In view of the Royal Commission’s scathing report mentioning Catholic clergy’s predations on children …

Any truth to the rumour that celibacy is to be banned completely and all priests and nuns will be required to show evidence that they are having regular sex?

And any truth to the rumour that Catholic monasteries and convents are going co-ed?

Crumbs, we always used to joke about priests and their sexual habits, but it’s been shown that our jokes were spot on. It was all true. Disgusting.

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I’ve been given the date of  my next cataract op, on my right eye: Monday 15 January. Crumbs, I didn’t know how much my sight had deteriorated until the left eye was done three weeks ago, but now I can see how dim and yellow my right eye is. I was going to leave it until it was necessary, but I can’t hack having the eyes so different. It will be good to have them equal again. I’ll be able to dispense with glasses for normal distance vision, only needing reading glasses for close-up work. This will save me a lot of money, and save HBF costs as well. Boy, paying the annual HBF fee seems a bit of a slug each year (I pay annually), but I’m getting benefits way more than I’m paying in. Private health insurance, yeah!

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In my endless quest to find a replacement car, I would be foolish to disregard an offer from a Hyundai dealer – they are selling 2016 model Hyundai Sonata sedans, that is, last year’s model, for $15,999 after allowing $3,000 for any trade in.

To me, this is a dead boring car, but I’ve never had a good look or even read any reviews. I should go and look, and ask for a test drive. Maybe I’ll be surprised. The deal includes full 5 year new car warranty, and I think capped price servicing and so on. These are worth a lot.

There’s a Skoda Superb sedan/hatchback for private sale in Carramar, and I was very tempted, but when I thought hard about it, there are too many things against it:

• it’s done 30,000km in about 16 months
• that means the tyres would be half way through their life, or more
• it’s black
• the price he’s asking is way OTT. He wants $37,500 when the new price is $40,690. The Red Book price guide says cars of this age should sell for around $29,000. It’s not selling, I wonder why.

I’m starting to notice that my exhaust on the Magna is sounding a bit “sporty”, and the ride seems much harder than I remember, as if the shockies are on the way out. It would be good to just hand it over as a trade-in. The search goes on.

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Another sleep free night last night. I’ll have to try for some now, after breakfast. I’m beginning to think I might need a sleep study, or at least a talk with the sleep doctor.