That misty look is rain! Compare that with the previous golden afternoon light views. When it rains here, we love it. Bloody cold, though. I’ve just had to put the heating on in the middle of the day, first time I’ve done that in years.  Of course, I could put my cardigan on … hadn’t thought of that.

Poor Minnie is huddling near me right now, panting with fear from the thunder outside. She tried to pull the gate open just now. There’s nowhere to run, she just has to get away from the thunder.

Here’s what it looked like about 10 mins ago:

Those are thunder clouds. It was rumbling.  But notice how wide the view is? I’ve just this morning received my Sigma 10-20mm super wide zoom lens. I’ve owned this lens before in Canon mount but sold it last year. Now I’ve got a Pentax version at about 40% less than I paid in 2008. One of those on-line bargains, not eBay, not from HK or China, from Brisbane. Happy to support local businesses.

Having said that, I was surprised to see a ResMed CPAP machine in the window of a chemist’s shop at Innaloo yesterday. They were never sold at retail level in the past – doctors only, at high prices (my machine cost $1600. Even the plastic mask alone costs over $200). If you wanted spares, even as recently as last year, I had to make an appointment for a week ahead for them to access my records and assess whether they might deign to supply me. After all, it might need fitting …

I went in and enquired about getting a replacement tube for mine. I don’t actually need it yet, but I was just asking.

They don’t keep stocks, of course. Not a tube, anyway. The woman got out a ring file and started to look up the part and price.

Five minutes of this and she still hadn’t found it in the list. I was just about ready to say forget it and walk away. I explained that I bought one last year from the hospital and it cost $22 but I had to make an appointment a week ahead and collect it at Northcourt, Karrinyup. I’d subsequently found that I could order it from a US web site, supplying the same ResMed product, for US$10!

Oh yes, she said, we hear that these days, and continued searching her lists with no result. Eventually I said I’ll come back another day. Oh, just let me ring the distributors. OK, she did and after much questioning (for Dog’s sake, I’m using one of the most common machines, a ResMed S8 Autoset) she finally got the price: $35. And when she mentioned my US$10 price they said, no, we can’t do anything.

So I carefully explained that I’m not necessarily going to buy from the US, but how can the same part, from the same maker, ResMed, an Australian company, cost $10 there and $35 here?

If they’d been able to produce the item in the shop, on the spot, or even given me a price without such hassle, I would have paid the $35. But probably not now. What a pity.

The same applies to software. I got an email this morning offering me something I want for $49.99. I thought, YES, I’ll have that so I followed the link. It took me to the US website, but that’s OK, I can download it. But no, it has to be supplied in a box. But they won’t ship to Australia.

OK, sigh, I’ll buy it from the Sydney web site. But the price is DOUBLE! $99.99 if bought here. No way. I’m not putting up with that. I’m trying to find a way to express my displeasure but they don’t make it easy.