When it became clear that a Britrail paper pass wasn’t available, I caved in to decades of resistance to acquiring a smart phone so that I could store the QR code containing the rail pass ticketing information. Today, I bought a Samsung A 15 phone at the nearest Optus store. The phone is large and heavy. Texting is much easier than on the dreadful Nokia flip phone which the smart phone replaces.
Today, my IT expert, backed up biodiversity.com.au and transferred it to speciesdiversity.au, with the help of a digital expert from Melbourne IT, whom he phoned. The backup was successful, save for two vital functions which were missing. The Album main page was present, but clicking on any of the thumbnails, resulted in a blank screen with the text: Not a valid template. The species search function produced a text: This form is not secure. Autofill has been turned off. Everything else on the site had been transferred and worked properly. All the album images and texts existed on the admin site. I also paid Melbourne IT to host the site.
Every two years, Melbourne IT send me reminders about the renewal of my domain name on the 17th of May. When I phoned to renew the name this morning, I was told that biodiversity.com.au would expire on the renewal date because I no longer had an Australian Business Number, something my accountant confirmed when I phoned him shortly after. You can imagine how shattered I was, fearing that my website, evidence of my life-affirming activity for 27 years, would vanish into thin air, leaving me with a huge, impossible to fill, void. Then, I dug my heels in, determined to keep my online presence alive. I discussed domain names which didn’t require an ABN and asked if speciesdiversity.au was available. On 2.5.24, I bought the name.
Thank god I have progressed my travel plans. This morning I paid Gina for the flights, which were all still available. So now it’s full steam ahead.
Today, during an hourlong operation, the urologist removed the kidney stone from my bladder, using a laser to zap the stone. This was the first time I have had a general anaesthetic and the first time since my birth that I have spent a night in hospital. In fact, I spent another night and was collected by Steve and Paulina on 28.4.24 who drove me home. I treated them to a roast lunch at Bungunyah.
PS By 3.5.24, the tenderness and bleeding had stopped and I was well on the way to recovery. The urologist booked me for a de-brief on 27.5.24.
The moment I saw the moth under the eaves of the garage wall in Central Avenue, I knew it was a species I had never seen. I needed my stepladder to photograph it. Miraculously, when I returned today, it had shifted its position to a better angle for the camera. The species has an interesting distribution, being found in southern Africa, Asia and widely in the Pacific islands, including New Caledonia, Fiji and central Polynesia. In Australia the species occurs in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. Wingspan is 4 cm.
This afternoon I saw the urologist. His surgery was as busy as a railway station waiting room. He showed me a photo of the stone which he described as large and told me that I would need a general anaesthetic and be kept in overnight. I chose to have the operation at the Pindara Private Hospital and spent time with the doctor’s administrator dealing with the paperwork. I ended up hand-delivering the forms at the hospital on April 4.
At about noon on March 6, I noticed blood in my urine and went straight to the medical centre in the shops behind my unit block. I was prescribed an antibiotic and told to book an ultrasound on my bladder. For two or three days I was glued to the toilet and experienced pain and discomfort. I booked the ultrasound for the following Monday. I was told to drink a litre of water an hour beforehand, but given the UTI, I only managed 600 ml and even then, went to the toilet twice. The nurse had difficulty in conducting the ultrasound because I had to have two more visits to the toilet.
I was booked to see the doctor on the Thursday, but he had not received the result of the ultrasound. I had hardly recovered from the UTI when I had a recurrence a fortnight later. My regular doctor prescribed an antibiotic and promptly chased up the errant ultrasound report. I again spent two or three days glued to the toilet. When I saw her, the ultrasound showed a kidney stone in the bladder. She referred me to a urologist who ordered a CT scan of the… Read Complete Text
Gina sent me an email stating that a paper Britrail pass was available. I opted for 8 days anywhere in the UK within a month. I revised my thinking about a Eurail pass, which is only available electronically, in favour of a Britrail pass, because my only train trip outside the UK was to travel by train to Germany, whereas I developed the idea of a six day rail jaunt from London to Inverness to Thurso and Glasgow to cover the period between my time in London and Somerset. The train from Glasgow to Plymouth stops at Taunton. Since I won’t be travelling by train to Germany, Gina booked a flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt on July 26, which means I will be extending my stay in Somerset by a day.
I had another and better opportunity to photograph a Little pied cormorant at the pond in Driscoll Lane, two years after photographing a juvenile bird there. This is one of Australia’s most common water birds and is found throughout the country. This bird is an adult.