I’ve just discovered this comment from the owner of the Karma House homestay (above) in Ubud where I wrote “Charming” as a review last Xmas. Another guest had written a fairly critical review and Putuh, the 19yo Balinese dancer who was so nice to me, is upset:

“I will answer all Here HOME STAY, no hotel or villa, We can’t clean your room If you don’t tell me Because we don’t bring key No.2 All room we put just 1 towel Because experiens many people bring towel. And don’t nedd towel from here, If anather people nedd towel, just ask me, and than we will give, No.3 I understand if you don’t like we breakfast, every home stay in ubud make pancake like krepes Because price for the room just 180.000 for 2 person, very cip price, here for buy fruit until 200.000 , here very expensiv. We don’t have badget for make breakfast like hotel, in restaurant pancake until 40.000 If i make pancake same like restaurant, 2people 80.000. And than fruit how much cost just for breakfast?? Coffe , tea. Cream. Sugar, every day. Where i can take money for this?? Price just Rp.180.000???? And than for kulkas, every homestay dont have kulkas if price just it, anather home stay maybe have kulkas but deferent price, I just have a litlle fortune/profit, Maybe now you stay in hotel, you ask my brakfast not good, I undestrand we are human, many people like, many people don’t like , but plis , if you want compare, plis hotel=hotel, homestay=homestay In ubud, homestay have view forest just here, anather homestay just home, not with view, i now you angry, because your husband sick about we house, Thank you Putu”

Bravo Putu. Well said. This is not a hotel, we can’t provide hotel quality at such a low price. Fair enough. As I said in my review, the atmosphere is beautiful and the people are fantastic. I recommend it and I’d stay there again.

It’s not a hotel. Karma House, Ubud

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Oh dear. I can’t continue here at this two storey Condotel. I could hardly make it up the stairs at 10pm last night. My legs are just too weak. I can’t use the pool because there are no ladders. This morning I had my first shower and had trouble stepping over a 35cm wide bath surround onto the curved bottom of the bath. It was OK when it was dry, but getting out when it was wet was plain dangerous. You’re relying on your bath side foot retaining its grip on the wet bath floor while you make this wide step. I’ll have to try sitting on the edge and swinging my legs around. Tomorrow.

But, once standing in the bath with the water going, you’re right next to a big louvred window. Nice view if you open it, but when I’m soaped up, eyes closed, I have trouble holding my balance and the consequences of falling against that glass are scary. Not much to hold onto. Ugh.

However, the view when you open the louvres is of a large house garden next door with a big fish pond full of big fish. I wondered where the constant sound of running water was coming from. That’s it. As well, there were two beagles playing on the lawn and a rooster crowing. Nice.

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I’m trying to decide what to do. I saw the Astana yesterday and it’s quite nice, but their policy of no refunds puts me off. It means you’re locked in, and as I’ve found with this place, that’s bad news if you need to move out.

I’m looking at another more modern hotel in Jl. Poso but it’s $59 a night vs $44 at Astana.

This trip is not working out as I’d hoped. I didn’t want to worry about moving hotels nor the hassle of trying to find a good one, but now I’m on edge. You don’t know what a hotel is going to really be like until you try it, and I don’t want to be locked into no-refund deals. Breakfast time.

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More hujan, but it’s stopped now at 10.30am. Reading the Kura Kura bus brochure at breakfast, they stop at the Oasis Lagoon hotel where I stayed at New Year, and at the Taksu Sanur hotel which I’m looking at now. That’s a powerful reason to choose the Taksu.

I stopped off at the office just now and told them I can’t continue here. They’re OK with my cancellation. Crumbs, I’d booked three more stays after this one. Sorry, but if you don’t put hand rails in … it’s pretty basic. As someone said at home, it’s a legal requirement in Australia.

So I’ll move out on Monday, although Kartika has got me down to move on Tuesday – I’ll have to correct her. I just can’t handle these stairs and the ladderless pool.

I’ve noticed a lot of the units have custom fittings, like security doors, and one unit has a handrail on the stairs. Obviously they have trouble too.

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 I’ve cancelled all the bookings for this hotel, and at this moment, I don’t have any other booking after Sunday night. Gah! I’ll get a taxi this afternoon to look at two candidates.

One is the Praschita Apartments, also in Sanur but further south and in a bit, not far from here, actually. There’s an ‘apartment’ room of 50m2 for $31 a night, and it looks good. The bedroom, with a balcony, is upstairs, but the stairs have normal railings and don’t look steep. From the photos, it looks as if I could cope, so I’ll check it out. They also have 60m2 apartments on one level, but they are $67 a night. BIG! They have a kitchen and lounge like here and a separate bedroom with, they say, three double beds. I’ll believe that when I see it.

Uh oh, from the pictures, there’s no pool ladder to get in and out. They assume you can lift yourself out. I’ll have to check that. It’s a deal breaker.

The other is the Taksu Sanur, very new, very modern, and the rooms look great in the photos. Huge arm chair, which is what I like to sit, watch TV and read. Normal balcony, level with the room floor. I simply can’t use the balcony here, the step down is too great, and conversely, the step back up would be impossible for me. Crazy design.

The Taksu is $72 per night, or $90 per night for a fancier room. More than I wanted to pay. Does look good, though.

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I’ve just done an internet speed test here. Download speed is 5.46Mb/s, upload is 1.45Mb/s.

Holy smoke, my download speed at home is 1.3Mb/s, irregular, and upload is 0.2Mb/s. We are poorly served in Australia. Bali is 5x faster, even over wi-fi in a hotel, and it’s a smooth delivery.

ABC News report again: “Remember that the only merit of Turnbull’s ‘multi-technology mix’ (MTM) was that it would be cheaper to build, and arrive sooner. There was no question that it was technically inferior to the former Labor government’s mostly fibre-to-the-premises network, which then shadow communications minister Turnbull derided as a ‘Rolls-Royce’ option.

“The MTM network has blown out twice in projected cost – first, from $29.5 billion to $41 billion, and then last year to “up to” $56 billion. And instead of delivering 25 Mbps by 2016, now the MTM network isn’t expected to be finished until 2020 – only a year earlier than Labor expected to finish its rollout. NBN’s own chairman has admitted meeting this 2020 target will require a ‘heroic’ effort.”

Bloody Turnbull. He will go down in history as the man who crippled the NBN. I am angry. As this report says, Labor’s plan for fibre to the home was a nation building plan, and would have meant 100Mb/s for everyone. But we might get 25Mb/s, much later and at much greater cost.

Turnbull is a vain fool. He was convinced he deserved to be prime minister, but once he got there, he’s floundering. Meanwhile, he’s wrecked the NBN plan. I spit.

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I’ve just read the ABC News report about dogs being able to read humans’ facial expressions, even the most subtle that even other humans might not see.

About five years ago I was under great stress, and at the same time in severe pain. I was lying on my bed one afternoon, in huge distress but silent, I thought, silently groaning.

Minnie would normally not come into my bedroom for some reason, but this time she came into the room and lay down on the floor beside me. Obviously I was giving off some sign of my distress and she was there to support me. I was amazed. I loved that dog.

The taxi driver yesterday said he loves dogs and has one – he calls it Doggee. Good name.

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OK, all done. I went to look at the two contenders and the first one, the Praschita, looked nothing like the photos on the web. So much different that I’m not even sure I was at the right hotel. But they saw my notes and didn’t correct me. It was not good enough. Very traditional, but dark and not all that nice.

On to the other one, the Taksu. This is more like it. It’s a big multi storey modern hotel and very nice. I looked at three rooms and chose the last, a Superior Suite. It’s big, light toned, on the ground floor and has a terrace with table and chairs overlooking greenery and part views of the pool. Initial price was $90 per night, but when I told them 24 nights it came down to $75 a night. (For comparison, I’m paying $54, $57, $61 a night here, depending on dates, irrelevant now.) And I checked – if I need to, I can move again with no penalty. It’s a full service hotel, big restaurant, big public areas and bar, etc.

So I move over next Monday. Nyepi is Wednesday. I’ve read about it, and it seems there are big street celebrations the day before and the day after. Parades, puppet figures, water fights. Sounds good. Ogoh-ogoh, it’s called. Good stuff, I hope.

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I got the taxi driver to drop me at Hardy’s (dang, I just realised I forgot to get more DVDs.). I bought the latest Economist at Rp77,000 or A$7.70. It costs me $11 at home. It seems cheaper than I’ve seen it here before.

Then I was making the slow trudge home along Jl. Tamblingan, using my stick, when I became aware of someone talking to me. Blow me down, it was Wiwin on her motorbike. She’d seen me and stopped, but I didn’t recognise her at first with her helmet on.

We chatted briefly but she soon zoomed off, busy, busy. Even so, she said “Let’s catch up” so there’s hope for this old bloke yet 😉

What a handsome chap. Wonder who it is?

Rain, rain. Lots of it, last night, and now at 11am, for the past 90 mins. It’s OK, it’s bagus, they need it.

I had a swim first thing this morning, at 7.30am, and although it was nice, it’s going to be a big problem for me. First, the water is less than sparkling clean. You wonder what bugs are in it.

But my problem is getting in and, more seriously, out. There are no ladders, just platforms below the water level, like seats. The trouble is, the step down from the outer rim to the platform is about 45cm and my legs give way when I have to step down that far. I fall, into the water, of course, but it feels bad.

But getting out again … oh boy. I can sit on that underwater seat but I can’t stand up and step up with nothing to hold onto. My thigh muscles are too weak to lift me. So I got myself up sitting on the upper rim of the pool, stone tiles, and tried to stand. Cannot! There was a tree to hold onto, but I was twisted around resting on my left knee trying to pull myself up. I got there, but I’ve grazed my left knee on the tiles and skinned one toe. With all the mud and dirt, I’ve had to buy some antiseptic spray. Hope it works.

Same for the room. The upper floor bedroom opens to a balcony, but the actual solid part is about 45cm below floor level. You step out onto a vinyl seat cushion on a full length wooden seat. There’s nothing to hang onto. The railings are too far away. It looks very dirty and when it’s wet and slippery, no way, but it’s hard to do anyway. So, so far, no sitting on the balcony for me.

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Makan pagi at the Bali Bagus cafe on the street. American breakfast – four slices of toast, one multi grain, with heaps of butter, really cold lime juice, fresh fruit, two eggs, also on toast, bacon, mushrooms and Bali coffee for $4. Bloody marvellous.

I bought a 3XL T-shirt at a shop a few doors up, $25. This is a bit expensive. These are about the same prices as at home. I haggled her down from Rp300,000 but Rp250,000 was the best I could do. I was the first and only customer too.

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Oh, this laptop – I can’t see the cursor. Win10’s colour scheme lacks contrast and I keep losing the cursor. I’ve realised the screen is touch sensitive so I can point and tap, but I don’t like that much. As well, the mouse’s IR sensor is not very good and half the time the cursor won’t move. I might have to buy a different mouse.

____________

I got talking to a woman while sheltering from the rain and she was from Finland. She said temperatures were -20ºC at Xmas time. I told her about our five days above 40ºC. War stories.

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6.15pm: rain has stopped, to a beautiful afternoon.

I took a taxi at about 4.30pm to the Astana Pengembak hotel to ask to see a room. Not bad. The room is only one level, which is the point, but it’s only half the size of this place. But I simply can’t handle the stairs here. I’m taking my life in my hands every time I go up or down. I’ve nearly lost it a couple of times. It’s too dangerous to stay.

So I think I’ll move next Monday. I need to give this place decent notice, three days at minimum. I haven’t paid anything yet, so I have the whip hand.

The Astana is a bit isolated, down a narrow road off Jalan Danau Poso. At first I thought it was too isolated, given there’s no restaurant, but I got the very obliging taxi driver to circle around and show me the entry again. It’s OK, it’s about 200m from Jl. Poso and there are several restaurants, warungs and a shop or two there. It’s a fair way from the beach, at least 500m, but the pool at the hotel has ladders at each end so I can get out. Bagus.

It’s so quiet there that I wonder if I might risk hiring a scooter. A scooter is easier to ride than a motorbike and there’s little traffic in those narrow streets. Even Jl. Poso is pretty quiet.

The room feels a bit small, more like a normal hotel room, but the bathroom is big and has a normal shower cubicle, unlike here where you have to stand in a bath with a very wide rim. I don’t like that – it’s too easy to slip in a bath.

So, sorry S’cape, but I can’t continue here.

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The taxi driver reminded me that it’s Nyepi soon. Wah! I’d forgotten. It’s next Wednesday 9 March.

Nyepi, for non-Bali friends, is the annual day of silence. Complete silence. No lights, no music, no walking around. You have to stay at home and keep quiet, really quiet. Not even TV sound. You even have to be quiet turning the pages of a book. 😉  You can be visited by the local officials if anything is heard, as happened to someone I know a few years ago. No harm done, but it would be embarrassing. Even the airport shuts down. No flights in or out for 24 hours.

If I were an engineering person at an airport, a 24hr shutdown would be a godsend. Wow, 24hrs to do essential maintenance and changeovers that can’t be done at any other time. I wonder if the airport people negotiate with the religious people for special dispensation?

_____________

Then I got the driver to take me to the Abian Boga hotel in Jl. Kesumasari, not far from Merta Sari beach, where I have a four night booking starting next Monday week 14th.

I asked to see a room, and ugh. It’s only A$27 a night with breakfast, but the room is dingy, dark and dirty. I couldn’t face it, so I’ll have to cancel that one. Nice location, but … Again, I haven’t paid anything up front.

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Jindalee Beach, my beach in Perth. (C) PJ Croft 2016

Then back to Hardy’s supermarket to buy some antiseptic wipes, among other small items. I’m always worried about picking something up here. It would be no fun to be laid low with an infected toe, for example.

Travel insurance: because I used my gold Visa card to make bookings, I was eligible for free travel insurance. I went through the application process and after a few questions about medical matters, they refused me medical cover. However, I’m covered for everything else, like theft and robbery and so on (drowning? alcohol poisoning?). It’ll do.

Bloody hell, I wonder if I’d be covered for slips on the glossy smooth floor tiles in Hardy’s. I always worry when I walk around in there. I’m so close to slipping.

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Then to the DVD shop to buy five movies for Rp50,000. That’s $5. Good value.

Then back to the taxi, Bluebird no.630, who had waited patiently for me, and back to where we started an hour earlier. Price, negotiated beforehand, Rp100,000 or $10. He was such a nice guy I gave him Rp50,000 extra for which he was very grateful. Crumbs, I’d just spent the same amount on DVDs which I’ll probably throw away after I’ve watched them.

HM Barque Endeavour off the Perth coast, with Rottnest Island in the background. 1989  The lens used was a cheap Vivitar 400mm, bought as recommended by Modern Photography mag, and it’s sharp enough to see the rigging lines. But I lost it in a burglary in 1991.  (C) PJ Croft 2016

Bromo Dawn 1989     (C) PJ Croft 2016

OK, I’m ensconced. Installed. Accommodated. I’ve arrived in Sanur, Bali, in the S’cape Condotel and after a tough walk up the road to a Circle K convenience shop, I’m sitting here at 7pm with a Guinness in hand. Nice.

I must admit I can immediately see why people said cleanliness leaves a bit to be desired in the reviews. Five star it is not. It looks old and in need of a renovation. Everything looks worn. It’s not seriously bad, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to continue here long term, which is what I thought I’d be doing.

The stairs are a real stumbling block, if you’ll pardon the pun. They’re wooden, which is good for grip, but fairly steep, and as I thought, there’s no hand rail, so I have to steady myself against blank walls until I reach the landing. This is a tight 90º turn and the steps get very narrow. I have to grab for the door frame to get up there. This is not good.

But the other problem is that some things I need upstairs, and they’re downstairs. Other things I need downstairs and I’ve left them upstairs. Grrrr. It’ll sort itself out, but I’m having to use the trackpad because I left the mouse upstairs and I don’t have the energy to go up again!

Another disappointment is that both TVs, upstairs and downstairs, are old 17″ CRT (tube) sets. As well, there’s a very restricted choice of programs from a normal TV antenna, i.e. no pay TV stuff, so no CNN or National Geographic etc., just Indonesian channels. There is a DVD player downstairs and I just happen to have brought a DVD with me, with two episodes of Silent Witness, so I’ll be OK for a while. Sob.

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The Air Asia flight up was uneventful, except that I was getting fed up with constant pushes and bumps against my seat back. It seemed a guy with long legs was kneeing my seat back, and he couldn’t keep still. The guy in front of me insisted on reclining his seat so that it was in my face, and likewise, couldn’t seem to stop moving around. Lucky it’s only 3¼ hours. I’ll try another airline next time, which is early May.

I have to do the May-June trip because I’ve pre-paid accommodation, but I suspect I may cancel out of the June-July trip. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I think I might be chasing something which isn’t there.

________________

I lost another 0,6Kg yesterday and I’m at my lowest weight in about 10-15 years. I credit it to the appetite suppressant effect of Byetta, the diabetes injection. It wouldn’t be for everyone – it’s not the nicest feeling, but it’s enabled me to cut my food intake in half, or less. I don’t have access to scales here so I’ll just have to try and be good.

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For my own interest as much as anyone else’s: 700ml Bintang $3.35; 700ml Guinness $4.85; Schweppes Tonic Water 330ml $0.80c; 1.5L mineral (purified, we hope) water $0.60c.; Nescafe in cans 250ml $1.25.

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Nearly forgot – I was worried about wi-fi reception here and bought a high sensitivity wi-fi amplified antenna last week to ensure I could get it in my room.

Well, of course, I forgot to bring it. As late as 0730 this morning I had it in my mind – “Grab the wi-fi antenna!” But I forgot it.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that I don’t need it. The wi-fi is working fine, as you know, since I’m writing this piece.

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8.15pm: Oh, this is no good. I’ve just been up the stairs to sort a few things and I could hardly make it up. My legs just don’t want to carry me and I get a sharp pain in my right knee, nearly making it buckle. There’s nothing to hang on to!

I’m thinking that after I leave here in ten days to go to the “slum” (much cheaper) hotel for four nights, I might have to go to the other “condotel” that I’m booked into in May. Those are big self catering rooms, but they’re all at ground level. Same price as here, not as good a location, 1Km from the beach in South Sanur.

I should be able to cancel my second stint here (18-31 March) with no cost if I give more than three days’ notice, which I can do. I’ll think on it.

Jakarta Harbour 1995  (C) PJ Croft 2016

Ad for a laptop at Harvey Norman in yesterday’s paper:

“… and Lenovo’s iconic watch band hinge.”

An iconic hinge! Wow! Madness. The word has lost its meaning.

I’ve just heard a guy on the radio say, “Increasingly more and more.” Er, yeah.

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Mind you, I find myself using too many exclamation marks. There’s a school of thought in good writing practice that exclamation marks should never be used. The words should convey the power without requiring added emphasis. I’m not sure I go that far. An exclamation mark can be useful to convey that very meaning: an exclamation.

I’m a regular reader of Silicon Chip, an Aussie electronics magazine of venerable standing, even an icon of Aussie magazine publishing.

But all their writers are addicted to using exclamation marks. They can hardly get through a paragraph without using at least one.

I’ve been thinking of sending an email: “Hi Mr Editor, I’ve noticed you used so many exclamation marks in the last issue that I thought you might be running low on supplies. Here, have some on me. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you need any more for the April issue, just drop me a line. I’ve got plenty over here!!”
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This magazine is the sole survivor of the golden age of electronics hobbyist magazines from the 60s, 70s and 80s. The original was Radio, TV and Hobbies which started in the 1940s, I think (as Radio and Hobbies – there was no TV then). It was one of the earliest magazines of its type in the world.

I started reading it when I was 12 or 13 in 1960. I’m very grateful that Dad bought it for me, as it set me on my course for life.

It changed its name to Electronics Australia at about that time, to reflect the widening field of electronics. Just how wide the field was to become we never imagined back then.

In about 1970, when I’d been working at Channel 7 for a couple of years, I wrote a letter (yes, a real paper handwritten letter in an envelope; there was no email or word processors then) to the editor, saying that Electronics Australia was the only magazine I could think of that didn’t have a Letters to the Editor section. Lo and behold, in the next month’s issue, there was a new section – Letters to the Editor. Did they print mine? No. But I claim the credit for starting it.

The electronics field started to grow in the 1970s as first transistors and later integrated circuits became freely available at really cheap prices. New magazines started up in competition with Electronics Australia as its editor, Neville Williams, was a very, very conservative man who resisted change. Eventually a split among the staff occurred and the new magazine, Silicon Chip was started by a former EA writer. It’s the sole surviving magazine today. Ironically, the man who left to start SC, Leo Simpson, eventually bought out the Electronics Australia title and assets when EA went under.

Another magazine, Electronics Today International, started up in Sydney in the mid to late 1970s and was much more dynamic and adventurous in its designs. ETI, as it became known, grew to be one of the best electronics magazines in the world and had a few offshoots for other countries.

Another magazine, Australian Electronics monthly, AEM, started in the early 1980s and lasted a good few years. It was aimed at a younger audience.

So at one stage, Australia supported four electronics hobbyist magazines. As well, we had the venerable UK magazine Wireless World which had been going since the 1920s, I think. It had a typical British stiffness about it, although the articles and designs were of very high quality. It clung on until the 2000s as Electronics and Wireless World but we don’t see it here now.

Out of all these magazines, the only survivor is Silicon Chip. We techs find this hard to understand as it’s never been easier or cheaper to build electronic equipment from a plethora of fantastic designs. Getting the components was a real struggle in the 70s and 80s, but now it couldn’t be easier. Altronics started in Perth in the 1970s and has grown to operate Australia-wide. Dick Smith started as a hobbyist shop selling electonics components and kits, before it was bought by Woolworths and turned into a toy shop.

Jaycar grew out of the work of a disillusioned former Dick Smith executive and is a fantastic shop Australia wide.

My point is, it’s fantastically easy now to design and build high quality, high performance electronics projects at really low cost. But all the magazines have died save one, and you don’t see many young guys in these parts shops. (You don’t see any women, not looking for electronics components or kits, anyway. Pink toys, maybe.)

What a pity. Yes, some young people do build stuff, but it seems tablets, games, drones and TV rule the scene these days. Computer studies means being able to use Word and Excel, not understanding the actual electronics that make up computers. Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, India and China are streaking ahead of us. They know they have to study the hard stuff.

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Dieng hot springs, Java 1989  (C) PJ Croft 2016

Mindarie Beach on a cooler day.

“Diarist-at-large Richard Ackland flies about the nation.”

Well I’ll be fly-blown. The Saturday Paper listened to me and corrected a long standing error.

Ever since the Saturday Paper has been published, about a year, they’ve had a column called Gadfly written by Richard Ackland, a prominent Sydney lawyer and journalist. But the sub head always said “Diarist-at-large Richard Ackland flys about the nation.”

Flys?

Last week I emailed them:

“Like Sheldon Cooper, I’m overcome by twitching at this glaring misspelling. I’ve waited a long time to make my protest, thinking that it might be corrected eventually, but evidently I’ll be waiting for many more fly life cycles.

“I must assume it’s a deliberate play on fly. Nonetheless, I twitch uncontrollably. Bazinga? I think not.”

Well I’m flyblown. Today, Saturday 27 February, they’ve corrected the subhead to say “flies about the nation” and in the side bar as well.

I’ve emailed them to say thanks and congratulations, but to say I’m amazed that in nearly a year, no-one on the staff, or seemingly among your readers, has noticed this before. Well, thank goodness it’s fixed and I can stop twitching now. Bazinga.

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Trigg Beach today at 38C. Olympus E-PL2  (can’t fix tilt, sorry)

Phew, hot one today! 38ºC. I spent the morning, up to 2pm at a cafe next to the ocean so it wasn’t too bad, but when I got back to the car, I could hardly hold onto the wheel. Yowch. This is the sting in the tail to the end of summer. The ocean was calm as calm, ideal for the Rottnest Island swim (for my o/s readers, it’s an 11Km [sorry, 20Km] swimming race from a Perth mainland beach to Rottnest Island off the coast. It can be very rough if the wind is blowing, but it would have been a pleasure today.)

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Oh, bloody Windows! Damned Microsoft! Bugs, bugs galore. Constant stumbling blocks. Never ending hurdles.

I’ve sold my Sony laptop to a friend, therefore I’ve had to remove all my paid for software and my user name/identity before I hand it over. It’s a Win10 machine already.

But at every turn things have gone bad. I can’t add my friend as a new user without him having a Microsoft account. But I can’t make that choice! I can’t make a username and password for him. Anyway, talking to him today, it seems he already has an account, so he’ll have to send me the username and password before I can proceed.

So I thought, the simplest way would be to do a complete reformat and new install. But with Win10, we don’t have the install files. OK, I thought, I’ll download the .iso files on another of my PCs which is still on Win7 and make an install disc.

Hah! I run MediaCreationTool.exe but apart from a dark blue Windows 10 rectangle/logo, nothing happens! I’ve tried everything, registry cleaning, disabling my antivirus and firewall, but nothing helps. This tallies with my other desktop. Same deal, except that when I try to run this MediaCreationTool.exe on that, absolutely nothing happens, not even this logo.

I’ve got onto the MS forums and asked the question why. The answer I got was, “Are all updates installed?” Dammit, I’ve already told them AutoUpdate is enabled, so YES, all updates are installed. They suggested another step (a clean boot) but that didn’t help, so I tried to reply to their message, but my reply is constantly rejected by their server. I am so fed up!

At this stage I’m thinking of wiping and reformatting this laptop and installing Windows 7  from one of my fully legal copies. I HATE Windows 10.

An iconic image. (C) PJ Croft 2016

Oh please, stop saying ICONIC. Someone saw a fox in Kings Park a few days ago and was quoted as saying “you don’t expect to see foxes in such an iconic location.” The word has lost its meaning. It’s now used for anything that’s good, great, outstanding, superior, historic, nice, special, unique, and a dozen other useable words. I wouldn’t care except that this word has become the word you use when you don’t know what other word to use. It’s lazy journalism and copycat popular usage.

Along the same lines:

“They’ve been in a position where they’ve been at the hospital this morning and had an opportunity to say goodbye and to start to try and grieve.”

That’s called Police Speak. “A male person was seen to be proceeding in a northerly direction, whereupon he commenced to cross the carriageway. Consequently, he was struck by a motor vehicle travelling in a southerly direction, sustaining non-life threatening injuries.”

Translation: a man was walking up the footpath, crossed the road and was hit by a car. He was OK.

Y’know? I mean, it’s, y’know, not cool man, y’know. Yeah no. I mean, like, y’know, I wish they’d learn, y’know, to speak. Yeah.

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I had my latest blood test results yesterday and my HbA1c is 7.1. A reading of 7.0 is considered satisfactory blood sugar control, so the doctor was quite pleased. So am I. She didn’t mention any other problems and I forgot to ask, so I assume everything’s fine.

As well, my weight is continuing its downward trend – I’ve lost 10Kg in the past 12 months, and 15Kg since 2013. I can feel it, and people are commenting. Nice. One way I can tell is that my watch bands are loose, and my fingers feel sorta boney when I wash them. Haven’t felt that in a long time.

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I went on from the medical centre to the train station and went into the city. Free travel when yer a Senior, ya see. I wanted to look at a particular shop in Picadilly Arcade to see if they had a small Swiss Army style knife.

But the shop is gone. Disappointing, but I went on to Carillon Arcade to have lunch at my favourite cafe, Croissant Express. You guessed it – gone, closed down.

I started to notice how many other shops are closed down. Wow, it’s a desert in there. There’s nothing left for me, it’s all jewellers and women’s clothing shops, hairdressers and “nail technicians”. So I don’t go into the city much any more, and that makes more shops close. It’s a vicious cycle.

I’ve looked for a small multi-function knife in Target and Bunnings, as well as that fruitless foray yesterday in the city, but I found the ideal item at Masters, just up the road from here. A shop assistant was so keen to show me that she headed off faster than I could keep up, but she came back with the ideal thing. It’s an Arlec fold up pliers, screw drivers, small saw blade, knife blade, and the only thing I actually wanted, a bottle opener. I had to open bottles by banging the caps on the metal door handles in my last Bali hotel (it worked perfectly and didn’t harm the door handles).

The best thing is, this beautifully made stainless steel knife thing cost a whole $4. Cheap!

At the same time, I found small 12V lamps to suit my garden lights (that were already here when I bought this place). I couldn’t find those at Bunnings either.

Unfortunately, there were probably more staff than customers at Masters yesterday. It’s a great pity – I find Masters quite good. I’ve mentioned before that Woolworths set this chain up out of sheer arrogance, thinking they’d crush Bunnings. Well, they were the ones that got crushed, but that’s tough on the employees who’ll lose their jobs. Not to mention Dick Smith, another Woolworths disaster that’s costing thousands of employees their jobs. As I’ve said before, I won’t shop at Woolworths any more. Too many times, they’ve dudded me.

I notice that a new building is going up near Masters just up the road; it’s an Aldi. More competition.

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I could only keep going in the city for about an hour before I was just too fatigued to continue and had to come home. I was knackered! I was desperate to sit down on the train station but there are very few seats and they were all occupied. One was taken by a young guy with legs crossed working on his phone. I considered asking him to give up his seat, but chickened out.

I slept well last night and hoped it would fix me, but I’m still tired today. Gee, I can’t walk as much and I don’t recover like I used to.

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Having bought this new laptop, I wondered what to do with the Sony VAIO, but I’ve sold it to a good friend, so that’s a good outcome. I asked $400 as it’s a high spec computer (it cost $3,500 in 2009), and $500 is about the starting point for anything decent in laptops these days. He’s happy.

I’ll be sorry to see it go. I’ve done several o/s trips with it and it’s done well. It’s a good weight. That it lasted so well shows the value of paying a bit more to start with.

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I hope to see a cloud free mountain in the next few months. (C) PJ Croft 2016

It’s annoying! I can’t get the copyright symbol on this laptop – using Alt 0169 just doesn’t work without a separate numerical keypad. But if I try to insert a symbol using WordPress’s symbol facility, you can’t insert it into an image caption. The symbol only inserts into the next line down. It’s just one of the infuriating bugs in WordPress. I know this is free software, but do the bugs have to go on uncorrected?

Kingsbridge Park, Butler 23 Feb 2016 Pentax K-5

I’ve been trying to decide which of my 15 cameras (heh heh) to take to Bali. The choice is not that hard; five of those are film cameras and I won’t be bothering with those.

No, I’ve been keen to get back to my Pentax K-5, a 16Mp digital SLR that I bought in 2010. I have four lenses for it, K mounts, (two dating from film days in the 1970s), and it was applauded, raved about, in reviews for its beautiful images. That’s why I bought it. I shot the one above yesterday and as soon as I saw it in the browser, I though, Oooo yeah.

Kingsbridge Park. Pentax K-5

Pentax K-5 Pentax 24-70mm lens at 24mm.

Lovely colour. But I quickly discovered why I won’t be taking it with me.

• It weighs 1.2Kg with its 24-70mm lens fitted, and the 70-300mm lens adds another 270g, total 1.5Kg roughly.
• Although it has an optical pentaprism viewfinder, in bright sunlight I can barely read the display below it. It includes a level indicator, but I can’t see it.
• OK, it has Live View on the rear LCD (ie press a button and hold it at arm’s length to see it), but after you press the LV button it takes about 1 second to switch because it has to flip the mirror up. Then when you take the shot, the mirror has to flip down, then up again while the shutter operates. It’s not feasible. On a tripod, yes, but not handheld.
• It shoots Full HD 1080p video but, same deal, the mirror has to flip up and you lose the viewfinder. You have the rear LCD, but in bright sunlight, I can’t see a thing. Not to mention my poor close vision these days.

So I’m afraid it won’t do. What am I going to take? The Panasonic FZ1000. It’s a 1″ diagonal sensor 20Mpixel camera with a fixed 25-400mm Leica zoom. No lens changing possible or needed. The viewfinder is electronic, so it maintains visibility at all times, very bright and clear. It includes bright spirit level lines.

Plus, it shoots high quality video not only at Full HD 1080p 50fps, but up to 4K UHD 25 fps as well (provided I remember to use the correct settings!). Power zoom, of course (the Pentax is manual zoom only).

Finally, it only weighs 850g, half the weight of the Pentax combination, and does a lot more.

What a pity. I kinda love that Pentax, but it’s been overtaken in the past five years. The Panasonic produces beautiful images too. My mind is made up. I’m glad I tested. I must do a comparison shot, side by side at the same time.

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Grrr. I’ve just had a phone call from the medical centre to remind me of my appointment at 9.30am tomorrow. But just as an afterthought, the receptionist said, “With Doctor xxxx” i.e. another doctor, not my usual GP. I protested and said I want to see my usual doctor as I have things I need to discuss.

Bloody hell, I waited nine days for my last appointment on Monday 15th, only to find I’d been switched to this other doctor when I got there. Then, after he was running 40 mins late, he  sorta shooed me out after 15mins. I wasn’t finished.

So I immediately made a new appointment to see my usual doctor, but it had to be 10 days hence, i.e. tomorrow 25th. So I’ve been waiting 19 days! Now they nearly switched me again.

This is not working. It typically takes a week to get in to see my doctor. Much as I hate to do it, I’m going to have to find another GP who’s not so busy. That may be impossible. This is a dense area with thousands of young mums and babies and schoolkids. There’s a medical centre just across Marmion Avenue, about 300m away, but I doubt I’ll do any better.

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I wrote a long piece here about the danger of getting caught up in the WA legal system, but I’ve removed it for that very reason: you can be ‘fitted up’ in this state. Can’t risk saying more.

Bromo dawn 1989  (C) PJ Croft 2016

I bought MS Office Home & Student 2013 last week and it installed and activated fine on my desktop PC. Then I just  moved the installation file, all 480MB of it, to the laptop and installed it there. When I tried to use it, it wanted me to activate it again. But when I tried, it said sorry, you’ve already used your activations. Funny, I’m sure it says you can install it on up to five devices.

OK, so I started again just now and let it download from the web and install again, about an hour’s worth. Again, it wanted me to activate. I used the ID I’d been given but got the ‘Sorry’ message again. OK, try the phone activation.

You phone a 1 800 number, but then you have to enter eight (8!) groups of seven digit (7!) numbers on the phone key pad. Bloody hell. OK, then you’re asked to enter another set of numbers in boxes, six digits in six boxes (I think). But which digits? By now I gave up and asked to speak to a human.

When I did that (Indian accent, of course. Her, not me), I had to read out that set of 56 digits again to her! Then she says she’s going to give me a new set of numbers to enter into those empty boxes. Hang on, I said, I’ll write them down. “Oh no sir, this is a one time set. You must enter them now.” Oh bloody hell.

So I did it, and now it’s activated OK. What  rigmarole.

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I’ve just had a coffee visit from my great friend Barry, who has a client at Two Rocks, up the road from here. I told him I’ve booked a rental car for next week to get to the airport. No, he’s going to drive me. Baz, it’s OK, I don’t want to put you to all this trouble each time. But he  was adamant – cancel the rental car, he’ll be here at 7.45am on the day to take me to the big bird place. What a guy. This saves me $84. He’ll probably be able to do the same when I get back at about 5pm on the day, too. Not sure yet.

I’m being cagey about days and dates because I don’t want to broadcast to the world when I’ll be away.

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Dieng Plateau, Java 1989  (C) PJ Croft 2016

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Ramping up the preparations. Mosquito spray: check; luggage scales, new batteries: check; walking stick: check (do I really need it? Naaaaah.); weigh my two suitcases – which is lighter? Turns out one is 4.98Kg and the other is 5.06Kg, no difference in other words. One looks as if it’s bigger, but it’s hard to judge and it’s a bit hard to measure volume – no, I’m not going to fill them with water and measure it 🙂  I’ll use the one that looks bigger.

Still annoyed at that hotel that’s charged my credit card for the full amount, $440 approx., when I’m not staying there until 17 May. And it’s not refundable. Grrrr. Thinking about what to do.

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A visitor

Gif courtesy of http://gifmaker.me/

View from Mt Chudalup, WA © PJ Croft 2016

Damn, shaped again. For the second time this month I’ve used up all my broadband quota so I’m throttled to 256Kb/s. That’s treacle territory. I paid $10 for another 10GB a few days ago but it’s used up already. The reset date is Tuesday 22nd umm, Monday 22nd, idiot, so I don’t want to spend more if I can avoid it. I’ll try to live at this speed for now. (Monday – back to normal, thank goodness.)

I never used to have this trouble. I think it’s because my DropBox was syncing a folder that I didn’t want until I discovered it and stopped it, and because Win10 keeps trying to download behind my back. I must admit I’ve been downloading some big software files lately too.

I don’t think I’m getting a very good deal with iiNet. Much as I hate Telstra, their ads seem to show much better value. I’ve been told I might be able to get a faster connection too. I’ll check it out. Also, I do not like dealing with TPG, which now owns iiNet.

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Canal Rocks, WA 1990  © PJ Croft 2016

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From pictures I’ve seen of the S’Cate Condotel room in Bali, it’s clear that there are no handrails on the stairs between floors in the apartments. This is bad news for me. My legs are weak and I need railings to help pull myself up. As well, the stairs are glossy tiles and I need something to hang onto to ensure I don’t slip.

If it were only a few days I could live with it, but for a month at a time, no. I’ve been wondering what to do and I think I’ll put a proposition to the management: I’ll pay to have hand rails fitted in my unit. It might sound a bit crazy but it’s not expensive to have this kind of work done up there. I’ll get names of workmen and advice from my friend John who lives just up the road in Sanur. This is his area of expertise. He’ll know.

It seems to me that the management should be happy with it. I hope so.

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I mentioned last week that a hotel I booked in Bali has a ‘no refund’ policy, which I didn’t notice until I’d clicked the Book button.

I discovered just now that my credit card has already been charged for the full amount, even though the booking isn’t until 17 May!

This is unacceptable. I’m going to make a protest, and I have the weapon that I will make a scathing review on Booking.com and Expedia and everywhere else that I can if they don’t play ball.

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One week to go. I’ve booked a rental car again to get me to the airport and I’ve insisted on my booked choice, a Corolla. Let’s see how they deal with that. The best price I could get was $84 compared with $52 last trip. That’s not nice. But they offer 15% discount for RAC members, so that should soften the price. I went to book for the return trip too, but crikey, the prices are up around $100 then. Why? I’ll leave it and see what happens to the prices in coming weeks before I book. At that rate, a taxi might be cheaper. I have bargaining power now – gimme a price of $100 (max) or I’ll use a rental car.

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Poltergeist again. I’ve just been cleaning the second toilet when I noticed the small shelf unit in there has been moved out of its position against the wall. Huh? It’s very lightweight and maybe I bumped it, but I don’t remember doing it. De de de de de.

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Near Collie, WA 1990. © PJ Croft 2016

Paris. © PJ Croft 2016

Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally has written a piece in the Guardian and as usual, says it very eloquently. She’s speaking about the very critical song about Cardinal George Pell written by Tim Minchin.

“For starters, it provoked sorrow at my loss of faith in the church, an organisation that has done much good but nonetheless values its rules, assets, and male privilege above all else.

“I cried because there was little else I could do with my deep fury that neither Pell nor his mates at the Vatican appear to take seriously the need to respond fully and openly, and to reform the church, in the face of the child sexual abuse crisis.”

That first sentence is especially apt, in my opinion. The Catholic church is awash with wealth and puts it to use in gross displays of gold vestments and implements, enormous elaborate cathedrals, temples and marble statues. Jesus said we should not worship idols or build false gods. The Catholic church sets an ordinary human up as a supreme being, a saint, a false god with the power to forgive any sin, and he laps up the idolisation he receives while being kept in the lap of luxury. They have built enormous temples of gold, marble and silken tapestries, as if this is the answer to poor people’s suffering. They drive around in expensive cars. It is wrong!

Cardinal Pell is a coward. He revels in his exalted rank and all the privileges he has, but he won’t face his critics, who appear to have much to criticise. In view of how many victims of predatory priests have taken their own lives while he left the sicko priests in place, he has blood on his hands.

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Labor MHR Gary Gray decides not to stand at the federal election later this year. He says he doesn’t think Labor can win, so he doesn’t want to go through another term in opposition.

What a rotten thing to say! He has undermined the party that once held him in high regard.

Mr Kennedy said for Labor to lose all three incumbents heading into the election was remarkable.

“It’s almost unprecedented that all a party’s sitting members in WA should all decide to bow out at the same time,” he said. [ABC News. Peter Kennedy, political academic and commentator.]

The losses of the best candidates from the ALP are most disappointing. So many able Labor politicians and candidates have pulled out in the past four years that you wonder whether we can recover in any reasonable time frame. Julia Gillard, Greg Combet, Melissa Parke, Nicola Roxon, Alannah MacTiernan, and many others.

I blame two people: Kevin Rudd for his utterly vile behaviour before the 2013 election, and Bill Shorten for being so lacking in leadership and charisma. If we lose the election this year, he will be to blame. I’m very disillusioned.

I will let Labor know that for the first time since I woke up to myself in my early 20s, I doubt I will be voting Labor this time. I will have to vote Greens. As long as Labor advocates the deliberate torture, child abuse and cruelty, in government sanctioned concentration camps on Christmas, Manus and Nauru Islands, they can’t have my vote. I walk away.

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Shield bugs mating. © PJ Croft 2016

The Water Authority are airing a commercial called Just Take Two, urging us to take two minutes off our watering times, including showers. They’ve produced a cartoon commercial showing a guy entering his clear glass shower cubicle and proceeding to wash himself in hot water with clouds of steam.

Trouble is, he’s wearing shorts. Who has a shower wearing shorts? Crazy idea. Then the timer goes off after four minutes and he turns the water off, but he turns the tap anti-clockwise. I’ve never known a tap that closes off with an anti-clockwise action. All mine increase the flow of water in that direction. Crazy again.

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Stop saying you know!!! It’s become a virus, a disease, a pandemic, a problem of the English speaking world.

People seem incapable of speaking without using ‘y’know’ several times in each sentence. These sentences can be very long, so we hear ‘y’know’ a dozen or more times. Sometimes it’s become so overused that it’s abbreviated even further to ‘y’now’ with all the letters run together. There’s no way to write the sound.

Just occasionally I hear someone who doesn’t speak this way and what a pleasure it is to listen to him or her. Listen to yourself. Do you say ‘y’know’ all the time? Work on stopping it, please.

Same for iconic. It’s got so bad that I’m not far off making an award to the first use of iconic for the day, but it won’t be a nice award. This word has become the most over-used cliche in history, I reckon. It’s laziness. There are many other words that could be used, but people, journalists mainly, are too lazy to think of another word. Stop iconic!

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Let no-one accuse me of being vain. I’m going to publish a photo of myself that should never be seen in public.

My anti-virus software has an Anti Theft feature where if you enroll (no cost extra), it records the serial number of your PC, records a desktop snapshot and uses a laptop’s camera to take a photo. It stores all these remotely at the company’s headquarters. If your PC is stolen, you use another computer to press the “My Computer Has Been Stolen” button to start a trace. If it’s a thief using the computer, then his mug can be used for police action and so on.

I’ve done it for my new laptop and here’s the photo it took yesterday:

Camera screenshot

Aaaagh! Not my best side. I’m immodest to a fault, as they say. No-one could make a mistaken identification – they’d die of embarrassment to say that was them. 😉

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You’ve probably noticed I’ve been using more images in my posts recently. It’s because I’ve realised that my browser, ACDSee Ultimate v9 has an Export menu item which allows me to batch process any image to make it suitable for the web in a one-click action.

Americas Cup 1986. © PJ Croft 2016

The automated steps available are:

1. Where to place the resulting image (e.g. desktop);
2. New file name (if desired) using a naming template;
3. File format (jpg or 10 other choices);
4. Pixel format (b/w or colour);
5. Colour space conversion (sRGB or Adobe RGB or two others);
6. Output resizing, down or up;
7. Preserve metadata or not (the camera’s data about when the shot was made, etc.);
8. Processing (running preset actions for colour correction etc.)

All these steps are set up once, then saved as a named set. You can have multiple named sets for different applications.

Then, each time I want to use a photo for this blog, now I just make basic adjustments of colour, exposure, cropping and rotation, then click on Export and click Go. The resulting image is instantly on my desktop, ready to be imported into WordPress for this blog. It’s so much faster than before, and the colour space conversion means the images look the same on the blog as I saw in the browser. At last. It’s taken me too long to wake up to this functionality.