Kuala Lumpur Railway Station © PJ Croft 1986, 2015   See those four ladies near the central pillar, two in black and the red and blue on the right? They were travelling together and they were giving me the eye on the train. They saw me taking the picture and posed for me. Typical me, too slow on the uptake. I could have …

Another of those amazing coincidences.

On Monday I was talking to the bank guy and his surname was Lacey, L-A-C-E-Y. I reflexively said, “As in Cagney and Lacey, eh?” He didn’t answer, possibly because he was too young to know what I was talking about.

Yesterday in the book I’m reading at the moment, Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson, he gets back to his hotel room and the first thing he sees on TV is … Cagney and Lacey!

I was so surprised I let out an exclamation. Like, “Bloody hell.” I think it’s worm holes.

_____________________________

The hardest thing is getting started. I went for a walk yesterday.

_____________________________

Speaking of TV shows and worm holes, I like The Big Bang Theory. Bit addicted, actually. How strange that although it’s been on Channel 9 for years, suddenly Channel 7 is showing it as well. At the same time slot, too, so I have to record it.

Actually, I record everything these days in order to avoid the infestation, the disease, the plague of promos. Commercials I can tolerate because they’re often humorous and very well made, but the promos are just an onslaught of flashing scenes, so fast that you barely see the shots.

But worse than that is the repetition! Over and over again, the same promos. Who’s the worst? SBS! Not content with one at the beginning and end of commercial breaks, they have two at the beginning and three at the end. And they’re the same promos, over and over. I can’t stand it.

So now I record everything and fast forward through this crap. It’s counterproductive for the station – they’ve turned me off. I simply won’t watch their commercial breaks. Bye.

________________________________

I had a visit yesterday from a young lady at my door with a clip board talking about heart disease research. Obviously, it’s relevant to me, so I invited her in. I thought I was going to be asked to make a donation, which I am prepared to do.

But it turned out that she wanted a weekly or monthly repeating subscription. She wanted me to sign up for a minimum of $35 per month or more.

Bloody hell. I said no. I said I’m on the pension and I’ll make a donation, but I’m not going to sign an open ended commitment like that. I’m already on a medication that costs $130 per month and another one is recommended, but it’s $60 per month, non-PBS. Phone and internet are around $90 per month. Electricity about $125 per month. Car licence and insurance about $100 per month. HBF about $150 per month. Etc etc.

Talk about counterproductive. I was willing to help, but they get nothing out of me after this. I’m not poor but you have to watch the pennies.

_____________________________

I asked the Sydney hi-fi shop what’s happened about my faulty Yamaha tuner? It’s been three weeks since I returned it to them, and a month since I sent the faulty remote control back, but I’d heard nothing from them.

The result is that they’ve refunded my money. They’re not going to send a replacement. They suggest I buy from a shop in Perth. They hadn’t said anything, so I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t enquired.

Pretty poor effort from Yamaha. Quality control seems to be severely lacking.

It’s such a good combination of features that I think I’ll try a third sample, if I can find one in Perth. (Postscript: yes, available here but the price at West Coast HiFi is $100 more! $529 versus $429. Come on guys, get real.)