Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

A funny thing happened on the way to the YouTube theatre

We have a young Aboriginal family living on one side of us. They're good neighbours, none of the stereotypic behaviour so often associated with the 'A' word. Last night there was a tap on the door. It was the mother and her daughter. They had locked themselves out, and the nearest spare key was in Melbourne with the woman's husband. He was away on business.

The man's father was up north. He also had a spare key. He'd tried to organise a locksmith for them, but without success. The woman and her daughter had been told to try getting in through the roof and drop into the house via the manhole. But they couldn't figure out how to lift the roof tiles, which of course are interlocked. Could I tell them what to do?

So there I was standing on the ground telling a couple of young Aboriginal women how to break into their house. If a police car had passed by, as they often do, there might have been some explaining needed.

They were not very good housebreakers - in fact they didn't have a clue. They were law abiding citizens. It took them several minutes to open up a hole. I was a bit concerned about the drop inside. People break legs doing that sort of trick. I decided to take a quick look around the outside of the house to see if they had missed anything. Every window and door was fitted with security screens. They had assured me everything was locked up tight.

On the other side of the house there was a sliding door they rarely used. It had some junk leaning against it. I gave it a try and like magic it slid open. It had probably been unlocked for months. I nipped back to the other side but I was too late. The daughter had gone through the roof and dropped into the house.

They'd experienced a bit of drama and anxiety that afternoon. They couldn't believe I'd found an unlocked door. I made sure they put the tiles back properly, and urged them to visit Bunnings this morning and have a spare key cut.

When they first called for help I had been looking on my computer how to open a YouTube account. I'd decided there was so much crap on YouTube that the forum may as well have some of mine. My flash of inspiration came yesterday as I was watching Milly the pup working away on her first bone. "Why not make a movie of this and put it on YouTube?" I thought to myself. "People will watch anything. I might even get an offer from hollywood I can't refuse." So without further thinking, I made a two minute potential award winner in almost no time at all. Like in two minutes.

It's up there in cyberspace right now. You should be able to see it by going to http://au.youtube.com/dogandcatwatcher

I think this first attempt has a degree of innocent charm. It could have been better lit, but I've seen worse. You can hear a vintage 1930s Japanese clock ticking in the background and a single chime towards the end. There are also some light breathing sounds. These are the pup's. (I think.) Notice too the steady camerawork. My YouTube username is dogandcatwatcher.

I'm not sure how most of the features of YouTube work. I received some invisible HTML code to direct people to the site. It's on the next line, but I'm not sure how it will look. As far as I'm concerned, things are still in the trial and error stage.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

When there are multiple image links in some of my original essays, it might be easier to explore them by simply going direct to the cache at my Panoramio website. Most of them have a brief description and link back to the relevant essay. All the images can be enlarged even more by clicking them.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!