Marcus and Sophie Engagement Party

 Marcus and Sophie recently announced their engagement and had a engagement party.

Endoscope

 I bought an Endoscope camera of Ebay.

Problem is Google have blocked USB camera apps from the play store.  This will force me to go off market.  Google say this is because some 3rd party apps were collecting location data.  This is the pot calling the kettle black.  And of course creates a much larger security risk.

Anyway to verify if it works, I plugged it into my PC.  Win10.

It says "unrecognised USB device"

eBay item number:

384274529478

67 degrees

Got it to work.

Unfortunately for poking around in the back of the captiva fuse box, I need a much wider angle lens

Need more than 67 degree viewing angle

Boxing Day

 A wonderful surprise.  

I was making bacon and eggs + Pancakes for Marcus and Sophie when Chris and Dan arrive.  Shortly thereafter, Jemma and Mackenzie.

 

Luckily I had bought a new carton of eggs and a reasonable number of rashes of bacon.

After breakfast we all went in the Captiva to see Macbeth. Now that was a bit weird.  I need to get the notes of the story line.  I enjoyed it.  The dialogue was very hard to understand.  The sets were kind of early 70's start minimalist.  It's a square picture and B&W.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Day

Tough day Christmas. 

The front face of Christmas is family.

The Christian back story (not forgetting there were festivals pre )

Is to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Following the birth, we've the life of Christ, the creation and growth of the Christian church and all that goes with it. 

All that goes with it....

Started the day looking on Google maps for Christmas service times. Amazing how many churches don't put their service times on google and that don't add in the special occasions.  

 

Settled on Toowong UC.  

Church @ Toowong UC.

Nice light bright service. 
One highlight for me was a bible reading on video by a young girl who had memorised the entire contents of Luke Chap 1 & 2 and recited Chap 2 for us.

We sang "silent night".

At first cut my mind pictures a small clean crib complete with crocheted blanket and a mobile hanging from the ceiling and a baby monitor. But when one actually thinks....

A manger was a feeding trough.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manger

It would have have animal drool on it and the room would stink! animal poo nearby.

Mary had a baby in that room....

Did they even have scissors to cut the umbilical chord?

 

It's so easy to get modern lovey dovey mental images of the birth of Christ.  You know those nice clean idealised nativity scenes.

Mary's magnificat- first Christmas song?

CHRISTMAS FAMILY LUNCH
Was at Megan's place (Thallon St).  I was allocated to bring red wine and a Christmas Pudding

Lets digress a little here, On Wednesday, Megan asked and I accepted to bring a Christmas Pudding.  On Thursday, I set out in search of it.  I was at Woolies at Oxley and entered "Christmas Pudding" into the Woolies App.  It listed lots but had "Unavailable" shown for each.  OK me thinks and has a look at Coles Corinda and although no locations shown, there was no 'out of stock' message so I took myself to Coles and asked at the counter and they said they were out of stock.  I guess Coles can't be honest and clear enough to confess when out of stock.  I looked on Woolies Sherwood and they had a pudding marked down from $7 to $5.  Ahh what luck I thought.  When I arrived though and found the pudding it was 100g.  That's tiny.  Like half a cup size.  Gave up and went home.  Messaged Megan and she responded suggesting I ask facebook.  Friday - That paid dividends with a suggestion of the Yeronga RSL.  They had proper sized ones for $5.  Tick!

Back to Christmas lunch,  Scheduled to begin at 12:30 so I hold off until close to that time.  I feel quite awkward.  The burning pain of rejection still smoldering.  Having to smile and pretend everything is normal is energy sapping.  Even offering to help in menial ways like loading the dishwasher is risky as I will be called out for not doing it right.

 

So I smiled and nodded and tried hard to participate pleasantly.  The food was beautiful.  Ham, Roast lamb, lots of vegies and salad.  Marcus and Soph had helped out on Friday making a egg plant thingo.

 

 

 

 

After main course, we sat round and did "secret Santa" although as the presents were handed out it was pretty obvious who had bought for whom.  All the presents seemed appreciated.

After the secret santa, we reconvened for dessert.

After dessert was a game of ...?  You draw pictures and interpret other peoples pictures.

In the evening, Marcus and Soph came back to my place.  Marcus and I watched half a movie called "don't look up".  It was C.R.A.P.  It had lots of big name stars but the script writing was terrible.  About half way through, we gave up.  yesterday I watched the last 3 minutes and the ending was crap too.  I think they tried to make a sarcastic comedy taking the piss out of the American planet destroyed by comet movies but failed miserably.

And that was Christmas day over for another year.

I know in my mind it's not logical or mentally healthy but I get depressed thinking about the marriage.  24 years and 11 months.  Wasted.  the last 10 years of incredible loneliness.  Megan was busy busy fookin busy with all her good works.  I tried so hard to be good and of course would fail and she'd remind me of those continual failures.  I remember that various people would tell me that their ex would have nothing to do with them or the kids and I interpreted this as the distant ex being un supportive.  I now know there is another alternative story line and that is that the emotional devastation brought on by having contact.  The reminder of what could have been but now will never be.  Makes me, for my own mental preservation, just go. Go away. Far away.  I want the contact.  At the same time I cry over the loss of something I held so close to my heart.

Christmas eve dinner

Christmas Eve dinner

Marcus & Soph, Chris and Kenzie, Dan, Jemma.

Was nice to have everyone together.  

PLAN
Prawns

Baked fish, Potato Bake, Wombok Salad.
Mangoes, Cherries, blueberres, cream.

BAKED FISH
Thank you to Chris for help here.
Bought Sea Perch (I think).
laid the fillets of fish in the pyrex dish. 
They half overlapped in order to fit in.
Put slices of butter and garlic and
laid pieces of asparagus and broccolini.
Covered with alfoil.
Bottom shelf in Oven.   

Learnings:
Should have put the garlic and the butter in a cup, melted in microwave and mixed before pouring over the rest of the assembly.
Laying the fish partly on each other made it a bit hard to separate.  Not sure what to do about this.   I wonder if we could place something between the fish?

POTATO BAKE

Learning 1:  The pyrex dish did not fit the microwave.  Even though the microwave claims to be "wide"

Oreo did not think much of the garlic flavoured fish.

2021 Christmas Card

 This years Christmas card features a dawn light on the front and family shots on the back.

I received a very nice welcome card from some people in the street so I figured I would put cards in the neighbours letter boxes.

I do it on Word.

To fit in a DL envelope, the mid point is 10cm with the pictures 9.5cm.

 

Paper was an issue. I thought I had run out. Went to officeworks. I had forgotten what "weight". At officworks figured it was probably 250gsm but the choice was limited and expensive. I bought a pack of Kodak 240 and a pack of 250 sheets of Jburrows 200gsm. Beautiful and glossy but too thin. Then I found the 250g pack of JBurrows 250gsm. It had been put in a different cupboard at work. Definitely has to be 250. 200 is too thin and greater than 250 would be too hard to fold.

 

 

Chris Dan Jemma Came to Dinner

 Was nice.  Chris Jan & Jemma came to dinner.

Lamb chops, Corn on cob, Wombok salad.

Jem stayed overnight then off at the crack of dawn to go rowing.

Ths morning, I put Christmas cards in the neighbours mail boxes.

Tidda and Captiva oil Change

DEXUS
The Captiva manual specified 5W30 but with this tag called Dexus2.  See below.

HOW TO

My photos below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaPE9QTm650

 SHOPPING
ended up just going to A1 Auto Parts at Goodna.  3818 1812  The reason being that their oil seemed to be slightly lower cost than the three big chains.  When we were there it was way easier.  Go to the counter and ask.  I find at Superchap etc that I spend ages scanning the shelves looking for the part. 

	Tiida	Captiva
	Petrol	Diesel
Oil Spec	5W30	5W30 Dexus2
Super Cheap Auto	4.3L $47.59	?5.6 or 7L? $87.49
Autobarn	5L $67.99 Fusion $39.99	7L $87.99
A1 Autparts Goona		5L $69.99 7L $79.99
Repco	5L $39	5L  $67
OIL FILTER		WC0154  Repco R2736P
Supercheap		Transgold $17.99 Ryco $27.99
Autobarn		Cooper $23.99 Ryco  $28.99
A1 Auto Parts
Repco		Pro Select $7 Ryco $29 Repco $23
Manual  Page		241

 

PETROL v DIESEL

Both Nissan and Captiva say 5W30 BUT Is there a difference between engine oil for petrol and diesel?

 HOLDEN CAPTIVA 7 CX, LX, LT, LTZ Auto CG CD26 01/2011~01/2019 4 Door SUV 4WD DIESEL 2.2 litre, Z22D1 (LNQ) I4 16v DOHC VVT Turbo Direct Inj {135kW} 

The Captiva Service Manual says the oil should be 5W30 (Dexos 2)

The Nulon web site says use Use 5W30 Diesel Dexos 2

The Diesel stuff has a 2 in the bottom right of the logo.

The diesel stuff has a yellow "30"

This has a 1 at the bottom right of the Dexos logo but has the word "Gen 2" at the bottom right of the label underthe word Dexos

From the Nulon Web site.

Highlights the "Diesel" version

 

 PHONE CALL WITH NULON
I was wondering what the difference between Dexus 1 Gen 2 and Dexus 2 was so I placed a question on the Nulon web site.  They called me.  It appears GM have decided to require very high spec oils and oil makes have to pay a lot to get the oil accredited so they can put the Dexus tag on their packaging. Apparently some needed to sort out a sub audible knocking on US 8 gear cars.  The Diesel oil can be used in petrol engines but not vis versa.

Costco did a deal with Nulon.  The Costco "Protect" range are basically the Dexus oils but of course GM would not honour any warranty stuff.

 26-12-2021 Update
Today did the oil change

 

This is the engine.  It's at the front of the vehicle.  To access the oil filter which is at the top left, I had to remove the oil filler cap per the video above and also undo and move the air tube.

I wiped out the inside of the oil filter with a paper towel.  The oil while black did not feel sandy.

The oil filter came with a new O ring.

I lubed it with some of the new oil.

I make ramps using some bricks.  The back wheels are chocked forward and aft.  Not keen on Jacks in case the car slips off.

Presented with a dilemma.  Which is the sump.  The video confirmed the black one.   assume the aluminum one is the gear box.

The left over oil was poured back into the original container.  This is  5L container and I put all 5L in but there was slightly more than 5L taken out.  The dip stick though has the new oil at the mid point.

 

 

 

Ashes Test at Gabba

My friend Richard invited me to the Gabba for day #3 of the ashes cricket test. 

The  Aust tail  were continuing batting today and eventually succumbed to the poms. 

Richard had gotten great seats on the Northern side.  Great being we were in the shade. It's a beautiful hot sunny day and sitting in the sun would have been a killer. 

Christmas is coming...

I'm reminded that my life is a misfire.  This thing called family that I spent 24years and 11 months on.  A thing that to me was super valuable. Gone. The words on the radio, how people want to travel for Christmas to see family.  Serves to remind me that I failed. Lying in bed alone at 3am is a tough thing and every day reminds me of that failure. 

Centenary also a reminder that I'm just not there. I'm not part of the social circle. Mind you there's some pretty toxic people around. By that I mean people who deliberately take action to stymie others.  As distinct from those,  and we have them too, whose actions don't help themselves or others. And it's hard to see ones self and I assume I'm in there somewhere. I hate that I myself are even thinking in this hateful way that I see in the others I mentioned earlier. There are some good people too but I guess in my sadness the bad people tend to get the attention. 

At work,  I'm being eased off the gasbot board.  Another personal loss. I guess from a corporate perspective, the focus shifts from hardware to finance but still it's another personal loss. I have decided not to fight it.  I don't want to be where I'm not wanted. 

I guess in all of this I feel a loss of ownership. 

I think I need to find things where I've a combination of ownership,  value. Where I am wanted by others.  Where what I do is valuable/ useful / of benefit and where I get some reward. Enjoyment. 

Back to the Christmas thing.  Not sure what I'm going to do but right now,  Christmas dinner with the old family just does not seem right.