um

Is the 2am thing again.

Awake.  A bit low. 

Is it the state of the world?

It's the dead marriage anniversary. On the 20th 

The government seems to want ever more control and the people just love it. 

 

Wordle 1,462 4/6

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Wordle 1,463 6/6

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Kind of started this yesterday morning the 20th. Now it's 1am on the 21st.

I feel low.

FRIDAY 20/6

Row was good. The 8 was cancelled. 2 seat had called in sick. There was some confusion while we realised only 4 of us were actually present.  In the end:

1 Frank 

2 Neil

3 Arnie

4 Thorpy.

Was a pretty reasonable row. 

Work was a mixture. Got a pricing detail away. A tech problem on one design remains. Stubbornly.

Nice roast lamb dinner with Phoebe's XMIL and Fletch and Jai.

Had thought PAM was coming back to my place but she hadn't packed a bag for that. 

Maybe it's just the reminder of the marriage fail. I recall EOMA popped up on my phone during the afternoon of Marcus's wedding while I was standing on the hotel deck. 

Maybe it's just thinking about a life of mediocrity and under achievement. 

Things not achieved. 

Lack of realising what could be. 

It's 2am

Just life churning in my brain. 

20th also Tim's birthday and I forgot to drop in or call.  Was too fixated on getting home, feeding mags and getting to dinner. 

It's 3:15am

SATURDAY PLAN

4:30 alarm

5:00 depart

5:30 shed 

6:00 start to row up

7:00 race start

7:20 race end near elanor schonell bridge.

8:00 back at shed at West end. Wash boat

8:30 West end park Cafe

Qantas Points Value

 Qantas offer three seat prices.
Red-E-Deal, Flex and Classic.
Red-E-Deal and Classic seem to be the same except that Classic is selected up front as a points payment.  If one chooses Red-E-Deal, one can at the end, pay with points.

There is also Classic plus and Business classic all of which are different points type seats 

So If we choose a  flight sometime in the future when simple classic flights are available in both directions

SEPTEMBER
Red-E-Deal   Classic Points
$246             8000pts + $78
$246             8000pts + $78

$983  OR 32000 pts + $312 for two people both ways.

So we can calculate $ per point:
$/Pt  =  $983 - $312 = $671 / 32000 -> 0.02096875 $/Pt

And we can calculate Points per $:
Pt/$ = 32000/$671 = 47.69  

If we choose the  Red-E-Deal the total dollars is $983 and at the checkout, we can use points.  At the check out, using 32000 points and we still need to pay about $820 rather than $312 so we will use the value above to asses the values of a point.  That is 0.02096875 $/Pt or 47.69 $/pt

 Now RED energy are offering 15000 points.  The question is what is 15000 points worth in dollars.

So 15000 pts x 0.02096875 $/Pt = $314.53

So the question now is how much cheaper will  

 

Insurance $37    or   5286 pts

JULY
$268    8000Classic +$78
$298    221000Classic Plus Pts +78 

Red-E-Deal	Classic	....	....
$268	8000pts + $78	....	....
$345	....	....	....

12/6

2am awake again. 

This time I've been more productive. 

Cleaned kitchen.  Dishwasher on. 

Laundry- washing machine on. 

It's cold.  AC on. 

Clothes for run beside bed. 

Mags has taken to sleeping on a couch. Put a towel over her. She starts in the bed room but maybe it's too warm or maybe stuffy?  Mind you except for just now when I've put the AC on,  it's generally pretty cold but warmer than the lounge. 

Yesterday morning I had coffee with Phoebe at St Lucia. Had a good long connection chat. Saw a young mum with two little ones 2.5 and 1 yo. Rare these days.  Re warmed my interest in depopulation so found a couple of podcasts to listen to as I drove to and from work. 

Work was ok. Didn't feel like I accomplished much. 

Evening on my own which was fine.  Giving Phoebe space as I have had coffee every morning and dropped in every evening and that feels to me like I'm projecting needy and also stifling her a bit.  She phoned when I was in bed and we chatted. 

I'm still baffled by Australian and many other peoples reaction to Israel's action in Gaza.

I am told on FB that Gaza is the home of Hamas and that Hamas have vowed to remove Israel from the map. The reality to me though is that Hamas will never be able to do this. I am aware that Hamas have fired huge numbers of rockets into Israel. I unequivocally condemn them and that behaviour. 

We should bear in mind that Hamas is not an army or a government. It does not have an air force - bombers, jet fighters,  air defence systems. It does not have logistics support structures and so on. It's got no chance to have any real effect on Israel. It does have lots of cheap rockets. They have killed some Israelies.  

To me though, the essence, right now though, is that Israel is shooting & bombing pretty indiscriminately.  They are restricting food supplies.   They are killing Palestinians in huge numbers.  60000 dead I understand. 

It perplexes me that in Australia we get really wound up about the road toll which is around 1300. We vilify drivers and support hard line enforcement because life is apparently so important. At the same time we silent about suicide which in Australia which is double the road toll at around 3000 and we even cheer on Israel as it kills 60000 Palestinians. Baffles me. 

1am

It's 1am

Feeling flat. 

Employment Redundancy Redeployment

EMPLOYMENT 

Recently I became aware of a way that big organisations screw over low paid workers while giving the impression of holding the high moral ground. 

A big organisation closes a facility and announces to the world that there will be no redundancies and that all employees will be offered positions elsewhere.

 I used to think:

 how nice. 

How kind.  

How considerate.

Recently I discovered this was essentially how an organisation can essentially avoid paying redundancies.

So one redepoys the low paid workers to a even lower paid position at a facility far from their home, either with not much parking or inconvenient public transport. 

And they resign. 

Money saved. 

High moral ground maintained. 

In general, I like the idea of minimal government with government setting the rules for business to get on with business and p

In general I would like to see simpler employment law however there is, in my view, a role for government to play in setting the rules and protecting the weak and powerless. This seems to be an unfair situation. 

I think make it an

A THOUGHT

The less a person is paid, the less power they have AND the less life resilience they have. Probably no savings, crappy car, few if any useful academic qualifications and so on. Essentially harder for them to get a job and that difficulty magnified if they are old. 

A SECOND PROBLEM 

As a small business owner, the complexity of over a hundred awards and the fear of legal retaliation in the event of firing someone. 

A SOLUTION 

Imagine if when a big company closes a facility, they have to pay out a redundancy?

Or possibly they have to make an offer of the new job including position, location and pay and also give the redundancy option.

Further more, I'm going to suggest that the redundancy amount be a fixed amount. So in a way, the less a person was being paid, and likely the tougher life is, then the proportionally the better the hand shake. 

Gas and Electricity Prices

 Origin has sent me an email telling me that my natural gas price is going up.

Trigger to look at options.
In the end, decided to go with Red because it is both cheaper than Origin and (note lower case) comes with some bonus Qantas points.

In Queensland, Electricity (not sure on gas) rates increase on 1-JULY.  Spoke to Charlotte who said that because I am a new customer, that my rates will stay as per the web site.  Having said that, the rates she quoted were slightly lower than the web site.

RED DEMAND CHARGE
They measure the power used in a half hour period between 4pm and 8pm and choose the maximum for the month and then multiply by 16.878 x 30 days to get a number like $9.89.  Lets see how that pans out

QANTAS POINTS
We get 15000 points.  10k for electricity and 5k for gas plus 2 points per $1 if paid on time which it should be when paid on the credit card.  The question is what is 15000 qantas points worth?
Insurance $37 or 5286 pts ==> 142pts per dollar or 0.0069996 pts per dollar

WAIT AND SEE 

So we wait and see if this makes any real difference.

 

GAS 

WHO	c/day	c/MJ	Notes.
Origin 2023	136.202	4.235	.
Origin 2024	139.095	4.488	.
Origin 2025	142.461	4.620	.
Origin Retention 2025	104.32	3.51
RED 2024	115.775	3.685	All the plans show the same costs - Why?  Qantas points.
RED 2025	115.775	3.685	Confirmed on the phone.
			.
Covau Freedom	124.3	3.773
Alinta Home Saver 2024	101.178	4.246	+$50 credit.  No exit fee
Alinta Home Saver	87.5	4.246	Amortize the +$50 credit
LPE -	.	.	I think only for strata title apartment blocks
GloBird No Contract	77	3.87	Connect $22 disconnect $22  Equiv to a month or 12c /day
.	90	3.87	amortize the $22 + $22 over 1 year
.	.	.	Not sure if they actually supply Corinda
.	.	.	.

 

 In comparing Red with Origin, Origin has "Controlled load 2" and Red has Time of use.
The question becomes "what is the difference?" 
The c/day for controlled use is 50 times higher than the origin Controlled 2 price. 
When do the price rises happen

WHO	c/day	c/kWh	Notes.
Origin 2024 General	136.6530	33.6160	$526.25+$122.99=$649.24
Origin 2024 Controlled 2	003.8060	20.6910	$49.00 + $   3.43 = $52.43
Origin Retention 2025	109.04	26.83
Red 2025 Single	118.8	30.448
Red Time of Use	122.1	25.685	Not applicable
Red 2025 (phone)	1118.8	27.808
Red 2025 Controlled load	0	20.79
Red 2025 "Demand Charge"		16.878	Max use x half hr between 4pm-8pm

8/6 Sunday chill

A fairly relaxed day. 

Started off with coffee and eggs with Phoebe at the village at St Lucia. 

Back at Phoebe's and I gave supportive advice as she culled stuff. Loaded a couple of garbage bags into the Tesla along with Mags and left Phoebe to continue home stuff. 

At home, ran several loads of washing, did a bit of tidying up,  bought lunch stuff. 

Been trying to get the wireless card working properly in my Lenovo T490S. It connects to my phone hotspot but won't connect to Phoebe's wifi.  Downloaded me drivers. No improvement.

Late afternoon back to Phoebe's for a very nice chicken and rice dish and a glass of red. Sitting on her back deck is very relaxing. An illicit bowl of ice cream and chocolate topping may have been consumed. 

Home and I'm letting mags sleep in my room. She's asleep. I'm about to nod off.

No rowing in the morning.  Bit disappointing. I'll try to get up for a run but I'm too good at excuses. 

good bye to Jen

Thursday evening at the burrow. 

Chris,  Robyn, Derek, Frank Phoebe 

today

Friday 

Pre work coffee with Phoebe. 

An invite from Graham and Mel to share dinner at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. This was a very attractive option for both of us. Discussed it in depth. Basically two key factors concerned us. Firstly, we are run down and want to chill but mainly the traffic on a Friday evening would mean there'd be an hour each way in the car. 

Work was a bit unfulfilling. 

A customer has asked for a substantiation of a price we quoted.  I've two BOM with costs programs but each has a issue.  They give similar but not the same cost.  Either is good enough but the problem will arise in the future in maintaining consistency. 

Home and loaded the dishwasher. 

Collected mags.

Over to Phoebe's for dinner. 

Sat on the deck and had a scotch. 

Main meal was "Laab".

This is an Asian meal of mince with herbs. Very Moorish. 

Red wine. 

Dessert was yoghurt with raspberries. 

Mags now on Phoebe's floor with a blanket over her. 

I'm faded. Soon to snooze. 

Random Photos From Turkiye

 

The train in Tbilisi had meters to tell you and the repair man how its all going.

Australia has the best coffee in the world. I had to resort to only drinking long black which is known as an Americano. Often Nescafe is offered as the pinnacle of culture.

reticulated gas very prominent 

LPG for cars at a service station 

Contrast Australia with rigid pet rules with almost everywhere else where pets are part of the family and society.   Istanbul airport has a pet toilet.  I noted that to sit in the exit row, you can't be travelling with a pet.

Turkiya Overview

 

 

 

Istanbul
Gallipoli (Eceabat, Canakkale, Troy)
Istanbul
Selcuk (Ephasis, Mary's house)
Konya (Dervishes)
Cappadocia (Cave Hotels, Caves, Baloons)
Sinop
Trabzon
Rize
Cross the border
Tblisi
Kazbegi

 

Post trip clean up

 

EMAIL
BOLT - Clicked the unsubscribe link in the email
PEGASUS - No unsubscribe link. - View email in browser -> Unsubscribe.
COVERMORE -
EUROSTAR - (no idea why they are still sending emails)
711 - While I am on a cancellation roll.