| 2021 - the Year of Domestic Enrichment | ||||||||||||||
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This was not the year I expected. What happened? Family first. Early in the year Roger was confirmed as a PhD candidate. We thought he was already, but it turned out he was on probation for the first year. Now he's a confirmed PhD candidate. He's 2 years into a 4 year program. He tried to see his Mom several times in the last 12 months, each time defeated by state border restrictions in Australia. His mother lives in Sydney (state of NSW) which is relatively open but he lives in Brisbane (state of Qld) which is quite the opposite. We figure that one day he or she will be able to visit each other. As he couldn't go to Sydney for Christmas last year he came to see me in Cairns instead, so that was good. Rex graduated from Virginia Tech with a Master's of Science in Biological Systems Engineering -- including an impressive 4.0 GPA. He now works for a services company, GZA Environmental, based in their Norwood MA office, close to Boston. I told him if he becomes a Red Sox fan he may be disowned (because I'm a Yankees guy). Kung had a quiet year in Thailand. They went through multiple lockdowns and restrictions, similar to Australia, with no tourism because they closed their borders, too. Her son is close to finishing university -- planned for the end of 2022. And now it's my turn …
I started the year in Australia, not PNG, and I stayed there the whole year. No travel to PNG, no travel to Thailand. Now, or very soon, I could be able to travel to Thailand with just 1 day in quarantine; I can return to Australia, to Sydney, with no quarantine. But I live in Cairns, in the state of Qld, and I can't get from Sydney to Qld without 2 weeks quarantine, or perhaps self-isolation. I'm not keen to travel to Thailand until I can return home freely so I'm holding off on my travel plans. While writing this letter things changed again* -- it's hard to know what rules are in place. I realize it's likely they could change if / when I go away. When the time comes I guess it'll be a matter of making a plan and then taking the risk. When I bought a place in Cairns I assumed I'd be there for a few days a month, spending most of my time in PNG. I bought temporary, or minimal, furniture and household items based on the little time I expected to be there. For example, I planned to use a bean bag as opposed to a chair or sofa. As I'm spending more time there than I thought I've upgraded the temporary things with better ones and bought others so I can be more comfortable. Here's what I bought this year:
I started my 2021 purchases with a full latex rubber mattress. Not partial memory foam, not partial gel foam, but full, 100% latex rubber -- the same as I slept on when I was a kid, the same as I used for most of my married life and the same as Roger & Rex had when they were young. I want to expand on that as it's based on Gamble (or Baxter) family legend that I rarely mention. My mother's father, Harold Baxter, was born in 1891 and died from a heart attack in 1942, when she was 14. Back in the day he was a captain of industry. He and his business partner made the first latex rubber mattress in Australia. As you'd expect he provided them for his children; my mother did the same for her children; and I followed suit. Her father also provided seating for the State Theatre in Sydney which was a big deal at the time, either when it opened in 1929 or sometime later when it was refurbished. When Harold passed away the business was bought by Dunlopillo in Australia. I have no idea of the value but I do know his wife, my maternal grandmother Cecilia Baxter, lived off the dividends of those shares until she died in her 90s (she was born in 1898). I assume it was a significant amount. Back to my year … I bought a big chaise to be more comfortable watching TV, but I quickly realized I was used to reclining chairs. It wasn't long before I bought 2x La-Z-Boy recliners (at the end of February). Floor stock wasn't available in the model I wanted -- they had to be made for me. A pleasant surprise was they were made in a La-Z-Boy factory in Thailand. An unpleasant surprise was they weren't made, shipped and delivered until the end of October, 8 months after they were ordered. Patience is a virtue, I guess. The delays were due to intermittent COVID shutdowns in Thailand and then shipping problems getting them to Australia. My home theater was good, but it was only 3.0 not 5.1 channels. To address that I bought new front speakers delivered from the US for free courtesy of Amazon. The shipping cost represented 3 years of Amazon Prime membership fees so joining up was an easy decision. That made it a 5.0 system (Center speaker, Front Left, Front Right, Surround L & Surround R), and I bought a subwoofer to make it a 5.1 configuration. Now that I have the subwoofer I'm not convinced it makes much difference.
I also bought speaker stands, kinda mandatory when you only have bookshelf speakers (and no bookshelf). The home theater sounds good and now I appreciate the sound engineering in movies and the newer TV shows. George Lucas says sound is 50% of the movie experience. I don't know if that's a real quote or an internet myth but I can say I enjoy everything about my home theater setup.
That
covers video but what about audio? I enjoy listening to music but
didn't have a hi-fi like I did when I was (say) 23-49 years old. I'm a
big fan of Magnepan speakers -- I've owned them three times. Guess
what? Now it's four. I bought a pair of
Magnepan LRS, the
lowest price point in the Magnepan range, and a
Hegel H95
amplifier to drive them, also the lowest model in their range. I bought
these as the combination has good reviews on hi-fi websites. The
reason I have the least expensive models is that I have a small
listening space -- bigger, more expensive equipment would be a waste.
Setting up the hi-fi was a learning experience.
Back in the day you bought a CD player, maybe a turntable, connected
them to an amplifier with speakers and you were done. Now things are
different. With streaming the world has gone to standalone amplifiers,
sometimes called streaming amplifiers, or "just-add-speakers"
amplifiers. CDs / vinyl aren't used much any more. I'm not a Spotify
guy, or Apple Music, or Amazon Music, let alone the high end services
like Tidal, Qobuz or Roon. I have my own digital media and like to
listen to that. I collaborated with a friend to get my music library in
lossless format and I needed to access that using the amplifier. My
first attempt was to use a USB device on the amplifier; that failed
miserably as the amp doesn't have the computing to read
folders and files. I needed another way. I bought a
NAS
(Network Attached Storage), connected it to my in-home router and the
Hegel amp streams music from that. As one of my friends said "a NAS is
not for the faint hearted". I needed quite a bit of help to get it
working; everything makes sense now it's there but I couldn't have done
it by myself. I've said this before -- it's good to have friends. Now
I stream my own music to my hi-fi; not Spotify, but Neil-ify; not Apple
Music or Amazon Music, but Neil Music. During
the year I also replaced / upgraded my
washing machine and
dryer. These have bigger dimensions than the old ones, even though
the new ones are an industry standard size. My laundry was poorly
designed for access so I had a handyman come in to remove a linen closet
which freed up space for the new machines. That means I now have less
storage space but it's not fixed, and that works well for me.
Laundry Before
Laundry After Another thing I bought in
the year that I was, or am, happy with is a robotic vacuum cleaner. You
won't be surprised that I'm not the best housekeeper in the world;
vacuuming is one of those things I don't seem to find time for. This
thing is a blessing. It goes around the apt and does its work without
me being involved. I wasn't sure about it so I bought
an inexpensive one when it was on
sale; it doesn't have extensive features but it's been good. I have it
running several times a week; it has a random pattern and seems to cover all of the floor space -- much better than doing it myself. I also have a number of
smart home devices, mainly purchased last year. This year I embraced
smart plugs that I can control
remotely, but more importantly, the
ones I bought monitor power usage
that allow me to see, in real-time, what electricity devices are using.
Surprise, surprise, the TV is the biggest one; or maybe not a surprise
given it's a 75" lightbulb in the living room. As the power outlet for
the home theater is hidden behind cabinets I used to have no choice but
to have it on all the time, even when it was in standby mode. Now I use
a schedule that turns the electricity on in the morning and off at
night. At least I'm saving power for 8 hours per day. The fridge is
the next biggest user. I also found out that the washing machine
uses a lot of energy to heat the water for a hot water washing cycle.
Washing with cold water uses only about 1/3 as much energy so now I've
switched to that. You might day "well, duh, Neil". I guess I knew hot
water is more costly than cold, I just never stopped to think how
much extra energy it took. My electricity costs aren't out of
control but I feel better knowing I can manage individual devices. Here is a comparison of my
place when I started, last year and now.
January 2020 - a
blank canvas
September 2020 -
livable but a bit sparse
November 2021 - probably done now
The way things are with
travel and Australia I'm guessing that I'll be able to go to Thailand
for a few weeks in February or March. And I'll probably be able to go
to PNG in March or April. Once the PNG travel starts, I expect to
revert to the original plans where I'm there most of the time. That was
the plan when we had Delta; and then came Omicron -- now it seems
everything's changed*. What are my other plans for
2022? If I have time in Cairns, I'd like to make some improvements in
the apt: Wireless indoor security cameras inside the apt Renovate both bathrooms Replace carpets in the bedrooms with wooden floors Minor changes / improvements to the kitchen Quite a bit of painting (walls, etc) You know -- basically
everything. As
always, I wish you and yours all the best for 2022 and I hope it's a
good year for everyone.
* After writing this the situation in Qld changed, opening borders
with other states & requiring no quarantine for domestic travel. For
international travel there is 2 weeks self-isolation while we have an
80% vaccination rate and that will be removed when we get to 90%. It's
difficult to keep up with the changes … |
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