A much better day today. I’ve had contact with my European friend who was lost for a while due to a stupid mistake on my part. She talked to me today, thank goodness. I’m very pleased.

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Phew, summer’s here. It made 40degC at the airport at 2pm and I’m running the aircon for the first time since last summer (I think). I’m sleeping better too. I’ve stopped a medication and it’s clear that it was the cause of my insomnia. I drop off to sleep within about 10-15mins now. And I’ve dropped a couple of kg since, as a bonus.

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There was quite a nice program on the ABC-TV last night, late, 9.40pm so you might have missed it. It was Gryff Rhys-Jones’s doco on his great rail trip across the continent, starting on this side (WA). He was dropped into the surf, literally, on the west coast of Rotto, and showcased Perth, (looking very pretty, I must add), then the Pilbara, the iron ore trains up there.

Then it was back to Perth and onto the Indian-Pacific to Kalgoorlie and a tour of the city and gold mines. It looked very attractive and was a great advertisement for WA tourism. It’s a pity people can’t come here from overseas at the moment.

Anyway, it gave me two ideas; first, I get a free rail ticket each year as a Senior in WA, and I haven’t used this year’s. I should do the Perth – Kalgoorlie Prospector trip again. My friend and I did it at the end of 2018 and I think I could stand doing it again. And I’ll be eligible for another ticket in January.

The other idea is that, now that the state borders are open again, maybe, just maybe, I could take the Indian Pacific across to Sydney. It’s very expensive so I’m not sure, but I’d rather do that than fly.

Why go to Sydney? So that I could buy a car there and drive it back across the Nullarbor. Or, do what I really, really should do and drive to Brisbane and see my 97 year old aunt before it’s too late. That’s important! Maybe it would be cheaper and better to train from Sydney to Brisbane, buy a car there and drive back from there?

All this is because I don’t see myself going overseas any more. Too risky. We may have a vaccine, but I don’t think the risk will go away entirely. Better to see Australia.

However, I don’t think summer is the time to do this, so there’s no rush. At least autumn, or even next spring.

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What car?

It’s a diesel, which counts against it, but it’s a 6-cylinder twin turbo diesel. That should be quite pokey. This is a 2007 model, 212,000Km, $6,995. Of course, I’m only showing this as an example. It’ll probably be sold but they come up regularly. Good fuel economy, 9l/100Km approx. I just love the styling and it’s got everything I want in a car.

Just dreamin’.

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My friend Danny came out on Friday and gave me a hand with the Honda. I’m frustrated by the roof mounted antenna not working, and no matter what we tried (so much easier with two people!) it still measures open circuit somewhere between the roof and the back of the radio. Impossible to get at the cable in the ducting.

I’ve been thinking today, I’ve got nothing to lose if I cut the wire right at the plug where it plugs into the radio. That’s to diagnose it, I mean. It’s not coax at that point, it’s only a single wire and it’s very possible it’s been pulled too hard at some time. If I can’t find the fault, the only alternative is to get a car audio workshop to drill a hole in the left fender and install a new antenna at the front, running a new cable behind the dash. That will be expensive. Cutting this wire might save me some $$$$$.

The other problem was a disc stuck in the roof mounted DVD player – yes, it’s a fancy car this Honda MDX. They were $75,000 when they were new. This is a late 2005 model.

Danny got the disc out – the whole player is sticky with goo, probably kids with ice cream fingers – and the disc itself was sticky in the centre. That’s quite probably why it was stuck. We left the whole assembly hanging from the roof until I can clean all the goo off, but I hope I can remember how to put it all back together again. I’ve got a small bowl of screws to work out where they go. Errrgh.

He also swapped a couple of sensors over from my Verada to his Magna to try to diagnose a fault he has. No luck, I’m afraid. It didn’t solve his problem and he’s as mystified as ever. I don’t envy him.