It's been WW3 on the IT front today .... the modem is doing really weird things and the net connection drops out every few minutes. The ISP has been monitoring the situation and they're sending a new modem.
Kaylia of course is oblivious to this. For her, the world revolves round her routines. She spends ages in the shower and then changes to dingle-dangles ....
While we keep her anxiety levels under control she is happy.
At the moment we're sitting on the lounge and the dog has decided to bark at something. Even though he's outside, Kaylia still can't cope with it and she's pressing her ears tightly against me to try to block the sound. She does the same whenever a baby is round too.
I hope we can find an effective solution to this as she grows older.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
#772 Friday 7 December
It was Kaylia's class Christmas party at school today .... AJ and Kaylia had made cookies to take and the cookies were a hit! Clearly Kaylia had made them the way she liked them .... and the other kids had similar tastes!
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Behind the cookies you can see jelly cups ... another special for Kaylia.
Tonight she has decided that she will sleep downstairs in her own room! This is good!
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Behind the cookies you can see jelly cups ... another special for Kaylia.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
#771 Thursday 6 December
What a day!
After dropping Kaylia off at school, I returned home and soon after there were cries from the house ..... investigation showed that a baby Mopoke ... a tawny Frogmouth .... was sitting just outside our house! It was too young to fly ... lots of downy feathers. A phone call to a sanctuary told us what to do ..... catch it and take it to them in Lesmurdie. So here is our tawny Frogmouth in the bag we used to transport him.
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We will keep tabs on his progress and maybe bring him back here for release when he is old enough.
After dropping Kaylia off at school, I returned home and soon after there were cries from the house ..... investigation showed that a baby Mopoke ... a tawny Frogmouth .... was sitting just outside our house! It was too young to fly ... lots of downy feathers. A phone call to a sanctuary told us what to do ..... catch it and take it to them in Lesmurdie. So here is our tawny Frogmouth in the bag we used to transport him.
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We will keep tabs on his progress and maybe bring him back here for release when he is old enough.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
#770 Wednesday 5 December
The night lights at the villa
8am ... in the Prada lounge at the airport. Looking around, I think that this place is a haven for IT junkies .... every one has either a laptop or a phone connected to the wifi!
Afternoon: The flight was a good one ... no delays this time. I'm getting old though .... in the departure lounge, there were about three times more passenger than seats! Most people were sitting on the floor. I though of doing this ... and I couldn't face the struggle of getting up again. So I stayed standing. The old days where a young person would offer their seat to an older person are far gone!
At Perth airport, the plane didn't have an air bridge ... so it was down the stairs and trudge to the terminal. Since customs, passports etc are on the ground floor, I expected that we would walk straight into that area .... but no .... we had to climb up stairs to the first floor, then take the escalator down to the ground floor again. I'm not sure that I needed that exercise!
8am ... in the Prada lounge at the airport. Looking around, I think that this place is a haven for IT junkies .... every one has either a laptop or a phone connected to the wifi!
Afternoon: The flight was a good one ... no delays this time. I'm getting old though .... in the departure lounge, there were about three times more passenger than seats! Most people were sitting on the floor. I though of doing this ... and I couldn't face the struggle of getting up again. So I stayed standing. The old days where a young person would offer their seat to an older person are far gone!
At Perth airport, the plane didn't have an air bridge ... so it was down the stairs and trudge to the terminal. Since customs, passports etc are on the ground floor, I expected that we would walk straight into that area .... but no .... we had to climb up stairs to the first floor, then take the escalator down to the ground floor again. I'm not sure that I needed that exercise!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
#769 Tuesday 4 December
Mr Fixit (the electrician) was here this morning. With the help of my 'diagrams' I was able to explain the problem and he understood ..... "OK - extra switch needed!"Soon after the switch board has a new circuit breaker that has been added to separate the different circuits. It should fix the problem we have had of the power failing .... this had been due to the fact that all the power was being funneled through one circuit breaker instead of four!
I made a new friend today .... Amelie .... a Canadian who teaches English online from Bali. One of those moments where paths cross. I'm developing a group of friends in Sanur .... it's good. The teaching is a very interesting thing .... the school hires staff to coach conversational English with students from all over .... and they handle all the Indonesian visa issues! It makes you think!
I also learned about writing too .... that's making me think! To write is a dream/urge that I have long cherished ..... but how to begin? ... and today I learned of ....
National Novel Writing Month
www.nanowrimo.org/
NaNoWriMo is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world.
It's making think hard. Too late for this year but I can prepare for next year!
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.... and it's fortunate that I began thinking because I just checked my flight details and my flight is 9am tomorrow! Not tomorrow night as I had thought! I arrive Perth at 1240 .... lunchtime .... not midnight. Suddenly I have lost a day and I must pack up everything tonight ready for a 6:30am start tomorrow.
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.... and it's fortunate that I began thinking because I just checked my flight details and my flight is 9am tomorrow! Not tomorrow night as I had thought! I arrive Perth at 1240 .... lunchtime .... not midnight. Suddenly I have lost a day and I must pack up everything tonight ready for a 6:30am start tomorrow.
Evening
Everything is packed away ready for departure. 6:30am to the airport for a 9am flight arriving Perth 12:40
Tonight I varied my routine and had nasi goreng bakso .... very good! About $1.60
On the walk home I diverted to measure the walk from the beach to the villa ......
Beach to Mertasari = 350 paces
Mertasari to Belanjong = 30 paces
Mertasari to villa = 100 paces
It's about 480 paces total .... a little bit further than we had guesstimated.
Monday, December 3, 2012
#768 Monday 3 December
B^%$^^ grey cells!
After struggling most of yesterday with the lack of internet, I woke at 3am with a brain-wave. After a while of net searching on the iphone ..... which has a net connection .... I finally found a good site. Now at 4:30am, I have internet on the laptop again! Yay!
The solution? ..... turn the laptop 90 degrees! It was the orientation of the antenna. I'll have to remember that one!
(Later .... my pleasure didn't last long. The next time I turned on .... no wifi! But I now know the solution .... you stand up and start turning round and round till it finally decides to connect!)
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Update on the mystery wiring? Last night .... when all was dark ... I turned on lights and visible power items all round the house .... so I could watch from the garage the effect of turning switches on and off. I managed to identify nearly all the switches .... and while doing this, I found that none of those switches turn off the mystery circuit!!! I then checked the last main breaker .. this controls the garage and pump room. The mystery circuit is turned off by this switch ..... but the breaker also turns off the main bedroom!!! ... and the living room ..... and the second bedrooms! These should not be connected at all!. The plot thickens! I think I now know enough to allow an electrician to fix the problem.
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A side benefit from all this work is that I have found that the architect's plans and drawings have only a slight resemblance to the actual circuitry! During construction, the electricians seemed to have decided that they would build it the way they wanted to ... not the way the plans said it should be done!
11am The electrician has been arranged to come and fix the wiring problem.
My new friend the Telkom guy is coming soon to install a good hotspot .... so that residents will always be able to get good WIFI.
This is turning out to be an expensive trip! I had hoped that I would spend very little this time .... but with the modem, hotspot, electrical and waterproofing !! Phew
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4pm The new hotspot has been installed and we now have excellent wifi at all points in the villa ... even in the loo in bathroom 2! It doesn't fix my problems .... to get my laptop to connect I must do a dance with it! I start it connecting and then turn around in circles till it finds the signal. A bit of net surfing has told me that this problem is completely normal for the wifi card used in the laptop. The professional IT guys cannot understand why the manufacturers continue to use this brand of card.
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I've bought a big drum of waterproofing paint and some fibreglass sheeting to strengthen the weak areas.
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It's now pouring down outside. ..... when it rains, frogs come out and start hopping all over the lawn .... are they dancing in the rain?
I forgot to tell you of the morning "puppy drama" ..... first thing this morning I could hear a yapping out the front .... I found that someone had dumped two puppies next to the rubbish bin in the jalan. They appeared to be one .... maybe two days old.... eyes still closed. I tried to give them water and milk but they were too young to lap. Putu thought that they would be 'adopted' fairly quickly .... and sure enough within a few hours they were both gone. It saved me having to deal with the problem of what to do with starving puppies.
After struggling most of yesterday with the lack of internet, I woke at 3am with a brain-wave. After a while of net searching on the iphone ..... which has a net connection .... I finally found a good site. Now at 4:30am, I have internet on the laptop again! Yay!
The solution? ..... turn the laptop 90 degrees! It was the orientation of the antenna. I'll have to remember that one!
(Later .... my pleasure didn't last long. The next time I turned on .... no wifi! But I now know the solution .... you stand up and start turning round and round till it finally decides to connect!)
.
Update on the mystery wiring? Last night .... when all was dark ... I turned on lights and visible power items all round the house .... so I could watch from the garage the effect of turning switches on and off. I managed to identify nearly all the switches .... and while doing this, I found that none of those switches turn off the mystery circuit!!! I then checked the last main breaker .. this controls the garage and pump room. The mystery circuit is turned off by this switch ..... but the breaker also turns off the main bedroom!!! ... and the living room ..... and the second bedrooms! These should not be connected at all!. The plot thickens! I think I now know enough to allow an electrician to fix the problem.
.
A side benefit from all this work is that I have found that the architect's plans and drawings have only a slight resemblance to the actual circuitry! During construction, the electricians seemed to have decided that they would build it the way they wanted to ... not the way the plans said it should be done!
11am The electrician has been arranged to come and fix the wiring problem.
My new friend the Telkom guy is coming soon to install a good hotspot .... so that residents will always be able to get good WIFI.
This is turning out to be an expensive trip! I had hoped that I would spend very little this time .... but with the modem, hotspot, electrical and waterproofing !! Phew
.
.
I've bought a big drum of waterproofing paint and some fibreglass sheeting to strengthen the weak areas.
.
It's now pouring down outside. ..... when it rains, frogs come out and start hopping all over the lawn .... are they dancing in the rain?
I forgot to tell you of the morning "puppy drama" ..... first thing this morning I could hear a yapping out the front .... I found that someone had dumped two puppies next to the rubbish bin in the jalan. They appeared to be one .... maybe two days old.... eyes still closed. I tried to give them water and milk but they were too young to lap. Putu thought that they would be 'adopted' fairly quickly .... and sure enough within a few hours they were both gone. It saved me having to deal with the problem of what to do with starving puppies.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
#767 Sunday 2 December
It's 10 am and I've been working on the electricals in the house since 7am. So far I've been able to define the mysteries .... but not able to de-mystify them! I'm creating drawings that show what exists and what each part does .... hoping to narrow down to find just where the mystery wires are actually connected.
The next step is to turn off switches on the main board and check if that also turns off the mystery wires.
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The strange thing about this problem is that the quality of the wiring workmanship in the circuit breaker boxes is very good .... so why is one part really good and another part really bad?!!
Later:
Well ... the mystery wires are not on the main bedroom circuit nor the living area circuit .... where could they be??? (Sounds like "Where is the green sheep?") The next circuit to try is the pump room circuit .... before I can check that I must double check & identify the four circuits coming from the main switch.
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BTW please excuse my ramblings ... it helps to clarify my thinking if I have to explain it to you.
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4pm. I've been to Hardys .... DVDs & food .... Back in a bemo.
Now the wifi is playing up again. The connection is ok because the phone has wifi .... the laptop can't make the connection.
.
The strange thing about this problem is that the quality of the wiring workmanship in the circuit breaker boxes is very good .... so why is one part really good and another part really bad?!!
Later:
Well ... the mystery wires are not on the main bedroom circuit nor the living area circuit .... where could they be??? (Sounds like "Where is the green sheep?") The next circuit to try is the pump room circuit .... before I can check that I must double check & identify the four circuits coming from the main switch.
.
BTW please excuse my ramblings ... it helps to clarify my thinking if I have to explain it to you.
.
4pm. I've been to Hardys .... DVDs & food .... Back in a bemo.
Now the wifi is playing up again. The connection is ok because the phone has wifi .... the laptop can't make the connection.
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