Close to a replacement.

The Goodyear Ducaro tyres that Daisy were shod with will be getting replaced soon, I've already organised a set to be fitted in Sydney when Olivia and I do a little road trip in a few weeks time, by then they should be down to about 3 mm of tread depth and replacement would be a prudent choice.
These tyres have been quite a surprise to me, after the first 1000 km my measuring indicated they would last a mere 5000 km but it seems they might have a very soft outer layer since they've now done 17,000 km. I'm at a loss to explain why I've never liked these tyres, they grip extra well, even in the wet, no nervous moments, they're not a tyre available to the Australian market though, perhaps because only tyres rejected by leading countries get imported here.

Better news is I inspected the front brake pads and their wear is negligible after 16,000 km of use, these very budget Protex Blue pads I fitted when near new have been great, better bite and feel than the stock pads, yet to my surprise have not worn quickly as a result of the good cold grip characteristic.

Hoy.

Our friend Narelle was calling the Hoy at a social meeting that Olivia and I have been going to in recent months fortnightly on Fridays, her daughter Katie makes use of the wi-fi in the foreground, coincidentally it was also Narelle's birthday last Friday.
Until a fortnight ago I had never played Hoy which is merely a game of chance that fills in time but does give the mind a little bit of exercise as we have to react to the called card. We are given 13 cards from a deck and many decks may be used if the house is large but the tendency is to deal any persons hand from a single deck, the game ends when your 13th and last card is called.
My reason for long windedness is on my first ever game a fortnight ago the very first five cards called were in my hand, odds that by my calculations are a bit over the 1 in 2000 mark, then of course things rapidly returned to the usual failure and I didn't win, nor have I ever won a game but we do get to socialise a little, something for me that was lacking for many years.

Lost and found but it's not all bad.

Olivia lost her eyes a week ago and we found them tonight, however I don't consider them repairable, due by the looks of it to being used for parking practice for a few cars, a shame because they were a lovely set of eyes.
What's not bad is that we have closure to the mystery, closure being an important release when tragedy strikes.
The loco is added just to make the picture a bit happier, not to illustrate the train wreck it's become.

Rest in Peace Errol.

Our friend Errol Handy died last night, this slightly blurry photo was from Sunday when Olivia went to their place for the weekly Philippine girls get together, he looked pretty good then but he has been crook lately and had a heart procedure recently. Errol was about the first Aussie husband of a Philippine lass who we met and helped Olivia to join into the social circle here so she doesn't feel as isolated, he was a good man.

Again from Sunday Errol's now widow Van whom we give all our best wishes to.
Errol from the information I have was 68 years and 335 days old, sadly and coincidentally his aunt died within hours or even minutes of his death.

A couple of Jimby modifications to a Nikon S7000.

I grabbed this useful little camera some time ago at the right price but a couple of things I didn't like was the shutter button didn't feel right and the selector dial twisted far too easily, too often causing drama by turning whilst being pocketed/unpocketed.
After testing it out I figured I had no real need to change it from the green auto setting so I've used a bit of UV setting fingernail paint to fix it in place, if needed the knob can still be rotated after a bit of extra force breaks the seal.
Some rhinestones padded the shutter button to give it a nice feel.
This S7000 camera ticks a lot of my boxes for what I like in a camera, fairly good picture quality, a useful 20x zoom, comes in a non-black colour, is USB chargeable, small and light enough to carry anywhere in a pocket, and at the time I bought it a sharp price.
I have used it to post a fair number of shots to this weblog but you'll have to check the EXIF (which I leave in the shots I take) to see where it's been used.