The Studio 1 control room in valve days.

After the shock of Len’s death last week (heart attack), a group of eight of us TVW7 survivors are having a dinner on Wednesday to chew over old times. I reckon we had the Golden Years of TV in this town and country. We did big things, we had variety in our work, we were totally involved in the equipment, although that often didn’t feel so good. We got training on the equipment, often in other cities and overseas. We had time to enjoy.

In contrast now, the station occupies about six rooms and one relatively small studio in Osborne Park, everything’s controlled from Sydney and Melbourne, there are only six techs left who are always on call, there’s no training, all faulty equipment has to be packed up and sent to Sydney for repair so there’s no local knowledge. The remaining techs are all over 45 or 50, with one, at least, aged 63 and happy to get out asap. There are no trainees. The company doesn’t do training. Or plan for the future. All they want to do is get rid of people. So that the big bosses can have bonuses and $million salaries and big company cars.

Apart from Telethon, mostly staffed from other organisations and volunteers, there’s no local production any more. The station doesn’t do anything any more. No local engagement.

Thank goodness I left when I did. Retirement at age 52. I didn’t have to work again, except part time if I wanted it. Fantastic.

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Nearly forgot: I was passed by a Mercedes S320 on the freeway last week and thought, “Gee, that looks great.” So I started looking for models for sale.

The S series is Mercedes’ top of the line. These are the cars that German Members of the Bundestag and diplomats are chauffered around in.

I didn’t find an S320 of the shape I saw because it’s an early 1990s model. But I did find an S350, and it’s for private sale in Perth. Too expensive for me, but wow!

Interestingly, it’s a 2006 model but it’s only done about 35,00Km and it’s registered as a Small Charter Vehicle. Must have been small charters. Too pricey for me (over $50,000) and I’m not mad on this particular shape.

Then I found this:

It’s an S55, which means a 5.5L V8 with supercharger, and it’s an AMG, Mercedes’ specialist hand-build section. Yeeeaaah. That’s what I want. And below $50,000, dealer in Victoria.

Then there’s this one in Perth. It’s a 2007 S500, meaning a 5.0L V8, no supercharging or turbo:

Gee, it’s tempting. Also below $50,000, “all offers invited”. These have just about everything I want, except two doors too many. I’d prefer a coupe. And this 2007 styling has gone too “funny”, Toyota-like, in my opinion. I prefer the earlier, pre-2006 models.

But as soon as I start reading about reliability, the horror stories come out. $10,000 a year repair bills, and that’s in the USA where everything is half price compared to here. These cars have a bad reputation for electrical and electronic faults. Mercedes should be ashamed. As I said the other day, Japanese cars don’t have these problems. My 2001 Australian built Mitsubishi is faultless. Yet Mercedes, with all their German technology and reputation for quality, can’t claim this reliability.

I dunno. I’m still tempted. But I’ll have a Bex and a good lie down.

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I had a short visit to the new TVW premises in Osborne Park a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to see that several of the people I knew are still there and we had a good catchup. Crumbs, it’s 15, nearly 16 years since I left.

But it showed me how much the technology has changed. It’s totally digital and my analogue TV knowledge no longer applies. I couldn’t use the gear there now. (Well, I do have a few clues. I could pick it up.)

Imagine if you were a doctor, for example, and within a few years, all your medical training was useless as there was a new type of human body. Relearn, retrain or get out.

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I was talking about digital audio to some of the “veterans” last week and mentioned that I have Mini Disc. Actually, I have three Mini Disc recorder players:

It’s only just bigger than the disc it holds, and runs forever off one AA battery. Brilliant. (This is a web picture – mine’s cleaner than that.)

My Hi-Fi deck. (Another web image, but this is the model I’ve had since the mid 1990s.)

I have this on my computer desk to amplify the computer audio. It has AM/FM radio, and with a disc permanently in the slot, I can instantly hit record if I hear something I like. It also plays CDs, as you can see. I love this unit! I bought it new around 2003 for about $350. It was marked down because no-one seemed to want Mini Disc. Fools.

For some reason, MD didn’t catch on. It was meant as a replacement for tape cassettes and it was a great system. The audio is digital, much like CDs. The discs are magneto-optical, meaning they are coated with a dye which is changed in reflectivity by the simultaneous application of heat from a laser and a strong magnetic field. They are like a recordable CD, but encased permanently in a plastic caddy, as shown at the top.

Because they require both the laser and the magnetic field, they are virtually indestructible. They can’t be accidentally erased by a magnet, for example. The caddy means they don’t risk dust or scratches, there are no finger prints and they’re easy to handle. They would have been IDEAL as car stereo systems.

I did a report when I was still at Channel 7 arguing that the broadcast MiniDisc machines would be perfect in the News editing suites for short voice recordings. We were still using 1/4″ tape cartridges at that time, which required frequent maintenance and were not all that reliable. My recommendation was approved against opposition from one particularly old school engineer, and we bought about four machines. They were a big hit with the journalists because were easy to use and they cued up almost instantly.

But they use an audio compression scheme of Sony’s own development called ATRAC. In the early days they were competing with CDs, which don’t use compression at all, and the ATRAC compression got a bit of a bad reputation from the hi-fi purists, the “golden ears”, for being audibly lossy. Although Sony improved it, MD never recovered as a hi-fi system and the ignoramuses constantly disparaged it, even today. Thoughtless slinging off.

Bulldust. People accept mp3 which is much more aggressive compression, yet they wouldn’t accept Mini Disc. Stupid. I’ve got music on some of my discs and it sounds beautiful to me. One disc holds one CD worth, 72 minutes, but there’s a higher compression mode which allows space for four CDs. I’ve never used this.

There was also a DataMD model, to hold computer data such as mp3s, but it never caught on and I’ve never seen one. I’d buy it in a shot if I could. Of course, when you can fit 8GB and more on a USB thumb drive for about $5, it renders MDs a bit redundant.

Oh well, I’ve got my three recorder/players and about 100 discs, which will never wear out. I smile smugly. You can’t buy any equipment new any more, I’m afraid.

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I had lunch with friends at a restaurant which had better remain nameless, because it was atrocious. I should ring Rob Broadfield and get him to review it.

I had the fish special, which was a piece of rubbery grilled fish, supposedly barramundi. It tasted fishy and not much else. The waitress asked if I wanted chips or salad. “Both”, I said, and pointed to my friend’s plate.

When mine arrived, the “salad” consisted of one small piece of wilted frilly lettuce and about six very fine strips of dry carrot. That was it. No tomato, which my friend had. I asked about tomato. The waitress said, no, this is only a garnish. You don’t get tomato in a garnish. Bloody hell.

“Anything else you need?”, she asked. Yes, some vinegar please. She went away and came back with a small bowl of a black viscous liquid. I smelt it and said this looks like soy sauce. No, it’s balsamic vinegar, she said. I smelt it and it didn’t smell of vinegar. I used a bit but it didn’t taste like vinegar either. So the rest of this bowl went to waste. Oh, I got two wedges of lemon. Thankful for small mercies, I guess.

This restaurant epitomises everything that’s wrong with Perth restaurants. Barely adequate cooking, and an attitude that they have their way of doing things and the customer has to conform. The waitress wasn’t going to give in to my requests. I would never go to this restaurant willingly. Ugh!

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Speaking of which, the $5 cup of coffee has arrived in Perth. I had a coffee at a Macdonald’s a few weeks ago. For a “Standard” sized cup, a small mug size, it’s $4.25 and for an extra shot of coffee it was another $1. So total $5.25 for a cup of coffee! Americans reckon $2 is normal. Not impressed.

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Phew, 36C, 38C, and it’s not even summer yet. The heat has arrived with a whack. I started my cold showers for the summer on Friday the 13th. I won’t use hot water now until about April next year. I wish I knew how to turn the gas off to the storage hot water heater. It’s heating that water all summer for nothing.

UPDATE on yesterday: my Sony phone is working again. I found the box and the instructions, which are in Spanish only. There’s a bit near the end which says If Yer Phone is Indisposito, press this tiny contact in the battery area with a ball point pen.

I pressed it but nothing happened. Then I held it down while pressing the power button and bingo, up she came. I was worried it might have wiped all my settings and stored stuff, but it’s OK.

I’ve realised that I can store all the music and images that I used to store on my “iPhone without the phone part”, I’ve forgotten what it’s called. That’s one less thing to take on a trip.

Mount Rinjani, Lombok, Indonesia

I’m beginning to wonder whether I should cancel Bali.

That volcano caused Virgin and Jetstar to cancel their flights today, although Garuda still flew from Perth on the 8am run. I wonder if they’re being crazy brave or if it’s really OK. I don’t want to test that theory very much.

The problem is, even though it’s a month until I fly, there’s no end in sight to the eruption. I’d take the chance, but I need to take out travel insurance very soon and that will cost a minimum of around $400 which obviously I won’t get back.

So I have to balance out the cost of the insurance against what I’d get repaid if I had to claim on it. So far all I’ve paid out is $525 for the Garuda return airfare and about $200 for the first four nights’ hotel. That’s refundable up to 24 hours before arrival. All my other four hotels are booked but you don’t have to pay up front and I can cancel now without penalty.

I’m assuming Garuda would refund if they won’t fly me. Better check.

What to do? I’ll think on it some more.

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Bloody hell!! My run of bad luck with electronic/electrical appliances continues. My new Sony Experia SP phone is dead.

I had it in my pocket all day yesterday and it wouldn’t turn on when I looked at it. OK, battery has discharged, yes? Put it on charge, orange LED comes on, then changes to green after an hour or so.

Tried it again today but it’s dead as a brick. Take the back off, look for the battery, sealed – can’t get it out (not without removing tiny screws, anyway). Back on charger for a few more hours, green LED on, but still no go. Just won’t turn on. Tried reset button.

I am fed up! I’ve only had this phone about two months, $246 worth. I assume it’ll have a warranty but now I have to find the receipt and how to claim and pack it and post it. And what if I do decide to continue to Bali – I’ll have to race to get this sorted beforehand. Grrrr.

Three coffee machines, a model rail loco, a Solid State Drive, a pair of lens adapters, two successive Yamaha FM/DAB tuners, a lost mobile phone (yeah, not an electronic fault, I know) and now this. I think the rapid pace of electronics is too rapid for the quality control to keep up.

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I was in Coles LiquorLand at Clarkson today and bought some beer. I was going to buy a bottle of gin but all the spirits were in locked glass fronted cabinets with no lighting. I was going to ask, but decided to move on.

I said to the girl at the checkout, “Bit offputting”, pointing at the cabinets.

“What?”, she said.

I repeated, with a sharper point, “Bit offputting.”

“What do you mean?”, she said, with a blank look.

“Well, I’ll go elsewhere”, I said. I still don’t think she got it, but I moved off anyway.

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Almost finished my Me, Me, Me book (but that won’t be the final title). Just going through proof reading now. But I reformatted from an 8.5″ x 11″ imagewrap cover to a similar sized hard cover debossed last night. Arrrgggh. Suddenly all my type has changed from 10pt to 10.8pt and a lot of the text blocks have come up with overflow warning signs. Now I have to go back through every text block, shift it a little and reset it to 10pt exactly.

This Photobook software is good, but there are glaring deficiencies. You can’t do global changes is the main one, and lack of page numbering is another. But it does have dropped shadows, which I want, whereas other software doesn’t.

Aaaarrrrrgh.  (Above July 2014. I’ve lost 5Kg since then.)

Diabetic friend dies early from heart attack last weekend.

“A spare tyre round the middle of an otherwise average-sized body is more dangerous than being fat all over, research has shown.” Twice the risk of death. The Guardian 10/11/15

“Scientists have discovered a link between strong legs and a fit brain that resists the effects of ageing.” The Guardian 10/11/15

Sitting is the new cancer.

Lesson: do it now, don’t wait, don’t make long term plans, make ’em short term. The rainy day is here.

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Improvements at Perth airport, the worst in Australia and one of the world’s worst, drag on, year after year. What a clunker of a design the international terminal is! To have to go to the upper level, then go down those ugly concrete steps to reach the aerobridge! What idiot designed that?

Ain’t that beautiful? It’s a new design for Beijing, and they’ll build it too. Look at Denpasar – they built a complete new departures terminal inside two years, and it’s great. Works perfectly. Except that I had to go down the stairs and walk to the plane (Air Asia) and up the aircraft’s stairs again while I was feeling so sick on the way home from China last year. Ugh! That was hard work. My cabin bag was the full 7Kg.

I’d asked for a wheelchair because I felt so crook, and I got it (late) in the terminal, but had to abandon it to get across the tarmac to the plane. That didn’t work well. But when we got to Perth, they were waiting for me and I had the wheelchair from the plane door right through to the outside. That was well handled by Air Asia Perth staff.

I was surprised when I was wheeled up to the immigration passport guy. He said, “I remember you.” I said really? I was surprised. “Yes”, he said, “I remember you from when you departed” in a friendly tone. That was nice. Quite flattering.

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It’s our verge junk collection next week and Keith and Baz are coming on Thursday to help me put stuff out. Not that it’s hard: there’s only one large item, a folding table I  bought 15 years ago. It’s too big for the room.

It cost $100 in about 2000, but they’ve halved in price since then. Prices just keep going down.

I’ve been here 2½ years and already I’ve accumulated too much stuff! Unless I use it or really, really need it, it’s got to go. I’ve got to stop buying things!

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It’s nearly time to stop using hot water in the shower. Each morning, I’m tempted to start the coldies for the summer, but it’s not quite warm enough yet. Soon.

Re saving water, I reckon one of the main culprits for long showers is liquid soap. You can’t rinse the bloody stuff off! I stopped using bar soap because it was so bad for soap scum, but it washes off very quickly. I might have to go back to it.

Memo Water Board: get onto the liquid soap makers and enforce a quicker wash-off. That would easily save 2 mins per shower.

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I’ve said I’m a fan of Big Bang Theory, but even I’m getting tired of the repeats. Channel 9 seems to be repeating the same episodes only a week apart, plus Channel 7 is showing it as well, so sometimes we see the same episodes there as on Nine/Gem. I must admit I’m confused as to which is showing which, but the number of repeats is ridiculous.

I must admit I’m tiring of If You Are The One, the Chinese dating show. I’ve been watching it every night for the past year or so and it doesn’t have the charm it had early on with several of the girls who were really perky. It’s mostly a new lot now, and they don’t seem to be as lively. Oh well.

I’ve still learnt a lot about how the Chinese think, though. Looking after parents rates very, very high on the list. You might even need to live in the same house as the parents. No pensions there.

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Damn. I got a flyer in the letter box last week from an ISP offering phone/fibre optic internet plans. Fibre?! I jumped at it.

So I got onto their web site and started a chat. Can they give me fibre at this address? (Otherwise why letter bomb me?) Result: Umm, er, don’t know, we’ll get back to you. That was last Thursday and they haven’t got back to me. Yeah.

I’ll try them again.

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Gone quiet on cars. I thought I wanted a CLK Merc but black outside, black inside. You can have silver outside/black inside, but that’s about it. Boring.

Then I saw an E350 coupe. Nice, and less expensive (3.5L V6 instead of a V8). But when I took a closer look, I was thinking, “This looks like a Toyota Camry.” C’mon, Mercedes, your styling has gone crazy.

One thing that’s come out is, “Don’t buy a 1990s Merc.” They used a wiring loom that was bio-degradable/recyclable, and the insulation disintegrates in the engine heat. Result – intermittent electrics and the cost of replacing entire wiring looms at Mercedes prices. Ouch. It’s OK if you know what you’re doing, but …

In fact the entire electrical system in Mercs before about 2000 is suspect. They are all prone to intermittent faults, even from things like being pulled too tight in a corner in the boot space, for example. BMWs are notorious as well.

When was the last time you heard of these kinds of problems in a Japanese car? I think maybe I should start thinking Japanese instead of German. The Lexus Soarer attracts me. And they come in different colours – white, blue, red, maroon, green, as well as black. Cheap now, too, less than $10,000 most of them, but nearly all are >150,000Km. That’s not frightening. If a good motor is well looked after 250,000Km is not unusual.

Len Anthonisz in 2009. © P.J. Croft 2009, 2015

I just heard the news this morning: there’s a Death notice in yesterday’s West Australian for Len Anthonisz (above).

It’s a bit of a shock. Len worked at TVW7 for many years on a contract basis and we got to know each other well. He was a charming, gregarious bloke, full of interesting stories and was an encyclopaedia of TV engineering knowledge. We used to yarn for, ahem, far too long, out in the satellite earth station, often about the beginnings of digital video and digital editing. This was the 1990s, after all. The PC was only 10 years old at that stage. We thought paying $4,000 for a 486 was a good deal.

He was a do anything, go-getter, can-do sort of bloke. At one stage around the mid 1990s he negotiated a deal to buy three or four surplus Bosch BCN VTRs from TVW to on-sell to a TV station in Vladivostok, Russia! He arranged the shipment and went up there to install them. He got me to check them over and write a condition report on them before buying them. It wasn’t hard: I’d looked after them for many years and they were in pretty good reliable condition. He was talking of taking me up there with him to help at one stage, but that didn’t happen. I wasn’t sorry about that. Vladivostok didn’t sound like a holiday destination to me, but he went.

After the work at 7 dried up, he moved into mobile phone equipment installs, including a major country wide installation for Fiji, I think. He also worked in Jakarta for a few years, and lived in Bali for a couple of years, doing mobile phone work. This was major infrastructure, not just the small stuff. He had the ability to pick things up very quickly and was in managerial roles.

He also worked in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, same deal. Lately he’d been working for mining companies in the north west of WA (Karratha, Port Hedland) setting up their comms and data links. Big stuff.

He was a workaholic, I’m afraid, with not much time for play. I know he was diabetic but I don’t know what caused his death. He was a fair bit younger than me, perhaps 62 or 63. Unfortunately I hadn’t heard from him in the past four years or so. Very busy man. I’m sad about that.

RIP Len, you old bugger.

© PJ Croft 1983, 2015

Hmmm. Will I be going to Bali or not? C’mon Mr Rinjani Volcano, settle down, at least when I fly.

I have to seriously consider that I might not be able to go, or if I get there, whether I’d be able to return on the date I’ve booked. My airfare is already paid and I haven’t bought my travel insurance yet. I’ll definitely be buying insurance (the bloody fire breathing dragon would crap all over me if I didn’t) but I’d assume Garuda would refund if they couldn’t transport me on or near the day. All my hotels are booked but only one, for four nights, has been charged to my account so far.

I wouldn’t actually be bothered if I had to stay up there, naturally, but my medications might be a problem. I’m going for 26 days and I could take five or six weeks’ worth of tablets, but Byetta (injectable diabetes drug) only lasts for 28 days. Cross fingers, I guess.

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I’ve already booked my hotels, but I’m spending a lot of enjoyable time using the maps and Google Earth to look around the neighbourhoods up there, looking closely at nearby hotels for some other time. I’m finding lots that look very attractive for not much money, simply because they’re a bit out of the way, off the tourist streets. There are four star hotels for $50 a night or less if you don’t mind being away from the beach. My requirement is that there be a big shopping centre nearby to cool off in, plus plenty of street shops, restorans and cafes. I’m storing up hotel names for another trip. One in particular looks good and gets good reviews for only $27 a night. Hmmm.

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One of the good things about smoke from volcanoes or forest burning – nice scenes like this. This was 1983 and was due to forest burning in Borneo. This scene was just to the north east side of Kuta, about where Sunset Rd is now. All these paddies are gone, I’m afraid. © PJ Croft 1983, 2015

My doctor told me last week that there’s finally an antidote for Pradaxa. Pradaxa is an anticoagulant, to prevent clots forming in the heart when atrial fibrillation occurs. It’s the replacement for warfarin or rat poison.

Pradxa is easy to use, no testing required, unlike warfarin, but its drawback is that up to now, there’s been no way to reverse its effects if you had a major bleed. The hospital would have had to stem the bleeding and wait for it to wear off, maybe twelve hours or more.

A reversal agent has just been released, so that’s a relief, but I doubt I’d be able to take it with me to Bali. To be honest, I was considering not taking the Pradaxa while I was in Bali, but the doctor didn’t like that idea 🙂 Crumbs, I’m not very worried, but there’s a bit higher risk in Bali, of being hit by a motorbike, for example. She’ll be right.

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© PJ Croft 1983, 2015

Nearly finished my latest book. It’s a compilation, in chronological order, of all the photos I’ve got of me, from 1947 to now. There are more than 200, at a guess. I’m just trying to think of a title. I’ve overdone the Bull’s Roar thing, I think, so I need something else. “Me me me!”; “My Life as a Dog”?; “The Chronicles of Croft”?; “Mr Bitter and Twisted”? I don’t have a title yet.

It’s noticeable that there’s a big gap between my ages about 12 and 27 when I bought my own first serious camera. We didn’t have cameras when I was at high school and afterwards. Cameras were very expensive things and not easy to use. I really wish I had more pictures from Northam days. I’ve only got a few.

The other problem is that I was always behind the lens, much less commonly in front of it. I’ve got lots of photos of family and friends but not as many of me. I’ve got enough, though, to fill 40 pages, so I can’t complain.

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Today was supposed to be the second reunion day. After last year’s Northam High reunion, everyone said, “Ooooh, let’s do it again next year.” But trying to get people to respond to my suggested dates has been a waste of time. I can’t get an answer from the committee members, except for one honourable exception, a bloke, naturally. My emails go unanswered, even from a woman who complained a couple of months ago that we weren’t talking to her! Bloody stupid woman.

I think I might go to the Tradewinds this afternoon and take a photo of myself just to show that, Hey, I was there when I said I would be, where were you? Bit fed up.

My Bali bike in 1985. Yes, on three trips in the 1980s, I rented motorbikes in Bali and survived without a scratch. No helmets required then. I obeyed the rules. (That’s my camera bag on the seat, and I’ve still got that bag 30 years later. I like it.) © PJ Croft 2015

Another amazing motorbike atrocity yesterday. I was coming home driving along the single lane section of Marmion Avenue. There’s a 2m bicycle lane on the left but nothing on the right except about 1m to the curb on the median strip.

I was doing about 60Km/h, accelerating. We were just speeding up to the 70Km/h limit after exiting the roundabout. But this wasn’t enough for the guy on a dirt bike a few cars behind. He gunned his engine and passed us on the right in that 1m gap between the cars and the curb. He was going at least 80Km/h (he was past me in about 1 second), his exhaust deafening.

I am tired of motorbike riders! They deserve any injuries they get, in my opinion. Just occasionally you see a rider obeying the rules, but it’s so rare as to be remarkable. Obey the law!

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Damn, the bloody tax scam artists have got my number. Yes, I’ve had my first call from the “taxation office”. I let it go to voicemail, so I have it recorded: “This is Peter Jones of the taxation office. We have tried to contact you by mail but our letters have gone unanswered.” Bullshit. Plummy Pommy accent. (This guy must know he’s preying on vulnerable people – has he no conscience?)

And so on. There is a matter about my tax which must be answered. Well, since I don’t pay any tax (I have no income), there can’t be any matter to be cleared up.

It continues with a NSW number to call and a threat that if I don’t call it will be bad for me.

So we have the phone number. Why can’t the police or whoever follow up this number and take action against these scam merchants? How are they allowed to get away with it for so long?

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Aaaah, Bali.

Lake Batur from Kintamani. © PJ Croft 2015

I love planning trips, especially what camera gear to take. I’ve been telling myself to restrict it to just one camera this trip, but already I can feel that resolve slipping.

I stayed in this hotel, the Puri Dalem, in 1985 and it’s still there. I think I’ll stay there again for a few days this trip.

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I saw the diabetic nurse educator yesterday. I was hoping to try a new drug that my GP had told me about (Jardiance), but the nurse wants me to modify my diet (cut the carbs) and see what happens.

My weight – 2015

However, I ain’t doin’ too badly. Yes, I weigh every day and note the figure in my expenses notebook. I admit it’s a bit OCD but it comes in very handy.

This isn’t so good, though:

Blood glucose before breakfast – 2015

The night reading, after food, is worse – I don’t want to show it.

At her request I’ve been recording everything I eat in a food diary for the past month. Boy, that’s tedious, much harder than weighing. But it shows so far that I’m well withing the recommended kilojoule allowance, and mostly below it. Hence the weight loss. Things seemed to change after the massive doses of antibiotic I had to take a year ago. I think this killed off a lot of my gut flora and food tastes different now. Many things taste bitter now. That doesn’t make sense, I know, but I just don’t want to eat some things I used to like. That’s good.

I use the Calorie Counter booklet put out by Alan Borushek. It was first published in 1977, apparently. I bought it then and I’ve bought a new copy every few years. Good book.

But boy, looking up the figures is TEDIOUS. Sure, some foods are repeated daily, but I still waste far too much time thumbing through trying to find how many kilojoules for my estimated weight of that item.

I was hoping there might be a downloadable spreadsheet of all the foods, but there doesn’t seem to be.

Therefore, idea: I think I might try to build a spreadsheet that allows me to just click on list boxes of the foods and the amounts and so automatically calculate the totals. It would be a lot of work, but I like doing that kind of thing. Watch this space.

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Thinking about travel, insurance comes to mind. It’s noticeable that age 70 seems important, i.e. are you 70 or under? Not long to go before that pops up for me.

Disclosure of existing conditions too. If I reveal, will I be refused insurance, or attract a loading? If I don’t reveal, they could refuse to pay out. I think going to the USA will be out of the question for me. The travel insurance cost would be enormous. My earlier idea of round-the-world airfares seems ruled out: you can’t go around the world without going through the USA.

Well, actually, that’s not true. Go via Canada, for example. Hmmm. Must check that out.

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Another contender for a cruise has popped up. The Queen Mary 2 goes from Singapore to London in April next year, via Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Dubai, the Suez canal, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Cadiz and Southampton.

The total fare includes airfare Perth to Singapore, one night hotel in Singapore, one night hotel in London and airfare back to Perth. They show both the cruise only price, and the total, and these flights and hotels add up to $1217. That seems not too bad. The cost of the 33 night cruise works out to $258 per night.

But it’s the Queen Mary! That means stuffy British rules. If I thought the Arcadia was bad when excluding me from every restaurant except the buffet, the Queen Mary wouldn’t even let me be seen in my sandals and shorts. I’d need a bloody dinner suit.

No, I’d love to do it but I think it would be much cheaper to fly, and stay in nice hotels along the way.

Blood moon. © PJ Croft 2014, 2015. Taken from my house on 8 October 2014 at 7.34pm.

In less than an hour, at 6.35pm Tuesday 27 October, we are supposed to see a super moon. That’s a conjunction of the moon being at its closest to Earth, at just the right time to be setting as the Sun is setting on the western horizon. This makes the moon look extra bright and extra big. The conditions happen to be just right in this location, Western Australia.

Unfortunately, as seems to happen all the time, it’s clouded over! Every time there’s some astronomical event, it’s either only visible from the northern hemisphere, or something happens to stop me seeing it. Tonight is living up to the jinx. Maybe it’ll clear by 6.25pm, the time it’s supposed to start.

Postscript: Yeah, at 6.30pm it was totally clouded over here in the bustling city of Butler. Bombed out again. But boy, did we get some rain last night! About midnight there was a 2min deluge, then five minutes later another 60 secs worth. Great!

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At 0640 this morning our time, a US Navy destroyer, the USS Lassen, sailed into the 12 mile “limit” around the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. China, which has effectively annexed these islands and is building military bases on dredged sand, objects very much.

I want to know what Senator Dio Wang has to say about this. Senator Wang has become an Australian citizen and is a member of the Australian Senate. In both cases, he has sworn allegiance to Australia and renounced allegiance to his former country, China.

Earlier this year he was quoted as saying that he feels China has the right to warn ships away, including any Australian warships, and if any Australian RAAF plane were to fly over, he feels China would have the right to take military action.

No, Senator Wang! If you have taken the oath of allegiance, you can no longer show allegiance to China. To express allegiance to China is to be a traitor to Australia, in my opinion. If you can’t make that decision, then go back to China.

Just imagine, in your wildest dreams, that I became a member of the Chinese parliament/assembly/congress, whatever you call it. Just imagine if I stood up and said, in China, that I disagreed with China’s militarism and that the US and Australia have the perfect right to exercise the freedom of the seas and airways.

I’d be whipped off to prison faster than you can say Wong Wei Chum.

No Senator Wang, if you want to live here, your allegiance must be to Australia!

Gee I’m good. I think I know how to solve my airport transport problem on Sunday 13 December.

I have to be at the international terminal at 0600 for the 0800 Garuda flight. That means leaving here at about 0500, too early to ask any friends to drive me. And this is way too far out of town anyway.

Last year Jan and I booked a limo (Holden Caprice, big deal) which was good and reliable, but at $110, too much for me. A taxi? You can’t depend on them from up here, and it would be very expensive at 0500 on a Sunday even if I could persuade one to come.

Next, I thought of FIFO transport. There’s a shuttle from just near here (ranging from Two Rocks, about 10Km north of here). I’m awaiting an answer to my query. Possibly $45 I think.

But the answer is – a rental car. The cost to rent a Corolla, pickup in Murray St in the city on Saturday morning, drop off at the international terminal on Sunday morning at 0600 is about $55 for the day. Plus fuel, of course, but that’s OK.

So I take the train in on Saturday morning, pick up the car, tootle around a bit, drive it home, then drive it to the airport on Sunday morning and drop it off. I control everything, I enjoy a drive in a modern car, I don’t have to worry about any taxi or shuttle arriving on time or not at all, for much less than the cost of a taxi or limo. Good deal. Not booked yet, but I will.

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I did a tootle up Marmion Avenue this morning, just exploring. Kerrrumbs, house building everywhere! Hundreds of new houses in big groupings. Nearly all with white or grey Colourbond roofs, very few tiled roofs. Heat reflection, of course.

I went as far as Yanchep. It’s pretty barren, especially on a windy, blustery day like today. It’ll take a few years for these pioneering “estates” to become suburbs like this one, but I would have turned my nose up at this area ten years ago. It doesn’t take long for an estate to become established.

Coming back, I noticed a big sign promoting the new Brighton shopping area, with Woolworths, BigW and a few others, for 2014. But the area is just a sand lot. I’d heard rumours they were coming, but …

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Duck! © PJ Croft 2015

Speaking of which, a new two story building went up across the intersection this year and it seems to be finished now. So far there’s a new Indian restaurant, a Thai restaurant and a 24hr gym (why would you want to go to a gym at 3am??). This Indian adds to the other Indian restaurant which seems to have opened in the past few months across the road in the other big building. Crumbs, what with Pommy fish and chips, Thai food, Indian food, Subway, Nando’s, HJ and all the other crap food, plus the Dome and the Cornerstone pub about 100m away, there’s no shortage around here. Most of it’s within easy walking distance from my house. Lucky I’m not tempted very often.

Under SPUD IRONY, “An IC reader saw our story …” That’s me, folks. WA is the only state in Australia, and probably the world, that has a Potato Marketing Corporation that regulates who is allowed to grow potatoes and how many. That bloke Tony Galati is fighting them and good luck to him.

I reckon there should have been a cartoon showing the astronaut Mark Watney growing his spuds in the habitat on Mars, and a bloke with a clip board from the WA Potato Marketing Corporation tapping him on the shoulder saying, “Mate, you can’t grow those potatoes, you haven’t got a licence.”

Time and time again it’s shown that artificial rules, regulations and restrictions end up having the opposite effect to that intended. But will the WA Liberal government, a party which believes governments should stay out of people’s lives, do anything? No. Not even when a greater share of the GST is at stake.

There can only be one reason for this – the existing growers have their hands in the government’s pockets. Power and influence and money sloshing back and forth between growers and politicians.

The result is that potatoes are more expensive in WA than elsewhere in Australia and the makers of Smith Crisps potato chips have just closed down a factory in Perth with the loss of scores of jobs. They say potatoes are much cheaper in Victoria so they’ll do the processing there. No doubt the members of the Potato Marketing Board will continue to receive their fat salaries while we pay more for spuds. Nice work.

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Credit where it’s due. I’ve said many times that I almost never have any trouble with Coles over scanning errors. But a couple of times in the past few weeks there have been anomalies.

A few weeks ago I bought a copy of The Economist magazine from Coles Clarkson. I didn’t look at the cover much. This is a weekly news magazine, so I just buy it without looking.

When I started to read it at home, some of the stories seemed awfully familiar, like, out of date, old news. I looked at the cover and the issue date was June 13-20. No wonder they seemed like old news.

I went back last week and checked the shelf. Yes, there were still two copies of the same four month old magazine there.

I went to the service counter and showed the lady one of the copies. I told her I didn’t have my copy with me, or even the till docket.

She gasped when she saw the dates and said “Hold on.” She went to the computer and her till and came back and refunded me the entire $11 cost of the magazine, even though I didn’t have my docket or my magazine to return. I was quite impressed.

Then on Tuesday I saw my coffee capsules on special at my local Butler Coles, reduced from $10.99 to $9.25 on one of their big yellow shelf tags. At that price, I bought two boxes. I didn’t bother to check the docket until I got home, when I discovered I’d been charged the full $10.99.

Yesterday I went back and checked the shelf again. Yes, the yellow tag was still there below the boxes I’d bought. But a closer reading showed the tag was for a different variety of capsules – same brand, different strength. But the capsules referred to on the tag were nowhere on the shelf.

I went to the service counter and explained this. The lady didn’t believe me at first and said “The sale didn’t start until today”, meaning I couldn’t have bought them on Tuesday. Well, I bloody well did, as evidenced by my till docket.

She saw the problem removed the yellow tag and we went back to the counter, where she refunded me the full $10.99 for one of the boxes, and another $1.75 for the price difference for the other box.

I was surprised. This was better than I expected. So twice Coles has done the right thing by me, more than I expected. Full marks.

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Then today I went to Clarkson Post Office to renew my five year driver’s licence. I took my passport as ID and she asked me if I was eligible for any concessions. Well, yeah, and I showed her my pension card, as proof of address as well. She went away for a bit, came back with a concession form to fill out and said that meant the cost for the five years would be zero, nothing. Wow. I was expecting to pay $72. That’s a good concession.

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Later I had a Chocollo soft serve in a waffle cone – cost? $2. That’s half price.

I was surprised and pleased. Maybe it was a Senior’s price?

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At the pub yesterday I overheard two guys talking about good chips, as in fish and chips. I chipped in (boom boom) and asked where they were talking about.

It turns out there’s a fish and chip shop not far from here (about 3Km?) which is a “British style” fish and chips. I was told they are the tops, “Joost like ‘ome.” They do real cod and crispy chips. I mentioned that I used to enjoy scampi in the UK. Yes, they have that too, they said.

I went to have a look today and I might give it a try, but with blood sugar problems, eating fatty fish and chips is very bad for me. I’ll think it over.