(Another one of Centred Art's recent acquisitions)Day 1 of the winter vacation is upon me, and this boy is one happy chappy. Just as well as I've been listing and sorting things to do with the house:
- the interior painting is finished today (well, I hope so)
- the exterior painting finished by Tuesday
- plumber finishing downpipes today
- gallery painting hanging system installed Tuesday 11am
- electrician installing lights/power points Tuesday ( memo -must deliver lights by 9:30am)
- toilets installed Tuesday, bathrooms finished off
- air conditioning unit plus vents etc installed Wednesday
- concreter to visit Wednesday to lay out where form work to go for side path and driveway
- Thursday/Friday concrete form work placed
- Saturday concrete poured (no vehicles on it for 5 days)
As a result Rene and I are going to stay with friends Di and Torquil on Tuesday and Wednesday nights (maybe Friday??). We really need to be local for any last minute things we may need to do.
I was at the house last Wednesday at 3:15 to meet someone to give a quote for screens etc and I couldn't get in because the painters weren't there. ARGHHHH!!! Anyway, the guy did the best he could, but with a four week delivery timeline you really need to get these things sorted now, but at least being winter you don't urgently need insect screens.
While I was at work yesterday morning I rang Rene about something and when I asked where he was, he said he was about to climb up to a lookout 20 minutes from home which overlooks the Glass House Mountains, a series o
f volcanic plugs left over from activity millions of years ago. They were named by Captain Cook in 1770 because, due to recent morning rain, they reflected shiny light. This is one of Rene's pictures from yesterday. As you can tell, it was a gloriously sunny, warm morning after a chilly night.
f volcanic plugs left over from activity millions of years ago. They were named by Captain Cook in 1770 because, due to recent morning rain, they reflected shiny light. This is one of Rene's pictures from yesterday. As you can tell, it was a gloriously sunny, warm morning after a chilly night. We can't sell our apartment here at present due to there being little or no real estate activity (everyone is waiting for worse economic news - eg oil passed US$140 last night) so we are renting it out, and we already have a prospective tenant waiting in the wings for it. That's good for us.
I read the other day where Venezuelans pay 4.2c/L for petrol, those in Sierra Leone pay $5.20/L. Our fuel topped 159.9c this week. We complain about it, but I remember in 1974 paying loads more, and I found a figure that said in 2006 terms fuel in 1974 in Australia was the equivalent of 175c/L - so, folks, we've been there before.
Younger readers won't know this, but the more mature amongst this august (yet small) readership may well remember street lighting in Europe reduced, public buildings without floodlighting at night (I was in Paris in '74 and the Eiffel Tower had one red light on the top glowing in the dark sky). The Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London, didn't happen in 74. Now, when the queues extend around the block at service stations, the odd and evens on the road system is intro
duced again, as happened during the Arab Oil Crisis of 74/75, well then I'll believe it has seriously hit the fan. For Aussies here, that's what killed the Holden Kingswood, the huge iconic Australian motor car. The Commodore, a smaller Opel-based car from Europe, was released in 1978 as a result of the 
oil crisis.
duced again, as happened during the Arab Oil Crisis of 74/75, well then I'll believe it has seriously hit the fan. For Aussies here, that's what killed the Holden Kingswood, the huge iconic Australian motor car. The Commodore, a smaller Opel-based car from Europe, was released in 1978 as a result of the 
oil crisis. The factors involved in this present day crisis are very different to 30 years ago. The Indian and Chinese economies are driving up demand to unprecedented levels, and in addition, speculation that was 10 years ago just 20% of business, is now 60% of trading, and THAT is the real cause in my mind. Attempts to relate and compare to the past market profiles just don't add up in my opinion. It is a totally different world we are living in now. Greed is STILL good, but now it is also GOD. Incidentally, I read Thursday that there are now 10 million millionaires in the world today (up 700 000 in a year). These are people who don't count their home as part of the assets). The big increase is from the two giant powerhouse economies of India and China. Just this week China signed off on an iron ore contract in Western Australia 85% higher than the contract it supersedes. Who'd have thought...
Old picture 
(mentions Yugoslavia) but still relevant. You do tend to forget how bloody huge this country is until you get on a plane and find that it takes sometimes hours to cross vast distances between capital cities.
(mentions Yugoslavia) but still relevant. You do tend to forget how bloody huge this country is until you get on a plane and find that it takes sometimes hours to cross vast distances between capital cities.
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