The Steamtug Blog

Welcome back to those who had not found the new address. The old free hosting server had become a haven for tricksters, scammers dreamers, schemers and screamers, so it got pulled. Unfortunately for you lot, we had a back up copy of this blog… so as they say in the classics ‘The monster lives!” This week, Goofa gets hitched… again! (This time for sure, eh Jeff?) and I get a special hello from a Pretty Girl! Read on for more… if you dare!

So I must say thanks to the staff of MD-Media who came to the rescue when we realised the old free server was no more. They offered a solution. Open my wallet and buy domain name of my own. So the first thing I tried was www.steamtug.com.au like… what would be the chance that such a popular name would not have been taken by somebody else? Well, guess what! Nobody had used it, so now it belongs solely to me! So I now have my own domain name “steamtug”. It’s just like when I put a fox’s tale on the back of my bike and Goofa said to me “I just looked up the VicRoads web site, and the number plate “Fox” is available. Why don’t you get it?” Now I have all these young kids on their dirt bikes dressed in their “Fox Racing” gear asking me how did I get “that” number plate?!!! So if you need web support, or internet access etc don’t forget the sponsor of this site, MD-Media. They even reckon that if enough people google this site, then google will start listing me on the search engine results, and if it becomes popular, they will pay me for advertising space on this blog! Wow… I’m all set to become rich!!!! (as well as famous!! Lol…)

Goofa gets it in a knot again!

I wonder if he would put his hand in a fire twice, just to see if it was still hot? Well it’s just lucky that he managed to find a lovely lady that would put up with his mess. And since Wendy has been on the scene, I don’t think I can remember when the old ginger nuts has been happier. He made me read a poem at the wedding, during the service and everything! I so wanted to start off with “The boy stood on the burning deck” just to see what his bride would do… but contained my curiosity and read a poem by Pam Ayres, without the accent.

Jeff had asked me to bring a keg of beer. I set it up at the bar in our famous Bathurst wheelie bin at the bar beside the alcoholic slushy machine. Before I knew it, there was a cue of glasses lined up for me to fill… and the whole things was empty in less than 1 hour! Sombody complained, I didn’t drive down here all the way from Melbourne to have only 2 of Mark’s beers! Well I ‘m glad everyone enjoyed it, but now I have 2 empty kegs in my shed waiting to be filled.

Charlie, being the orgainised one of our group, organised a big luxury model barbie as a combined wedding present. He complained he was tired of waiting when invited around to Jeff’s for a barbie, even though we would miss seeing him burn his fingers, eyebrows etc as flames shoot out of the old barbie during the lighting process.

Mexico the Nigerian gardener

Hey I got a phone call from Nigeria the other day. When I lived there, I employed one of the blokes from the village who needed a job, and took him on as a gardener more out of charity than his gardening skills. He invited me to footy matches in the village, which prompted me to end up being the sponsor of the footy club! And he proudly took me back to his original village in central Nigeria to meet his mother. He was so proud to bring home a white man to his village, boosting his social status because he was seen as a big man with contacts.

Anyway, back to my story… he telephoned me the other day. He said everyone in the village still remembers me and always asked him where I was, and when I was coming back to Nigeria. Then he shocked me, by telling me that he was in the residential estate for the expatriates that used to live there… me included. And he heard somebody calling out to him. “Mexico… Mexico!” and he looked around to see my old African Grey parrot “Pretty Girl” in a cage calling out to him. Now you might think this is a bit far fetched, but when I first got this bird, the locals told me that if a robber broke into your house, the first thing he will do, is kill your parrot because the parrot will tell the master who the theif was. I thought this was Nigerian superstition, until Pretty Girl, demonstrated to me, that she actually knew people by name!

They say they have the intelligence of a 4 year old child, and I believe it! She would yell at Riley when he came home, “Riley! Get in the shower!” because Anita used to say that tohim, and she just wanted to help. I used to get the water bottle out of the fridge, and before I could pour, I could hear “glug.. glug… glug!” I would say to her… I have not started pouring yet! Talk about smart. Sometimes she would just mutter to herself while walking back and forth on top of her cage… like one of those mad people you see in the city.

I left Nigeria 10 years ago, and gave her to a family who reported to me that she had flown off and was lost in the jungle. We presumed she was dead. Probably sitting in a tree thinking “Where is that lady the cooks my toast in the morning?” There was no way she would survive in the jungle along. So I am so happy that she is still alive! And after 10 years still remembers Mexico enough to call out to him! She really was amazing!

Speaking of the scally-wags of old Nigeria…

Hey I see on my last post a “hello” comment from my old boss Bob M! Bob was an old shift controller from Sydney Refinery (Australia) and was the larikin of the aussie clan in Nigeria. Thanks for the contact Bob. I hope you send me an email soon, as I would love to hear what your up to. But thanks for the comment anyway! Hey Bob, do you remember wrestling with the kids?