Season's Greetings!

To all of those who celebrate Christmas, we wish you a

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012.

Robin and Christina Henry

The Day My Blundstones Died

In 2009 I wrote a post about the Betts Shoes for Old Feet  wherein I described the many years of service I had from a pair of Airflex shoes. Today I have to decry the death of my Blundstones.

That death occurred in a very embarrassing and messy way. Having not worn my Blundstones for a while, I decided to wear them to work yesterday, the fateful day.

I work at what is known as "Q Block", the Prisoner Services Section at a correctional facility and have a modest office with a carpeted floor and share the block with 25 other people. The hallways consist of painted concrete and after a short while my colleagues started commenting on the black flecks appearing from one end of the block to the other (from coffee room to photocopier).

Eventually, the black flecks also appeared on my carpet and I realised that I was the offender. Within an hour or two, my carpet looked like the Stuart Highway (connecting Adelaide with Darwin) when a road train has a tyre blowout ... pieces of rubber everywhere!

 

As I had nothing else to wear, I had to continue walking and depositing shoe rubber for the remainder of my day. By the end of my shift, the two heels of my boots were almost completely demolished and parts of the sole were falling off too.

The photo at left shows some of the damage.

Now I'm left wondering why a pair of shoes that were so comfortable and which have walked the hills of Oman, the streets of Al Ain and Prague, visited the Louvre, and been many other places all of a sudden decided to fall apart.

There's a kind of sadness when you end a relationship with a friend that has provided so much comfort for so long.

Robin

Alice Springs National Transport Hall of Fame

Having visitors occasionally is good, because you get out of the house and take them to local venues that you would not normally visit. Like the National Transport Hall of Fame. 

According to the home page on the Internet site:
"The Road Transport Historical Society is a volunteer based project dedicated to the preservation and presentation of Australia's unique road transport heritage. It does this through its magnificant Shell Rimula Hall of Fame in Alice Springs, the traditional birthplace of the roadtrain.The charter is not only to remember the great trucks, buses and vehicles of the past, but recognise the contribution of the men and women who drove and lived with these great machines of the past."
It must be 15 years since I have visited the Hall of Fame. Since then it has expanded greatly and improved it's stock of old trucks and equipment. What surprised me most is that many of the vehicles in the Kenworth Museum are straight off the production line. They must be worth millions and the Kenworth company still owns them, but stores them at the museum.
There are dozens of photos of people, places and transport from the early days in the Northern Territory as well as the obligatory cafe and tourist shop. Adjoining the NTH of Fame is the Ghan Railway Museum, which we didn't visit today.
If you ever get an opportunity to visit Alice Springs and you are interested in transport you must visit the National Transport Hall of Fame.

Robin

PS: Double click on the photo strip at left to enlarge the images.