Panic

After almost nine months of being COVID free Perth had its first reported case and it is likely to be the more virulent UK version.  The State government immediately announced a lock-down for the metropolitan area and the SW of the State effective 6PM today.  Case Zero is a security guard who worked at one of the quarantine hotels.  He also has a second job as a ride share driver.  Apparently he was infectious for four days before detection and in that period managed to visit a large number and variety of venues including a Halal supermarket and the Indian Consulate.   When are State governments going to realise employing security guards at quarantine hotels poses a risk to public health?

The lock-down has created panic buying in many parts of the city.  Shopping centre car parks overflowed and there were long queues at supermarkets.  Naturally there was a run on toilet paper! 

Children where supposed to return to school tomorrow after the long Christmas holiday break.  However that has been cancelled.  The family next door have two small children and we could hear the crying, wailing, shrieking and temper tantrums over the fence.  I never expected parents to act like that!  The local liquor store sold all it’s stock in one afternoon.

Western Australia was about to open its border to Victoria and Queensland as they had just reached the required COVID free milestone.  Now they are quite rightly closing their borders to us.

Jan and I have agreed I will make a sign in the workshop tomorrow which she will place on the front lawn.

Toilet Paper – $10 per roll

Long queues appeared at the COVID testing centres.  Many of these people are just panicking or “wanabees”.  They have overloaded the system and a significant number will leave without being tested.  We think the wanabees could be separated from the genuine if the local health authorities were to adopt the new Chinese test….. Drop trousers.. touch toes whilst we take the swab.

We all have to stay at home for the next five days and this has caught us with a low level of fresh fruit & veg.  However we have plenty of canned and frozen food.   

What will I do for the next five days.  Probably apply five coats of paint to the blanket box.

It’s Saturday…. Again!!

I can’t believe it….. Saturday has already arrived.  What joy…. I get to play Swen the pool cleaner!!

Step 1.   Turn off the system and sweep the sides and bottom of the pool with the long broom

Step 2.  Put Jacques Cousteau in the pool for a swim

Step 3.  Empty and clean the pool leaf catcher

Step 4.  Empty and clean the pump pre-filter

Step 5.  Check the pressure level in the main pool filter

Step 6.  Take water samples and test for Chlorine, pH and alkalinity.  Record results in pool register

Step 7.  Restart the pool pump and check for leaks/problems

Step 8.  Wait two hours and remove Jacques.  Clean Jacques filter.

I wasn’t allowed to say anything until today, but it's now okay for me to share that I have volunteered for the Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine is the one that has been developed in Russia. It is in 6 different stages and I received my first dose this morning at 07:20 am, and I wanted to let you all know that it is safe and I’m ok, with иo side effects whatsoeveя, and that I feelshκι я чувю себя немного стрно и я думю, что вытл осные уши. чувству себя немго страо. Comrade

Hasn’t the European Commission (EC) made a complete stuff up of their vaccine program.  I can understand their logic of centralizing their effort under the European Commission rather than have individual member states compete against each other.  However the larger the organisation, the slower the cogs turn.  Three months after the UK placed their order with AstraZeneca the EC did the same.  The EC also only approved the vaccine today, whereas the UK has been vaccinating citizens for weeks.   There’s an argument between the EC and AstraZeneca regarding the wording in the contract.  But neither will release a copy for the rest of us to know who is right.  However we do know the UK-AstraZeneca contract states AstraZeneca will make “best efforts” to provide the agreed quantity.

Today the EU announced a ban on the export of the vaccine from EU based production facilities.  There is reportedly a list of 170 countries to which the EU will allow the vaccine to be exported.  Most of these are poor countries or near neighbours of the EU.  The UK and Australia didn’t make the list.  The Guardian newspaper reported this would extend the UK’s ability to reach ‘herd immunity’ (75% of the population vaccinated) by two months.  Australia’s successful anti-COVID measures mean being denied access to European sourced vaccine won’t be a major issue.

I wonder how many UK citizens are thinking BREXIT means we probably just dodged a bullet!

On to more mundane things like the blanket box.  The piano hinge was fitted this morning and the box given yet another sanding.

I’ve decided to make four round feet for the base using an offcut of timber from the box.

The hole saw was purchased in Poundland and isn’t the best.  However I was able to sand off the burrs leaving me with four disks to be glued to the base

The temperature has reached 39°C and I’m taking a break from the project for a few hours.  Actually I’m trying to whip up the enthusiasm to do the painting

The Box and the Angle

This morning I used the plunge saw to cut the top off Jan’s box  creating the main compartment and a lid.  Then I cut 70mm off the lid with the bench saw.  This 70mm length of lid was then glued back onto the main part of the box using lengths of 4mm plywood as a ‘strong back’

A 4mm strip of plywood has been glued to the inside of the lid as a guide to position the lid when closed.

Jan and I made yet another trip to the local hardware store where she chose the handles for the box and some paint, whilst I bought a length of piano hinge for the lid.

Laving the glue to set I wandered over to the Isuzu 4WD and checked the angles on the CV joints.  The front of the Isuzu has Independent Front Suspension (IFS) rather then a ‘live axle’.  The advantage of the IFS system is it allows the wheels to move up and down independent of each other.  However it does mean power to the wheel from the front differential is delivered by a CV (Constant Velocity) joint.  Ideally the CV should be horizontal when the vehicle is stationary or moving on level ground.  Last year Ken and I fitted new suspension to the vehicle which also ‘lifted’ it by 40mm.  I wanted to check what difference this had made to the CV angle.

Front left side

It’s actually rather hard to take a photo of the CV.  It’s located behind the orange shock absorber in the above photo.  The red arrows point to either end and the red line shows the angle.  the blue line shows where horizontal is.  In its current position the CV is always at an angle which will probably result in premature wear.  Moreover if the wheel dropped into a hole the angle might get so acute the CV could break.  

I’ve already solved the premature wear issue by fitting Free Wheeling Hubs; which when unlocked; means the CV’s don’t turn.  However as I plan on taking the 4WD on some further long and isolated off road trips I’ve decided to get the CV’s back to horizontal by fitting a front differential drop kit.  The kit will lower the front differential by 30-40mm.  The kit isn’t expensive; Jan even managed to get a discount when ordering online. 

Cool Day for Fencing

A change in the weather has been most welcome allowing me to finish the pool fencing.  Why is the last piece always the most difficult?

The surplus pavers are going to be used to replace the path made of concrete squares in the left of the photo.  I’ll then recycle the concrete squares to make a pad for the camper trailer.  Then the final modifications to the water reticulation systems can be completed.  Lastly I’ll need to repair the lawn.

Meanwhile Jan has requested I make a ‘Blanket Storage Box’ to go under the window in the spare bedroom.  Yesterday we bought the timber and now I’m searching for the enthusiasm

The Water Account

Jan was looking out the front window two days ago and exclaimed "Oh No! It's the water meter reader" Obviously we are going to get a bill. The family Chief Financial Controller (CFO) handles these matters and I usually don't concern myself. However when the account arrived by email I had a look.

What I found interesting was the account comprised three parts

• Water Usage
• Service Charge
• Sewage

The water company presents the invoice in a manner which makes it difficult at a glance to identify the various costs. I extrapolated the information in an Excel spreadsheet to break the costs down

Water $47.50

Service Charge $28.05

Sewage $116.71 (Note: got to cut down on grape consumption)

The water charge is based on the amount of water the household uses. However the sewage is based on the council rates for the property. Therefore sewage isn't priced on use but rather the value of your property. One assumes the logic is the more money you can afford for a home the more you can afford to pay for your sewage.  Or perhaps ,the more grapes you can afford to buy

I accept it would be difficult (but not impossible) to place a meter on property sewage pipes.  However it should be possible to calculate a cost of sewage disposal based on water consumption. The more people in the house; the more water used and the more the toilet gets flushed. User Pays principle.

As it stands we could go away on holiday for a month using no water and still receive a $144.82 bill.

The reality is the more people living in the house… The cheaper per head the water and sewage account will be.

What is the Service Charge? On the Water Corporation website it states "Service charges help cover the cost of providing clean and safe drinking water in Western Australia, taking away wastewater and disposing of it in a socially and environmentally friendly way, and removing stormwater through our drainage services." But we have already paid for that with our water and sewage charges! However the clever bureaucrats have worked out they can both double dip and charge for an unused service when the property has been left vacant.

Soft Shackles

We were in Aldermaston Wharf on the Kennet & Avon Canal doing the fit-out of Waiouru when two live-aboard boaters mentioned they were going to Braunston to purchase some excellent soft shackles.  This pricked my interest.  What was a soft shackle?  On their return two days later I asked them to show me what a soft shackle looked like.  An interesting concept and I wondered how they were made.  When we reached Braunston during our first trip north I purchased two thinking the first would eventually break or wear out.  It never did!  I used it to secure the two centrelines to the boat.  The soft rope shackle never damaged the paintwork and the rope never frayed.  It was also very strong.

For almost a year I’ve been thinking having a few soft shackles during outback trips might be very useful.  The shackles are made from Dyneema rope and it’s not exactly cheap.  These days it appear to be the “go to rope” for 4WD winches.  Not wanting to spend $100 to see if I can make and shackle and not wanting to buy them at $29 each I started looking for something I already had that might be suitable.  That’s when I remember I had a cheap synthetic tow rope purchased about 20 years ago.  After ratting around in the boxes stored in the garage (I don’t throw things away) I found the rope.  It was just long enough for two shackles. 

You Tube was my friend when it came to making the shackles and the end result was a very large shackle.  Certainly too big for the boat.

 

I doubt I’ll ever place enough strain on one of these to make it fail.

Major lesson from this is “Don’t throw anything out… it may be useful one day!”

Mango and the Disappearing House

Four months ago Jan thought her Mango tree had scummed to the heat.  It looked desiccated and had no foliage.  I suggested we relocate the pot to a slightly less hot position.  We then started to water it daily and to our relief signs of life appeared.

More recently it was transplanted from the pot into the ground behind the pool.  Jan added a bag of compost in the base of the hole in an effort to both provide some food and ensure the tree roots grew down.  The tree now appears to be well on the way to recovery.

 

The project to lay concrete kerbing around the pool pavers and been temporarily suspended.  After hand mixing seven bags of concrete by back decided it wanted a rest.  fortunately I’ve also used all the bags of concrete.  The weather forecast for next week is cooler conditions which should fit in nicely with the plan to complete the project.

Recently we heard rumbling from the end of the street so I went to investigate.  A tracked excavator was demolishing the house on the corner of the street.

The day prior there was a family living in the house.  24 hours later there was a vacant lot.  It’s corner block and my assumption is the new owner will be building two smaller dwellings, each with road access. 

I’ve just realised another week has passed and it is Saturday……. Pool cleaning day!  Oh the joy.  At least Jacques gets a swim!

Grapes

Jan had been searching online and then suggested we go out as we’d been staying in the house for several days.  Her plan was to visit Katich’s The Grape Place in Caversham, which is part of the southern Swan Valley, an area renown for it’s wineries.

It’s only a 14km drive from home which took us approximately 16 minutes.

The car park was interesting with grape vines growing above providing shade during the summer. 

Jan immediately headed to the shed whilst I delayed to read the numerous signs.  They all stated the grapes were not to be picked.

The young lady who served Jan appeared to have a Canadian accent.  A backpacker trapped by COVID???  We selected three types of table grapes, all very tasty.  We will be returning!

The plan was to then visit a nearby patisserie for coffee.  However on arrival we discovered the car park was almost full.  The place was packed with soccer mum’s having their regular morning tea.  The sign at the door made me chuckle.

In the end a long queue and limited range of products resulted in us deciding to leave without making any purchases.   I suspect I have high expectations after looking in the windows of patisseries in Paris.

 

Stolen Idea

Now the last of the fruit trees have been planted I started thinking about Jan keeping them alive.  Obviously they are planted in sand and the climate is hot.  Thirty minutes of automatic water reticulation three times weekly is probably only going to wet the top six inches of sand.  This is likely to result in the tree roots growing close to the surface.  I’ve therefore stolen and idea!

Last month whilst heading to the supermarket we passed a council water truck watering the native trees on the road verge.  That is when I noticed each tree had a length of PVC pipe buried vertically beside the tree trunk and the driver of the truck was directing the water down the pipe. 

Today I used three lengths of surplus 25mm plastic water reticulation pipe to make my own spears.  I used the heat gun to soften one end of each length of pipe and then squashed it with my hand whilst wearing a glove.

Next several vertical rows of 2mm holes were drilled in each pipe.

Using a rubber headed mallet I drove each length of pipe into the ground beside the trees.

Jan should now be able to deliver water and liquid fertilizer to the base of each tree.  If I get very keen I may cut the tops off three empty plastic soft drink bottles and fit them to the tops of the pipes as funnels.

A Start

Today there was some physical progress on the pool solar water heater.  I’ve been hiding from the sun inside the workshop cutting holes in the top and bottom of the aluminium cans which will form my solar heat collectors.

It has been a trial and error process as I attempted to identify a method that didn’t damage the cans.  Initially I used a can opener to remove the top.

I quickly realised this wasn’t a good idea as the can had lost much of its structural strength and was easily damaged.  I needed to retain both the top and bottom ring of the can.  This also made me realise I should only grip the can by the top or bottom ring.

My successful method was to first remove the tear tab by flexing it backwards and forwards until it broke away from the top of the can.

This ensured I had a flat top surface.  The can was then turned upside down and a pilot hole drilled in the centre of the base.

It doesn’t really matter if the hole isn’t dead centre as the final hole will be much larger than the copper pipe that will pass through the can. The next step was to use a large (25mm) spade bit in the drill to cut a larger hole.

Grip around the top of the base with one hand and drill the hole with the other.  This is probably the easiest part of the process provided you apply minimal downwards pressure.

Next cut a rough hole in the top using a pair of tin snips.

Remember to wear gloves when doing all of this

The walls of the cans are very thin.  However if they get dented it’s possible to remove the dent either by lightly squeezing either side of the dent with your finer and thumb or by using your index finger from the inside after you have cut the hole in the top.

I’ve probably processed enough cans for three rows.  Only 15 rows to go…… I’d better start seriously drinking!

The Bully Butcher

Jan decided today was the day we would visit the Bully Butcher who has recently opened a second shop in Kingsley, WA.  He has a reputation for selling quality meat and interesting sausages.  Jan knows I like sausages!

The Bully Butcher sells gourmet meat… at gourmet prices!  Therefore sausages were the only item on the shopping list.  Readers he had an extensive range of sausages from which Jan said I could select three.  I opted for

• Beef Breakfast
• Lamb Pumpkin & Feta
• Thick Pork

Other variants included Cheese & Vegemite and Lamb Honey & Rosemary.  Such a range.

I get to eat one of each of the above at our next BBQ.  A report will follow!

I haven’t been idle!

This long hot spell means outdoor work is done early in the morning and later in the afternoon.

The first task was to relocate the surplus pavers outside the pool area.

It appears we have sufficient to replace the old concrete square pavers in the background.

With the pavers removed I was able to fit the timber boxing before hand mixing some concrete in the wheelbarrow which enabled me to pour a kerb against the edge of the pavers.

This has two purposes.  It will hold the edge of the pavers in place and act as a strong straight edge beam for the lawn edger.  I’ve already started to remove the surplus sand and level the ground in preparation for the installation of the water reticulation pipe and sprinklers.

This morning we went back to my favourite hardware store and purchased four bags of potting mix which will go in the base of the holes I need to dig for the fruit trees.  We also visited ‘'soils An’t Soils and bought three concrete tree rings.

 

The next three days are forecast to be very hot which means this work will be completed in brief stages.

All this digging has resulted in sand in the pool so I put Jacques in for a swim and he’s done a reasonable job.

The Wall

There is currently a very funny Australian Ad running on TV.  It’s also available on You Tube which I’ve (hopefully) inserted below.  If you have a similar sense of humour to mine then you’ll see similarities with the current pandemic, Game of Thrones, etc, etc.

 

If the link doesn’t work then you can watch it directly on You Tube via <this link>

Of course this reminded me of the “other wall”.  The one Donald was building!  You might recall Mexico was going to pay for it.  Apparently that didn’t happen.

The US – Mexico border is 1954 miles long and there was 654 miles of wall when Donald took office.  During his four years in office 350 miles of existing wall was replaced and an additional 15 miles constructed.  That’s just under four miles of new wall for each year of his presidency or a 1.15% increase in total length.   Apparently the swamp didn’t get drained either!  I can’t recall one major achievement during Trump’s four years, which leads me to wonder why 74 million Americans voted for him in 2020?

Of course I only have time to muse over such things because it’s too darned hot outside to do anything meaningful!

That wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated!

Installing Windows 8.1 onto the new laptop wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated.  Initially the problem was the lack of an ethernet and wifi connection.  The operating system kept asking me to go online to resolve the problem which I obviously couldn’t do without wifi or ethernet. 

Eventually I realised the issue was with the new network card.  It uses the newer AX standard which Windows 10 recognises, but Windows 8.1 does not.  I don’t need to higher speed AX standard as the home router is the lower standard (AC).  I was going to remove the old network card from the Asus and install it in the new Lenovo.  However on checking, I realised they are physically different and the old card won’t fit.  Eventually I found a work around by installing a thumbnail sized usb 2.4Hz wifi stick into one of the laptop usb ports.  It was recognised by Windows 8.1 and gave me wifi access.  This enabled me to update the ethernet drivers and get the ethernet port working.  My primary internet access is via the ethernet port and if I’m mobile I used the tiny usb wifi transmitter. 

With all that solved I discovered the large desktop monitor wasn’t recognising the laptop via the HDMI cable.  After some troubleshooting I discovered there was a switch in the laptop BIOS allowing me to swap between the laptop screen and the monitor by selecting either monitor or HDMI. 

I’m sorted….. I think !!!

We’ve been telling our son he should allow the children to play more often as it’s important for their own problem solving development.

is because the knowledge acquired will be useful later in life

 

Device Lifespan

You may recall the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone died a few days ago.  It was purchased back in 2013 along with the Asus laptop when I was working in Saudi Arabia.  I managed to get both of them at a very competitive price and also stuck to my computer strategy of purchasing two rungs below the latest technology.  The laptop needed tweaking and I replaced the wifi card with one more powerful and also managed to replace the 24GB cache SSD with 256GB of mSata storage.  Roll the clock forward seven years and the laptop is also dying. A number of the keys on the keyboard stopped working whilst we were living onboard Waiouru which resulted in me buying a small wifi keyboard.  Now the USB 3.0 port is dicky along with the SD card reader.  The back of the laptop is held together with duct tape and more recently the screen has started to intermittently go blank. 

Perhaps seven years is the most you can expect from current electronic devices?

I have been searching for a replacement laptop and eventually settled on a Lenovo Thinkpad E14 (AMD).  It’s two rungs below the latest budget laptops and was superseded in December.  I managed to purchase one directly from Lenovo Australia in the Boxing Day sale for half the retail price.   Like the Asus it has very limited storage capacity but I think I can resolve that.  It doesn’t have an SD Card Reader slot but I do have an external USB card reader.  It only has 8GB of RAM but that should be more than sufficient for my needs.  In an effort to minimize the amount of times I plug and then unplug USB devices into the laptop I’ve bought a powered USB Hub.  This means the hub can stay plugged into the laptop and our various USB devices (mouse, keyboard, hard drives, card reader, etc) get plugged into the cheaper Hub.

They are almost the same size but the Lenovo is thinner and lighter

The Lenovo Thinkpad comes with Windows 10 whilst the Asus has Windows 8.1.  I want to avoid re-installing all my programs and applications onto windows 10 and to be honest I don’t like the Windows 10 format.  My plan is to

1. Boot the Lenovo using a live distribution of Linux using a USB thumbstick
2. Clone the Windows 10 on the new Lenovo laptop to a spare 250GB hard drive using Linux.
3. Book the Asus using the same live distribution of Linux using the same USB thumbstick
4. Clone the Windows 8.1 on the old Asus laptop to a second spare 250GB hard drive
5. Clone the windows 8.1 from the 250GB hard drive back onto the Lenovo using Linux
6. Disassemble the Lenovo and install a second solid state drive into the spare slot
7. Clone the 2nd drive on the Asus to the 250GB hard drive and then clone it back onto the new drive in the Lenovo. 

The result should be the Asus windows 8.1 and stored data being replicated on the new Lenovo.  I should also have a cloned copy of Windows 10 on a spare hard drive. 

I wrote the above three days ago and I'm still endeavouring to configure the new Lenovo laptop.  There have been two major issues.  The first has been Windows 10 which managed to stuff up the Lenovo by locking out the internal storage drive with something called Bitlocker.  This required a 16 digit code to unlock and I didn't have the code.  Eventually I managed to get into the laptop BIOS and reconfigure the system to boot from a Live USB Stick version of Linux.  I completed Step 4 above and then attempted to remove the back off the Lenovo. This became my second problem.  However I persisted eventually removing it to remove the laptop innards.

[A] is the existing 256GB of solid state storage.  [B] Under the plate is 8GB of RAM with an additional spare slot for more RAM.  [C] is the spare slot for more solid state storage.

I'm not going to add more RAM as 8GB is plenty for my needs.  However I need more storage.  The new Lenovo has a different type of storage to the old Asus.  The latter has mSATA storage whilst the Lenovo uses NVMe storage which is a different format and six times faster than mSATA.  I bought a 512GB NVMe storage stick from the local computer shop opting for 512GB because it was only slightly more expensive than 256GB.  The brand is Silicon Power, which I'd never heard of, but some online research suggested it was OK.

The additional storage was then installed.  Interestingly it's about the size of a stick of chewing gum.  On reflection I remembered my first computer electro-mechanical computer hard drive has a capacity of 10MB and was physically huge compared to the NVMe stick.  The NVMe stick is tiny in comparison but has 5000% more capacity.  Technology!!!

Before securing the base to the laptop I checked the new drive was being recognized by the BIOS.   Yes; I have two NVMe storage drives.

On to Step 5

 

 

I’m Fine

A farmer named Clyde had a tractor accident. In court, the transport company's fancy hot shot barrister, was questioning Clyde. "Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine,'?" asked the barrister.

Clyde responded, "Well, I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favourite cow, Bessie, into the..."

"I didn't ask for any details", the barrister interrupted. "Just answer the question, ...please. Did you, or did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'?"

Clyde said, "Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer behind the tractor and I was driving down the road...."

The barrister interrupted again and said, "Your Honour, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the police officer on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time, the Magistrate was fairly interested in Clyde's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favourite cow, Bessie".

Clyde thanked the Magistrate and proceeded. "Well, as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favourite cow, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my John Deere Tractor right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting, real bad and didn't want to move. However, I could hear old Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.

Shortly after the accident a police police car came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning, so he went over to her. After he looked at her, and saw her fatal condition, he went back to his car an got a gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the police officer came across the road, gun still in hand, looked at me, and said, "How are you feeling?"

"Now tell me, what would you say?"

The Swimming Pool

There is light at the end of the pool project.  Most of the paving is laid, although I need to buy two replacement corner coping pavers and six of the letter shaped charcoal pavers.

The pool fencing needs to be completed but I’m not going to do that until I’ve poured a concrete nib wall under the fence and on the long side of the pavers between them and the garden.  This should hold the pavers in place and also form a strong edge to the lawn.  Then I need to complete the pipework for the lawn sprinkler system and plant the last three of Jan’s fruit trees (mango, plum and some other type of fruit which I’ve forgotten).  It’s darned hot with the temperature in the high 30s so I’m taking my time.

I need a concrete pad on which to park the camper trailer and a small shed on the side of my workshop for the sawdust extraction system.  I also need to construct a shelter over the pool pump, filter and chlorinator behind the shed.  That should see the rear of the house completed and I can make a start on the front.  Everything should be done by 2031

Recycling

The company who delivered our swimming pool fencing left their timber pallet on the front lawn and I started thinking how I might use the timber.  I removed the eight rough sawn top planks from the pallet and ran them through the Thicknesser before using waterproof glue to secure then together as a long block.  Then the block went back through the Thicknesser to square it before ripping it longitudinally with the deWalt bench saw.

I now had planks made of strips of pine which went back through the Thicknesser before being glued back into a block.  This left me with a length of timber made of 20x20mm pieces of pine.  The timber again went through the Thicknesser to square up the block before slicing it into nine 50mm thick pieces.  These pieces were glued together with some scrap Jarrah as a decorative line.  Back through the Thicknesser to smooth and parallel the top and bottom surfaces.  Finally I used the bench saw to square the sides before sanding and giving the block a coat of olive oil.  I now have a 40mm thick chopping block.

 

99 Guards and the Cocker Spaniel

Whilst I had always anticipate problems employing private security guards to manage COVID hotel quarantine the scale of disclosed failings is rather shocking.  Information released to the media by the South Australian government opposition revealed 99 security guards in that state have been dismissed or stood down over various failures on their part.  Offences include sleeping on the job, drunk, etc.

State police forces have not wanted to provide hotel quarantine guards as they only have sufficient resources to manage (debateable) existing requirements.  State Governments have been reluctant to ask or accept Federal Defence Force personnel.  One assumes because they are concerned it will further dilute their ‘state rights’. 

The salaries of security guards are low and it’s not unknown for them to make ends meet by having secondary employment.  Moreover a boring job either attracts people of limited intellect or leads to poor performance.  A boring job requires regular rotation of personnel to avoid complacency and lapses.  I remember my various backpacking trips through the 3rd world and the 3rd week was the dangerous one.  The first two weeks you’re on heightened alert.  It’s the 3rd week where you start to become complacent.  Having the same security guards do the same boring job for 10 months will almost certainly result in things going wrong!

One wonders just how bad the security guard issue has been in other states?  This may well be the tip of the iceberg!

Whilst Australia has a problem with quarantine absconders or avoiders, we are not in the same dire situation as the UK where Boris has got his pandemic response horribly wrong in opting to employ the cocker spaniel strategy.  For those readers who haven’t heard of the cocker spaniel strategy let me explain.  A kindly elderly widow was given a cocker spaniel puppy as a companion.  She knew it needed its tail docked but didn’t want to hurt the puppy.  She therefore decided to cut off an inch every week.  Boris has employed the cocker spaniel strategy!  He now faces two major problems.  He has to introduce hard lock-down measures and also convince a disgruntled and COVID weary general public its necessary.  Good luck with that!

At home my thoughts have turned to the pool mermaid.  She currently appears for her daily swim, however that may change when the weather cools.  I’ve been thinking of a way to heat the pool, thus extending the swimming months.  Yes, I could buy a system and have it installed.  Instead I’m thinking of making one from beer cans.  This has two advantages; it will be cheaper and someone (me) will have to drink the beer.

Google sketchUp was very useful in designing the prototype.

The cans form 10 solar collector contained in an insulated box with a polycarbonate front panel.  Vertical copper pipe through the centre of the cans connect to a top and bottom copper pipe.  Cold water enters via the bottom and hot out the top.  I suspect the most difficult part of the project is going to be drinking the contents of the cans.

Landbridging

I’m not particularly interested in the engineer who designed the drainage system, but I’d love to have a discussion with the person who built the fence!

This morning there was a EuroNews article on TV regarding one of the adverse impacts (for the UK) of BREXIT.  The article claimed the UK would be seriously adversely affected because increased border checks and consequent delays between the EU and UK would mean freight from the Republic of Ireland would go directly by sea rather than landbridging across the UK.  I started to think about the logic of this article.

There are two ports with ferry services linking the Republic of Ireland (IRE) with the Wales, Fishguard and Holyhead.  Both are either owned or managed by Stena Ferries, a Swedish owned company.  Irish Ferries competes to the same ports.

The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) has calculated in 2018 150,000 lorries use this landbridge route annually.  That’s approximately 412 lorries daily.

In order of speed, the faster mode for transporting freight is air, followed by road, then rail and finally sea.  In order of energy efficiency it’s the reverse.  Therefore if you have bulking or heavy ‘just in time’ freight sending it directly via sea-land-sea is the most effective option.  However if there are going to be major delays at west and east coast UK ports then ‘just in time’ freight is going to be affected.

Stena has already announced it’s looking to establish a service directly from IRE to France avoiding the UK.  If the UK doesn’t want to lose this landbridging freight to the more direct sea route it will have to ensure there are minimal delays to IRE originating lorries at its ports.

If landbridging from IRE-to the EU via the UK ceases what would be the adverse economic impacts upon the UK?  Obviously there would be a financial lose to the companies who own and operate the ports, but they appear to be foreign.  There would also potentially be a reduction in employment of UK citizens crewing ferries, alone with harbour employees.  However it would also mean 150,000 fewer lorries on UK roads annually.  This should reduce the maintenance costs along with a reduced future need to improve major transport routes.  Where does the UK make money from this landbridging traffic?

How significant is the landbridging from IRE as part of the overall roll-on roll-off freight from the UK to the EU.

Using statistics for the same year (2018) I researched and found the total volume of road goods vehicles that travelled from the UK to the EU in 2018 was 800,000 quarterly or approximately 3,200,000 annually.  Therefore the landbridging from IRE is slightly less than 5% of the total number of lorries travelling from the UK to the EU.  If there are going to be delays to road freight at UK ports I can’t see the UK authorities giving preferential or priority treatment to freight originating in IRE.  They are likely to be more focussed on ensuring UK originated freight isn’t delayed.

If I were the manager of an IRE transport company I would be hedging my bets and looking at moving some of my business to a direct sea ferry link to France.

Meanwhile it’s another hot day here in Perth which is why I’m at the computer writing this post rather than outside mowing the lawns.  No doubt the house mermaid will appear in the pool mid afternoon.  I have spoken to her and she told me the water was lovely and warm.   I’m tempted!