Ooops, missed a day yesterday. Not to worry, everything’s fine. The above photos were in response to a friend on F/B asking us to post a photo of how we were when we were working at Channel 7. The HK one is much later, but it shows my progress, if that’s the right word.

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I did send an email complaint to Western Power on Tuesday evening saying “Three major power failures in about 10 days, lasting hours, yet no explanation. You have our email addresses, you have a web site, yet there’s no mention of this, no mention of the causes or what you’re doing about it. Are we to expect this to go on?” I also said I use CPAP which requires mains power. If it goes off, I can’t go to bed.

I got a short reply within two hours:
I have logged a job for an investigation into the reliability of power supply in your area under reference number 945195-l.

The information you have provided regarding these frequent outages has been included in the report.

Please allow ten business days for the Technician assigned to your investigation to make contact with you. At this time, he/she will provide you with his/her contact details and a run down on what is involved in the investigation.

If you rely on power supply for medical reasons, it is important that you have a back up plan in place in case of an unplanned outage.

Ten business days! Let’s not move too fast, eh? And note that if I rely on medical equipment, it’s up to me to devise a backup plan, i.e. to provide my own battery backup or whatever.

I await further developments.

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What’s going on around here? Major power failures last week. Major loss of TV last night. I was using the EPG to browse the programs at about 7.45pm and when I switched back to the ABC, No Signal. Nothing on any channel, except SBS 33 (the World Movies channel).

And it stayed off. I missed my favourite programs, Hard Quiz and Mad As Hell. It came good around 10.30pm.

But what I can’t understand is why channel 33 stayed up when all the other channels were gone. Were they just below the threshold and ch.33 was just above? Mystery.

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I mentioned that I’m in two Facebook groups, ‘High End Audio for the Passionates’ and ‘Loudspeakers’. I’ve previously mentioned my bad experience in the High End group by people telling me my equipment is low grade, not good enough, only AV equipment so not “real” hi-fi etc.

I must be a glutton for punishment. Yesterday I posted a picture of this pair of Tannoy DC10Ti speakers that are for sale at a hi-fi shop in Midland at $7,999 second hand. I asked if anyone owns them or knows them, seeking opinions. I’m not going to buy them! That’s too much for my wallet.

Well, it devolved into the same thing. I never got an answer from anyone about my questions – no-one seemed to own them or know them. All I got was “what are you going to use them with” questions.

When I told them about my amplifier, even though it’s a Sony ES range model 7x150W per channel, high specs, I got replies like, Oh, an AV amp, that’s no good, you need to spend at least US$2,000 on the amp and US$3,000 on the speakers. And you must use “extra special” speaker cables, and you must ensure that the power coming out of your wall feeding the amp is “clean”. And garbage like that. Despite all my replies, no-one actually answered my questions.

Re the power, do you realise people, fanatics, spend hundreds of dollars on special mains cables to feed their amplifiers, and mains power conditioners to “clean” the AC power from the wall? They seem to disregard all the wiring in the walls and leading from the power switchboard on their house. How are they intending to “clean” that? But one guy said this is the thing that will make the greatest difference to the sound in my system! These people are moneyed fools.

The result is that I think I’ll drop out of these groups. They are full of idiots who like to take pot shots at anyone who’s not spending enough money to be up to their standard. Idiots who know nothing about electronics yet spout pseudo-science.

In fact one guy last night made a post about this very thing. He lamented the fact that he joined the group hoping for friendly discussions, especially about music, but found, like me, that all he gets is arrogance and snobbery. He’s planning to leave too.

Maybe I should start a new group, “High Fi for the Disillusioned”.

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I really should see my GP. My left calf is swelling alarmingly as the day goes on, blood pooling in other words. I wouldn’t be too worried except that it’s similar to a bad infection I got in Bali a few years ago (was it that long? Yes, 2017.) That needed i/v antibiotic from a Silver Chain nurse for three or four home visits.

However, I don’t like this idea of a remote consultation via the internet. I really prefer a face-to-face but I don’t know if it’s allowed. I suppose I’d better ring and find out. I feel OK, but my leg feels a little painful when it’s swollen like that. Cellulitis? I hope not.

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When I was in the Lost Bali F/B group some months ago a Balinese guy kind of friended me because he liked my photos. I don’t know him at all, never met him.

Well, he messaged me on F/B a couple of days ago and after a long exchange of pleasantries he came down to it: I have no money, I don’t eat. Can you send me some money?

Aaarrgh, it breaks my heart. I want to help, but I don’t know him from Adam. If I give him some, will he stop asking or will there be further requests? Will he tell his friends?

I know actual Balinese people – if I were going to send money I’d rather it went to them first. Or that it goes to a recognised charity.

As I say, it breaks my heart but on strong advice, I’m going to have to turn away. I’m sad.

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More later.