Aaaah, turned out nice again. Rained a bit last night and this morning, but blue sky now at 2pm.

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I mentioned the suspected kidney stone. Gee, I’m much more relaxed about these things now. Forty years ago, I was so nervous about these sorts of things. Maybe I’ve forgotten the pain. I had a major kidney stone in 1982, the 11/10 pain where you don’t think you can stand it any more, where you’re bending the bed frame with the agony. It made me scared to be isolated in the bush or away from help for some years afterwards. Of course, there were no mobile phones then. It’s a bit different now.

I was too naiive to call an ambulance in those days. Ambulances are only for really sick people, right? Like a fool I got in my car and drove myself to the nearest hospital (Osborne Park), which wasn’t an emergency hospital. I staggered in to reception, crying with the pain, and asked to see a doctor. Luckily they took me in and gave me a bed. After a lot of questioning, with me writhing around, gasping and groaning, they gave me a shot of pain relief. It was Pethidine, the predecessor to Fentanyl, quite addictive. It hardly made any difference, but after a couple of hours, the pain very slowly went away.

They got me to drink a lot of water and pee into a bottle, and then they filtered it, looking for a stone. They never found one, which led to the treating doctor (actually, I can’t recall ever seeing her face) telling my GP afterwards that she thought I was a drug addict looking for a fix. Hah! You’d need to be a pretty good actor to put that on. But I was left in terrible fear of kidney stones and that awful pain for years afterwards.

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Speaking of ambulances, when I slipped out of bed onto the floor on a Saturday morning in 2017, and was too weak from an unsuspected infection to get myself up, I had to call an ambulance then. I tried to get up for more than an hour, crawling around on the carpeted floor until I had carpet burns. I managed to reach my phone at last and call a friend who called the ambulance, and the police to break into the house.

The ambos, a young man and woman, used a device to get me up into a sitting position, from where I was able to stand up.

I remember saying, like a typical bloke, “I’m fine, I’m fine”, when I really wasn’t. I’d been having “rigors”, extreme shaking and shivering, for a few weeks and I didn’t know how sick I was. When I wasn’t shivering, I felt OK but the rigors are a sign of something seriously wrong.

My point is, the ambos just took my word that I was fine and OK, so after getting me up, they left. They didn’t check any further. This was a Saturday morning and I had a couple of people with me for a while, but boy, I felt tired and weak. However, I continued to say I was OK and they left.

Long story, but on the Monday morning, after nearly collapsing with weakness and battling to stay awake, I drove myself to see the GP. He called an ambulance to the surgery and wrote ?sepsis on the form.

At Joondalup Hospital, they found the infected kidney stone lodged in my right ureter and scheduled an operation for the next day. But there was no pain! How lucky. But weakness! – so weak I couldn’t stand up.

My point is, those ambos should have questioned me further on the Saturday. I should have been taken to hospital then, not two days later.

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This all comes to mind because I’ve become a bit addicted to ambulance and hospital ED programs on the commercial TV channels lately. I admit, I like watching expert people in emergency situations, and I like hearing all the medical talk and seeing the procedures. Call me a junkie, but there you are. It will wear off.

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It’s coincidence time again (or maybe not).

I watched a TV show on the ABC on Sunday night where the program, set in a university in Glasgow, mentioned a MOOC. This is a term, Massive Open Online Course, for doing uni subjects online, as it suggests. Stupid acronym, but … I haven’t heard that term used in years.

So what should crop up in an interview with the VC of Edith Cowan Uni on Monday night’s news than a mention of MOOCs. Maybe he watched the same show on Sunday evening?

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I’m going to have to call an electrician. Four out of six recessed downlight lamps in my kitchen have failed. I used to be able to get up the stepladder reasonably OK, but this time three of the lamps are offset, over the sink and bench, meaning I’d have to lean over while reaching up. Too hard, too dangerous.

Similarly, two of the five mini downlights over the bathroom bench have been blown for some time and again, I’d have to stand half on the ladder, half on the bench to replace those. They are mini bi-pin globes, incandescents, and I’ve got a set of LED replacements. I’ll get him to replace them all at the same time. Same in the kitchen – I’ll ask him to replace all five lamps, even though two are still working, because they’ll blow soon anyway.

I say “him”, the electrician, but it will probably be “her”. I’ve been given the name of an electrician who does work for my friends Keith and Barry, and it’s a lady. Which is good.

To justify getting her out here, I’ll get her to try to mount a dual touch-pad light switch into the wall in my main bedroom. The bed has a row of mini-downlights over the head end of the bed, but the switch is on the opposite wall. Great design. If you want these lights on to read in bed, you have to get out of bed to switch on, then when you’re finished reading, tired and sleepy, you have to get out of bed again to switch off.

So a few years ago I bought an IR remote controlled switch plate, from China of course, with touch pads and a key-fob remote. Trouble is, it’s hard to fit into the wall. I’ll get her to try to fit it properly.

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Aaah, another glorious, clear blue sky day, 21deg, and 24deg forecast tomorrow.

As I get older I’m noticing the way the seasons change much more, and time seems to be speeding up. At the moment, sunrise is now before 7am and sunset was 10 to 6 last night.

It’s absolutely true, your sense of time shortens as you age. I remember primary school holidays at Christmas – seven weeks holidays! Wow, it seemed endless.

Now, my cleaning lady and I both remark that it seems impossible that a week has passed since her last visit. Is it a biological process, that our brain registers time differently as we age?

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Zeeeoowww. Hear that? That was the bullet I think I dodged yesterday. Yes, a kidney stone. Luckily, almost no pain except twinges in my side on Friday and a bit of lower abdo pain last night, but lots of blood in the water last evening. I drank two full glasses of water before bed and things looked clear during the night and in the morning.

I don’t know why this would have happened. I’m drinking lots of water and other fluids and I can’t see how I would have become dehydrated. Maybe it was a different kind of stone? Anyway, let’s hope it continues this way – I seem to develop stones but they pass without pain.

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I found this in my handbag last week. It’s not mine, it’s a young woman’s handwriting, but I have no idea how it got there. I don’t recall picking it up, and why would anyone place it in my bag?

I can read all the words except the last one – Shakedeos? Never heard of them.

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Word of the week: have you noticed in all the talk about fishing this week, the references to demersal fish? I’d long heard of pelagic fish, but this was a new one on me.

Simple, demersal means bottom dwelling, below about 200m ocean depth.

Pelagic means ocean fish, as distinct from riverine or estuarine fishes, and epipelagic means upper level fish, from about 200m depth up to the surface.

So now you know.

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I’ve just finished reading another epic World War 3 set of novels, by a different author, Jeff Watson. He’s a retired US Navy helicopter pilot and boy, it shows. His descriptions of flying off ships, sub hunting, ocean search and rescues and life on board ships was fantastic.

Of course, China is the antagonist in this series of six books, each of about 400 pages, so there’s plenty of time to develop his story. And what a story. Russia gets involved, but reluctantly, partly because they don’t much like or trust the Chinese, and also out of fear that they could spark an all out nuclear conflict, which they know would devastate their country.

This author really knows how to write. It’s not literature, but it’s a great story, full of strategy and tactics, twists and turns, deceptions and surprises. I was hooked for about six weeks, looking forward to bed time to continue reading. He’s written other books, which I’m browsing through now to choose the next one.

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Earlier this year I was fairly sure that international travel would be able to resume next year, 2022, once the COVID virus was subdued and vaccinations had worked. But the Delta variant has knocked that for six. I don’t have any confidence of being able to leave this state next year any more.

This is sparked by an ad I saw yesterday for a cruise from Singapore to Perth next year on the QE2. It calls at Jakarta, then Bali, before carrying on to Perth. I might be a bit interested. But even though I’m vaccinated, there’s no way I’d go to Indonesia at the moment and I very much doubt they’ll have things safe by next year. Java and Bali are among the raging hot spots in the world at the moment.

I’ve also noticed another attractive cruise departing March next year from Singapore, going up the west coast of Malaysia to Penang and Phuket, then coming down via Bali to Perth. I would love to do that, but Malaysia is also a raging virus hot spot and again, I very much doubt it will all be clear next year. I see things being still bad outside WA into 2023 now.

For my overseas readers, the Delta variant is “raging” on the east coast of Australia, mainly in New South Wales now, with Victoria following. Western Australia is one of the few places on the planet where there is no virus, but we’re being kept that way by tightly closed borders. No-one comes in or goes out without strict protocols and quarantines, and that doesn’t allow for holiday travel. Looks like international trips are out for some time to come. Oh well, more money for cars.

Hi again, on a grey and cool, calm day. I have washing that needs hanging out and although it rained this morning, I think I might get away with it now (2pm). Boring job! I always had in my mind to invent an automatic washing hanger-upper, but I couldn’t think of a way to do it.

I’ve long had an idea for another invention: a fast cooler. Just as we have a fast food heater in the microwave oven, I want the inverse, a box that cools food in seconds. I reckon it would sell like er, hotcakes, or maybe iceblocks.

There’s a bit of physics required. A microwave oven works by using electromagnetic waves to excite the water molecules in food.

We cool food by a freezer which chills air passing over a tube filled with refrigerant gas which has been rapidly expanded by applying mechanical energy. This works well, but it takes time to chill or freeze food. I’d like a way to do it faster. It might need to use another principle, but I haven’t worked it out.

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I mentioned that the tyre pressure warning came on in the Pug recently, yet it didn’t feel any different, no flat tyre feeling or handling difference.

I got around to checking and pumping a few days ago and found that only one of the tyres measured as down in pressure, the left front. I’ve got my tyre pump set to Bars, where 2.2Bar is 32psi (yes, even after all these years of metric system, I haven’t been able to get my head around Bar vs psi). Anyway, it was only this one tyre and it only measured 2.1Bar vs 2.2. The pump raised the pressure and automatically stopped itself, and the warning has gone away.

This is good. It shows that the pressure sensors are quite sensitive, and yet a warning is not something to be frightened by. Unless you can feel the pressure drop, as we usually do, then you can probably keep driving for a short while.

While I had the pump out, I was going to check the spare as well. But it’s in the boot, “upside down”, with a big foam block in the middle holding the jack and tool kit. That means you can’t reach the tyre valve without taking it all out. Too hard. Maybe on a warm day when I’ve got more energy.

I’m enjoying this car so much that I “take the long way home”, that is, when I leave the Butler shops I go down to Marmion Ave, then go at the 80Km/h limit to the Kingsbridge Bvd shops, then instead of turning left to go to my house, I continue on to Connolly Drive, back up to the Butler shops again, back via Marmion Ave and finally home. A double loop. I’m using the clutchless manual more now, and realising that even if I have it in manual mode in 3rd or 4th, it automatically drops down to 2nd when I slow for a corner or traffic lights, allowing me to choose when to shift up again. It’s a 6 speed, and I’m finding that 3rd is a very flexible gear for around town. This is a big 6 cylinder, torquey diesel with twin turbos, remember, so when I accelerate away in 3rd, it responds beautifully. Sheer pleasure. I drive it for the fun of it.

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I’ve just read that the James Webb Telescope is finally, finally, set for launch, on 21 October.

This is the replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope after around 25 years’ service. The Webb telescope has been in the design and build phase for nearly as long, experiencing delay after delay, budget cut after budget cut. It’s been like fusion power, always 20 years in the future. See more here.

Hubble had a major failure last month and has been brought back to life, but at the expense of a redundant power source, meaning if it fails in this way again, that’s it.

The Webb telescope replacement is a huge improvement incorporating all the latest technology and should surpass the Hubble in all respects, which means we should see spectacular views. If Hubble images were awe inspiring, the Webb images should knock our socks off. I can’t wait.

Unfortunately, even after the launch, it will take about four days to reach its orbital point and another four weeks to unfold itself. Then there’ll be weeks of testing and calibration, no doubt. It’ll be worth it. The sheer terror mentioned in the article is the nervousness about a launch failure, or a failure in space, or a mechanical failure to unfold, or a myriad of other problems. It will be at the Langrange 1 point, meaning there’s no chance of an astronaut mission to fix it.

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I think I’m about to buy a digital telecine chain. As someone who used to operate telecine chains at Channel 7 many years ago, I never thought I would say that.

Facebook occasionally justifies itself for me. This device is advertised. It’s a jerk motion (non-real time) film scanner for 8mm or Super 8mm. It’s cheap Chinese, A$79, but at that price I’m prepared to take a risk.

It’s not a projector. It transports the film one frame at a time and positions the frame over a digital sensor, like a tiny digital camera. The frame is snapped and stored digitally and the film is moved on to the next frame. The stored frames are on an SD card and software plays all the frames in sequence as an mp4 video file.

I have three 7″ reels (better check that diameter as it’s the maximum) that I shot in the 1970s, and I haven’t seen them since then (nearly 50 years!) Lucky it’s Kodachrome, meaning it will not have deteriorated. I’ve been meaning to get them transferred to DVD or BluRay but it’s expensive, in the hundreds of $$$ per reel last time I checked. It says it will do 1080p, which is BluRay quality, but how good it is optically remains to be seen.

I haven’t ordered it yet, but I think I will.

P.S.: I have now. I’m awaiting delivery.

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My one year subscription to MyHeritage.com expires on Wednesday and I’m about to cancel the automatic renewal. A year ago I paid $235 for a year so that I could use their enhancement and colourisation software to rejuvenate all my old black and white images. When I say “my”, I mean some of mine but mainly Dad’s and Uncle Darcey’s.

I finished all the images within a few months (one at a time, very tedious), then kinda got sucked in to the family tree side of it. After a year, the tree has grown remarkably and I have seven or eight generations going back to the 1700s.

One thing it’s shown me is the Lawrie side, my maternal grandmother’s ancestry. Her maiden name was Lawrie and her parents were from Scotland, arriving in South Australia in the late 1800s. I was dimly aware of a Lawrie branch of relatives in Bruce Rock in the 1950s, but I never got to know them or understand the relationship. Now I do.

The tree is enormous and I’ve downloaded as many versions of it as I can. One version is a wall chart about 2m wide by 1m high. Another is a pdf book which comes to 148 pages. Of course, every time the tree is updated, you have to output fresh versions of these charts and books. That’s what I need to do now, before I finish the subscription.

Why am I finishing? Cost, what else? Renewal is US$368! That’s too much for me. I’m sure I’ll get a phone call pleading with me to stay and offering a better price, but I think I’ve done all I need to do.

A very nice day for a change, blue sky, sunshine, calm. Wow, horizontal rain and blasting winds on Sunday and Monday. Unpleasant. Better get my washing done while I can because there’s more rain on the way.

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I’ve just completed my census, six days early. On-line. I got a letter from the ABS on Monday with my number and instructions. It was easy, I had no problems. Security is tight – first, a temporary password, then you generate your own password, then a four digit PIN. My password is generated by my password keeper program and is 12 random characters, which I don’t even see, since it’s automatically stored in the pwd software.

I’ve been using this password keeping software, Dashlane, for about four years now and I like it. They got me in with the offer of a year’s free use about four years ago, which was clever because once you start using it, it’s hard to give it up. You’re hooked in.

I’ve been using another program, PortableSafe from a small UK writer, for more than ten years, but he stopped development and wasn’t interested in suggestions. I asked him if he’d be interested in selling the source code so that someone else could carry it on, but he declined, so it remains an orphan. I paid for my copy, of course, about A$17, I think, and it continues to work to this day.

The reason I continue to use it, even though I run a new one, is that it now contains dozens, scores, maybe even hundreds of the serial numbers of my paid software, going back years. That means it holds all the old numbers too, in case I need them. Plus a whole lot of membership numbers, PINs, account numbers, logins and so on. It lends itself to that more than the new one, Dashlane, as you can create whatever fields you want.

It’s also very small, about 100K bytes, with an attached, encrypted data file of about 20KB which is stored on my local drive. I do a backup (one button) about once a month, and also email myself a copy of the program plus the data file every so often, which means it’s stored on Gmail’s servers too.

Dashlane (strange name, I don’t know why it’s called that) is a US program, NY I think, and its data is strictly stored on its US servers. That means you have to have an internet connection for it to work, which is another reason I keep PortableSafe going.

When I first bought in, it was a stand-alone program but they’ve changed it recently. You can still use it stand-alone (meaning start it up on the desktop with a short cut and then enter your master password). But they’ve completely integrated it into the browser now, Mozilla Firefox in my case. When you start Firefox, Dashlane starts too and connects to the servers after you enter the master password. A small icon at top right of the browser shows green when logged in and red if it’s not logged in.

Thereafter, whenever the browser asks you to log in to a site or has any boxes asking you to enter information, when you click in any box Dashlane pops up and offers to supply the information. This is a boon for entering repetitive information, long numbers and passwords. I find it quite reliable and controllable.

The drawback is that I no longer see the passwords. In the old days, I used to be able to remember quite a few of them, but at 12 characters and digits, that’s not realistic any more. As I say, I find it reliable so I’m happy.

Also, when you’re on a new site and need to provide a new password, Dashlane offers to generate a random string of however many characters you choose.

Too much information!

Oh, forgot to mention: there’s a Dashlane plugin for Android, so you have it on your phone and tablet too. Very handy and it’s a second source, just in case you can’t connect from your PC or laptop.

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Head of Australia’s vaccine strategy not ruling out cash incentives to achieve 80% target

“Lt Gen John Frewen says demand still exceeds supply but incentives may be needed to counter vaccine hesitancy later in the year.”

They’re talking about offering financial rewards to people to get vaccinated, maybe later this year.

Hold on! I’ve had my two jabs – how about rewarding me for getting in early?

If there’s a possibility of a financial bonus later in the year, won’t some people hold off getting jabbed until the reward is firmed up?

How about reversing the logic? How about fining people, or applying some other disincentive, for people who haven’t had their jabs by a certain date. The government will know who they are (although there’s an element of privacy there).

Bad thinking, and I’m not happy that the ALP are pushing the idea.

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I’ve just had another go at my Verada, parked outside in the laneway while the wet weather washed away my desire to work on it. 🙂 I charged the battery overnight and it started first go, running smoothly and idling like a sewing machine. Good car!

While I had the bonnet up, for the first time I noticed a sticker on the underside of the bonnet. It’s for the change of the timing belt at around 110,000Km (the car’s done 139,000 approx.). Hooray! It came without any log book and I was a bit worried about it. It’s an expensive job and I didn’t want to spend the money. Now I can advertise it with a clear conscience.

Initial purchase price $1250; new exhaust $700; new brake pads and rotors all around $750; new RH tail light lens $70; new power antenna $40; polish headlight lenses $50; new roof lining $230. Will I be able to recoup?

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I started using my new Aldi hot water machine this morning. Excellent. The old machine went ker-chunk, ker-chunk, ker-chunk and always dripped a fairly long stream after it shut off. This new one just goes mmmmmmmmmmm and shuts off with a couple of drops at the end. Choice of 75, 85 and 98 deg and 220ml, 250ml and 300ml quantity. I like it!

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More rain today, and grey skies, same as yesterday and the day before, and before… The forecast is for a fine day next Thursday, thank goodness.

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Nonetheless, I’ve had quite a good day, after a good sleep! I’m having trouble waking up, or more correctly, staying awake after I initially wake in the morning. Before I know it, another couple of hours have gone by. Must work on this as spring and summer arrive.

Anyway, I made a trip to Aldi to buy a specific item. For about 25 years I’ve had one of these:

It’s a Tefal Quick_Cup. It heats water to just below boiling and pumps it out of the spout into your cup. The point is, you only heat enough water for a cup’s worth. You don’t boil a whole kettle for one cup.

It’s still working, but it drips a lot and is stained and gunky. They went off the market years ago and I often wondered if I’d ever be able to replace it.

Well, today Aldi is selling these:

It’s $70. I think my Tefal cost around $100 all those years ago. As you can see, the new one’s got a temperature readout, adjustable temperature with four presets, and adjustable amounts of water dispensed. Suits me, so I bought one this morning. I may be able to give my old one to a friend. (It’s in not bad condition.)

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While I was at Aldi, I ran into an old work colleague, Graham, from the Channel 7 days, and we had a good chat. I’m very pleased, because Graham is one of the good guys, a nice guy. We go back about 50 years there, I think. He’s just turned 70 and is about to retire, and since we live only five minutes apart, I hope we’ll be able to share some coffees and stories. He knows my house.

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Then it was sushi lunch at the Butler shops. Later at the BWS bottle shop I was a bit flabbergasted when I bought my beer for the week. I bought three four can packs of designer beer and as I was paying, the young guy said, “You’re not buying it for those kids are you?”

Huh?? I didn’t understand and asked him to repeat. He pointed to three youths across the way, on the seats, and said it again, asking me if I was buying for them. He said it was a bit common, older guys (like me?) buying grog for under agers.

Whaaat? I said “No!, It wouldn’t occur to me.” I didn’t arc up, but I thought, “What is this crap?” He apologised and said he didn’t mean to suggest I would. But that’s what he was doing, suggesting it. I walked away feeling quite annoyed.

Considering I had to show the contents of my (hand)bag at Aldi before the checkout lady would serve me, I am bloody offended! They are casting accusations. I’m not happy.

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I had a follow-up appointment with the skin cancer surgeon last Tuesday. Aaaarrrrgh! That guy is chronically late! Two bloody hours I waited! At the end, I was considering leaving. I went out into the common area and asked a nurse if he was actually in the building. She apologised and said he’s just here (in the next room).

I think I’ve had about eight appointments in the past five months and he’s been seriously late for every one of them, including the surgeries. It took three months from the time I first made an appointment to get to see him, during which I reckon the skin cancer was growing and becoming more painful.

That first visit took a 1 3/4hr wait. Then the first surgery was 1 1/2hrs late. And so on. The second surgery was 3 1/2hrs late. And now this. I don’t know how skilled he is, but I will not recommend him.

Especially since he had to redo the surgery, because he wasn’t sure he got enough out. Did I get it free? No way, he charged for it again, including making me pay a $600 gap fee. Plus $300 up front, before the op, for the anaesthetist.

Anyway, the result of Tuesday is that I have a good, healthy healing line on the back half of the circular wound, nearest my ear, but the front half has healed in a lumpy ridge, forming a very noticeable scar. He spent a couple of minutes examining it and sucking his teeth before saying he doesn’t know whether it’s still healing, or whether the cancer is still growing under the skin and forming the lumps.

So it will either heal, in time, and the lumps will get smaller, in which case, all well and good. Or it will stay the same, in which case I will have a big scar line.

OR, the lumps will get bigger, in which case the cancer is still growing. Bloody hell! I have to have another appointment in six weeks’ time to see the progress.

I’m losing confidence in this guy.

Wow, eighteen days since the last post – sorry about that. Life’s a bit hum drum, that’s all. (Hum drum, strange saying. I wonder where that comes from. I must look it up. It’s good that we have Google and Wikipedia and so on to easily find things like that these days.)

I’ve had no side effects from my two vaccinations and it’s three weeks since the last one, so I’m all armoured up. Boy, don’t we live in the safest place on Earth? Sure, it’s the most isolated city on Earth but for once, it works in our favour.

It’s a rare fine day today, in the midst of the wettest July in many years. I’ll bet the farmers are happy. This is like the winters of old, rain nearly every day, soggy paddocks. Still, better not speak too loudly or there’ll be some new anomaly – like the driest August and September on record, or something.

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I watched the Olympics Opening Ceremony last night and quite enjoyed it. Agreed, it didn’t have the spectacle of the ones in years gone by, but it was dignified and had enough sparkle, but no too much. For me, the drone display was a highlight (literally!) and the perfect opening of the ball on top of the Fujiyama mountain replica was impressive. Typical Japanese engineering, smooth and reliable.

I only read this morning that not all teams were in full strength due to crowd limits. Russia sure looked diminished. The Americans were on form, showing some of their usual arrogance with their chants of U-S-A, U-S-A, but they stopped after a few.

I’m not a fan of the Aussie team colours. Green and gold are not a pleasant combination to me, and sharing the colours with Brazil grates. Red, white and blue, with green and gold flashes mixed with red, black and yellow for the Aboriginal flag. It can be done.

I’m not much interested in watching the sports themselves, but no doubt I’ll dip in at times. It’s good that it’s in our time zone.

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I do feel something for the Sydney people and I wouldn’t like to be going through their ordeal with the COVID Delta virus outbreak there.

BUT…. we’ve had to put up with their slander of our state all last year, and this. Their arrogance and “Masters of the Universe” attitude is too much to take.

So when they appeal to us to send our supplies of vaccine over, well Gladys, perhaps you should apologise for the bad things you’ve said about us, even just the ones this year. Only two months ago she was criticising Victoria in know-it-all tones. It’s about time she listened to Mark McGowan on how to do lock-downs properly. Fat chance of that.

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The tyre pressure warning has come on in Evie. It feels normal and looks normal so I don’t think I’ve got a flat tyre, but it’s good to see that it works. I have my trusty Aldi pump and I’ll check them asap.

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I’ve just finished another Kindle book, another one of 770 pages, called the War Planners Vol. 1. It’s quite a clever plot: a couple of dozen people (in the USA, of course) are contacted and asked to go voluntarily from their high level, high tech jobs, and be flown to a secret location, to fulfil their commitments to a CIA/NSA group for a national emergency.

When they get there, they’re told that China is secretly planning to invade the USA. Their task is to anticipate the ways China could arrange this attack, using their highly secret knowledge.

It all appears to be legitimate and they believe what they’re told, for the first few days. But odd things start to happen and one of the US guys gets suspicious. Sure enough, it becomes clear that the Chinese, using implanted people within the US, are getting information from this group to plan an attack.

From then on, it’s a bit like a very long action movie, but it’s very well written. The author is a former Navy pilot and writes authentically, about helicopters, especially. The author is Andrew Watts and he’s a much better writer than James Rosone was, with the exception that Watts writes the micro story, full of detail on a smaller scale, whereas Rosone’s scope is nothing less than nation against nation, full of strategy and the big picture. But full of spelling mistakes and silly errors too. Both are good.

There are another five or six books by Watts, so it looks like I’ve got a lotta reading ahead.

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I had an odd thing yesterday. I went to Aldi (for the first time in months, more later). I usually carry a couple of dollar coins in my shorts pocket for the trolley, but this day I didn’t have a coin, nor in my wallet.

A young boy was returning a trolley and I asked him if I could have his coin, in exchange for silver coins. He looked very doubtful and said, “I’ll have to ask my mum.” OK, so I waited while he went over to a car nearby. Nothing happened, he didn’t come back, so I started walking towards the car. But she moved off, and the closer I got, the more she accelerated away. Zoom, gone. So I went back to the trolley to get my free coin and I found it was an Aldi token, the kind you put on your key ring. Bonus. So I’ve got a free trolley token. Strange.

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The reason I haven’t been to Aldi for months is that they used to sell a lot of tools, hardware and machinery, and I bought a lot. But for some reason, they seemed to stop selling that stuff, so I stopped going.

A few days ago they emailed their latest catalogue and bingo, they were selling all my kind of stuff, so I went on Thursday. But there was almost nothing there, not even any evidence of where it had been. Maybe I’ve got the wrong day, I thought.

I asked the checkout lady on the way out: “It’s all sold out”, she said. Huh?

So that shows how popular it is. Surely they should realise this, and realise that when that’s being sold, that gets me in for my regular shopping as well. Otherwise, I don’t go.

Yep, pumped up with antibodies. I had my second COVID-19 Astra Zeneca vaccination this afternoon so I feel invulnerable. Ho ho, nothing is certain, but you’d have to be very, very, incredibly unlucky to catch Corona now, or indeed, to get blood clots. I’m not worried.

I asked if we get a card, or a certificate or a badge to officially prove we’ve been jabbed twice, but although she gave me a printout of my vaccination record since 2013 when I became a regular patient at this medical centre, there’s nothing else.

She did say that if I go to my MyGov website account, I should find a record there that I can print out. OK, I guess I’ll check that in a couple of days. But without some serious government certificate or card to show, anyone can say they’ve been fully vaccinated, even if they haven’t had even one. I want a nice badge I can wear to show people that I’m safe. Maybe I could design one and sell it on the web. I would require proof before I would issue one.

Hah, do I want hassles? Not likely.

By the way, have you heard this Aussie slang? What kind of beer will you have? I’ll have a virus, thanks.
Virus – Corona, yeah?

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Wow, what a start to winter. Sunday was our wettest July day for 20 years and June was remarkably cold. For my northern hemisphere readers, “remarkably cold” means 16-17C maxima and 3-6C minima. That’s a normal spring or summer day for you, isn’t it? For me it just means I put on a cardigan each day and throw on a cotton blanket on top of my lightweight doona. I don’t need a blanket under the doona, on top of the sheet. I’m warm enough.

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By the way, remember last year I had a big leak on my side of the water meter, where there’s a T-piece for the reticulation pipe. ‘Course you don’t.

Anyway, my water bill at that time was about $540. Ouch. I had to wear it because it was my pipe that leaked and I neglected it.

Then a couple of months ago, a Water Corp guy turned up to replace my water meter, which was faulty. I didn’t realise it. Job done.

Come 12 months later, my water bill up to 31 May arrived, and whammo, it was $545.02. Funny, I thought, I haven’t been having big baths or double showers each day.

You guessed it: when I looked closely at the bill, the amount of water used this year was within 4L of the same period last year. Yes, because the meter had started again from zero, they had just repeated the amount from last year. But that was the time of the big leak, and it’s not leaking now.

So I got onto the Water Corp and showed them this graph, from their last bill:

The 16L quantity from Jan – Mar 2021 is obvious and would have led them to the faulty meter. But the next two quantities, 4224 L and 4228L are a bit outlandish.

I got a very bright and friendly reply from them agreeing with my assessment and promising to investigate and work out a correction.

By coincidence, their new assessment arrived just now and they’ve credited my account with $436.92, so my usage was reduced to about $80. With that amount of credit, I shouldn’t have to pay anything for quite a few months to come. Very satisfactory.

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I’ve just had to spell bureaucracy in another post. Boy, I have trouble with that word. I’m a pretty good speller, but that one gets me.

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I should have sold the Verada by now, but it’s chosen just this time develop a fault where it won’t start. Or rather, it starts but immediately dies. Second go, starts again, but immediately dies and so on.

I was stumped, but I reckon, I have a hunch, that a tube or hose has fallen off in the engine bay. I haven’t had a look yet, too cold and wet and windy, but I’ll try to fix it myself before I call the RAC.

Speaking of the RAC, I was very pleased to get a letter from them around the 16th of May, which was the 50th anniversary of my membership, enclosing a new membership card, gold and saying 50 Years Gold Member. And in a small velvet bag was a nice gold coloured key ring pendant/medal with the RAC logo on the front and my name engraved on the back.

At last! That’s only a small reward, but it’s nice to finally be recognised after all these years.

Yeah, it’s a long time since I wrote, sorry. We’re back in lockdown again, I’m afraid, but it’s only a short one, and if things don’t go suddenly bad, it should end at midnight on Saturday. It doesn’t really affect me, each day is the same to me. I self isolate as a way of life.

Unfortunately, the woman who brought the virus home from Sydney last week is from this northern beachside area and even did some shopping at the Coles shop that I use, at Ocean Keys, Clarkson. I usually do my weekly grocery shopping there on Fridays, but strangely, for some reason, I shopped at a different local shopping centre on that Friday. Sixth sense?

I’m due for my second vaccination shot on Tuesday, so that will be good. I feel pretty safe. Keep buying those LOTTO tickets, eh?

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I did a bit of grocery shopping at a local IGA shop on Tuesday. This is the one that closed down for about a year, crushed by the competition from the new Butler Village with its Woolworths supermarket.

Then last year, it opened again. Whacko! I was pleased because it’s convenient for me. The downside is that it’s much more expensive, so you have to accept that. It’s not for your regular weekly fill.

They even started staying open 24 hours, although why anyone would want to buy groceries at 3am is beyond me. That would have been a boring, boring shift.

But sad to say, it’s visibly dying again. Whole blocks of cold cabinets are boarded up. A whole double row of shelves has been removed. The opening hours are back to 9pm closing. I do my best to support them but you have to accept that you’re paying a donation on your bill.

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Attached to the supermarket is a Cellarbrations liquor shop and I find their prices to be very competitive, so I tend to use them.

In the past couple of years I’ve been chatting a lot to a woman behind the counter there, and last Tuesday I was surprised to find that she’s from Iceland! Name of Helena. She treated me to some Icelandic speech, which I think is a dialect of Swedish; I must ask her about that. She’s got a broad Aussie accent, though, having grown up in Perth.

I happen to be watching a series on Netflix at the moment, set in Iceland, called Kapla. Phew, it’s a bleak, raw place. Spectacular scenery, but cold and windy. It’s the subject of many photo essays these days, but after the first few, they tend to have a certain sameness about them

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I mentioned the Kindle books I’ve been reading by James Rosone and Miranda Watson, on the theme of what World War 3 might be like. All I can say is, WOW!

Don’t expect literary masterpieces. These are just an ex-US Army guy writing from a veteran’s knowledge. But he has a very wide view and what he writes is very, very plausible. I have the feeling that he writes the military action stuff, and his co-writer Miranda Watson writes the “interior” stuff, the meetings and conferences where strategy is discussed by the President and the military and civilian chiefs.

I read the six novels in the first series about one scenario. I’m now about a quarter of the way into book four of the second series, a different scenario involving nuclear war in the Middle East after New York and Newark are destroyed by two nuclear devices brought in on ships.

In this scenario, Japan reneges on its commitment to come to the aid of the USA, trying to stay neutral, then compounds the betrayal by buckling to pressure from China to form an alliance and commit to a surprise attack on the US West Coast, California. They use the deception that they are still friendly to the US to spring a surprise attack on Los Angeles. I’m only at that point so far, but I have the feeling that they may be in line for another nuclear response from the US on the Japanese mainland.

I’m afraid these second series novels are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, probably one per page. Given each book averages 400 pages, that’s a lot of errors.

One especially ridiculous editing failure is that when detailing meetings of the British war cabinet, they repeatedly call men with knighthoods, such as General Sir Michael Browne, or Admiral Sir James Parkinson, as “Sir Browne”, or “Sir Parkinson” and so on. It seems elementary to me. They couldn’t have done much research.

The week’s flown by. Another visit to the skin cancer doc brought good news yesterday. The new biopsies were all clear, except for one they’re a bit doubtful about. A small area might need radiation. I asked what that would be like, my impression being that it would burn the skin and be a bit painful. No, he said, that used to be true but they’ve learnt they can use lower power these days and it shouldn’t hurt. OK, that’s good to know.

So now, one more appointment in three weeks’ time and that should be the finish of my skin cancer troubles.

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Back home again after my second overnight stay in hospital. The skin cancer surgeon wanted a second go at the site on my right temple, same as before. He felt he needed to get more samples of tissue out for biopsy, to check if the cancer has spread. I won’t know the results for a week. Fingers crossed.

He was running very late on Thursday. My op was scheduled for about 3.15pm but I didn’t go in until about 6.30pm. Then I missed all the fun, as they put me to sleep this time. I awoke to some fairly painful tidying up around 7.30pm. I have a photo, but it’s too gory to show. I bled a lot more this time, but it’s stopped now.

As I said, I seem to be having medical incidents (I was going to say problems, but they’re not big problems), one after another these days. Getting older, I’m afraid.

Once again my good mate Keith drove me to the hospital on Thursday and picked me up yesterday. Good friend.

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I was/am a bit annoyed that I got a bill from the anaesthetist wanting to be paid the full amount, $600, before the operation. I had no option but to pay in advance. It means I have to claim it from HBF myself, which shouldn’t be a problem, but I’m not happy about having to pay up front before the service is performed.

By the way, in today’s paper, HBF say they are going to return $41m surplus to customers like me due to reduced demand last year, due to fewer operations being performed due to COVID. That’s great. I don’t know how much we’ll be refunded, they say they’ll let us know in the next couple of months, but I’m pleased.

HBF, RAC, P&N Bank – three WA companies that I use, and I am highly pleased with their services.

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I mentioned that I finished the six book series about a third world war, after Russia invades Ukraine. That’s near 3,000 pages. The author is James Rosone with Miranda Watson (I’m not sure what role she plays). This guy is a prolific writer! I’m onto his next sequence of books, about another world war 3 scenario. This one is a bit strange – not the story line, which is quite plausible, but it’s written as if to be history, written after the event.

It’s very jingoistic, being written from the American point of view, where the Muslim world are the baddies, teaming up with China and Russia. America has a new political party, an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans, with a strong leader who knows how to put things right. It makes me roll my eyes so much I might have to send them on holidays to relax the muscles.

When I’ve finished this, there’s another series of books on the second American Civil War – that is, in the near future, post Trump. As I said, he’s a prolific wordsmith.

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Dang, I’ve inflicted the first bump mark on Evie’s derriere. For some reason I find it harder to reverse into my garage in the Peugeot than I did with the Verada. I don’t know why – it’s a slightly shorter car (the Pug, I mean) and I slightly bumped the pillar just now. I guess now will be the time to test whether a car “lotion”/polish I bought off the web will do what they say. It polishes marks out by magic on the web. Hah! We shall see.

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This will get me kicks in the shins, but I can’t help noticing how nearly all the troublemakers in vaccine doubters, quarantine breakers, border closure illegal crossers, arguers, abusers of police and so on, are …….. women! It’s rare to see a bloke reported or chased. It’s all the mouthy women, especially the young ones.

The brazen border crossers who drove from locked-down Victoria, through NSW to the Sunshine coast in Qld – it was a married couple, but it was the woman who was driving and has been arrested. No masks, no quarantining. They reckoned they had to be in Qld for the husband to take up a job, but how about endangering two whole states in the process? Amazing.