After a false start I have upgraded to the latest Firefox browser.

When Version 2 first came out I installed it onto my computer only to find a minor bug in the way the tabbing works due to a customisation that was set up.

My configuration of Google was part of the problem, but it would have difficulties in many other sites as well.

In Google, you can set your preferences to open up search results in a new window. I then use Firefox to force new window links into a new tab instead.  It makes searching for things very easy because you can open up a few pages based on your search request without having to go back all the time.

The bug was causing Firefox to open two new "empty" tags and the link in a new window.

Version 2.0.0.1 has fixed this minor annoyance.

The new Internet Explorer, version 7 is also available now and still it does not comply with W3 standards for CSS rendering, which makes coding for IE a royal pain in the proverbial.

If you are using IE, please concider using Firefox 

Merry Christmas and selamat Natal everyone.

My last remaining grandparent, my mum's mother, died on (last) Saturday night.

I have mixed feelings about it as I am happy for her but have to cope with my own grief and the grief of my family too.

She lived a full life until dementia and alzheimer's started to destroy her, stealing her memories until she was no longer the person she used to be, but an empty husk, increasingly getting angry and suspicious at the people around her. It was heartbreaking to watch.

The last 6 months she really started to get worse and there have been a few occasions when she took ill and the doctors advised us that she may not survive the night, but her will to live was strong and her recovery was remarkably good each time.

Still, we knew that this would not continue indefinately.

Late Saturday afternoon my mother was advised by the nursing home that she had slipped into a coma so my parents went along to be with her. Carol, my mums older sister also joined them and later Malcom, nans youngest brother arrived having just come from a wedding that most of that side of the family were attending.

At 9.05pm she woke from the coma and looked at the people in the room and smiled at them, gave Mal's hand a squeeze and then left.

It was twenty five years and one day after her husband died on a cold English December morning. As he was Australian by birth his ashes were returned to Perth. She will be next to him forever now.

I have updated the header on this site as the last one was.. Shall we say, a littl dull.

I was not in a happy place when I did the last header, hence the dull colour and geometric rigidity.  This feels more like me.

Enjoy! 

Yesterday we went to the Galleria in Morley to get the kids photos taken with Santa.

This year they are doing immediate printing so you don't have to come back and collect them.

They are not very good and have the same result that I get printing at home so, if you're thinking of going there for photos..

Don't bother! 

The next stage of the garden renovations have taken place with the sinking of a bore to get water for watering.

Because of the water restrictions we are only allowed to water two days a week (Thursday and Sunday) and not between the hours of 9am and 6pm and once only on these days.

By placing the bore it removes the two day restriction meaning we are able to water twice a day if we wanted to, although the time restriction still applies. Not that I would water twice a day.

Most importantly it reduces the burden on the scheme water supply, after all, what is the point of pouring drinking grade water onto a garden.

The well, a PVC pipe dropped 15 metres into the water table below.

A stainless steel pump being lowered down the well.

Pumped to the surface, the water runoff.

The bore housing, now self contained and sealed up.

Laying the PVC reticulation pipe.

The problem with Perth is that we don’t actually have soil. Our ground is sand sand and more sand and it doesn’t really retain water. It’s not too bad if it stays moist but once it dries out it gets a silicone build up that stops water from sinking from being held.

It’s not uncommon to run sprinklers for 10 minutes and only wet about 1cm of topsoil with dry sand underneath. A wetting agent, usually a soap product will allow the sand to hold onto the water but regular watering is the best way to go.

The other problem with allowing the sand to dry out is the onset of ants which eat out the roots of plants and shift all the sand upwards. I won’t get insecticide to deal with this problem so moisture is a happy solution for me.

That was my first impression of Daylight Savings when I got up for work this morning.

Yes, now Perth has daylight savings and once again old debates have been stired up regarding the pros and cons of it all.

Myself I am not really against daylight savings but I also don't see the need for it here in Perth. In fact, this is the fourth time that it has been trialled here with referendums at the end of each trial ending in a vote against the permenant implementation of it.

It's not just about curtains fading because of a supposed extra hour of sunlight or the cows getting confused about what time they are getting milked, there are some genuine reasons against daylight savings.

While it is easy to say that Perth and Sydney are generally two hours apart in time, this is only a clock time. To be exactly two hours different Sydney would need to be 30 degrees east of perth when in fact it is closer to 36. This actually means that, discounting two hours, daylight starts and ends earlier in Sydney.

Or as the Perth Observatory put it "Sydney is about a degree east of its time-line (150E) and has both sunrise and sunset about 4 min. earlier than a place on the time-line*. Perth is about 4 degrees west of its time-line (120E) and has both sunrise and sunset about 16 min. later than on the time-line* (* at the same latitude). You could say that Perth has an inbuilt daylight saving of 20 minutes, compared with Sydney"

Well, 20 minutes is a difference but it's not really that big a difference and the closer to the equator you travel, the less effective daylight savings actually is.

To put it in context, here are the hours of sunrise and sunset on the day of the summer solstice, 2006

I don't think that Perth really needs to have daylight savings. It is understandable on a place like London where, without daylight savings it would start to see twilight at around 2 in the morning, but here it is just an exercise in sun loving and, with such a high rate of skin cancer, is that really the best thing to be doing.

Having said that, I'm just going to wait and see how I feel a few weeks into the trial.