Nasty spiky things.

Ain’t this rain beaut? For the first time in decades, I have the sound of rain on my tin roof. It’s not a big deal for me, but it’s a nice change. And to be cool again … let’s hope the summer is ended.

Quiet days yesterday and today, but my new fridge arrived yesterday and it’s beaut too. The change from 390L to 552L is very nice. Luckily, the delivery guy didn’t mind taking the old one away. It was running, and running, and running, never switching off. It was getting so cold that everything froze, even on the min setting. I was going to donate it to a charity, but as it was faulty, I couldn’t. It’s probably a simple fault, but I looked hard and couldn’t see any obvious problem.

I bought the first of the safety bars I’m going to install in the shower cubicles too. The tiles are too slippery for me these days and all that expanse of frameless glass scares me, not to mention the sharp edged aluminium surrounds. I dread the thought of slipping and falling on that.

I also used the en-suite shower for the first time this morning. Up to now I’m using bed 2 and bathroom 2. I have my bed in the main bedroom, but no side tables or QB quilt – it’s just not quite ready to occupy yet.

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I ordered a new Panasonic cordless phone with Bluetooth today. Three handsets, and extras up to six can be added later at $89.95 each. As you may notice, I’m a fan of Panasonic appliances. They have a very long track record in electronics and made good broadcast TV equipment, so that counts with me. I also like their design. So far, I’ve got Panasonic fridge, DVD/HD recorder, phone, microwave oven and possibly soon a Panasonic flat screen TV.

I also have huge respect for Sony, don’t get me wrong. These are companies with decades-long track records in electronics, research and development, industrial design and broadcast engineering. This counts big with me.

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The reticulation came on again at about 9pm on Wednesday night, i.e. for the second time in the day. Interesting. It sprays a bit on Minnie, but she doesn’t move. She doesn’t care if she gets wet. She’s a dog, dammit. Mind you, the back lawn is ponging a bit. Must get onto that.

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Also interesting was the visit I made to the pharmacy attached to my doctor’s rooms at Merriwa. It’s small and run by a young Indian looking woman with a broad Aussie accent. I thought I’d give her my business. She’s very nice.

But she told me she hasn’t yet gained PBS accreditation and so can’t give me Concession priced drugs. She said it’s very difficult for her but she doesn’t expect any action from the relevant government departments until near the end of this year! She said I really need to use the Jindalee pharmacy across Marmion Avenue from me (walking distance). It’s part of a big chain. Yeah.

So I was going to leave when she asked if there was anything else. I said well, I’ve been thinking about interactions between all my drugs, and showed her my list. As I was the only customer, she set to it.

The result was a half hour talk about various things, including one question from me: “How do you get off Amiodarone (the anti-arrythmia drug), given it has a half life of 29 days?” Her answer was, “You don’t.”  That’s scary. She said she spent a lot of time learning about it at pharmacy school and “It’s a messy drug.” It has toxic side effects in high doses (liver damage, mainly, but also thyroid interference) and as she said, getting it out of your system without bringing on fibrillations would be very difficult. Damn!

I’m only taking 100mg daily, half the dose prescribed, and when I told the cardiologist he immediately said, “That’s fine.” If that’s doing the job, stay there.

Next time I talk to him, I intend to ask about very gradually reducing the dose (e.g. down to 90mg for a month, then 80mg for another month etc) to see if I can change to another anti-arrythmia drug, long term. There are other drugs available.

The main problem with Amiodarone is the awful taste in my mouth, all the time, as if I’ve been chewing gum. But I worry about the liver damage reputation and irreversible greying of the skin. We’ll see.

From there, the discussion on moved to why I feel so tired all the time. The answer is my weight, of course, and she was very good at convincing me that my idea of eating little during the day, skipping meals, is actually priming my body to spike insulin to store food as fat as hard as it can because it thinks it’s being starved.

She came out with a good theory – for breakfast, eat like a king. For lunch, eat like a peasant. For dinner, eat like a pauper.

The idea is to have a good breakfast to start the day, but divide it into two, one at 8am (e.g. porridge, low GI oats) and the rest, maybe eggs, wholemeal toast, again low GI at 10am. Then have a big wholemeal salad sandwich at lunch, filled with lots of veges and just a little cheese or other flavour adder. Divide that in two and have half at midday, the other half at 2 or 3pm. Then for dinner, more veges, small amounts of fish or lean meat etc, again with some reserved for 9pm or so.

The idea is to teach your body that it doesn’t need to spike insulin levels, as food is plentiful, so as to stop the starve/excess cycles. I can believe that. I’ve heard it before and it makes sense to me.

That led on to some more personal talk. Her 55 yo father has been given two months to live from a brain tumour, so she was full of advice about living life and allowing yourself to feel happy by doing things for others. It was almost getting religious, but not too blatant. I can see her point.

So from a quick visit to buy medications, it turned into a 30 min free life lesson. That’s OK. I wished her well and felt that I could give her some advice in return: make sure there are no problems between you and your father before he goes. Talk everything out. It worked for me. I had no problems grieving in 2001. Still don’t. I’d long been dreading Dad’s passing, but in the end, it wasn’t a problem for me.

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Crumbs, I’m not a gardener but this “garden” is boring. Just about every plant is a yucca, nasty spiky things. Every inch of soil is covered by stone chips. It’s very harsh and I don’t like it much. Anyone want some bags of white quartz chips? Free, take it away.

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Unpacked a few more boxes yesterday and today and I’ve started a box for stuff to go to the Salvos shop across the road. Gradually, a bit of order is starting to appear, although I find I’m moving items from one temporary position to another. Huh.

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One priority is going to have to be an anti burglar mesh across the top of the back fence. It’s brushwood, which Baz reckons tea-leaves don’t like, but it’s only about chin height. You can look over it into my garage and yard. It feels uncomfortable. There’s a wall mounted holder for the spare door remote in the garage. Oh yeah? Give a thief the means to open the garage door? Not likely.

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I got my old analogue-tuner LCD TV going last night, and although it was good to watch TV again, analogue is crap! Full of interference and noise and low resolution. Only four more days and the analogue transmitters will be switched off for good.

People don’t realise that these transmitters have had to be kept going long beyond their design life (by 15 years or more, at around a $million per transmitter) by the guys (there are no women!) at the stations. The stations were told analogue transmissions would end in 2003, so they weren’t going to spend any money on new transmitters, no way. Even spare parts (they still used valves in the very high power stages) cost thousands of dollars.

The analogue  switch off was supposed to happen around 2003 according to the government’s (Howard government’s) original timetable. But it kept being put back and back because the introduction of digital had been bungled since 1999 and not enough people had digital tuners (aka “set top boxes”). How expensive flat screen TVs could have been allowed to be sold without digital tuners makes me angry. Consumers didn’t understand that they were up for big dollars to receive digital on their big flat screens.

This is just another in the long line of major bungles by the various departments of communications going back to the 1950s. I know a lot about this! But it’s a bit technical so people can’t understand it. These bungles have cost this country billions! It’s still going on. Especially in Defence. The waste of money, year after year, decade after decade. People don’t know.

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Today I made a point of setting up my Sony 32″ Full HD TV. Why? Because Silent Witness starts a new series tonight on ABC1. For me, this program and Foyle’s War are the epitome of good TV. Superbly written and acted, with believable stories and excellent characters. My only worry is that this new series of Silent Witness (series 16, by golly) will be another horror show like the last series.

I was so put off by the excessive horror, visual violence, gore and bad taste that I protested to the BBC and the Silent Witness production web site. I couldn’t watch those dozen or so episodes late last year. I was just revolted, and I said so. We’ll see what tonight brings. I hope they’ve listened.

This is my patio. Obviously this photo was taken in winter,
but when I saw it first thing this morning,
it was actually wet, and so was Minnie. At first
I thought it had rained overnight, but then I realised
it's Wednesday and the reticulation had been on.

I’ve just signed up for iiNet broadband internet and home phone. Yay!!!

I went to a Telstra shop and their minimum is $95 a month, admittedly for 200GB of data. Since I’ve been living with 3GB a month, I don’t need that.

With iiNet, I get 20GB a month on ADSL1 plus home phone for $59.95 a month. Yes thanks. That’s all I need. ADSL1 is “only” 12Mb/s, but since I’ve been living with less than 1Mb/s, or even down as low as 160Kb/s for years, that’ll do me. It’ll be looxury.

As well, I’m bundling my mobile phone for $20 per month extra, which is a fixed fee. At the moment with Vodafone I’m buying $30 slabs which seem to run out after about 2-3 weeks. I’m forever paying, sometimes up to $60-90 per month! I’m sick of them.

So I look forward to notifying you of a new home phone number soon. My mobile number will stay the same. It takes about 5-10 working days, apparently.

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I wanted a new fridge, but my old one is in place and I thought, nah, it’ll do a few more years. Fridges are expensive! I bought a Panasonic fridge for the Bali villa and it cost about $750 there. Similar Panasonic fridges here cost double that and upwards! We are being ripped off, I reckon.

However, my 20 year old Westinghouse has not stopped running in two days and won’t regulate the temperature. All my food in the main compartment is freezing, even on the minimum setting.

I’m sure I could get it fixed, but no, it’s time for a new one, so I’ve decided on a Panasonic after much internet research. RRP is $1799, but it’s available from one of the local chains for $1399. My Westinghouse is 390 litres and the new one will be 552 litres. More beer!

It’ll be white, too. I’m not a fan of stainless steel. I like white. The only disappointment is that I wanted it to be left hinged, but that’s not available. F&P and one or two others have left hinged door models, and Samsung even allows you to reverse the door yourself. Clever.

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Still making slow and steady progress unpacking. The problem is, I need cabinets to put my stuff in or on. One thing that’s surprised me is that although there’s a laundry cupboard, there’s no broom and mop closet. I suppose I can hang them in the garage, once I clear the space.

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I have not been able to watch TV (apart from at Alan’s place) for nearly two months now. Do I miss it terribly? Not really. But I’m almost at the point where I can set my TV up again and it will have a familiar feeling of comfort about it.

My TV is a 32″ Sony LCD. I never wanted anything bigger in my old place, but this is going to look very small in this house. I may need binoculars. They’d go with the pith helmet, ration pack and walking stick when I walk from one end of the house to the other. This is a big house compared to my old one.

Note to self: don’t buy another TV; don’t buy another TV; don’t buy another TV! You don’t need it.

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PS: I meant to say – I have not yet been to the pub on the corner. How’s that for self restraint? Five days and I haven’t walked the 100m. Of course, it might have something to do with my tired, aching feet.

The drying court. I'd be using this area more, 
if only I could find the key to the roller door 
to access it from the garage. The previous owners told me
they'd never opened it. I'm not surprised; 
the key lock is at ground level.
Who designed that?!

Aaaagh. I’m writing this sitting at my solid desk, sitting on my office chair with my desktop (tower) PC at last. I’ve decided to use the front room shown on the plan as “Home Theatre” as my computer room. Thick carpet, morning sun, near the front door – and plenty of room left for a lounge or settee: it’s fine. And I’m getting 300KB/s wireless internet speed, probably since I can see the phone antenna tower about 500m away across Marmion Avenue.  I plan to get land-line phone and internet asap. At last.

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I got about three boxes and four plastic bags unpacked today. It might seem trivial, but I haven’t got places to put “stuff” yet, apart from the walk-in robes. (I did get my big computer set up and working – that took some time.) It meant I stayed “home”. No need to go out and spend money. The heat is a big factor. I’m developing a big list, though.

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The more I use the kitchen, the more I think, “This is crap.” All the cupboard space is either too high or too low. The microwave oven is supposed to go into a recess at knee level. No thank you. So it occupies the limited bench space. The sink is deep, meaning I have to lean forward and down. Where to put things is not that obvious. There’s a lot of wasted space. My old kitchen was more efficient than this.

I’ll give it time, but I may spend some money and effort on a new arrangement. I’ll post some pics soon.

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I’ve realised today that what I thought was wallpaper in the main bedroom and bathroom is not. It’s a paint technique. It’s a beige base coat, followed by a deliberate slapdash extra coat of a deeper tan colour, giving a gold effect with broad brush strokes. It’s quite attractive, so I’m fine with it, but if I decide I want a different scheme, it’ll be easy to paint over it.

In the two guest bedrooms, though, it definitely is wallpaper and I like it! It’s subtle and fits the room, giving a “feel” to both rooms. I’ll be keeping it.

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The more I go outside, the more I feel how harsh the ground treatment feels. The quartz stone chips and the gravel cover all the soil except the meagre lawn, both front, side and back. There are no weeds, of course, but there’s no way I’d walk out there in bare feet. I think I’m going to bag it all up for removal at some stage. I want soft lawn, or some other arrangement even if it takes mowing or line trimming.

Similarly, there’s an olive tree growing in the NE back corner, right where I’ll want to put a spa or some other water device. It’s about 2m tall at the moment, so I’d better decide soon. It looks very healthy, so if anyone wants an olive tree … take it away.

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The metal sheeting I had removed from the side of the garage turned out to be double walled alloy sheeting with a layer of foam insulation between, grey on one side and white on the other. It’s designed to interlock together and should be worth something to sell. These are ~1m by ~4m (car length plus) sheets, all intact. Keith thinks he’ll have a buyer.

It means my garage is open on the east side at the moment, if anyone decided to hop over the fence. But it’s brush panel fencing and Baz reckons it’s a thief deterrent. Too difficult to get over. I reckon to get some steel mesh panels and clip the top line off, leaving spikes, and put it up against the fence as a creeper panel and thief deterrent!

Similarly, I think I’ll use steel mesh to enclose the side of the garage, then cover it with acrylic sheeting to keep the weather out. With a doorway, of course.

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Which reminds me, I must take out insurance. Good articles in The West yesterday – cheap insurance is false economy. Noted.

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Lotsa kids around here. Kids in the back lane, walking their dogs. Kids on skate boards thundering down the footpath at the front, even skipping up my steps. It’s OK.

Rubbish collection was this morning, Tuesday, and they took both bins – general waste and recycling. That means the smell of baby poo – disposable nappies is gone. Thank goodness!

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I mentioned all the trouble I’ve been having getting the laptop to boot. I have a USB wireless plug for a mouse. Removing that seems to have fixed the boot problem. Huh! Plug it in after startup and it works fine. Grrr.

This is the kitchen. It looks glamorous, but it's not good.
The cupboard space is useless and there's not much bench space.
I plan some changes.

At last, it’s finished. All my “stuff” was brought from the Osborne Park lockup today, so I’m finally complete at the new house and the end of this long, long road. Of course, I have a big pile of boxes in the garage to unpack, but at least I have my major items of furniture back – the table and chairs, the Q size bed which I haven’t been able to sleep on for more than two years, my other trusty single bed (a Boans model now nearly 50 years old!), my fridge, my outdoor glass table and chairs, my desks and my main PC.

I set out from here at about 0600 this morning and it was a breeze on the freeway most of the way, until a crawl just past Reid Highway due to road works. It freed up after that, and I was waiting outside the gate at the storage place from 0645. The truck arrived at 0710, so that was good.

I took the rest of the smallest unit (about 2 cu. m.) in my car, and left the guys to it after about 45 mins. They pulled it all out first so they could see how to pack their truck. Luckily, whatever had shifted to stop the big roller door opening had shifted back again, and it opened easily. Phew!

As it was a hot day, I came back to Butler and waited for them. But I got a call: “Er, we’ve got a flat battery, we can’t start the truck.” Hah! Shades of the Irish guys running out of fuel. They said they’d stopped the clock while they got a start, and they arrived here about 1230pm, by which time I’d unloaded and moved my car around to the front verge.

Some of the stuff was a tight fit to go through the garage/back entry, so I got them to help me remove the metal sheeting blocking the side of the garage. That opens it up to the back lawn, and allows me to bring things around the side, with about 3m of pathway. At the moment, my garage has a security problem I suppose, but …

My fridge survived and is now nice and freezy again. At last, after six weeks, I can store food. I’ve been thinking about buying a new one, but they are a bit expensive! This one will do for a while.

Phew, tired again. Not surprising and all this physical exertion is good for me. Huh.

My patio and the water feature that doesn’t work.

Phoarrr, I was tired today. I thought I’d do a storage unit run, but at 32C I couldn’t face it. This heat is getting to me. There’s worse on the way this week, I think. I decided to stay in the air conditioning. Luvverly.

I had a midday nap on the new bed. It’s OK, but I realise now I was too hasty in my decision, and too cheapskate. The bed is flimsy. The base is thin wall square steel tubing and depends on three short leg supports along the centre rib. It’s made in Malaysia and the wooden slats are some very light-weight tropical wood.

The mattress is made in China, I realised when it arrived. It’s OK, but a bit soft for me.

I should have spent more time evaluating. But for the price, $338 for a King Single bed and mattress, it’s quite inexpensive – effectively $170 each. For a bed that’s only going to be used occasionally, that’s OK. If it’ll take my weight, then any slimmer guest will be fine.

I’ve also realised that buying a King Single was a waste. It was a funny sequence – I wanted a single bed fitted sheet of as good a quality as I could find. (I want sheets to feel thick, to crackle.). But all I could find was a King Single sheet in 400 thread count. So the sheet came first. That set me on the road to buying a King Single mattress and bed. In hindsight, I don’t need it. Yes, it’s wider, but I don’t need the width, despite my ample girth. I hope a guest will appreciate it though. It does look impressive.

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Tomorrow I have to be at Osborne Park between 7am and 8am to meet the truck. I bet I know when they’ll arrive. I intend to say, “Here it is, boys, go to it. Bring everything except the rat baits. See you at Butler asap”, and vamoose.

I intend to buy a new fridge, and I’ve got a new microwave oven due to be delivered tomorrow, so I’ll say, “Leave the fridge and m/w in the garage.” My 20 year old washing machine can carry on for now, but it’ll be time to replace that soon. Just not now.

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I tried the water feature today. Hah! Barry and I both saw it working last Tuesday, but it sure doesn’t work now*. The pool part was empty when I arrived on Friday and we wondered why. Well, it’s pretty clear it leaks worse than the Pentagon. I filled it today (with the hose) and it took about an hour. But as of 5.30pm, it’s nearly dry again. I turned the pump on when it was full, but nothing happened. Yet I saw it  working last Tuesday.

[*Ooops! I take it back. The leak is still there, but I’ve found the right switch for the pump, and I can hear it working now. Unfortunately, there’s not enough water left to pump, but that’s fixable.]

The main bedroom shower recess also needs the grout around the bottom fixing, so I hope I can get a guy in who will fix both leak problems.

At the moment, I’m using bathroom two, and it looks as clean as if it were new. With just a small baby, the previous owners probably didn’t use it much, so it’s almost unused . That’s good.

Dumb design, though. The towel rails are at the opposite end of the room from the shower cubicle. I have to remember to put a towel on the bath rim so I can get it when I step out of the shower. And in the en-suite bathroom (bed 1), the towel rails are about 2 ft long silly chrome fashion statements. Modification required.

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I explored the outside a bit today. Every square inch of outside soil is covered in either quartz chips or gravel, apart from the 5x5m square of fairly poor lawn. This is ridiculous. It has a harsh feel – there’s no way you’d venture out there in bare feet.

I think I’m going to remove all this sharp stuff and put in soft lawn. I want to walk on my outdoor area. The new grasses are much better and easier to maintain than the old couch and such like.

I’m also noticing the heat from the easterly morning sun. Minnie is moving to avoid it. I think I need a pergola over this patio area, and grape vines over a trellis. Perhaps some shade cloth in the interim until the vines grow.

Besides, there’s the most elaborate reticulation system I’ve ever seen. I think this is a legacy of its display house status. It’s a Rainbird system, and the controller is beautifully easy to use, and it works a treat. I put it into Test Cycle today, and the pressure is terrific. I put it into Auto and I can see it’s programmed to run on Wednesday and Saturday (coincidentally, the same days I had at Trigg). So I left it in Auto.

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Minnie has settled in. As long as she’s with me, she’s happy. Me too. Love that dog.

I was worried about her negotiating the quartz chips, but she walks on them rather than the rubber pads I put down. Huh. She’s certainly leaving her deposits to show where she’s been.

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In the “Media Room”, there’s an F type antenna connector on the wall labelled Foxtel. Does that mean there’s a satellite dish on the roof? Waiting for me to start paying for a service? I don’t think I want it, but it’s a bit tempting.

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I’m afraid my expensive CPAP blower is still faulty, despite a day in the sun to dry out any moisture. I have a bad feeling about this. Obviously, I’ll tackle it myself if I can get past the security screws, but if it;s corrosion on the electronics, it may be impossible to fix without special soldering gear.

That’ll mean either an expensive repair (“Sorry Mr Croft, we had to replace the entire circuit board.”) at $500+, or a new unit entirely at $1,500. Damn.

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My rubbish bins (two, one for recycling and one for general waste) are already full from the previous owners, so I’m accumulating rubbish at a great rate. I don’t know when the collection day is, so I’m looking at the other houses – no bins out so far. Maybe Tuesday?

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I may need to buy a shorter car. Mine only just fits the garage. Twice the roller door has hit the bumpers. I had a funny thing today as well. I was pocketing my keys in the bedroom and heard a rumbling sound. When I came out, the daylight was streaming in through the back door. I must have accidentally hit the open button on the garage door remote. Oops.

Yes, this is it! Minus furniture at the moment.

Yes, Saturday 6 April 2013 and I’ve had my first night in my new house. I slept like a log! I was exhausted yesterday, as I seem to be every day these days. Not good.

I had to assemble my new bed before I could sleep in it, and it was more complex than I expected. Insert bolt A into hole B. I missed the instruction sheet (I found it today!) and things didn’t seem right, but it’s OK now that I’ve bought some extra 1/4″ 75mm bolts and nuts. My old bed from 1966 didn’t need assembly, except to slot the steel frame into the head board. Yes, I’ve still got it and the Boans Mattress. It’s a testament to the way they were made, I think.

Bazza was here to help last night as always, and we shared a beautiful bottle of Moet, carefully stored from last year. This was the appropriate moment at last.

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I made a trip to the storage lockup in Osborne Park today and managed to take about 3 cu. m. out of the least filled unit, a car load in other words. I reckon I can get the rest tomorrow, so it reduces the time I spend paying the removalists at $169 an hour!

Minnie has settled in well. I was worried about her negotiating the quartz stone chips on the way to the back lawn, but no worries! She’s just walking on them as if it was sand. And depositing her poo parcels. Minnie! I let her out into the back lane (Stilton Lane) today, and she was naughty by wandering around the block. I had to go looking for her, and found her outside the front of my house. Some passing boys helped me get her up the steps into the front door. Even I have trouble with those steps, so I’m going to have to get a concrete ramp made, with some hand rails.

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My laptop is increasingly hanging very early in the boot process. It took more than an hour of fiddling to get on air tonight, so if you don’t see blog posts, that’s why. As of Monday, I’ll have my desktop machine back, thank goodness. And comfy chairs!

Phew, too tired for more at the moment.

It’s nearly time. Officially, settlement occurs today, Thursday 4th, and I can move in tomorrow, Friday midday. [Update: yes, as of 12 noon, settlement went through and I’m now the owner.]

This is it!

Boy, it’s been a long road. It was about July last year when Barry and I first started serious discussions about selling Trigg, and about September when we first listed it. There have been many hard bumps in the road since, and I ran off into the ditch a few times. As usual, I thought it would be easy – I had it all planned to go into the retirement village, but I made wrong assumptions as usual.

It’s entirely thanks to Barry Wood, real estate salesman extraordinaire, that I’m now only 24 hours away from moving into the best house I could have wished for. Barry has stuck by me through thick and thin, gone to amazing lengths to help me. I cannot thank him enough or praise him highly enough. Barry Wood, Zoo Property, folks. Recommended. I’ve told him how grateful I am many times. He knows. He’s a friend for life now.

Additionally, I’m very glad that from an initial position of just one sale, my Trigg house, he got three sales from me, counting my purchase in Butler and the previous owners’ purchase of their new house. I’m very pleased about that. He deserves it. He put a HUGE amount of work in.

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I went to the bank on Tuesday and drew a bank cheque to pay for the house. The bank guy said, “Which account would you like it to come from?”

I said, “Er, the one with sufficient funds!” I said he could take it out of another account if he wanted to, and leave my house sized account alone. He saw the joke.

That’s definitely the biggest amount, around half a million dollars, I’ve ever drawn in one transaction, and I don’t think it will ever happen again.

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I had the final buyer’s inspection on Tuesday and met the sellers properly. Lovely people. We had a good chat. I said, “Don’t stress. I understand how fraught you must be feeling. If you can’t get everything out by Thursday, I can give you some time.” But they seem OK. They’re a lot younger than I am and can tolerate this better, I think.

I liked the house even more than the brief look I had about 8 weeks ago. It’s got an alarm system, reticulation, ducted reverse cycle air conditioning, a Miele dishwasher. It was built as a display house, so I think it had a few extras put in. The rooms seem even bigger than I remembered. There are fruit trees (mainly lemons) and an olive tree. Love it, in other words. The water feature works. I’m looking forward to the sound of the waterfall. It even has coloured mood lights with a remote control to vary the colours!

Today I changed the water, electricity and gas accounts over to my name, and enquired about phone connection. It seems I can get ADSL2+ ! At last, after all these years of crappy dial-up speeds and intermittent wireless dropouts

Nearly there.

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In the meantime, I dunno what else can go wrong. My CPAP device fell off the bed shelf a couple of nights ago and water (from the humidifier) got inside and it stopped working. At about 4am! Luckily I have a spare old machine, but no humidifier for it. It works, but I woke at 4am this morning with my nose very painful – too dry. I couldn’t sleep much after that. Luckily, a day in the sun dried out the good machine and it’s working again now.

But my laptop is increasingly refusing to boot up. That is, it won’t get past the Sony logo, which is VERY early in the boot sequence. So far, removing the battery and reinserting it seems to get it going, but this is a very bad sign. This is a $3,500 machine (Blu Ray recording etc) and it’s not ready for retirement by any means.

Also, my Telstra wireless USB modem is very poor at getting a connection here. I had very reliable internet in Margaret River (even 4.4Km out of town), and in Busselton, but here in Duncraig it’s completely erratic, unusable a good part of the time. Very frustrating.

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I also booked the removalists today – for next Monday. I have to be at the storage place between 7am to 8am. Bugger. That means battling the peak hour morning traffic. Oh well. They say they use a 50 cu. m. van, so my 35-40 cu. m. load should fit nicely.

I went to the lockup to check on it last Sunday and found one of the roller doors won’t open properly. Something inside must have shifted, blocking the door from raising more than about a metre. Oh well, I’ll just say, “Start pulling stuff out from the bottom until you can make it raise properly.” Then I’ll leave them to it. That’s what I’m paying them $169 an hour for.

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I bought a roll at Miss Maud’s, Karrinyup, yesterday. The assistant girl said what I thought was, “Seven, right?” I said, “No, $4.95”, and pointed to the price sign.

She said, “No no, semmen (salmon), OK?” in an NZ accent. Bloody Kiwis.

Last Sunday I was also sitting outside the newsagent when it was closed. I could see calendars on a rack through the vinyl doors. One was labelled CRAPERS. I puzzled over this. What the hell does CRAPERS mean?

Today I saw the same calendar without the trick of the light. It was SKYS CRAPERS. Duh.

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Another hot day today. This is getting tedious. I resumed my summer routine of a cold shower this morning.

Saturday, 30 March, five days to go. I bought a King Single sized bed and mattress today, for delivery to my new house next Friday so that I can sleep for the first weekend without worrying about the rest of my furniture. That’s all I need. I’ve got a new King Single fitted sheet, and my trusty feather doona and my own pillows. That’s all I need. Bliss!

The “Shed of Beds” missed out on my purchase – I patronised a local shop at Ocean Keys shopping area. Crumbs, I was the only customer. How do they stay in business?

I took the opportunity to drive slowly around the area, getting the feel for the streets. I still rejoice in my decision to buy that particular house. No doubts, no hesitations. Love at first sight. It sounds ridiculous, but it ticks all the boxes, as if I’ve fallen into the place I’ve always wanted. I could wish for a slightly larger block, so I could have a pool, but I reckon a spa will do just as well, one day.

Then I drove the 1.5Km to the ocean front at Jindalee. Beeeyoootiful day, and the ocean and beach looked very inviting. I actually went down the 78 steps to the sand and back up again. That will be a goal – do that without stopping for breathers. The beach looked too prone to rips, though, so I didn’t try to go in.

There’s a terrific Chippy’s Fish Cafe there, too. Bit pricey, but lovely menu – Italian as well as seafood. I think I’ll be a regular.

So with the warm, autumn weather and bright sunshine, a nice day. Five days to go!

Blue Wren

Bastards. Yesterday (Wednesday) I had to get out of the caravan park two days early. That’s $140 wasted.

About 9.30am the boss man came to the door and said “Mate, I’ve had several people complain about your dog barking. She’s got to go.”

Several people? Well, I just don’t believe him. Everyone who saw her either smiled and wanted to pat her or stopped to chat. Three people actually brought me food for her. The only time she barked was when I went to the showers — single barks, woofs actually, spaced about 5-10 secs apart. “Dad, where are you? Why have you left me?” This was only after 8am. I was only away for about 10-15 mins and I came out when I could, to let her see me. For 99% of the day and night she was completely silent.

But I suspect he just didn’t want my dog in the park, even though they advertise as dog friendly and they’d taken my booking and taken my money in advance. There were other dogs there, including a German Shepherd that wandered around without a leash and a yappy little silky terrier that barked like mad at Minnie whenever its owner took it past. Minnie didn’t respond.

So this was a blow to the guts. I considered pleading to stay one more night but I was too worried and upset, so I packed up and headed out as soon as I could, about 11am. I left the key in the door to the cabin and told the cleaner I was going. Cleaner? Only when cabins are vacated. I found a bag of the previous occupants’ rubbish in the cabin when I arrived, dammit!

My sister had previously offered to put me up but I’d resisted because she’s not well and I didn’t want to impose Minnie on her. But she said it would be OK, so I took her up on the offer and came back to Duncraig. What a relief it feels. That caravan park stay turned out to be awful. I had to be constantly alert to any problems and that meant I had to stay at the cabin most of the time. I was bored!

And what a cruddy cabin! This park is supposed to be 4 star, but it’s not, in my opinion. The shower block was clean, but old. The cabin was old, 1980s vintage, and grubby and worn out, with rough timber edges and peeling fake wood grain. No hot water, no microwave oven, just an old electric stove. No aircon, of course, just a fan. No linen or pillows supplied – luckily I needed new stuff so I bought my own. And hard, incredibly uncomfortable stackable plastic chairs. I had to buy a folding camp chair.

Another couple showed me their cabin – it was anew one and it was far better than mine – it had an en-suite bathroom, a separate bedroom and full cooking facilities, including hot water. It was built like a big modern caravan, in other words. $88 a night, linen supplied.

I got talking to the couple in the cabin and later she brought me cooked food, for me! Savoury scrambled eggs and buttered bread. Wow. I must look needy 😉 But it was very kind and I thanked her profusely.

So all in all, another rough week. Thank goodness I’m back near my new place and in comfort. I must admit, I’m nervous again at the moment because before I realised it, Minnie had started digging a pit in my sister’s flower bed to lie in. Uh oh! I’ll fix it, I’ll fix it, don’t fret!

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I took the slow road back to Perth yesterday, through the Ludlow Tuart Forest near Busselton, for example. I love that drive.

Then into Bunbury to have a quick look, and what a modern city it’s become, full of luxo looking houses and apartments. The traffic was a bit heavy so I didn’t stay.

Then through Australind and Eaton, along the estuary. Again, very developed now compared to over 10 years ago when I last saw it. A bright sparkling autumn day made it nicer.

Then up the Old Coast Road through Mandurah and near to Rockingham. Wow, the roads have been developed since I last saw them, more than 10 years ago. Heavy traffiic spoils it, though, especially after Kwinana. Too many heavy vehicles for my liking. Nose to tail traffic nearly all the time. And traffic lights!! Endless stopping, no synchronisation at all. Just get moving and you have to stop, over and over again.

So you have the choice – take the Forrest Highway and Kwinana Freeway and get a smooth flow, but a totally boring drive, nothing to see. Or put up with congestion. At least I know, now.

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Coming up Leach Highway and West Coast Highway, I got to Trigg about 3.30pm with time to spare, so I took Minnie to an old familiar place, the oval near the North Beach Rugby Club where I used to take her all the time. It’s nice soft lawn and shady. I could tell she was a bit stressed (lots of panting) and when I got her out, she very quickly had a pee and drank all the water I gave her. Unfortunately, she fell off the ramp as I got her down and landed on her side, but after lying there for a few minutes, she got up, with a deal of difficulty, and walked to the grass.

Then when I tried to get her back up the ramp about half an hour later, she fell off again. She broke a toenail this time. She was reluctant to have another try, but I had no choice and had to pull and push her up. We got there.

Only two more ramps, Minnie: once into the car from here, then the final egress at your new and final home, and mine.

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One thing I’ll have to do first thing is put some rubber or plastic sheeting (blue tarps) down over the white quartz leading to the rear lawn area at the new house. There are stepping slabs in it, but even I find them a bit far apart and hard to negotiate. The quartz is hard and sharp.

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The settlement agent has been here this morning and I’ve signed the required documents and been given notice of the amount to be paid on Tuesday. The termite inspection was clear/OK, so it only remains to do a final purchaser’s inspection next week some time. I’ve told Barry that I won’t make any fuss. I know full well how stressful it is to move, so I won’t hassle the previous owners over anything trivial. I wasn’t even aware until now that I did have the right to object to anything. This is new since I last made a purchase in 1986. The process has become much more legalistic. What a surprise.