Moving Pictures

My pictures are up and I was surprised at how much space is left so I will be able to buy more at some stage if the mood moves me. I have been moving them around a bit and with the system used, they are very easy to move although my kitchen steps are not really high enough and it is a bit of a stretch.

Now that the spare bedroom is free of the pictures I have started to sort it all out. I have bought a new duvet cover and pillow cases in peacock colours. My peacock picture is in that room but the peacocks in the picture are very pale birds. The duvet cover is huge and acts as a bedspread which I am very pleased about. I imagine that the duvet itself needs to be carefully centred if the bed is used in winter; in summer the quilt on its own will be enough to keep my guests warm.

I am also starting to get my craft room into some sort of order and spent yesterday making a dust cover for my sewing machine so that it can sit out and ready. It has been a hassle to set it up so I have not used it very much for the last few years.

D2 and D3 are in Victoria at the moment. They went over for the weekend to look at a display of wedding gowns and Qantas grounded all its planes, stranding them. I gather that D3 is having a ball, doing all the things there which she has never had time to do. And they will be there for the Melbourne Cup as they have a booking to get back on Wednesday. The planes are up and flying again so they might manage to get a seat earlier but it is a great excuse to play and they may not want to come home.

Himself is in Rome and came online last night to ask me if I had his daughter's phone number or, better still , her email address. I had her phone number so I phoned her to get her email address. I was given a rather cool reception but that is understandable as it was past the time when I would phone anyone unless there was a death in the family and hopefully that is unlikely to happen in the near future.

I must go down to the seas again ...

My grandson (GB1), ten years old, has just won a pennant in his first uncoached race. He sails an Optimist which is a training dinghy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_(dinghy)

Here is a composite photo of him with his pennant and the boat in the background. The face is blanked out for obvious reasons.

Lights again - until the next time

Yesterday morning when I turned on what was left of the bathroom lights there was a little sighing sound and all the lights in the apartment died. It wasn't the main switch which triggered this time but one labeled 'protected light'. I decided not to turn it on again but instead phoned the Multiplex
rep and said that I needed them to send an electrician ASAP as I didn't want to be in the dark all weekend - and half of the apartment is windowless.

So the electrician came, switched the protected light switch on again, asked if the switches to the bathroom had "always been like that" removed the plate and did something to the switches, replaced two transformers in the bathroom, turned the bathroom extractor fan up and connected the light over the vanity which had never actually been connected.

I asked him about changing to LED globes which he thinks is a good idea as the halogen globes generate a huge amount of heat and use quite a lot of power. If they are generating so much heat then high electricity consumption is understandable. The LEDs will cost but I will feel more comfortable with them and it seems that the halogens will be phased out in the future anyway. Their main advantages, as I see it, are instant bright light and I can buy replacement globes for about $1 each in Coles. The LEDs cost about $80 each and after the struggle I had to change the globes before, I am not about to change 40 of them so I'll get an electrician to do the lot. If I live for long enough they will pay for themselves as they last for a long time and use a lot less electricity.

Let there be light again

Unexpectedly, when I turned on the light in my study this evening, the light over my computer was working again. I assume that moisture was causing it to short out and the warmer weather we have had over the last few days has dried things out. Perhaps it will not give me grief again until next winter.

However, the bathroom lights are still not working and I have been told once again that it is probably a transformer since it blew out the main switch; I need to get hold of the Multiplex Rep again.

The Poms came to visit and have a look at the apartment this afternoon after which we all repaired to the chocolate shop and had Hot Belgium Chocolate - mine a trifle hotter since I prefer the Chilli Chocolate to the straight stuff.

Dressing for Claremont

When I shopped in Cottesloe, “old money” prevailed and no-one cared how anyone was dressed; bathers, gym clothes, gardening clothes or whatever.

When I moved to Claremont a couple of months ago I felt quite intimidated by the ‘smart young things’ and their mode of dressing; absurdly high heels with 5cm platform soles, short, short skirts or long flowing drapes and the multitude of dress shops in the centre reflected this. The summer stock is in the windows and there is nary a sleeve among any of the offerings displayed.

I have got over my initial shock and am back to what I feel comfortable in - although what I feel comfortable in has undergone a subtle change and I am pruning my wardrobe accordingly. The rub there is that the Claremont Council discourages charity bins so I will have to go back to Cottesloe to donate the things I feel are no longer suitable for my new lifestyle.

Hmmmm - what goes around comes around.

Some light on the subject of Halogen downlights

Our multiplex contact person sent me very detailed instructions to enable me to change the globes on the lights which are not working so I visited Coles, which I was sure carried the globes as there are a large number of apartments with a large number of halogen down lights. They cost about $1 each and I triumphantly carried them home.

It was easy enough getting them out once I knew that the whole unit had to be taken out in order to change the globes but very, very difficult to get the units back again; so I struggled for about an hour, standing on my fold-able kitchen steps and working over my head … and after all that effort, two of the lights were still not working, the one in the bathroom and the one in my study (which is the one which is really giving me problems as it is the one over my computer and I have a black keyboard so I have to use a lamp perched in my printer and the light shines into my eyes and annoys me.

So finally an electrician will be coming to see what the problem is and he can deal with the strip light to the vanity as I have no idea how to fix it and I am not sure which switch works it and the bathroom is too dark to work there without having a light on; it is at the back of the apartment with no windows.

Tomorrow my car is finally going to be serviced - only about ten months late. It has been on my conscience for ages but with so much else going on I have not got around to doing anything about it.

I have found a brand of incense which is not too sweet and which seems to work reasonably well to keep the flies at bay so I have ordered four packets of 20 sticks each, all different scents, and I’ll stock up on the ones which work the best although the plague of blowflies which came with the first warm day seems to have tapered off - or maybe the incense is really working as flyscreens will be difficult.

The lights are going out in Claremont

First it was one of the bathroom lights which blew with a bit of a bang and tripped the main switch. Now I have lost, in the last two days, the light over the bathroom bench, one of the lights in my study and one of the lights in the powder room.

I have never liked halogen lights and I am not sure if I simply had a bad lot of globes installed or if it is the wiring and after being without a telephone for a week last month because water got into the insulation, I suspect that it could be the wiring.

My son-in-law tried to remove one of the failed globes but it defied all his attempts and later I tried as well but short of taking to it with a hammer I could see no way of removing it. There is a rim around it and that will have to come out too, but I am at a loss to know how. I will ask Himself sometime as the Selfs have some similar lights in their house.

What I would like to do is to replace the lot with LEDs and as soon as I am sure that the wiring is OK I will probably do so. It will cost - but hopefully they will be cheaper to run and more reliable.

The lights are going out in Claremont

First it was one of the bathroom lights which blew with a bit of a bang and tripped the main switch. Now I have lost, in the last two days, the light over the bathroom bench, one of the lights in my study and one of the lights in the powder room.

I have never liked halogen lights nd I am not sure if I simply had a bad lot of globes installed or if it is the wiring and after being without a telephone for a week last month because water got into the insulation, I suspsect that it could be the wiring.

My son-in-law tried to remove one of the failed globes but it defied all his attempts and later I tried as well but short of taking to it with a hammer I could see no way of removing it. There is a rim around it and that will have to come out too, but I am at a loss to know how. I will ask Himself sometime as the Selfs have some similar lights in their house.

What I would like to do is to replace the lot with LEDs and as soon as I am sure that the wiring is OK I will probably do so. It will cost - but hopefully they will be cheaper to run and more reliable.

Addressing the address muddle

A notice has gone up in the little room with the garbage chute to say that all garbage must be properly bagged and gives the maximum dimensions of the bags which we are allowed to put down. It goes on to say that we must not use the chute for bottles, cardboard boxes (fair enough they should go into the recycling bins on level 4), kitty litter (so I will have to use the flushable sort when/if I get any cats) cigarette butts (not sure what the smokers are expected to do with the butts), flowers or plants (if properly bagged I can’t see a problem with those). So far it hasn’t mentioned vegetable peelings or meat trimmings which is about all which we are left with.

I sent in my ‘change of address’ form to the electoral office who phoned me back and told me that the Claremont Council said that I lived in Apartment 30, 2 Bovell Lane. *sigh*

I went downstairs and took a photograph of the letter boxes with the street name sign above it, printed it off and went across the road to the Council Office where a nice man called Peter is, hopefully, going to sort out the multiple addresses which I seem to be attracting; I now have four but the Post Office manages to deliver most of my mail to me. He also wants to stop the Services such as water and electricity from saying that we all live at 23 St Quentin Avenue; I don’t fancy his chances there.

He said that the Council has to go by what Landgate says our address is which is strange because when the title deeds were issued I phoned Landgate and was told that they had to abide by what the Council said.