0703092130 You light up my life.

What did I do today to help us get closer to Hong Kong?

Passports.
I picked up another passport today. We now have four out of five. The passport office was not so intimidating today, the place has become familiar, the strange computer screen at the front door was cooperative today and it welcomed me by name. One small problem – only one of two passports were ready. Due to their efficiency, the other passport has already been posted and is due to arrive on Wednesday next week. Handy tip for getting a passport – if they ask for a departure date, tell them that although you may be departing in a few months, your visa application needs to be in by next week. It must be a trigger for them to make your request happen faster. Don’t ever tell them that you are organized enough to make plans 6 months ahead. The passport people are your friends. The friendly and courteous staff asked me for some identification. “ I have the ultimate in personal identification”, toots me. “I have (dramatic pause) an Australian Passport! “ and added a footnote that it was issued by this very office.

Fix the house.
I took the afternoon off for some “personal administration” and went to the hardware store for a few things that I need to fix up the house. I needed a light fitting for the passage – the last fitting was cooked into a crumbly powder from the heat of a new low power globe. I know enough about 240 volt AC power to know that I don’t know enough about it. My eldest son told me that the earth leakage circuit breaker does not protect the light circuit. I didn’t know that. He is a clever young man and I wonder what else he knows - do the science teachers tell kids about this at high school? I have worked as a telecommunications technician for 20 odd years and I am familiar with plugs, sockets and connectors and so I should be able to install simple light fitting that has only two wires – one of which can kill me. The first surprise came when I saw that the fitting has four connections. AC mains has three wires – what is the fourth connector used for? I carried on regardless by duplicating the previous connections and, standing on a chair, in the semi-darkness, with my trusty screwdriver, tried see the tiny markings on the back of the socket that are written in brown on a brown background. Active, Earth and Neutral – connected. Now I’ll see if the light works – I put the globe in and closed my eyes in case it exploded. It lit up instantly. Great, it works - and then it occurred to me with a sinking feeling - I had been working with live wires.

references:
wiringrules.standards.org.au/faq.html
http://www.dfat.gov.au/index.html