Semordnilap

If you are not familiar with the word in the title read it backwards. Clear now?

Two days ago I made a charity visitation.The new Client introduced her children. I could not figure out the name of one of the daughters so I asked for spelling it.
- Nevaeh - said the mother - heaven backwards.

I nodded with a smile and then I felt a cold shiver.

My name spelled phonetically backwards means.... oh NO!

Seniors penalized for using internet

Some time ago I visited Falls Creek. Before the visit I examined the resort web page and found information, that purchasing resort entry on internet I can get $3 discount per day. Apart from saving $3 (full price is $45) I took into consideration fact, that buying on internet I save time spent on the gate so I chose this option.
Reading Terms and Condition page...

I noticed a separate paragraph for over 65's - it said that they are eligible for 10% discount for season tickets. Why not on daily tickets? Anyway, rules are rules, I purchased ticket for 2 days.

Couple of days later I arrived at the gate and noticed information, that over 65's are entitled to 10% discount also on daily tickets - that means $4.50 instead of $3..
- Why it is not mentioned on the web page - I asked.
- It was technically difficult to process discounted daily tickets for seniors - was the answer.

I understand, that we are only in 14th year of 21st century and some complex problems have still to wait for solutions, but why the Terms and Conditions page does not contain information, that seniors buying daily pass are eligible for 10% discount only if they buy tickets at the gate?

The person at the gate was very polite and advised me to go to the resort office with all my receipts and request a  refund, but the amount was not worth the effort.

But my question still remains unanswered - why the Terms and Conditions page does not contain information, that seniors buying daily pass are eligible for 10% discount only of they buy tickets at the gate?
I consider this as very unfair and arrogant treatment.

Return to snow

Sunny and snowy winter was too tempting. I returned on snow after few years break. On 1 August I drove to Bogong Village for a social weekend with my old friends from Melbourne Nordic Ski Club - MNSC.
Saturday morning was sunny and frosty. The road was clear but at some places icy and we had to put snow chains on. Luckily we got help from a couple of young Chinese guys and drove smoothly to the top...

Ski trails looked very tempting...

The skier was tempted, but limited by age and other conditions...

On Sunday the weather continued a sunny spell. This time I tried some downhill...

Sharper turns on blue trails caused some pain in knees, so I spent most time on beginner trails. Still enjoyable and the views compensated my fitness shortcomings...

MS Walk - mission accomplished

Yesterday (Sunday) I participated for the fourth time in the annual MS Walk - fun run/walk in support of Multiple Sclerosis Society. Run is too hard for me, but to extend my experience I rode the bike to the event (and back). Weather forecast failed and we had continuous drizzle...

In my opinion the weather added charm to the event.

This year I set myself rather modest target - $500. I managed to reach it - thanks my dear sponsors. Together with January Colour Dash it makes over $1,000.

Walking again

June is coming and the first Sunday of June means for me MS Walk.
In 2011 I realized, that MS - multiple sclerosis - is not ailment typical for old people, but a nasty disease attacking young people. Together with that news came an opportunity - even I can do something about it. Something so pleasurable as a walk around Albert Lake. And it was not the end of good news - in 2011 I was a member of Red Bull Team. You imagine this - racing on Formula1 course as a member of Red Bull Team?!?!

And results of my effort were... $620 for MS Society. For the next 2 years I improved slightly my results.
This year I got not just one, but two chances. First was - MS Colour Dash in January - look here - CLICK.
And here comes June again.

Fixing Rubik Cube

One very diligent Pole

always achieved his goal.

When he got Rubik cube mixed,

he hired robot to get it fixed.

Robot at St Vincent de Paul.

Cleaner Future

Today we have CleanUp Australia Day - look HERE and HERE.
Few days ago I looked around for a team making some order close to my place and I found one with very encouraging name - Clean Future. The name was not only very encouraging, but in my case very practical, our cleaning area was a cemetery...

At 11 am I met my teammates at the cemetery gate and I got some worries. Cemetery area is maintained regularly so our task was limited to surrounding strip of land. There were 5 of us, will we fight for each piece of rubbish?
First steps along the quiet street seemed to confirm my worries, but soon we reached a busy road and we were in our element. This section of the road was just a couple hundred metres from MacDonald, exactly in place where the driver and passengers finish their meal and drink and throw away the rest through the window. Our bags filled quickly and our faces radiated with pride.
Next section was also fruitful. It was adjacent to an industrial complex and apparently some people spend their breaks on the grass next to the cemetery fence. This means many cigarettes butts, empty cigarette packs and drink cans.
We finished our task half an hour earlier than expected (in the meantime two more people joined the team), so we cleaned a playground and some streets around. Our loot was quite satisfactory...

Thank you all members of Clean Future team :)

A dash of colour

At the beginning there was white...

Logo on my t-shirt reads: MS Colour Dash. This is familiar ground, look here - CLICK.

Start area was crowded and entertaining...





Finally START!
For the beginning a dash of pink...

then a bit of orange...

a dollop of green

Then blue and yellow and I could return home...

Mission accomplished...

My final result was $450 - thank you all supporters :)

Life and death under the bridge

As you can see, Melbourne main river - Yarra - arrives in the city in very nice shape. Bike path runs along the banks, under many bridges. In the city centre many homeless people sleep under the bridges. Someone would think, that homeless people should sleep peacefully as they own next to nothing. Yet, during my bike ride last Sunday, I passed near the site where someone was stabbed to death two days earlier. Bunches of flowers and R.I.P. scratched on the wall marked the sad event.
He was not killed by another homeless person, which only consolidated my belief, that the poor people are not the threat to my safety and comfort of life, quite opposite.
Under the next pylon some people were still enjoying peaceful sleep.

Click images below to display them in larger format.

S(E)-on-Net

Find me on the net, whatever your name:

Gopher, Google, Bing - Yandex, Infoseek.

Crawlers and spiders, find me all the same,

Without your visit I will wither weak.

There are no exclusions for diligent bots,

I wear black hats at night and white ones at day,

I don't mind Yahoo's Slurp nor indexing knots,

Whatever cost per click do not go away.

Please plant my URL on your link farm,

For my meta tags are sincere and frank.

Let my keywords freely on the net swarm,

Let my page grow high in your pages rank.

Whoever you are, ignore me not!

          Do not let me shrivel and my links rot.

Copyright - Lech Milewski

PS. Above sonnet is my trial of introducing poetry to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) world. All highlighted phrases are links to definitions of technical terms specific for SEO.