I’ve bought it. The Mazda MX-6 in Melbourne. It’s a 1996 model, 106,000Km, series 2 (the last made) with 4-wheel steering. Obviously I haven’t seen it in the metal, but I’ve been talking to the owner and we get along well. I’m having it trucked over and I hope to have it within the next three weeks or so. The cost of trucking is probably a little less than driving it back and saves the wear and tear, both on the car and me. I’m excited.

UPDATE: Tuesday…. in exchanging details for insurance, it seems the car may be a 1995 model, not 1996. Shit!! I’m messaging the guy about it.

That means the Honda has to go asap. I just have to fix the radio antenna problem, put the original radio back (easy job), replace the right rear power door lock mechanism, get the cruise control working again and give it a good clean and detail. It’s a very nice car but too big for my needs. I have other ideas for touring.

____________________________

It gave me a bit of a fright on Saturday, though. I was showing some UK friends all the new developments up the coast and at Eglinton I was just doodling along, luckily, when slap, flop, rumble and I realised I had a tyre problem. The left rear tyre had split on the inside wall and was half off the rim by the time I stopped. We were so lucky it happened at slow speed. I wouldn’t be so happy now if it had been at 80Kmh on Marmion Ave, or at 100Kmh on the freeway.

I got the RAC out and he had the changeover done in less than 10 mins. It’s easy when you’ve got the right tools, i.e. a trolley jack and rattle gun. The wheel nuts came off with no effort. My spare was fully up to pressure (because I checked it last summer and pumped it up) so that helped. Torque wrench to do the nuts up and sign here please.

He did pick another tyre which is nearly illegal, so I have to get two new, or near new, tyres. Another expense, but at least I’ll be able to sell it with a clear conscience.

________________________________

My latest water bill last week came in at $313 for the two months, and I hadn’t even been using the retic system. Ouch. So I realised I had to fix the slow leak around my main sink swivel mixer. I’d already bought the replacement, so I had a plumber out this morning to do the changeover. You need a special tool to reach up under the deep twin basin sink. It’s an Aldi tap and we found it was missing two small O-rings on the hot and cold flexi tubes. At first it looked like it might stop the job, but he used plenty of thread seal tape and says it should hold. It’s not ideal, though.

$150 for an hour’s work, with me supplying the parts. Aaaarrrrgh.

_________________________

Then my good mate Danny arrived for a planned visit, and after lots of talk and coffee, he helped me get the power radio antenna reinstalled in the Verada using a new “rope”. He had the advantage of having done it before, so that made it easier. It still took a lot of fiddling, but at last I’ve got a lovely smooth antenna that rises and retracts. I always wanted a power antenna, and now I’ve got one. Yaaah!

____________________________

A couple of weeks ago I found a Facebook group called Lost Bali, dedicated to photos from the 70s, 80s, 90s before Bali (the south part) became corrupted by rampant development and excessive tourism.

I saw that most of the photos posted were very poor quality, being photos of paper photos, dirty slides, orange faded negs and so on.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is right up my alley. I have hundreds of shots from 1980 on and have put the best into a 40 page book. So I started posting.

Wow, the reactions. People are loving my shots, giving hundreds of Likes and many comments. I posted some page proofs of my book and people are asking where they can get a copy. Unfortunately, it was composed in about 2014 and the Photobook company hasn’t kept my project on file, so I’ll have to rebuild it. That’s OK, I like the idea of fixing one or two things and adding more images.

However, I think this is my opportunity to redevelop the book in electronic form as a PDF file and/or a FlipBook, and to make some money from it. I hope to find a way to distribute it in encrypted form, and people would buy a serial number or licence which would unlock a copy.

So that’s what’s going to keep me occupied for the next few months. And once I’ve done that one, I can add my other books on Java, Malaysia, Japan, Venice and even WA! I’ve done 13 serious books so far, so maybe this might pay for my next car. Yaah!