Beautiful days at the moment, highs of 22 – 25degC. Not much rain this week, but we had some ripper showers last week. It’s going to be a wet weekend coming up, though the more rain the better.

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I’m writing this at 5am – I’m having terrible sleep problems these days. Restless legs! It’s awful! I don’t know if you’re aware of it but at night, I just cannot resist moving my legs and tightening my leg muscles, while clenching my glutes (buttocks). The result is that I just can’t lie still. I’m writhing around in the bed.

The result is that I have to get up and do stuff on the computer until it goes away, usually 4 or 5am. I then sleep until 9am or 10am, or even later. It’s a complete waste of the morning.

I don’t know of any cure for the condition. I’m taking magnesium already, for cramps, but it doesn’t help this. Dr Google is no help. I’ve been given a list of specialists in Perth, but I feel it will just cost me a big fee for no real help. Reluctant.

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I really enjoy the time at the computer, though. There’s a guy in New Hampshire, USA, called Waldo, who runs a Youtube channel called Waldo’s World. Although his day job is as a computer specialist (programming, mainly), he dovotes all his spare time buying and fixing cars, tractors, trucks and earth moving equipment on his enormous block on the woods.

He seems to be completely self taught in all his wrenching and mechanic work, and he also makes things in steel, ranging from a broken part for a car, to making a ginormous gooseneck trailer.

He’s a self taught welder and it’s fascinating to see how he develops and welds bits together. It’s inspiring.

I’m a follower of several Youtube channels, such as Rainman Ray, a motor mechanic, and a couple of model railway guys. The only problem is that some of these guys are so boring that I have to just pick the eyes out of their presentations.

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Speaking of model railways, I’ve been collecting all the necessary bits and pieces for around six years so far. Obviously I need track, and I bought a box of track all those years ago. The long box has been sitting on a shelf in the garage all this time, and when I calculated how much track I’ll need, I realised I was a bit short, so I ordered another box (of 30 x 1m lengths), cost $237.

But surprise, surprise, last week I moved the box in the garage and there was another box hidden behind it! Unopened. That’s great – it means I can do anything I like, any design, and I have plenty of track to do it now that I have three boxes of 30x1m. I foresee a winding mountain track, perhaps.

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Uh oh. I said last week that I tried to start the Peugeot and it seemed as if the battery was weak or flat. Well, I’ve had the battery on charge for three days now and it doesn’t seem to want to take the charge. It’s only flashing the charge light weakly and measures only around 6V. I hope it’s not completely dead.

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The images above show two cans of a non-alco mixed drink. Note that the ring pulls are unbroken, i.e. the cans have not been opened. But one of the cans is empty and the other is only about 1/3 full. Yet another example of deceptive packaging.

Here’s another:

Look at the size of the box, compared with the size of the contents. There’s no reason to make the box so much bigger, to allow for “settling” as they say. It’s just another example of short measure, ripping us off. I’m sick of it.

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It’s now nine weeks since the ceiling collapse and I’m still waiting on the repairers. They’ve been out once, to measure up and work out what to do, but that was three weeks ago and I’m still waiting. They are supposed to come today, Wednesday, to do the work.

UPDATE: it’s 10.15am and they turned up at 7.15am as promised. They’re working on the new ceiling now. It’s all good so far.

I give NRMA Insurance credit – they’ve phoned and emailed me a couple of times to ask how it’s going. They phoned me yesterday to enquire and I told the lady nothing’s happened. She said they’d get onto the repairers.

However, she asked me if I want to claim for the glassware and crockery that was broken when the panel fell on the sink. I said no, I don’t even know what was broken and it wasn’t enough to worry about.

But I took the opportunity to say that my dishwasher has died, unfixable, and I feel it was caused by water and rockwool insulation from the ceiling getting into the dishwasher motor.

That’s fine, she said, she’ll just add the cost of a new machine onto my claim. No trouble. They just want a report from the repairer. Whacko! That saves me about $1,000 for a new machine. That’s a good result.

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I’ve been watching Netflix lately and one program in particular, The Diplomat. WOW! This has to be one of the best shows I’ve seen in years.

It’s about a woman who’s sent to London to be the US ambassador to the UK. Working out of the US embassy in London.

The complication is that she has her husband along with her. He’s also been a US ambassor to some other country in the past, and he seems to be a spare in this posting. He doesn’t know whether to speak up or just be a “wife” to his wife. It’s complicated.

The storyline is that there’s a very bad attack against one of the UK’s aircraft carriers in the Arabian Gulf. They suspect Iran, and the UK prime minister wnats to launch a revenge attack, but then evidence appears that it wasn’t Iran afterll, and things get very complicated and very dangerous. It’s a fascinating and complex story. All set in magnificent rooms in London and Paris.

This has to be one of the best Netflix series I have ever seen. It’s magnificent. It’s only eight episodes and it ends in an ambiguous way, implying that there’s more to the story. I hope so.

I’m also re-watching the Attorney Woo Young-Woo for a second time. I watched it about a year ago and it’s definitely worth watching again.

It’s a South Korean series, about a young woman called Woo Young Woo, who is autistic, but has a photographic (eidetic) memory and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Seoul University in law. She’s able to recall masses of text and images from the law texts and wins many cases in this way.

I don’t know if the actress playing the role is autistic herself, but it’s a magnificen performance. Good enough for me to watch the whole series again.