Turned out grey again. After a nice sunny morning, clouds have come over and my fingers are frozen. Ah well, can’t complain, sez he, complaining again. (Now I’m ready to post, it’s nice and sunny-blue sky again. Thank you.)

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Talking about the man who has everything, I’m in the bad habit of buying DVDs but never getting around to watching them. I’ve probably got a dozen sitting there waiting for me to look at them. Stupid.

The reason for mentioning this is that I saw a short review of Succession last week, calling it one of the best TV dramas ever. Hmm, I thought, I’d like to see that. But it’s on HBO pay-TV, so I resigned myself to waiting for some other time.

Last night I decided to have a quick shuffle through the stack on my little table. You guessed it, there was a boxed set of the whole first season of Succession. Crazy! I bought it, perhaps nearly a year ago, and it has sat there, forgotten. Now it will probably wait another six months for me to watch it.

Speaking of watching TV, Fires on the ABC. Good stuff, but hard to watch. So mournful last week.

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I must stop buying “stuff”!! I’m in the process of getting rid of as much of my junk as I can. When I moved here in 2013 it was cathartic, throwing out years and years of “stuff”, clutter. I actually filled most of a 3cu.m. dumper bin. Moving into this house felt like moving into a new, clean environment. “I will not clutter it up again”, I thought. So what’s happened? I’ve cluttered it up again. It’s the way we are, I suppose.

I’ve got a kitchen full of utensils that I never use. A potato masher – never used. Half a dozen carving knives. How many does a guy need? I only need one. Two manual tin openers. And so on. Out, out.

I’ve realised that I have a wardrobe full of male clothes that I almost never wear any more. These were favourite T-shirts, so much that I had two or three of a couple of designs. But now I never wear them. Out, out!

I got rid of a favourite suitcase last week. I have a newer one but occasionally, on trips to Bali, I used to use two suitcases. I doubt that would ever happen again.

Even in my women’s clothes, I have so much stuff that my wardrobe is almost bulging. Stuff I’ve bought but never actually worn. Several garments crammed onto one hanger. Out, out! I don’t spend big money, by the way – it’s all bargain bin stuff or from Wish or the op shops.

Last year, no, 2019, I discovered Wish.com and kinda went mad. I haven’t totalled up all I’ve bought and paid them, but it would be well over $1,000 worth. Just small purchases, $5, $10, but it all adds up.

Then I had to get plastic cases, drawers for it all, so the result is all these electronic components, small motors, small printed circuit units like voltage regulators, small gears, tools I thought I’ll need for my model railway.

But I don’t think I’ll ever get around to building it. Holy moley, I’ve got about $1,000 of track and rolling stock, another $1,000 of model bits like trees, shrubs, fences, overhead lights (miniature ones), traffic lights and so on. All waiting to be put to use. But no urge. Sigh. One o’ these days, Doris.

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I see the Catholic Church is at it again. That Training Academy for Paedophiles! A report has been published in France telling of around 3,000 French priests who, since about 1960, have molested around 300,000 young children! Most of them were boys, only about 10% girls.

What a shocking, disgusting, stomach churning thing. The Catholic Church, with all its gold robes and statues, all its money, all its power, all its magnificent buildings, churches, idols to God and Jesus. Commandment: Thou shalt build no false idols to me. So the Catholic Church (and others) builds massively expensive gold plated false idols. Yet they are filthy perverts who molest children.

People, stay away from these criminals! Keep your children away. Reject this church. In fact reject all religion. Religion is evil! “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” Yeah, right – the priests are wringing their hands at the thought of playing with little boys genitals. Evil! Suffering children? They don’t care.

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I’ve still got my 2005 Honda MDX and although I thought of selling it earlier in the year, I don’t think I will now. I love mine. Although I have the Peugeot, that sporty coupe, I tend to choose to drive the Honda when I go shopping because it’s just so pleasant to drive. Sure, it’s big and heavy, but it’s smooth and powerful and has loads and loads of room.

I can hardly believe I’ve got one of these. I remember when they came out, in the 1990s I think, and I boggled at a V6 cylinder, twin overhead cam, fuel injected, on-demand 4WD in this great body. All leather:

Phwoooaaar, I thought, but at $75,000 I would never be able to have one.

Well, 25 or so years later, I got one. And I love it. Very reliable. Mine had a few small faults but I’ve fixed most of them, so at $3,000, what a buy. I won’t sell now.

I read the reviews and they say it didn’t sell well in Australia mainly due to the awful styling. What??!! I love the styling, are you crazy?

The only thing I don’t like is the foot operated parking brake, US style. Kicking it off is not too bad, but lifting my left foot high enough to push it on is a pain, literally.

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I’ve finally finished the latest Robert Goddard novel, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection. Hmmm, I think he’s lost it. That’s the third recent novel of his where I’ve finished it and thought, “I’ve wasted too many hours reading this book.”

Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great novelist but I think he’s getting past his prime. This one lacked tension, lacked a good story line, was far too twisty in a plot that lacked credibility. Others may disagree but I haven’t enjoyed his last three books. Pity. But if you want some great reads, just start with Past Caring, his first novel from many years ago, and you’ll have many months of good books ahead of you.

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I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but I’ve been absorbed by SAS Australia on channel 7. It’s gung-ho, military style he-man stuff, but I am very impressed by the four UK guys, ex-SAS men themselves. I don’t know if the show is scripted or whether they generate their own dialogue and ideas, but their insights and psychological discoveries about the amateur soldiers impress me.

Most of all, in this series, I am impressed by Jana Pitman. She is a double gold medal Olympic athlete in the 400m running and 400m hurdles. Then when she retired from athletics, she entered medical school and is now qualified as a doctor. Wow, wow. I am so impressed.

Now she’s the only woman remaining out of five survivors so far of this SAS test on TV. She must be tough! And she’s 1.8m tall, too, so she could beat me up. I think she’s great.

At first I thought this series was set in South Africa, judging by the mountains and scenery, but I’m realising it’s here in Oz, somewhere in the Blue Mountains in NSW, I’d say. It looks great, massive mountains, rugged cliffs, fantastic views. It makes me want to go there and see it. One o’ these days, Doris.

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Speaking of Doris, which was my grandmother’s name on Dad’s side, even though I didn’t renew my subscription to the MyHeritage genealogy web site, they keep sending me emails about links they find.

But at A$330 for a year’s data, I’m not tempted. Especially when I get something like the latest, where they’ve found a new link to “Arthur Adolph Dubois, my Great-great-uncle’s father-in-law”. Um, no, I don’t think that adds greatly to my tree. I’ve gone sideways enough. If they could go further back than the 17th Century, I might be interested, but they’re too expensive. I’m surprised they haven’t phoned me and begged me to rejoin.