Twice the leprechauns

A gorgeous double-rainbow beside Lake Monger yesterday evening.

Regional Travel Restrictions

It's so claustrophobic being confined to a tiny region within Western Australia while the pandemic rages on. We can only head north, south or east for about 500km until we hit the checkpoints. Luckily though, we're  permitted to swim west for an unlimited distance.

Cat Roar

Someone appreciates a gentle tummy rub.

WFH

Here my working from home setup. It's unusual to see my coworker so alert - he's normally asleep, sprawled across the keyboard or upside down, asking for tummy tickles.

Documenting history

For the historical record, here are some emails that document the gradual shutting down of business.

Queueing for Bunnings

Bunnings is very well organised for physical distancing. The entry queue is well-spaced, and you can't enter until someone leaves. And there's a limit of four customers per aisle.

Cheap Petrol

As we approach the collapse of civilisation, one positive is the plummeting price of petrol. It hasn't been this low since I was a young kid, fifteen years ago.

Zoombie Menace

This concerning public safety poster was discovered in my archives. Thankfully the zoombie threat levels are currently rated at MODERATE.

My Cat's Top Ten Films of 2019

Here are Gizzie 's top ten films for 2019, plus some honourable mentions.

1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - totally love a good revenge film, even if it is pure fantasy....

2. Jo Jo Rabbit - Nazi themes, Sam Rockwell, Taika Waititi, Rebel Wilson, Scarlett Johansen all in superb form, as were the two main boy actors (loved the larger framed one) - funny, tragic, moving

3. Nightingale  - incredibly violent, can see why people walked out of cinemas, even I found it challenging and I have watched a lot of violent films over the years, but brilliant depiction of all the forms of oppression throughout our history...

4. Destroyer - Nicole Kidman was brilliant in this, and like I said, love a good revenge story, as well as stories of atonement

5. Aftermath - romantic and set with Nazi background, am always fascinated by Nazi themes 

6. Cold Pursuit  - Liam Neeson - bloody funny film

7. All is True - Kenneth Branagh as Shakespeare - reflective in his old age

8. Swoon - creative, colourful, well told story

9. Terminator: Dark Fate - for the fans mostly... love Arnold when he does humour

10. Zombieland Double Tapped - for the fans again... great cast

And honourable mentions for:

Doctor Sleep - not Kubrick, but I thought that this was a fairly good sequel, not as scary or suspenseful, but still well done

The Dead Don't Die - any film with Bill Murray ranks highly with me

Parasite - interesting and surprising.... heard good things about it, wasn't sure, but when I did see it, was intrigued

Surviving the Heatwave

With Perth enduring it's worst ever December heatwave, I closely monitored the temperature inside my home each day. I was keen to know how rapidly an impoverished household with only a feeble fan to cool them would cope. 

Date	Indoor Temperature AM	Outdoor Temperature Max	Indoor Temperature PM
12th Dec	26C	37C	28C
13th Dec	27C	39C	30C
14th Dec	29C	40C	31C
15th Dec	30C	41C	32C
16th Dec	30C	41C	32C
17th Dec	30C	38C	32C
18th Dec	30C	33C	31C
19th Dec	29C	34C	30C

The verdict - after two or three hot days (over 35C), the room temperature hots up to 30C to 32C. And it takes a couple of milder days to cool down again.

Top TV Shows of 2019

Here are my favourite shows of the past 12 months.

10. Euphoria

9. This Time with Alan Partridge

8. The Man in the High Castle

7. Stranger Things

6. The Crown

5. Good Omens

4. Game of Thrones

3. The Marvellous Mrs Maisel

2. Chernobyl

1. Halt and Catch Fire

Top Ten Films of 2019

Not a classic year for films, with many worthy productions ending up on Netflix instead of in the cinemas. But despite that, I'm pleased with my top ten, which is dominated by comedies or dramas with a sprinkling of humour.

10(=). Animals - delightful Irish female buddy film

10(=). I Feel Good - crazy French satire. A smooth-talking but not terribly successful minor entrepreneur concocts multiple schemes in order to achieve the fame and riches he craves. His latest scheme is to transport elderly folk to Eastern Europe for plastic surgery to beautify them. 

9. The Nightingale - Aussie vengeance drama, set in Van Diemen's Land in the 1820s amongst the convicts and settlers

8. Cold Pursuit - yet another Liam Neeson revenge film, after his son dies in Colorado, he sets out to track down anyone involved. The difference is that this one is a black comedy.

7. Booksmart - coming of age comedy drama as two studious girls graduate from high school

6. Avengers Endgame - I'm ashamed that a superhero flick made it onto this list, but this one was wildly entertaining

5. The Favourite - Queen Anne and her insane court

4. Knives Out - as good as a top-notch Agatha Christie, with the addition of humour

3. Aftermath - Keira Knightley is mesmerisingly good in this film set in Germany immediately post-war

2. Doctor Sleep - sequel to The Shining, and no match to the original, but still worthy.

1. Apollo 11 - so many unforgettable moments from history. The pulsating score and lack of a narration leads to a trancelike state as the astronauts are propelled towards their fate

Avebury amnesia

Sighted at Avebury a few weeks ago, an unconscious figure lying below the mysterious stones. His fate is unknown.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Re-reading Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four this week, I was struck by the huge number of his concepts that have permeated current culture. Now that we're living in a dystopian surveillance state, writing about this may trigger interest from Australia's Big Brother government, but I'm prepared to risk that. So before they cut me off, here's a list of concepts from that novel. How many of these are you familiar with?

Big Brother

Room 101

Thoughtcrime

Doublespeak

Memory hole

Crimestop

History is stopped

Big Brother is Watching You

2 + 2 = 5

Newspeak

unperson

Ministry of Truth

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength

City Beach gloaming

A decent sunset over city beach a few weeks ago.

Dingo Rainbow

On the way to Freo a week ago, a magic rainbow emanated from the Dingo Flour mill. Please send me a postcard explaining the meaning of this.

Mobile Garden Bed

Although I normally commute by car, I'm still a committed environmentalist. After all, why else would my car have seedlings growing on the roof? Surely there's no other explanation.

Old Timey Keyboards

How could it have taken me so long to discover the joys of mechanical keyboards? The last few work keyboards I've had the misfortune to suffer with have had a squelchy non-responsive feel. They don't work well with my primitive form of touch typing, and the lack of a clicky noise when hitting the keys makes typing sadly unrewarding. My error rate has increased as my joy has declined. So it was exciting to discover that old-fashioned clicky mechanical keyboards are making a comeback.

And for those lacking desk space, why not ditch the rarely used numeric keypad? It is a sacrifice to ditch the media keys, but it's still possible to reprogram a key combo to perform the same functions.

This is the sort of keyboard you can end up with... a Ducky One 2. I've ordered one and am counting down the days till I can hook it up to my pc.

One Week of Autumn Colours

Autumn foliage colours don't last long in Perth's climate. I never react in time, and only ever remember to stop and take a photo at the tail end of the season, by which time the rich colours have already faded. This avenue is on my route to work each day...

My Cat's Favourite Streaming Shows

My cat spends countless hours on the sofa watching the latest shows from Netflix et al. Here are his top recommendations from the last couple of years.

• The Walking Dead  (zombies)
• Masters of Sex  (50s and 60s sociology)
• Halt and Catch Fire (the nascent tech industry of the 80s and 90s)
• Twin Peaks (2017)
• Game of Thrones (you've probably heard of this one)
• The Terror (the ill-fated Franklin arctic expedition of 1845)
• Veep (political humour, though not as biting as The Thick of It)
• The Man in the High Castle (the Axis powers triumphed and rule a divided US)
• Tom and Jerry

Field of Light: Albany

At dusk on Mt Clarence above Albany a week ago, the commemorative lights twinkled.

Albany Bottlebrush

The scarlet of this bottlebrush is so vivid against the green. It was beside the road in Mt Lindesay National Park, near Mt Barker.

Albany's Gap

We arrived at Albany's Gap and Natural Bridge nigh on sunset last Sunday.

Denmark Eden

Staying in Denmark last weekend, this was the view of paradise on waking up Sunday morning.

My Cat's Favourite Films for 2018

As is traditional, my cats also have strong opinions on movies and have compiled their list of favourites this year. Their preferred genres are Aussie dramas, war films, science fiction, and anything involving vengeance (e.g. Liam Neeson on a rampage).

1. The Darkest Hour

2. Death of Stalin

3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

4. Molly’s Game

5. Ghost Stories

6. Chappaquidick

7. Gringo

8. Ophelia

9. Overlord

10. Foxtrot

11. Swinging safari

12. Bad Times at the El Royale

13. Solo