I’ve never liked Rolls Royces. Too olde worlde for my liking, too square, too woody, too ridiculously garish looking. No thanks.

But I’ve changed my mind. Rolls Royce La Rose Noire coupe.

This one was built to a client’s specifications, to order. Price? 32. That’s $32. Million! USD. A$50 million!

No, I won’t be forking out this week, but this is the first time I’ve lusted after a Rolls.

The other point is, perfection! I’ve often thought, once you reach a certain point of perfection in cars, appliances, electronic devices, how do you exceed it? To me, Japanese cars like Toyotas, Hondas, Mazdas are so good that it’s hard to imagine anything more perfect. I think this exceeds them, but so it should.

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I think this deserves an award for humour. On the radio a few mornings ago, the announcer was talking about whether Shakespeare should be modernised. As an example, he said, “What about To Be or Not To Be, in Bogan Yeah, Nah?”

L.O.L. !! I laughed out loud. Good one. Gold star to that man.

Yep, that’s my heart. Last Tuesday I had an angiogram at Hollywood Private Hospital. Unfortunately they wanted me there at 7.30am, so I ordered an Uber taxi for 5.30am, knowing that there’s a massive amount of road works on the freeway.

But I realised after ordering the ride that I’d probably allowed too much time. Then the hospital changed the arrival time to 7.45am. I tried to change the Uber time but couldn’t find a way to do it. OK, no problem, it just meant I was very early – we got there at about 6.20am. No problem, I don’t mind waiting.

In the end I wasn’t wheeled into the refrigerated! operating theatre until 10am. All went smoothly and as you can see, he didn’t find anything remarkable, although there is one narrowed bit apparently. I have to see the cardiologist in six weeks, so I’ll find out more then.

But the GP asked me yesterday whether I feel any different, having had the angiogram, and the answer is no. I’m still very tired, wanting to sleep a lot. So what else could it be? I’m worried about a suspected kidney stone, but blood tests don’t show any inflammation, so it doesn’t seem to be an infection.

One bit of good news is that the Ozempic (semaglutide) appetite suppressant drug is working wonders. I’ve lost about 5kg in four months and as a result, not only are my blood sugar readings coming back into the “normal” range of 4-8mmol/ml, my HbA1c is now 6.5. That’s remarkable! That figure of less than 7.0 is regarded as meaning, technically, I’m not diabetic. Amazing. The tests also showed that my liver has improved, i.e. less fat, and my kidneys are fine. It’s all good news.

I also found an article in The Guardian yesterday that says studies are showing that semaglutide is having big benefits on the heart. Like, repairing damage. Fantastic.

The only drawback to using Ozempic is that you feel a bit nauseous, but I can tolerate that. So, shazzam! Good news.

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The Uber taxi cost me $63 each way, by the way, and took 42 mins.

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I am so frustrated by the delays in getting my replacement dishwasher! The insurance company has OK the order, and originally placed it with Betta Electrical in Rockingham, but they couldn’t get stock. I waited more than three months but then persuaded NRMA Insurance ot switch the order to Appliances Online. They promise quick delivery, but also to take the old one away and install the new one.

But week after week goes by with no call. A couple of weeks ago I couldn’t even get AppOnline to even answer their phones. I finally got through last Thursday 17th, and they said I would get a call.

But another whole week has gone by with nothing, no call. This has dragged on for nearly five months now. I’m getting tired of washing dishes by hand.

Ho hum, first world problem, I know.

August, the coldest, most unpleasant month of the year, in my opinion. Thank goodness it’s nearly over. It hasn’t been all that wet, but it’s been too cold for my liking. Of course, compared to northern hemisphere winters, as I’ve remarked before, it’s nothing. I’ve been watching the TV series Alone, plus a few Youtube clips recently about Canadians battling through blizzards and snowbanks. I could not bear it! I don’t understand why people choose to live in such cold. Why? Why?!

Anyway, although my fingers get a bit cold and stiff at times, it’s fine. My house is well insulated and only goes as low as an inside temperature of 16-17degC, at which point I turn on the reverse cycle air conditioning for great wafts of warm air. Lovely.

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I must admit to feeling very poorly in the past few weeks. Weak and tired. I’ve been getting a bit of angina and puffs of breathlessness. I saw the cardiologist last week and he wants to do an angiogram (I call it an angrygram 🙂 ), so that’s going to happen on Tuesday 22nd, Tuesday week. I don’t like these procedures (probe up through an arm vein into the heart!), but last time he did one on 26 January 2021, he found a 90% blocked vein. Lucky! So it needs to be done.

But he wants me at Hollywood Private Hospital at 7.30am! Holy mackerel, it’s an hour’s drive even without any traffic problems and traffic at that time of the day will be awful. I’ve booked an Uber driver for 5.30am. I’m assuming that will be sufficient time. It’s going to cost $73 one way. Ouch.

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I’m reading an article about whether the USA should go to war to defend Taiwan if China decides to invade, and it includes this paragraph:

“The past half-century is littered with conflicts the United States chose to wage without weighing the cost of fighting versus the cost of not engaging. A list of such conflicts includes the Vietnam War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 20-year fiasco in Afghanistan, the 2011 attack on Libya, the 2014 excursion into Syria, the support of Saudi Arabia in its war with Yemen, and a perpetual military engagement on the African continent. 

“None of these conflicts was forced on Washington. All were chosen, and the cost to the United States has been astronomical. Benefits have been paltry, or, as I argue, entirely absent.” (1945)

Exactly. All these wars have been unnecessary and disastrous, and Australia has been involved in the first three (Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan) without any parliamentary debate or popular discussion. All have been initiated by Liberal Party governments and usually by the prime minister alone, without even involving his ministers!! Amazing and egregiously bad.

They have cost hundreds of Australian soldiers’ lives and billions of dollars, for no benefit whatever! They have achieved nothing! My blood boils, as you can tell.

So what if China tries to take Taiwan by force? The big factor is that Taiwan houses TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s biggest semiconductor (integrated circuit) manufacturing plant. They make up to 90% of the world’s “chips” and naturally, this is HUGELY important to the world. If China gained control of this plant, assuming it survived a war intact, they would have us by the throat. They could dictate the supply of semiconductors to the world and throttle our industries.

The USA are working frantically to (re)build their own IC production facilities, which they foolishly allowed to wither and move overseas (to Taiwan, mainly, but also to Korea and China), but it takes years to build an IC fabrication factory. Luckily Holland are the makers of these giant “machines” and obviously they would supply any Western country that could afford the huge cost.

The workings of these are a fascinating story, too much for this blog, but the gist is that they etch lines on the silicon base disc which are as narrow as 4nm – that’s 4 nano metres. That’s far smaller than a human hair and so tiny that the slightest vibration would ruin the etch. It’s done using X-ray lasers which are so precise as to be at the limit of mechanics and physics. They are a triumph of engineering. You’ll pay a couple of $billion for one of these. And wait years for delivery.

Anyway, what should Australia do if China invades Taiwan? In my opinion, this would be one case where we should intervene in any way we can, because our interests are very much at stake. We cannot allow China to (a) use force to subjugate the Taiwanese; and (b) gain complete control of most of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The article I read suggests that loss of control would cause a worldwide recession of at least 10%, amounting to a depression, with widespread hardship.

Unfortunately, a war with China would be very, very costly. It would be a fight to the death, literally. I think it would almost certainly involve nuclear weapons very early in any conflict. China would put their prestige on the line. They would take the attitude that they must not lose, so they would use any means to win, including nuclear wepons. This is very, very bad and I am in fear it will happen.

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I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube lately, and one thing in particular. That’s a US company called Copart, which takes cars that have been damaged, either by accidents or water damaged by flooding. They take cars that insurance companies have written off and sell to anyone who’ll buy, so as to recoup some of their cost of paying out the claimants.

The thing is, there are thousands upon thousands of cars in giant yards, all damaged to some degree, often far too much to repair, but some are not too bad. The Youtube guys scour these yards for bargains and when they find cars they think can be resurrected, they put in low bids in an on-line auction. Often, they win.

I’m talking $50,000 – $150,000 cars being sold for $5,000 or even less. Two guys in particular are Porsche fanatics. They’ve got a Porsche Boxster for $2,500 and got it going for the cost of a new oil pan, costing $600. Plus fitting, oil change and cleaning and detailing. Amazing.

I can’t get over the number and range of all these damaged cars in the Copart lots. There are the usual boring small cars, but the number of Ferraris, Porsches, Audis, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins and so on is amazing. If only, if only …….

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It’s dawn and the sun has come up. I awoke about 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I’m at the PC as usual. The birds are chirping. Lovely. Cheers.

I’m working frantically on my Croft History Volume 3 photobook. I have two prepaid vouchers that I bought seven months ago and they expire on the 17th. As usual, I’ve been procrastinating, but I’m more than half way finished. It will only take a few more hours’ work and then I can send them off for printing.

Beeeyoootiful day. Cloudless blue sky, no wind, 22degC, very tolerable.

The title is meant as a riff on “milestones” – another of my high school mates died last week, Bob Farmer. It’s his funeral today. I didn’t know he’d been ill as I haven’t seen him for ten years, but I’m told he was lately having to carry an oxygen cylinder around with him. He was a heavy smoker, so I would guess COPD. I’m so glad I gave up in 1988.

The fact is that I’m feeling unwell too. Not lung problems, but I think I have a developing kidney stone. It’s not the full ‘nuclear explosion’ of pain, just a dull ache on the left side, slowly getting worse, and a general weakness and tiredness. I’ve finally managed to get an appointment with a urologist but, as usual, it’s not for another month, mid September. I may end up in the emergency department before then.

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I had to call an ambulance on Saturday, as well. It wasn’t a severe emergency, but as I was coming through the back door with three bags of groceries plus my general ‘handbag’, I lost my balance as I stepped over the sliding door track and fell forward. Luckily I fell into a pile of cardboard boxes which cushioned my fall.

That was the easy part. The hard part was that I couldn’t get up! My body was twisted aound. I could reach the sliding door handle, but I don’t have the strength to pull myself up.

I tried various things for about 45 mins but no luck. I could reach my phone in my bag, luckily, and I phoned a mate to see if he could come and give me a hand, but he was too far away.

So there was nothing for it but to call an ambulance. I felt bad about it, but when I explained what had happened, they were very understanding and it arrived about 20 mins later. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get their stretcher past my car and through the narrow back door. Nor could they lift me.

I realised that if I slid myself across the tiled floor into the bathroom, and the ambo guy put my thick bathmats down for me to kneel on, I could twist myself around, get my arms up onto the edge of the bath, brace my legs against the cabinets behind and with a mighty push, I got myself up. Bloody ‘ell, I was shaking with the stress and strain, but I was up. Good thing to remember in case it happens again.

Being paramedics, they wanted to do all their tests, so I had an ecg (perfect), blood sugar (4.9, great), blood pressure (155/75 fine), so all good. They wanted to take me in to Joondalup hospital, but I said no, I was fine, so they got me to sign a waiver of liability and they were on their way. It was an easy one for them.

So that was a fun couple of hours, but this is a bit of a worry. I suppose things are a bit unusual in that I’m feeling unwell, weak and wobbly, so a fall like this is out of the ordinary. But it raises the question of whether I can go on living alone. I am worried, but the thought of having to pack everything up and move out of here is too much to comprehend.

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Add to that, having lost a few kilos of weight (Ozempic), I’m finding that my blood sugars are going low more often, meaning I feel myself getting the shakes. If I let it go too low (<4) I can feel myself getting a bit woozy, hazy, slow thinking. That’s what lack of sugar to the brain feels like. I’m well aware of the danger and can counter it by eating sweet stuff – jellybeans for example. It’s another thing I have to be careful of these days. Plus I’m slowly losing my sense of balance, which makes hanging clothes on the line difficult. Mostly the Silver Chain lady does it, but not always.

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And now for something completely different. I’ve been watching a cooking program on Netflix called Five Star Chef, about a group of about eight (at the start) young trainee chefs at The Langham Hotel in London, a six star, cost-is-no-object type of hotel. It has two Michelin stars and these people are given various assignments – menus, table arrangements, small or large groups etc – and told that they must prepare five star, six star meals for either the three supervisors, or real guests. It’s not uncommon for guests to spend £500 on a dinner.

Holey moley! When money is no object, when no expense is to be spared, when perfection is mandatory, it’s amazing. It’s obscene, actually. To think that there are thousands of homeless people in British cities dependent on soup kitchens, sleeping rough, and these ultra-rich people are spending money as if it were water.

However, the program is fascinating. Slowly, the traines are whittled away and from the original eight, we’re down to three at the moment. There are only six episodes, so the next will be the final. Good stuff.

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Great to see the women’s soccer finals being fought out at the moment, and the way the Matildas won 4-0 against Canada last night. I don’t actually watch the whole matches, but I’m interested in the results.

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I’ve been involved in a thing called the ABC Study, the Australian Breakthrough Cancer Study. I don’t have cancer, but it has affected my family so they are trying to find links and clues. It mainly involves on-line questionnaires so far, but today I’ve had to provide fæcal samples to be sent off to Melbourne.

Ugh! UGH! I won’t go into details, but it took two attempts a week apart. I got it done this time, so I’ve got a padded bag that has to be posted off this afternoon. Thank goodness that’s over.