Phoenix - Goodbye and RIP

 

Ozito cordless trimmer

Kids gave me a Bunning's $50 gift card for fathers day which I have been sitting on. Birthday came around and when I opened my sisters card there was $20 bucks in there. Latest Bunning's catalogue had some cordless garden tools so off to have a look.

Decided to purchase the Ozito Cordless Hedge/Garden trimmer for $59 dollars.

Super funds prove less than wonderful

HUNDREDS of thousands of superannuation investors would have been better off forgoing the government's tax breaks on contributions and putting their money in the bank, internal industry figures have revealed.

Email from Vodafone

Hi Alan,

We're investing $1 billion to bring you better indoor coverage, faster downloads and a stronger signal than before from Vodafone.
We've been busy working in your area upgrading sites, replacing network equipment, and building a new 850MHz network great for smart phones and mobile broadband. There's a lot happening in your area - we hope you're noticing the difference. Check out the maps below to see what's happening where and when.

We've also been busy improving our customer care services, to make it more convenient for you to contact us and give you more control over your mobile and your bill.

Balance Alerts – now you can keep tabs on your bill with SMS Balance Alerts. We'll send you an SMS when your next bill is getting close to your chosen limit. Click here to activate.

24/7 Customer Care – we're now keeping our care centres open day & night, so you can reach us anytime on 1555 (free from your Vodafone mobile).

More to come:
We're not stopping here. We're committed to keep improving our network & customer care services for you. So keep an ear out for more improvements & new services coming soon.

Regards,
The Vodafone Team

Yes…I am a Vodafone customer. Thing is I have not had any problems with them, admittedly I am a light user of phone, TXT and MMS. I have the $20 SIM card with 50MB of data. This is GPRS not 3G and works well for my needs to read news and weather. I can even access my CCTV DVR system at home:

Above: Live CCTV camera video over the web from home.

Example of Camera 3 monitoring the backyard on my Nokia E63  over Vodafone GPRS accessing my CCTV-DVR PC at home on BigPond cable. You can see the system here:

http://alanm52.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/8ch-home-pc-cctv-system-dvr-card/

http://alanm52.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/cctv-dvr-updates/

Update: Telstra Home TV Bundle

One of the things I did back in July 2010 when I retired from work (nice) was to rationalise and consolidate all our finance stuff like banking and super, household utilities and – entertainment. After a bit of research decided to sign up for the Telstra Home TV bundle for $198/mth which includes HomeLine Reach, BigPond Elite Cable 25GB and Foxtel Platinum iQ.

Since then the bundles have been upgraded, 25GB is now 100GB,  so I jumped onto Whirlpool to see if people were getting free upgrades – they were. Rang Telstra and arranged for the upgrade to 100GB without any issues and was informed it would take 4 –5 days. That was on Saturday, today received a email from Telstra that the upgrade was complete and we are now on 100GB for the same monthly $198 – happy with that!

Sneaky smart-meter price hike on Melbourne Cup eve | News.com.au

MONEY-hungry power companies will hit households an extra $1.1 billion to install smart meters after winning approval for hikes on the eve of the Melbourne Cup.

 

The decision will lead to bill increases of about $60 a year just in meter charges, and will take the gloss off any interest rate cut tipped to be announced today, the Herald Sun reported.

The Australian Energy Regulator has been forced to back down on efforts to limit smart meter installation costs to about $760 million, between 2012 and 2015.

The Australian to charge for online content

 

Australian to charge $2.95 a week for all online content

Tim Dick

October 18, 2011 - 2:02PM

News Ltd will soon charge readers of The Australian $2.95 a week to view all content on its website and mobile phone and tablet applications, as the country's largest newspaper publisher experiments with alternative sources of revenue in the face of falling advertising receipts.

It will be the first paywall for a general newspaper in Australia, an experiment that has achieved mixed success overseas by newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, the Financial Times and The Economist.

CCTV-DVR updates

I purchased two of these kits (clearance items) from Officeworks online for $50 each.

MP pay boost

MP pay boost: One-off pay hikes of up to $300,000 a year for bureaucrats opens up moves to raise pay packets of Federal Members.

 

 

One-off pay hikes of up to $300,000 a year have been approved for high-ranking bureaucrats. Picture: Supplied Source: Herald Sun

FEDERAL politicians could be set for extraordinary pay rises, with the salaries of backbenchers tipped to almost double to $250,000.

Writing exclusively in The Daily Telegraph today, columnist Laurie Oakes said MPs expected backbencher and senator base salaries to rise $110,000 from $140,000.

The Prime Minister's, ministers' and shadow ministers' even bigger paypackets may also rise in line.

The Federal Remuneration Tribunal is expected to make an initial report on political perks before the end of the year, with politicians expecting to trade extra payments such as allowances for bigger personal pay packets.

Any pay rise would likely trigger anger among unions, already unhappy about revelations this week the Tribunal was set to award five key top federal public servants pay rises of $250,000 to $300,000 - taking the chiefs of Defence and Customs, the Tax Commissioner, Auditor-General and the Australian Statistician to $800,000.

MPs receive a raft of handouts on top of their salaries including electorate allowances of up to $50,000, printing allowances of $75,000, a resettlement allowance when they lose office and post-career perks such as life gold passes for free domestic travel.

Ms Gillard, who earns $366,366, could earn as much as $650,000 under any new system, while Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's $259,000 could rise to $479,000.

The Tribunal would not say whether any rises would flow on to state and local governments, as can occur with annual rises.

This week increases to NSW MPs' pay and entitlements were capped at 2.5 per cent.

Community and Public Sector Union assistant national secretary Louise Persse said such big pay rises were not a good look when its members were being told to accept pay rises of 3 per cent.

"There is no doubt that our public service heads and politicians work hard and should be paid appropriately," she said.

"However, for the thousands of public sector staff across Australia on modest incomes, these increases may seem a bit rich."

Opposition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce, who has called for the Prime Minister's salary to top $1 million, backed paying politicians more but said he would be surprised if the rise was so much.

MP pay boost: One-off pay hikes of up to $300,000 a year for bureaucrats opens up moves to raise paypackets of Federal Members | News.com.au

8CH Home PC CCTV System DVR Card

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LYD 802CA 2.4Ghz Wireless IR Camera /Receiver W/Audio

Bought this at the local market for $49

Infrared Day/Night
2.4Ghz Band Wireless
See at Dark as well

Swann SecuraView - Home & Business CCTV Security Monitoring Kit $50

• Everything you need in 1 box!
• Camera has clear B&W image resolution
• 9ft (3m) infra-red night vision
• Connect to your existing VCR for recording
• Camera with 60ft (18m) AV cable for easy connection to monitor
• Easy do-it-yourself installation
• Monitor your home or business

Purchased two of these online at Officeworks as clearance items for $50 plus a extra 18M AV cable for $8 bucks – free delivery. This was my first online purchase with Officeworks and they screwed up my order – more about this later.

Toxic food imports - Today Tonight - Yahoo!7 News

A loophole in international trade agreements is allowing China to get vegetables into Australian supermarkets while avoiding chemical testing.  Toxic food imports - Today Tonight - Yahoo!7 News

We checked the freezer…

Sure enough - Birds Eye frozen vegies in there.

ALDI: Logitech Harmony 300i universal remote $19.99

Strolling through ALDI with the trolley and came across this for 20 bucks so I picked one up and threw it in on top of the usual groceries without much thought – something to play with.

Supports 5000+ brands

Replaces 4 remotes
Easy online setup
Online support and updates
Watch TV button - Turn on your TV and cable/satellite box with just one button press
Programmable buttons - Jump right to your favourite channels or perform functions like switching screen sizes or accessing video on demand content with a single click
Frustration-free volume - The volume controls can stay assigned to whichever of your devices you prefer
DVR controls - You have the commands you need for recorded TV

Door-to-door power hawkers face $1m fines

Door-to-door power hawkers face $1m fines

Brian Robins - September 14, 2011 - 9:16AM

A crackdown on electricity door-to-door marketers has been launched by the competition watchdog, the ACCC, which is concerned that the elderly and those with only a limited understanding of English are being targeted by some companies.

The newly appointed head of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, Rod Sims, said criminal and civil penalties will be sought, with fines of up to $1.1 million for each company for each transgression.

"The ACCC will not hesitate to take swift action to enforce compliance," he said at a conference held yesterday in Canberra.

AGL punishes low energy users

Thursday, 01 September 2011 11:32

JUST when you thought your electricity bill had gone up far enough, gas prices too have increased. This increase would have been somewhat easier to swallow at around four per cent, were it not for AGL changing their pricing structure for its retail customers.
AGL has decided that it’s more than reasonable to charge low consumption at a much higher rate than any of the higher consumption tiers. They’ve increased the charge for the first 41.096 megajoules (MJ) per day by a staggering 41% while reducing the daily service charge by 17%.

Retiree costs jump $1000 a year | Herald Sun

• Couples need up to $55k a year for retirement
• Annual income needs are up $1000, and rising
• Phone companies told to get real on bills

THE average Australian couple will need between $31,500 and $55,000 a year to maintain their lifestyle in retirement following a jump in living costs of more than $1000 during the past year.

According to the latest superannuation pension and retirement forecasts released yesterday, $31,500 a year will pay for a "modest" lifestyle while $55,000 will provide a "comfortable" retirement.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia report to June 2011 shows increased costs have pushed up annual income requirements by more than $1000 in the past year, with food, transport and health costs continuing to rise.

Association chief executive Pauline Vamos said retiree households spent differently to the wider population, with a greater outlay on food, health, transport and recreation.

"Between the March and June quarters retirees faced a 1.4 per cent increase in the cost of food and over the year to June the increase was 6.1 per cent," Ms Vamos said.

The latest statistics also included estimates on how much of a lump sum or nest egg retirees would need to provide top-up income to boost their age pensions.

For a modest lifestyle, a couple would need a lump sum of only $35,000 to provide enough extra income on top of the full $29,400 government age pension.

For a comfortable lifestyle, however, a couple would need a lump sum of $510,000, as they would only qualify for a part-age pension.

Yesterday, the Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority reported that the nation's superannuation pool had increased 10.9 per cent to $1.34 trillion during the year.

Retiree costs jump $1000 a year | Herald Sun

Problem putting chooks to bed.

Actually only one of the chooks – Lilly.




That’s Lilly looking at the camera, she is a very gentle docile Pekin but a bit “slow”, at times she bordering on NQR.

Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW - AGL punishes low energy users

 

Thursday, 01 September 2011 11:32

JUST when you thought your electricity bill had gone up far enough, gas prices too have increased. This increase would have been somewhat easier to swallow at around four per cent, were it not for AGL changing their pricing structure for its retail customers.

AGL has decided that it’s more than reasonable to charge low consumption at a much higher rate than any of the higher consumption tiers.

They’ve increased the charge for the first 41.096 megajoules (MJ) per day by a staggering 41% while reducing the daily service charge by 17%.

Below is a breakdown of the old and new prices which took effect on 5 August.

AGL Gas Prices effective 5 August 2011

Gas usage	Old charges	New charges
First 41.096 MJ/day	1.9492 c/MJ	2.7401 c/MJ
Next 49.315 MJ/day	1.8667 c/MJ	1.6489 c/MJ
Next 189.041 MJ/day	1.8040 c/MJ	1.6258 c/MJ
Next 2,465.753 MJ/day	1.7479 c/MJ	1.6115 c/MJ
Next 10,964.384 MJ/day	1.7380 c/MJ	1.5224 c/MJ
Remaining balance	1.7325 c/MJ	1.3772 c/MJ
Service charge	57.409 c/day	47.498 c/day

An increase of less than one cent doesn’t sound like much, but it very quickly adds up. A household using 15,000MJ a year will now be paying nearly over $15 more on their quarterly bill, an increase of 12%. This level of consumption is below the average of 23,000MJ per household, according to IPART, and is the sort of level many single and couple resident households would use.

The consequences of this, of course, are that those who can least afford it – pensioners and other low-income earners – are being punished for consuming less energy than other households and put in even greater financial difficulty.

The price change also doesn’t make any sense from an environmental or efficiency perspective. By jacking up the price at the lower end, it rewards those who can afford to use more or waste energy.

What’s worse is that despite there being an energy price regulator, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), nothing can prevent AGL from making such a price structure change.

IPART regulates standard gas prices and by how much they can increase, but cannot regulate how retailers charge their customers.

So AGL is free to pump up the charge for initial consumption, which everyone has to pay, and reduce the charges for the rates that barely anyone uses.

CPSA has sought for IPART to be given the powers to regulate such pricing structure changes, but it’s thus far fallen on deaf ears. This would allow groups such as CPSA to put forward a case where prices are fairer to households that do not use much energy and are on low incomes. 

Sony MHC-EC709iP Mini Hi-Fi System purchase

Time to replace the old Teac stereo unit which is 30 years old with something more modern that can understand MP3 files – LOL 

Add high-quality audio to your bedroom, living room or office with this 360W Hi-Fi music system. You can play CDs, listen to the radio, or connect your compatible iPod or iPhone.

• Powerful 360 Watt (RMS) music system
• Two-way bass reflex speaker system
• DSGX Bass Boost Function and EQ control
• FM/AM Tuner with 30 Presets
• Single Disc CD Player; CD, CD-R/RW playback recorded in audio or MP3 file formats
• MP3 Playback
• Audio-in lets you easily connect MP3 players, PCs or other devices
• Works with iPhone, Made for iPod; charge, play and control.
• Flip-Down iPod And iPhone Dock
• Clock, Alarm And Sleep Timer
• Remote control is multifunctional, controlling CD player, AM/FM radio and iPod/iPhone playback.

ALDI: Men’s Professional Grooming Kit $19.99

• 5-in-1 men’s grooming kit includes: rechargeable shaver, large trimmer attachment for styling precision, nose/ear hair and eyebrow trimmer, 2 hair clipper attachments with 8 locking lengths for styling options

While browsing through ALDI today tossed this onto the trolley. Been trimming the beard for nearly fifty years with a pair of barbers scissors so thought why not give it a go, can always return no questions asked. After unpacking and putting the shopping away unpacked the package to have a quick look. It appears to be quite well made, flicked the switch on the shaver and the battery has charge so ET the wife (ex hairdresser) attached one of the clippers and gave it a test run around the lower part of my neck. No pulling no pain so that’s a good start! Instruction say to charge initially for 16 – 18 hours so doing that now.

More to come…

Chook run cleanup

Beautiful day so decided to rake out the hay from the main chook run and the adjoining annex area and replenish with cleaner hay that comes of the floors of the two storage sheds down at the horse agistment. We purchase 10 or 12 bails every few months and its surprising how much ends up on the floor which usually gets swept out and dumped. Now that we are retirees I find myself looking for ways to be a bit more thrifty so I bag the hay (empty horse feed bags) and bring it home for the chook run. The finer stuff contains a lot of grass seed, just throw it around where the grass is struggling to grow in the backyard and the chooks will come along and scratch it in and before long – green grass!

Raking out the two areas fills the green bin.

Garden is coming to life

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First time for everything

Exciting day for us backyard chook lovers, our two Pekins decided to lay their first eggs – together!

Got home from tending the horses and doing a bit of shopping and as usual straight down to the chook run to let the girls out. Checked inside their shed and found a surprise in each box – eggs!

My last tax return

I retired in July 2010 and a couple of week ago we went to see the accountants with all the usual paperwork to do my last tax return. Arrived home today after tending to the horses and a bit of shopping and the first thing is to check the mail box. These days we don’t like to see anything in there but today was a pleasant surprise, a nice healthy cheque from the ATO!

So that’s it, for me personally no more tax returns  – hooray.

But wait…tax returns have not disappeared completely, we have our own SMSF that requires an annual tax return around Feb of each year. Never mind next time around the tax return will be very straight forward, no contributions or any other stuff just a pension paid out from monthly interest earned on a term deposit with a regional bank. I don’t think we will need an actuary report will will reduce costs even further.

Murder in the backyard

Went to the kitchen to make a cuppa and noticed some activity in the backyard, two HUGH crows standing in a pile of feathers – OMG. Immediately our chooks came to mind, where are they? raced downstairs and out into the yard whereupon the crows soared away their powerful wings threshing the air. I looked around for the chooks and spotted them huddled together under the bay leaf tree near the back fence – relief!

The murder victim is the very common spotted turtle dove, remains are to the right and below centre of picture.

ALDI: Electric Knife 12.99

• 180W motor
• Low noise
• Dual safety switches
• Blade release button
• 2 sets of stainless steel blades (standard and frozen foods)

Never owned one of these so we thought lets give this one a go – mistake.
Wasn’t expecting much for 12 bucks, reasonable to expect it would handle a small Sunday roast.
Well…after several attempts neither of us could cut even one slice of the roast, so returned.

Lancer car audio upgrade

Back in March this year we upgraded the wife’s 1997 Mitsubishi Lancer GLXi to a 2006 ES model. We weren't actually looking for a car but this one owner private offer was to good to pass, little old lady not able to drive any more and car was in mint condition with 25K on the clock. Has the MIVEC 2.4 with sports auto – very impressive performance.

The factory audio system is adequate for our needs, we listen to a few CD’s but mainly tune into AM talk back radio, in particular 3AW on 693. So I set about re-tuning the AM band for our favourite stations, press Seek to find the first one and press/hold one of the six preset buttons to store in memory. After several attempts Seek could only find one station at the top of the band, MTR on 1377 – we have a problem! I thought about it for a while, unlikely to be antenna problems so should I pull the unit out and set it up on the workbench (old radio and TV tech person) to run some tests? or just buy a new CD Tuner for $100 odd bucks.

ALDI: Folding Laundry Trolley $19.99

• Add convenience to your washing with this folding laundry trolley
• Suitable for round or rectangle baskets
  
  

Retirement anniversary

Today marks the first anniversary of my retirement - how time flies!

So…what’s it like? well one of the obvious benefits of not working anymore is not having to get up at 6:30am to go to work, I still use the clock radio alarm every morning but now it’s usually set for 8:30am, weekends included. This is to maintain some sort of routine but more specifically to let the chooks out of their run and for the dog to do her business. Some weekday mornings depending on the weather conditions I can hear the traffic drone and feel quite contented that I’m not part of that any more.

Being retired doesn't wipe out all commitments, every morning regardless of weather conditions we have to tend to the horses and you are not allowed to have a sickie. We get ready and leave about eleven for a short drive to the horses which takes about one hour to feed them, remove or change rugs and other assorted chores like moving bails of hay and bags of feed etc. After this we often do a bit of shopping and some days have to visit the older kids place to check on her dog, a long haired German shepherd.

Anyway, when we do get home I am free to do as I please for the rest of the day. Depending upon the weather, my mood and energy level I might stay inside or venture out to the workshop or potter around outside in which case the chooks are very interested in what I might do, in particular weeding the garden beds - LOL

Super good news

Checked the post box today and something from the family accountants?

A cheque from the ATO for $2500 – finally. This is for two super co-contributions that I put into our SMSF for ET – the wife.

I posted about this 12 months ago, the first contribution of $1000 was three years ago when the govt. was offering $1.50 for every $1.00 put into super up to $1000 for people below a certain income level, that’s $1500. With Labour having spent all the surplus Wayne Swan started his penny pinching crusade and the co-contribution was reduced to a dollar for a dollar which amounts  to $1000 –that adds up to $2500.

The exact amount is actually $2500.01, yep…two thousand and five hundred dollars and one cent.

More Pixie damage

Returned home Friday afternoon after a visit to the Vet with the cats.

Waiting for a visitor

Pixie expecting her friend Shyla.

It’s a dog’s life

Fashion headwear

For both humans and K9’s

Some kids never grow up…

ALDI: Bought a few items

No particular immediate need for any of them, just stocking up the work shop.



Pipe Wrench or Bolt Cutter $ 14.99

• Choose from 450mm Bolt Cutter with drop forged steel blades or
• 1.5” Pipe Wrench with inductive hardened teeth
  
  

Getting rid of freeloaders

One of the greatest threats to the health of poultry is mites – bird mites.

If birds are allowed to enter and roam the chook run area it’s likely you will end with with a mite infestation, this is particularly so in the summer months. This is one of the reasons why I built a annex extension onto the chook run.

Fortunately chooks are programmed to get rid of their freeloaders – they dust.

Speckles and Lilly, the new Pekins about 20 weeks old and been with us for about one month now. On the right is Misty and Ruby, they are Wyandotte’s about three years old.

We have had a lot of rain lately but they are able to still dust in dry soft dirt under the garden gazebo. This is one reason why I haven’t paved that area yet.

ALDI: Ceramic Fan Heater $19.99

Older kid was over one evening and spotted the heater, turned it on and checked it out. Nice heater…so she took it home. We do have central heating but sometimes you like a bit extra, we have other Tangi’s so not to worry.

Last week ALDI had heaters including a similar ceramic like the one we once owned.

• 1800W ceramic fan heater with oscillating function
• Adjustable thermostat
• Fan only setting
• Safety tip over switch
• Overheat protection

The latest offering of this type of heater all seem to have the oscillating feature, wonder what they will come up with for next year.

Anyway it works well, just need to hide it when not in use…

Cold miserable morning – sleep in

We have two dogs and three cats, now that winter is more or less here they are not that keen some mornings to get moving. Morning of Tuesday 24th of May was particularly quiet?

 

Pixie in the main bedroom.

Chook run – removing temporary divider

When we came home with the new Pekins (Speckles and Lilly) early in May I partitioned off one end of the main chook run to separate them from the older resident’s -  Misty and Ruby (Wyandotte’s).

This gives them their own space for a few weeks  (with water, feed and their own sleeping quarters) to get used to their new surroundings and for the older ones to accept the newcomers.

Another printer purchase

Had to purchase another printer!

The Canon MP640 which is not even 12 months old has a blocked print head. Tried all the usual things even used an ultrasonic cleaner – no go. So off to the market and purchased a Canon iP4850 for $98 bucks – not bad. This is a photo printer with 1pl droplets and without all the extra user stuff to keep the price down. No display of any kind, no card readers, copy or scan. It will do printable DVD/CD media and duplex.

So I got what I was after for less that $100, a printer that will print excellent 4 x 6 photos and has a 2-way paper feed, A4 in the tray and photo paper at the rear. I must remember to print something a couple of times to keep the nozzles flowing!




I have been using this beast for a couple of week now and very happy with the purchase. Prints lovely photos on ALDI photo paper, and the prints come quickly. Paper handling is superb.

Sign for the front door

Made up a little sign to place near the front door.

Speckles & Lilly photos

They are very friendly, iwe sit down to take a break from what I am doing they will look to hop on my lap. It’s best to have the tea towel handy in case they poop.

Lilly top and Speckles.

New Pekins – housing

For housing new arrivals I make use of a timber dog kennel that I scrounged off a neighbours nature strip during a hard rubbish collection. I replaced the front with a piece of melamine, note the  smaller entry more suited for little chooks.

Housing new Pekins 2011 – continued

In the previous post I blogged about heating the dog kennel to keep the little Pekins warm until they feather out some more.

I monitor the internal and external temps with a Projection Alarm Clock Temperature Station that I purchased from Bunnings for $10 – a clearance item.

Feline texting problems

Luna was having issues texting her feline friends, I advised her she had the phone upside – problem solved.

ALDI: Telescopic Tree Pruner $26.99

• SK5 steel, non stick coated cutting blade
• Includes saw attachment
• Telescopic aluminium pole
• Ideal for sawing or lopping hard to reach places
• Extendable up to 255cm

New Bantam Pekin girls

I have already posted that the new Pekins turned out to be roosters which was a real pity because they were very friendly and really clever. We returned them for the two below – definitely girls!

This one is white speckled and we named her Speckles.

Pekins: Exchange boys for girls

This time we definitely have girls!

On the left is Speckles with Lily on the other side.

Chook run annex – tidy-up

You may ask…why do I have an annex adjacent to the main run?
Well…to keep the mites out!

One of the greatest threats to the health of backyard chooks is mites – bird mites. In our area the most annoying backyard birds are doves and minors. If allowed too they will wander into the chook run and when you go to chase them out they fly around like crazy – and drop all their lodgers!

Mites need a host to survive and many of those that are shaken off onto the ground will soon find their way into the chook shed or coop – and onto the chooks at night.

New Pekins are roosters!

 

Sad news, after a month with us we had to return Violet and Speckles as they turned out to be roosters!.

Real pity as they were very friendly and clever - in particular Violet.

Garden pictures