I’m chilled. It only takes one degree to be noticeable and I’m going to need my cardie tonight. Byoot day, though. Can’t complain. Yet I am complaining.

____________________________________________

Did you get my joke yesterday, about car keys only coming in one colour, khaki? Ho ho ho. Well, today I saw this on AliExpress:

Those clever Chinese, a khaki car key. At $5.52, I’ve ordered one, so I can joke about it.

__________________________________________________

A couple more car things:

• Phwoooaaar. My car has a very plain aluminium gear shift knob and I’d been daydreaming about a nicer one. I found this on AliExpress. It’s only listed for Toyota and Lexus cars, but it’s only an 8,8mm screw thread and at $11 including postage, I thought I’d take the chance that it will fit mine.

• The exterior mirrors fold in automatically when you turn the ignition off. Or you can tell them to fold in by pulling on the mirror adjustment switch in the arm rest. Why? So you can thread your way past them in a tight car park?
• When you put the car into reverse, the external mirrors fold down a little, so that you can see the ground and rear wheels a bit better. Up again when you go to neutral or park.
• I’ve been thinking of putting it through the car wash, and when you do that, you have to think about the radio antenna, Well, there is no external antenna to worry about on this car. It must be embedded in the rear windscreen, I suppose. That’s handy. Wherever it is, the radio reception is great, especially on FM. I drove up around Yanchep yesterday and the FM never faded once.
• Although this is a coupe, the rear seats both fold forward to allow free access through the boot. Or half fold, for your skis, ho ho.
• The battery is in the left side of the boot, behind a fold down panel, which means it stays nice and clean. Long run for the cables – I wonder what the voltage is at the starter motor when it’s cranking? It starts instantly though, so I’m not worried.
• Browsing AliExpress, I noticed spark plugs for sale for Peugeot 407 and started to check them out. Then it hit me – this is a diesel, it don’t use spark plugs. Dumbo.
• Re my mention of the strange wheel “nuts”, i.e. wheel screws, and my question about how you hold the wheel in place while you screw the er, screws in, a friend pointed me to these:

• You take one of these (pink one for pink wheels…) and screw it into a hub hole, then guide the wheel over the pin to hang it in place and align the holes for your wheel screws. Logical, but why do it this way in the first place? Apparently VW and Skoda European cars are the same. Very odd.

• Thinking of changing the colour of the car, as I have been, and thinking of getting it spray painted, someone said why not get it “wrapped”? Yeah, maybe. I know a bit about this, but I’ve been worried about longevity of the wrap material, but I should find out more. One benefit is I believe it’s cheaper than paint, and another would be that I could get any colour I wanted. I’ve said I want black, but I do like the very deep sea-green/blue that I’ve seen on Holdens and GM cars. I should check it out.
• That black car with the tan leather upholstery and sunroof that came up for sale in Sydney a couple of weeks ago is still on the market. I thought it would sell quickly, but it hasn’t. His price is right up there, $8,990. I would pay that.
  
  ________________________________________________
  

Enough about the car. As you can tell, I’m very pleased that I found it and got it, especially as it only cost half what i expected to pay. I’ve never seen another one in Perth. I like standing out from the crowd.

More on the Chinese threats against Taiwan. I truly believe that there is a real danger of a shooting war in the next few years, almost an inevitability.

The Chinese are building up their naval forces to an alarming level and inch by inch, they are taking the steps they need to assert their control. Their unlawful takeover of what they call their “nine dash line”, i.e. complete control of almost the entire South China Sea, has allowed them to build effective “aircraft carriers” on their sand islands near the Philippines. They have been building aircraft carriers and submarines as fast as they can.

They have clearly shown that they have no regard for international law. They will lie about anything and accuse us of lying.

China cannot be trusted in any way. They will lie, cheat, steal any way they can. They are constantly trying to infiltrate our society. That Belt and Road Initiative is just a way of weaseling their way into other countries, then tying their economies up in massive debt and legalese. How the Darwin Port Authority could have fallen for their trick of leasing the Darwin port for 99 years is beyond comprehension. I am all in favour of cancelling this and the Victorian government’s BRI agreement.

It may not happen before I fall off the perch, but I truly believe that we are going to be involved in a shooting, red hot war with China very soon.