Wow. This is truly innovative photography. It warrants the description of unique.

I’ve had a folder of his images stored away for a while, intending to make a print of a few:

Beautiful stuff.

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My sprinkler system has been playing up, watering on days when it shouldn’t. This afternoon I decided to take a look at it (beeeyootiful day, by the way). I knew that some wasps had built a nest inside the cover but last time I looked there were only a few and they weren’t bothered by me. Some even landed on my hand when I touched the knob.

But today, holy hovercrafts, Batman, the cover was full of wasps! All the babies must have hatched. I decided not to be brave and slowly backed away. I left the cover open, maybe they’ll leave. I’ll try again later.

Later 5.30pm: that did the trick. The door was still open and there’s a cold wind blowing. Most of the wasps were gone and the few remaining were very quiet. They ignored me. My watering days are Tuesday and Saturday but I found that Thursday and Sunday had added themselves. I didn’t do it. Damned electronics!

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They’re talking haircuts on the radio. My last haircut was mid May last year in Bali (and it was a fantastic cut, one of the best I’ve ever had). I have long curly steel grey locks down to my shoulders now and I think I’ll let it grow more, since we’re not supposed to go to a barber at the moment. I’ve let my beard and moustache grow again too, and although it’s nice to not have to shave every day, I’m rediscovering how itchy it is.

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I was talking to the S/C cleaner yesterday about hand sanitising and we were both discussing sources of alcohol. Well, methylated spirits! It’s mostly ethyl alcohol with methyl alcohol added but it’s 100% alcohol. Sure, it smells pretty strong but it evaporates quickly and do you care? The main thing is for it to be effective, and it would be.

I read yesterday that any hand cleaner needs to be at least 70% alcohol to be effective, preferably 90%. My suggestion to use Listerine or other mouth wash barely qualifies. Listerine says it’s 70% but Colgate Plax is 0%! Just coloured and flavoured water with antibacterial chemicals added.

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In case you hadn’t heard, Microsoft Flight Simulator is due for a major new release soon, after seeing no new releases since 2006. From what I read, this new version will be a blockbuster. It was always pretty good, looking fairly realistic, but the thing is, with this new one it’s been integrated with aerial images from all over the world, a la Google Earth, that make it just a beautiful experience, as if you were actually flying over the Earth and the actual airports. You don’t need to be a pilot or learn to fly it, just run the demos and enjoy.

Well, the good news is that it will be released this month: LATE APRIL/EARLY MAY – EPISODE 8 (IFR) will be released. (MS web site)

I suspect millions of pimply young men and even older men, being compulsorily cooped up at home, will develop vitamin D deficiency. I’ll definitely be buying it. I have the 2006 version but never learnt to fly it. I just like looking down from the air.

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I’ve just phoned the pharmacy and ordered my monthly refill to be picked up tomorrow. I’ll also have my fluvax while I’m there. I said I’ll be gloved and masked but asked if they have any of the good stuff 🙂 Yes, they have proper surgical masks and even N95 masks. Amazing. I asked them to put some aside for me and it’s no problem.

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Crumbs, I never seem to run out of things to write about. It’s great when you can talk and talk and there’s no-one to answer back. 🙂

This virus pandemic has certainly taken hold, hasn’t it? I never thought it would be this bad, this anxiety producing, this transformative. I’m hardly affected, as I’ve said, so I’m not complaining. I’m still fine, no symptoms, no problems.

Except that my Silver Chain cleaning lady has just been and gone and I really enjoyed having her company, however brief it was (90 mins). She’s smart, intelligent, great to talk to, empathetic and has training as a counsellor. I’m not sure what counselling she does, but it doesn’t matter, she knows how to listen and let the client talk. In turn, I ask her about her family and how she’s getting on and let her talk. She has two kids, a girl and a boy, and the boy is autistic, but not enough to be a huge problem. He doesn’t like change, of course, and home schooling has thrown him a bit, but he seems to have understood now and has responded well. She said he’s interested in science and technology and, being obsessive, he’s grasped quite a lot for a 12 year old, so much that he challenges them with quizzes on science topics.

Her husband worked at the casino but now that’s closed he’s lost his job, so they depend on her income from the cleaning job. That would be a bit precarious.

My situation is an absolute breeze by comparison, so I am definitely not complaining.

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She told me a joke while she was here. It’s a visual joke but anyway: a seagull is sitting on a bench. There’s a roll of toilet paper there and a sign propped on it, “Will exchange for chips.”

My mate Mick also sent me a joke this morning: his cleaning lady has phoned to say that she’s forced to work from home, so she’ll email him a list of things each week for him to do.

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I have a myriad of small jobs I should do around the house and on the Nextdoor website there’s this post:

“I am a kid looking to make some money. Does anyone have any jobs that I can do?”

I’m in two minds – I would like these small jobs done but I don’t want to pay a low rate to a kid when there’s an older guy who needs the money more. Anyway, what do I pay a “kid”? I do know that the older guy (he’s 73, same as me!) charges $25/hr. I guess I’ll just do what I usually do, sit and think about it and do nothing.

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Wow, I’m starting to think the word “draconian” regarding the measures put in place here. Sure, we’re told not to go out unless necessary but I didn’t think it was prohibited. Yet today the police said they are using number plate recognition software and cameras to detect cars that are out of their home areas. I assume this means a long way from home, but coupled with being asked to “show your papers” if stopped by the police and army at roadblocks, this reminds me of East Germany and spy movies. Papers? What papers? I don’t have anything to show.

Now, the WA borders have been closed, stopping anyone entering the state, even West Aussies if you’re out of the state on Sunday night. Unless you’ve got a compassionate reason, you can’t come back. Shit!

Our esteemed PM tells us this will go on for at least six months. I foresee unrest. I foresee that people will start to buck against some of this. I hope I’m wrong.

I also heard something I never thought I’d hear today. Christian Porter, the Minister for Industrial Relations and an avowed foe of unions, stood there and said he was very pleased with the cooperation he’d had from Sally McManus and Greg Combet on behalf of the unions, and the members of the Fair Work Commission, in making temporary changes to awards during this crisis. He said he found them reasonable and easy to deal with. Porter, you arsehole, don’t you understand, we have always been reasonable and easy to deal with!! All it takes is for you to be reasonable too.

Don’t forget that this is the guy who is trying to push through new laws that would make very simple errors by the unions, like not attending an appointment or meeting, punishable by deregistration of the union! This is what I mean by hard right wing! Hard!

When I was a union delegate in 1995/96 and trying to negotiate a change to the TV Award classification system, all we got across the negotiating table was negativity and hard line stonewalling from the employers. This is the very thing employers accuse unions of, obstruction and dirty dealing. Yet when we attempted to be reasonable and easy to get along with, and put up a solid, well thought out and worked out proposal, all we got from the employers was hard line obstruction. It turned me into a hard line unionist, I can tell you. I wasn’t before. I learnt that the only thing employers understand is muscle, strike action. I coined the phrase “Meekness is seen as weakness.” Luckily I never had to do anything.

What a bloody change. Yet I know for sure that Porter won’t change. As soon as this is over, he’ll go back to being the bastard hard line right wing prick that he is. I spit on him.

It would have been Mum’s 97th birthday today.

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Grrrrr. Grrrrrrr! I am irritated!

I went out today (to buy the April Silicon Chip magazine, the last I buy from a newsagent before my subscription starts), and to do my grocery shopping, the first in a week.

I wore a face mask and dishwashing gloves and used my alcohol spray as sanitiser before touching a trolley. But I only saw one other person, out of maybe 50 people or more, wearing a mask. Only three other people wore gloves! What is this? Don’t these people know what’s going on? Don’t they care? I think this is the case – it’s all too much trouble for them. It’s the great Aussie attitude – “She’ll be right mate. What are ya worried about?”

I’m worried because I am at high risk. I don’t care how much trouble it is to you, don’t put me at risk with your lackadaisical attitude.

There was a disinfectant spray bottle at the entrance to Woolies but it sure wasn’t easily seen. I used it but I only saw one other person use it. Grrrrr.

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I filled my trolley and then got stuck behind a blue line waiting for a guy and his wife to clear the aisle. There seemed to be a price problem. That took several minutes. Then the Woolies price assistant and the wife moved away and the guy just stood there chatting to the checkout lady. I was leaning on my trolley getting fed up for a full five minutes or more. Eventually I said, “What’s the problem?” The guy said “Huh?” I said, “How long are you going to be?” He just said, “I don’t know” and continued chatting to the lady.

I was so fed up by now that even though the aisle was empty apart from him, I had to move to another one and wait for two other people to go through. Small loads, luckily.

Finally I was motioned forward and put my shopping bags at the start of my goods, to find that they won’t put your goods in your bags now. What??!! They touch all your goods to scan them, but they won’t put them in your shopping bag. Why?

This is like Aldi. You put all your goods through the checkout but put them back into your trolley, then pack your own bags on a counter outside the checkouts. But at least there is a counter. There’s nothing at Woolies. All your goods are just piled onto their rotating bag holder.

OK, if I’m not going to get service at Woolies, I’ll do my shopping at Aldi. After all, they are definitely cheaper. Why should I pay more at Woolies if I’m not going to get a better level of service?

There was another stupid thing: I had picked up three small tins of chick peas in various savoury dressings, small 70g cans like tuna or salmon or shredded chicken. But when she put my three little 70g cans through the checkout, I was told I’d exceeded the limit of two cans per customer. Whaaat?? Lucky I had a mask on because I was fuming by now.

I’ve calmed down now but that was not a pleasant experience. As I said, I’ll go back to Aldi next time.

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I’ve just heard on the ABC News: gun shops in the USA were closed, but they’ve been told they can reopen as the Supreme Court has rulled that gun shops are an essential service.

Only in America! World’s most stupid country.

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The supermarkets are asking for penalty rates to be removed for staff working night shifts while this pandemic is on.

The problem is, once we (the unions and labour movement) give in and allow this, it’s London to a brick that the companies won’t want to give them back again. This is them sticking their screwdriver into the crack and testing the strength of the edifice. No! Stay firm. These rates have been hard won over many decades and we shouldn’t give way.

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I’m disturbed at the premier’s insistence that the German cruise ship the Artania must leave Fremantle port now, even though they have sick people (crew) on board. He’s even threatening to use the Navy to force the ship to leave! How would they do that, put a shot across their bows?

I can see one side of his logic, which is that he doesn’t want to set a precedent such that other cruise ships see WA as a safe haven where they can enter and berth. But how many other cruise ships are lining up to enter Fremantle? There were three last week, but two are gone now without having to use strong arm tactics. I don’t see any more cruise ships lining up or lurking just over the horizon.

This is a humanitarian issue, surely. If they have sick people, even if they’re crew members, surely we should help them. I want the ship to be allowed to stay until they say they are clean and don’t need any hospitalisation.