Railroaded

Grubb Street_0001Now that the pressure is off, I’ve thought that the time may be ripe to make a start on my decades-long delayed model railway plan. Above is a magazine layout from about five years ago that I particularly like. It’s in British OO scale (4mm – 1ft).

I’m redrawing it in N gauge (2mm – 1ft), and as I have more space available, I’m extending it in both directions.

Grubbe Street 180115This is the unfinished result of about a week’s work in a CAD program called AnyRail. It’s a bloody marvellous piece of software from Holland. It has complete libraries of all the track pieces available from any given maker, in this case Peco. You just drag a piece (eg a 914mm long straight of flexible track) onto the drawing and bend it any way you want to form the shapes shown above. Place the points (turnouts) and you’ve got your switch yards.

It took a bit of learning how to use it, but I’m impressed and pleased for my $57.

Each leg of the L shaped baseboard is 2x 1200x 2400 = 4800mm long. I’ll be using standard 1200x2400mm sheets of ply, so each section will be separable for carrying or storage. Although cutting across all that trackwork above will be very very difficult. Impossible, in fact, so I’ll have to make each baseboard as light as possible.

It’s not cheap, this model railway stuff. There’s 53m of flexible track there so far, about A$235 worth, and I’m nowhere near finished. There are 11 switches at about A$18 ea = $198. Again, there will be many more added. The software produces a list of items used – this is just a part of the list so far:

SL-302F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-302F. Flex 914.4mm. (concrete)    10
SL-302F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-302F. Flex 914.5mm. (concrete)    1
SL-E387F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E387F. Left curved turnout 10º (conductive frog)    2
SL-E388F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E388F. Right turnout 164mm. (conductive frog)    3
SL-E389F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E389F. Left turnout 164mm. (conductive frog)    4
SL-E392F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E392F. Left turnout 123mm. (conductive frog)    2
SL-E397F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E397F. Wye turnout 10º (conductive frog)    1
501, Symbols square 501. Left turnout.    1

Track lengths
501, Symbols square 501. Left turnout.    0 m
SL-302F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-302F. Flex 914.4mm. (concrete)    50 m
SL-E387F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E387F. Left curved turnout 10º   0.6 m
SL-E388F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E388F. Right turnout 164mm.      1 m
SL-E389F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E389F. Left turnout 164mm.       1.3 m
SL-E392F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E392F. Left turnout 123mm.       0.5 m
SL-E397F, N Peco Finescale Code 55 SL-E397F. Wye turnout 10º           0.2 m

Total track length:    53.6 m

Then each locomotive is about $100, and carriages are an average of say, $20 ea., so a five carriage train is $200. Just one train! It would not be unreasonable to have five trains. Then the controller/power supply is about $600. Even a basic layout is going to cost a minimum of $2,000. This will be at least a two year project.

And where am I going to put it? At first I thought – garage. But, dust and dirt! No, I think I’m going to put it in the lounge room. No women around here to put up their silly objections. No worries.

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I’m reading John Cleese’s new autobiography, “So, anyway …”. Good book. Almost can’t put it down. He’s just married Connie Booth, who’s an American he met in NY – I didn’t realise. Just reaching the beginnings of the Python era.

He wrote a book years ago called Families and How to Survive Them. I didn’t realise that he had a bad relationship with his mother, which blighted his life. I know the feeling.

I used to have a family, but they’re not around any more. I didn’t just survive them, I rose above their level. They’re all dead and gone now as far as I’m concerned. They were very poor quality people, so good riddance. Not to be trusted, liars, cheats, double-crossers.

I also have a surviving nephew and niece, but even though they know I’ve had health problems and they know where I live, I haven’t heard a word from them in over two years. So much for being their uncle. Very, very disappointing. I thought better of them, but they’ve been infected by their toxic mother.

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I’ve been told by a doctor that I need to get my blood sugar readings down further (avg. 10 at the moment), and to do it by cutting carbohydrates and building up on protein. I admit, I’m addicted to carbs, and if I can do this, it’ll be a good move. It fits with the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet of a few years ago.

If I stick to it, I seem to lose about 1Kg/week. The trouble is sticking to it. Bread is everywhere. I’ve stopped buying bread (mostly), but it still appears on any restaurant meal I have. It’s not easy, but then again, it’s not too hard either. Press on. I’ve also stopped the beer! For some reason, perhaps due to some medication I’m taking, it just doesn’t taste good any more. I have one (large) glass of wine a night and that’s all.

But considering that I used to drink four stubbies a night, plus nibbles, and half a bottle of wine, and that’s virtually all stopped, how is it that more weight isn’t disappearing? Very discouraging. As the cardiologist told me years ago. “If you go onto insulin, you’ll never be able to lose weight.” I think he’s right.

Refugee

_DSC0372Look at that! It was Saturday afternoon, about 4pm on 10 January. A huge bushfire was out of control about 10Km away but heading straight for us, blown by easterly winds. The house was as dark as in a winter storm.

_DSC0377I thought it best to evacuate, following the advice of the Dept of Fire and Emergency Services, so I arranged to stay overnight with friends (I still have one or two who haven’t deserted me) in Scarborough. There was probably no danger, as proved to be the case next day, but I wouldn’t have felt comfortable going to sleep with that heading toward me.

Next morning, Sunday, I drove north again and although the fire was still going, there was no smoke visible from my area.

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Dammit. My legs were going really, really well for skin breaks and ulceration. I was congratulating myself at how smooth and normal they were looking due to daily applications of Dermeze. But on Sunday morning there’s a big ugly break on the back of my lower left leg. Damn. It seemed to happen overnight between Saturday and Sunday, for no reason that I know of. So now it’s back to bandaging and antibiotic. Grrr.

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I’ve just finished the book Hack Attack, by Nick Davies, the story of the Murdoch London papers and how they hacked anyone’s phone to get what they wanted. And if they didn’t find anything, then they just made it up, invented stories. This is the mob who hacked Milly Dowler’s phone and got hauled before the Leveson Inquiry.

What the book shows is that what we read and heard here was just a fraction of what was going on. They just blatantly broke the law for years, aided by corrupt London police (how disappointing) and a totally complacent and incompetent top management at Scotland Yard. Even the commissioners and deputy commissioners turned a blind eye and lied about their lack of action. It was all down to fear of Rupert Murdoch. He dictated to everyone, even prime ministers (Blair and Cameron). He set British Government policy because he would “monster” anyone who dared to cross him, that is, his papers would start a campaign of any scandal they could find, and make up lies about what they couldn’t find, to ruin the life of anyone who dared to oppose the. Suicides resulted! Politicians and prominent people lived in fear of being monstered by Murdoch’s papers. he protested that he didn’t know what was going on. Of course he did!

The depressing thing is that they were humbled and put in their place for a while (the News of the World was closed down), but now the fear of the Murdoch press is back where it was, both in Britain and here. That man has a malign influence way beyond his position. An unelected person, he is applying subtle and not-so-subtle pressure on governments to get his way. His latest comment blaming all Muslims for terrorism is typical. The man is an out and out racist. But so is our government, so they’re a good match.

A New Year

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Mercedes 500SL. Phwoar! Around $22K. There are three for sale on the web at the moment. I want one!

So another year has passed. It’ll be two years on 3 April that I’ve been in this house – the time just seems to slip by. I’m pretty happy here now, no more homesickness for the Trigg house. Well, not quite true. I drove past it this morning on Marmion Avenue and I must admit a wave of nostalgia came over me as I thought of all the good times I had there.

But then I think of the traumatic time from June 2012 to April 2013, one of the worst periods of my life. Ugh. So many stress things. I have to stop myself from recalling events of that time. PTSD.

2014 is marked for me by not being in hospital all year! No more heart problems and my legs are pretty smooth and clear now. Dermeze. Recommend it.

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2014 was also marked by doing those two ship cruises. On the Arcadia from Fremantle to Singapore via Bali in March, then the big Asia cruise on the Sapphire Princess from Singapore to Beijing in October and November.

Although I’m glad I did these trips, no more cruising for me. I can’t stand the crowds and the queueing. And you have to realise, the ship only takes you to the port. If they say they go to Bangkok, they actually don’t. They go to the port for Bangkok and it costs you A$190 or so and a two hour bus trip each way to visit the city. Same for Saigon and the other cities, although Nagasaki was pretty close in. Nah, too much hassle and too expensive for me. Learnt my lesson. I would consider cruising to get from Fremantle to London, for example, but $9,000 when you can fly for $1,500 or less, return? No way.

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It was the year of the Northam Senior High School 50th Anniversary Reunion. That dominated my life. It started slowly, just sending out mass emailed newsletters and maintaining our database of former students. We already had about 125 from previous reunions but new names just kept coming, until the final tally was about 175. I had no idea there were so many. I didn’t know a lot of them as being at the Hut, we tended to be a bit isolated.

It was easy in the first part of the year, but as it built towards 11 October, I found myself working longer and longer on the magazine. I’m quite a perfectionist and I wanted it to be pretty whizzo, so I wrote a hell of a lot for it, which took a fair amount of time. Then I had to take the other students’ short biographies and format them for the magazine pages. Not difficult, but time consuming.

But trying to get the contributions! Almost all were less than a page. Less than a page to describe your life for 50 years??!! What have you been doing? Not much, to read some of them. I wrote 40 pages and could have written a lot more, with around 50 photos. Most people didn’t seem to be able to find any photos of their life. Pretty sad. There were honourable exceptions,

I was pretty happy that I managed to get 49 bios at the end.

But the latecomers! Seven people submitted theirs on the very last day. What did they think happens, that their bio just magically appears on the page, instantly? That last day, and the last weekend, was very, very stressful, I can tell you, not helped by a hard drive failure (an SSD). Two days’ work had to be redone. I was lucky I had a backup to that point, at least.

The magazine was a triumph, I feel. Several people have said how much they enjoyed reading it (it was 450 pages!). I wrote a hell of a lot of it – 22 pages on life as a Hut Lad; another 25 pages on Life at School; half a dozen pages of Hits of the Sixties lists; four pages of “I Remembers”; three poems, and so on. But do you think I could get anyone else to write anything? No way, (with one small exception). Despite my appeals for material, I got nothing.

Likewise, I’m mystified by the lack of feedback on what I wrote. Not one person has said anything about the Hostel and Life at School articles. Didn’t anyone have anything to add or change or talk about? It seems not. I suggested things for people to write about but I got nothing. Oh well. Too late now. I doubt there’ll be another magazine after that effort for such little reward.

Nonetheless, people did seem to appreciate the reunion. It was quite a significant event. I only wish I hadn’t been so exhausted on the day.

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My shop tribulations go on and on.

  1. On Xmas eve I bought some garlic prawns on skewers from Coles. They were in plastic packs and there was a prominent yellow price label, $1. Naiively, I thought this was per pack so I bought the last two packs.When I got home, I found I’d been charged $12 for them. They were $1 per skewer, not per pack. Oh well, my mistake I should have read the price more closely.But that meant there should have been six per pack, but there were only five! I had to count carefully to be sure, but that was it, alright. So I have to go back and complain.
  2. Then I bought some beer at IGA and didn’t check my till receipt until I got home. More fool me – I’d been charged twice for one $16.99 six pack. I complained yesterday and only got the refund for one pack. So much, again, for the Scanning Code of Practice.
  3. On Tuesday I bought some Coles Mixed Nuts. As soon as I opened the packet last night (New Year’s Eve, remember?) there was an immediate whiff of staleness. I looked at the Use By date – 10 June 2014! Six months out of date. So that was the end of my NYE treat. Grrrrrrrr! I’ll be taking them back today; they still smell stale enough to be inedible. If I’d been having guests, I would have been embarrassed.
  4. Yesterday (Wednesday) I bought some cherries at the local IGA, the one where scanning errors are rife. Sure enough, when I checked the bill in the shop before I left, I was charged $28.32 per kilo, when they were $12/kg. What??!! I immediately complained and was kept waiting while they retrieved the price label from the shelf. No free item, just the difference refunded. I made it clear I wasn’t happy, as this happens every time I shop there and I was able to speak to the manager. I told him that things like this happen every bloody time, have been this way for all the year and there’s never any improvement. He was polite and looked chastened, so I’ll keep trying. Very trying …

It’s lucky I’m so vigilant. I’ve learnt over and over to always check the docket! Notice that all these errors are in the merchants’ favour. It’s always the customer who loses. Nice trick!

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In October, there was an announcement by Lockheed Martin, the giant US defence firm, that they have found a way to make fusion power in a device the size of a ship container, able to fit on a truck or into an aircraft. This is hugely important. It has the potential to completely change the way we generate electricity. No more oil needed, no more coal, no more greenhouse gases, no more CO2. Massive news.

Lockheed Martin are a big, extremely capable and scientifically reputable company. They would hardly announce this if there was any doubt that they can do it. Within five years for prototypes and within 10 years for production models. (I have no doubt they’ll be able to get the size down and power up in the next decade, as well).

Yet to hear the Liberal Government in Canberra talk, it’s as if they don’t know anything about this new development. The Rabbott continues to talk up coal mining as if it’s the power source of the future. He seems to know nothing of its marginal cost equation or its CO2 emissions problem. He either doesn’t know about fusion power, or can’t understand it, or doesn’t care.

As well, photovoltaic panels are now up to 40% efficiency, their cost has fallen 80% or so, and storage battery technology is now ready to take over in the household. That means falling demand for mains electricity and hence coal fired power stations. But the Rabbott keeps pushing fo new coal fired power as if none of these developments is happening. The man’s an idiot.

Ugh!

Nissan_Juke_Midnight_v2_lights_webgraphic-604My new contender for the ugliest car on the road. Perhaps ever. Nissan should go and stand in the corner.

NISSAN_Juke_Personalisation White W2 2carI can’t bear to look at it. Designers, hang your heads in shame.

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There’s an Italian cafe in the main street opposite the pub here called Carlo’s. A few months ago I wanted breakfast and sat out on the pavement. But I was mightily offended when the waitress told me if I sat outside, I would have to pay in advance. In other words, I was a potential non-payer, a potential crook. I was angry and I haven’t been back since. (In the same way that I haven’t been back to three service stations near me because they insist I have to make my car face inwards. In other words, I’m a drive-off risk! My protest that I’m a local was met with, “They all say that, mate.” OK, no more business from me! I go to the one that doesn’t make a fuss at Quinns.)

A new Dome cafe has opened opposite the pub overlooking the lakes. I’ve eaten breakfast there twice and it’s OK, if a bit expensive ($19 for bacon and eggs and coffee).

Then a sign appeared outside Carlo’s – Grilled bacon and eggs and FREE coffee, $8.50. OK, I’ll come back, so I went there this morning. But they wouldn’t supply what they advertised. I said I wanted the special on the sign, bacon and eggs and coffee. That’ll be $17.50, she said. What? The co-owner comes over and mumbles something. I say I want the special. $17.50 she says. But. but … No, she wouldn’t budge for some reason.

Like a fool, I didn’t make a fuss and paid up. I can’t understand why I did. But, what the hell? OK, that’s it, no more business from me. I’ll go to the Dome from now on. Go out of business Carlo’s – you can’t treat your customers like this.

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I’ve become a fan of the TV program “If You Are The One” on SBS2 at 7pm most nights. It’s made in China, transmitted in Chinese with English subtitles. That’s fine, it’s easy to watch. It has a charm about it due to the host Meng Fei, the two assistants Le Jia ( a very smart guy) and Huang Hu, a gorgeous lady.

It features 24 beautiful girls looking for a marriage partner and a succession of guys who try to convince them. Very entertaining.

But I can’t help noticing how the girls don’t hesitate to make sexist, disparaging remarks about the guys. He’s too fat, he has narrow shoulders, he looks too young, he looks too old, he isn’t sincere, he doesn’t have enough ambition and so on and on. The poor guy just has to take it. Many, many guys are knocked back by all 24 girls.

If the roles were reversed, with guys making comments about the girls, there’s be an outcry. Hypocrisy’s a funny thing.

APEC Blue

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APEC Blue sky – my photo of Tien an Men Square during APEC. Pure luck. © PJ Croft 2014

From The Guardian 18 December 2014

“The volume of discontent [about Beijing’s air pollution] has been rising since Beijingers got a chance to see exactly what clear blue skies looked like last month [November], when miraculous weather was laid on for visiting world leaders, in town for the high-profile Apec summit. With the kind of draconian measures unseen since the 2008 Olympics, the entire region was locked down to guarantee clear skies for the precious week. Production in all factories within a 125-mile radius of the city was suspended, half the cars were banned from the roads, schools were closed, and public-sector workers were given compulsory holidays. No weddings were registered, no passports issued, no taxes paid, no fresh products delivered, and no banks open. Bodies went uncremated and burials were partly suspended.”

“The result? A climatic Potemkin facade of perfect blue skies – which soon became an internet meme, coining the term “Apec blue”.

“ ‘It’s not sky blue or ocean blue. It’s not Prussian blue or Tiffany blue,’ wrote one user of the microblogging site, Weibo. ‘A few years ago it was Olympic blue, and now it’s Apec blue.’ It quickly came to mean something of fleeting, artificial beauty, probably too good to be true. “He’s not really into you,” went one recurring online saying. “It’s just an Apec blue.”

“Returning to Beijing during the Apec week was like arriving in a completely different city. What had been a ghostly world of streets that disappeared if more than a block away, became a wide-open place of grand avenues terminating at distant mountains, visible for the first time.

“And back at the British School, the smog dome was empty. Pupils were enjoying a rare outdoor lesson beneath a different kind of artificial roof – the crystal clear canopy of Apec blue.”

Still here, but …

Nagasaki Peace Park © PJ Croft 2014

Nagasaki Peace Park © PJ Croft 2014

I’m pretty quiet, for a couple of reasons. I’m still recuperating from the trip, still feeling very tired, weak and a “punched in the gut” feeling. Blood tests show signs of an infection of some kind, but not enough to worry about, apparently. Thyroid, contrary to being under-active, as I thought it might be, is actually slightly over-active. But not enough to do anything. CLL markers up a bit, but nowhere near enough to do anything. (Besides, there’s nothing to be done!)

The doc says, just be patient. Use pro-biotic yoghurt to try to reset my gut flora after all these weeks of high dose antibiotic for my legs. So I’m still spending a lot of time sleeping. I came back fired up to do all the things that need doing, but I’ve only tackled a few things so far. Be patient …

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At least my legs are far better than they have been since last year. There are no skin breaks or dry areas and even the lumpy cellulitis on the left leg is much reduced. I credit daily Dermeze ointment. Messy, but effective.

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Back in September I got pinged by a parking Nazi at Joondalup for having an expired ACROD sticker. Fair cop, I had been slack renewing it but the replacement for 2014-15 was literally in the mail.

So I wrote to the council, pleading guilty and enclosing my cheque for the $60 fine, but arguing that the original sticker had been issued last year for a genuine reason, that the reason still existed, I was sorry I was slow but my replacement sticker had arrived and enclosing a photocopy of the new sticker. I asked that discretion be used to waive the fine.

Trouble was, I forgot to post it before leaving on the trip. I carried it in my bag, looking for an opportunity to post it, but it was only in the Nagasaki Peace Park that I finally found a post office and sent it off. I wondered what the council would think about my letter arriving from Japan.

When I got home, the first letter I opened was a red page from the council saying I hadn’t paid the $60 fine and it was now $134. Pay up!

But there was another, thicker, letter from Joondalup Council as well. I wasn’t game to open it for the first week, but I finally did, to find that they had waived the fine! First offence and all that. Don’t do it again. Wow, I won for a change. They didn’t return my cheque, but it hasn’t been cashed.

But here’s the curious part. They admonished me, not for the expired sticker date, but because I wasn’t displaying the sticker number properly. They enclosed printouts of the photos the parking guy had taken.

But the photos prove that I was displaying the number! What are they talking about? The number and all the details are clearly visible in the photos. The only possible explanation is that the words ACROD Parking Permit are half obscured by the windscreen shading at the bottom, but you can still read it. All the important wording is higher up and clearly visible.

So what are they talking about? I don’t know. I suspect incompetence. But I just have to shut up and be quiet about it and count my blessings that I don’t have to pay $134.

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One good thing about being ostracised by your family is that there’s no Christmas shopping to do.

And after sending Christmas cards diligently to family members and friends for 40 years and getting almost nothing in return, I’ve given up on that, too. “Oh, I don’t send cards” — the implication being, “I’ve gone green”, or “No-one sends cards any more, that’s so 1980s”. But in reality, you’re just too lazy.

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I don’t think this blog is worth continuing. The virtually complete lack of feedback/comments is too disheartening. People ask me about the trip in emails and, after giving a bright reply, I say “Yes, all the details are right here” and link to the blog/daily diary. It later becomes clear that they have not followed the link, or haven’t read anything.

I’m sick of being told, “No, I don’t read your blog” / “I don’t read blogs” / “I won’t read your blog” / “I haven’t got time”. Utter rudeness. The single comment I got recently was completely irrelevant to anything in the blog.

I can just as easily write this as a private diary. I’m wasting my time writing on-line. I’ve got better things to do. Goodbye.

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Bali – Saturday 29 November 2014 – day 36

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Sanur Sat 29 Nov. 1430

Well, here it is, the last day. Technically tomorrow is, but I’m travelling home tomorrow.

I’m both happy and sad to be going home. Happy because this has been a tough trip! I don’t have the stamina I used to have, and I sorely miss it. Feeling OK was just normal as recently as three years ago, apart from having this growing trouble walking. Now, everything hurts, everything’s an effort. Everything tires me. I’m sad about it. It’s not a good feeling to be losing your health and fitness. (Which leads me back to the gastric bypass – more later.)

But I’m sad to be ending this trip because it has been epic! This has been one of the greatest trips I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a few. I’ve done things on this trip I never dreamed I would do, that I never even thought about until a month or two before we left.

Highlights:

  • Gliding out of Singapore Harbour at night through all the illuminated ships in the Singapore Straits;
  • Silently entering Laem Chabang, the harbour for Bangkok among the islands as the sun rose;
  • Hearing “Man Overboard” and seeing the ship do a complete 180deg turn to rescue three swimmers off Vietnam. And another 180deg as well, of course. Pure chance;
  • Again, slowly, silently entering Hong Kong Harbour at dawn and seeing that massive skyline again, last seen in 1992. I never thought I would return;
  • Being on the Victoria Peak at dusk, just as the city lights were coming on. This was by chance – we were held up by traffic earlier in the day;
  • Gliding slowly past the city lights of Hong Kong at 8pm as the laser light show started and with the pulsing beat of old rock and roll. Again, coincidence, as we were two hours late pulling away;
  • Entering the wide brown river of Shanghai Harbour and seeing all the hundreds of ships going full steam ahead both in and out;
  • Seeing the Shanghai TV Tower up close. It’s more attractive than I thought;
  • Riding the Mag-Lev train at 430Km/h in Shanghai;
  • Seeing Shanghai laid out at dusk from a 77 storey building;
  • Visiting the Nagasaki A-bomb site and Peace Memorial;
  • Visiting South Korea, even though I didn’t go ashore;
  • Seeing Beijing, especially in glorious crystal clear air, pure chance due to APEC;
  • Staying in an unusually good hotel in an old area of Beijing;
  • Seeing the Great Wall of China;
  • Seeing the Forbidden City and Tien An Men Square. Even if I was too sick to appreciate it, at least I’ve been there;
  • Visiting Hanoi and discovering what a fantastic place it is, especially at this time of the year;
  • Visiting and dining with my cousin, the Ambassador in Hanoi;
  • Coming back to this wonderful place, Bali.

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What a trip! The beginning seems so far away now but it was only five weeks ago.

I must say that I couldn’t have done this trip on my own. It’s been very arduous at times and having someone to talk to and joke with has made it bearable. I would have become depressed otherwise, especially feeling so ill.

You’ll notice I don’t include the ship in the highlights. It wasn’t. No more cruising for me. The crowds, the queues! Never again.

Also a great thing has been the marvellous Olympus OM-D E-M1. This is one fantastic camera, both for stills and video. Thank goodness I brought my tripod too, because i have masses of nice steady vision, none of this amateur wave-it-about and hope for the best. You haven’t seen the video yet because it’s too hard to edit on the road.

I brought the Sony RX 10 as well. Marvellous lens, marvellous image quality, but I couldn’t get used to it. Too many times I hit the power switch when I meant to zoom. I didn’t use it much. Lesson learnt.

It’s been expensive, but worth it. I’m afraid the credit card is going to be a shock as I’ve hardly thought about what I’m spending, but time’s running down. Use it or lose it.

I can’t help reflecting on one very sad aspect: Minnie had to say goodbye for me to do this trip. I couldn’t do things like this before. In hindsight, I’d rather have Minnie back, but young and healthy. I couldn’t go through that trauma again. RIP Minnie.

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