I mean ain’t it nice to be free of COVID fear, free to do anything, go anywhere (within the state, that is) and I’m looking forward to the vaccinations in a few weeks. What a contrast with what we thought were the pillars of democracy, the USA and the UK. Exemplars of competence and common sense. NOT!

Both Trump and Boris have hundreds of thousands of deaths on their consciences through their incompetence and denialism. Trump I expected, but not the UK government. I’ve always admired Britain for its leadership and competence but not any more. They’ve crumbled into an amazing pile of stupidity under this Tory government. Boris was always known to be a liar and a fool, yet people voted for him. Well, your vote may well cost you your life in Britain. It’s clear that my dream of visiting Croft Castle is on the back burner indefinitely. It probably won’t happen in my lifetime now.

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No sea breezes lately either. It’s very noticeable. I went down to the Jindalee Beach walkway yesterday around 4.30pm and what breeze there was was mostly warm easterly. The ocean was almost calm and the sand was broad and flat, beautiful. This was looking down from the walkway high above. I’m frustrated by this beach because to get to it requires descending an 80 step wooden staircase. Going down is not too difficult but getting back up again is a lung burster.

I’m very hopeful (yes, full of hope) that a new aquatic centre will be built at Alkimos this year. That’s five minutes drive north of me. I really, really need this as I can’t swim in the ocean any more, unless it’s a very sheltered beach. Boy, I miss being able to ocean swim but I can’t risk it now unless it’s very calm.

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Which reminds me, I’ve been having a small amount of angina recently and so an angiogram is scheduled for Mon 25th. I’ve had these many times before and I’m not worried, especially as the cardiologist says he’ll go in through the arm rather than the groin (apparently I’m too fat down there, harrumph!) It’s at the Mount, so I’ll have to take the train in and taxi from the station. It’ll be an overnight stay. That’s fine with me, I like the food and I seem to sleep well in hospital.

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The guy organising the Facebook Channel 7 History project has renewed his call for submissions. He says 147 people registered their interest but only 10 have submitted, which includes me, of course. He’s pleading for more.

Even though I wrote 8,500 words I could have written a lot more and I’ve been tempted to do a second submission, a fill-in-the-gaps Chapter 2. But I really should direct my efforts to my own history.

I made a good start a few years ago but I’ve been bogged down by a lack of knowledge about who’s who in our early Sydney relatives. However, the My Heritage web site has allowed me to build a very comprehensive family tree, complete with many photos to go with the names, so I’m much better equipped now. It’s not just Sydney either – I now know much more about the Arnold side.

As well, I’m very pleased to have received a USB stick from my cousin in Rhode Island, USA, with scans of all the documents and newspaper clippings his mother, Yvonne, amassed. There are 141 pages! Most of them have more than one document, too.

Unfortunately he’s not very computer literate and many of the scans are of very poor quality. But it still gives me links between people with many birth, marriage and death dates to add to the MyHeritage tree. Wow, it takes up time.

I paid for one year of access to that site to gain access to their photo enhancement facility but I’ve done just about all the photo enhancements I need so I don’t want to pay another $230. I wonder what will happen when I say goodbye to them. Presumably I’ll lose access to the tree, so I’d better get a good printout before roughly September or whenever is the expiry date.

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Speaking of books, a former workmate at Ch.7 has done a picture book:

He said he found a book publishing broker who handled the printing and ordering side of it. I’ve bought two copies $25 + pp each) and I plan to visit him in Mundaring to collect them. Asap. When the weather cools down. I’ll ask about this broker. Interesting. http://www.thepossumwhisperer.net/ if you’re interested.

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