Another tachycardia last night. That was the second since I came home from hospital. I was trying to get to sleep again and just felt odd – a bit breathless. I felt my pulse and sure enough, double rate. I tried the fingers-over-the-nose-and-blow-hard trick and it took four tries, but it worked again. Thank goodness.

There seems to be a link between lying down in bed and the fibrillation starting. Maybe when I lie on my side, the lungs move and press on the heart to cause it? It settles down after a while, but it’s definitely still a problem.

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I’ve started to build up the TV/hi-fi bench shown below, and it’s the most complex IKEA item I’ve built. I’ve been going about four hours so far and only got about 1/3 done. Still, I enjoy it. It’s like the old Meccano or model aeroplane kits.

But it’s too low. I don’t want to bend down so low all the time, so I’ve been looking for a way to raise it. I bought some large (75mm diam.) castors yesterday for $4.45 ea. but they’ll look a bit unsightly. I need to make a front skirt to hide them. At the old house, I had a workshop, but here I can’t cut wood easily. Maybe the skirt will have to come later. Hah! It’ll never get done.

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We’ve started the wheels turning to hold another Northam Senior High School Reunion next year, because 2014 will be the 50th anniversary of our Leaving year. Amazing, ain’t it? Fifty years on and we’re still in touch, a lot of us anyway.

We have 155 names on our list, but I only had 62 email addresses. I sent a heads-up to them all last Friday, and 25 bounced, so that cuts it to 37 active email addresses. And only 13 people replied. We have phone numbers for almost all the names, so we’ll have to get on the phones. Still, we’re looking to hold it in October next year, so there’s plenty of time … or is there? Some of the names on the list have passed away already.

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I changed the battery in my alarm system on Sunday and now the Program icon is flashing continuously. I downloaded the manual and boy! the programming is amazingly complex. Surely you don’t have to start from scratch? Luckily there’s a Perth phone number, so I’ll have to ring them and ask if it has a basic program stored in ROM that I can load. Surely it must?

4pm: Er, yes, why didn’t I think of that? Read the flippin’ manual. When the Program icon is flashing, press P then E and you’re in Normal mode. Solved. There’s still a lot to learn about this unit, though. The programming instructions are about 40 pages of tables.

I also discovered the external blue light and siren box today. That’s good.

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I used to use Quicken Personal finance software to keep track of my bank accounts, but it’s very closely guarded by the makers and I lost control of my copy a couple of years ago (I changed the hard drive – that’s enough to stop it from running! You can reinstall, but it forces you to re-register and that’s difficult.)

I just visited the Reckon Australia web site on Sunday to see what the latest version is, no more. But bingo! Next day I got an email from them asking if I want to update my Quickbooks. Just from visiting their website, they knew my email address and to start sending me stuff. Big brother is watching!

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While cleaning up litter in the back lane, I just met my other neighbour as she drove in. Her name is Barbara and we had a good old chat. She’s off on a trip soon, so we’ll talk more later.