Lovely day, cloudless blue sky, very little wind and 19C, a little bit chilly. Tomorrow is when the Spring temperatures start to climb.

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I’ve finally sent the Croft History vol. 1, 2nd ed. books off to my USA cousins today. They’re printed in Malaysia and I couldn’t see a way to get them sent directly to the US, so they came here last Thursday. But when I took them to the Post Office yesterday to post them I was rocked back on my heels.

The single book package cost $36.15 and the two book package was $49.20 in postage. Aaarrrgh! Well, there was nothing to be done about it so with Lisa’s and Sami’s permissions, I posted them off.

I think this makes the exercise cost prohibitive. What I’ll do next time is compose the book and save it as a PDF (Acrobat) file. That way I can just email the file and anyone elsewhere in the world can view it on-screen and if they wish, take the file to a book printing company such as Office Works here to have a copy printed. I have no idea what they’d charge, but the cost of the book to me is $29.90 + $36 postage to the USA, so that’s the price to beat. Would Office Works or Costco or Wal Mart charge $66 to print a copy. I don’t know. Must investigate.

It’s a toss up: viewing on-screen does make for rich colours and fine detail but the feel of a hard cover and fine paper under strong light is hard to beat, too.

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I went to Bunnings this morning for the first time in six months. It was to buy a sink plunger to clear my toilet blockage. Hah! I can’t be the only person with this problem because there’s a wide range of “toilet blockage clearance” devices, ranging from the simple wooden handle type of rubber plunger to elaborate borers on the end of long metal spring snakes. I ummed and aaahed and eventually bought the simple stick type, plus a more elaborate pneumatic plunger type which came with a variety of rubber cup sizes. It was cheap enough at $11.90. I’ve also bought a 1l bottle of cleaning fluid, presumably caustic or something, which promises to do the job too.

It’s so good having two bathrooms and two toilets. I love it.

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While I was at Bunnings I was shocked, shocked I tell you. I saw two women wearing jeans without the knees being cut and torn.

This is a major fashion crime, you know. You must have torn knees. The first rule of women’s fashion is that you must copy. You must follow everyone else. If a fashionista’s jeans are ripped, then yours must be too. If others wear a cardigan with the arms knotted around the waist, you must too. If one good looking woman has a ring through her nose, then you must too. And you must have tattoos. It’s compulsory, don’t you know?

Yesterday I saw a rather gorgeous young woman wearing tights that were so thin, so stretched, that simply nothing was left to the imagination. I could see every crease, every bottom wobble, every curve. She may as well have been nude. Yet if a bloke looks too hard or long, we’ll get criticism.

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I’m not sure if I mentioned before but my lawnmowing contractor said he might be interested in buying the Honda MDX when I want to sell. I told him a guide price and we agreed to wait a while so I can fix the few problems. I must say I would like to take it on a trip somewhere first, when I get the chance.

But today I’ve read an article in the West Australian (I occasionally buy it) where they say there is such a demand for 4WD vehicles, due to the See WA campaign, that the prices of second hand ones have risen markedly, 10 – 20% or more. The dealers are saying they’ve never seen such demand.

Hmmmm. I think it would be better if I advertised mine. I’ll talk to Bryce before I do but …

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I hate this new “block editor” in WordPress. This is one of the clunkiest, most bug ridden interfaces I’ve ever had the misfortune to use. I started to say I can hardly complain when it’s free, but I pay about $30 a year for my domain registration (www.bullsroar.me) through this lot. It’s cheap but it’s not free. I suppose this is an example of buying “cheap” and finding the faults.

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Oh dear. Oh bugger! As a consequence of the COVID pandemic, my favourite, our favourite restaurant in Bali has closed down. It’s the Beach House at the end of Jalan Kusuma Sari on Semawang Beach, Sanur. I’ve been there quite a few times with my partner and alone, and every time, it’s been a pleasure. They remember me and we get a great welcome. It was owned by some Aussies with a guy called Rob as front of house boss, (and his dog). He’s from Melbourne, but we excused him.

And the head waiter Wayan. What an accomplished guy! He’s Balinese of course, and therefore speaks both Bahasa Indonesian and the Bali dialect, and excellent English, but he’d also taught himself Italian and a little Spanish. He and my partner could hold a nice little conversation when ordering the Italian dishes on the menu.

The closure has been announced on Facebook by the owners, so it’s real. This hits me harder than almost anything else has so far. I’ve had such good times there that I’m really sad. Waaaagggh.

At least I’ve still got its namesake, the Jindalee Beach Shack on the waterfront here. It’s a little too windy and cool at the moment, but it’s quite nice and has a big local following.