7 - 2008 - RodneyOlsen.net

Giant Boab Tree Heads South

July 15, 2008

Have you heard that the plan to move an ancient boab tree to Perth has run into a few problems?

The tree apparently weighs almost three times as much as first thought. The bottle-shaped boab tree is being removed and transplanted 3 200 km from Warmun, in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, to Kings Park in the heart of Western Australia’s capital.

The 750 year old tree was estimated to weigh 14 tonnes. Instead, it was found to weigh a massive 37.2 tonnes. The project team has now found a bigger truck – a much bigger truck. The tree should arrive in Perth this weekend.

The tree is being moved due to roadworks in the area and it’s the first time that such a mature tree has been transported over such a distance.

Digging up the tree proved much harder than predicted too as it was embedded in granite rock, making removal extremely difficult.

They say that the boab is expected to live at least another 750 years after its journey and transplant. That’s not a bad innings for a tree. If I can get something to live for more than a couple of months in my garden I reckon I’m doing OK.

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An absolute tragedy

July 15, 2008

by Rodney Olsen

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The Songstress at News from the Great Beyond needs your prayer and support.

Her incredibly well written post, This Sucks, is absolutely heart breaking. I don’t think I’d ever be strong enough to write a post like that under such terrible circumstances.

Please visit, read the entire post, assure her of your support, then tell someone close how much you love them.

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It was all yellow

July 15, 2008

by Rodney Olsen

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Cadel Evans has gone into the first rest day of the 2008 Tour de France wearing yellow … by just one second.

The Australian rode an amazing stage in the mountains on a day when both the previous yellow jersey, Kim Kirchen, and the second favourite for the tour, Alejandro Valverde, cracked in the mountains and lost time to the Australian. Valverde has now slipped back to 14th place.

Of course the race is a long way from over and with eleven stages still to come, Cadel will have a big job ahead of him defending the yellow jersey.

One of the biggest stories to come out of the tenth stage was the strength of Team CSC who controlled the mountains and put many riders into trouble with their pace. CSC rider Frank Shleck was only a second away from wearing yellow with a tremendous ride up Hautacam.

Out of the eleven remaining stages there are five flat stages, five mountain stages and an individual time trial.

The race is a long way from over but it’s great to see Cadel in yellow.

Below are the top ten places overall from the official Tour De France website.

1.	EVANS Cadel	1	SILENCE – LOTTO	42h 29′ 09″
2.	SCHLECK Frank	17	TEAM CSC SAXO BANK	42h 29′ 10″	+ 00′ 01″
3.	VANDEVELDE Christian	191	GARMIN CHIPOTLE	42h 29′ 47″	+ 00′ 38″
4.	KOHL Bernhard	115	GEROLSTEINER	42h 29′ 55″	+ 00′ 46″
5.	MENCHOV Denis	131	RABOBANK	42h 30′ 06″	+ 00′ 57″
6.	SASTRE Carlos	11	TEAM CSC SAXO BANK	42h 30′ 37″	+ 01′ 28″
7.	KIRCHEN Kim	41	TEAM COLUMBIA	42h 31′ 05″	+ 01′ 56″
8.	COBO ACEBO Juan Jose	173	SAUNIER DUVAL – SCOTT	42h 31′ 19″	+ 02′ 10″
9.	RICCO Riccardo	171	SAUNIER DUVAL – SCOTT	42h 31′ 38″	+ 02′ 29″
10.	EFIMKIN Vladimir	104	AG2R-LA MONDIALE	42h 31′ 41″	+ 02′ 32″

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cadel lose the winner’s jersey for a few days at some stage but if that hapopens, his time trialling skills should see him return to the number one position on the day before Paris in the 53 km time trial.

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World's Oldest Blogger Logs Out

July 13, 2008

by Rodney Olsen

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I’ve just read an article at News.com.au titled ‘Oldest blogger’ makes final post.

THE Australian woman renowned as the world’s oldest internet blogger has made her final post, aged 108.

Olive Riley, of Woy Woy on NSW’s central coast, died in a nursing home just after 6am (AEST) yesterday.

She will be mourned by family and an international readership in the thousands.

Olive’s blog, The Life of Riley, began in February last year. Olive will be sadly missed.

I hope I’m still trying to match it with the ‘young folk’ as far as new technology goes when I reach my later years. I wonder what the latest gadgets and devices will be available in my old age.

I wonder if this blog will still be rolling along in ten, twenty or thirty years time.

In her first ever post Olive said,

Good Morning everyone. My name is Olive Riley. I live in Australia near Sydney. I was born in Broken Hill on Oct. 20th 1899.Broken Hill is a mining town, far away in the centre of Australia.

My Friend, Mike, has arranged this blog for me. He is doing the typing and I am telling the stories. He thinks it’s a good idea to tell what’s going on.

He already made a film about me a few years back and people liked that, so they might like this blog too, he says. We’ll see.

Goodbye Olive and thanks for the stories.

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Mamma Mia … Here We Go Again

July 13, 2008

by Rodney Olsen

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We never had the opportunity to see the stage show but Pauline and I jumped at the opportunity to attend Perth’s Red Carpet Premiere for Mamma Mia! the Movie last Wednesday.

It really wasn’t all that cool to admit to being an ABBA fan back in their heyday but I didn’t care about cool. I had posters and all sorts of other ABBA paraphernalia sticky taped to my bedroom wall, totally destroying the paint job. I would stare endlessly at Bjorn, Benny, Frida and especially Anna, while wearing my trendy yellow ABBA T-Shirt. I even had a certificate to prove that I was an official member of the ABBA fan club issued by the now defunct Perth newspaper, Sunday Independent.

Mamma Mia! is being promoted as a feel good movie and that’s exactly what it is. The joyous, and sometimes tuneful, renditions of many of ABBA’s great songs really brought the audience to life. Most of the cast admirably demonstrated why they had chosen acting over singing as a career. While I would never buy the movie soundtrack, let’s face it, I have the ABBA CDs and they do it so much better, I have to recognise the fact that some of the actors put in amazing vocal performances.

Meryl Streep is a far better actor than singer but she still knows how to belt out a tune and her performance of The Winner Takes It All is remarkable. Many people have singled out Pierce Brosnan’s performances as less than inspiring but I reckon it was a gutsy effort by him and he holds a tune more than well enough for a light hearted movie like this one. It was Christine Baranski who really surprised me with her voice. I think she’s a great actress and her voice was surprisingly good.

If you’re an ABBA fan you’ll enjoy the fun numbers and no matter who you are you’re likely to love the scenery.

As for the storyline, and I use that term rather loosely, it’s fairly obvious that the stage show, which the movie closely mirrors, was written only as a way to string together a bunch of songs by everyone’s favourite Swedish super group. (I had to use the ‘Swedish super group’ cliche sooner or later.) I’ll let you decide for yourself about the morality of a story about a girl who has no idea who her father is because her mother had been with three guys within a very short time.

An interesting moment is where the daughter blurts out in front of a group of people that she didn’t care if her mother had slept with hundreds of guys. The mother looks nervously to the crowd saying that she hadn’t slept with hundreds of men. Obviously it would be embarrassing to sleep with too many men but how many would be too many? It seems that sleeping with three guys is OK but hundreds is a little over the top. I wonder where the line would have been drawn. Five? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?

If you’re prepared to look past the storyline and just enjoy the movie as an opportunity to relive your love of ABBA, go for it.

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Archive - July 2008