Kyoto 1992    © PJ Croft 2020

A slightly busier day.

First, an email from the Water Corp people, asking what’s happened about the water leak. I emailed straight back saying it’s been stopped, explaining it and including a photo (isn’t it magic how we can take a photo with our phone, immediately transfer it via Dropbox to the desktop and hence into an email or this blog?). It’s fantastic. When I think of the film days, it would have taken at least 24hrs and involved scanning the film. Crazy hard.

Anyway, the Water lady included a pdf document for me to fill out if I want to claim a rebate on the cost of the lost water. It includes a section for a WGI reticulation person to fill out and sign. I don’t know what WGI means but I would expect a pro retic company to charge me much more than Bryce, the lawn guy will charge. Will any rebate cover the cost of getting this pro guy? I suppose I’d better do it.

Meanwhile, the ground is dry now, thank goodness.  Valve on lower right.

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Next, I sent a second text message to the lady who put the handwritten note in my letterbox last Friday asking for cleaning work. She didn’t answer the first time.

This time I got a reply. Her name is Kimmie and I have the feeling she’s Chinese or Asian, but I’ll find out because she’s coming tomorrow at 10am. The Silver Chain lady comes at about midday but they won’t clash because even if they are here at the same time, they clean different things. One thing I want done is my fridge cleaned, ie shelves cleared one by one and washed and wiped, the vege drawers emptied into a box and cleaned, then replaced, and the freezer drawer (bottom freezer) temporarily emptied and cleaned out. There’s no ice, no frost, yay. I used to hate having to defrost my old freezer compartment.

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Next, I bought a few SACDs (Super Audio CDs) from Amazon to use with my new second-hand player. I also got an email from the Berlin Philharmonic inviting me to buy a new set of three SACD discs of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Mitsuko Uchida as performer with Sir Simon Rattle. It’s US$49.99 for the set, but I’ll enjoy it. I’ve been listening to Mitsuko Uchida for nearly 40 years and she’s great. To have these in super quality very recent recordings will be great.

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Next, fatally, I fell for Amazon’s invitation to look at their daily deals. Uh oh.

For years I’ve wanted a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet. It’s an LCD monitor about 15″ diagonal but only 11mm thick, with a pressure sensitive surface over the monitor screen so that you can use the included stylus/pen to draw and paint on the screen. But the Wacom (US) tablet is way out of my price range – starting at A$809 and going up to A$4,800 depending on size. This is a Chinese brand.

No, I did not pay $739.99

I did do my homework and spent nearly an hour looking at reviews and overseas prices. It rates about 80% in the reviews, i.e. some drawbacks but pretty good.

Amazon Australia’s price today was a cent short of $450.  The price on Amazon USA was US$399.99 = A$624.84 so our price is substantially lower than the US price. At the moment.

I fell for it. It should arrive in a week. I already have software which is made for it, having software brushes, pens, styluses, calligraphic pens, nibs and so on. And any type of paint, ink, texture you can think of and many you wouldn’t think of. The pen is pressure sensitive so it follows your hand, making fine or coarse lines, hard or soft brushes, thick or thin paints and so on.

Standby for magnificent works of art to pour forth from this repressed artist. 🙂

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Brrrr, I felt cold for the first time this year today. It was 21C, which is not really cold. I still had my cold shower this morning, probably the second last this year. It might seem difficult, but it’s only the first few seconds and then it feels great.