There’s a lot of praise for Nelson Mandela and I’ll contribute my bit. He was universally admired for being “a good bloke”.

© P.J. Croft 2013

It’s not hard to be “good”. It’s the default condition for humans, I think. You don’t have to work at it. Just live by the Golden Rule  — do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Just relax and be polite, considerate of others’ feelings, easy to get along with, uncritical, truthfull, honest and non violent. It’s not hard!

But to be bad, you have to work at it. If you have any self respect, the bad things you do will eat at you. If you are amoral, maybe not, but you’ll always have to watch your back, deal carefully with others, take criticism, and if you aspire to be a leader, you’ll probably have to fight your way to the top by doing wrong to others. That means you’ll always be wary of being toppled, knifed. You’ll probably need paid bodyguards whose loyalty you can’t be sure of.

Mandela probably had bodyguards or protectors from people who saw him as a threat to their schemes, but I think they were volunteers who did it for love.

If you do good, you’ll almost certainly receive it too.

The title picture is intentional. Dad was pretty universally regarded a “a good bloke”. I try to emulate him.

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Aaaargh, that beach stair climb on Sunday seemed OK at the time, but I’m suffering for it now – sore thigh muscles! I could hardly walk last night, especially as I did a lot of walking at the Joondalup Lakeside shops yesterday. I won’t give up, though. It does me good.

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How much longer must we put up with the traffic blockages in Marmion Ave near the tip?!! They’re building a new intersection, but it’s been nearly 4 months now of one lane closed in each direction. The tailbacks extend for a Km or so as people try to merge.

So I try to avoid it by using Connolly Drive, but there are road works there too! Same deal, down to one lane. Not as bad as the traffic is not as dense. I’m sick of it all as there are only those two connections from here and to block them both at the same time seems very stupid to me.

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I bought a Blu Ray player yesterday, a Pioneer BDR-160, $146. That meant I could move my Pioneer DVD to the computer room where I can enjoy its smooth, musical sound with CDs. And I bought a cheap indoor TV antenna (just a coupla rods) and now I can get DAB+ in here too. I think the Mindarie repeater has made the difference as I couldn’t get a signal 6 months ago.

Now I’ve got two great sound locations, one with DVD, CD and DAB+, with DVDs if I set up a screen, and a nice pair of speakers (Tannoys) that I’ve had for 20 years.

In the other, I’ve got TV, Blu Ray, DVDs, and a big 75W/channel amp with really good speakers, KEF Q7s, bought in 2003. Big sound. Now that my 32″ Sony screen is installed in its proper place, I find it adequate. I don’t need anything bigger.

I’m really settling into this house now. It was very hard at the beginning, but it’s becoming much more like home now, much more comfortable. And it’s cool, but if I need aircon, it’s there.

Happy Xmas and New Year.