So, what did last year's, and probably the same this year, overseas holiday funds get spent on? Well we did make it to Tasmania for about ten days with the car on a ferry and that was very nice, no matter the slight panic that the ferry might stop running because of you know what breaking out. It was a nice break and then came Lockdown Mark I.
Things began to return to normal and we had a few days at the seaside town of Barwon Heads in a caravan park cabin. Then Lockdown Mark II, which eased I think in about November after about 13 weeks of severe restrictions. We had a few days away then in another cabin in a caravan in Torquay. Early March we had a few days in Echuca, again in a caravan park. We have some time away booked in May and three nights in August for Sister's birthday and to see Jo appear in Mary Poppins.
Back to the money.
Our clothes dryer broke so we bought a combined washer dryer and we are generally happy with it. Extensive repairs had to be done to the wall where the dryer was mounted and then repainted. Essential spending.
I think we have owed four or five Topfield digital recorders. We did also once get a free box from our then phone company to encourage us to watch and of course pay for movies. We didn't like it. The lounge room digital recorder had died a while a ago and then R's bedroom recorder began to give trouble. We bought a Fetch Mighty for the lounge room and R was so impressed he bought one for his bedroom. Never mind Topfield dual channel recording, this does six channels. We love them, not that I use it a lot, mostly to watch Youtube on tv, which I used to do with the tv but Fetch does it better. We also subscribed to Britbox tv service for $9 a month and R gets his money worth from it.
R repainted his bedroom feature wall and for the life of me I can't recall what it was. While that may look like a blank canvas hanging, it is an oil painting of his that he painted white and all the paint contours come through. It looks quite good.
Remember R's new bedside lamp/clock radio?
You can buy air fryers for perhaps $70 but the one we bought is large and considerably better in spite of the old fashioned dial control rather than flashy lights, and it cost a good bit more. R says it is the best thing we have ever bought. It gets a lot of use and the oven stays clean. As I type it is cooking roast lamb. The rip off Smeg toaster blew up so we replaced both the toaster and kettle with Russel Hobbs models for about a third of the cost of Smeg and they work much better. No room for the toaster on the bench now, so it goes away in the cupboard.
TV advertising works. Andrew, can you have a look at this deal I saw on tv. I looked and I approved. For $100 we received these three razor sharp knives, the magnetic block, a good pair of kitchen scissors and a knife sharpener that really grips the bench top. R has decided he doesn't like the knife block so the knives are in the old stainless steel knife block.
As I said they are razor sharp and R warned me. It is years since I have cut myself with a knife. As we were working out the positioning of the knife block, I pushed it back against the and the knives fell off. Now, if there are falling knives, the right thing to do is jump back out of the way in case they fall to the floor and stab your foot. Only a fool would try to catch the knives as they fell. Yes only a fool, and guess what I did and I got nicked. But don't worry, the first time R actually used the knives, he nicked himself too.
I was never pleased with our HP printer. In spite of all the print head cleaning and other maintenance, the colour had gone very wrong after just buying new cartridges. A lot of ink was used trying to fix the problem. Early in the piece it kept losing the Wi-Fi connection to the computer so I connected it with a cable. The final straw was the scanner would not work. I am over it. So we went to the big blue shed and bought a new one and so far I am happy with it and it is more economical with ink. It is a bit flimsily made but hey, it works and faultlessly with Wi-Fi.
R spotted a desk chair he liked in the same store. While ours isn't very old, the arm is damaged because of poor design. The new one is smaller and neater, weighs much less which is easier on the carpet.
Oh yes, the scissors and the sharpener.
My goodness, what a mess.
Note the spare Band Aid. The knife set arrived that morning when I received my obviously non fatal wounding. A spare Band Aid was nearby in case I began bleeding again.
I kept telling R how old fashioned his phone is and I offered to pay half the price of new one in advance for his birthday, and so he now has the most recent Samsung S21 and he loves it. NB It doesn't come with earphone jack.
R bought new Bluetooth headphones for his bedroom tv. They needed to work with the Fetch Box and they didn't work satisfactorily. JB HIFI took them back and we tried another brand. These were also not compatible and JB took them back. Good service by JB. He then tried these Bluetooth earbuds, and they weren't compatible. Rather than take them back, he generously gave them to me and I love them for my tablet and podcasts when I am out walking.
I love consumerism.
