4:30am. Something. Something crawling on my face. Swipe with hand. Like a shot, out of bed, turn on light. Cockroach on bed. Swearing ensues. Oh gawd, yuck. Two people I know, and some bloggers have noted the recent presence of cockroaches, despite keeping clean kitchens. I think the little bastards are getting more daring.
Category: Home life
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Domestic mysteries
SMS from an unknown number on NYE: “Happy New Year”. The number looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t work it out, and it was bugging me. Who could it be? I eventually replied saying “Happy New Year, but who is this, I don’t have your number in my phone.” They replied saying “Sorry, meant to ... [More]
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Home economics
Checked the other day how much of my home loan I’ve paid off. It’s currently sitting at 8.13% gone, up from 6.59% this time last year, and it’s only shifting at about 0.11% per month (unless I choose to pay extra). Slow going. So much for my NY resolution in 2006 of trying to pay ... [More]
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Vehicle efficiency
My old mate Brian once described his car as being an air-conditioner on wheels. Which got me thinking. When I go for a drive on my own, the engine in my car is moving me (75 Kg) and the car itself (1356 Kg). Therefore 94% of the energy involved is spent moving the car. It’s ... [More]
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The beasties are back
I was back at work today. The city seemed a bit quiet today (Degraves St/Centreway excepted), and with many blokes shunning their ties, obviously things are still a bit in holiday mode. This morning I found the biggest damn spider I’ve seen this year in ages sitting on the wall above the front door. I ... [More]
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A load of rubbish
I have a 240 litre bin for general rubbish (emptied weekly) and a 240 litre bin for recycling (emptied fortnightly). Usually I put one kitchen bin bag out per week, and the recycling bin is about three-quarters full when emptied. So our weekly household waste comes to about: 30 litres of general waste 90 litres ... [More]
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My filing system
I have a filing system which works well on computers, but is hopeless for real life. Everything goes into a big pile. It’s the GMail principle. In GMail you archive everything in a big “pile”, then search for it later when you need to find it again. On my work email, I now do the ... [More]
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Energy efficiency
So after pondering how heat-efficient my house is (at least for summer), and my water consumption, I was thinking about the rest of my energy use. Since I don’t have air con, I’m hoping the house is fairly efficient, despite heavy use of two computers. Recent bills show usage at around 8-10 kilowatt hours per ... [More]
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Summer is coming
Summer is coming. You can tell because it’s baking hot in the sun, the flies are much more plentiful, and outside in the evening when all should be still, instead you can hear the hum or household air-conditioners echoing across the ‘burbs. Yesterday I spent most of the day at home, as one of the ... [More]
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No junk mail
The No Junk Mail sticker is very effective. I rarely get anything — notable recent exceptions being an ALP brochure about the local candidate, and Coalition brochures with lots of red ink slagging off the ALP. I wonder if electoral material is exempt? (Local sitting member Andrew Robb looks a bit like an older Kevin ... [More]
What did you do in the war, grandad? Sunday is Remembrance Day, when we pause to remember the generations of young soldiers who went away to war to fight for the freedoms we enjoy today, many of them paying with their lives. Those of us young(ish) adults no longer have the threat of world (or ... [More]
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In your neighbourhood
My goodness it’s neighbourly out there today. All I did was go for a walk to the supermarket, and on the way back had a chat with the bloke next door, taking his young kids for a short walk, who thanked me for last night letting him know his car lights were left on; the ... [More]