OK, we’ve done it now. The TV has been purchased — and what a comedy that turned into! It seemed to take a quarter of an hour for the staff in Dick Smiths to find one in their store-room and get it to the checkouts. I was amazed at the size of the box, concerned that it wouldn’t fit in the car, but since the washing machine went in, just assumed that the Astra could take it… As the young lads were wheeling it out to the car-park I realised why it looked so large. 76cm screen vs. the 66cm one we’d purchased. Then came the fun part, around four iterations of “That’s the wrong TV, not the one we wanted, followed by “are you sure? Eventually we got the right one, and loaded it into the car. I guess if I wasn’t so honest — or not quite so quick to comment — we’d have walked off with a $1600 TV for $800 — me and my big mouth… (TEAC CTW2850S, no manuals in the box, no warranty card, no receipt, but apparently a 3 year warranty)

Added excitement was provided by the girl driving the Budget Hi-Ace rental van (PWO-869), driving straight into the back of us as we sat at the traffic lights on Warrigal road. She refused to give her name or license details, saying it wasn’t necessary as there was no visible damage — probably terrified of what Budget would do if she admitting to crashing their van.

Farewell; Paulus, it was nice knowing you… Or whatever else is appropriate to wish someone on their bucks night. He doesn’t look too concerned, we all enjoyed the proceedings. Most of them went Go-Cart racing in the afternoon, I joined for dinner at the Napier and then beers at an assortment of pubs in Fitzroy.

Far more interesting than the travesty of the State election held today. The Liberal party appears to have self-destructed over the past few weeks, the Greens don’t seem to have any policies, just a general “be green” message. It being a “time of trouble” it was predicted that the populace was likely to vote for the incumbents anyway — and so it happened.