
Fourth day of winter and it’s a clear, cloudless blue sky outside, around 18C. I hear rain is coming and the wind is stirring the leaves a bit, but we’re well below average in rainfall for the year so far. More please. *see below!
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Another magnificent photo:

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Long time no posting, sorry. I’m still suffering from pain, which takes the pleasure out of everything. Right side torso this time. Sharp needle pains, with a nagging dull ache just below the right breast. I have to use the “pain patches”, which help tremendously, but they only last a week and after I remove each one, the relief lasts a week and the pain comes back again. Thank goodness I have them available.
I had a CAT scan and an MRI scan late last year which covered the whole chest, obviously, and no problems were seen. The needle pains are random in location, even extending to my fingers and thumb occasionally, so there’s no precise location. I guess it’s just gettin’ older.
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I’ve just made a comment on The On-line Photographer web site (www.theonlinephotographer.typepad.com) after the owner, Mike Johnston, wrote a piece praising a book which philosophises that there should be no political parties. I wrote:
“I think it’s human nature to form groupings or teams. Very rarely do we do things in isolation, hence teams become parties. A solitary politician can’t achieve much, if anything.
“It’s akin to something close to my heart, unionism. I just can’t believe it would be better for every worker to negotiate alone with the groups or teams (or unions) of managers.
“Every aspect of society forms teams or groups, including employers. Lawyers, doctors, judges, and yes, employers, form teams or groupings or ‘societies’ to argue their case coherently. So should unions of employees. It’s obvious why the modern day ‘robber barons’ are so against unions – it’s divide and conquer in action.
“So to circle back to the point, I can’t see government working without parties. Sooner or later parties would form, like planets coalescing from dust.”
I often think, regarding unions and the bosses’ arguments that all workers should negotiate their wages and conditions individually, that I can think of very, very few aspects of life and sociey where we don’t work as part of a team. Or to put the opposite, that it’s better to work as an individual. Nearly all people, whether employee or employer, works as part of a group or team.
I try to think of anyone who doesn’t belong to a team, and all I can think of is a few creative occupations like painting, writing, literature if you like. Although even those turn to teams if the person wants his/her work shown to a large audience. A writer has to have a publisher or be part of the team which publishes writing, be it just books or newspapers or magazines. Everything needs teamwork to thrive.
So, no, political parties will form whether we like it or not. Just as animals form herds. Even the solitary lion forms a team with a female to raise cubs.
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My kitchen ceiling repairs are finally done, thank goodness. A guy came a few weeks ago to install insulation in the roof space, and now I’ve got a dimmer on the kitchen downlights and that is almost that. I’m only waiting on the insurance company, NRMA, to approve the replacement of the dishwasher. I have sent the repairer’s letter through to them, saying its demise was caused by water and rockwool getting into the motor, and I’ve sent a reminder, but although they acknowledge receipt, I haven’t heard anything more yet. They’ve been good so far so I’m not too worried. I’m sick of washing dishes by hand, though. Not that I do it much.
On the other hand, I am fed up and ropeable about the mattress I bought last year. AH Beard, remember that brand and don’t buy it! I don’t think they know how to make mattresses.
After I complained in January that it was too soft, they took the mattress back and “remade” it to a firm setting. At first, that seemed to fix the problem. But it’s reverted to almost the same problem – insufficient support at the edge and a ridge down the middle, such that I feel as if I’m sliding off. I think this has only occurred after I got the mattress back from the repairs.
I’ve stayed silent up to now because they never sent me a bill for the re-work, but I’m thinking of getting stroppy again and demanding my money back. I’ll tell them that I don’t think they know what they’re doing.
Luckily I’m sleeping well and I hardly move when I sleep, so I only notice the problems when I’m just settling down for the night. But, grrrrr!
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I’ve been doing a lot of work on the MyHeritage web site on my family tree and I’ve got the Croft side going back as far as William Croft 1393 – 1434. In the line are several Baronets, i.e. members of the House of Lords in Britain. All were associated or lived in Croft Castle, Herefordshire, and the baronetcy and knighthoods were hereditary for a few centuries. There were many sons, though, so where the inherited titles went is very obscure.

I must admit I’m sad that my branch of the tree ends with me. Having never married, I have no offspring so that’s that. They heavily push the sale of DNA testing and so far I’ve resisted, but at $87 maybe I should give it a go.
I was never into ancestry, but I must admit I’m chuffed to have got this far. I think this is all I need, though. They’ve sent me advice that my subscription will automatically renew this month for $345, but that’s too expensive. I’m sure I only paid about $85 last year. I’m trying to work out how to stop the auto-renewal. It’s not easy!
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Wow, what a fascinating outcome in the trial of Ben Roberts-Smith, that giant of an SAS soldier (6ft 6 inches tall and a bundle of muscle). He sued three newspapers for defamation when they published articles about his and his platoon’s exploits in Afghanistan ten or more years ago. It’s exloded in his face – he lost the case and has been labelled a war criminal, murderer and bully. He’s a Victoria Cross winner, but it’s possible he’ll lose it and possibly face further criminal trial. It’s been a bombshell of a case, probably as bad as anything he faced in the war zone. Wow.
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Damn, it looks as if the battery in the Peugeot has died. It won’t take a charge. Last time this happened was in the Honda and the RAC guy used one of his big capacity batteries to “dump” a charge into it. It worked and I’ve had no trouble since. I hope he might be able to do the same with the Pug’s battery.
A friend helped me get the rear number (licence) plate off so I can take t to the police licencing centre to get a new plate for the front. I lost the front plate a few months ago. You have to present the other plate to prove ownership to get a new one. Trouble is, I believe the licencing centre is slow, choked up with queueing and I’m scared to go there as I can’t stand for long. Oh well, gotta try. Gotta get a move on – the car is becoming covered in spiderwebs from standing unused for too long.
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I spoke too soon – the clouds are rolling over and the wind’s picking up. Our blue sky day is transitioning to rain. I asked for it and now we’re going to get it, but hooray anyway. I’ve just got my washing down off the line so it will miss out on the rainwater rinse this week. 🙂