Richard Leape Come Home

All too often you see in the news the sad sad story of someone who has been missing for many years. A terrible tragedy you think - and you reflect that you're so lucky that this happens to "other people" and never to someone you actually know.

But you know how life is - just as you've become complacent and comfy - life slaps you with great gusto in the back of the head. It makes you sit up and shiver - literally.

One of my High School teachers is missing ... has been missing for the last 12 fucking years!

I found out via the recent Cornelia Rau story - the poor schizophrenic woman who was stuck in Baxter detention centre. She had been involved in some dodgy cult in Sydney called the Kenja group - the type that is alleged to convince people that all they need to do is follow "The Master" (whoever the flying fuck that is) and they will no longer need their medication!

Cornelia started her disappearing act not long after.

And so was the case with my old High School teacher Richard Leape. Over 12 years ago he also attended the same cult group, went off his medication, and ended up wandering the streets of Surry Hills in his own psychotic world. His sister from the Gold Coast found him.

Despite her best efforts, Richard lept from the taxi in which she was taking him to the airport. They were going to head back to the family on the Gold Coast. He was never seen again.

Now you might think - "he was just some old teacher of yours - why give a toss?" However - there are some teachers in this world worth giving a toss about. Mr Leape was one of them.

He was my science and chemistry teacher in middle to late high school - round 1980/81. He was young, not cynical or jaded (the fate of too many once brilliant teachers), enthuiastic - and very inspiring. I remember him as one of the few teachers in High School that I truly respected.

And then to read this news article about this cult and Miss Rau - and to find my old teacher had suffered a similar, yet worse, fate. He was never found. After I read this - I was chilled to the bone for the next half an hour.

This happens to other people - not someone that you know!

But it does happen ...

So Richard is now a "Missing Person".

Here is a picture of him:



Details about him can be found here and at the bottom of the page here.

So the next time you're wandering through Surry Hills or the City or Newtown - keep an eye out for the street folks and homeless people ... you could solve a 12 year old mystery ... and put many minds at ease.

Of course, I'm not naive enough to have ignored the possibility that Richard is dead. We can but hope for better news.

Touching the Void (inside the skull)

This weekend I got to finally see one of the most extraordinary docu-dramas produced for many a year. I think most of us have a sick fascination with mountain-climbing - but this doco really brings it up close and personal. You may have though that some of the scenes in Return of the King where Frodo, Sam and Gollum are climbing the stairs of Cirith Ungol were vertigo-inducing, well hold onto your sick buckets for this one!

The doco is called Touching the Void, and if you've not seen it .. go out and rent it now. Or buy it. Or get it for your Gran's birthday!

Please note: SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW

Basically this is the story of two guys - Joe and Simon - decide one boring afternoon to go to Peru and climb the 7,000 metre iceface of Siula Grande. Note that even the best professional climbers had not succeeded with this! But these 2 fellahs - after a few bevvies down the pub are all up for it. Let's listen in on the conversation:


Joe: Whatcha reckon?
Simon: Fucking easy! I mean after the hike up Mt Snowdon we can cilmb anything! Giss another pint ta love.
Joe: I have this idea ... we do it Alpine Style!
Simon: So just the two of us and a rope.
Joe: Yep!
Simon: No emergency radio or flares?
Joe: Just takes up room ... where would we stash the Gin?
Simon: Fuckin' good point ol' mate. How about the base camp?
Joe: hmm, spose we need one. That guy sitting by himself down the back of the pub there. We'll ask him.
Simon: He know anything about mountain climbing?
Joe: not a fucking thing!
Simon: Cool! We're set then!
Joe: how much gas do you think we should take? Only way to melt ice into drinkable water.
Simon: just a couple canisters. We can survive on Gin for ages.

They both laugh and tuck into another pint.

Now, to give Joe and Simon some credit - they actually did it! They managed to climb all the way up. The thing they forgot is that they have to get down again - and their downhill planning was not the most thorough.

On the way down, Joe slipped and fell badly - breaking his leg in a seriously nasty manner. If I'd been Simon I probably would have shot him there and then on the spot - they shoot idiot horses, don't they?

But Simon was nice and decided to slowly lower Joe bit by bit to the base of the mountain. This worked fine til Joe slipped over a cornice and ended dangling hopelessly in mid-air with a serious drop into a crevasse beneath.

After waiting for hours and almost freezing to death, Simon cut the rope - and Joe fell.

So - you might think that was the end of it all - but in truth this is where Touching the Void gets even freakier.

Not only did Joe survive the fall, he crawled his way out of the crevasse and slowly made his way down the side of the mountain to the base camp - broken leg and all. Nothing like brute force and ignorance to supplant careful planning.

I can just imagine Joe' chagrin when he finally gets to the base camp after this horrendous 4 day ordeal ... to find that the others had burnt his clothes in some Viking style funerary offering ... blood on the floor ... or ... hopping mad?

(sorry - can't resist and bad pun)

Anyway ... this is an awesome movie in the original sense of the word. Couldn't get up to pee, couldn't feed my face, didn't even want to hit the Pause button. Eyes glued, brain disengaged from the rest of the Universe.

Wonderful.

Tiddly Winks for the Kiddley Winks

There are some days when you just feel OLD.

Recently there was some e-mail flying about work for some touch-footbal competition. Many of us Geeks declined - and I quipped that I would rather play a vicious game of tiddly winks.

To my utter astonishment - many of the younger folks here at work had no idea what I was talking about! So I had to explain that playing a game popping little plastic discs into a pot was a fun pastime when I was a kid. That got a fair few incredulous looks from the kiddies ... they grew up playing computer games! Then to make matters worse - I mentioned that when I was a kid there were NO computer or TV games.

"Wow ... you must be really old!" was the reply of one cheeky little snot. Fuck you deary ... I'm not even 40 yet! You're probably still waiting for your testicles to drop ;-) Or perhaps testicles these days are "sooo 1960's" and these kids all have cubic cybernetic implants with USB connectors for a joystick.

So - I had to consult the Great Oracle (otherwise known as Google) and see if there was any info out there. Seems its still a popular past-time with us oldy-von-moldies.

There are plenty of stores still selling the game, and it even has its own website!.

So its good to see that some folks out there still appreciate a good old fashioned board game which does not require Gigahertz of processing power or masses of RAM, and a high speed internet connection. Just some little plastic discs.

For myself ... I generally prefer drinking games, and bedroom sports ;-) Pass the handcuffs!