The year 2011 began with my brother Wayne returning briefly from Launceston, Tasmania.  I visited him while he was staying with pastor Wayne Shepherd who is also a leading figure in the South Australian branch of the Christian Motorcyclists Association (CMA).  The 2 Waynes met through the CMA in the early or mid-1990s.  I had never seriously considered joining the CMA, because my days as a frequent rider finished in about 1983.  However, I asked Wayne S for more information about the CMA while I was there, and he invited me to a barbecue and a Saturday ride several days later.  Since then, I have regularly participated in the monthly Saturday rides & bi-monthly Sunday rides, thoroughly enjoying them.  At the beginning of July I joined the CMA, and on 17th September I led a ride to Dad's home in Kapunda. Picture at right:  On a CMA ride in October to the Big Rocking Horse at Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills, I demonstrated my old cornering style on the giant horse's foal.

I must be getting soft.  In recent years I have attended most of the BMW Motorcycle Rallies, but I have stayed with Dad in bunkhouses instead of using a tent.  I didn't realise how long since I'd used my little green canvas tent – until the CMA had a camping run at How Park near Peake in the Murraylands district, on 22-23 July.  Inside the tent, I found camping park receipts from my 9,500 km tour to Far North Queensland in June-July 1995. The cold overnight temperature in winter reminded me why I don't like using the tent.  Nevertheless, it was fun being with friends around a campfire.

On the long weekend of 1-3 October, Dad & I attended the BMW Motorcycle Rally at the Roonka scout camp beside the River Murray, 7 km north of Blanchetown.  As usual, I rode my 1977 model BMW R100RS which is on Historic Registration.  At the age of 88, Dad is still perfectly capable of riding – he joined in the CMA ride to his home 2 weeks earlier, but back in 2010 he'd announced his retirement from riding to BMW rallies.  He's embarrassed by the attention caused by always winning the Oldest Rider award, so this year he drove his BMW 525e car instead.

For something different, on 10th September I participated in the rally held by Dad's car club, Northern Automotive Restoration Club (NARC).  Dad was my passenger in my Hillman Minx.  Picture below: stopped for morning tea at Robertstown Bowling Club.

For almost 20 years I've been thinking about getting a solar hot water system, but did nothing.  It's called "using your inertiative" . On 18th January this year, I finally got a Hills/Rinnai electric-boosted solar water heater installed – all locally manufactured parts.  I'm extremely happy with it, and would recommend this system (and the installers) to anybody.  The electric booster is usually switched off (except for 7 cold days at the end of May, and 3 hours during winter).

My brother Wayne in Tasmania has been having a lot of trouble with his computer, so we've had lots of Skype-to-Skype calls talking about it.  We're now well practised at using Windows Remote Assistance for me to control his keyboard and mouse over the internet to fix the little problems and teach him how to do things better.  However, his computer was built to a very low price 5 years ago, and is very poor quality.  For the past 2 months, I've been working slowly on a very cheap solution: buy a good used computer ($50), 2TB internal hard disk ($91), 2TB USB hard disk for backup ($95), and install Windows XP Professional from scratch.  I'm currently putting the finishing touches on it, and Wayne will take it back with him to Tasmania.  He's currently staying with Dad at Kapunda during the Christmas-New Year period.

During April, my elderly friend Les called me for help with his computer.  He'd taken a phone call from scammers in south east Asia – "Live Windows Solutions" I think their name is – who convinced Les that his computer had a security problem.  It's true, he did have a security problem, but only after they talked Les through the mysterious process of giving them access to his computer – after which they removed his McAfee Internet Security package and replaced it with some freeware.  After this, we had great difficulty downloading and reinstalling the McAfee package, but finally got there.

In May, I helped Dad to buy a TEAC LCD television and USB computer disk for recording.  For simple TV viewing and recording, it's very easy to use.  However, as with all modern electronic devices, it's ridiculously complicated (to an 88 year old man) for playing recorded material from any source, so Dad has no clue how to deal with it.  My next move is to re-install a VHS video cassette recorder.

I continue to be an active member of the Hillman Car Club, and was again re-elected to the position of Social Events Officer – co-ordinating the people who volunteer to organise specific events.  In addition to this, I organised our March and July runs. I also continue in the appointed position of Webmaster (since 2001). I'm on the organising sub-committee for the 2012 Hillman National Rally to be held in Renmark.  Earlier this month, the sub-committee visited the Renmark Hotel (rally headquarters) for 1 or 2 days as our final organising expedition.  The area is a lovely sight, with the River Murray full of water.  It will be an excellent car rally next Easter. Photo at left:  The view from the Renmark Hotel 3rd floor balcony.

At this time last year, I was having problems with my heart.  Much of last year's newsletter was typed in the Emergency Department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.  I had one more visit a few days later, but fortunately there have been no more since then.  I have been well cared for by Professor Prash Sanders (a world-renowned cardiologist) and a few of his private practice colleagues.  At the end of February, they fitted me with a Holter Monitor for a day – it recorded that my heart beat rate fell well below 40 per minute while I slept.  Over the years I have been proud of my low beat rate, as an indication of physical fitness.  However, when Atrial Fibrillation is also involved, there's a serious risk of blood clotting in the heart chambers.  When those clots move to the brain, a stroke results.  So on 28th March, Professor Sanders installed a Medtronic ADVISA DR A5DR01 pacemaker – its sole intended purpose is to prevent my beat rate from going below 60.  Nine months later, it all seems to be going well.  "Blessed are the pacemakers." It's a sealed unit, so when the battery goes flat (about 8-10 years, depending on how much work it needs to do), I'll need to have a new pacemaker installed.

Picture above:  The 2 bipolar wires plug into the top, and go down to the top & bottom of the heart.

On 9th June, we had a visit by Ben Yengi who regularly attended our worship services 10 years ago, and is currently leading the major redevelopment of his native village KajoKeji (now in the Republic of South Sudan, Africa).  Ben spent more than an hour telling us about the project.  Our church helped to raise several thousand dollars for it.

On 9th October I again attended the annual Tschirpig/Milich family reunion at Berri.  Just over 50 people attended.  These were started 20 years ago by Mum's brother Snow Tschirpig.  Mum's generation has only one surviving member, and it was great to see uncle Norm Tschirpig (pictured left) there at the age of 87.  He lives at Albury, NSW. Picture at right:  11 grandchildren of Traugott Tschirpig & Anna (nee Milich).  That's me on the right, with 10 cousins.

It's been another year of good rainfall in south eastern Australia, but the water restrictions we endured during the drought are still remembered.  At the political level, there are still disputes between South Australia, New South Wales & Victoria over entitlements to take water from the River Murray.  From the environmental point of view, the river is damaged during a season of medium rain, and threatened with irrepairable damage during a drought.
On behalf of South Australian fruit growers, I write this open letter to the irrigators of NSW & Victoria:
You say that all of the water is yours because the rain fell in your states.  So you want to keep all of it when there isn't enough to share with us.  You are correct; the water is all yours – and that's also true when you're in flood (as some of NSW is again at present).  So the problem of water disposal is yours to solve; don't use S.A. as a storm water drain.  If necessary, we'll build a huge dam wall at the state border to ensure that you don't dump it on us.  If you don't like that idea, we'll charge you a dumping fee of 40% of your water during poor seasons.  Share it around during all seasons.  The philosophy of selfishness doesn't win in the long run.