Including ten pairs of chopsticks! It’s reached the stage where I’m doubling up on my orders. I saw an ad for fancy chopsticks on one of the cheap Chinese web sites and thought, yeah, I like that, I’ll buy the set of five pairs. They’re very fancy, smooth charcoal colour fibreglass (?) with gold ornamentation. Very cheap, about $5 for the set. So I ordered them.

But then I forgot I’d ordered the first lot and ordered them again. Duh. So now I’ve got two sets of five pairs. I guess if I have a Chinese tour group come through my door, I’ll be ready.

I confess I’m a bit addicted to Wish.com and Temu.com and Ali Baba. For example, I needed an antenna for a DAB+ digital radio in the Honda. It’s so easy to jump onto one of these sites and order it. It cost about $7 I think, and if you order a bunch of items, they come at a flat rate of $4.99 shipping/postage. Only took a week. I’m getting deliveries around twice a week. And things from Amazon as well. I’ve got a benchtop ice cube maker due any day now (it arrived today, Saturday morning), $129. Much cheaper than an ice dispenser in the door of a fridge, which adds around $500 to the price of a fridge and takes up space in the door.

I’ve also just received a power screwdriver. It’s a big, solid device:

And a camera bag for my new Sony camera equipment:

And so on. On-line ordering has become a way of life for me. A giant shop.

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At last, my restless leg syndrome seems to be coming under control and I’m sleeping much better as a result. The reason? Sifrol, a dopamine agonist. I confess I had tried it and jumped to a premature conclusion that it doesn’t work, but persistence has paid results and I’m not having too much trouble now.

But I spent Monday night in Joondalup Hospital Emergency Dept again this week, and the restless legs showed up again arounnd 5am.

Yes, I felt chest pain come on again around 6.30pm on Monday and by 7.30pm it was strong enough that I had to call 000. They know me by now.

It turned out that I had tachycardia (racing heartbeat – 155bpm) with atrial fibrillation. The pain had largely subsided by the time I was on the bed, but while I was lying there, I felt a funny kind of flutter in my upper chest and a wave of dizziness for a second or two. I mentioned this to the nurses at the foot of my bed and they looked up at the ECG monitor and saw my heart had reverted to its normal rhythm at that moment.

So then it was a night of uncomfortable boredom again. They moved me to a less busy part of the ED at about 11pm, which I didn’t mind because it meant I had a TV, which had the added bonus of having ABC radio and my favourite late night radio programs. Oh joy!

But at 4am they moved me back to the busy part of the ED, and of course, no TV or radio there. I’d forgotten to bring my small portable radio with me, and I didn’t bring my magazine or book. Grrr.

But worst, as we were leaving my house, I asked the ambo guy to grab my CPAP bag. No, he said, they have CPAP machines at the hospital. No they don’t, not in the ED. So it was a completely sleepless night once again. I’ll insist next time. At least they gave me a sandwich and some water this time.

I saw the breakfast trolley go past at about 7am, but they didn’t call in to my cubicle.

Bit of drama – around 6am I was in the toilet (I insist that they let me walk to the toilet – I can’t use bottles) when I let my right hand fall down by my side. The damn cannula fell out onto the floor! Immediately blood started gushing, flooding out. All over the floor. I had to grab paper towels and try to stop it. I had trouble opening the toilet door with one hand, but once I did, there was a gaggle of nurses standing outside and they helped me stop the bleeding. They got a bandage on to it and a wheel chair back to my cubicle. It stopped bleeding eventually.

After yet another interview with a doctor around 8am (they’re all different doctors and they don’t tell you their surnames and they all want your story anew), he said he’d disharge me, so I was allowed out around 9.30am. I got an Uber home.

This was a very interesting ride – the driver was a Pakistani guy, around 25 years old I’d guess, who’d only been in Australia for three months. He already had a B. Business degree and was putting himself through Murdoch Uni on a Master’s of Business Administration degree as well. Wow.

We talked all the way home about how life is a struggle for guys like him. And I talked about how easy my life has been in comparison. He was not married and so didn’t have to struggle as much to support a family, but as we know, many migrants do have to support family, children, parents and so on. I was quite impressed at his hard working attitude. He said he didn’t speak English when he arrived, and has picked it up in the three months he’s been here. Wow.

And I remarked on the fact that my ambulance ride and hospital treatment was effectively free. I pay an annual fee for my HBF cover, of course, but I dn’t have any worries about costs for my health. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

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As it happened by coincidence I had a phone consultation with the cardiologist scheduled for 5pm on Tuesday, so we talked about the events of the previous night. He’s put me onto amiodarone, a drug to regulate heart beat that I was on many years ago. I remember at the time that it seems you must stay on it permanently. But when I was on the China ship cruise in November 2014, I got my quantities mixed up and ran out of it half way. Yer not meant to do that, but I just had to stop.

However, there were no ill effects, so I stayed stopped. Now I’m on it again. OK, it has to be.

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I bought a new battery for the Peugeot during the week and it arrived on Tuesday – $310 including delivery. Wow, it’s heavy, 21.5kg. Imagine your 20kg checked suitcase on a plane flight condensed down to a small oblong black “cube”. It’s heavy!

I’ll have to get help to get the old one out and this new one installed. It’s too difficult for me.

I’m still trying to get the Verada into driveable condition. New problem – it keeps stalling. It’ll run as long as you keep your foot on the accelerator, but won’t keep running. MAF sensor is my guess. And after it’s return from the “holiday” with my friend, I’ve realised that the LCD odometer in the speedo (dash) is reading garbage, no real figures. Grrrrrr!!!