Long time since I wrote, sorry. I’ve been a bit busy. I’ll say why shortly.

Aaah, a beautiful day, 30degC, a bit windy. The forecast is for another hot one tomorrow, 38C, but going on past days it might even reach another 40C day, to add to the eleven we’ve had so far this summer (since 1 December), a record. And it’s about 45 days since we last had rain. No, hang on, it sprinkled a bit on Monday. Anyway … it’s a hot, hot summer.

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The reason for the title is that the boss of QANTAS Alan Joyce has doubled down on his comments likening WA, with our tightly controlled border, to North Korea. He’s highly critical of Mark McGowan for regulating the way people can enter the state, saying it’s damaging business and causing talent to leave the state.

He’s wrong for several reasons, but what really gets my goat is that if the border is completely opened, people will die because of it. Joyce’s only concern is QANTAS’s business and profits (and Joyce’s bonuses, of course). He puts that above the deaths of people. That is despicable, in my opinion. It’s typical of many business managers, profits before people.

He ignores the fact that the closed borders have kept WA largely COVID free, which has particularly benefited the mining industry, which generates 60% of Australia’s export income. If Joyce had had his way, that could have been crippled.

This makes me so mad that I think it’s time I cut my ties with QANTAS. I still have 120,000 Frequent Flyer points from years ago, which I never use because QANTAS doesn’t fly where I (used to) want to go, i.e. Bali. I also don’t see myself travelling any more. I may as well use the points in the ‘shop’ to buy some item and then bail out completely, making it clear to QANTAS why I’m doing so. It’s become a nasty company under Joyce. He cares more about money than people. Nasty man.

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I’ve had another stay in hospital, SJOG Subiaco this time. The urologist wanted to investigate why I was pissing blood a couple of weeks ago, so a cystoscopy was scheduled. No big deal and he didn’t find anything, so it’s a mystery (so far). I thought it would be a kidney stone, but he doesn’t think so (why?). I see him again on Friday so I’ll have a few questions.

I stayed an extra night because I was having trouble pissing afterwards. I’d driven myself in, as they wanted me there at 6.30am (!) and parked in the underground car park. My parking charge after two days came to $54! Still, that’s cheaper than a taxi or Uber.

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I’ve just got off the phone to HBF, about a program they’re running called Health Navigator. Obviously it’s in their interests to keep me fit, healthy and out of hospital, so this is some kind of coaching program. I don’t mind this, I like the idea, because like most people, I have trouble keeping myself up to setting, working toward and reaching goals.

One thing I’ll be able to show them is my brilliant progress to getting my diabetes blood sugars under control, at last. Due to changes in my medication since mid October, I can say that I’m now well controlled – 5.6mg/mmol this morning. That’s within the normal range of 4-6. Evening readings are a bit higher, around 7-9, but coming down. This is the first time I’ve been able to show this in nearly 20 years. My HbA1c was 7.3 a couple of weeks ago, and if we did the test again now, it would be below 7.0, I would say.

However, this raises the question: how come I don’t feel any different? I don’t feel any better for it. I still feel fatigue. My eyesight is still variable. I don’t feel any stronger (i.e. if the sugar in my blood is now reaching the muscles, assisted by the insulin, how come I don’t feel any benefit?)

I shudder to think what damage has been done by my very high (out of control) blood sugar levels for the past 15 years or so. I think luck has been on my side, as it usually seems to be.

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Dog! I know we need insects, but I’m being plagued. First, tiny black ants. Not too much of a problem, but I wish they’d go home.

Worse are small grey moths which love to attack anything resembling grains (e.g. oatmeal) in my pantry. Insect spray doesn’t seem to do anything.

And last are tiny black flies, less than a millimetre in size, breeding in my rubbish bags. They don’t seem to any harm, but again, insect spray is not working. I’m a bit tired of it.

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I did my grocery shopping today for the first time in a fortnight or so, and the gaps in the shelves are very noticeable in Coles. Shortages due to the break in the Nullarbor rail line, I mean. I didn’t have any trouble getting what I wanted but I can imagine if this went on for longer than a few weeks, it might be much worse. I’ve never seen this before in all my long years.

Wow, we’ve just set a new record – six days in a row above 40degC. And we’ve had eleven days above 40 deg so far this summer, also a record, and there’s still a month of summer left to go. And February is the hottest month. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

I found that if I had the air con running up to bed time, I could turn it off when I went to bed. The room held enough cool air that I slept OK. The room didn’t heat up too much. But if I left the air con running when going to sleep, I would wake about 2.30am and have to turn it off. Too cold. It’s good to have the choice.

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Phuk! Phuk!! I’ve done it again. I forgot to charge the battery in the Honda and it looks to be dead. That makes the third time I’ve done this. I’m a bloody fool.

I’m wondering if there’s an intermittent fault that’s draining the battery. But unless you have monitoring apparatus, it would be damned hard to trace.

I’ve been thinking of an electronic solution; a solid state switch driven by a voltage reference circuit, set to about 10 or 11V. As long as the volts are above the reference, everything works normally. But if the battery volts dropped below around 10V, the circuit would disconnect the +ve supply so that no further drain could occur. Hmmmm.

This was an RAC supplied battery, only about eight months ago. I wonder how I’d go claiming warranty replacement.

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Phuk! Phuk!! number two! I’ve been driving the Peugeot 407 this afternoon. The boot latch on this is operated by an electrical switch on the middle of the 0 in 407. Never had any trouble with it. Up to now.

But now, the switch won’t work! I can’t open the boot. It’s full of groceries. Luckily there’s no ice cream or butter to melt, but there is cold meat and cold pre-cooked meals.

All I can think of is that the back seat folds down to make a “ski” opening (it’s a French car). I should be able to reach through and pull the grocery bags into the back seat (it’s a coupe). But it will be difficult for me (I’m rather big). Damn, damn, damn.

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And just to add to the troubles I’ve been having, I’ve been pissing blood. Not all the time, but last night. Probably a kidney stone. No pain, thank goodness, but it will have to be checked out. It seems to be one thing after another. Gettin’ old.

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While I was in hospital last week, they said I am low in vitamin B12 and gave me an injection to boost my level. It had a noticeable effect. I came home feeling less tired and with more energy. It’s enough that I did 10 minutes non-stop walking on the treadmill a couple of days ago. I haven’t been able to do that for some time.

But it seems to be wearing off. I was put onto an oral vitamin B spray a couple of years ago. I stopped using it due to its bitter taste, but I think I’ll go back to it. I shall report on progress.

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Last year I talked about books I was reading written by James Rosone and Miranda Watson They’re books about WW3, not exactly to everyone’s taste, but I praised the authors.

Well, recently I read another couple of books along the same lines by Andrew Watson (odd coincidence), and they are so well written that I actually re-read a couple that I’d read last year. It made me realise that this guy knows how to write! Forget what I said about James Rosone. I’m reading another of his (Rosone’s) books now and I’ll allow that he has a broad view of what a future war might look like, but he can’t hold a candle to Andrew Watson for writing skill. I recommend Watson.

Phew, it’s hot: 39deg today, forecast 41deg tomorrow, and similar on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. That’s very definitely a heat wave.

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I’ve just got home from three days (well, 2½ days) in Joondalup Hospital. On Sunday I was feeling my usual recent weakness and low energy. I got up from this chair and felt the light headedness and wooziness I’ve been feeling lately.

It passed after a few seconds so I walked out to the kitchen, through the gap between the kitchen bench and the glass cabinet.

Suddenly, within the space of a second or two, my knees buckled and my legs were gone from under me. I crashed to the floor (hence the title), my hard tiled floor. Luckily I went front first and wasn’t carrying anything, nor did I knock any glass down with me.

I lay there dazed for five minutes or so, thinking what to do. I’ve long known that due to my size, I can’t lift myself with my legs. I reached up to the sink and gave it a try, but no go.

So I just had to slide myself along the (tiled) floor to reach the lock on the front door, so I could let someone in, whoever I decided to call. It took me 45 minutes of sliding. I got the door unlocked and decided to call the ambulance, because I know they have a blowup chair that they slide under people like me to lift us up. Last time this happened, they told me that about a third of their calls are for this reason. (Another third of the calls are from drunks or deros hoping to get a free ride home or somewhere. If they manage to persuade the ambos, they get a bill for $450. Ha Ha.) I was able to pull my mobile phone down from the desk by its charging cable and I called 000 while lying on the floor.

Anyway, the ambulance turned up about 15 mins later with two guys, both named Ian, both Poms. They were very thorough, of course, making sure they knew what had happened and that nothing more serious was wrong (e.g. it might have been a stroke). They had to call another ambulance which carries the Whoopie cushion, the “Bouncy Castle”. That took another 15 mins. That worked a treat and got me up onto my feet again.

They decided, since I seemed a bit forgetful and confused at the time (I was a bit dazed and shocked), that they needed to take me to Joondalup ED. No worries. I had to grab the essentials, no spare clothes because I thought I’d be home the next day. Just CPAP bag, phone, meds, prescriptions and wallet. That was it.

I was taken into the ED on a stretcher and bed and after quite a wait, I was gently questioned about what had happened and a host of other things. That took until about 8.30pm, with lots of gaps and waits.

They decided to admit me overnight in view of my history and ailments. No problem for me. Oh, forgot to mention, I had caught and scraped the underside of my left upper arm and elbow on the kitchen bench. There was a bit of skin off and a huge bruise, and a scrape of one of my toes. Everyone looked at these and tsk tsked, but no-one did anything about it. It took until late yesterday for them to clean and dress these small wounds.

So I spent the evening with just one round of sandwiches to sustain me in the MAU, the Medication Assessment Unit on the first floor. I spent the night (Sunday) there, bored stiff and completely unable to sleep, partly because I found I’d forgotten to bring the tube with the CPAP machine, and also due to the endless noise just outside in the corridor. (Note to self: order spare CPAP tube(s). Luckily they’re quite cheap on Wish.com.)

Then yesterday, a succession of doctors and allied staff came and asked me about my diabetes meds and were discussing my blood pressure. It looks as if my blood pressure has been too low, hence the dizzy spells lately. But yesterday and today the diabetes educator talked to me about the insulin and tablets I’m on, and it has become clear that I was left completely in the dark and confused about what the two injections I use are for, and the tablets and what they do. I’m a bit annoyed that no-one explained these last year.

I’ve also been told I can stop taking my blood pressure medication, because I don’t need it – my BP stays OK without it. No more dizzy spells, I hope.

I also had a visit from a physio lady this morning (in the hospital) to talk about where I am regarding balance, steadiness, walking ability and so on. She was quite happy that I’m not a dodderer and offered to get me to come in to the hospital’s “gym” in about a month’s time for some personal treatment. Yum.

Forgot to mention, they asked me on Sunday if I wanted a public (Medicare) room, or a private room. I said private (I’ve never used the public system before). The lady said “Remember, that will be $250 due to your HBF Excess.” Uh oh! I’d forgotten that. “Can I avoid that?” “Yes, just choose a Medicare public ward.” OK, I’ll have that, I said.

But later on Monday they moved me upstairs and I was put into a single occupant, private room anyway. It was immaculate, like a 4 star hotel room. Ah, the blissful quietness. I mentioned this to the nurses and they said, “No, don’t say that, PLEASE! It’s like saying Macbeth in the theatre, it’s a curse. We don’t say the ‘Quiet’ word around here.” Oh, OK. What about if I said “COVID?” “Oh, that’s OK, we’re not scared of that (yet).”

So, after lunch and more talks with doctors and nurses, I was able to check myself out about 3pm and got a taxi home, in the 40deg heat. Ooooww. But the aircon’s on and the house has cooled down, so all’s right with the world. For now.

The clock ticked over and we all feel different, don’t we? Don’t we? Nah, didn’t think so. Happy New Year, but it’s still the same year repeated ad infinitum. Just lie back and enjoy it.

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I stayed home and watched TV. I don’t have the energy to celebrate in physical ways any more. I did stay up until past midnight, though, so I was celebrating in spirit.

One thing I watched was the second last (I think it’s the second last) episode of The Good Doctor on Netflix. When I first learnt of this series I laughed. An autistic guy who not only becomes a doctor but a surgeon as well? It seemed far fetched, and it is, but it got me hooked. Shawn is a savant, capable of recalling an amazing array of facts and images (in TV land, of course) and has the telegenic knack of coming up with brilliant ideas on how to solve baffling illnesses and suggest surgical solutions.

But it’s the other actors that make the show work. There’s a range of interesting characters set in a big hospital in San Jose, California, who all have their problems and personality clashes. It’s quite a long series, about 50 episodes and there’s time for many different situations to develop and play out. Shawn has to learn to deal with girlfriends and he’s going through a crisis at the moment.

I admit to liking this improbable series, although all the patients seem to have crises at exactly the right moment, all the doctors are able to make instant diagnoses, an operating theatre always seems to be available at a moment’s notice and so on.

Then I watched the movie du jour, Don’t Look Up. It’s meant to be a comedy but I didn’t find it all that funny. It’s an allegory about global heating, set as the discovery of a 9Km wide comet heading straight for Earth and due to hit smack bang on in 6 months. About how the scientists can’t get anyone to take it seriously. About how the President of the USA is more concerned about her re-election chances than doing anything. The Prez is Meryl Streep, by the way, and we actually get to see her nude at the end, just before her head is bitten off by a dinosaur. Everyone else in the scene is nude too, and it’s set 22,746 years in the future, so that’s OK. 🙂

I’m also watching the series Emily in Paris, also on Netflix. The first series (which I’m watching) was panned horribly for being cliche-ridden, but as usual when a book or movie gets bad reviews, that’s my signal to watch or read and I usually enjoy it.

Yes, this is a bit horrible (gauche young American woman transplanted to Paris, unable to speak French), but I’m enjoying it so far. I’m about six episodes in, and I read that the second series is much better.

I forgot to wish you all, my readers, a very Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year 2022.

It’s been a difficult year for many people, although we’ve mostly been shielded from the virus here in WA. But just when we didn’t want to hear bad news, it’s slipped past our borders and there have been five cases so far discovered here in the past couple of days. Let’s hope our luck holds and, as happened earlier this year, it doesn’t break out any further.

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And I’m lamenting; even though we’ve hardly begun our summer, the summer solstice has passed and the days will be getting shorter from now on. It’s hard to believe, we’ve hardly had any hot weather so far. Can’t be helped.

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Holy smoke, I’ve just seen the forecast: tomorrow, Xmas Day, has been revised upwards another degree to 43degC, and Sunday Boxing Day is now set to be 44degC. Yowch!

Whoooo, it’s warming up. The forecast for Xmas Day a week ago was for 29deg, but they’ve been revising it upwards ever since. It was 35deg today, it’ll be 39deg tomorrow Xmas Eve, and it’ll be 42deg on Xmas Day. This is the way it was ten years ago, before a decade of moderate (high 20s, low 30s) temps.

Doesn’t worry me, solar power plus aircon means a very pleasant house.

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I’ve just come back from doing a small amount of food shopping for Xmas Day. The benefit of living in a small neighbourhood is that the shops are not very crowded. The local Coles carpark was pretty full, but I had no trouble parking To be honest, because there are no bays for seniors there, I use a Parents with Prams bay. I feel I’m just as entitled as they are, given as I struggle to get in and out of the car and have trouble walking these days.

I can’t get over all the people with trolleys full of bottled “mineral water”. There’s nothing wrong with tap water! If they were just wasting their money, I wouldn’t mind, but it’s the plastic waste that’s the problem. Hundreds and thousands of empty plastic bottles thrown out afterwards. I wonder how many people could really taste the difference between “spring” water and tap water. Ridiculous.

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My usual Silver Chain cleaning lady is off on holidays at the moment and today they sent a man in her place. I’m a bit disconcerted, not about the guy, about my attitude. To be frank, I don’t like having a man do my cleaning and I’m asking myself why. There’s only one obvious answer, that I find it demeaning for a guy to be doing a menial job for me. Whereas it’s not for a woman. That’s pretty sexist, I admit.

Yet I don’t find it demeaning for a guy to be cleaning toilets at the shopping centre or serving me at a supermarket checkout. I guess it’s because I’m used to those, whereas it’s new to be having a guy clean my house. Oh well, I’ll get used to this too.

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I had my COVID booster vaccination last Thursday, as I said, and had a slight bruised feeling afterwards but nothing more. But on Monday, four days later, I developed strong ‘flu feelings – mild fever, bad aches and pains and bad fatigue. I went back to bed at midday (on the bed, not in it, it’s too warm here to get under the doona) and slept for several hours. Up for some food, then bed at 9.30pm. Still felt fatigued on Tuesday but the other symptoms were gone. Much better yesterday and today.

The question is, was this a reaction to the vaccination (Pfizer)? Four days later? It seems unlikely. But who am I to know. I had to cancel a doctor appt on Wednesday for fear it was COVID or I could have asked him.

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I finally got the Verada going last week. It wasn’t the bad connection problem in the Martybugs article. The RAC guy did a great contortionist act and got his head right under the dash, but he couldn’t see a problem.

But he was familiar with this model and said it can be a small stepper motor in the fuel metering intake. He fiddled around and actually got it going. but it was running roughly, so it was onto a tow truck and off to their workshops.

It turned out to need a new mass airflow meter assembly. Actually, a new one would have cost around $650 but they sourced a used one for about $290. So all up with labour, $371.

How odd that this should go wrong just at the time I was planning to sell it. Unfortunately, it’s not finished yet – the tow truck guy pointed out that the two back tyres need replacing, and the mechanic pointed out fairly bad oil leaks from the camshaft cover gaskets. The front one on the V6 is not too expensive to replace, but the back one needs the exhaust manifold removed to get at it, which is labour intensive. To do both would be around $650. Damn,

I only paid $1,200 for that car and all the things I’ve done since are starting to add up. I doubt I’ll get my money back. I don’t know what to do now.

Wow, rain, and more rain. Even in summer, the rain continues from the wettest October on record. We had a heavy shower yesterday afternoon and a lot more last night. It looked threatening this morning but seems to have fined up to a beaut day now, 23deg.

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I had my COVID vaccine booster yesterday, so I’m triple vaccinated now. The first case of the new virus variant has appeared in Perth, so it looks like we might be hit soon. Our borders open on 5 February, so the other strain(s) will arrive soon afterwards. I really, really don’t want to catch it.

Actually, my Pfizer vaccination yesterday was so painless and so quick that I wonder if I’ve really had it. I hardly felt anything, and the nurse seemed to hide the needle after it was done. I wonder if it actually happened. I had to go to the pharmacy afterwards and asked if they do the Moderna vaccine. Yes, she said. I wonder, if I waited a month or so, whether I might have that too. I know I’m being ultra cautious but not unnecessarily so, I think. I’ll ask the GP.

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I also had a haircut yesterday, the first since January. At that time, the lady hairdresser advised me to ask for no. 3 next time, so that’s what I asked for at a new barber near me. Wow, I got shorn! It was all over in less than five minutes and I look like a newly buzzcut army recruit. There was no styling, no shaving around the nape of the neck. It’s lucky hair grows back.

The good part was that they only charged me $15. I think I’ll be a bit more careful what I ask for next time, though.

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I was put on a new regime of diabetes drugs in October and wow, they are working. My morning blood glucose readings are now down into the normal range (4 – 8 mmol/ml) now. I even had a 4.6 reading a couple of days ago. That’s nearly into hypo territory, although I didn’t feel anything.

The evening readings are still too high, but way down on what they were. I get 11 – 19 mmol/ml, way outside the 4-8 range, but much better than up to now.

The downside is weight gain. Ugh! I’ve gained around 5Kg in the past three months. My diet hasn’t changed, it’s all down to the other two new drugs, Jardiance and gliclazide. I try to eat as little as possible, skipping lunch on many days, but that doesn’t seem to help. Ugh.

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I’ve finally got around to tackling the Mitsubishi Verada’s starting problem. Or rather, I got the RAC onto it. Their mobile mechanic got under the dash (wow, what a magnificent contortion he did to get under there), in a look at the connector mentioned in the Martybugs article, but to no avail. Then he looked at the throttle air assembly and reckoned there’s a small stepper motor in there which sets the fuel/air mix. It goes wrong. He adjusted it manually (with a screwdriver, that is) and got the car running, but it wasn’t idling properly.

So it was time for the tow and a truck arrived to take it to the Joondalup workshops where it is still. They phoned me this morning and said they can get a used throttle assembly locally by this afternoon, for an all up price including labour of around $350. Go ahead, I said.

I’ve also asked them to look at the power steering fluid leak. No news on that yet.

As well, the tow driver pointed out that both my rear tyres are no longer legal. So there’s another $250 or so to get new tyres.

I’m beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t sell the Honda MDX and hold onto the Verada. It’s such a nice car to drive. I should be able to pick it up this afternoon, they said. Hmmmm. I don’t need a 4WD, whereas I do need a station wagon.

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I mentioned the book The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn. It’s the successor to The Salt Path, her story of walking the coastal path from near Bristol to Land’s End, then to Portsmouth. That was a brilliant read and I had high hopes for her next one.

I give The Wild Silence 9/10. Not quite as good as the first book, but still a good read. She’s a born writer. She wrings poetry out of every scene.

The first section is rather dark, describing the slow death of her mother in hospital and interweaving descriptions of her childhood and her father. It’s rather gloomy but tells you why she is the woman she is now, introverted and agoraphobic.

Then we move on to the story of how they come to be managers and restorers of a farm in Cornwall, near Polruan. The owner is a London financial type who wanted someone to “re-wild” his hobby farm, to bring it back to the state it was in before it was farmed to death. Voila, they make a deal. No money changes hands, they get rent free living in a house on the farm in return for doing the work. This is right up Ray and Moth’s alley, just what they wanted.

But just before this falls into their laps, she describes her writing process, how she came to write the first book, The Salt Path, and how it came to sell much better than she expected, such that they make a steady income from it.

After they get the farm back up and mostly rewilded, that generates enough income that they want to go walking again, mostly for Moth’s health. So they choose a strenuous walk in Iceland. Bloody ‘ell, of all places, when Britain offers so much.

The rest of the book, then, about the last quarter, is description of their Iceland walk. To be honest, it wasn’t that gripping. I found myself skipping ahead a bit. I still rate it a great read, though. Thoroughly recommended.

The news is telling of the eruption of Mt Semeru on Java. The small smoking cone at left in the distance above is Gunung (Mount) Semeru. It’s pronounced Sem-AIR-oo, emphasis on the middle syllable, not SEM-a-roo as all the TV newsreaders are saying. How do I know? I’ve heard the Indonesians saying it.

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OK, Summer’s really here. It’s hot! It’s 40deg today after 33C yesterday. I was going to do some work on the Verada which is parked out in the lane, in the sun, but it’s too hot. Burn fingers hot. I’ll leave it until Friday when it’s forecast for 25deg.

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You have to chuckle. Watching a news report last night about scammers and the millions they’re hauling in from the gullible, the lead detective’s name is Detective Phair. And another detective is named Ken Gamble. Unfortunately, the people who thought they were having a phair gamble with their life savings soon found out the crooks don’t play by the rules.

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Weather stations -the one on the left is from Jaycar at $399. The one on the right is also from Jaycar, a more modest $139.

This one’s from the Wish web site at $39. I know which one I would buy. if it’s inferior and dies prematurely, it’s no great loss. Sorry Jaycar.

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Another great graphic from http://www.crispian-jago.blogspot.com The guy is a genius.

© crispian jago. I highly recommend a look at his web site. There’s more humour of this kind.

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Another whopper from the wish.com web site:

999,000,000 lumens! Wow.

A lumen is the unit of light output, so they’re using it correctly. But 1 Billion lumens is very hard to believe.

A 6 Watt LED globe is 450 lumens approx. A 300 Watt PAR incandescent lamp (those big conical things, the type used for outdoor lighting) is 4000 lumens and that’s pretty bright.

So this torch is supposed to be equivalent to around 250,000 PAR lamps? I don’t believe it!

I will believe it’s incredibly bright, with the emphasis on incredibly, meaning not believable. Anyway, it’s quite cheap, around $14, so I’ve ordered one. Its main use for me will be protection. I carry it in my bag and if threatened, I shine it in the face of the attacker. It would distract him enough for me to get away. And I wouldn’t face any charges of carrying a deadly weapon. That’s the theory, anyway.

Aaaah, summer. A beautiful day, cloudless blue sky, calm and 32degC max. Luvverly.

My friend is in Austria and she sent me the view from her window:

It looks nice to us, but I’m sure it’s less pleasant if you have to trudge through it. Or shelter from it.

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My title today refers to a PayPal transaction. In August I placed a web order for an electronic device from China (I blogged about it at the time, a “digital telecine”). The price was US$67 or approx. A$97 and I paid by PayPal.

Well, it was one of those “too good to be true” items and nothing arrived, no goods. I sent an email a week ago asking what’s the deal? As expected, I got no reply.

OK, I thought, let’s see how PayPal will help. So about 5pm today I filled out the “Problem” form on PP, and to my amazement, in seconds, within 10 seconds anyway, I got a notice to say my issue has been resolved and I have a refund of the full amount. Brilliant!

This was not a trivial amount – A$97 was a bit too much to just shrug my shoulders. I am impressed! Thank you, PayPal. I use them for almost all my transactions and this is the first time I’ve needed to complain – this is great.

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I’ve just placed yet another order for a new Li-Ion battery for my Sony Clie PEG-NZ90 hand held PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).

I’ve been trying to get this battery for the past couple of years, but they seem to be as rare as rocking horse shit. In the past few years I’ve ordered from four or five suppliers in NZ, New York, Canada, the UK and somewhere else but each time, my order was cancelled and thankfully, my money was refunded. Strangely, the NZ guy said he didn’t post to Australia. Huh?

Anyway, once again I’ve found a supplier in the USA (what did we do before Google?) and ordered two at US$7.95 each, plus $15 p&p. Let’s see how we go this time.

The original battery (I only ever had one) started swelling up and wouldn’t hold a charge, back in the late ’00s. I don’t really want to use the device, but it’s a very neat machine and I reckon there are people around the world who’d like to own one for nostalgia reasons. I’ve seen one advertised on eBay for US$285! I’ve still got all the bits – manuals, CD with software, charger, earpieces, cords and so on, the complete set. I can’t remember exactly what I paid. It was from the Sony Shop in Murray St in 2003 and I think it might have been around $800. Wow.

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Look at this!

No, it’s not scratched film. It’s a shot of the night sky using a telescope, and this is what astronomers have to put up with now. These are the very bright light trails from a new group of satellites put into orbit by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company.

Amazingly, these are just the latest thousand approx. of around 12,000 satellites that he is planning to put into orbit, to provide world-wide internet coverage. At his profit, of course.

The thing is, there are no rules or laws to regulate who can put satellites into orbit or how many! As you can imagine, astronomers are livid. This is going to spoil earth-based astro-photography and telescope observations forever more. Unless someone can take these satellites out of orbit, which is very unlikely. One man, one company can spoil astronomy, and no-one can stop him!

The only answer is for astro-cameras to be placed into orbit outside the orbit of these small bright satellites. That will be hugely expensive, and who will do it?

There’s one bright prospect: the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Telescope, is to be finally launched from the Guyana launch site in the next few weeks. This promises to be a fantastic addition to our view of the universe and it’s been decades in the making. I fear for it, though. It is a huge job and incredibly risky and expensive. The lift-off will be in a few weeks, but once it reaches Earth-orbit, it then has to be tested, then boosted to a Lagrange point, where the gravitational pull is equal between Earth and the Sun. This is around 1/3 of the distance between Earth and the Sun and means the telescope will be much too far away for repairs if anything goes wrong.

Once it gets there, a few months from now, the satellite’s sails (solar panels) have to be deployed, then the huge mirror optic has to unfold and lock into place before it starts to work. The potential for something to go wrong is huge, and if it does, it’s hard to see how it could be fixed. There are going to be some very nervous NASA people for the next few months.

But assuming it all works, WOW! We will be able to see the universe with something like 100x the resolution of Hubble, and that was pretty amazing. I can’t wait.

Next day: completely by coincidence, this superb article explains it all much better than I can – https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-matters-so-much-20211203/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits The drawings and diagrams are excellent. I highly recommend the article, it’s long but worth reading.

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I’m very happy to see the end of the political career of the member for Pearce (my federal electorate). This is a guy who showed from his early university law course that he is arrogant, misogynist and boastful. He grew up in a Liberal Party family and thought he was destined for a great career. Unfortunately he put his boasts in writing.

He was elected to the WA state parliament, then moved to federal politics and soon made attorney-general. But his boastful, sexist past came back to bite him, unfortunately involving the suicide of a talented woman. He is not accused of her death, but there’s no doubt that mud stuck.

He’s been forced to give up his high ambitions and is quitting federal parliament. Good result, as far as I’m concerned. It just reinforces the lesson I learnt in life, if you do wrong things, it will come back to bite you. Nothing more sure.

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This is the inside view of one of the first all-in-one digital cameras, the Canon Pro-1. It was one of the first, in the early 2000s, with a high quality zoom lens fixed to a body with a 12MPx digital sensor.

We’ve skipped Spring this year and Summer’s arrived. It was 36deg on Saturday, hot enough to be very careful when you open the car to get in. Hot door handle, hot steering wheel. Car air-con on, but you find it’s ineffective.

However, it’s lovely. I like Summer. May there be more of it. With global heating, I think there will be.

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Bullshit Department:

Laboratory peak 20000W? That’s 20 Kilo Watts! “China Power: 2000W”. That’s 2KW. This is the Chinese Wish website. They are outright liars. This is just one example. Many, many items are shown at a cheap price, but as soon as you click on it, the price jumps anywhere from 10% to 50% extra. Or the cheapest colour in a range happens to be “SOLD OUT”, but all the other colours are more expensive. Oh too bad, there are still good buys, and I just ignore the bullshit ones. You just have to accept that they exaggerate like hell.

Very Good Idea Department:

A Lithium Battery Bike Tyre Pump. I don’t ride a bike, but if I did, I would jump at this. Great idea. There’s a range of them, anywhere from $21 to $81. Those are Aussie dollars, GST included, postage extra. Despite the bulldust, there are some good products on Wish.com.

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For example, they have a great range of pre-built electronic modules, such as this “radar body sensing” board.

Don’t knock it, it means a device to detect when a human body is close, such as in a lift to make the doors close, or near anything that needs to operate when you come near. But, get the instructions:

Application Design Note:
1, the sensing face in front of the gold without any shelter.

That’s Chinglish. Yeah, right. If I were to make a product to be sold in China 🙂 I would get a native Mandarin speaker to translate my instructions.

And look at this!

That’s a 2 channel, 15W per channel audio amplifier on that tiny board, priced at $2.97 +p&p. That’s a very useful device and terrific value. I’m sure the watts are Chinese watts, but watt the hell.

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I’m not feeling too good these days. Weak, tired, and my lower back is killing me. I can’t get through a supermarket visit without needing to sit down, which is near impossible in the supermarket. I had to sit on a pile of cans in Woolies on Saturday. It seems to have coincided with a big change in medication a couple of months ago. Not just one but three meds were changed. It will be a tough one to work out if it is the cause because I need those meds. They’ve worked wonders for my blood sugars, almost halving the readings so I need them. The readings are still above the norms, but much safer than before.

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I’ve just got home from a “Bullshit Brekky” with a couple of photo-dawg mates at North Beach. That was the first time in three months for various reasons and it was good. I need that, I need someone to talk to. I’d do it every week but I can’t persuade the other two. One is recovering from Ross River Virus, among other ailments and is quite frail. The other is 83 and seems to always be busy. Pffffftt.

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I called in to Clarkson shops for lunch on the way home and while I was there, thought I’d have a haircut. It would be the first since January, my hair is down over my shoulders and quite frazzly.

The only men’s barber has closed up shop there (among many others which have closed lately!) so I went to a women’s salon where I’ve had a cut before, especially on “pensioner Tuesdays”. I sat down in the chair and told her I wanted a no. 3, quite short. Luckily for me, she said, “That will be $32.50 today.” before she started. I said “What? $32.50?! I’m used to paying $20-$22.” She said, “It’s a no. 3 cut and will involve styling.” What? How much styling can there be when I just want it cut short? It did me no good, she didn’t offer me any lower price, so I said, “No thanks, I’ll leave it” and left.

What a silly attitude. She could have made $22 for a simple short men’s cut, but she’d rather make nothing. There were no queues, no-one waiting in line.

So now that there are no men’s barbers there, the other salons think they can hike their prices like this?

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Likewise, we’ve heard about price rises for groceries. Well, believe it, because the rises are not just 5% or 10%, they are 33% to 50%. Not everything, of course, and I don’t have to buy the more expensive items, but this is the return of inflation.

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While I was there I tried to use the SafeWA check-in app on my phone and just got a grey screen. Huh? I tried rebooting my phone but no go. Now that I’m home, it seems there was a software failure on the government computer that runs it. Aha.