Raised by Rats

Reality is both weird and boring

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 10:20:56 GMT

It's a week since I lost Ajax and we're managing. The other two rats, Fred and Griffin, have returned to normal behaviour, though I'm sure it has been hard for them. They had all been together since birth, being three of seven boys in that litter of 14. Now they are the only survivors; such is rat mortality.

Not much has happened this week. M hasn't had any serious difficulties that I have noticed or of which I have been informed! She did say she thought someone else had come in this morning, but since the front door was still locked and no one else was scheduled, I figured I could safely ignore that. They had supposedly opened her cupboard.

I did get down to the beach for a swim, though the days are beginning to cool down. There was a huge set up being constructed for a concert, with the sound stage on the sand, so they had fenced off almost the entire left side of the beach, from the Indiana Tea House to the groyne. Rude. So glad I'm 4 kilometres away from that when it goes off. Apart from that, just a trip out to Bassendean to visit the shop of the butcher who wins awards for his snaggers. You can't miss them, they're arranged along the counter! The awards, not the sausages. I've got a bit of writing done, not much. Reality keeps on being weirder than anything I imagine.

For anyone into astronomy in comfort, here is the evening view from my armchair, now I have cleared away the summer shade barricades from my balcony. It's also an unintentional lesson in how easy it might be to mock up a false image. That's the reflection of my ceiling light, not an alien spacecraft.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg/photo/AF1QipPzeSoXka1EMKCATxDm8p2MnSWy1Iy7R5TA-BKj

( Bitching again about people who can't fulfil their commitments! )

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You are alone on a dark road.....

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:04:26 GMT

I needed to do the parental wrangling every day over the Easter period, so this week feels most relaxing in comparison. It wasn't otherwise particularly Easterish, no chocolate eggs etcetera. I did get to go boardgaming with some of the Usual Suspects - Leece, Rdm and another friend, don't know if he's on Dreamwidth or not. It was very good to see that Rdm is recovering from his medical ordeal.

I also moved out of my comfort zone by riding Midnight the e-bike 14 kilometres over to Leece and Rdm's house, which is a bit further than I'm used to. I got used to riding 11km to the city on gulag days, though it has been over a year since I did that. This ride was almost as direct, along the side of West Coast Highway on bike paths which were excellent until the neighbourhood of Scarborough Beach Road, which is a nightmare whatever your mode of transport. I had some aches and pains as a result of that, probably just from holding position during the ride. I really needed the hot shower when I got home to ease the aches! And some parts of the bike path were completely dark except for the bike's own lights. I was very conscious that I was playing that part in the horror movie where you're the object lesson for everyone else.

One thing which makes me wonder if I'm on some sort of spectrum is that I plan for a ride in unknown territory by obsessively reading maps and making my own mud-maps to take with. Yes, I know you can get your phone to give you audio directions, but the way I do it, I will remember that route, probably for ever. Still, done now, can do it again.

( What I did today. You're fascinated, right? )

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Don't Panic

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:04:31 GMT

There's no newspaper on Good Friday, so I gave M a rundown on the news. "There's still a war in Iran so there's a fuel crisis, there's a NASA spacecraft on its way to the Moon, Donald Trump isn't dead yet, and the Prime Minister has told us not to panic." I think that about covers it. M did realise that this was the first Moon visit since the landing of Apollo 17 in '72, so not too bad. M may have conflated the various Moon landings into one but fair enough, I wasn't certain of the date myself till I checked.

GF is quiet around here since most places are shut, whether or not you observe the holiday. Swancon used to be held at Easter, which dropped away a few years back, and I'm still of the mindset where I have no idea what to do at Easter, because I've always had Swancon to do! I hope it may move back. This year is the first since the pandemic to be held at an actual hotel, with rooms, so one can but hope for a revival. So all I've done is the parental wrangling, which I take over at public holidays because the community care place's rates are very high on such days and we need to conserve the funding. I came home and watered all the plants, messed around online for a bit, read some more of Caliban's War, Book 2 of The Expanse [second reread] and crashed out on the bed.

( Read more... )

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A good dose of leeches will fix that.

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:45:11 GMT

I'm somewhat bleh at the moment, not sure why. I did just have my Reandron shot yesterday, and it was definitely due, so perhaps a contributor. There seems to be a new rule, according to the nurse who gave it me, that a doctor has got to put eyes on you before you get the shot. So I had to wait around until Dr K was free. She eventually appeared in the doorway, saw me, said "Oh, it's him, yes, he can have it!" and disappeared again.

After I had the Reandron shot, I needed to see a barber for a haircut. New place. The place I went before decided to go with a very fancy - probably AI created - online website. It was now all "bronze" and "silver" and "platinum experience." I could honestly not find an entry for "haircut with clippers and scissors" like they had before, so I found a place that is ONLY walk-ins, just like Sami's in Bassendean. Tony the barber did a very nice job and also cheaper :-) Before me was a bloke with a magnificent white beard, so when it was my turn, I despaired of my current stubble and asked, "You think I should give up on it?" "Yeah, probably," said Tony. "You want me to get rid of it?" Two seconds later, all clean.

Being a nerd, I speculated that if this was 500 years ago, those two appointments would have been at the same place with a barber-( Read more... )

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Time spent in the Big Room

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 12:02:57 GMT

Here's a collection of photos I took today at the beach I go to. It's not normally so dressed up, but at the moment they are having the Sculptures by the Sea exhibition, so it's a lot more popular during weekdays than usual. The swimmers get it back after next weekend. I took these photos around five o'clock this afternoon.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg/photo/AF1QipPIZXeIhYB8kkodsDk2H_z5a8yTUMM4czl5xf28

And some more detail is available on that bunker ad, I mean exhibit....

www.bunkerdown.info/

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Gender-based blindness is a thing

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 08:20:34 GMT

Until now, I didn't realise this was a thing which a transman could catch. Be warned, my brothers!

Concerning my mum's missing watch. I had thought it might have been left at the hairdressers. which is just one floor down at the Beaumont. So Mike, the manager, and I looked in there on Tuesday after hours, it having gone missing the previous Friday. We saw nothing and concluded it wasn't there, because surely it would've been handed in. I was mystified because I did what I considered a police-standard search of M's apartment. [And yes, I've seen one]

Today I got an email saying the watch had been found! At the hairdresser's. I was over at the Beaumont again, delivering drugs. M's prolia, which the doc kindly rang me up at 8 am to say was due, and please see it was in the office fridge! Mike's wife Karen said she thought the failure to find was due to men looking. Mike got accused of "domestic blindness." Karen thought I was just as useless! Of course I didn't explain why I was happy to be accused of gender-based incompetence, but so glad that one is over.

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There are never enough trains

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 06:00:48 GMT

I saw this on Facebook today: It's a bewildering concept. This may be my favourite boardgame, well, after Scrabble, but a movie? Of course, as a card carrying nerd [it's my library card] I would watch a movie of a bunch of people on an old style train, playing Ticket to Ride.

nerdist.com/article/netflix-developing-ticket-to-ride-movie-board-game-asmodee/

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Rat Birthday pictures

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 06:22:33 GMT

Some birthday pictures:

A picture of some teenaged rats: The boys early in 2024, when they were about four months old. Then a pic of Ajax on the bike from last year, since he didn't want to wake up for the birthday pictures. On the day itself: Griffin gazes vacantly through the bars, wondering why he is awake. Frederik does likewise on the lower shelf and that's Ajax, the heap in the corner behind Fred. Rats do sleep more than humans, especially the very young and the elderly. They like to get their full 12 hours.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg

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Doing nothing in honour of my rats' birthday

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 15:38:00 GMT

I saw this on Facebook and stole it instantly, for use in M's next Groundhog Day adventure.

"Quit asking if I'm okay. If I'm ever okay, I'll let you know!"

www.facebook.com/photo

I also intend to adapt it to M's perennial, "Are you doing anything interesting/exciting this weekend?" which drives me crazy, because that sounds like something you'd ask a kid on holiday. Also it makes me feel bad because I'm usually not doing anything/can't afford to. If that makes any sense. And I suspect what I find interesting would not at all align with M's ideas.

M asks me that weekly or as often as she sees me, which can be several times in a week. Weekends are usually when I hide, because this suburb is very, very busy on weekends and I don't like that. Same as I go to the beach on weekdays when it's not insanely crowded and you're less likely to be swum over by some gung ho type practising for the Rottnest Swim. Which got cancelled this weekend because of rough weather, so it is in my mind.

My mum has NO clue. When I was talking about this annual event, in which people swim the 20 kilometres from Cottesloe Beach to Rottnest Island, she asked if I was going in it, to which I asked if I looked crazy, by which I really mean that obsessed. I'm an all right swimmer, but I cannot do a distance like that. Has she met me?

In other news:

Google has slowed to a crawl this weekend, so that loading anything took a long time, enough that I finally checked and there was actually a reported problem, cause unknown. Which is preferable to the times when the Down Detector responds with, "No, why do you ask?" That's what it feels like, that I am being humoured by their AI.

It is my rats' second birthday. I gave them some leftover chips from fish and chips. Doing nothing is their favourite thing, so this post is in their honour today.

( another inept assassination attempt on Trump )

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The burglar left a sandwich...

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 14:44:49 GMT

I'm slowly getting better at dealing with the huge gaps in M's reasoning ability. I'm finding it's still sometimes difficult to get my head around that, when one is used to being able to communicate on a certain level, to find that that doesn't work any more. Especially when it's the person who used to win arguments with, "Because I said so!"

On Thursday I assisted M to get to the hairdresser - who visits the facility and sets up downstairs - and while she was in there, I went and did some stuff. Plant watering, rubbish removal and making M a sandwich for later. That sandwich sent M into a spin, apparently, because she didn't connect it with me having been present, and instead believed that "someone" had been in her place. So Shine Community Care, after she rang them, rang me in some bewilderment, but not too much, because they deal with quite a few cognitively challenged old folks. I'd already cancelled Shine for the day, since I was going to be there. They just wanted to be sure it wasn't due to something medical, like an infection.

I did tell M I was going to make a sandwich, but this information was lost in the mists of the last hour or so.

M also went into another "somebody's stealing from me" episode today, which I halted by finding the nightgown in her laundry basket. I also broke the news to her that NOBODY wants her nightgowns. This was, apparently, news. Won't help next time, though. I've found the only thing that temporarily stops it is finding the item.

I would be pulling my hair out but I kind of want to keep the rest of it.

Carers WA is pushing for a Carers Card, which would give WA's 320,000-odd unpaid carers the same discounts as the Seniors Card. That would really help! For context, I think the state's total population is up around 3 million.

#

Note: For the benefit of anyone new reading my journal, M is my 95 year old mother, whose carer I am.

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Fox Poo and other items of interest

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 09:39:55 GMT

I've been around to take some more pictures of Lake Claremont/The Swamp, so people can see what I'm on about. Well, that's one of the things I carry on about.

I went to the volunteers' seedling watering session on Sunday morning. They're going to think I don't talk much, because that's 7.30 am and the brain is not out of bed yet, but they'll learn. Somebody told me why we're doing it in that area, which was good to know. There used to be five Moreton Bay Fig trees there, but they fell victim to the polyphagous shothole borer, which is a tiny beetle that can kill really big trees. It's not from around here, but decided to move in.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg

Anyway, in no particular order, the photos depict: The shed where volunteers' equipment is kept, two of. The path to where the seedlings are. I didn't have my camera on the day and I can't go in there unless on official business. There's a distant photo of some of the seedlings taken from the public path. All this is a wetland in the centre of Perth, by the way. Claremont is an inner suburb, about six kilometres from the CBD if you take the bike path. [Inner-ish].

There's also one of the surviving Moreton Bay fig trees, which has some 'crime scene' tape up because a branch, the size of any other normal tree, fell off a while back. Then there's the lakeside with some of the residents. I'm told this is a lot of water for the lake to have in late summer, but there's quite a few weeks of hot weather yet to come. Then a surprise, somebody's nest built almost in arm's reach of a public viewing area. Then a distance view of the whole lake.

Then we have some holes. They're as close as I've been able to get a camera to the elusive southwestern brown bandicoot, also called the quenda. I *think* these are quenda holes. I asked at the volunteers thing if there were rabbits here and someone said "rarely," though as we know, two rabbits are all you need. But I've seen and nearly broken my legs around rabbit holes and these don't look like those. Rob, Leece, what do you think? In the link is a quenda someone prepared earlier.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenda

There are definitely foxes, for whom live-capture traps have been set. Somebody had found fox scat right outside the shed. There was a moment of respectful silence for the knowledge of one who knew fox poo when he saw it.

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Saw 2 am

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 02:26:35 GMT

We're back. Sometime in the early morning, according to my landlord, who had to take exercise down all eight flights of steps. So sometime later than the predicted 2 am. Around 2 am I put the rats' cage back in usual spot and closed up, basically assuming they had gone to bed by then [they had]. The full moon was right in the centre of the view, Rob and Leece, so it wasn't very dark at all. In fact the light was quite amazing. Couldn't sleep, so sat there and watched a bright light move, wondering whether it was a satellite. Not an aircraft, so for me at least a genuine UFO.

Got to sleep some time after that. It's quite some years since I had to get through a night like that without aircon. First World problems, I know. Many years ago I was in another apartment during a run of 40^C days and only a fan. It being the January holidays, my rat Ari and myself spent the time collapsed on the floor. He got daily cold baths to help, I took cold showers. Ari slept on the bathroom tiles. The temp got down to around 21^C last night. Eventually. I'm just flaked out from the insomnia.

As we say hereabouts, well, at least it's not as hot as yesterday!

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Darkness!

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:42:55 GMT

We've just had a power failure and everything went black. It's fantastic. Streetlights still on, unfortunately, but the houses around this block of apartments seem to be affected. Closest we'll get to a Black Sky event, Rob and Leece.

Am I weird that my first thought was wow, this sky right now would be great for astronomy. [EDIT. Though it is a full moon, so maybe not so much?]

It's to be expected after a 42^C degree day following a 27^C minimum night, I suppose.

I can hear my pet rats moving around, this being their free range time, but I can't see them, so the little horrors are going to go to bed exactly when they want to, I suspect!

Lucky I don't need to see my keyboard to type. I used to freak my boss out by transcribing with my eyes shut.

I just took a look out the front and it's definitely the surrounding block, not just us. A few folks will be getting their exercise, since of course this puts the lift out of operation. And a bunch of people are standing around in the car park, not sure what for. I've got my front door open, with flywire shut to prevent rat excursions,since it's getting a bit uncomfortable without the fan.

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Goodreads friending

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 11:41:55 GMT

I've managed to keep going [so far] with Goodreads, where I have exactly one friend [hi, Nathaniel!] so if you're on Goodreads, please make contact there so we can look at each other's book stuff. Don't bother with looking at my last year in books, because I started off and then didn't do anything. I will do better! I've mistakenly put in an end date for the one book I'm still reading, but I haven't finished that one yet. I know it looks like a lot, but the zombie e-books are really quick to read, especially when you speed-read over the bits where the author is carrying on about military stuff.

www.goodreads.com/user/show/166316839-alex-isle

It's been so hot today that I haven't done much more than read and mess around on Goodreads. We had 38^C here in the "cooler" coastal bit and it's going to continue doing that for a bit.

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We're growing a forest

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 08:59:43 GMT

Another general call for extras popped up, so I updated my photos. The details of the Thing to be Filmed are very scant, but surfing and board shorts were mentioned, as in: Can you surf and do you have a problem with appearing in board shorts? No, and no, though I'm a confident ocean swimmer, so hopefully that works in my favour! I decided to dress in what appeared to be the desired garments and now we wait to see if they want one of those this time! Be warned, you will see partially unclad Rattfan if you click the link. Nothing to trigger the Internet censors.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg/photo/AF1QipNI23zPDa_7UzMfXipq7t23OmD9_NCJzlRYPrEh

I've done another gardening session with the Swamp volunteers. There's very little in the way of live weeds in my Spot now, so I went to the 'social' session that happens once a month! This time of year, it's watering the young native seedlings [native to this specific area] which have been planted in open ground beside the Swamp, to become a proper forest in a year or so. This will be done fortnightly, not monthly, from now on until the rains come again. It just happened to be the task for what they call the Busy Bees. Sometimes they do other tasks. A dedicated team does the watering on the off fortnight Sunday. The water is brought up by vehicle in a large tank and decanted into watering cans, carried two per person if they have reasonable strength, over the planting area until everyone is watered.

I was supposed to go gaming tonight, but [again!] somebody cancelled and it had to be put off. This is a relatively new social trend, I find, that of the last minute cancelling. It became very prevalent last year. I suppose I should be grateful that I found out several hours in advance, rather than minutes. When I'm on my way out the door and somebody does it right then, that does piss me off. I think a functioning adult should be able to work out if they want to go to something and if they can fit it in to their schedule, then TURN UP if they have responded in the affirmative, always allowing for sudden death or disablement/illness. Theirs or someone else's.

But hey, that's just me. And I never wanted to be the adult in the room!

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The Rise of the Rat People

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:57:29 GMT

Here's another weird mob I've read about. I've previously mentioned the "lying flat" trend in China, where young people have rejected the fiercely workaholic mainstream ethos, and instead do what they have to and no more. The mainstream ethos advocates working from "9 am to 9 pm" seven days, so you can see why some folk have rebelled.

But seems you can't have a crazy trend without someone else trying to out-crazy it, and so now we have the Rat People. I can say, having my own members of rattus norvegicus to study, that getting up for breakfast and then going back to bed is absolutely a ratty habit.

www.businessinsider.com/china-rat-people-broke-burnt-out-social-media-unemployment-2025-4

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Mixing writers with politics

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 12:03:33 GMT

With this demon icon, I'm referring to a scene in Supernatural where a character explains that you know what you're going to get from a demon. They're a predictable evil. Though I will note, that in all the lore about making a deal with a demon, there's one interesting item that shows up: Hell stays bought. What they promise, you will receive. You just better be really careful about reading the fine print. They must have a lot of lawyers down there.

But people will screw you up in all the ways that come to mind, and more. One of the recent insanities I've been tracking is the story of a writers' festival in Adelaide, an event where the chosen writers get to talk to their adoring - or not so much - public, spruik their books and answer questions. When politics enters the picture, the agenda can go off the tracks, because writers don't know any more about politics than anyone else, in general.

So here, a writer was invited. Her politics were well known. Then it was decided by the board of that festival that she should be disinvited, details why in the link. There was much howling and rending of garments. Personally, I think they could have just stuck her in her own tent or space, and then anyone who wanted could go hear/talk to her or ignore her. From what I can see, those writers who have cancelled have done so not because they agree with her, but because they agree you shouldn't silence someone with whom you disagree.

www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/exodus-from-adelaide-writers-week-after-pro-palestine-author-dumped-20260109-p5nsvw

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And so it begins...

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 13:07:13 GMT

Welcome to the new readers of my journal. I'll try to be interesting. I also mean to have more open entries. Right now I'm not doing much, as it's very hot and I'm also recovering from my New Year 'celebrations.' One good thing about being able to go to bed and get up when you like is that it isn't difficult at all to stay awake past midnight! Unfortunately I still get woken up at dawn by very loud birdlife, since I live next to a small nature reserve, with its own flock of corellas and just about every other bird you get in Perth.

Today I've been watching Stranger Things, whose fifth season I need to watch while I still have a Netflix subscription. They have a lot of good shows, but their non-ad subscriptions are getting on the pricey side.

My mother, M, who's about to turn 95 on Sunday, called me this evening in a huge panic because she "could not find all the white crockery!" Knowing this doesn't take much, I offered to come look, and located the errant mugs in a different, higher cupboard. What happens is one of the paid carers unloads the dishwasher for her and puts them away wherever. It was also just the mugs. Everything else was in its place, but M saw the empty corner and her mind shut down.

I think my sympathy levels have dropped, re the drama M comes out with. Any frustration, she gives up immediately, as with batteries and the hearing aids. "I wish I was dead!" M emotes. Me, "Yes, I know, but give me the hearing aid again anyway." These batteries are very small and circular and are fitted in differently from regular AA and AAAs, and there's definitely a right and a wrong way. It's just not immediately obvious, but M won't try more than once.

I think we're returning to the usual programming.

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2025 Summary: Not Dead Yet

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 12:13:09 GMT

NYE was excellent, spent at a barbecue and board gaming with rdm, leecetheartist and the usual suspects, safely out of earshot of the NY concert and fireworks next to my place. We played Falling Towers [is that the right name?] Squishing of magician students under towers and extraction of their precious bodily fluids]. Also Vantage, which I think I understand a bit better now.

I got to sleep about 3 am, so today have been semi-conscious. Managed the parental wrangling but since M was out of hearing aid batteries, communication was limited. A friend of M's rang me up because she hadn't answered calls, waking me up from another doze. He tried to get me to use words but that wasn't a huge success.

I posted a brief summary of last year to Facebook, so here's a copy of it. I'm sure everyone here knows all this.

I was made redundant just before Xmas 2024. 2025 was my first year of retirement from the gulag, as a victim of the "AI plague."

Lease terminated, had to move. Found apartment in Claremont for very reasonable rent. I think this is my only critical success roll for
the year.

Did some work as a TV extra, which was a lot of fun and I hope to do some more.

No travel. No spare $, and I'm carer for my mother [~~almost~~ 95] so I think this year will be a rinse and repeat in that respect.

No publications this year, but still writing, a novel about a Western Australian zombie apocalypse, which begins in the United States. [Otherwise this post is intentionally politics-free].

Not dead yet.

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Getting back to Goodreads

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 15:14:30 GMT

I haven't actually done anything with Goodreads this year. Not sure why, just didn't go there much. So it's now on my To Do list, which I am absolutely not calling resolutions. I just cleared the shelves, which never really got far, and set everything up to receive 2026 reads. Also went through some lists and added various books to the "want to read" which also includes my latest lot of library books which aren't going to get read before the New Year drops on us, like a drunken drop bear looking for its latest victim. For non-Australians thinking wtf, google "drop bear." A feared and savage beast, along with the dreaded hoop snake.

www.goodreads.com/review/list/166316839-alex-isle

Other aims are to write some more short fiction and try the one I managed to produce with another market when they open for submissions in February. There's the longer work I'm currently calling The Misogyny Plague, for which I've done a few chapters and some notes, and a fanfic called Devil's Trap which took over way too much of my life this year.

The excuses are I needed to recover from 32 years in the gulag, I had to move to a new lair, there's more to do re my mum, and I'm a lazy bastard sometimes. I'm also going to do more TV extras work if I can find it.

I promise to do more stuff in 2026, but I don't resolve to become a better person. As a FB meme I recently read declared, "I can't believe it's a year since I didn't become a better person!"

I wrote a lot of notes about last year, from my personal journal. I guess the main thing is moving from Bassendean to Claremont, which has been quite an adjustment. It's useful for carer duties, since my mum's just down the road in the next suburb and I can get there in 10 minutes on the e-bike. The actual move ate up more than a month and actually getting used to an apartment again has taken a while.

The main item of discovery from 2025 is that Cabbage White butterflies can fly six floors up and infest one's balcony plants with their progeny, which I'm never going to fully clear out.

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Messages from the universe in a nonexistent week

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 15:05:39 GMT

Five days since my last confession! It's still very quiet, in that strange week between Christmas and the New Year which doesn't really exist. The Day itself was stinking hot, ranging from 41-43^C depending on where in the Perth area you were. Lowest for the coast. I was visiting M to do the wrangling as well as the holiday visit, which M does not really care about, except for the opening of the hamper which my bro and SIL send over. I always get some of the loot, which included quite a decent Christmas pudding and a sort of brandy sauce to pour over it. After that, I got home about five degrees under the maximum and crashed on the bed for the rest of the heatwave.

I've had trouble sleeping because (a) the heat gets in, no matter what, and (b) my sleep pattern is really weird right now. If I'm writing, my mind is most active in the late afternoon/evening and I can look down to see the time and it'll be 1 am. It could be that this is actually my natural pattern, suppressed over decades in employment by people who tend to want one moving earlier in the am.

( Talking about the time passing between Stranger Things season 4 and 5. No plot spoilers. )

Today I went into town and realised these trips are becoming a rare thing. When working for the gulag, I had to go in three times a week, and there would sometimes be need for other trips in that time. Now not so much. The train and city centre were packed with people on holiday, but I got my stuff done. Visit to Officeworks [reason below], visit to the main Perth Library, and a lookaround a couple of shoe shops, because my sandals are in that held-together state which could disintegrate at any moment.

The first shop had a sale on all men's shoes, which I thought looked great, till I found out the reason was they were "getting out of men's shoes" and didn't have anything near my size. The second shop said they hadn't gotten any men's sandals this year, because no one wanted them last year. This year everyone has been asking, she said. I told her my sandals had been all right last year, which I know does not help at all! But that's made me think the universe does not want me to have new sandals.

( where I talk in detail about my printer. )

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Birdies

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 10:40:29 GMT

Yesterday I was visited by two Australian Magpies, adult male and a flying-capable juvenile. Sort of. Another male, I think, but still half fluff/immature plumage, so hard to tell. The chick was busy demanding food of the adult, who probably came up here to the sixth floor to escape him. He followed when the adult left, doing something between a take-off and a plummet from the balcony rail. I guess I can uncover the fibre hanging baskets until next nesting season.

Magpies are good avian parents. Another birdwatcher I know has witnessed a pair each taking one of their chicks to teach it how to get food, but the young birds don't give up easily. I used to live in a small apartment block whose front lawn was regularly occupied by "teenaged" magpies who had been stealthily abandoned by desperate parents to make them do it themselves.

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See you on the other side

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 10:36:33 GMT

The subject is what I heard someone say to a shopkeeper today. I did my last food run before that general shutdown known as Xmas. Claremont is generally a very busy suburb, but has approached 'end of days' chaos now. It's also a generally wealthy area, except for certain outposts such as Saint Andrews, aka this apartment block. So I suspect a LOT of $ is changing hands right now as last minute present shopping gets done.

This celebration seems to have become quieter for me personally, especially after pandemic. People got out of the habit of socialising. Even though I don't get to do much of it, I rather hope we can get back to the keeping of the tribal rituals. I haven't had anywhere to visit on Christmas for several years now, and now gaming appears to have entered a hiatus, it could be awhile.

Of course, I have an extra load of parental wrangling this year, since I will be doing the public holidays. The aged care system recently underwent a major overhaul, which means everything seems to cost more. If you have a professional carer visit your aged parent for one hour on a public holiday, it will now cost you approximately $300. Slightly under, but that's loose change. Even if all that person does is give medication, make them a sandwich and stand by while they have a shower! Wasn't going to do that on Xmas Day anyway, even if M couldn't give a stuff, but I'd been going to let Shine do the visits on Boxing Day and NYD before I learned the above. It would have gone over the budget of M's health care package.

Still, we're headed for another heatwave when I wouldn't be travelling outside during the day anyway, beyond that wrangling. 40^C on X Eve and 41^C on X Day. Even here on the coast, we tend to get less reprieve when it's that high, because there's often no sea breeze at all.

M doesn't want to do the hot lunch thing and I don't have much interest myself, so I will get some fresh cherries, Camembert cheese and whatever else catches my eye from that very expensive IGA at our corner, which is open on Christmas morning. Though to be fair, you can shop there and not be gouged, so long as you don't shop in the fresh produce area. Things like lactose free milk, which I have to use, are as cheap or cheaper than other places, because they get in a cut price brand. Ditto most processed things. They make their money on the fruit and veg, and also the hot dinners smorgasbord, where you can get curries, pasta, baked veges and so on. Each container full costs $14, whatever you put in it!

The one remaining ritual is M's Christmas hamper, which my brother and sister-in-law send over. M can't physically wrangle it, so I get to do that and then we divvy up the contents. Some of them are such exclusive little nibblies I have trouble working out what they are, but so long as they involve chocolate or cake, we're good.

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Time to watch Die Hard again

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 15:10:35 GMT

I have this cheering seasonal message from Die Hard [which IS a Christmas movie!] on some custom-made cards, copies of the one we gave the gamesmaster one year. This is my newest icon. I'll use the one with the giant spider in the Christmas hat next time, so fair warning to arachnophobes.

Summer has dropped on us from a great height. Yes, I did mention the coastal breeze being too cold on Saturday night! Today the city reached 39^C, highest since they started counting. I live closer to the coast than that now, so we got 37-38^C. So I've stayed close to home except for a food run this morning before it got too hot. I have to say, though this place definitely isn't perfect, the elevation and the location next to the coast means we won't suffer the full heat the city, and especially Bassendean, which is an inland suburb, goes through every year. Bassendean regularly goes over the official temperatures.

I was supposed to be doing fish and chips wrangling tonight but my mother pulled her sudden sick trick again. I've got nothing to explain it, honestly I don't, but at least half the time anything is arranged, she'll do this. If it really was a cold, which she complains of having once a week on average, she'd be a freaking medical miracle. Or worthy of future study, at least. It'll probably happen for Christmas.

I don't really do Christmas; it sort of happens around me. But any year we don't spend in Emergency is good, right? M got an infection two years ago and yeah, that's where we went. Up to a few years back, I used to go to friends, but that's sort of fallen apart. This year I guess I'm grateful for not being in the midst of that pretty bad work-related stress and drama, culminating in redundancy first announced on 12/12. They messed the four of us around for a while before finally confirming it on the 24th. So I'll take what comes.

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Everyone else has a king!

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 07:42:58 GMT

I guess I'm doing all right. I'm continuing my preparations to move, which atm means deciding what to cull and what to keep. I've boxed some of the latter, which I needed to start in order to work out how many boxes I was going to need. Newsflash: It's more than I thought. The apartment's renovations are advancing, but we still don't know if it'll be ready by 25 April. Which, as I belatedly remembered, is the Anzac Day holiday, right after Easter, so essentially I need to be sorted by around 18 April.

I went to see a performance of Shakespeare's Henry IV at the University of WA last night, since two friends were in it. That's the main incentive, since that's not a period of history I know much about, and I spent quite a lot of time figuring out who people were. But it was very good and I hardly noticed the passage of time, though I think it ran for at least two and a half hours, maybe three. The New Fortune Theatre is open to the sky, so it got cool, and last night is therefore my first night of the year wearing the jacket I hadn't thought I would need. Then after e-biking back to the Subi train station and reaching the city, I found that the second train was only going within two stops of home, because reasons. So it was a bit more riding than I had planned in a coolish night.

I've reached a stage of waiting for other people to do things. Therefore my mind has a chance to drift, which it frequently takes! I'm hoping this results in me being able to write properly again. I hoped this would happen after I got made redundant, and it did for a while. Then the end of lease/having to move came along. I looked up the national rentals vacancy rate. It's 1%. So this is the first time ever in my life that I can say I'm in the 1%, having secured another rental within two weeks, thanks to rat-related connections.

Anyway, my mind wandered, and I retrieved it. Thinking of how a certain elected leader is now behaving more like a dictator; in short, a king.

For some reason my mind drifted to a foreword of a book I recently read, which can't have been that wonderful because I can't remember the title. But the foreword was from the Old Testament, 1.8 of the Book of Samuel. This concerns the Israelites begging Samuel, their leader, to give them a king, because he was old and his sons were politically corrupt.

They wanted a king instead, because all the other nations had one, and they wanted to share in the glory and have a king to fight their battles. Samuel, no idiot, warned them that a king would take them for everything they had; sons, daughters, worldly goods, and their own freedom. They said, "Never mind all that, we want a king." So Samuel reported back to the Lord, "They're still asking!" And the Lord sighed in resignation. "Give them a king." So Samuel said to the people,"Fine, you will have a king, but the Lord says don't come crying afterwards, because you'll get nowhere! Now go home."

Yeah, this has happened a few times before.

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