Spring is sprung
Da grass is riz
I wonder where da boidies is
Da little boids is on da wing
Ain’t that absoid?
Da wings is on da little boid

If you’re old enough to remember, Jimmy Durante.

Aah, first day of Spring, after August, always the hardest month in my opinion. Unfortunately, although it seemed wet, we didn’t make the average rainfall. Never fear, there’s plenty of time for more rain yet. It’s grey and threatening now and tomorrow is supposed to bring a real winter blast, with the possibility of snow down south.

Remember that expression? When women wore petticoats and they slipped down to below their skirt, showing the lace edge, we used to say, “It’s snowing down south.” But women don’t wear petticoats any more, I don’t think. I never see the lace edge any more. Pity.

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I’ve just been listening to two WA state Liberal officials, Peter Collier, one of the two Liberal members of parliament, and David Honey, the state director, trying to weasel their way out of answering questions about the disgusting report into the Liberal Party’s monumental loss that came out last week. The report that described The Clan, a group of four male powerbrokers who seem to enjoy wielding power by branch stacking to get their way.

They described women in the movement as the “Sandwich Makers”.

These two guys ducked and weaved and prevaricated and basically said, We’re not gonna talk. They used pathetic excuses like rules preventing them from talking. They wouldn’t talk about anything.

As the radio announcer said, OK, if that’s your attitude, how about we don’t take anything you say seriously, until you will talk about this? What a nasty, pathetic mob. How anyone can support the Liberal Party is beyond me.

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Then there was the radio interview with Senator Michaelia Cash, Liberal, who is the federal attorney-general, the top law officer in the country. Appointed after my local member, Christian Porter, formerly attorney-general and would-be PM, was forced out after those scandalous revelations.

She was talking about Clive Palmer’s latest legal challenge to WA’s hard border closure due to the pandemic. She says, we had better get used to the idea that this time, it might succeed. That the High Court might rule that WA’s closure is unconstitutional.

But she sounded very definitely as if she wants the challenge to succeed. She’s talking as if the federal government will be backing Clive Palmer, even though they wouldn’t dare.

What is it with these incredibly stupid Liberals? They seem to be doing everything they can to be electoral poison in WA.

Well, I think WA will vote to tell them to stay on their side of the border in the next election. WA stands a good chance of voting for a federal Liberal wipeout, just as we did in March in the state election. Hooray. I think there’s a good chance WA will swing the entire election to Labor next time. Yaah!

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I’ve done a big Facebook post today of images from my trips to Malaysia years ago. Starting in about 1990 I made several trips, often starting or finishing in Singapore. I have hundreds of images as a result:

I used to think a lot about choosing to retire to Penang, as property prices there were quite attractive in the 1990s. Medical care is very good there due to the many doctors and nurses who have trained in Australia and take huge pride in their skills and qualifications.

Malaysia has always been an Islamic nation, but in those days it was low key and very tolerant. Alcohol was freely sold, much like here. I never felt any religious intrusion.

But how things change. Islam has now become much more prominent in Malaysia and I wouldn’t consider moving there now. What a pity. Maybe I’m misjudging; I admit I haven’t been there for all these years, relying on news reports.

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My Honda MDX has not had much use this year, basically gathering dust and costing me money in the licence fee and batteries. But in the last few days I decided to give it a drive and as you expect from a Honda, it started first go. No coughing and spluttering, it just up and ran smoothly. Pumped the tyres up, backed it out and drove it around the block to ensure it kept going.

Then yesterday I put it through the car wash. When I was stopped, and the machine started, it was uncanny. I had my foot on the brake, but the movement of the carwash machine made it seem as if the car was moving forward. I jammed my foot harder on the brake as I was sure I was going to break out forward. Of course, it was just an illusion. Phew.

It costs me about $900 a year to keep it licenced, so why do I keep it if I hardly use it? I dunno but I just love that car. It drives so nicely, even around town, and feels so solid and roomy. I’d be confident on taking it on a long trip, even though it’s a 2006 model, 15 years old. Yet it’s a Honda and it has a 3.5L V6, twin overhead cam, fuel injected, four wheel disc brakes, on-demand 4WD, air-con, power everything including sunroof, and all leather. It feels GREAT. I love it and I don’t want to sell it.

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I’d love to buy this. It’s a laser engraver, but it will cut thin materials including thin plywood. I’d love to use it to cut parts for model buildings for model railways. But 219 Euros means A$370 approx, expensive for something that would probably only get minimal use.

And how about this?

It’s an image sensor, about 20 million pixels but capable of frame rates of around 160 frames/sec. I just show it here to show the beauty of the layout. This is electronics, folks! Beautiful.