© PJ Croft 2015

Hmmm. I needed a cleanup and a small amount of gardening. I got a guy around last Friday to have a look. I’d made a list of about 11 items (such as remove weeds from the front and the sides, take a frangipani out of a pot and plant it in the garden beds, plant about six palms out of their pots into the beds, etc.) Nothing difficult. I also asked, since he advertised general handyman jobs, if he could fix my reticulation, plug the leak in the water feature, wash some external windows and maybe fix a flyscreen.

What I got was reasons why he couldn’t do the non-gardening things. Doesn’t do retic. Plugging the leak would be too hard. No window washing or flyscreens. Even planting the palms was qualified by umming and ahing and there being not too many of them.

Sigh. He said he’d do the rest, but not until Wednesday, and three hours at $50 an hour. This is the second time I’ve tried to get things done and so I agreed to that amount as I need it done.

But I was sitting here just now thinking I’ll text him and cancel, when the doorbell rings. It’s him. He’s got time now (Monday), can he do the job?

So he’s working now. It’ll be interesting to see the result. I’m a bit tired of tradesmen who will only do what they choose to do, not what the customer wants. I can’t see that I’m asking unreasonably.

STOP PRESS: BLOODY HELL! I’m in shock. He quoted $150 last Friday and I was under the impression it was for three hours’ work at $50 an hour, based on something else he said.

It took much less time. He’s just left after an hour and a half, so I said $75, right? No, it’s the full $150. FOR 90 MINS WORK! THAT”S $100 AN HOUR! For light gardening! He says he quoted me $150 and that’s the charge, no matter if it only took an hour and a half.

Bloody hell! This is the second time this year I’ve been taken for a ride by trades people. The cleaners in May who charged me double what I was expecting, and now this, double again. Fuck!

I was fumbling with my wallet for cash and he said “You can pay on-line if you like”, so I said yes, I’ll do that. And I’ll make him wait, and I’ll send him an angry email with it. I’m sick of this.

_________________________________

Booking for Bali. Four star hotels for $50 a night. Not bad. I’m regretting paying $119 a night for the Besakih last year. It’s nice, but not $119 worth. You can do better for less.

I’m spending four nights on the Sanur side, then moving to Kuta in two separate hotels for a couple of weeks, then moving back to Sanur for the final five nights.

I’m thinking of staying at Kintamani for a couple of nights to try to see the dawn across the crater, then a couple of nights in Ubud on the way back. Not sure yet.

Great to be making bookings two months out for a change. Plenty of time to get organised. It’s hard to decide between going for the traditional Balinese style hotel with all the carved wood and stone stuff, but usually old and worn, or the brand new hotels with all the modern buildings and furniture and bathrooms without cockroaches. I’ve got a mix of both, but more towards the modern.

_______________________________

It pays to wait. I read a review of the new LG OLED 4K TV, reviewed as the best TV on the market. My present TV is five years old now and only 32″. “Only”.

But 4K (four times the resolution of Full HD) and OLED – that’s pretty tempting. But the price was $5,995 for the 55″ model.

I say was, because I noticed the ad in Saturday’s paper – it’s come down $1,000 in about a month! It’s now $4,995. Kerrrumbs. I’m not thinking of buying it right now, but I wonder what it will come down to by early next year.

Why do I want 4K? Well, I can shoot my own 4K video now, and 4K DVDs are just around the corner. Also, I’ve resisted buying a bigger set for years because I can’t sit back far enough in my lounge. The pixels would be visible. But a 4K set makes the pixels invisible, so you can sit reasonably close. This is a 55″.

As well, the reviews say that even ordinary Full HD BluRay discs look amazing on this set. Good enough for me. I’ve got some crackers of BluRay discs.

_____________________________

For the past few weeks I’ve been hearing a frog croaking quite loudly at night. Talking to my neighbour just now, it’s in her garden pond. She finds it a bit intrusive but it’s OK by me. I like the sound.

____________________________

I’m nearly finished The Martian book that I mentioned. Wow. Very well written. Very techo, but that’s good by me, of course. It’s an epic saga, about an astronaut who is left for dead in a killer sandstorm on Mars, and how he survives for a year and a half until he can be rescued. There are dubious scientific things in it, but mostly it’s believable. After the book, I’m sure I’ll be disappointed in the movie. They’ll have to leave so much out. But I’ll buy the disc.

Photo: SBS

From GetUp:

It’s an absolute horror story.

On Friday evening the Turnbull government chartered a plane and sent Abyan* – a raped, pregnant 23 year old refugee – back to Nauru, without receiving medical care.¹

Here’s what happened:

• Abyan came to Australia seeking safety, but instead the government sent her to Nauru, where 14 weeks ago she was raped, an attack that resulted in pregnancy. Abortion is illegal on Nauru, so Abyan begged to come to Australia to receive care, including a terminaton of the pregnancy.²
• Last week the government responded to enormous public outcry on behalf of Abyan, and brought her to Australia for medical treatment. But once here, this 23 year old woman was denied access to a counsellor to talk her through the procedure.³
• Instead, she was flown in secret back to Nauru, avoiding legal action on her behalf; still pregnant, and without having been given the medical treatment she needs.⁴

Instead of providing Abyan with appropriate medical care, the Turnbull government forcibly returned her to Nauru. For Abyan, this is abuse heaped upon abuse – rather than giving her basic human respect, our country has turned her away.

This is an utter affront to human decency. This is not my government, not my country. I am ashamed of the way this government is behaving. I protest!

We must start organising. We must show our rejection of this thuggish and inhumane behaviour. Email Dutton and tell him he’s gone too far. I have, cc’d to bloody Turnbull.

It’s happened again, another amazing coincidence. On Monday I was browsing in JB HiFi for CDs and DVDs and a couple of discs by Loudon Wainwright came into my view. I was not interested, but I knew the name from the 1980s, I think.

This morning in the Guardian:  “In 1995, veteran folk singer Loudon Wainwright III released…”

This is uncanny! Spooky, even.

___________________________

I started reading The Martian last night, the book that inspired the movie. The fillum, as we used to say.

I’m only about 20 pages in but it’s good enough that I want to go back to it even now at 10am.

_______________________

Crumbs, technology – I love it. I’ve just read (most) of an article in the Guardian about the death of British pubs, specifically about the near death of The Golden Lion in London.

So I find the street and suburb in the article, Google Earth it, street view it and there it is, in living colour.

Marvellous. This one was saved from demolition by the persistence of the pub leaseholder, but 30 pubs of the old British type per week are being closed down. The land is more valuable as flats and redevelopment than as a pub, so the predators circle and pounce.

That’s what happened to the shops near my house in Trigg. We had a service station with full mechanical services, a pharmacy, a fish and chip shop, a hardware store, a newsagent, a supermarket, a greengrocer, a hairdresser, a clothing shop, a really good deli, an Indian restaurant and a Vinnies shop. I used to walk there almost every day to at least buy the paper and I did most of my grocery shopping there. It was a small village. I was on name terms with nearly all the shop people. (Once, the greengrocer lady said, “How are you now?” I was surprised, and it turned out she’d heard I’d had an ambulance ride. It was amazing that the word had passed around and I was really touched that she cared to ask.)

But it was all bulldozed in about 1995. Completely gone. The land was more valuable as townhouses, so that’s what was built. An ugly set of three blank white shops with no awnings or verandahs was included: the chemist, a hairdresser and a fish and chip shop, but these were of little interest to me. This was not an area where you would “shop”, specifically because there was nowhere to park except on the street. Not many parking spaces. I had to transfer all my shopping to the North Beach Plaza.

I felt the loss, but there’s no solution. Just pass laws saying you can’t do this? The lawyers would make mincemeat out of these laws. The cost of the law is simply prohibitive, so they’d line their pockets besides. Property developers and lawyers. Huh.

© PJ Croft 1986, 2015 This was 1986. I may stay in this hotel again. From their web photos it doesn’t seem to have changed much.

I’ve decided I’ll skedaddle to that northern island this Xmas and New Year. It’s hard to believe it was 2010 that I last did this. I’ve been back once, last year on the way back from China and Hanoi, but I was so crook with a chest infection/pneumonia that I hardly left the room. Five days of sleeping, going out only for meals. What a waste.

It’s been five very, very tough years since the 2010 Xmas escape. I feel utterly betrayed. I can’t forgive. For forgiveness, there needs to be some sign of understanding of the mistakes that were made and some sign of remorse. There’s nothing.

Anyway, for once I feel confident enough of my legs to go to the tropics. I’ve been pretty well ulceration free this year, thanks to Dermeze. My skin on my legs seems to have built up a layer of suppleness such that it doesn’t break as easily.

I’m going for 25 days, mainly because air fares almost double in “the season”, along with a lot of hotel rates, so I’m going up mid December and coming back a week into the new year when the air fares are reasonable. I’m going Garuda this time. It’s full service, with a meal and in-flight entertainment (not that I care much about that) but most importantly, it’s a twin aisle A330 with full seat pitch. I’m sick of the cramped cattle carriers of the cheapies, and when you add baggage charges and booking fees, and the cost of food, it’s not much different to Garuda’s fare. Besides, the baggage allowance is 30Kg on Garuda. That matters to me, with my CPAP machine and tripod and all the electronics I carry. Plus, I want to be able to buy something while I’m up there and bring it back without having to worry about weight.

I’m staying in four different hotels this time, a few days in Sanur, then moving to two different hotels in Kuta for a couple of weeks for a change. Not sure about this – I should try to “get outa town” a bit. I’ve booked, but I can cancel without penalty. Still deciding.

© PJ Croft 1986, 2015. A Kuta beach cremation float. I took this shot from a crowd of tourists. Pretty well isolated from spurious tourists, eh?

It’s hard to decide between traditional Balinese accommodation, with rooms that are pretty old and well worn, and the newer hotels that are not exactly trad. But you get lifts, and balconies, and a generally higher standard. I dunno.

Both Kuta hotels are close enough to the shops and malls that I can walk there, and where I can browse and fossick to my heart’s content. I’m a bit of a shopper, I admit. I love finding interesting things. None of my hotels is on the beach front. I find I can’t walk in the sand or swim in the ocean any more – too unsteady on my legs. I’m OK in a pool, so the beach doesn’t matter as much.

I’m also deliberately choosing the wet season. I love the rain and thunder and lightning. It’s cooler, too. Yum.

For once I’ve made up my mind and booked two months out, with plenty of time to arrange things, or rearrange things if I have to. Aaaaah.

© PJ Croft 1983, 2015. It’s hard to believe, but this was shot just outside Kuta, about where Sunset Road is now. It was all paddies then, but they’re long gone. This was also a time of the forest fire season in Borneo. The air was very smokey, but it made for nice photography.

___________________________

The Garuda flight leaves at 8am. Bloody hell, that means I’ll have to be at the airport by 6am, which means I’ll need to leave here by 4.30-5.00am. In any normal city it wouldn’t be a problem but in Perth, it’s a big problem. I simply can’t rely on a taxi coming up here, especially at that time of the morning.

So I’ll try one of the FIFO transport vans, I think. Sunday? Dunno. Train and bus? Not in Perth, not from here, not that early, forget it.

My great friend Baz says he’ll collect me on return, even at 11 o’clock at night. I didn’t ask him he just volunteered. He’s a good friend. When he helps me, he really helps me.

__________________________

I was pretty annoyed yesterday. I was sitting on one of the seats at the shopping centre and a black African guy touched my elbow. He was holding out his hand with a 20c coin on it. He pointed to it and said, “Coin?”, meaning, could I give him a coin. I rolled my yes a bit but gave him 50c.

The bastard turned his nose up at it! “Fifty cents?”, he said. “Coin. Gold coin.” What, a dollar? “Yes yes, a dollar.”

No, no, no. I told him no and got up and left. Bloody hell. Begging is bad enough, but to object to how much is donated turns me off. This is wrong.

__________________________

Worried by traffic? Worry about this, then:

It’s China, outside Beijing as the crowds return after a holiday weekend. Roughly 40 lanes narrow down to about 15 toll gates, then once through, you have to funnel down to about six lanes for the freeway. Aaaarrrrgh. We think we’ve got traffic?

Kuala Lumpur Railway Station © PJ Croft 1986, 2015   See those four ladies near the central pillar, two in black and the red and blue on the right? They were travelling together and they were giving me the eye on the train. They saw me taking the picture and posed for me. Typical me, too slow on the uptake. I could have …

Another of those amazing coincidences.

On Monday I was talking to the bank guy and his surname was Lacey, L-A-C-E-Y. I reflexively said, “As in Cagney and Lacey, eh?” He didn’t answer, possibly because he was too young to know what I was talking about.

Yesterday in the book I’m reading at the moment, Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson, he gets back to his hotel room and the first thing he sees on TV is … Cagney and Lacey!

I was so surprised I let out an exclamation. Like, “Bloody hell.” I think it’s worm holes.

_____________________________

The hardest thing is getting started. I went for a walk yesterday.

_____________________________

Speaking of TV shows and worm holes, I like The Big Bang Theory. Bit addicted, actually. How strange that although it’s been on Channel 9 for years, suddenly Channel 7 is showing it as well. At the same time slot, too, so I have to record it.

Actually, I record everything these days in order to avoid the infestation, the disease, the plague of promos. Commercials I can tolerate because they’re often humorous and very well made, but the promos are just an onslaught of flashing scenes, so fast that you barely see the shots.

But worse than that is the repetition! Over and over again, the same promos. Who’s the worst? SBS! Not content with one at the beginning and end of commercial breaks, they have two at the beginning and three at the end. And they’re the same promos, over and over. I can’t stand it.

So now I record everything and fast forward through this crap. It’s counterproductive for the station – they’ve turned me off. I simply won’t watch their commercial breaks. Bye.

________________________________

I had a visit yesterday from a young lady at my door with a clip board talking about heart disease research. Obviously, it’s relevant to me, so I invited her in. I thought I was going to be asked to make a donation, which I am prepared to do.

But it turned out that she wanted a weekly or monthly repeating subscription. She wanted me to sign up for a minimum of $35 per month or more.

Bloody hell. I said no. I said I’m on the pension and I’ll make a donation, but I’m not going to sign an open ended commitment like that. I’m already on a medication that costs $130 per month and another one is recommended, but it’s $60 per month, non-PBS. Phone and internet are around $90 per month. Electricity about $125 per month. Car licence and insurance about $100 per month. HBF about $150 per month. Etc etc.

Talk about counterproductive. I was willing to help, but they get nothing out of me after this. I’m not poor but you have to watch the pennies.

_____________________________

I asked the Sydney hi-fi shop what’s happened about my faulty Yamaha tuner? It’s been three weeks since I returned it to them, and a month since I sent the faulty remote control back, but I’d heard nothing from them.

The result is that they’ve refunded my money. They’re not going to send a replacement. They suggest I buy from a shop in Perth. They hadn’t said anything, so I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t enquired.

Pretty poor effort from Yamaha. Quality control seems to be severely lacking.

It’s such a good combination of features that I think I’ll try a third sample, if I can find one in Perth. (Postscript: yes, available here but the price at West Coast HiFi is $100 more! $529 versus $429. Come on guys, get real.)

First, another nice pic, spoilt by the tilted water:

And now it’s fixed:

Such a nice picture (it’s Perth). Why do they let it out into the publishing sphere with tilted water? The tilt is 0.8deg and took about 1min to fix.

______________________________________

I’m still too nervous to make the commitment to buy a 9 year old Mercedes – too worried about high repair costs, not to mention insurance costs of $135 per month!

A new contender has made me rethink:

What is it? It’s a Skoda! If you’d told me 10 years ago that a Skoda might be a nice car to own, I’d have laughed. This is the Skoda Superb 2015 model, unfortunately not available here until April next year.

My criteria for a car are timeless, elegant styling, quietness and smoothness, and finally good design and fitout. This has made me sit up and look.

It’s not a 2 door coupe but it’s very elegant, to my eyes. The rear leg room is exceptional, apparently, not that that matters to me. But the boot is exceptionally clever. It’s a sedan, right, with a rear window and a boot? But if you squeeze a handle when you open the boot, the entire boot lid and rear window lock together and lift as one piece like a hatchback. Clever.

The boot, with the rear seats folded down is cavernous, as shown. I could sleep in that.

This solves the quandary I was in: when I had dogs, I had to have a station wagon. Now that I don’t have a dog any more, I was going to buy a sedan, but if I ever got a dog again, what would I do? Well, here’s the answer – it’s both a sedan and a station wagon when you need it. Clever.

And you don’t miss out on the Mercedes levels of luxury:

That’s real leather upholstery and trim. There’s even wood grain in one level of trim. And you can get other colours besides black or silver. Hallelujah.

It only comes with four-cylinder engine choices, but the top petrol engine is a 2.0 litre turbo that puts out 160KW or so and does 0-100Kmh in 6.6 secs. That’s plenty enough for me. Price? Around $50,000 when it gets here, about the same as that hail damaged Merc SL350 I was considering. I’d have to wait until April next year, but that’s OK. And I’d have the benefits of a new car with all the modern reliability, long warranty, long service intervals, modern electronic gadgets and fuel economy of 6.2L/100Km, about half the Merc and half what I use now. Hmmm. A bloody Skoda! Who’d have thought?

PS: Skoda is part of the Volkswagen Group and one model of Skoda is affected by the scandal over deceptive diesel engines. But it’s only diesels. (So far, anyway.) I would only buy a petrol engined car.

_______________________________

Aaah, I miss my dogs!!!!! Really, really miss them. I think all the time about getting another one.

BUT. As soon as I do, I make myself a virtual prisoner. I’m thinking seriously of going to Bali over Xmas and New Year and I can just make a quick decision and go, no need to arrange anything here. But if I had a dog, I really couldn’t, not easily.

As well, I also remember the years of house training, the chewing of furniture, alarm clocks and hard drives (yes really), stained and dirty carpets, dog hairs everywhere through the house, dog poo all over the lawn, vet visits and fees, barking and misbehaviour, fights with other dogs, fear of upsetting people on the ovals, worrying about neighbour complaints or council rangers, escapes and the ensuing embarrassments, food costs, car damage … the list goes on.

But I also remember the incredible affection, the great welcomes home, the chin on knee and the loving eyes looking up at me, the big smiles, the jigging for joy when it was food time, the snuggling into my back on the bed when I was asleep in the afternoon, the tiny, tiny tip of her nose on my hand in the morning to see if I was awake, the joy of chasing the ball, the rubbing against my leg for a pat … Jeez, I miss it.

Maybe if I become really house bound I’ll reconsider.

_______________________________

That reference to the chewed alarm clock, above: I used to have a small plastic travel alarm clock that was the most accurate clock I have ever seen. It varied by no more than 1 second per year! That’s one part in 31,536,000.

But Boopsie must have found it on the floor when she was a puppy and that was almost the end of it. I was upset.

The hard drive? I was looking after friends’ Staffy Terrier for several weeks in 2007 and he found a portable hard drive on a window ledge. When I found it later, the outer rubber covering had been chewed off and the metal inner casing was looking more than a bit bent. But amazingly, it still worked. I still have it, dents, teeth marks and all.

That Staffy also pissed on my $3,000 speakers, shat on my white lounge room carpet and escaped so many times, taking Minnie with him, that I was driven to distraction. I had to fortify the front gate.

But did I complain to the owners? I did not. I said I enjoyed looking after him and never mentioned the damage. I don’t do that – I keep quiet about the bad things. Not like some people.

Nice picture!

I’ve spoken of coincidences before, but I had a doozy on Saturday night.

One of the movies on TV was Hotel Rwanda, and one of the stars in that is Don Cheadle. I’ve seen that movie before and didn’t want to watch it again. Instead, desperate for something to watch, I went back through the programs saved up on my hard disk recorder. One that I recorded more than two years ago is The Guard, a comedy about an Irish poloiceman (hah! I just accidentally misspelled that word, but I think I’ll leave it with its forrtuitous Irish accent. Hah! There’s another one, an Irish burr.)

But I digress. I picked this movie quite at random. Who’s the star? Don Cheadle!  Maybe I had a deep unconscious memory that he was in it and was reminded by the Hotel Rwanda. I don’t know.

______________________________

Another tilted picture:

And the corrected version:

Isn’t that better? A full 2.8 degrees. Why do they not fix it before release?

____________________________________

An example of Saudi Arabia’s good taste. This is Mecca. This is a city where we infidels, we Western unbelievers are not allowed to go. We would be arrested and held without charge or trial. A fine example of Muslim tolerance.

Muslims can’t be trusted.

They can protest all they like, but we can never relax. We can never be sure some Muslim won’t pull out a gun or knife and kill us in the name of Allah. It’s been proven time and time again.

_____________________________

Interesting map:

The coloured lines are their High Speed Rail lines, capable of 200Km/h and above. Wow. I went on one short run from Shanghai to the airport, but here we have the entire country connected by these high speed trains. The context is that China has the capacity to very quickly move troops anywhere in the country in a matter of hours. The article said China has borders with 14 other countries.

Interesting that they show Taiwan in this map, and with a blue line, capable of 300Km/h or above. Meanwhile, we can’t make a decision on anything, not even light rail in Perth. Hopeless.

____________________________________

Speaking of motorbike riders, as I was last week: a few days ago I was coming home on Marmion Ave, on the section where it narrows down to a single lane in each direction. There’s a 2m wide cycle path on the left, but no gap on the right next to the grassed median strip.

There’s no gap, but that didn’t stop a motorbike rider from trying to push his way through the stopped line of traffic on the right in this narrow gap between cars and the median strip! Amazingly, cars were edging left to let him do it. Luckily he got stopped a few cars behind me. I would have considered edging right or opening my door to check my tyres if he’d reached me. We were stopped, after all.

__________________________________

Last week I also lamented having blown up that laptop power brick that I’d rewired to run a Betacam SP recorder … Well, my face is red.

I had another look a few nights ago (just before I went to bed – doesn’t everyone do electronic repairs just before bed?) This time I noticed that the mains AC power plug was a little loose on the socket. I pushed it in and bingo – I had +12V again.

On Saturday I tentatively plugged it into the recorder and with fingers crossed, switched on. Hey hey, lights on, whirring noise and all good. Exercised the mechanism a little, then put a cassette in and it threaded up. Hit PLAY, and it played.

Is this clutter, or what? That’s the Betacam SP machine on top of the computer. That recorder would be over 30 years old by now!

That’s where the good news ends. I have a monochrome (black and white) picture but the chroma is all messed up. I’m guessing it’s an adjustment, but which one, I don’t know without the manual. I phoned a Channel 7 mate but he confirms that all the manuals were thrown out in the dumper bins when they moved to Osborne Park earlier this year. So I’ll have to search on the web for a manual.

STOP PRESS: manuals found easily on the web today. One for the BVW35P shown above — AU$7.36 for the PDF download. I also bought the two volumes for the PVW2650 rack mounting player also at AU$7.36 each. Done.

_____________________________

Interestingly, my mate says that they do absolutely no fault fixing in Perth now, not even module swapping to isolate a problem. If something goes faulty, the management rule is that the entire piece of equipment, e.g. a studio camera, goes back to Sydney, to Sony or Bosch or Quantel or whoever the manufacturer is.All servicing is to be done in Sydney.

That means that no-one in Perth is getting any experience on the equipment any more. Some guys have had training in the past, but they’re the older guys nearing retirement (the last real training was 20-30 years ago!). There are only about six guys left in Engineering at Ch 7 Perth, and about three of them are nearing retirement. My mate is 63.

That’s Aussie management – don’t invest in people, cut costs in any way you can, so that the top guy gets his bonuses. Even at the risk of future problems, don’t plan that far ahead. Thank goodness I’m out.

© PJ Croft 2015

http://web.photodex.com/view/pgbx42x4

© PJ Croft 2015

________________________________

I’ve always said, people marry either partners who looks like themselves, or a complete opposite. Look at the similarity here. Same facial shape, same mouth. Same bloody politics, too.

_________________________________

It’s 5am and another sleepless night. Damn, I just can’t get to sleep! It means I crash for a couple of hours during the day, which messes up the next night. Or I take a heavy slug of valerian, which works, but it feels like a hangover the next day.

Plus I’ve got itches all over me. Not rashes, just little nerve itches. I try to ignore them but a new one pops up every 5 seconds or so, sometimes quite strongly so that I just have to scratch. Uuuuuugh. Problem.

_______________________________

Forgot to mention – I visited a Men’s Shed last week for the first time. These are literally sheds or workshops for old blokes like me (huh!) who are a bit lonely and in need of a work group to make things, or just a good yarn over a cuppa. This one is actually in a modern complex, not a shed, and they’ve got a LOT of space.

I was surprised how much equipment they’ve got. They’ve got multiples of all the machines you could need: table saws, band saws, wood and metal lathes, planers, shapers, belt and spindle sanders, welding gear of all types. Everything you could ever need.

I was shown around by the lead guy, and had a coffee and chat with the five or six guys who were there, but … no-one asked me where I used to work or what my experience or expertise is. All they wanted to talk about was themselves. I was almost offended. I was quite put off, actually. I don’t think that one will suit me. It’s virtually all woodwork oriented, and it’s too far to go, about 25 mins from my place, i.e. about 20Km or so.

I’ve heard there’s one in Wanneroo which rebuilds computers from old parts. That’s more my line. Hmmm, it’s also 25Km as the crow flies, which means further by road, but the freeway gets me most of the way there. I’ll give it a try soon.

UPDATE:  It’s actually in Girrawheen, which (by road, not the straight line), is 30Km away. Bloody hell, that’s a long drive, about 35 mins I’d guess. My place is so far from everything. Anywhere I want to go is at least 15 mins away, and usually half an hour’s drive. I meet with a couple of mates for brekky each fortnight and that’s 30 mins if the traffic’s OK. I sometimes go to lunch on Friday with a few mates from Channel 7 days, but it’s in Victoria Park, 45 mins away. Problem.

Thank goodness for a bit of warm sun at last. It is a month into spring, after all, but the weather bureau says we had three days over 30C this month, the first time on record that we’ve had three 30C+ days in September, ever. This is global warming in action. I wouldn’t mind betting we’re in for another “driest winter”, or “driest year” on record, too.

__________________________________

I’ve never considered solar power up to now because I didn’t feel my power bills were very high. But the situation has changed. The government has increased electricity prices so much that I’m paying about $250 per 60 days billing period now. That’s about double what I was paying 4-5 years ago. (I can easily verify this – I keep records.) That’s about $1,500 per year.

The cost of solar panels has fallen to the point where you can buy a 5KW system for about $5,000 now. If you could run off solar power alone, that means the system would pay for itself in a bit over three years, and less time if you got paid for the excess power you could feed back into the system.

Additionally, the cost of battery storage to iron out the times “when the sun don’t shine” is now also dropping. That means total independence from the mains power supply.

I doubt I’ll do anything for a few more years, but everything I read suggests that it may be the sensible thing to do, especially in Perth. We’re being affected by global warming and rising temperatures, as I say, but that means we’re ideally placed to take advantage of free power from all that sun. We have more hours of sunshine than most places in the world.

___________________________________

My run of bad luck continues. I bought a small laptop 12V 5A power supply to run a Betacam broadcast VCR. It cost $65. Yesterday I put the necessary connector on it and connected it to the Betacam machine, which was switched off.

As I plugged the power connector on I heard a very small click, like a static spark. The Betacam VCR was not connected to anything at all so I didn’t think much of it.

But there was no life when I switched it on. I unplugged and checked for volts from the power supply – nothing. I had checked the volts before I plugged it in, but now it was dead. Damn! Power supplies like these are usually overload protected.

The problem is, this power supply is a sealed “brick”. You can’t open it up. There’s no way in without using a small saw. Even if I did succeed in opening the case, I reckon I’d find a black plastic solid “brick” inside. They don’t make these things to be serviced. Return it as faulty? I can’t, because I’ve cut the original plug off and soldered a new connector on.

So it looks as if it’s $65 down the drain. I’ll have a  go at cutting it open, but I don’t hold much hope. I think I’ll have to build one to my own conventional design, so that I can troubleshoot it if I have to.

I haven’t heard a word from the Sydney hi fi shop who have my Yamaha DAB+ tuner that I had to return as faulty. It’s been about 10 days so far. That’s a $425 dead weight that I’m still waiting on. I’m jinxed.

________________________________

My quarterly blood test were back last week, and once again I’ve aced it. Liver, kidneys, cholesterol, blood pressure, all good. No sign of any flare up of the CLL. My HbA1C is 8.2, when the recommended range is 4-6, but it’s not dangerously high. I’m seeing the diabetic nurse on Tuesday for advice on medication adjustments. Still very tired.

______________________________

I’ve been toying with travel ideas in the past week or two. One idea is a round world air ticket, business class for between $4,000 to $6,999. It seemed attractive at first, but then I thought about being in the USA and having some kind of health problem. We just can’t afford to get caught up in the US health system, I’m afraid. I’m not 100% healthy. If I were 20 years younger, fine, but I could have a diabetic or heart problem at some time while travelling. Too dangerous in the USA.

Plus, it’s just too dangerous a country, I feel. I wish I could go there, but no, too risky.

That takes me back to a cruise I’ve seen advertised, leaving in a year’s time – in late September 2016 from Southampton in the UK. It goes through the Med with a couple of stops, then through the Suez Canal, round into the Persian Gulf to Dubai, then via Cochin in India (southern tip, west side), across to Thailand (Phuket), the Malacca Straits to Penang, KL, Singapore, Bali, Fremantle (duck home to drop off the souvenirs and have a decent shower!), then Margaret River, Albany and on to Melbourne and Sydney. Duration 46 nights for $6,999. That’s more realistic. All accommodation and meals included, so a lot cheaper than an all-air trip.  I’d fly to the UK beforehand and do some driving (or going by train) to see Croft Castle in Herefordshire, then catch the ship on 28 September next year.

I know I said I’d never do a cruise again, but maybe …

At first I thought I’d disembark at Fremantle, but if I went through to Sydney, maybe I could buy my dream car there and do that driving thing back to Perth. That would really round off the trip. Hmmm.

NEXT DAY: Nah. This won’t work. That fare is for twin share. The single price is double that, $14,000. This is bloody outrageous. Sure, I occupy a whole cabin, but I don’t eat twice the food, I don’t use twice the water or other consumables. Unfortunately, the chances of finding a travel companion are low to zero. Also, this is for an interior, windowless cabin. For the 7 day trip on the Arcadia last year, it was OK, but I don’t think 7 weeks would be so easy.

If I wanted to spend $14,000, I could travel business class air and stay in luxury hotels on the same route, for much less. On top of the ship fare, you have to pay around $250 for each day tour in each port if you want to go ashore. That adds thousands more to the fare. Nah!

__________________________________

Speaking of driving, yesterday I was doing my 80Km/h on Marmion Avenue (two lanes plus bicycle lane) when a small motor bike roared up behind me. But instead of passing me in the right lane, he pulled left into the bicycle lane and passed me on the inside. P-plate rider, of course. He continued on in the bicycle lane for as far as I could see. Bloody fool.

A few days before that, again on Marmion Ave at 80Km/h, a dirt bike roared past on my left, but not in the bicycle lane, on the footpath! He was doing at least 100Km/h in places, but because he had to slow right down at intersections, I could watch him for 5 mins or so and he continued on the footpath all this time.

I read that there is a high death toll on motorbike riders in Perth. Good. I have no sympathy whatever. They refuse to obey the rules, so if they die or get maimed, too bloody bad. Each death is one less to worry about.

Callous? I obey the rules.

What a dog of a Prime Minister. But that’s unfair to dogs.

This is the editorial from The Saturday Paper last weekend. I have never seen such a complete demolition of a former PM. They sure don’t pull their punches, and I agree with every word of it (my bold emphases):