St Kilda 1

Looks like The George Hotel in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda is getting a coat of paint. While I quite liked the peeling paint, shabby chic will no longer do for Fitzroy Street.

In behind the shops is a nice old looking building.....well behind the tram that inconveniently arrived as my shutter opened. Anyone know what the building is? It has a walkway through to Fitzroy Street.

St Kilda Teaser

This could well be answered by the first person who sees it, or answered by no one, but never mind.

I have been out taking some pics of some of the changes in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda. I had Ann and Ian in mind when I did so, but also a rant about something. They know the area but live a long way away, well one a very long way away, so they might like to see the changes. I might get to putting the photos up tomorrow. But for now, where is this photo taken?

Pandorad again and my blogaversary

Oh, I missed my fifth blogaversary. I meant to publish this a while ago. Here goes.

Wow, I did get updated again at Pandora archive by the State Library October last year. I consider this such an honour and while I would like to write marvellous posts full of well expressed, grammatically correct writing on fascinating and newsworthy subjects and become worthy of an honour, that was not why I was chosen, obviously.

(Highriser now puffs himself up, full of self importance)

I like to think my blog captures some time, a period in the history, of the rise and rise of highrise living (the good and the bad. Note to self, must write a bit about the bad), about St Kilda Road and some of the inner burbs, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and the world. As in life where I know a little bit about a lot, so is my blog.

How long will I continue to post? Maybe one day I will run out of steam. But stuffs just keep on happening, personal and public, and history is being made daily. Things that both I and you write about today, may well be examined in minute detail in the future.

I considered very carefully when agreeing to have my blog archived, only because of less than flattering references to some family members and I know that no matter how much I might clean up my past blog posts, the original is archived. I had no intention of any of them reading such things, they were rants. Probably the ones I was most critical of were the ones I feel closest to. I am more circumspect now.

I take much joy from people I have come to know through my blog. I am sad when some drift off for various reasons. If you are listed on my side bar, believe me, I read all you write, even if I don't comment, and what a disparate collection of blog mates I have gathered.

So Little Jo, if Sister is now telling you what is in my will and there is a url there too, do click on the Family tag and have a look. I don't know how you will turn out, as lovely as you are now, but no one has ever received more love than you.

Photo Storage

Flickr, Webshots, Photobucket and Picasa. I use them all. When online photo storage first started, there were very limited options and some had one feature I liked and another had another feature I liked. Now, I could just use one, with different folders and privacy settings.

I would put the time in and get all my online photos at one site, perhaps Flickr and even pay for it, but the work that is required is unimaginable as links where I have posted my photos on the net would all get broken and I would have to repair them, although some photo posters don't seem to care about that.

I like my photos but I don't think I am a very good snapper. Even my dirty camera lens had to pointed out to me. Thanks Reuben.

Speaking of good photos, and I thank Jayne for alerting me to this site, have you ever taken a look at Shorpy's Photos? It is site of mostly historic black and white photos from the US. The quality of the some of the photos are extraordinary and yet they can date back to the early twentieth century. There are often railway and tram photos posted. Make sure you see the high resolution full sized photos.

Day 1,820 and Grooving in Glen Eira Road

This is about the 1820th Sunday I have missed church in a row. Mother made sure I made it for my baptism. Today I can blame the start of daylight saving. I was well aware it started today. I arose at just before seven, made coffee, turned the radio on and sat at the computer. This is what I always do if I don't have to go to work.

At 7.01 I glanced around at the wall clock and wondered why the news was not on the radio. Maybe the clock is a minute fast. Bloody Macca droning on and on. I looked around again. Why is there no news? I looked at the bottom of the screen and the clock said 8.02. I was enlightened. No news because the upsized super mega news starts at a quarter to eight and finishes at eight. The start of daylight saving of course.

Over the course of the day clocks have been reset. We screwed up R's pvr because we set it hurriedly as we were going out and managed to forget it was a twenty four hour clock, so he has no trash to watch in his bedroom as preset recording failed to proceed.

Phone handset and answer machine (why can't they speak to each other). Air con remote. Two tvs. Two pvrs. Three bedside alarm clocks. Microwave. Vcr. Dvd recorder. Two car clocks. Mantle clock. Wall clock. Two mobile phones.

What we no longer have to adjust are personal organisers, oven, lighting timers

The day in brief, returned the tv wall bracket and bought some opals for R's sisters in England for my Sis In Law to take at the end of this month. We bought from an opal shop in Swanston Street our crazy neighbour downstairs owns. She started the business in 1963 at the now demolished Southern Cross Hotel. Friends said she was crazy to set up a shop to sell Australiana to tourists. She is from The Lebanon and an expert in gems and fossils. To me she seems to be a stereotypically Jewish trader. She spied us looking in the front window of the shop and 'My darling boys, come in. I show you my fossilised coral. Opals? Yes, of course I give my neighbours a special price, but first see how amethyst in its raw state'. Meanwhile she had her Asian staff running hither and thither and then despatched one to So Cross Station with a jacket a customer had left behind. I would say she could talk the leg off an iron pot but R said she could talk a glass eye to sleep. She is great though and very smart. Recommend Abbess Opal Mine.

Ok, I said brief.

R bought my birthday present in advance from Dick Smiff Electronics. Don't worry, I will give you good notice of my birthday and where to send expensive gifts. Harvey Norman only had brand names. While I might have been a bit of a label queen in the past, I am not longer and quite content with my excellent Thomson Mp3 player, rather than an Ipod. Btw, I have bought a new mobile phone on Ebay. More later.

On to the Southbank market. No painted gnomes, cartoons or bearded Lords to be seen. Bought a picture for home to hang where the tv was supposed to sit on the wall.

Out for dinner to an Indian restaurant in Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea. The old one had an open tandoor oven and the building went up like a Hindu widow a while ago. The new much smaller version is almost across the road. The full on religious odd bods in black coats and large furry hats were parading the local streets, and they were just the pre teen lads. No Jewish women to be seen on the street on a Sunday night. Why? I expect these people in that location. I did not expect a nightclub and doof doof next door to the restaurant or young people in clubbing clobber hanging around the street. A night club in Glen Eira Road Ripponlea. Who would have thunk that would happen.

Our food was excellent as was the service. There were about ten of us. We were ostensibly celebrating the late Dame M's birthday and it is just around the corner from where her Boarder now lives. I was the only one who mentioned her birthday, raise your glass to Dame M.

For good reasons we have been going to Bala Da Dhaba in Ripponlea for Indian tucker for many years. Recommend it.

The day was going well until....

More DIY

We were at Victoria Gardens during the week. We were in Dick Smith Electronics looking at brackets to mount the tv on the wall. R wanted to buy it straight away but I am more cautious. I wanted to check for studs in the wall etc. A raging blue polite exchange of words followed which took two days to mend.

The next day in Harvey Norman, we just bought the bracket. I had checked with the stud finder, how I love that phrase, and the studs within the wall seemed to be in the right place to mount the tv (Brian or old Lordy, don't you dare). It was cheaper too, $25 less.

Today we decided to put it up. There were many parts and poor instructions, probably why it was cheap. I had to get my head around it before I could proceed.

Eventually I worked it out. I attached the brackets to the tv, the tilting mechanism to the brackets and that was a mistake. The wall plate should have gone up first. I started to put the wall plate up and where the studs were supposed to be and they were not, nothing behind the plaster but some metal shavings on the drill bit. Oh dear. Drill a few more holes and not a stud to be found. Usually they rain from the sky.

Call Brother the Builder, the tradie one. I thought to indulge in some chit chat before demanding of him why there are no studs in the wall. He tackled a dozen graffiti writers last night who daubed his front fence a year or so ago and he ended up with some bruises and a broken and loose tooth. He will get his daughter to extract it tomorrow with pliers. Anyway, Brother the Builder was not very helpful, apart from knocking a hammer along the wall, padded by a handkerchief. He added, not a used one as they can mark the wall. I used a dusting cloth. He did suggest that maybe because it is an external wall, they would not use timber for fire reasons. He builds houses, not large apartment blocks.

So, obviously the stud finder ( I am getting a tingling feeling somewhere) was registering metal straps. There are no timber studs, so we cannot mount the tv on the wall.

Bit disappointed. Dismantled what I had assembled, packed it back into the box, will return it to Harvey Norman next week, and then tidied up. Wasted three hours for a person who is starting to think about a finite number of hours.

Something good did happen though. We had a too large picture, a Miro print, behind the tv and attached to the frame was a picture downlight. The picture must go because it is partly obscured by the tv, but I tried to turn the downlight into an uplight behind the tv. I clamped it the power plug at the back of the tv and it is hidden and gives great uplighting. No lamp to be seen, just a wash of light over the wall.

Letter to America

I asked some questions of Daisy a good while ago. She responded and it was quite interesting to read her responses and I thought it gave us down under and even those in ole blighty a better understanding of the United States. Go back and have a look if you like here.

Dina lives in Fort Worth, Texas and I have learned more about Australia and Australians from her blog than I ever did in school. I will ask her similar questions as I asked Daisy.

Is politics relevant to you? Do you keep up with the election news?

How many people live in Fort Worth? Does it have suburbs separate to the centre of town?

Do you visit the centre of town at all?

How far to the nearest Walmart? Do you shop there?

Do you feel part of a local community?

Do you shop in a multinational supermarket? Like a large company one?

We Australians would probably think of Texas as being hot. What is the hottest and coldest temperatures you experience? Do you have cooling air conditioning? Central?

Which public utility company annoys you the most? Electric? Gas? Oil? Phone?

Do you need heating in your home? Is is gas or oil fired and is it a central system that heats the whole house?

My council rates, that is the local government authority, are around AU$1,000, equivalent to $US870. This pays for local road maintenance, rubbish collection, street cleaning and other local services. Do you pay a similar to some government authority?

Has there ever been street cars in your town? Is the public bus service decent? Is there a railway? Can you go to New York from your town by train?

Do you have a portable vacuum cleaner or a central vacuum system for cleaning your house.

Do you walk around neighbourhood streets very much?

Apart from people who might work in shops, do you have frequent interaction with Afro Americans?

Hope you can oblige Dina.

From Mother's Wardrobe again

Mother had three penfriends when she was in her teens, two in England and one in Japan. Here is a christmas card sent to Mother from her Japanese penpal. It is very beautiful. The picture is on flimsy tracing paper and only attached at the folded end of the card.

It was only five years after the end of WWII and from what is hand written inside, the penpal was clearly very eductated, including in English and she must have been from a relatively wealthy family. They lost touch at some point.

One penfriend in England, a Mrs Foster, was older than Mother and they kept their correspondence up until Mrs Foster died, maybe a letter ever six months. I remember parts of one a letter that arrived in 1965 and Mrs Foster was filled with grief over the death of her beloved Winston Churchill.

The other in England, Mother also lost touch with. After the war Mother used to post her food parcels, probably confectionery I reckon.

Shinkansen

How sweet is our friend in Japan. She sent me these gorgeous little pictures of the Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train. Do you know what they are? Band Aids. But as if I would ever use them. Thanks Vik.