It was a miserable, wet and windy day so we took refuge in the comfort of the living room.
When I went to do shopping I saw a motorhome draw up in Queen St. I went to introduce myself and had a pleasant chat with a near full time motorhomer from Beachport in SA who had spent some days in and around Barraba and found it a nice place to rest awhile.
In the afternoon in a burst of enthusiasm I did some work in the laundry to prepare for the visit of the plumber who said he would be here tomorrow.
Even though we had a bit of frost overnight, the weather has improved and it looks like spring again.
The plumber rang to say that he hadn't finished his present job yet and couldn't get here until tomorrow afternoon.
I took another lay day.
We had to fast until ten o'clock to get our regular six monthly blood tests. As it was so late we went to the Coffee House for a cooked breakfast which replace both breakfast and lunch. Jean had asked the doctor for something to help with an annoying catch in the throat at night. I was horrified when I was asked for $40 for a small bottle of nasal spray. It isn't on the PBS list so the safety net doesn't apply.
While I was waiting for the plumber to come, I prepared some noggings for mounting the new taps in the laundry and I also did a bit of layout work on the new kitchen sink.
In the event, the plumber didn't make it. Perhaps we will see him tomorrow.
Oh, what bliss. The plumber came. I know we live in the "country" and have to suffer the lack of services which people in the city take for granted, but with a little patience we will get our 100 year old cottage in working order sometime.
In the evening, we watched a documentary on the legal battles between small Australian UGG boot makers and Deckers Outdoor, an big American company who have been granted a trademark on the words UG, UGG, and UGH, and have, with tremendous hypocrisy, branded their Chinese made sheepskin boots "UGG Australia". Deckers have been threatening anyone who uses "their" words presumably to establish a monopoly of web searches for UGG boots.
I am apparently not allowed to use the term Google search because Google have " protected their name. I suspect that Google are about to follow Microsoft down the road of rampant, unethical, corrupt monopoly. I think I will re-set my browser so that Google doesn't get any traffic from me.
Happily the Australian courts struck down the Australian trademark claimed by Deckers on the grounds that the term had been used generically for many, many years in Australia and therefore could not be trademarked. Presumably any Australian company can still offer Ugg boots for sale on the internet and Decker will have to whistle.
Sadly the owners of one little Australian company which had counter-sued Deckers lost their case and had to sell the business.The American judge claimed that all the evidence of prior use was irrelevant, saw no reason to strike down the US trademark, and would not permit the case to go to trial. In my opinion, the "liberty" which George W Bush claims to be defending is really only available to the rich. Monopolies are highly valued because they create immense "bottom lines" and are therefor "good".
There are lots of Arabs in the world today who don't want a bar of "The American Way". They are, I think, being joined by growing numbers of non-Arabs who feel the same. Jean and I believe that the best thing the USofA could do would be to return to the "good old days" of total isolationism - back in their box. As things are now, they are infecting the rest of the world with the worse kind of national, corporate and personal avarice without any regard to the cost to the majority.
I do believe that this kind of ethical nihilism which pervades the "developed world" as we move into the 21st century will pass and real goodness, justice, and wisdom will some day be re-instated it the corridors of power.
I downloaded a trial version of a program called Versomatic which claims to do a thorough job of tracking and archiving previous versions of documents. I would dearly love to have such a program so I tried it. At least the trial was free. The version I was sent refused to accept my preferences and reverted to the defaults every time I closed it down, not much use when the defaults are aimed at users of Microsoft Word. The astounding thing is that the asking price is $US50.
Another bright day. The plumber started at about nine and knocked off at about five. He got most of the job done but has to come one more day. We hope he will do this on Monday as he is off on a horse dentistry trip next week and we will be away next weekend.
I suggested that we leave the kitchen until I get the new cupboards ready. He advised me how to modify the drain for the kitchen sink to suit the new sink unit. He will come back to connect the water for the new sink mixer tap when I call him.
I had a disturbed night with sneezing and dribbly nose. The day was back to spring weather so I felt better.
We have a Lions charity bowls day tomorrow and we provide lunch for everyone there because they pay $10 per head to attend, all of which goes to the Lions Christmas Tree. We were asked to provide something for lunch as the meat is donated by the butcher and the Lions barbecue it so the "ladies" are asked to do salads. I cooked a big bowl of rice salad. I didn't believe the quantities in the recipe so I "adjusted" them to suit. I finished up with half as much again as had planned but that's OK.
I had to take to my bed in the afternoon with some kind of lurgy. I also went to bed early.