The silly season is a time when most people have better things to do than worry about their computers, so we're hiding from the holiday crowds in Perth. (Last year we hid in the Victorian high country) We are enjoying the luxury of a house, and access to all the things that a big city has to offer, like cheap fuel, big screen movies, doctors, computer supplies, etc. Strangely, access to those services is not available on Sundays. Perth is unusual in other ways too. They announce the cheapest petrol prices and speed camera locations on the nightly news.
It's also a chance to service the truck, clean the water tanks, vacuum the inside, hose the underside, and best of all, completely unload it. It feels almost like a sports car with all that weight gone. We also took the time do do something we should have done long ago, tint the windows.
There are plenty of opportunities to bike around the parks and kayak around the waterways of Perth. By comparison with our other state capitals, Perth is somewhat bike friendly. We even spent a day riding around Rottnest Island, which is virtually a car free environment. Sadly, average people are just as bad on bikes as they are in cars.
The paperwork for the consumer tribunal finally caught up with us, so we filled it all in and sent it off. Just a few days later, the Highlander laptop failed yet again, this time the power supply.
We got an email saying Bill's sister was going to pop into Sydney on her way to Tokyo. With the hearing for the laptop due, and the chance to inspect our townhouse between tenants, Bill flew over to Sydney for a few days. The big news from the trip is that we got most of our money back for the Highlander.
With it gone, we needed a replacement, and we selected a Sony Vaio. Less than 24 hours out of the shop (and unfortunately, 4000 km from the shop), the CD/DVD drive failed. So it would seem that our problems with laptops are destined to continue....