to my flickr page later when I get time. But first I’m overdue for dinner. 

Had a great day on Saturday with my brothers and dad and our kids. We went up to Dwellingup and went 4 wheel driving in the state forest. There was a little bit of rain which was just enough to create some big puddles for us to splash through and get the cars nice and dirty.

On the way home we had some technical problems with one of the cars, and we limped into Pinjarra where we waited for the other car to return after rescuing someone else, and Jen to arrive with our Honda to give the kids a lift home (she’d just finished at a Women’s conference thing). But the kids enjoyed playing in the park by the Murray river in Pinjarra and exploring the local graveyard. Some of the graves date as far back as 1844, which is pretty old by Western Australian standards (the first settlers arrived in 1829) .

(from Left : Dylan, Kaylee, Alexa, Ethan, Luke, Owen & Rohan)

For those who aren’t familiar with the clan, my two boys are Luke and Owen (in orange and green) – the others are my brother’s kids. Dylan and Kaylee belong to Kyle; and Alexa, Ethan and Rohan belong to Scott.  The only cousin missing here is Scott’s new baby Tobias, who was born in August and therefore still a little young to come 4 wheel driving. With two more babies due next year (making a grand total of ten) these family photos are only going to get more tricky – it’s impossible to get them all smiling at the same time  

Anyway, I’ve uploaded a few more photos from the day onto my Flickr account.

Over the last couple of days I’ve uploaded a big bunch of photos onto my flickr account. I’m about halfway through the ones from our recent trip and will get the rest online over the next couple of days. So far there’s a whole lot from Hawaii, Disneyland, and London. Take a look at my Flickr Page here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbaggas/

Here’s the first photo of the latest member of our family, who we expect around the 12th of March next year. I nearly had a heart attack today when Jen’s doctor who did the scan (who’s a friend of mine) rang me up and said congratulations on the triplets! Fortunately for all of us he was kidding…

Ten weeks and one day today by the ultrasound date.

Today we again went to Disneyland, and this time had a much better day than we did on Saturday. It was a bit cooler and less crowded (although we ended up missing out on the Nemo ride since we didn’t want to spend two and a half hours in line). Overall we did a lot more rides and had a great time. Owen once again got to take part in Jedi training – now he has fought both Darth Vader and Darth Maul, and we watched the Disney parade which was nice. Best ride of the day was Splash Mountain. Tomorrow we hit Disney’s California Adventure park.

For now, here’s a few photos from our time so far in California – from Disneyland, Legoland, and in Hollywood. I’ll leave it up to you to work out which is which…

A little bit of down time this morning before we head off for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe  and a walk through the big shopping mall here in Nashville (which includes the Gibson store!) so I thought I’d upload a few of our photos from our time in the UK…

(1) Owen & Luke by the Thames

(2) The Tower of London

(3) A Tower Guard

(4) Return of the Jedi

(5) Parliament Square – Big Ben – Looks like rain?

(6) Picadilly Circus with Uncle Matt

(7) On Blackpool beach

Rockinghamgateway Photo Gallery

Here’s a collection of photos from our local area at the Rockingham Gateway website, which I discovered whilst browsing some blog comments. Plenty of good shots of our great beaches and more.

I’m feeling a bit battered and bruised this morning after a nasty accident yesterday afternoon. I was driving our car, with the 2 boys in the back along a major road when another car tried to turn across in front of me. It all happened very quickly and I didn’t really have time to brake and collided with his car. The car spun around, the passenger side air bag went off (luckily no-one was sitting there) and there was smoke everywhere. Fortunately the boys were completely unharmed, although a little bit shaken by the ordeal. As for me I have some aches and pains in my legs and neck but nothing too severe. The other good thing was that behind us on the road was a police car, so they were at the scene immediately and saw the whole thing. It took a lot of stress out of the whole situation having them there directing traffic and talking to the other driver etc. God certainly was looking after us through it all. The car was towed to the local smash repair place (which we know all too well unfortunately) and I had to go there this morning to fill in an insurance report. While I was there I snapped a few pics with my phone. The damage is fairly bad, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough for them to write off the whole car (which would be cool) – I imagine it’s going to take quite a while to fix though… Anyway, see for yourself…