No, not the old BBC weekly letters summary with Barry Took, or later, the institution that is Wogan, but just some meaderings of cranial possibility..

Last week was was an interesting week..well..not that interesting actually, but you’re gonna hear about it anyway 😉

Work wise – I’ve had  last minute projects requiring working longer hours than I wanted, which was annoying as I missed getting out and about in the last few days of the extended summer.

Home wise  – The missus is poorly with a bad flu-lurg, hopefully not swine flu, so she required looking after and supplying with tea and various medicinal concoctions.  Normally we have a mutal “suck it up” policy of non-mothering, but she was really sick.  Happy to help, love. 

No more action on the mouse front – I can still hear them in the roof, but the traps are empty..more traps and more patience I think.  The dog went nuts one night, I wonder if they were running about and she heard them? 

The reticulation suddenly stopped working – looks like the watertable has fallen below the reach of the bore. ah well, the rains are coming, so it doesnt matter for the next 3 or 4 months anyway.  In a disturbing development, when I was checking the bore, I found (as expected) a shit load of redbacks, which I am learning to just ignore ( I guess being here for 9 months now has given me a potentially unhealthy distain for poisonous creatures), but unexpectedly, a big (ish) brown snake.  It slithered off in the opposite direction as soon as I lifted the bore lid, which was more worrying I think as I had no idea where it went.  I think its pretty safe to say that it was more scared of me and had probably put some distance between us, but I’d rather it stayed put so I could keep an eye on it.  What kind of snake?  not sure – a metre long, pale brown – dugite, perhaps.  So deadly poisonous then – thats nice.

Life and general wise – The main issue of the week.  Daylight fooking savings.  WA had a referendum on whether or not the state should keep having daylight savings (like the rest of the known non equatorial world) or have the same time zomne all year round.  Well – meh – it seems that more than 55% of the populaiton of WA doesn’t want daylight so we can kiss goodbye to long summer evenings for the next 20 years until some brave politician decides to bring up the issues again.   It was a bitter battle, the “No” camp had so many shitty arguments as to why having longer evenings in summer was a bad thing, from cows getting upset by the time change (no, really) to it being too hot in the afternoons (I’ll come back to this) to having to give up early morning sport to not being able to get children to sleep for 6 months of the year to dark mornings in March.  I’d rather people just said yes or no because it suited them without getting into such ridiculous reasons.

<rant mode>

Its utterly ridiculous – for a start (and I’m going to get on my high horse and be a whinging Pom, but I’m doing it as an impartial observer and one that had no preconceptions either way) – the really hot days are only in late December, January and early Feb – so the arguments of it being too hot and wanting early dark to get out of the sun only work for 2 of the 6 months of DLS.  The other 4 months we have nice warm agreeable weather in Perth, no need to beg for shade.  The argument that with DLS, its too hot in the afternoon for school kids to walk home is just so dumb – its warms up faster in the morning than it cools in the afternoon (check the bloody temperature charts, its black and white), so, in fact, by not having DLS, the little children are going to have to walk to school in much warmer temps than before and walk home in pretty much the same heat as before.   Nicely judged, “no” camp.

As for the cows – for fuck’s sakes – 1/2 the rest of the world has DLS and guess what, their dairy industry doesnt pack up with bovine jet-lag.  Yes, it gets warm here, but its not as if it doesnt get warm in other places too – ever been to Central Spain in summer?  Mid West USA? Germany?  It can easily be as hot as WA.  The farming community isn’t really driven by the time on the clock -they work daylight hours – why on earth does it matter what the clock time is?  Oh, right, theres an extra hour in the day.. *rolls eyes* (yes, one of my friends uncles really does believe that *sigh*)

And don’t get me started about the children – how come the rest of the world isn’t affected by the sun staying up an hour longer?  Maybe WA children are special?  And whats going to happen come next summer when the sun is still up at 8:30pm in December and January – what will become of the children then? 

And lets pick off my personal favourite – “its so dark in March in the mornings with DLS”  well, ignoramouses – the sunrise was at about 6:50am in late March by DLS time.  And when does the sun rise now in May?  Oh, 6:50am.  THE SAME DAMN TIME AS 6 WEEKS AGO.   People can be so short sighted, making judgements about the whole 6 months of DLS on the basis of a few days a year when its as dark in the mornings as it will be 6 weeks later anyway.  All those bogus arguments about increased road deaths because people are driving to work in the dark – give me a fucking break – 2 months later, they’ll be driving to work in the exact same dark and the RAIN too. 

As for giving up sport – well, I get up pretty early 5:40am – I dont exactly see my neighborhood overrun with joggers, footy games, swimmers and cyclists. Infact, apart from people driving to work and the odd dog walker, most people are still asleep.  Way to go, morning people.  And when am I supposed to do things like gardenning, hedge trimming etc?  Ah yes, the “no” camp would have us all believe that life is better first thing in the morning and thats when we should all be out and about.  So as I wont have enough light to mow my lawn after work in summer – you wont mind me doing it before work then?  I leave at 6:40am, so that’ll be sometime before 6am.  Oh, I cant – noise laws.  See – this is how ill thought out the “no” vote really is.

Its a bit ranty, but I’m a little stunned by how backward and resistant to change the people of WA are and just how totally convinced they are as to their reasons for saying no when the arguments have so little basis in fact.  One of my friends voted no cos shes a teacher – she gets home at 3:30 so she always gets lots of light and she goes to bed at 8:30.  It 100% suits her not to have it.  That I can understand.  None of the stupid cow or hot children “excuses”.  Personally, I think the no vote is more about making a statement on being asked 3 times rather than actually thinking it through.  Plus WA is really not good with change.      Ah well..it is what it is.

</rant mode>

Anyway, thats for later in the year – its almost winter – gonna get some good stormy beach photographs soon, makes a change from the smooth sunsets of Summer.

Here’s a couple from the last week or so

Warnbro Beach Sunset

Point Peron Sunset

Peace.