Here's to my Laptop

So I did what I said I would do when I get back from Mexico..... first of the bat is getting a new hard disk for my laptop. Indeed I ordered the hard disk virtually as soon as I arrived back, and the carrier pigeons brought me the hard disk last Friday. Then I needed a new Windows system since I lost my old Windows system on the crashed hard disk and the laptop didn't come with a Windows DVD. So $100 for a new hard disk turned into $300 after spending $200 on Windows 10 which these days comes on USB sticks that is bootable, meaning, one can insert the USB stick prior to switching on the laptop, and the system boots to the USB stick which then proceeds to install Windows onto my empty unformatted hard disk.

Of course it wasn't without its drama. After I picked up the hard disk from the carrier pigeons landing station aka Post Office, I went to get Windows from the only store that is open after 6pm only to find they no longer sell the "Home Edition" of Windows, only the more expensive "Professional Edition" which I don't need. To say I was pissed off was an understatement, especially with my Scorpio Mars being activated by the Sun. Oh yes my chart shows Mars in Scorpio which is why I am often impatient, easily frustrated, and easily annoyed at times, and why as I witch I often send hexes to people who annoys me!!!!! There were other shops that did sell the Home Edition on USB sticks but in this sleepy little city they were all closed after 6pm.

My Scorpio Mars.......

However the enforced delay was short lived. Early the next morning I ordered the Windows USB stick from one of the other shops with the "pickup from store" option, meaning, within a couple of hours of ordering if during opening hours, it be available to be picked up. This eliminate the issue of going all the way to the store only to find it is not available, out of stock, or some shit like that!!!

Well I put the order in online prior to the store opening, and virtually as soon as the store opened I gotten the email that my order was ready to be collected. So I spent the rest of the day installing Windows and getting my laptop set up again, having to start from scratch.

So now having to start from scratch in building up my cartoons collections and my other collections of graphics and other things. I've lost everything with the crashed hard disk, so having to start all over again.

Next is a new fridge...... though that is on hold temporarily. My spirit guides informs me that I must go back to the Yucatan so to visit the remaining Mayan sites that I didn't have time to visit this time, so to complete my energy works there. So my next trip will be back to Mexico, and am looking to go back there within the first few months of 2018 before the northern summer when it will be too hot.

Therefore need to book my air tickets as soon as possible. The earlier you book air tickets the cheaper they are. Thanks to Cancun being NOT Perth I actually came back with money left over and no maxed out credit cards. So am about 80% to 90% of funds required for the air tickets, so I should have the funds within the month.

Just WHEN I be able to book my air tickets hinges on when my wage rise will kick in. We voted through my union to accept the latest pay deal, so after it is ratified, we will receive the wage rise backdated to about June which will prove to be quite a tidy sum. I should be able to raise the funds for the air tickets within the month without the wage rise, but the wage rise if it comes through sooner than a month will allow me to book the air tickets sooner.

Next after the air tickets will be the lodgings, the hotel accommodation. As with the air tickets, the sooner one books hotel rooms the cheaper they are. Hotels in Mexico are relatively cheap compared to Perth, but then just about anything is relatively cheap compared to Perth. I probably won't stay as long this time, perhaps 11 days. So if I can book early enough I may be able to upgrade my hotel accommodation for still a reasonable price.

Once I get the air tickets and hotel bookings out the way, then I can get a fridge. Aside from the wage rise, I also get my yearly bonus in December. The yearly bonus should be enough to pay for a fridge. So if all goes to plan, I should have a fridge by Xmas.

The other issue is my lease expires in December. It's likely the landlord will offer to extend the lease, that should be a formality unless he wants to sell. I don't think he will want to sell given current conditions in Perth, but you never know. It's a buyers/renters market here, so should I have to find a new abode, I shouldn't have any trouble finding one. But I hope I won't need to find a new abode, I am very happy where I am now, and if the landlord offers me the extension I will immediately take it!!! But should I have to move, this will delay my fridge a little longer, cos I will have to raise the money for the bond and advance rent. Of course I SHOULD get my bond back from my current abode, I don't anticipate any problems there unlike the catastrophe of last year!!!!! But of course there is the normal delay period between vacating the property and getting my bond back, so will have to raise fund for bond for the new abode BEFORE this happens. As I say, I expect to have the offer to extend my lease, but you know being a Virgo I like to plan for all possible scenarios including the unlikely scenario of NOT having the lease extended for wanting to sell the apartment.

So my life is pretty well getting back to "normal"..... well at least relatively normal given that there is nothing much about my life that is really normal, it is very much a relative term..... so lets put it this way, things that are slightly more normal than it has been...... if that makes sense.......

Here's a couple of comics as I slowly but surely build up my collection.......

The trials and tribulations of a Virgo.......

Dealing with airlines....... there are some that I avoid and for good reasons !!!!

Meanwhile back in Perth........

Back To Reality

It's what we usually say at the end of vacation time and we're back into the mundane routines of work. Truth is the vacation time was also a reality. It's a different reality, nonetheless a reality, one which I prefer though the rigours of air travel and adapting to foreign countries with different ways of doing things does take a bit out of you.

So now back to the reality of work, paying bills, running errands, and dealing with other mundane tasks..... until my next trip, which will be back to the Yucatan. Oh yes I am going back there to visit the Mayan sites which I did not visit this time. There are a lot of sites on the Yucatan. At this stage the return trip is set for the first half of 2018. Thanks to Cancun being not Perth I do have ample funds remaining and no maxed out credit cards!! Of course now being back in expensive Perth, away from the paradise of Cancun where you can eat well for a week on just $20. Here in Perth you'd be lucky to eat for a DAY on $20!!! You don't realise how expensive Perth is until you go overseas.

I am back at work tomorrow, earning my keep towards my next trip. As promised to myself I ordered a new hard disk for my laptop almost as soon as I gotten back from the airport, covering for the catastrophic hard disk fail that happened during The Three Weeks last July. Now just have to wait for them carrier pigeons to deliver the hard disk to me.

Next however is the air tickets back to the Yucatan, that is because the earlier you book the air tickets the cheaper they are. They get more expensive the closer to the intended departure time. So booking them 4 to 6 months n advance is ideal. This time my base of operations will be Merida on the other side of the Yucatan. It's a 4-hour bus trip between Cancun on the eastern side and Merida on the western side. There are more Mayan sites closer to Merida, it will be those sites I be visiting this time. Thankfully it be less than a month before I have the funds for the air tickets. Technically I have the funds now but scattered over different accounts, but rather the deal with the expense of transferring funds to one account I just concentrate on beefing up one account, and bar any catastrophes, it should take me less than a month to do so.

When in the most isolated city on Earth, air tickets are the most expensive part of any overseas trips. The next most expensive are the lodgings, though cheaper than in Perth, indeed cheaper than anywhere in Australia. That is why people goes overseas, a vacation overseas is cheaper than a vacation in Australia once you get past the air tickets!!

Then I will get my fridge. I do have a wage rise coming up backdated to July, so be about four months worth of backpay once the deal is ratified by my union. The vote to whether to accept the latest deal was put to us, and I voted to accept it. Hopefully at least half of us voted with me to accept the deal, and if that indeed happened, the union will submit to ratify the deal, then we get our much deserved wage rise backdated four months. This should be enough to pay for my lodgings at Merida.

And each year we get a Xmas bonus payment on the first pay date in December. That will pay for my fridge. Then I can work on saving the rest of my funds for the return trip to the Yucatan tentatively set for sometimes in the first half of 2018 prior to the summer season over there when it will be too hot. It's hot all year round there being the tropics, but hotter during summer. It's more the humidity that gets us there. It actually doesn't get as hot as it does in Southern Australia such as Perth, or Melbourne, or Adelaide when it gets over 40 degrees, it is dry heat. On the Yucatan it gets no hotter than mid 30s but the humidity is much higher, so it makes it feel like 50 degrees!!! So if I can get there by March or April it will avoid the summer, otherwise it will be October or later.

Of course I am now back to working on clearing out my storage unit, legacy of my bower bird wife who loved to hoard things!!! Hopefully I should be able to clear out my storage unit by January next year, this will free up another several hundreds of $$'s per month to add to my trip, as well as other shit that needs to be attended to such as a much overdue service for my car.

The storage unit is the last vestige of my more expensive lifestyle with Sally which is being removed for a more frugal lifestyle allowing me to free up extra funds for my trips and other things. Moving out from a house into an apartment was the major step towards a more frugal lifestyle. Next were rearranging my internet accounts and changing telcos, where I now pay half of what I was paying before. And on my recent trip, my new telco did send me timely updates on any roaming charges that I had been accumulating. So my roaming bill should be much less than with Telstra where I had to pay over $1000 last year!!! This time with Optus, based on their far more regular updates, my roaming bill should be less than $200, that will come up next month. So the last of my more extravagant lifestyle is the storage unit, and that should be dealt with by January 2018.

Oh yes I will have to renew my passport before my next trip. My current passport expires April next year, and you normally can't travel on a passport with less than six months. Indeed my Cancun trip was the last trip I had been able to take on my current passport, my return to Perth took place just two days before the six months cut off time to my passport expiry. So any subsequent trip will have to be on a renewed passport!!

Once I get my laptop up and going again, I be back to adding my comics and other goodies to my blogs...... so just have to wait for those carrier pigeons to bring me my new hard disk.

Thankfully no more of the catastrophe that is football for the next six months or so..........

So on this note..... time to get ready for my week back at work..... until the next update.......

Only A Week To Go

This time in just one week I will be getting ready to go to the Airport to commence my very long trip to yet another far distant corner of the Earth, this time being Cancun. Yes I know planet Earth is not a very big planet. In fact in the grand scheme of the cosmos, planet Earth is one of the smallest planet. The planet at Taygeta is five times bigger. But when it comes to taking three long flights totalling 32 hours just to get to the other side of the planet, well it might as well be the size of Antares - a star so large that it would take a jet airliner 11000 years to fly around it. Well when stuck on a plane on a 15 hour flight from Sydney to LA it SEEMS like 11000 years!!!!!!

Let the truth be know, I am more nervous than excited. So many people are saying Mexico is crawling with crims and drug lords with a crime rate so high that it would make Perth seem more like a country village. I am sure it is not THAT bad, and people do tend to exaggerate and overstate things, but I did acquire a theft-proof backpack at great expense, and I hope the security features will never be tested, but as we Virgos are fond of saying, better safe than sorry. To be sure the govt "travel smart" website does give a map of Mexico showing "no go" areas for tourists, and fortunately where I will be is nowhere near these no go areas. Indeed it is said that Cancun and the Yucatan area is relatively one of the safest areas of Mexico. But being in a foreign country, well this intrepid soul is being very intrepid!!!!!!

Not to mention all those earthquakes!!!! In fact there has been THREE "severe" earthquakes (ie 6 or more on the ritcher scale" in just the past two weeks!!!! Fortunately all of them were far enough away to not affect the Yucatan area but they still would have felt them!!! And I am not sure if I would relish being in an earthquake even a relatively slight one. It was bad enough in Bali when during my stay there I did feel one slight tremor!!!! I do lead a sheltered life, we don't get earthquakes in Perth..... well the Meckering quake of 1968 notwithstanding. I don't remember much about that one but one thing I do remember is the floor suddenly beginning to shake and hearing a roar that sounded like the wind and rain. So for the next few years of my childhood I would freak out whenever there is heavy rain with wind, I would stand at the window and cry each time it rained heavily, and no one understood why. Mother would have just thought it was one of my silly childhood fears. But it wasn't the rain or even the wind that I was afraid of, it was that the house might shake again just like it did with the roaring sound that sounded like the wind and rain. Many years later I was shocked to learn that on the day of the earthquake it didn't actually rain, in fact it was quite a calm day!!!! And then it tweaked!!! The wind and rain doesn't cause the house to shake, at least not in Perth anyway!!!! Maybe a hurricane or tornado, but we don't have those in Perth!!!! The roaring sound was caused by the earthquake which shook the house. And I was no longer afraid of the weather - except when I went to America and got caught in a storm with tornados!!!!

Speaking of Bali.....

This volcano was actually the one which I went on my hike to the top of it during my trip last year!!!! It was active then with steam vents and hot springs all about the place, and I did note that it last erupted in 1963 - when I came to this planet. When I was there last year I remember looking down into the crater from the edge, there were several steam vents in the vicinity, indeed it was quite steamy all around. And I was wondering what would happen if it erupts again. Then going to the solidified lava flows from the 1963 eruption and thinking, sheeze those rocks are as old as I am!!!! I am not sure which way I should look at this, being as old and ancient as those rocks....... or those rocks are really young compared to the surrounding outcrops. There are volcanos in Mexico but none anywhere near the Yucatan area!!

In getting ready for my trip, I thought of ways of getting to the Airport. My car battery is on its way out, indeed the windscreen wipers now takes a while before it starts up as if there's not enough power getting to them until after the engine is running, another classic sign of a battery in its death throes. The only reason why I am still able to use the car is cos I use it often enough to keep the battery charged up sufficiently. But during my trip the car will be idle for the best part of three weeks, this is likely to seal the fate of my battery. During my trips I usually book long secure term parking at the Airport and just drive in to leave my car there. However I don't relish the idea of returning from the long flights only to contend with a dead battery upon my return at an Airport parking lot!!! So pondering on alternative ways of getting to the Airport.

Enter Uber..... me being of Virgoan energies, I spent time checking out Uber, and studying exactly how it works. And then just a couple of days ago I put Uber to the test. And here is my test report......


My Virgoan Report on my first Uber ride

We Virgos does have a reputation of being very hard to please. Well it's not that we're nit picky nor fussy, we just give great attention to details. Keep that in mind as I report on my first Uber ride, a test ride to judge whether I will be taking this transportation option to the Airport next weekend.

Using the app on my tablet to book my ride was a breeze as it uses the GPS to see where I was currently located which they correctly figured to be my abode, having previously entered details of my home address when I set up the app. I then began to type in my destination, being the Mends Street jetty in South Perth, and the location came up on the list after I typed four or five characters. It then gave the route and the price, the map also gives the real time locations of current Uber vehicles.

The first snag came up when it came to the payment. I had entered Paypal as my payment option. Alas!! Paypal knocked back the payment request from Uber!! Apparently I needed to add Uber to the approved merchants list on Paypal, which I spent the next 20 minutes trying to do on the Paypal site but for the life of me I could not find any options that would allow me to add someone to the approved list!! So after being frustrated to the max, I ended up just adding one of my credit cards as a payment option on the Uber app. No reflection on Uber, just Paypal being paranoid over automated payments from an app.

Once I was able to add my credit card, the whole process of requesting a ride went very smoothly. Once the payment was successfully processed, the app gave me the make and colour of the vehicle which would be collecting me, the license plate number, and driver name with user rating which I was glad to see it was very high!! It also gave the approximate time until arrival, which was about 6 minutes or so, and I was able to follow the progress of the vehicle on the map, allowing me to relax a bit until the vehicle turned onto my street.

I recognized the vehicle immediately from the license plate, so I waved as he came into the visitors parking lot. He asked me "Uber?", I think just to make sure I was the one he was meant to be collecting. I got into the back seat as I always deliberately done so back in the days of catching a taxi. Drivers tends not to chat so much when in the back seat, and so I was able to peruse FaceBook on my device in peace while he took me to my destination.

Before we left, he confirmed with me my destination, the Mends Street Jetty. Then he asked me where it was? He first asked, is it in the city? I corrected him, South Perth. But once he checked on his GPS system, he was able to take me to Mends Street via the quickest route without any further assistance from me. Being prepaid up front and paid to the company rather than directly to the driver, they're not like the taxis who often takes you the long way around, sometimes feigning being "lost" just for the extra fares.

Once we reached the shopping strip that is Mends Street, he confirmed with me if this is where I wanted to go. And me in my Virgoan ways I just said, drop me anywhere along here. So he parked at the petrol (gasoline) station on the corner and I was about to get out, when he stopped me and asked if I wanted to be taken down to the Jetty? It was a matter of only 2 minutes walking, Mends Street is not a long street, it takes literally just two minutes to walk from one end to the other. So normally I would have just said, no need to bother! But I think Niandarah (my Goddess from Sirius, my current spirit guide) was on my case, and the driver was simply trying to do the right thing as I did specifically request my destination to be the Jetty by the river, not just "anywhere along the street". So I took up on his offer, and he drove me the short distance down to the jetty. I thanked him, and I was on my merry way without any fuss whatsoever.

So it all went very well and so much easier than catching a taxi, especially when it comes to the payment which was up front via the app, once I gotten over the Paypal issue, so no fumbling around for the change or being charged extra for daring to use a card, nor dealing with the bother of paying the driver at the end of the journey. Also it was a very late model vehicle, very clean and in excellent condition. And when a Virgo says something is very clean, then it IS very clean!!!!

My rating is 9.5 with half a point taken off cos he didn't initially know where Mends Street was located. OK he got me there without a problem once he consulted the GPS system, but hey, a Virgo wouldn't be a Virgo if he wasn't so nit picky nor fussy about things!!!!

Uber will be my transportation of choice next Sunday in getting to the Airport to catch my flights.

So that's my transportation to the Airport now all stitched up. I've gotten my last few supplies this week for my trip, and finally took out travel insurance after deciding who to go with on the insurance. It turned out to be cheaper than usual cos this one gives the option of opting out of certain coverage that I wouldn't be needing, such as car rental excess that one has to pay if involved in a car wreck. However I won't be renting a car in Cancun, I will be getting around on public transport or via tours, so I don't need the excess cover. Most insurance companies doesn't allow you to opt out of certain covers so give a flat premium rate. But being able to opt out of the car rental excess cover which I won't be needing, this makes the premium much cheaper. I do take out comprehensive insurance which covers medical expenses, emergencies, flight cancellations, lost luggage, and most of the other calamities that may befall the intrepid world traveller.

Just need to start packing and figuring out what to take with me aside from my crystals and Goddess figurines. Cancun is a tropical paradise where it is always warm, from a night low of 26 degrees to highs of 32 to 34 degrees, and the humidity to match, so safe to say I won't be needing any of my winter woollies which will leave me extra room in my luggage for other items without going over the airline weight limit!!!! Getting all my travel documentations together. And getting stuff together to prepare for those very long flights, such as music with headphones, my tablet with movies uploaded, and reading materials. Of course they do have the personal entertainment systems on the planes with vid screens on each seat but usually not the kind of movies that I like to watch, my weird sci fi movies or star seeds videos. I usually end up watching the flight tracker which tracks the progress of the current flight on a map, a twist on the classic question "Are we there yet!!!????"..... only that following the progress of the little plane icon on that very long red line representing the flight path is like watching grass grows, especially on the Sydney to LA leg of my flights!!!!!! It's that long leg of about 14-15 hours I am NOT looking forward to. I don't mind so much the 4-5 hours flight to Sydney, albeit the "red-eye" flight leaving just before midnight and arriving at dawn in Sydney, and the 7 hour flight from LA to Cancun which thankfully will be during the day, arriving in Cancun by about 6pm local time, giving me enough time to settle into my lodging prior to going to bed. Just that long flight across the Pacific will be like murder!!!! Such is life in living in the most isolated city on Earth!!!!

One of my stopovers to Cancun..... getting rather familiar with this place in recent times......

Now a public holiday tomorrow in Western Australia..... then four more days at work..... then the weekend, and by about 11PM Sunday night I will be on my merry way to the land of the Mayans.....

Follow my weird musings with pixs during my trip here.......

My Cancun Mexico Trip

Weevil Reality Check

Oh I love it when Weevils are given a good dose of a reality check. A ten goal thrashing, you can't get any more of a reality check than that!!! LOVE IT!!! Probably even better than the Maggies winning a premiership, well that doesn't happen very often so probably forgotten what it felt like for the Maggies to win a premiership!! But the Weevils getting thrashed by 10 goals really made my day!!!! Especially having to listen to everyone here so crowing about the Weevils after their lucky fluke win last week!! Yeah you can only pay the umpires so much, you just can't pay them forever!!! But everyone here, especially in the biased media, were saying how the Weevils could win the premiership and be Giant's killers - pardon the pun!!! They were saying the bookies were worried they could lose a lot of money cos so many deluded Weevils supporters here were putting money on them winning the premiership!!!! All I could say is..... Nah, don't worry bookies, believe me, you have nothing to worry about!!!!!! The Weevils didn't even deserve to be in the Finals, they should get rid of the Top 8 thingy, this past week proved that 8th level teams just doesn't have what it takes to win Finals!!! It's more like a phrase from a well known fairy tale, paraphrased - "Fee Fi Fo Fum!!!! I smell the blood of a Weevil"!!!!!

Here with extreme trepidation I stare mortality in the face as I reach the point when the Sun reaches 26 degrees of Virgo, the time I came onto this planet. Those first cries I would have let out when I entered into the cold hard dense reality of this planet could be interpreted as "What in Hell's name was I bloody well thinking!!!!!", here having just come from the 8D paradise of Taygeta. And now this planet has gone around the Sun so many times since then that it makes me dizzy, being faced with the uncomfortable reality that I have less time to spend on this planet than I have already spent!!!! True enough it be great to go back to Taygeta, but what if someone stops me and saying "Uh huh!! You haven't done enough work on planet Earth, you need to go back!!!!!!"...... so having to spend another lifetime here, a fate worse than Hell !!!!!! Regardless of one's faith or strength of one's belief's, there is always a certain nagging doubt and fear of the unknown. Afterall, no one has experienced death and lived to tell the tale!!!! This is why devout Christians who says they are 100% certain they're going to Heaven still invests in every effort to remain alive when staring death in the face, such as, a terminal illness. We all have this survival instinct, this deep seated aversion to death, to want to avoid it at all costs. Religion exists in an attempt to explain death but with so many different religions about, they can't all be right? What gives us the right to say the Christians are right, or the Jews are right, or Islam, or Hindus, Buddhists, while they all claim all the others are wrong?? What seems doubtless is that a part of us do live on after our existence on this planet ceases, and reincarnation seems best fitting to anecdotal evidence, and many of us are destined for the stars...... but beyond that..... well..... none of us are ever 100% ready to face our 3D mortality on this planet..... and this week I move one more year closer to facing this question of mortality..... I never did care for much about birthdays..... but I suppose if I was born on planet Mars I'd be about half my age, cos the planet takes about twice as long as Earth to go around the Sun, so twice the time for the Sun to reach 26 degrees Virgo!!!!!!!

Meanwhile...... now just two weeks away, indeed this time in exactly two weeks from now I be at the Airport waiting to board the overnight flight to Sydney, the first leg of my very long long journey to Cancun to solve the mysteries of those Mayan pyramids, or at least take in the energies of those pyramids!!

This week I am at work for just the first three days. I am off work for Thursday and Friday. Thursday is Rosh HaShanah the Jewish New Year, and it is also Ostara the Spring Equinox. Two holidays for the price of one!! Then the following Monday is a public holiday at least in Western Australia anyway. Not sure if the rest of Australia has a public holiday on Monday, but it is in Western Australia. So in total a 5-day weekend. Then just four more days at work the following week. Saturday week on the 30th is Yom Kippur, then Sunday night of October 1st is when I yet again leave the isolated shores of Perth to another world destination.......

Prep for my Cancun trip is still ongoing even at this late stage. I still have no idea exactly what I am going to do once I get there, only that I be visiting those Mayan pyramids. The actual logistics for getting to those sites are yet to be determined. All I have at this time are my flight tickets and my motel bookings. Bit like when I went to Bali, I had no idea what I was going to do once I got to Bali, but it all fell into place once I got there. And so it will be so when I get to Cancun.

One thing for certain was I needed a new backpack for my Cancun trip. My backpack from previous trips, the one I use for transporting my items to and from work each day, is very much worse for wear. So a new backpack was in order. Meanwhile I came across the "thief proof" backpacks that prevents pick pockets or other thieves, an ever present hazard for intrepid travellers like me visiting all these exotic countries. So me being of Virgoan tendencies decided to check these out, afterall, we Virgos like to mitigate against all circumstances. And everyone is saying Mexico is crawling with crims!! Well can't be any worse than Perth!!!! But anyway...... these backpacks are made of materials that prevents it being cut by knives, the zippers being secured, and with special secure compartments for phones, tablets, etc. Of course they are expensive, but my Virgoan nature dictated that this is worth the expense. So I ordered one, and now just waiting for it to arrive, which it should arrive this week.... hopefully..... via those carrier pigeons from the east coast !!!!

Next thing is getting to the Airport on Sunday week. Normally I book long term parking, so I just drive in, park my car in secure long term parking, then catch my flight. Me being a fiercely independent Virgo!!! We Virgos are fiercely independent creatures!!!! However my car battery is slowly but surely dying. It has reached the stage where when I turn on the windscreen wipers it doesn't kick in immediately, it takes about half a minute before they start working, as if there is not enough power getting to them. That is another classic sign of a slowly dying battery. I think the only reason why I can still use my car is because I use it often with never more than two days inbetween use of the car, which effectively keeps the battery sufficiently charged up so it lives for another day.

However when I am in Cancun my car will be idle for nearly three weeks. This is likely to seal the fate of my battery. And I hate to be returning from a long flight back home only to find my car battery as dead as a doornail at an Airport parking lot. So I am faced with the uncomfortable Virgo truth - I have to depend on someone else to take me to and from the Airport.

Enter Uber!!! We all hear so much about Uber, the alternative to taxis. I never liked the idea of catching a taxi, and me with the adventurous Uranus located in Virgo in my chart, I was always attracted to alternatives. Of course being a Virgo I check out every information I could about Uber, about how it works, going through their website with a fine tooth comb. Then after that I decided I would give them a try. So I downloaded the Uber app onto my tablet and set up my account. So when you need a ride, you just use the app to enter the details, then the system automatically send a Uber car to come pick you up, and the fare is automatically deducted from either your credit/debit card or bank account, so no need to carry money around. So basically the Uber come to pick you up and they already know your destination cos you entered it on the app, so they simply deliver you there, and you just say thanks and goodbye!! So much easier it seems than catching a taxi.

But of course being a Virgo I have to test them out first BEFORE needing to go to the Airport. So this is just what I am going to do sometimes this week, probably on my days off work. I will do a test run with a Uber, that is, use Uber to run one of my errands, probably to go to the Post Office to pick up my mail. This will give me the chance to get a feel for Uber and how it really works, and more importantly, to see just how quickly they come once you sent the request through the app. You don't book in advance for a Uber, they say they come within a few minutes when you send the request on the app. So I will see if this is really so, and just how I feel about using Uber. We Virgos are such cautious creatures, we like to test things beforehand.

And so when I come back from Cancun and find my car battery as dead as a doornail, at least it will be at home in my apartment complex, and of course being a gated complex my car will be secure there anyway. So I can take my own sweet time to get over the jet lag before calling for the RAC and arrange to have the battery replaced which the RAC does on site as part of the perks of my membership!!

OK enough of my ramblings for a little while yet....... here as I face a very intense and busy week this week.........

Another Intense Week

September is always an intense month being the month of my Solar Return, when I came from Heaven to Hell, or more specifically, from the paradise of 8D Taygeta down to Planet Earth which fits all biblical descriptions of Hell. The Sun is currently transiting my Uranus Pluto config in my chart being opposite to Chiron (also known as "The Wounded Healer", the Greek god who was a healer but was permanently wounded himself and could never heal himself) in my Ascendant sign. It's amazing how my life is marked by these planetary alignments. Chiron was at 11 degrees Pisces when I came to this planet in 1963, and Chiron remained in Pisces until 1968 when the 8 years of Hell began. Chiron's 8-year transit through Aries coincides almost exactly with the 8 years of Hell which ended about 1976 when Chiron moved into Taurus...... indeed Chiron's transit through the zodiac signs over the 50 years of my life coincided with significant events and challenges in my life, until finally Chiron returned to Pisces in 2010 when Mother was in the last year of her life, passing away January 2011. Indeed Chiron entered Pisces early 2010, then it retrograded back into Aquarius by late 2010, then re-entered Pisces early February 2011 so Mother's death took place just prior to this. Then by March 2013 Chiron was back to 11 degrees Pisces, exactly where it was on my birth, so known astrologically as my "Chiron Return". Of course it was that fateful day on March 2013 when my wife passed away!!!!! Yes she passed away on my Chiron Return!!! Chiron is due to leave Pisces next year in 2018 to enter Aries, so I wonder what will happen then, I am not going to speculate, I do not make specific predictions only that SOMETHING is likely to happen then!!!!! Hopefully not another 8 years of Hell!!!! I don't think so. We learn lessons since then so we can mitigate against any repeats. The 8 years of Hell was my karma from another lifetime, and I well and truly served that karma, so I don't think it will happen again. Maybe other challenges but we have grown spiritually since then!!!

Anyway...... last week with the Sun activating my Uranus Pluto opposite Chiron config.... last Wednesday I experienced quite an intense dizzy spell. I get them occasionally, usually anxiety attacks as being Virgo I am a very anxious soul. Anxiety is hard wired into the DNA of Virgos. And it's what my GP says, well not the "Virgo" bit but that these are anxiety attacks. Last Wednesday was particularly intense. I was driving when it hit, and it was fortunately I was able to pull over cos I do get warning when it hits, like I get tingles and feel myself getting light headed, so giving me time to stop what I am doing, rest and breath....... so here on the side of the road, I had to get out of the car for fresh air, and I honestly thought I was about to pass out. Indeed I used all my Virgo determination and my breathing techniques to just barely prevent myself from passing out. Then I recovered......

Next day I began to get nausea and was generally unwell so I took the day of work, and hardly ate a thing. Next day the symptoms subsided enough to enable me to return to work, being now Friday, but still didn't eat very much. By Saturday I had pretty well recovered so was able to go for my morning walk albeit half the distance - 10kms instead of 20kms. The symptoms returned Sunday even if not very intense, I still was able to eat but was careful what I ate. Today the symptoms are gone..... so hopefully...... it will stay away.

I'm going to see my GP this week anyway. I need a note from her regarding my medications in case customs in Mexico asks about my medications. You have to declare your meds when entering other countries, but generally speaking, if you have the scripts then you don't get any trouble. Some countries are however more strict than others, and I hear Mexico is particularly strict on drugs, so a note from the GP would be advisable. So anyway, I will tell her about the dizzy spell and nausea symptoms, then she will check my vitals and as always will say all is fine, so is likely to be anxiety-related. Dizzy spells and nausea are also side effects of my meds, but my GP seems to think its anxiety rather than the side effects, probably cos I get them only occasionally, it doesn't happen all the time, and my GP knows me well !!!!!!!

Probably a good idea to get a checkup before going overseas anyway, I don't usually do so, but probably should this time anyway.

Now just waiting for the Weevils to get booted out of the Finals this weekend....... 8th indeed!! Teams in the 7th and 8th spot don't deserve to be in the Finals, and as far as I know, there never have been any Premiership winners from 7th or 8th spot. The Finals should be among only the top 4 or perhaps top 6, definitely not top 8. But then the AFL won't make as much money if the finals series were only among the 4 or 6 teams. I say no more.......

Until next time.............

The Curse of Chiron

Well the football season is over, well at least for us mere mortals it is over. The bloody Weevils managed to make it into the Finals but they won't get far, it was only cos the Maggies won, which I did feel that they would so I did actually pick them to win. They usually play best when it is the last match and they have nothing to lose. So our year is over, and by default the Weevils made it to 8th spot, but no one ever gets very far from 8th spot, and they can't play outside of Domain so it is just a delay of the inevitable. And though I picked the Maggies it wasn't enough for me to get into the prize money. The curse of Chiron proved to be too strong. I finished in 4th spot, it was my best finish since before Mother's death when Chiron entered my Ascendant sign. You need to be in the top three to win any money.

Now 33 days until Cancun I am on the home stretch, using all of my Virgoan skills and energies to maximise my savings. Hopefully no more catastrophes until then. I have all my air tickets and lodgings booked and paid for, so am just saving for spending money and tours. Things like food, etc, will all be cheaper than in Perth. In most places in the world it is cheaper than in Perth. So the day to day living expenses during my time in Cancun is expected to be a lot cheaper than in Perth. So I certainly won't be starving!! So just a matter of logistics as to getting to the various Mayan sites in the area, those famous Mayan pyramids that we always see on National Geographic, yes I will actually going to be there. I really have no idea what I am going to do once I get to Cancun, but I am certain there be tours available to the Mayan sites, they are world famous. It's unlikely I be hiring a car, not real keen on the idea of driving in Mexico though it can't be much worse than driving in Perth!! And I will probably end up getting lost, not sure about the road infrastructure. So would prefer to let someone else do the driving, as in Bali. I had a driver in Bali and it was cheap. Not sure how it works in Mexico, it's a lot bigger country, and some of those Mayan sites are several hours drive away. So I guess I will find out once I get there, I am sure I won't be the first lost tourist my motel had to deal with, they will certainly have the relevant info otherwise they wouldn't be in the business.

The only major thing I need to do before the trip is to arrange travel insurance, what I always do, being of Virgoan energies. We Virgos like to prepare for all possible scenarios. You don't need a visa to get into Mexico. So just need to figure out what I will take with me aside from my crystals. It is always hot in Cancun, it's in the tropics, much like being in Darwin, except more exotic being in the Caribbean region. So shouldn't need much in the way of warm woollies, not like when I was going to the UK where it is always cold. So should be able to travel lighter and need only one piece of checked luggage though the airline allows two. But being on my lonesome, taking just one piece of checked luggage aside from carryon will mean less to carry around while in transit. Mexico will be my 10th country visited. In 1998 I went to Singapore, Hong Kong, USA and Canada so that is 4 countries. Then 2015 New Zealand became my 5th country visited. Was back in the USA in 2016, then it was England and Wales with the stopover in the UAE, so three more countries makes it 8 countries. Then of course Bali a part of Indonesia, that was country 9. So Mexico will be country 10. My stopover will once again be the USA, LA to be exact, my 3rd visit to the USA. So indeed I visited the USA more than any other countries. But until a year or so ago I never thought I be visiting at least 10 countries in my lifetime.

Rambling on now....... last thing..... my car battery is still alive, so still have use of the car. Just have to last 33 more days, but knowing that the battery could fail at any time. So each extra day is a bonus.

Now the Sun is transiting through Virgo..... and not looking forward to the time when the Sun reaches 26 degrees Virgo, that was when I came to this planet after spending paradise in Taygeta..........

So will sign off now...... until the next significant event, whenever that is........

My Cancun trip site, complete with travel cartoons and other info.......

My Cancun Trip

Blessed Be.......

Updates and Catastrophes

I suppose it's about time for an update...... I will never get over the catastrophic loss of my data from the catastrophic hard disk failure as consequence of the curse of "The Three Weeks". So am currently running on limited computing resources with not enough data storage space hence no comics and less than regular updates, which will be so until I get myself a new $100 hard disk which won't be happening until after my Cancun trip due to other catastrophic hits to my savings plan which I will not go into here. As it is said you can never have too much spending money while on vacation, so with just six weeks to go, all available finance are being channelled into my Cancun savings - Australia's very high taxes notwithstanding aka my car and trailer regos and other tax-related bills. But I am a Virgo, I can do anything if I put my analytical mind to it, and I will have ample funds for spending money and tours while in Cancun.

Now grappling with another catastrophic event - Mercury's retrograde, the ruling planet of Virgo appearing to go backwards when viewed from planet Earth hence "retrograde". Computer and electrical problems, and also transport related problems, often occurs during Mercury's retrograde, and I am staring in the face a potentially catastrophic electrical problem which also involves transport.

Last Friday night when I went to the convenience store for a bite to eat, being my Friday night habit, my Virgoan analytical eyes noticed the dashboard light in my car was unusually dim. This can mean only one thing - the battery is about to die. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt to prove it!!! The first sign of impending battery failure is dim dashboard lights.

Being a member of the RAC, one of my Virgoan things, insurance against catastrophes, when the battery dies I just call out the RAC to check it and determine if I do indeed need a new battery, then they deliver and install the new battery on the spot while taking away the old battery for recycle. However, this will cost me several hundreds dollars, and I cannot afford any more hits on my Cancun savings plans. So if and when the battery fails which will be a matter of days as it doesn't take long for it to die once the dashboard lights goes dim, well I will just live without a car for these next six weeks to Cancun. Not a problem since being in a place within walking distances to all kinds of shops, supermarkets, and the train station.

Problem is, this will interrupt my plans to clear out my storage unit, that I DO need a car for. I was hoping to clear out the storage unit by the end of the year which will save me several hundreds of dollars in rent each month, which means more money for my trips - and to satisfy Australia's very high taxes!!!

As per my Virgo tendencies, it is PANIC first and think later. Anxiety is hardwired into the DNA of Virgos. Panic is what we do best, we Virgos are experts at panicking. The panic being that the battery catastrophe will add two more months of storage unit rental, being well into 2018 before I could get my unit cleared out.

Then after I finished panicking and lay down exhausted in my bed for the night, my Goddesses must have spoke to me in my dreams, for an idea came to me. My current estimates of when I will get my storage unit cleared out is based on making one trip to the unit each week. This balances the need to push on with the task of clearing out my unit ASAP and the need to save petrol so not to spend too much on this very expensive substance before my Cancun trip. Petrol is very expensive in Perth. However AFTER I come back from Cancun and get the battery replaced, there is nothing to stop me from going to the unit MORE than once per week, indeed I could go TWICE per week, since my goal is to clear out my unit before I go on any more trips. Therefore I could STILL achieve the goal of clearing out my storage unit by the end of this year thus having 100's of extra $'s per month available to me by the start of 2018. No more need to panic.

Meanwhile am preparing for the day I go attempt to start the car only to find the battery is dead. It's not a matter of IF but WHEN this will happen. The signs are there, as per my Virgoan powers of observation. Not only the dashboard light is dim, but it is now taking 3 to 4 turns to start the car. It usually takes only 1 or 2 turns to start the car. So the battery could die tomorrow or it could be a few days, perhaps a week or so if I am lucky. So it's a matter of how many more trips to the storage unit I can make before the battery dies. I may try to make two trips this week, it depends on other factors usually time related - it's a 90 minutes round trip to the storage unit and back again WITHOUT gridlock traffic but usually longer cos I tend to go after work when there is usually gridlock traffic. So it ends up being a late night by the time I get back and unload the car. But as I said, really no need to panic cos I could go to the unit more often after I get back from Cancun. Just that we Virgos like to get things done ASAP, we don't procrastinate and we don't like any delays!!!!

Next catastrophe - the football. Well a Magpie catastrophe anyway as we do what we do best - get beaten by other teams!!!! As of before this weekend I was sitting in 4th spot in the office tipping competition. You need to be in the top three to win any prize money. So this is the closest I gotten to prize money since the curse of Chiron kicked in, way back when Mother passed away, when Chiron entered my Ascendant sign Pisces. With just two more rounds to go including this past weekend, well it remains to be seen whether the curse of Chiron still kicks in and I don't make it into the top three. I will know tomorrow how I fared this past weekend, then I will have only just one more weekend. If I manage to stay in 4th spot then there is still a chance, but if for any reason I drop down to 5th or more then forget it, the curse of Chiron kicks in once again. Chiron is still in Pisces but is close to moving out of Pisces..... finally..... that be about 2019, so still another year or so, another year of dealing with the curse of Chiron.

So until next time...... just watch this space if you don't fall asleep while doing so.......