Month: November 2013

Tilly injured

Our “big girl” Tilly the German Shepherd managed to get a cut in the backyard somehow.

It turned out to be (we think) part of the barrier I’ve erected to keep Meika out of the garden – she probably got caught in the blade of a hole digger… ouch!

We had put the dogs into the back yard separated from us having a BBQ with Mum & Dad. Meika of coarse didn’t like that and was playing up. So, we think that during her madness was when Tilly hurt herself.

I initially thought it was only a bit of fur removed – a little red. So, next morning we were going to take her to the vet to check.  However, when she climbed into the back of the car I got a much closer look… a deep cut it was. So, off to Murdoch vet hospital instead.

4 hours, 50 stitches (40 internal), and $1400 later we had her back home. 🙁 Still,  she is part is the family.

Photos to follow.

New Iridium plugs for Little Miss STealthy

I received a set of Iridiums from the UK for Little Miss STealthy a few weeks ago and decided to put them in today….

The original OEMs were replaced at 24,000km when I had it serviced with standard NGKs – so these have about 22,000km on them. She’s been taking a while to wake up in the morning of late – still starting, but just running a little rough for the first 30 seconds or so. I also noticed that a quick blip of the throttle would often create a little back-fire.

So, wifey is out, kids are out, dogs are asleep, and there’s nothing on the telly…

I initially assumed it would be easy – just take off the small access panels and bingo-bango. Nope. Not that easy – one plug lead on each side is difficult to clear the faring. Back to OzSToc and ST-Owners to browse. I then returned, removed one bolt holding the faring each side immediately above the panels, then a little twisting, pressure on the plastic, and out they came.

Here are what the old plugs looked like, numbered 4 down to 1 from left to right, with a new Iridium on the end:

oldPlugs

If you look closely, you can see a little “dag” on the tip of #3, along with some significant discolouration of the ceramic stem – I assume that might have been causing the sluggishness on startup. She’s a beaut now though.

The new plugs are meant to be good for > 100,000 km too.

Yay! I’ll soon be able to use a bus lane…

From a motorcycle advocate here in Perth…
“I have just returned from a meeting with the W.A. Public Transport Authority Chief Executive Officer to discuss the trial of motorcycles using bus lanes. The good news for WA riders is this will be up and running in a month or two (once signage has been updated and installed) I believe this will help make riders safer on our roads by removing them from the highly congested highways during peak hour traffic, and hopefully encourage more to get out of their cars and take two wheels to work in Perth and surrounding areas.”

Work update

My stint at WA Health didn’t last long. State budget cuts saw a massive reduction in the project size all in the name of redirecting $ to Fiona Stanley hospital. I’ll be honest… it was a blessing in disguise as the role wasn’t what it was meant to be.

I then spent 6 weeks helping on an IT strategy and road map for CITIC Pacific Mining: interesting change for me and it would be good if more work could come out of it for us.

Now I’m on the “bench”, helping out here and there, doing the odd training course and just waiting for the next job to come along. Two short gigs are in the queue: one in Canberra and the other in Honk Kong.