Paris 2008. (C) PJ Croft 2016

Writing this at 3am, another night where sleep just won’t come. Dammit, insomnia is a real problem for me now. I never used to have trouble, but something’s changed. It’s part of getting older I think.

I was so sleepy earlier that I went to bed at 9.45pm, having trouble keeping my eyes open. But I lay there for two hours and sleep just wouldn’t come. Bah!

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I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday morning (Monday) and was all set with a list of things I needed to talk about, but when I arrived at 8.55am for a 9am appointment, I found I’d been switched to another doctor. I then had to wait until 9.40am before I got in. We discussed various things and then he said this is only a 15 minute appointment so we’d have to finish. Grrrr. I wasn’t finished. So I made another appointment to see my usual GP, the lovely Tandi, but the earliest I can get in is Thursday next week! This is bad. I have things I need to sort out before I go to Bali (two weeks today) but I have to wait another 10 days, when I had already waited 9 days for this appointment. I’ve been thinking that this medical centre is too often booked out, but you build a relationship with a doctor and I don’t want to have to start again with someone I don’t know and who doesn’t know me. Problem.

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I read an interesting fact recently: with portable GPS units, they show the car’s exact speed with much greater accuracy than the car’s speedo. This usually shows that the car’s reading is about 3-5Km/h higher than the real speed. It’s done deliberately so that the speedo won’t mislead you into exceeding the speed limits.

But with  car makers’ built-in GPS units, they don’t show the accurate satellite reading that portable ones do. Apparently this is so that the driver is not conflicted as to which one to believe.

If I ever buy a car, I do not want to pay for a built-in GPS. The above is one reason. Another reason is that they charge like wounded bulls for software and map updates, which are unique to the car maker, so can’t be got elsewhere. Another is that the GPS is built into the centre of the dash, forcing you to look left and down. I have my GPS in the bottom right corner of the windscreen, just off my line of vision, meaning I hardly have to move my eyes to see it. I can also use my right hand to make settings, so I don’t have to look and reach left to change a centre dash mounted unit.

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Another interesting fact: (uh oh, senior’s moment! I can’t remember what I was going to write.)

Oh yeah, now I remember: A few days ago I mentioned a very nice watch that’s an LCD display, so that it can be reconfigured and changed to display all sorts of useful information, like your pulse rate, for example. It’s a TAG Heuer and costs about $1500 in Australia.

All these images are the same watch, just different LCD displays. The hands and the date window and so on are not real, just images on the LCD display.

I said it’ll be superseded in short order, so whaddaya do, buy the next model at another $1500?

Well, apparently the company say that if you buy it, and a new model comes out, you’ll be able to exchange your old model for one of their mechanical models at no cost if you buy the new electronic LCD model. Obviously they recognise the problem I was talking about.

By the way, I thought up the idea of an LCD display watch that can be changed to have different faces about 5 years ago. It was triggered by Apple’s boast that their Retina LCD displays have pixels so fine that they can’t be seen, giving incredibly sharp images. One of my mates will verify that, as he got so enthused by my idea that he started making enquiries as to whether someone would adopt my idea. I should have patented my idea!

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I feel a big load has been lifted from my shoulders. A long standing dispute seems to have been resolved. I wish the person had spoken earlier. It would have saved two years of awful stress and anger that has been badly affecting me. I hope we can get back to some normality soon, although it will be hard to forget what’s happened.

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St Eustache cathedral, Paris 2008. (C) PJ Croft 2016

Another interesting fact: photographic equipment prices are cheaper in Australia than both the USA and the UK!

There was a review of a Sigma 35mm lens the other day on my favourite US photo blog and they pointed us to the B&H New York web site where the price of this lens is US$799. B&H is one of the biggest photo retailers in the world.

Just for interest, I searched for local prices and stap me, Gerry Gibbs Camera House ‘just down the road’ here in Perth, has the lens for AUD$799 too.

The US$799 price translates to AUD$1141.42 at A$1 = US$0.70c ! Or to put it another way, an American could buy from this Perth retailer for US$559.30. Take off the 10% GST for export and it comes down further, to US$503.37. Plus post and packing, of course. Compared with US$799 plus p&p. This is remarkable.

Another thing I found today is that a Sigma SD1 camera body, which when first released about three years ago cost US$8,000 approx. (to widespread ridicule) is being sold from Sigma Australia’s web site now at A$1249, with free postage.

Yet all the other Aussie web sellers are still advertising it at around A$1800. Sigma seems to have dropped the price, and the local sellers haven’t caught up. It’s also on the B&H New York web site at US$1,799. So it looks like a bargain is to be had. I suspect Sigma is trying to sell off all their stock, either because they’ve dropped it from their range, or there’s a new model coming.

No, I don’t need another camera. I did a count recently and I’ve got 15 cameras, film and digital. Why not? It’s fun! I choose one according to my whim of the day.

But this Sigma SD1 Merrill is a bit special. It uses the Foveon sensor, where the red, green and blue layers of the sensor are transparent and stacked on top of each other. Each layer has 15 million receptor sites and Sigma says that makes it a 45Mega-pixel camera. They’re not wrong. Thing is, the pictures from this type of sensor, unique to this maker Sigma, are very special, having unique qualities. Many people rave about them and the samples Sigma provide certainly bear out their claims. Incredibly sharp, and with a special tonality and colour quality.

As you can tell, I’ve got the hots. Sigma also makes some of the sharpest lenses this side of Leica lenses, the standard setters. But Leica lenses cost in the $thousands, whereas the Sigma range are around $800-$900 usually for quality very close to Leica’s.

The Sigma camera uses its own mount, of course, so if you buy the body, you have to buy SIGMA lenses to go with it. No choice. But it’s a nice choice.

I don’t need another camera!

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Jindalee beach 2014. Olympus 75-300mm lens at 300mm. (C) PJ Croft 2016

Malaysia 1986 (C) PJ Croft 2016

Crumbs, 50 years today since decimal currency was introduced in Australia. I remember it pretty well, especially the date and the song. And the fact that that bloody obsequious monarchist Bob ‘Ming’ Menzies, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports fer gawsakes, wanted our currency called Royals. Bloody hell! He was shouted down then and thank goodness for it.

I really regret that we lost our distinctive names for our currency. Many of them came from the UK, of course. Most people younger than 50 wouldn’t remember:

• quids (pounds)
• bobs (shillings, and no, nothing to do with Bob Menzies)
• zacs (sixpences)
• treys (threepences, pronounced thrippences)
• deeners (pennies)

I don’t know why we dropped these without a backward glance. I reckon they were part of our heritage. But immediately, we started using bucks and grands. I must admit, although I tried to keep the old names, I soon forgot.

The original 50c piece was round and contained more than its face value worth of silver, so they say. I’ve got one of those in my souvenir tin. But the price of silver has fallen so far that I doubt it applies today. I’ve also got several other multi-edged 50c pieces, some tarnished as if they were silver.

I’ve got one of each of the old coins, a halfpenny (pronounced ha’penny), a penny, a thrippence, a sixpence, a shilling and a two shillings (a florin) mounted on a wooden board I made back in the sixties. No notes, I’m afraid, as they were too valuable then to keep aside as souvenirs, but I’ve got a key ring with plastic replicas.

I’ve also been keeping some decimal currency notes for historic purposes. I’ve got a couple of one dollar notes, a two dollar note and a couple of the early five dollar notes before the current plastic note. I’ve also got a couple of the first plastic $10 notes from the late 1980s. We were the first in the world, I think, to use plastic notes. We did away with the copper one and two cents years ago (I’ve got a plastic bag full of those somewhere) and now they’re talking of dropping the five cent piece as well.

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Two weeks to go to Bali 2016 I and I’m trying to think of how to save weight in my suitcase. Laptop with power supply and ext DVD drive 3Kg. CPAP machine 2.5KG. Medications at least 1.5Kg. Bandages, dressings, Dermeze, at least 1KG.  Insulin pens in their cold pack, about 1Kg. Camera gear apart from the camera, about 1.5Kg minimum. Plus the weight of the case, about 3.5Kg I think. And so on.

I’ve been thinking, since I’m already booked to go back to the same hotel in May, I wonder if I could leave my big suitcase up there, in storage? But I’d need another smaller suitcase that I could check in, as the weight of my essentials as above would exceed cabin baggage weight. Hmmm…

That reminds me, I used the plastic film wrap for the first time when I came back in January. I had a small shoulder bag so I wrapped my carry-on bag and checked it in. It worked well. It cost Rp85,000 ($8.50).

But I was surprised when i got home to find a stamp on the luggage strip saying [NO VALUABLE ITEM INSIDE, Baggage Profiling Checked].   I don’t know how that was decided, as there certainly was some valuable stuff inside, including my $1,300 CPAP blower and $300 worth of mask and tube. Odd.

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Atlas moth and Rajah Brooke butterfly. Malaysia 1986 (C) PJ Croft 2016

Parachutes all in a row. Whitfords beach 2007 © PJ Croft 2016

I had trouble sleeping again last night so at 2am I booked some more Bali accommodation. It was probably not a good time to be making decisions like that, because I’ve booked one hotel for eight nights (to cover a gap in the S’Cape condotel’s availability), where the booking is not refundable. The amount is $403 for the eight nights, and it’s not payable until I get there, but it wasn’t until I’d booked that I saw the fine print that says the entire amount is non-refundable on cancellation!

This seems unreasonable to me. I can understand forfeiting one night, but not the whole amount. I don’t expect to cancel, but you never know. I might have to make a protest to Booking.com about this.

I’ve actually booked for most of May, then for the whole of um, another month (I don’t want to tell the world when my house will be empty). That should either kill or cure me. I’ve heard from someone who’s stayed at S’Cape that it’s good, so … The location is one of its plus points.

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Heh heh. I don’t use the phone much, do I?

I’ve just found that I’ve exceeded my 20GB monthly quota from iiNet and I was shaped to 256Kb/s. I’ve had to buy another 10GB at $10 to see me through to the 22nd of the month.

I’ve never had this trouble before. I don’t download movies or other big stuff, except for one software download of 5GB. Damned Windows 1o tries to download itself at 2GB a time when I’m not watching.

But I think the culprit is Dropbox. It’s uploading my images at the moment and I don’t know why, or how to stop it. (I’ve tried yelling at it.) More investigation needed.

Update: fixed it. Always explore the menus and settings.

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Minnie 2007 at Trigg beach. I called her the Surf Dog. She was fearless, crashing through the waves after the tennis ball, never giving up.

I watched the British TV program called Ultimate Hell Week, a series where an initial group of 24 civilian volunteers put themselves through a military style training and selection process. It was based on the special forces programs from the UK and Australian SAS, the US Special Forces, the Israeli Commandos and the Philippines equivalents. Each week was conducted by one of that list.

Wow, what an amazing test of their stamina and perseverance. They were amateurs and one guy was 51, competing with 20-30 year olds. He was eternally cheerful but ultimately he couldn’t keep up and was scrubbed, but he was still smiling after that. Good guy.

One example was that after 3 mile run with a 20Kg backpack and a 4.5Kg rifle, they were so exhausted that they fell to the ground when they got back. But the instructor said, “OK, give me 100 burpees, now!” A burpee is where you start as if you were going to do a push up, but have to jump up and clap your hands above your head, then drop to the push up position again. Repeat 100 times when you’re already exhausted to dropping point. But they did it. Amazing.

[I was thinking, 20Kg? That doesn’t seem like much. But then I thought, that’s the weight of my suitcase when I’m travelling, and I can hardly lift it. Gaaah! That reminds me, how about in TV shows and movies where the stars are shown lifting and carrying their suitcases as if they were empty. Funny, I bet they are. No-one is ever shown grunting when they lift and carry.]

As they say, your only limit is what your mind and heart tell you, not your body. If you have the mind and the guts to push on no matter what, your body will follow. This is what they teach SAS men, to keep going, no matter what.

The eventual winner was a real surprise. It was a 33 year old (I think) female doctor. She ran marathons as a hobby and she was skinny and wiry. She absolutely struggled to carry the heavy loads because of her small size and lack of muscles, but she just kept going, no matter what. In the end, she beat one other woman and the other 22 men. She deserved it. I enjoyed this show.

As for Bear Grylls and the American men on The Island, bloody hell, do they ever stop talking? And loving each other, man, and high-fiving, and saying how great it is, man? But they’re not very resourceful, considering the talent they have available. They’re pretty unsuccessful at finding food and fishing. I’m watching it, but I get sick of it.

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Shark Bay fishing 1987. © PJ Croft 1987, 2016

It’s Chinese New Year, too. © PJ Croft 2016

Yeah, I’m officially old, 69 today. It’s how you feel, and I sure don’t feel that age. It’s hard to believe. I see they waited for my birthday to announce the proof of gravity waves. I’m known for making a few waves myself.

I’ve been smothered in birthday greetings from former work colleagues and a few others on my Facebook timeline. Gee, it’s nice to have friends. I’m not sure why I don’t get notifications of other people’s birthdays. I’d better get with it so I can offer my greetings to them.

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As I said, I treated myself to a birthday present of a Dell XPS15 laptop with a 15″ Ultra HD screen, capable of 4K display. That makes desktop and laptop both 4K. I won’t be satisfied with anything less now. It’ll have to be a 4K TV soon.

I’ve been out today buying an external USB DVD drive – the laptop doesn’t have one. I also bought a high sensitivity USB wi-fi dongle with an antenna. The hotel I’m going to in Bali says “wi-fi available in public areas”, meaning, not in the rooms. I don’t know how I’d survive without internet 24/7 so I hope this USB stick will pick up the wi-fi signal from the reception area. It was $39. The DVD drive was $45. Amazing how prices have fallen in the past decade.

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People ask me whether I’ve got an Apple iPhone, or a Mac or whatever. Well, this is why I haven’t:

“The [ACCC] competition watchdog says it will ask Apple to urgently explain an error message disabling iPhone users’ handsets and is considering whether it breaches Australian consumer law.  … thousands of iPhone 6 users have received “error 53”, which permanently disables the handset if it detects that a repair has been carried out by a non-Apple technician.” The Guardian, 12 February 2016.

Apple would have to be one of the most arrogant companies on the planet. I refuse to bow to their rules. I only own one Apple product, an iPod, but all its functionality is covered by my Sony phone now, so it sits in the drawer unused. I admire their design, but I’m not going to pay them my money.

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Penang. © PJ Croft 2016

My March home

My birthday present arrived yesterday. It’s a Dell XPS15 laptop. Yep, I went ahead and replaced my eight year old Sony VAIO 13″ with a new 15″. But the kicker, the reason for choosing the 15″ over a 13″, is that the display is UHD, Ultra High Def 3840 x 2160 pixels. That’s four full HD screens! It’s pretty nice, that’s for sure. That means it can play 4K video in all its glory.

The drawbacks so far: it’s a fair bit heavier than the Sony. It’s 2Kg, vs about 1.4Kg. (Update: the Sony is 1.56Kg and the Dell is 2.05Kg, so they’re not that much different.) Doesn’t seem much, but I can’t really pick it up with just the fingers of my right hand, as I’m used to doing with the Sony. The power supply for the Dell adds 450g and the Sony is 350g.

The other drawback is, it’s Windows 10. I hate it. I had Win10 on the old laptop too, so I should be used to it, but I’m not. I can’t see that it’s an improvement over Win 7. I’ll have to stick with it for a year while it’s under warranty, I suppose, but after that I might go back to Win7. But then I’d have to reinstall all the software, which is what I’m doing now, and it takes hours!

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Banks again. The ANZ are in the shit again. I mentioned that they lost the court case about excessive late fees on their credit card accounts. That was last week.

This week, yesterday, they are reported to have, allegedly, been colluding with other banks to manipulate the inter bank lending interest rates. This is like the British LIBOR scandal of a couple of years ago, where several traders were convicted. ASIC here are not far from laying charges against a couple of ANZ traders for similar offences.

As one journalist said, by manipulating these rates, the bank makes increased profits and the employees, the ones doing the manipulating, get increased bonuses. As the journo said, they play, we pay.

So, another case of management corruption, but on a far greater scale than any union corruption. Does the Liberal government show any interest, run any royal commission? Of course not! These are their mates.

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View from the “dining room” at Kintamani 20 Dec 2015 7pm.

Phew, this heat is pretty bad. Three consecutive days of 40ºC and above so far, with another one to come today (Wednesday). Cooling off to 31C on the weekend, then back to 38C next week. As I said, I’m going to Bali to cool off!

Update: yes, 40.3ºC today, the fourth day in a row above 40deg. It equals the record set in 1933, but we’ve had more days over 40ºC this February than ever before (since records started in 1879.) This is climate change. WA is heating up and drying out. Our dams are essentially dry. We lost more water due to evaporation than we gained from runoff last winter. Scary.

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I’ve been trying to book a rental car for the trip to the airport. Unfortunately I can’t get that $52 I got on the last trip just before Xmas. The best fee I can get is $72, but that’s for a Nissan Micra manual. No thanks. For $84 I can get a Corolla automatic. Not booked yet, better get onto it.

Packing – I’ll leave the tripod behind this time, so that will compensate for the increased weight of the laptop. I’ll really try to cut down on the clothes this time (no Myrtle, I’m not going nude). Since I’m staying in one place, I’ll be able to either do my own washing or get laundry done. It’s cheap if you use a street laundry.

But my CPAP machine weighs 2.3Kg, and adding the 2Kg of the laptop chews up nearly 25% of my allowance before I’ve even started.

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And the coincidences (coincidii?) just keep on comin’. Listening to the radio in the car and the song on 6iX was Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. I switched to the ABC and she said, “Trump and Sanders have had a win. What’s your prediction for Carolina?”

Shazzam.

It’s cloud, not smoke. (C) PJ Croft 2015

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Eight years ago I bought a soft foam/neoprene slip cover for my Sony laptop, but it was too big so it’s sat in a drawer ever since. I nearly threw it out only a couple of months ago. But I’ve just tried it on this new laptop and it’s a perfect fit. A win at last.

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Rolex watches are in the news today, which reminds me that I’ve seen an item in a magazine about a new smart watch just out. This is a watch with an LCD or OLED face that can be changed from a normal time display to other info displays. It looks very nice and I was a bit tempted.

But it’s $1,500 (it’s a TAG Heuer). Being so new, it will be superseded within a year to 18 months. What would you do? Put it on the shelf and go for the new model, at another $1,500? This is the problem with new technology, it goes out of date so quickly. Although I’d love to have one of these, I would never pay more than a couple of hundred, at the most.

Wingin’ it. © PJ Croft 2016

Good old Aunty ABC gets it wrong again.

“Global credit ratings agency Moody’s downgrades WA from AA2 to AA1 …”   ABC News web site.

Er, other way around. The downgrade is from AA1 to AA2, as all their radio news bulletins have been saying for the past couple of hours. But, she’ll be right, eh?

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A few months ago I was chatting to a couple of Pommy guys in the pub and they said I should try out the Great British Chippy a few streets away for real British style fish and chips. So much better than Aussie shops, they said. Get real cod, they said. And scampi. The chips are cooked so much better, they said.

I had a visitor last night so I suggested we give ’em a try. I can never justify it when I’m on my own.

Worst fish and chips I’ve ever had. Soggy undercooked chips. No crunch at all. If the fish was cod, I’m a Welshman. That wasn’t cod, it was some local fish for sure. And the price! For one piece of fish and ‘regular’ chips, $16.50. Blimmin’ heck.

They’d run out of scampi, so I ordered haggis. It’s patties, battered and fried. Oily as heck. Quite tasty but I couldn’t handle the fattiness. I couldn’t finish it.

I’ve had FAR better fish and chips, at the place just down the road from my old place in Trigg. They cook ’em in cottonseed oil, giving a lightness, not so oily. And the chips are crunchy, ‘twice cooked’ as they should be.

There’s another fish and chip shop in the main street just walking distance from here. I’ll give him a try next time. I’ll never be going back to the Great British Chippy, that’s for sure.

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I watched the Woody Allan movie Blue Jasmine a few days ago. Cate Blanchett gives another fantastic performance. She is one of the great actresses (OK, OK, actors!) of all time, I reckon, up there with Meryl Streep and Lauren Bacall. It’s not a bad movie, worth seeing and it kept me engaged. But loose ends … don’t expect a tidy ending. I give it 8/10.

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Some more pics. Now that I’ve found the easy way to convert to jpeg, resize and change the colour space to sRGB in one easy operation, it’s so much faster.

The First Fleet replica ships, Fremantle 1988. © PJ Croft 1988, 2016

Kalbarri, WA 1987. © PJ Croft 1987, 2016

Paris.  © PJ Croft 2008, 2016

Japan. © PJ Croft 1992, 2016

Trigg Beach July 2015, where I used to take the dogs, and swim. They loved it. How I wish I could do that now. © PJ Croft 2016  Sony RX10

“Franchisees are still taking 7-Eleven workers to ATMs to withdraw and pay back wages, and some have resorted to violence and intimidation to deter underpayment claims, a Senate committee has heard.” The Guardian 6/2/16

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/05/7-eleven-workers-beaten-and-forced-to-pay-back-wages-senate-inquiry-hears

This is an extraordinary story of management exploitation of workers who are on student visas and were threatened, I repeat threatened, to accept terrible working conditions on pain of being fired and losing their visas. The owners of the company, in the Guardian’s photo, are extremely wealthy men. They knew what was going on. The ugly story is still coming out, nearly a year after ABC 4-Corners exposed it.

This is Australian business at work. These are the managers that Liberal governments tell us have their workers’ interests at heart. These Liberal governments and politicians tell us we don’t need unions and that unions are corrupt.

Well, I say, it is Australian business and Australian management that is corrupt, much more than a few union leaders. As the economy turns down, more and more cases of management corruption are coming to light.

Another case is that resource companies have lost a legal fight, run by a union, where, when making workers redundant in the downturn, instead of giving the legally required number of weeks notice of the redundancy, the companies have been using workers’ accrued annual leave in the redundancy notice period. For example, where five weeks’ notice might be required by the award or EBA, and the employee is owed three weeks’ annual leave, then the company says, right, you are taking those three weeks annual leave as part of the redundancy notice and we only have to pay you two weeks’ extra pay as redundancy pay. The companies lost the case and the unions are now going to force them to pay the full amounts owing to redundant workers.

Fine upstanding managements, yes? Unions are not needed, no? Bullshit.

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I neglected to mention yesterday that the ANZ Bank lost a court case recently saying that exorbitant late fees on credit card accounts are not on. The ANZ Bank are looking at paying back large amounts to affected customers. Another example of big bank rip-offs.

I got an email from that pillar of rectitude, the Commonwealth Bank the next day.

Peter, say goodbye to credit card late fees.

When life gets busy, it’s easy to let a credit card repayment slip. Setting up AutoPay in NetBank means one less thing to remember every month, as it remembers your repayments for you.

The email heading gives the impression that CBA won’t charge late payment fees. But what they really mean is that if I set up an automatic payment, I won’t be charged these extortionate fees, which will still be payable if I forget. Oh yes, I will still be charged late fees. Yet another slippery move by this slippery bank.

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Well, day three of the heat wave and it hasn’t really started yet. Last Thursday 35, Friday 36, today 35, tomorrow 40, Monday 42, Tuesday 42, Wednesday 41, Thursday 40, Friday 36… Almost unprecedented. Only once before have we had four successive days of 40C or above, in 1930. Phew. I think I’ll head to Bali to cool off.

Thank goodness this house is so well designed. I can’t say I’ve ever found it too hot to sleep, and I never have the air con on at night. Fans are all I need most of the time.

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I had a look for Ford Probes for sale yesterday, and there are only six on the market, and none of them is a 1997 model. Most were 1994s, the first year of production. One looks quite well looked after and is white (my preference), but it’s missing the rear spoiler. Odd. Being a sports car, I shouldn’t want an automatic, but you get used to an auto. Only 135,000Km! They only want $1,800 oops, $3,800. It’s a private sale in South Australia. All the others are up around 235,000Kms and don’t look well maintained.

I have the feeling the good ones are being snapped up by people like me who see the value. It will pay to be vigilant.

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Another view of Trigg Beach from slightly further north. Fremantle in the distance. That rocky promontory in the middle distance is Trigg Island.  OLYMPUS E-PL2 300mm (e) July 2012 © PJ Croft 2016

Jindalee Beach (my beach) April 2015. Those are the wooden stairs that I climb. How I wish I could go into that surf. There’d be no help if I got into trouble. Panasonic FZ70 © PJ Croft 2016

This wasn’t today. It was clear and sunny this morning, beautiful.

Beach stairs again today. Once again, I took ’em slowly to avoid sore thigh muscles. It worked last time. I also went thigh deep in the water but I nearly lost my balance as the sand got eroded away. Still too dangerous for me.

The forecast is for a severe and dangerous heat wave for the next week. It was 35ºC yesterday, same today, then 39ºC, 40ºC, 41ºC, 40ºC and not much different further into the whole of next week. This is unusually hot weather, even for WA. This is climate change.

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I’m flattered again. I posted a comment on the premier photography blog a few days ago, about the typo typo mentioned below.

I was surprised to get an email from the blogger, a most erudite chap who used to be the editor of a couple of photography magazines, saying he couldn’t see what I was on about. What was wrong with the caption: “sold by Australian stationary chain Typo”?

I said, stationary vs stationery and explained. He emailed back and said:

Hi Peter,

Mazda MX6

1996 Probe

Ha ha ha ha ha. The Guardian is running an article about an Australian company that sells globes of the Earth, with country names, etc. This company has made an error, naming Palestine but leaving out Israel.

But the Guardian’s caption under the photo is: “sold by Australian stationary chain Typo”

How’s that for a tautology? A typo in a sentence about a typo by a company named Typo. Must be a record.

Unfortunately, they’re not allowing comments on that story, so I have to do it here.

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Where is it? It’s an airport, but it’s not Perth Airport. Runways at 90º ? Give up? Jandakot, in Perth, Western Australia. Supposed to be Australia’s busiest airport.

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And this one? Kwinana, Rockingham, Point Peron and Garden Island.

I’m going overboard with the pictures because I’ve figured out how to embed the sRGB colour profile in the pictures, resize, and export in one easy operation. True colour on screen at last.

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OK, I’ve been agonising all night (yeah, another sleep free night) over whether to book the rest of my 30 day stay in Bali in the same S’Cape Condotel, and I just went ahead and did it. Same deal, no payment up front and cancel up to a week beforehand, so no harm done. I have to have a three day gap between my two bookings. That’s OK, I’ll either try the real cheap guest house near the beach at $22 a night, or go to some other hotel along the coast. Maybe I’ll go to the nudist resort again! (Later: ugh, the rate is now $61 a night with no air-con, or $100 a night with air-con and breakfast. Bit too expensive, I think.)

This time the rate for the Condotel was only $51 a night vs $54 yesterday. Exchange rate improvement, I assume.

Now to book a damned Jetstar cramped flight. I suppose it’s only 3 hours.

UPDATE: the cheapest and the best times turned out to be Air Asia, so that’s what I’ve booked. It cost $516 return all up, with 20Kg luggage, very nearly what Garuda cost with 30Kg, two checked bags, meal and drinks included. Poor value for money on Air Asia.

Now to book the hire car to get to the airport, at half the cost of a taxi, as I did on the last trip.

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© PJ Croft 2016

Hmmm. Men’s wear, eh? With my boobs, they’d suit me very well. 😉

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I’ve just done the beach stairs again, coming up slowly this time in the hope of avoiding the torn muscles of a week ago. There are 80 steps now vs 74 a couple of years ago.

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I think I’ll buy the new laptop too. A Dell XPS 15 with UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels) screen.

So what do I do with the old Sony VAIO? It’s still a nice machine, just 6 or 7 years old. I dunno. Donate it to the Men’s Shed, I suppose.

One problem with it is that I can only ever get about 2½ hours use on battery. It was like that right from new. It’s supposed to give 6 hours, so I don’t know why it doesn’t. The new Dell is rated at 10 hours. I hope so.

Sanur pano Dec 2010

Above is a panorama done using that marvellous program Autostitch. Fast, and free. No seams visible, ever. Also done in sRGB colour space, so the colour comes through.

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Bloody hell, I’m cold, in February! Actually — February??? Where’s the summer gone? Only four weeks to autumn. Better head back to Bali, I think.

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Crumbs, I’ve just found what looks like the perfect place. It’s a set of 16 apartments called a condotel, on Jalan Tamblingan. Unfortunately they’re away from the beach, but it has a pool, of course. They’re asking $54 a night. I suspect I could bargain that down for a long stay.

The thing is, each room is 80 sq. m. and has a dining table and lounge area, and a small kitchen. One drawback is that wi-fi is only available in a hot spot in the ‘public area’. I have a high sensitivity wi-fi adapter – it might reach from the room.

Maybe I’ll book a week in the cheap, cheap $22 a night beach guest house, then the rest of a 30 days stay at this condotel. That price of $54 a night is what I was saying is no more than a lease on a villa would cost. If I could get it down to $50 a night. Hmmm…

DANG! Problem, too good to be true. Booked out on the dates I want.

One reviewer says half the 16 apartments are occupied by permanent residents. I’m not surprised.

I’ve emailed them asking when I could get a booking from 7 – 30 days long. I notice their web site offers 20% discount off their $75 standard rate for showing your boarding pass. So they do offer discounts.

UPDATE: I found they have a room from 1 March to 14 March, 13 nights, so I’ve booked it. It was the last one and I couldn’t go beyond 14 March. I’ll try this and see how it goes. I can cancel up to a week beforehand and I haven’t paid anything yet, so no risk.

Further update: the condotel have emailed me back and they can offer me 16 March to 31 March, just not 15 March. So I could go away on an overnight trip somewhere, leaving my bags at reception, and come back. I’ve told them I’ll think on it. It might be best to stick with the shorter booking as I might not like it.

At $54 per night x 365 = $19,710 a year. I’m sure you could swing a better deal than that. It’s a better deal than leasing, I think. No contracts, no surprises, no lawyers. And if I wanted a break back here, I could sub-let it, maybe?

OK, now to book a flight. And consider where to stay for the remainder of the 30 days. (See below)

Kuta Beach 2010. Those trees weren’t there in 1980 when I first went. Nor the cranes.

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I started looking at airfares on Air Asia last night. They say $119 one way, but somehow it becomes $179 even before you start adding luggage. Then it becomes $220 when luggage is added, and even more if you want a meal and choice of seat.

So when Garuda is $213 one way ($526 return) for 30Kg baggage, with two checked bags, full service meal, free drinks and in-flight movie, and a tray table that I can get fully down, why would I choose Air Asia?

I’m all excited again now.

DANG AGAIN! Garuda no longer flies direct Perth to Bali. Only via Jakarta, with a loooong overnight wait at Jakarta airport. No way.

It looks as if I’m stuck with Jetstar and Air Asia, and despite their “$280 return” advertised price, it’s going to cost me upwards of $500 return with all the add-ons, I think. Damn, there’s no choice.

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I’ve just looked at the travel insurance policy I took out ($403 worth) for the Xmas trip, to see if I can claim the leg ulcer treatment. The first clause says:

What you are not covered for
1. Any claims if at the time you take out this insurance and/or prior to you booking any single trip the following apply:

a) You are aware of any medical condition or set of circumstances which could lead to a claim.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t say I was unaware of my potential leg ulcer condition. That’s why I apply Dermeze daily. I think I’d be wasting my time making a claim.

That means I think the whole idea of paying so much for travel insurance that I’ll almost never be able to use is a waste of money. I’ve paid out many hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars for insurance over the years and I have never made a claim or been able to make a claim. I think I’ll just not bother next trip.

Hmmm…         © PJ Croft 2010, 2016