Monthly Archives: July 2009

OHS Cert IV

Published July 28, 2009 | By Tommy

Well I can’t beleive it myself yet, but I’ve actually started to study again. Its been over 15 years since I have to school and now here I am getting back into the swing of study, homework and assignments. Since my days at AAA as a safety representative I’ve had a passion for OHS and have been saving hard to be able to afford a course. Now with my tax return back I am able to get started in my course. My books arrived in the mail today so I guess today is start of school for me again.

Snow Season

Published July 25, 2009 | By Tommy

“Beep, Beep, Beep”. Its 5:30am on a Saturday morning, and the alarm has just gone off. There is only one reason someone would set their alarm that early on Saturday morning and that would be a trip to Mt Buller! It was dark, cold and misty and ideal conditions just to stay in bed after a hard weeks work, but as there is no rest for the wicked I jumped in my mates car and headed off for that fluffy white snow. Half way there somewhere around Yea, there was other people fufilling dreams by taking off in hot air balloon just before dawn, it was an awesome site. Forty minutes later we arrived at Mansfield for a second breaky and then headed off to the montain. We as usual arrived as the first lifts open and once at the top were ready for our first run down Burnt Hut. It was a little icy, more than I expected, and controlling my board was a little hard. There was a few things that I could put it down to;

1) First run for the season (the most obvious),

2) Modified bindings, which after getting use to are way better, and

3) It was alot icier than predicted.

After a couple of quick runs down the track we decided to try a few of the runs down the side of Burnt Hut. This is where it was really icy and the run had no mercy. I came off my board and in mid flight thought “ok just relax, there is a pile of snow there to break your fall”. Well that pile of snow was iced over to so it was like a rock! It hurt I got a headache and at this stage didnt realise my shoulder was bring me pain for a whole week. We thought we would try the other side of the mountain and see if that was any better. It was way better with a little powder even, which brought back a little confidence and alot more pleasure. When we stopped for lunch was when i realised that my shoulder was in a bad way, up until this stage my backpack had kept my shoulder strapped in, but once that came off it started to hurt. After lunch we headed back out to the other side of the mountain where we filled in the rest of the afternoon with some wild boarding. By the end of the day I started to feel really exhausted and was glad to be heading back home for a hot bath.

Point Cook RAAF Museum

Published July 15, 2009 | By Tommy

Sunday just gone myself and Zoe thought it would be a good idea to go visit the Point Cook RAAF Museum. We got up and got ready fairly early (for a Sunday) and headed off to Point Cook. I got out the old GPS and plugged it in and as usual it never works (for me), so I cracked the sads and then realised that I don’t have a Melways in the car and have no idea on how to get to Point Cook. After a minute or so I calmed down thought its 9am lets pull into JB HiFi and grab a new GPS. Zoe was trying to tell me that on Sunday shops dont open until 10am, but I wasn’t happy with that and convinced myself that they are open at 9am. Upon arrival I noticed alot of cars in the car park and told Zoe “See, the shops must be open, look at all the cars”. With further analyis I noticed that all the shops did have a sign on saying open at 10am. I looked at the clock and it was 9:30am and the car park was nearly full and so were most of the cars, I couldn’t believe it, why would people possibly want to sit in their car on a Sunday morning and be waiting 1/2 an hour until the shops open. Maybe they were all after GPS’s and were heading to Point Cook. I personally was looking for a Mio GPS but none of the stores had any, so then I thought I would go a Navman, but they were all sold out. Third on the preference list was a Garmin, but once again they were all sold out, so there I was left with only one choice, the most expensive, the TomTom. Without further delay I purchased the TomTom XL and headed out the store and plugged it into the car, and literally was heading off to Point Cook with a few taps on the screen. About 40 minutes later we arrived at the RAAF base where we had to sign in before entering. The museum was filled with some very interesting war equipement from the past and present with some presentation boards explaining what the items were and how they were used. All this took up two hangers and then you were allowed to look in another two restoration hangers wich was interesting too. The air show for the day consisted of one Sopwith Pup which in the end we didn’t bother hanging around for because both of us have both seen one of them fly before. On the way back we stopped off in the main street and had some fish & chips for lunch. Luckily for us it only started raining 10 minutes from home, otherwise it was a nice enough day. Check out the gallery for more photo’s.

Under the Dash

Published July 7, 2009 | By Tommy

Has anyone else replaced a speedo cable on a Hilux? I have and its not exactly easy. Infact I think its one of the trickiest do it myself missions. The speedo cable runs from behind the dashboard to out down under your car into the gearbox. So you have to pull the whole dash out which can be a bit scary, and in my case that included the center console where your radio and ash tray is as well, just to find out that even though the whole lot is in pieces you still have to graze your arm by putting it between the disassembled parts to disconnect the cable. Then you have to follow the cable out to the engine bay which means putting your hands between the engine and the firewall to pull the cable out from the clips and then with a spanner undo the thread from the gearbox. Ok sounds simplish, but once I got it back together with the new cable in the speedo is out, by about 20 kms (under) and for the life of me can’t figure out why. So if anyone with a hilux or has changed a hilux speedo cable and knows what they are doing happens to stumble across this post would be great to hear what I have done wrong!

[Show as slideshow]