The Life of Riley

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Mike

And I’ve brought news about new eyes.

Olive

Yes, that’s amazing.

Mike

There was a huge gathering in Canberra last weekend, 1000 of the county’s best thinkers brought together by the Government to talk about the future of our fair land.

They worked all weekend to come up with their recommendations. Did you hear about that, Ollie?

Olive

I did hear something but I can’t say what exactly.

Mike

Well, it was to brainstorm new ideas.

One of the ideas which most appealed to Prime Minster Rudd, was that apparently Australia is well on the way to developing bionic vision, replacement eyes for those who are blind.

Here’s a photo taken by Renee Nowytarger for The Australian. The man in the photo is Prof. Minas Coroneo who says his team’ll have a bionic eye ready next year.
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Prof Coroneo’s an ophthalmologist who’s leading this breakthrough and developing what they call a visionary implant, so far for less than $100,000.

Of course now they’re hoping for big bucks from the Government!

I don’t know how it works but I found this diagram on Google .
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Olive

It is amazing what they can do.

Mike

An Australian scientist developed the bionic ear too. They work very well, the artificial ears, I hear.

Olive

You hear?

Mike

Yes, I hear with my non bionic ear.

Now, here’s Olive as I first told her about the breakthrough

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Mike

Now, back to what we were talking about last time. Bush walking. Have a look at this book, published in 1936.

Does it ring any bells?

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Olive

None at all. Never saw it before.

Mike

Then you didn’t know that in the twenties and thirties, New South Wales caught the bushwalking craze. A madness for hiking swept the land.

Olive

Really?

Mike

Yes, in the very years you say you loved walking, that’s when it happened. So, I’m surprised you don’t know about the craze.

Special trains left Sydney every Friday night with thousands of people on board. They were bound for the Hawkesbury and other walking areas, everyone mad to spend the weekend walking.

Here they go! (this and the following illustrations all come from the book Hiking for Health.)

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Mike

I love the guy in the lower left. He looks my uncle Francis. You met Francis.

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Olive

Well, I walked with girls from work, that was the Egg Board. Bing too sometimes, and Barnie

Mike

This book is a great read, Ollie. It’s like a window into a time before cars.

A time too when women were becoming adventurous. Look at these photos
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Mike

I want to read you this bit about Dot English and how she made herself hiking shorts, a very bold garment to wear in those days.

It says; “Dot wore a ducky (that’s a word you don’t hear any more. ‘ducky’) little pair of shorts, cutely fashioned from the dust cover of a taxi.

(Apparently people put dust covers on their cars in those days, like it was a valuable bit of furniture).

Dot had picked the dust cover up one night in Hyde Park, and then dyed the material khaki.

It was; “artistically slashed, gored and patched in the seat” she says.

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Olive

We just wore long pants. You know, sensible things.

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Mike

You look like you’ve still got your Egg Board clothes on here, Ollie.

Anyway, tell me about going up the Hawkesbury river

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Mike

That’s a great story but what about the walking part?

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Mike

You know, Ollie, I think we’ve lost something. I mean, bush walking not being as popular as it was.

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Mike

Walking’s great for fitness and we sure need that, getting fatter and fatter, as we are.

It’s low cost and low footprint. I mean, you’re not burning fossil fuels when walking, only calories.

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Mike

Also, it means people are going to be much less burden on the health system later on. That’s vital ‘cos health costs are breaking the national budget.

Our kids have lost the love of nature we had we were growing up. I used to be outside, up trees, all the time when I was young.

Nowadays kids are racing through the landscape for sure, but in the virtual country of some video game.

This is serious. If they don’t have a love nature first hand, they are not going to protect it, and it needs more protection than ever before, I reckon.

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Mike

We are raising exactly the wrong type of person, Ollie. We need outdoors types and we are breeding computer blobs.

Maybe bush walking can be a way back to nature. What do you think?

Olive

Absolutely right!

Mike

Building trails and huts for overnight walkers, keeping those trails maintained, all that is just the right sort of work we need for young people, kids who are lost and confused as so many are..

I wanted to send this idea to the Canberra conference, but didn’t get around to it.

Maybe it’s not too late. What do you think?

A postscript from me. Sadly, Wordpress, the blog template we use, no longer allows us to comment on the comments.

There are four very nice comments that have popped up since I posted last night.

From Michelle in Italy (Bleeding Expresso) Rosemary in North Carolina, Jana in California, and Pepperlady in North Idaho.

All from women and all Americans. (Michelle lives in Italy but is a yank)

It’s so nice to see that the walking theme resonates with you all. It’s time to make walking the world’s new passion, I’m sure.

In an earlier post, I described my walk in wonderful NZ and I showed you my pedometer.

I cannot recommend more highly getting a pedometer. We all love statistics, and having this walnut on you waist counting steps,
kilometres. and calories, is a great encouragement.

We are not into paid advertising, but this pedometer is a beauty. It’s made by Oregon Scientific.

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Someone recently explained to me that the appeal of baseball, which few outside the US and Japan can get excited about, is due to the fantastic quantity of statistics it generates.

So, I’m ready to reveal my recent Kms. per day for public scrutiny, here and now. I walked….

April 21….7.18Km.
22….8.12 Km.
23…6.75Km.
24…9.80 Km.

Ollie counts her steps to the dining room and back at about 300 a day. We’d love to get her doing more, but the old ankles are real swollen

Other Vital news. Amber, Ollie’s dear carer at her hostel, has got married and is in Vietnam on her honeymoon. She came to say goodbye.
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Mike

You noticed I’m playing around artistically with this photo?

. I’ve got my own blog now, all about art, and I’m making crossovers.

Remember when Ollie got her portrait painted at Patonga?

Well, the latest post on Family art Stories Rubbo family
( Google search phrase) is about Patonga.

It reprises Ollie’s visit there, and tells the story of two great Aussie artists, who, strangely give portraits away… sometimes.

You can click on the Family Art Stories title on our blogroll, higher up, to get there faster.

Bye from both of us!