It’s been a while, sorry. I’m sleeping poorly, so I feel tired most of the time. Restless leg syndrome! Diabetic foot pain! And a rotten mattress doesn’t help. Makers – AH Beard. Crap mattress! I don’t think they know how to make mattresses.

Recently I had a phone call and visit from a woman representing a Home Care type of company. She was pushing motorised bed/mattresses, the kind that elevates your feet above the heart, and so on. And vibrates. All well and good, but they want $6,000 to $7,000! That’s crazy. I said I need to think about it, and she said she’d phone me in a couple of days, but of course she didn’t, and that’s good. In the meantime, I did a bit of shopping around and found you can get them for $2,000 – $4,000. Huh. I’m still not sure I want to spend that much. CHOICE tests mattresses and they recommend one for about $450 which they say ticks all the boxes. Maybe I should try that.

________________________________________

The referendum is only 21 days away and although I’m a firm YES voter, I fear it’s going to fail.

For my overseas readers, we are holding a referendum to alter the constitution (actually, to insert a new clause), to give the Indigenous (First Nations/Aborigines/Torres Strait Islanders) people a “Voice”.

Unfortunately the government have not explained this Voice very well. What’s a Voice? It’s an abstract term to me. I’ve never had any trouble understanding it, but many, many people don’t get it. Only now, with three weeks to go, are the governemt starting to say it will be a committee, which I think they should have been saying for the past six months.

Unfortunately there is a big No Vote push, with the slogan, “If you don’t know, vote No” and that’s what a lot of people are saying.

As well, there’s a strong racist stream too. This is a very racist country, I’m afraid. There’s an undercurrent of hatred toward Aborigines, and these nasty No people are spreading lies and misinformation. It’s working.

To succeed, the referendum has to be passed by a majority of the population (about 17 million eligible voters, i.e. over 18, out of a total population of 27.5 million), AND a majority of the states. There are six states, so that means four have to vote Yes to make a majority. Three is not enough. That also means that it only takes three states to vote No to kill the referendum.

Queensland, being ultra-conservative and racist, will vote No for sure. Victoria will vote Yes, and probably NSW too. Labor in WA has always advocated a Yes vote, of course. And a few months ago, the WA Liberal Party said they would advocate a Yes vote too. But a couple of months ago, they changed their minds!! Typical bloody Liberals. They’re advocating a No vote now. So does the National Party in WA, the farmers’ party.

Unfortunately, therefore, I think WA will vote No. So that’s it folks. It’s good night from us and bye bye referendum. South Australia is hard to pick. They have nearly always been quite progressive, but it’s a knife edge there. I think Tasmania will vote Yes, but it’s very hard to judge.

All in all, I’m not optimistic. There are too many Indigenous spokesmen and women speaking against the proposal.

I find this very depressing. This country has repeatedly tried to make changes to the constitution, and they nearly always fail. Nearly always! Australian people are very, very hard to be persuaded, no mater how good the arguments. I do not find this to be an admirable trait.

_____________________________________

Germany		Italy
Mercedes Benz		Fiat
BMW		Alfa Romeo
Audi		Ferrari
Porsche		Lamborghini
Volkswagen		Maserati
Skoda		Alpine
Smart
UK		USA
Land Rover		GM (multiple brands + factories)
Jaguar		Ford (multiple brands + factories)
Aston Martin		Chrysler
MacLaren		Tesla
Lotus
Rolls Royce
Japan		Sweden
Toyota		Volvo
Nissan		SAAB
Mitsubishi
Subaru
Lexus
Spain		France
SEAT		Peugeot
		Citroen
Canada
Ford
GM

Australia? None. Zero. No car makers. No innovation. No flair. Pathetic!

__________________________________

I’m making good progress on the family tree. I have 995 relatives going back to about 1350 so far. I hit a wall about then, which is not surprising. I’m concentrating mostly on the Croft side, less so on the Arnold (Mum’s) side, although that side is very interesting too. I might spend more time on that side.

________________________________________

Aaahh, sun’s out, warm afternoon. Here we are, six days into spring and we’ve had a lot of rain and wind, too much for me. It’s still only 19degC max. today but I hope it warms up from now on.

________________________________________

Actually, the white lights, the headlights, are coming towards us on the left of the highway, so it can’t be the USA. I don’t know where it is.

I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube content showing the USA lately and the thing that whacks me in the eye is the density of the houses, highways, freeways, industries. With a population of 350million people, that makes them 13 times our density, and it shows. Although I find a lot to admire about the US (inventing, designing, building aircraft for example), and I like looking, I would never want to live there. Too dangerous. Too violent. Too ready to resort to guns to solve problems. They are the most war-like people on the planet in my opinion.

Yet we need to ally ourselves with them in the face of China’s agression. We have to do it. There’s no way we can deter China alone.

I seriously think there is going to be a war with China within a decade, and it will be enormously destructive and deadly. Possibly millions will die. Thank goodness I can sit on the sidelines.

__________________________________________________

I’m listening to the car section on ABC radio at the moment and a listener has asked what electric vehicle she should buy.

But I wouldn’t buy an EV if you paid me to do it. The battery in EVs has a life of about ten years, maybe 15, and when it won’t take a charge any more, it’s far too expensive to replace it. It would cost you about the same as a new car just for the new battery alone. That means your car becomes obsolete, unrepairable.

ICE cars (Internal Combustion Engine) can be almost endlessly repaired, provided parts can be obtained. Notice I don’t say “are available”. Eventually manufactirers’ spares stocks run out, but spares always seem to be obtainable from wreckers, people who don’t want their old car any more, squirrelled away stocks and so on. There are companies that specialise in spares for certain makes.

But I doubt there will be cheap reconditioned EV vehicle batteries. For one thing, thechnology is moving along and it could well be that the batteries will be entirely different in 15-20 years’ time.

So I do not see myself buying an EV in my lifetime. Except…….