Wasjig 37

 This one is labelled Hotel Fiasco and it seems the newly arrived guests have landed to see the construction crew living it up at the resort. They made sure the pool was finished first so they could use it but as for the rest it can wait.  We have had this situation on numerous occasions to arrive in the middle of renovations or other work. Even as recently as Darwin earlier this year we stayed inside the renovation wing while they were finishing it off.  I had to hustle to get this one done as there are small guests arriving tomorrow and it will be fun to try and find the small details. Eg  where can you find a worm and a snail? What are the mice doing to the cat?

Rest Day Ride

 We are having a bonus rest day although I still went for a ride just to keep the physical activity count ticking over. I did not start so well today when I dropped a glass jar of pickled onions at the back of the car spilling shards, goo and stickiness all over the garage floor.  When I got the bike out I carried it across that part of the garage. The ride was hotter than I thought with a warm Westerly coming thru. When I got back, a bug swarm had been driven across the western plains. We have seen this early after Winter before. Make sure the fly wire doors have no openings. 

You Yangs palm tree window

Garden Update

 My physicality today is lawn mowing. We have green bin at the weekend which is looking busy so that means tidy up is today. It's not all cuttings and mulch though as the neighbours delivered 2 dozen eggs and a big box of potatoes for doing their mowing.  The barter system at work, grass for food. I found someone has dug a hole in the lawn out the front. This would have happened when we were away somewhere maybe when we were in Willie a few days back.  The hole is where the pit cover is for the comms cables running beneath.  The turf has been put back but there is a neat dead rectangle there now.  Elsewhere the blossoms are out in force on the apricot tree so we are looking for a bigger yield this time around and the nearby dreaded ivy seems to be dying off after the new owners got a crew in to clear out half of next doors plants.  We need to get some lemons out the front.

Lexicon

 This is a book about words. In this case some sort of mind control, like hypnosis, where you can get someone to do your bidding but without the hypnosis. It gets a bit complicated, as when you are good at it you can turn the tables. eg if someone says stand on one foot then while you are doing that you are actually studying them so that ipso fatso you can tell them to go jump.  Simples!  The book has an Australian setting in Broken Hill where the descriptions used here aren't too flattering.  Certainly worth a read and a different author for me. It seems he has gotten into proper scifi so maybe I can use my AI mind control to hunt down a copy of his other books.  As they said at the end of this book "Kikkhf fkattkx hfkixu zttcku"  I wonder if Max Barry just closed his eyes and banged on the keyboard to come up with some of this stuff.

The difference an E makes

Good stamp day yesterday with showers driving thru then Sun then showers etc. I have mentioned previously about the large difference a stamp can have in value, depending on other factors like mint vs used or condition issues like fading, tearing etc.  I found two stamps yesterday, vastly different in value becuase of the original designs.  The early German currency was a mixed bag between North and South German areas up to 1875.  A united one currency fits all, came in 1875 (100 Pfennige = 1 Mark) but it seems the spelling of Pfennige was an issue. The E was dropped but could still be seen on stamps for the first few years.  These stamps are worth $1000 more than those without an E and I found one of each.

with E

with No E

Correspondence

 I have featured a number of letters here always from an archive that I have built up over the years. This time it is a letter that arrived yesterday. We often hang it on the postal service but this time they have worked it out given that there is absolutely nothing on the front of the envelope. All the action, including the stamp, is on the back.  The only parental influence seems to be that the postcode has been rewritten. I took out the street name but you can see the effort. The point of this letter was asking for a sleepover which has now been arranged for next week. Hooray. 

PS stamps prices are rising quicker than petrol. Everytime you turn around the price has gone up. On our return envelope I have placed three previous christmas stamps totalling $1.95 that should get it there.

More beach Junk

 Yesterday I retrieved a submerged bag from the water. I think it was briefly viewed in the video yesterday however I stashed it in a bush for another day.  Well that wasn't long was it,as I went back for it today. However you can't just pickup one item so the trusty bag was once again filled to brimming with washed up stuff. I can tell you one of the problems fishermen have is that they often loose their footwear. Twice in a row now I have picked up odd shoes and not for the last time.  The other main item was a corroded blanket. I can describe the scene.  Very early before dawn there is a guy huddled with his blanket out on the Bay. He has lost his shoes and with a coolish breeze is trying to get his feet under the blanket as well, but some how tips it overboard. He reviews the problem and decides to eat all his biscuits, potatoe chips and snickers bars and all those papers end up in the water too. Tell me I'm wrong.

heron ?

black blanket