Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Adam versus Darwin

I had an interesting phone conversation this morning.  I realised immediately that it was not a telemarketer because there was no background noise of a big room full of talking people  -  and the caller gave his full name  -  and he had an Australian accent.

He introduced himself as a Jehovah's Witness and invited me to a meeting next Sunday in Subiaco which is about ten minutes up the Fremantle train line.  As he was polite and not pushy I politely declined his invitation and then he asked me if I believed in Creation  -  which I don't.

I told him that I had been to a very High Anglican boarding school and by the age of 16 I had formed my own ideas about the Bible which was that the first two chapters of the OT were fiction and the later ones were probably based on some truth but very partisan and to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Then I asked him how he had got hold of my phone number.  He said that he had been going through the telephone book and phoning anyone who lived in the Western Suburbs.  That sort of dedication is amazing and deserves that he brings in a good crowd.  All power to him and I wish him well although I refuse to believe for a minute that I was created from any man's rib and FYI men have 12 ribs on each side and have done so since the first humanoid.

I had my eyes checked out last Wednesday and was found to have cataracts but so far have not heard from the organisation nominated to remove them but it might be a good time to resign from COTA although someone has finally cleaned out the computers.  It is about time someone did and since two of the teachers are ex-IT people I suspect that one of them did it on the sly because I have been threatening to delete all the old files and been told that they probably belong to someone who will miss them when they are gone.  Both computers now think that they are named Boardroom 1 but since the password is the same for both anyway I can't see that it matters at all.

Today's Sudoku:-

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

There are vibrators and then again there are vibrators

I was diagnosed with a type of hereditary deafness when I was aged 20 and since my early thirties I have, on and off, worn a hearing aid.  The off times were when I had surgery to replace the ossicles in my middle ears but I have reached a stage where I can no longer hear my alarm clock which can be awkward.

So I finally bit the bullet and ordered a "Sonic Alarm with Bed Shaker"  which has been sitting on my hall table for over a week.  The problem was that the instructions were in the fine print, with the buttons on the back and the display on the front and two buttons had to be  pressed simultaneously to change the settings.  I seriously considered asking GB1 to set it for me but today felt brave enough to tackle it myself on the assumption that if I totally messed things up then GB1 could fix it for me.

Hopefully it will now work although I haven't plugged in the bed-shaker bit and will not do so until I need to get up early.  It is very fancy with several levels of dimmer for the LED display, five different sound levels for the alarm (which will continue for 30 minutes unless turned off because I haven't yet managed to shorten the time for that and I assume that I would have woken up and turned if off by that time anyway).  When I tested the sound level for the alarm it scared the pants off the cats so I know that even without the bed shaker it will wake me if I turn the sound up.

The first thing on my Bucket List was to have my eyes tested and I now have cataracts which will need to be dealt with.  Because I have torn retinas in both eyes which were lasered into place a few years ago my optician is not confident that I will be able to simply have day surgery but might need to be hospitalised.  He is referring me, at my request, to the Lions Institute which did one of the laser treatments  -  and they are seriously good  -  so hopefully I will get the best possible treatment.

But it might mean boarding the cats for a while, a prospect which I haven't yet told them about but none of us is going to enjoy it.  In the immortal words of Donald Trump  -  we will have to see what happens.

Oooops! I forgot the Sudoku

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

My Bucket List


I have been compiling my Bucket list.  I am not sure how the phrase came into being but I gather that it is the things which I intend to do before I die.  I don’t think that my list closely resembles those of others who have listed their pre-demise must-do activities.

I started organising my list this morning and here it is:



Visit my Optometrist and get my eyes checked out for cataract and glaucoma and be tested for newer, stronger spectacles.  Appointment made.

Visit audiologist for hearing test and aids adjusted or replaced.  Appointment made.

Visit Podiatrist to see if he has any bright ideas on how to treat the exostosis in Right second toe.  I am not holding my breath on this one as a surgical podiatrist has already referred me to a corn cutter when I know that it needs surgery.  In the immortal words of Donald Trump  -  ‘we will see’.

Get the fridge door fixed.  Miele technician or handyman?

Organise an electrician to replace the flickering or dead lights.

Set my new alarm clock/bed shaker as I am sleeping through the alarm on my current alarm clock.

Organise for the ‘Big Persian’ to be taken away and cleaned.  Six years of two black cats and it is starting to look grubby.

Organise to have my pictures more securely hung.  I don’t trust the fishing line which Second Wife organised.  Parsifal (first cat) likes to swing them and a couple have fallen down.

Organise to have my limited edition  plates securely attached to a wall so that they can go on display.  They have been packed away for over six years.

TIDY  UP  THE  CHAOS  WHICH  IS  MY  APARTMENT



I have given up on  the Mendus Family for now but there are still questions not yet answered.  They are like a willow-the-wisp and keep calling me back.  It is really a ‘just because they are there’ attraction and all of my Welsh connections are complicated by the limited number of Family Surnames  -  the Welsh having come to them later than the rest of England and they are mostly derived from Given names I.e. Thomas, Evans, Johns, Rees, Davies, Roberts, Richards, Rogers  etc. -  I am sure that you get the gist.



The Sudoku:-

A crash reduces

Your expensive computer

To a simple stone.