Yosemite National Park, California 1988. © PJ Croft 2020  Due to the prohibition on visitors at the moment, wild animals, bears, deer, buffaloes and so on are roaming freely in the park.

Whoa, missed six days. Nothing wrong, just forgetful.

Lots of lovely rain this morning but the sun’s out now from a blue sky. Beautiful. I still had a cold shower this morning – I’ve never done this in winter before, I just like it. It’s like drinking nice cold water from the fridge, it refreshes your mouth and the whole body. I’m hooked on cold water. I think it’s good for me too.

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I’ve finally given my old 32″ Sony Bravia LCD TV to a good home. A woman asked on Facebook Marketplace last night if anyone had a free TV they don’t want, so I replied and the deal was done. She came here and collected it a couple of hours ago and was very grateful. I said I’m happy if it goes to someone who needs it. She said she’s on the Jobseeker allowance and has three kids and no spare money. At the end she offered a hug and before I knew it, social distancing was forgotten and I hugged. Nice.

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Suddenly, that one act allowed me to fold up a folding table and free up space in that bedroom at last. It was too cluttered to use. Dog, I am afflicted by clutter! I keep bringing “stuff” into the house and not getting rid of “stuff” that’s no longer wanted and, in the reverse of Marie Kondo’s phrase, doesn’t “bring joy”. Must try harder. Three cars! What am I doing? Madness.

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One thing I’m doing is that I’ve finally, after years of inertia, changed the destination bank account for my pension. Yesterday was the first day and I was nervous that it might go wrong, but it worked.

I always thought I’d have to do it by phoning Centrelink and I was too nervous to do it. Nervous about having to answer questions and maybe drawing attention to myself. Not that I’ve done anything wrong, not at all. I finally did it by accessing the MyGov website and changing the destination account on-line.

Anyway, now that I’ve stopped it going to my 0.01% interest Commonwealth Bank Robbery account, I can close that down and I’ll almost be free of that unethical, dishonest bank. Unfortunately, I was too slow and didn’t realise that the Visa “annual fee” was due a week ago, so I’ve been charged $129 to that account when I no longer want it. Bugger.

My other bank told me a few years ago to reconsider about closing that Visa card, because banks don’t like giving credit cards to people like me with minimal income. So maybe it’s better if I just hold onto that one account with them, for this year anyway. I rarely use it, I have a Visa card with my “better, ethical” bank – it’s just for backup mainly when I’m travelling. Won’t be doing much of that for a while.

The other bank is P&N Bank, by the way. I’ve been with them for about 15 years and never had any complaint. Especially as this year they abolished all fees, such as “account keeping” fees and “loan establishment” fees. I’m impressed.

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2003 Mercedes CL500.  Even though it looks black, they say it’s blue.

Dammit, once I saw this yesterday, I can’t get it out of my mind. It’s for sale from a dealer in Adelaide. I’ve lusted after one of these for the past few years but I’d decided against it. But this one is a model year 2004 and has only done 42,000Km. That’s excellent. Add to that, it’s Tanzanite Blue (very dark blue), not black as they nearly all are, and look at the interior!

Look at that beautiful leather.

One owner, a lady. Yeah, right, but it looks the part.

Aaaarrrrgh. I love it. I want it. Even if it won’t fit lengthways in my garage. I’d have to park it diagonally, which means my other cars have to go, NOW. Make me an offer.

Of course, the travel restrictions mean I can’t go to Adelaide at the moment, so it will have to remain a dream for a while. I’ll get over it. Oh, price you ask?  $34K. No, I don’t have that lying around, but if I could sell the three cars, that would raise $9,000.  Ha! I can dream.

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Scotty from Marketing and Porter from the Department of Jackboots and Laying Down the Law are trying to put on a nice face and say they really, really are genuine in wanting a new deal in industrial relations. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Sally McManus, that excellent leader of the union movement, is saying she’ll come to the table, but when she said one condition must be that no worker is worse off, Morrison and Porter refused to give that guarantee. What a great way to start negotiations.

Do not trust! This is the party that tried to bring in Work Choices in 2011 and until last week was trying to bring in a new law that would outlaw a union for even simple breaches of regulations, like failing to submit a form on time. Draconian! Yet now they want us to believe they are nice people and we can trust them.

Not on your life. I’ve seen first hand the way employers will screw you as soon as look at you. I tried to do the right thing in 1996 and I was shafted by the employer group. I’ll never forget, at one meeting we were discussing where people should be placed on a new pay scale. We (the union and ACTU group) pointed out that it would involve pushing people down below where they were being paid at their present gradings. One employer group guy said, “Wish we could get ’em all down there.” It was shocking and demonstrated that they cared nothing for employees. He wasn’t aware of what he’d said. All they cared about was suppressing unions and employees.

No trust!

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What is it with women with rings through their noses?! I’m noticing time after time after time, women have small rings through their nostril on the side of their nose. What is this? Why this compulsion? I don’t find it at all attractive, in fact it makes me look away.

Then there are the tongue studs. How can women do this???  Do they understand that it’s meant for stimulation of the male while sucking his cock? It means that they are advertising that they suck cocks! Many times I’ve been so tempted to say, “Oh, you suck cocks, do you?” It’s only that I’m too polite that stops me.

I find it revolting. I do not want to look at any face, female or not, that has these disfiguring things stuck through their flesh. Ugh!