But this is a bit too much. Hot, that is. We’re in the process of setting a new record – a row of seven days above 37ºC. Never happened in November before, since records started in WA that is. Luckily my aircon and fans keep me comfortable. I consider myself to be very fortunate. Not lucky, because it’s not luck that got me here, it was work and money management.

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I got the news a couple of days ago that a guy I used to work with has died, and it looks as if it was suicide. The Beyond Blue logo is pasted onto the Facebook notices.

Ours was only a nodding acquaitance at TVW7. He was a manager and our paths didn’t cross very much. But I believe he was a nice guy. Probably about the same age. R.I.P. Brendon.

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I’m reading my favourite photo blog at the moment ( The Online Photographer https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html ) and he’s written about healthy eating, as he often does:

“So what’s the solution? Pretty simple, actually…at least to say, although maybe not to do: walk for an hour a day or partake of some sensible equivalent, and get 80% of your calories from plants, keeping meat, oil, and sugar to a minimum (and cutting out alcohol and all dairy, including eggs, altogether. There isn’t even a single good reason humans need to eat dairy foods).”

I’ll disagree with his last point – for me, a single good reason is that I like it! In fact, what’s the point of living longer if you’re going to be miserable doing it? For me, I don’t really care if I die young(er) as long as I can have what I want. In the hospital recently I was asked a few times about my alcohol habits, and when I said two cans of beer a night, with possibly a glass of wine as well, all the doctors nodded and said that’s OK. So that’s that, then. Case closed.

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Crumbs, Crikey-mo! The costs of owning three cars. I’m a fool. What am I? A FOOL!

The Honda needs a service (oil change, filter change, coolant change). I looked up quotes on-line – $2,038 and $2,450 ! What?! How can it cost that much? I suppose they don’t care whether they get the job or not.

Having watched so many Youtube clips showing how it’s done, I reckon I could easily do it myself, if only I had a lift or big trolley jack. But realistically, the chances of me getting down on my back and under the car are nil.

I’ll have to check further on-line for a mobile mechanic.

Then there’s the Peugeot battery: it’s dead. Won’t take a charge. Ouch, because it’s a BIG battery and the replacement of the same brand (Yuasa) is $375. Uurrrgh.

There’s an Aussie made Exide at a much more reasonable $230 so I guess I’ll buy that.

I’ve ordered two battery chargers from Ali Express; one is a de-sulphator which delivers high power pulses of charge every couple of seconds. The idea is that it shakes the sodium sulphate off the plates. It was only $27 including delivery from China, so I figure it’s not much to lose if it doesn’t work.

The second is a much bigger charger with a “Repair” button, again from Ali Express at about the same price, including delivery. Gee, the value is fantastic. So again, if it doesn’t work, no great loss. It even has a warranty and a return guarantee.

FInally, I have to buy tyres for the Verada. It looks like I’ll need to replace all four, so there’s a minimum of $600, plus $70 for a wheel alignment.

I’ve GOT to sell two of the three, and it will have to be the Verada and the Peugeot, keeping the Honda MDX.

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There are big bushfires in the northern Perth suburbs (kinda where I am) at the moment, Wanneroo Shire, but they are not near enough to me to be a worry. I’m looking out of the window and I can’t even see any smoke. I can hear the fire-tanker helicopters hovering over the lakes near me, refilling their tanks with the water, though. Go for it, guys.

I’ve got to hand it to the volunteer firefighters. It’s 38º out there, and they’re all rugged up in their safety gear. Ugh.

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One of my friends, the same age as me 76, made his first trip to Bali recently and I’m very pleased to hear he loved it. I was worried that he would criticise it too much as dirty, crowded, noisy and so on, which it is or can be.

But he’s seen a lot of my pictures over the past forty years and he said everywhere he went, he was seeing my photos in his mind. It was very flattering of him to say that. I’m very pleased.

He and his wife stayed on the Sanur side, which I would have recommended, and found the hotel to be very nice. They hired a car and driver every day and really got out into the mountains. Bagus!

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Some pictures that I’ve been trying to remember to incorporate into this blog for ages:

That’ll do for now. Cheers.

This image was featured on the WA Today news website a few days ago, and well deserved it is. She should be proud. The cyclist is just right. She’s obviously a keen photographer, owning such advanced equipment and more to the point, carrying it with her while out on a walk. Well done.

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Aaah, beautiful weather lately – about 29deg day after day after day. And cool at night, around 12-16deg.

I’m not sure yet, but maybe Sifrol is working to stop my restless legs after all. It will take a fair while to assess whether it works all the time, but I’m having some good nights so far. I forgot to take it until bed time a few nights ago and had to give up and get up about midnight, so maybe that’s the sign of it working or not. Time will tell.

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But I’m still having mattress problems. This AH Beard mattress is atrocious! I almost don’t like going to bed on it. The edges are not supportive and it feels as if there’s a telephone pole down the area I lie on, which means I feel as if I’m rolling off. There’s a constant feeling of slipping to the edge – very disconcerting.

A couple of days ago I phoned the Salvos and asked if they want to take it. “Yes please.” They’ll send a truck and a couple of guys.

I had to say, hold on, I haven’t organised a replacement yet. CHOICE has run an article on what to buy and one of their top winners (it came third) only costs about $350 + $80 transport. Unfortunately I can’t test it in a shop, so I’m running a risk again, but CHOICE rates it as Firm and 100% shape retention. Recommended. I think it’s worth a risk.

So how do I arrange this? Get it delivered, stand it up on edge, call the Salvos and get the existing one taken away, then flop the new one down. Hmmm.

While I’m at it, I think I’ll get them to take my single bed away, bed, mattress, sheets, duvet and all. It’s around 50 years old now, but quite usable and very comfortable, but I don’t need it any more. I had visions of having visitors here, but it hasn’t happened. I’ve still got the king single in the other bedroom anyway.

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I watched the first episode of Bill Bailey’s travel doco on WA on ABC-TV last night, and very enjoyable it was. But strangely low key. Bill is a very funny guy, but there wasn’t a lot of his humour in it. He didn’t seem to have much to say at times. I guess he was just letting the subject speak for itself.

He spent this whole first episode on the south coast, around Albany and Esperance. Boy, I’ve only been to Esperance once, on the way back from a driving trip east in 1978. It just seemed like a nice country town in my memory then, but it’s quite a big place now. Especially the port. It’s a giant grain, iron ore and nickel ore export and ship loading port. Beautiful harbour. Bill went out on a new tug boat and was allowed to do wheelies in the harbour, the two engines independently in opposition so that the boat spun round and round. Good stuff.

I didn’t think they did Albany justice at all. A large part of the segment was of the Shantymen singing in the pub. Where was the vision of the town, and especially from Mt Clarence? They hardly explored the harbour, except for the whaling station. Crumbs, they left so much out.

And for me, Denmark is just as nice as Albany, but they didn’t venture there. Maybe they’ll do it later?

I really liked the program and I’ve kept a recording of it. Crikey, when you think about it, WA is such a vast and spectacular place to cover. Hundreds of places that should feature. Even though I’m a resident native, I’ve only seen the bottom half.

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I finally got the RAC guy out to look at the battery in the Peugeot yesterday. It was dead flat, so that it wouldn’t take a charge from my relatively low powered charger. I was dreading the cost of a new battery, because it’s a big on! About $350 for a new one, I think.

But he said no, it’s just that if they get discharged below about 7V, the charger won’t attempt it. So he jump started the engine (it started first time, easily!) and we left it running, I mean I left it for about an hour. (Phew, diesel fumes!)

I turned it off then and after a few minutes, tried to start it again. Uh oh! “Airbag or seat belt warning fault” message, then flickering displays and complete deadness. Oh oh!

I think the problem was that even though I’d been running the engine, the battery was still very low, so I’ve had it on charge for around 24hrs so far and it appears to be taking the charge. I’ll let it charge for another 24hrs, as I often do with my other cars. Let’s hope.

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The other problem is the tyres on Vera, the Verada. The rears are a definite, have to be replaced. But I’m not sure about the fronts – are they shot? I have trouble getting down low and my eyesight ain’t so good now.

I was going to get the RAC to come out and do the job, but their cheapest tyre is around $154. Ouch! PLUS wheel alignment $70. Hmm, thinkin’ about it.

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Urrrgh, batteries. The Peugeot’s battery seemed to be charging OK yesterday, but it’s stopped with a fault light at 7.5V. Looks like I’m going to have to fork out for a new one.

I needed to go out just now, so I jumped into the trusty Honda. Click. Click. Nothing. Long story short, again a flat battery at 7.5V. Crikey! I must admit I only drive it around once a week. Looks like I’ll have to leave it on charge more often.

So car number three: the Verada. Power steering very sticky. Exercised it many times, driveable. Drove it around the block about six times to test it. Driveable, but I’ve got a stuck brake caliper, so one disc is making noise. tried to free it but no luck. I can still drive it, which I did, but it’ll have to be looked at.

And to cap it all, the battery in the Verada’s key fob remote is dead, so no remote locking/unlocking of the doors.

Crikey, batteries!

Wow, rain last night. I was awake between 3 and 4am and it rained heavily. That’s handy, because I was noticing how dry my verge lawn was looking and realised I haven’t turned my reticulation (watering system) on for the summer yet. This rain has given the ground a good soaking and a good start.

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I say I was awake, but it was the need for a piss that woke me. At last, at last, have I got a fix for the restless legs at last? I’ve been taking a drug called Sifrol. It’s for Parkinson’s Disease patients, to increase dopamine levels and reduce limb twitching. It’s hard to say whether this is the actual cure for my restless legs, because sometimes it goes away for a period anyway. All I can say is that I’ve had four or five nights free of the awful problem so far. Time will tell.

Crumbs, it gets added to the dozen or so medications I’m taking. I think I might try to eliminate a couple that I wonder if are necessary.

In addition, I have seven small pills in the morning that are all, except one, round, white and about the same size. I can hardly tell one from another. I could be doubling up on one or two and not realise it. I have to be careful.

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I’ve been dragging my feet on buying two new tyres for the Verada. My “friend” who borrowed the car for 16 months returned it with the rear tyres in illegal condition! I’ve been planning to get the RAC tyre guy out to fit new ones, but balking at the estimated cost. I was thinking it would be at least $100 per tyre.

However, I did a bit of googling yesterday and I find a local shop (just up the road) sells a basic tyre for $54 each, plus fitting. I don’t need fancy tyres, I only drive this car locally at 60-70km/h. So on Tuesday I’ll investigate this.

I say Tuesday because tomorrow, Monday, I’m having an ultrasound examination to investigate the ache in my left side. I thought a possible kidney stone – not all stones give the extreme pain. Sometimes it’s just an ache. We’ll see. But I have to fast for four hours, i.e. from 10am, and drink a litre of water before the exam. Hmmm.

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Also on the topic of cars, I’ve been dragging my feet on getting a new number plate for the Peugeot (I lost the front one, remember?) I didn’t like the idea of driving to the licensing office in Joondalup, finding parking, walking to an office and possibly waiting hours in a line.

But wunderbar, I’ve discovered that they’ve moved the office to a new one just near me (2km away) in Butler Boulevard. I don’t know what the queues will be like, but maybe people haven’t discovered it yet and it will be light traffic. So that’s on the list.

It means I’ll lose the “Evie” number (1EVI 891), because they issue new plates. Pity, I liked that one. But it gives me the opportunity to get a half height plate for the front, so it won’t scrape again.

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And I’ve been shuffling car radios between the Verada and the Honda. I’ve got two Pioneer touch-screen radio/CD units, but only one is a DAB+ digital radio and I can’t make up my mind which car to put it in.

Well, whacky doo, I moved some bits in a cupboard the other day and realised that I’ve got another DAB+ radio! It’s a Kenwood that I bought about 15 years ago. Wow, I’m a two-digital-radio man! So I can solve my problem in the Honda of having a faulty AM/FM antenna by installing the DAB+ radio. They use a different antenna, you see, one that sticks on the windscreen with a lead dropping down behind the dash. Now, if I wasn’t wasting so much time writing blogs I could get onto it. Hah!

I’m only driving the Honda these days (Verada has two crook tyres and the Peugeot has a dead battery and is missing a number plate). I was thinking yesterday (as I frequently do!) how much I like the Honda. It’s a big car, an “on-demand” 4WD and it drives very pleasantly. It doesn’t drive like a truck, as some critics say about four wheel drive SUVs. I enjoy driving it very much, so much that after I’ve been shopping at the Butler shops, instead of going straight home, I always take a long way home, along the freeway or similar, just for the enjoyment of it.

But the cost of groceries! I set new record yesterday for the total bill. The price increases are savage, frightening. Everything is over $4 per item now, so the bill just mounts up at a staggering rate. I have to question whether I need things. That’s not a bad thing, but it takes the enjoyment out of shopping. I used to go past the book store and usually buy a book, but I can’t do that any more. Same for JB Hifi – no more DVDs or CDs for me. Not that that’s a bad thing – I have far too many already.

Damn YouTube has wrecked me. It dominates my screen time now, to the detriment of my reading.

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Hmmm, I have washing to hang out on the line, but it’s looking very grey, possibly rainy. What should I do? Oh well, if I hang it out, that will bring rain and we need it.

Hey, 2pm and it rained. It’s looking very grey and gloomy outside. Not cold, it’s 25degC, extremely pleasant. A bit of thunder just then.

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I watched the movie Nyad on Netflix last night. Strange title, but it’s a woman’s first name. It means water nymph or something like that.

It stars Annette Benning as Nyad and Jodie Foster as her (gay) partner. She’s gay in real life, of course. Wow, women lose their looks as they age. Both of them are looking a bit haggard and wrinkly. Men, on the other hand, get better looking as they age. True!

The story is that Nyad has the urge, at age 60, to make another attempt to do something she attempted in her twenties, and failed then, to swim from Cuba to Florida, a distance of 103 miles. Wow. Non stop. Jodie Foster is her support person.

It’s a typical American movie of course, full of drama and emotion. Sharks. Box jellyfish mainly. I agree that’s pretty dramatic. She gets stung a couple of times.

And sharks, so it’s good to see an Aussie along for the attempt, with his invention, an electric field generator that repels the sharks. It works well. I think he’s a West Aussie guy in real life.

At the risk of being a spoiler, she finally succeeds on the fifth attempt – well what else, you knew she would. It’s not a bad movie, it held my attention right to the end, but as I said, it’s typical American overblown drama.

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As if I don’t have enough hi-fi already! I’ve been very pleased with the Edifier computer speakers I bought a couple of years ago (a couple? More like a few years. Phew! Time flies) and these grabbed my attention yesterday. Buit-in 130W per channel amps, 8″ bass drivers and those cabinets look pretty solid and dead. And they connect to your source by Bluetooth, so they sit on the desk or a stand with no cables except a power cable. As if by magic. $599.

Wow, this is Chinese manufacturing. They’re not known for high end audio, but they’ve caught up fast.

Dog, I don’t need more equipment!

Ah, lovely day today, 25degC, gentle breeze. A week of mid-20s coming.

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Well, I had another ride in the ambulance last Tuesday evening. I got up from the couch at around 10pm, with a big effort needed, and felt a kind of thump in the middle of my chest, with a burning pain. I went to the sink to take my tablets and felt W³ — weak, wobbly and woozy.

I went to bed but felt sick. I got up and took a full aspririn and a full beta blocker. Sat at the computer for a while but at midnight felt I had to call 000.

The guys were here within 10 minutes. I have a small shopping bag packed these days with the things I need, so it was off to Joondalup. Unfortunately I forgot to put some shorts on and pick up my phone, but too bad. You literally go to the head of the queue in the emergency dept, so it wasn’t long before I was on a bed in a bay. That started the l-o-o-ong waits to be seen. It was probably 2am before a doctor came andfrom then on I had to lie there on a hard bed with no food allowed and only a small amount of water. My restless legs were in full force. It was torture! Also, although I had brought my CPAP machine, I didn’t set it up because I didn’t think I’d be there that long. Big mistake. I wanted to sleep, but kept choking without the CPAP. If I’d known …

I lay there all day Wednesday, writhing around, bored witless, nothing to do, nothing to read, no-one to talk to. They finally let me have a couple of sandwiches. They want you fasting and dry in case they need to operate. I was nearly ready to discharge myself and walk out. Nice people, and busy, but …

The blood tests finally came back and showed troponin readings of 30 and 61, which indicates a mild heart attack, but not severe. Mainly tachycardia, I think.

They got onto my cardiologist and he wanted me in the Mount Hospital, which is fine with me, so at 7pm they took me in an ambulance for the 45 min drive. Good trip, talking to an ex-army guy about nashos and so on.

I’ve been to The Mount several times before, and it’s like a 5 star hotel. I like it. Great bed, incredibly adjustable. TV, good food. I was so tired that I slept pretty well that night (Wednesday).

So it was Thursday and more waiting, waiting. Again, good food. As I told them, when you live alone, airline food and hospital food are great! But that night, restless legs and bloody alarms going off all night! I couldn’t move without an ecg alarm going off. One nurse came into the room around 2am with an attitude that said, “What’s yer problem, mate?” When I complained about the alarms going off all the time, she said, “It’s monitoring your heart. It’s hospital, love.” Bloody poor attitude. She was the only one though – all the other nurses were great.

(Btw, the nurse’s name was Kendall, and the label on the soap dispenser in the bathroom was Gojo – if you’ve watched Succession, these are two major names.)

So finally the cardiologist saw me Friday morning, doubled my beta blocker dose and said I could go home. No need for another angiogram. Hooray. I stayed for lunch, then went to the lobby and called an Uber. Six minutes away, it said on the app. So I waited, and waited and waited. Two bloody hours later about 4pm, my ride finally showed up. Not happy! But we had a good chat on the way home and I got here about 5pm. $59.35.

BUT! about 1.10am Saturday morning, I was awoken by another bout of brrrrrrrrr fast heart rate and a bit of chest pain. Again, aspirin and beta blocker, but it slowly subsided. Couldn’t face going back to Joondalup and that hard bed again. Felt OK after that. Tired yesterday but OK.

So, excitement? Not too much of that, thanks. Cost? All covered by Medicare and HBF. The Uber fare home at $59 was a bit steep, but … It’s certainly better than USA costs.

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One good thing about the hospital – their pharmacy had stock of Ozempic, so I was able to restart it. The benefit is immediate. My blood sugar immediately started going down and I lost a kilo of weight. Of course, not having any beer to drink might have had a bit to do with it.

One pen is a month’s worth, so that covers November, but I still have to wait through December before it becomes available again. I asked for another pen, but they wouldn’t play ball. I used a full 1mg dose and wow, it gave me quite an upset stomach. I might reduce the next week’s injection.

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Restless legs! It’s driving me up the wall! Can’t get to sleep at night. My sleep is shifting from night-time to day-time because of this. Combined with severe diabetic neuropathic foot pain, I’m in despair at times. Yelling out! It’s so bad that at times, if I were offered a heavy drug (a narcotic), I’d be tempted to take the offer. When you’re desperate.