Capn Bloggs is obviously in Australia, where you can descend to 400' obstacle clearance in daytime (but must maintain MDA until you can make a constant descent to land at night).
In Australia it is also typical for the final approach for an NPA to not be runway aligned - it may approach the runway at any angle.
Bloggs, the Europeans typically only consider circling from a runway aligned approach - with the circle to the opposite direction runway - so the whole 45º for 30 seconds bit is how they obtain their downwind spacing. Not a good procedure, but Europeans never circle as a rule (so they are always nervous about it), which is why the OP wants an aid for it rather than looking out of the window.