Crater lake storm, Kintamani (C) PJ Croft 2017

Wow, looking outside at the moment, the sky is heavy with cloud, pregnant with coming rain. The light is orange. The Bureau of Meteorology web site says tomorrow’s chance of rain is 100%, and I heard there could be up to 50mm over the northern suburbs. That’s me. Yay! Let it come. It was 42C on Thursday, 40C yesterday and 39C today. This leaves Bali with its 30, 31C temps behind. I think I prefer Bali, not sure. Humidity here around 50%, Bali 95-100%.

Aaaah, a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder. Love it!

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But after a very quiet week for dog barking, they’re at it again. I haven’t said a word of complaint, but for some reason the dogs were very quiet this past week. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else has complained.

However, while I was moving around outside fixing the retic, a bloody dog was snuffling and barking at every sound I made. They can’t see me, but can hear me moving around, you see. They’re also whining and whimpering. The owners are out tonight, judging by the lack of lights. Now the dogs are barking just at the voices from my TV sound.

Aaah, more thunder. Maybe lightning’ll strike ’em.

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I’ve been having reticulation troubles and found my controller had somehow changed its settings. Hard to see how, unless someone did it while I was away. The controller is accessible from the footpath, so anyone can fiddle with it. It does have battery backup, but the display looks fine, so I don’t think it’s a low battery.

Anyway, I reprogrammed it (quite an easy job, there are only three stations and it’s very logical) and attempted to run the main garden bed station, which missed its Saturday cycle this morning. But the pressure was too low and once again I’ve found a blanked off piece of pipe has popped off. I fixed this just a week ago, but the snap ring is not strong enough. I’ll have to use a hose clamp. I used to have dozens, but I’m not sure where they are now. Moving! Never again.

If the rain happens as forecast, no watering will be needed, of course.

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Moving all my stored recordings off the hard drive recorder to DVD has happened much faster than I expected. I’ve done at least a dozen DVDs so far, probably more, and there are only about six major programs left to save. Not hard, A couple of days should see it finished. So much for my estimate of months of work.

Of course, if I didn’t watch these programs when they were on the hard drive, why am I going to watch them now? It’s just that I can’t erase major Shakespeare productions and the Queen’s Jubilee Procession, which will never, ever be repeated. Likewise the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. Every opening and closing of an Olympics I’ve ever watched has been marvellous, but they are never preserved. You will never be able to see them again. I’ve got this one.

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So what’s going to replace the Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder? Would you believe, possibly a Microsoft X-Box 1? Latest model. It has a 4K UltraHD BluRay player built in and is fully 4K enabled. I have a 4K TV now, you see. A 55″ LG OLED model.

Why 4K? Because when I’m travelling, I shoot video in 4K. All the video of the Balinese Kecak Dance at Ulu Watu was shot in 4K. I had to reduce it to 720p to edit and upload to Vimeo for the blog, unfortunately, so a lot of thequality was lost, but I can assure you, 4K video sparkles!

The X Box does internet program streaming too, and has a 1TB internal hard drive to record and store programs. The one thing it doesn’t do is record to external discs, so the hard drive will slowly fill up. Hmmm. I think some cable connection to an external DVD recorder might be needed at some time. Then again, do we actually need DVDs any more? USB thumb drives are now so cheap and have far greater capacity and reliability.

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Nearly time (8pm) to take my sedatives, Phenergan and Valerian. I find they keep me asleep, but have a morning hangover effect, so it’s better to take them early.

I’ve also just started using the insulin pens I bought at Kimia Farma in Jalan Legian in Bali.

What an idiot I was. I was so spooked at finding one of my packets of cartridges was empty while I was up there and thought I would run short, that I rushed out and bought some pens. A box of five cost me $125! And only now that I’ve been home for three weeks have I started using them. I needn’t have spent that money, in other words. Duh! Stop and think, next time.