Ultraviolet Light Therapy

For the last 6 weeks I have been suffering with a bad run of Psoriasis. I have had mild incarnations at approximately the same time each year over a 10 year period, but this time Psori  looks like it is trying to stay with me.

G.P., Dermotologist,  home-grown pseudo doctors have all weighed in the fight to no avail.    Ointments ; cremes, powders and a variety of witches' brews.  I am itching and scratching all over my body and decided to see my GP to get another referral to revisit the dermo again.

In the referral the GP suggested  that I would be happy to try Ultraviolet Light Therapy.  This is done at the Dermo’s suite where there are a number of round ‘booths’ lit by infrared light tubes. The patient has to be nude and wearing dark sunglasses as well as using a facemask. It is estimated that at three times a week I should see much improvement in 6 - 8 weeks.  I have been told by a friend who has had this treatment before that I should bring along a sock at each session.   Whatever can that be for??

Had my first session early this morning sans sock.

Fortunately the treatment is bulk billed and is free for the patient.  Australia has a very good healthcare system.

HMAS Australia 1935

I’m no Charles Darwin, but I know that girls tend to squeal more than boys.  I recently watched a nature programme which featured two groups of baboons in a territorial skirmish.  The males of both sides were showing all the aggression and the  presenter pointed out that the females in both groups were squealing.  I doubt that Joan of Arc was a squealer.

Today I recycled 30 older hard drives.  Many of those were from the first coloured iMacs and  the capacity ranged from 6GB to 10GB.  Base level hard drives these days start at 250GB.

This photo was taken by Naval Photographer Saxon Fogarty in 1935 when HMAS Australia was returning to Australia after the July Silver Jubilee Review at Spithead.  The dry dock was at Alexandria.

click to enlarge

Workshop cleanup

I decided that I will remain a single car person.  I have, in the past, had two or more cars;  my regular transport and maybe another one for weekend cruising.  At 75+ I figure that one car will do me and so the half of my garage which was just for junk has now been cleaned up and turned into the gardening section with all the gardening stuff including mowers, edgers, blowers, hedge trimmers, chain saw, whipper snippers neatly lined up.

There are a few duplicates there and I am too embarrassed to explain how that came about.

   

After shifting all that gear to the garage I had a major cleanup in my workshop.  I knew I had a problem with rats, but sweeping up all the rat shit made me determined to find where they are getting in and out of my workshop.  I found a poor piece of workmanship in the upper brickwork where a gap big enough for a cat to get in was found.  I have sealed that gap and have set rat traps to finish off any rats now caught inside.

This weekend I will start recycling computer stuff which has been sitting in the dust for years. In this stuff are 75 hard drives and I will recycle the older drives with lower capacity and others I have marked as dead.  

Mediterranean Fruit Fly

My loquat tree is loaded with fruit and I am going to ensure that I don’t let the Medfly (Mediterranean fruit fly)  lay their eggs in my fruit.

It is a two pronged attack on the little blighters*….foliage spray and sticky baits.

 I have made up a mix of sugar and Pyrethrum and sprayed most of the foliage which should attract and kill ‘em.   I bought two traps which contain a lure and a very sticky surface which is already grabbing medfly.

The Medfly is thought to have originated in Africa.  

* 1950s alternative for a swearword

More computers for my ongoing project

Last weekend I collected 5 Macs from an Australia-wide printing firm.   I was told that the two 24” iMacs weren’t working as well as two G5 Towers.    I have been successful in resurrecting one iMac and two G5s.  The other G5 tower is one I really wanted to get running again as it is a liquid cooled G5 Pro.  Nice machine, but the power supply is dead and so I went on Gumtree and advertised it for free for a Hackintosh build.  

  

A Hackintosh is a Mac case with a powerfull PC guts.  Within minutes of placing the advert I had replies from a dozen people keen to come and collect it.  As I answered each reply, several told me that my phone number didn’t work, so I rang the house phone from my iPhone....it worked.   It transpires that dummy Kev placed the advert on the NSW  Gumtree list.     4,000+ kilometres is a little too far away to collect from my home.

I have rewritten an advert for Western Australians.

Click images to enlarge them.

All aluminium case

Stripped down showing the liquid cooling radiator

Australia's new Prime Minister

Australia has a new Prime Minister.  That makes five PMs in the last 5 years.

PM (sorry ex PM) Tony Abbott was gently deposed by Malcolm Turnbull.  I always thought Malcolm should be the PM.  Seems to be a nice guy; intelligent and not too belligerent in parliament or out of parliament. Unlike Tony, he doesn’t have any distinctive facial features for political cartoonists to latch on to.

I am unsure of the facts, but it has been said that Tony was just three days short of being eligible for ex PMs’ lifetime free travel etc etc on the public purse. 

Clive Palmer, the senator for Fairfax, Queensland is sometimes the only entertainment parliament experiences.  A couple of days ago from the rear seat of his Rolls Royce, he made a short video telling the then PM to go.  See it here.

He does a goodbye video to any politician who is in a bit of trouble.

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung.  The birds are building nests; willy wagtails harassing the crows, white cabbage moths are getting into my meagre vegetable garden and a few flies are hatching out.  Who told all the birds that it is mating time?

Fathers Day yesterday saw me enjoying a lavish lunch at my daughter Helen and her husband James’ house.  My brother Graham joined us there.  Great food and company.