Fish Sauce

I was in the supermarket with Mother. I did not treat her as a helpless old lady and run around at her beck and call, instead just let her do her shopping at her pace. I did pop in to see how she was going. She was comparing two similar products, both brand name labelled. Why not the cheaper one Mother? She handed me the two bottles and told me to have a look at the preservatives etc in each. Sure enough, the dearer one was much less chemically laden, salt laden, sugar laden, colour laden. Hmm, ok, Mother knows about these matters. Interesting. I wish I could recall what the product was, but I cannot.

We were in the Asian owned green grocer and I was buying some fish sauce. There were two brands and I thought I should take a look at the ingredients. Mien gott, how much salt is there in fish sauce!!! But one did have quite a bit less than the other, so I bought that.

I understand that some government committee or whatever is looking at our labelling laws. How about the traffic light colours for a start, larger print of ingredients and fat, sugar and salt levels, whether it has a GM product in it and what the 'fats' are comprised of. We have a right to know what we are buying and consuming and we also have the right to know where the ingredients come from.

Melbourne Zoo has long being campaigning against the inclusion of palm oil in our food and the lack of labelling telling us so. Pretty worthy I think.

If you think using an ethanol mix for your car's fuel and you are helping the environment by doing so, think again. Google is your friend.

Now please don't tell me what makes up fish sauce. I like it in my stir fries.

Old buildings

I like old buildings and the history within their walls. Apparently so does one of my younger relatives, who might have entered an old six storey building that is undergoing renovation and climbed up into the tower that sits atop the building. The young man sat for sometime in the tower with a friend and gazed around at the city.

I don't want to spoil it for others who want to do the same, just exploring of course and not vandalising, so I won't name the building, but those within may well have produced a Melbourne daily newspaper until the paper closed in 1957.

Having an Asian friend

I have a couple. I have known them for a long time.

But an Australian friend who lives overseas has mentioned a friend of hers in several emails. The friend is American. We shan't hold that against her. Some of my best blog mates are American (that is irony for you Americans, who apparently don't get irony, or so we are told). Our friend recently sent us pictures of herself and her American friend when they were on a road trip. We were surprised to see that our friend's American friend was of 'Asian appearance', a term favoured by our local police force.

Our friend had never mentioned this, and why should she? Her friend is American. That is all we needed to know isn't it? We can label her and stick her in a metaphorical box with her just being American.

And yet???

Is it racist that I now think of our friend's American friend in a slightly different context? I don't think it is. It does tell me that she may well have a different background to the one I imagined. Should our friend have mentioned this? Not sure. Essentially it makes now difference. She is American, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Whadda ya reckon?

Later edit: How nice. A mention. What is it like to be a visibly non Anglo in an Anglo dominated country? AdRad gives you a couple of examples.

Earth Moving and the random

It certainly moved for me today. The pneumatic desk chair bounced me up and down as the mild earthquake struck. I think earth movement is amplified when you are near the top of a tall building. Maybe once every couple of months, I feel movement when sitting on the chair at the desk. I considered getting under the desk as the quake struck, but given it is made of glass, perhaps not such a good idea.

Methuselah is not matched to screen and the text, well everything is really weird. I am not hunting around to fix it for the sake of a couple of days, which might muck up the settings of the computer at the doctor's. But its setting may well be altered too. I have told the computer doctor to put in a one terrabyte hard drive, add an extra gig of ram and I am actually going to pay for Windows 7 and I get the disk. It puzzles me that computers don't come with an operating system and you have to pay extra to make the computer actually work. $300 all up, almost half of which is the operating system disk.

I forget exactly when, but we will be in Mount Gambier next week for a couple of nights. If you look at its history, its volcano is overdue to erupt by tens of thousands of years. It would be just our luck....... Ah well, I already feel like a fossil.

Something struck me today. The evil ex Liberal Party Premier of the State of Victoria sold off our electricity assets, mostly to overseas companies. Now, there is a suggestion that the owners of two of the dirtiest power stations may be compensated billions of dollars of taxpayers money to close down. That is, effectively, the government buys them and shuts them down. If the government owned them, they could just shut them down. I just do not get this privatisation of public assets business. The are privatised for supposedly reasons of competition. Maybe there are some areas where that works. Do point them out to me. Airports? Oh no, not there. Public transport? Oh no, not there. Telecommunications? Oh, in spite of my support for fibre optic, no, not there either. Private roads, that the owner's charge you to use? Oh no, not there. I am drumming my fingers waiting for a response.

Beware Perthites where your government wants to privatise your airport. Beware Greece where Euro community want you to privatise your public assets.

There is absolutely no reason why a government owned asset cannot perform as well as a private one. Given the government asset can borrow money more cheaply, double the reason.

Fibre Optic coming to you soon

Do I ever offer you advice? Do I tell you how to vote? Nah, I try to avoid anything like that. I am all care and no responsibility.

So I shan't this time either and just tell you how I see it.

Our children and grandchildren won't thank us for what we have done to our environment but maybe they will thank us for our fibre optic broadband that our government is intent on installing.

It is costing big buckeroos. Is it worth it? What about wireless over the air? Well, silly as you may think I am, I maintain that you can only fit so many radio waves in the air before the air becomes saturated with radio waves and they all crash together and fall to the ground, or some variation on that.

I thought that perhaps fibre optic would future proof us, not a bad thing. But I did have some doubts.

That is until I heard fibre optic signals travel at the speed of light. Can you get any faster than the speed of light? Yep, fibre optic will set us up for the rest of this century. Your great grand children will be using what we are now paying for now, a small compensation for where we have buggered things up big time.

Pc Update

We have decided to have a Windows reload for our present computer. Two and half years old is not enough to send it out to pasture. I have spent a good few hours saving what is on it and then dragging Methuselah out from the wardrobe and plugging it it. Now I remember why we bought the new one. Still, Methuselah is more stable than the newer one in its present ailing condition.

I am wondering whether to get a new and bigger hard drive though. 250gb is not very big today, when a single 'movie' can be over 1gb. I am also hoping we can move up from XP to Windows 7. It will be one or two days before I can pick it up. I won't have much time before we set off on holidays to make the new system how I like it. Doesn't matter really, since we won't be here to use it.

Now, if you have invented a computer that will last for say six years, without any attention or problems, please let me know. I would like one that just works, and keeps working.

Happy 4th

I don't stand on my feet all day. I don't work in retail. I respect people who do. My feet are sore. I have been on them all day. I stood for a bit on the cold balcony tiles and my feet feel a bit better.

Little Jo's party went well. We are just so exhausted though. The Highrise in night light looks ok, but tomorrow I will have to remove ground in chocolate cake from the carpet. Hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water.

There is an American word which I can't quite recall. Something like honery.The whole day was planned to suit Mother, but she was honery. Little Jo was blamed for the dumping of some chicken bones on the carpet, but Mother's grand children observed Mother spilling her chicken bones on to the carpet and called her to account.

When Mother visits the Highrise, she usually lingers and we press her to leave, but today she wanted to leave early. C'mon Nanna. We are going down to play tennis. She took one step out onto the podium where the facilities are and it was too windy for her.

Much fun was had on the tennis court, and then ABI Brother who was taking Mother home reappeared.

Mother is terrified of lifts. What did ABI brother do. Stepped out of the lift and left Mother in the lift. ABI Brother has to focus tightly on what he is doing. I don't blame him too much for leaving Mother in the lift. None the less, Mother was in her worst nightmare, supposedly trapped in a lift. The lift did not move until someone on another floor called for the lift. It was a posh woman who lives here apparently. She had flowers in her hand. She was concerned about this stupid old woman who could not press G to go to ground and helped Mother to push the G button.

Mother now has a great story to tell how bestie about how she was trapped in the Highriser lift.

They arrived very late, but what sweet lasses are Sis in Laws new beau's daughters are.

Oldest Niece quietly tied a helium balloon to Dreaded Nephew's hair.

While I just pick up the pieces, you would not believe how hard R worked today. The food was was so plentiful and ok, Sister did her bit too.

Little Jo is almost four. Where did those four years go?

Get read to duck

What has been happening in Melbourne's northern suburbs is disturbing. You can read the full story at The Age here.

Here are a couple of snips.

For the past five years police in the northern and western suburbs have been battling several distinct family criminal cells. The families are all of Lebanese origin, but police say their ethnicity is not the issue.

and

One of the cells, controlled by the Mokbel fan and his three sons, has been linked to drug trafficking, abductions, shootings, intimidating witnesses, bribery and attempted murder.

and

They have also been linked to stolen cars, passport offences, drugs, protection rackets, social security frauds, gun running and migration offences. One cell member currently under investigation has been connected to 26 Melbourne armed robberies.

So why are these good citizens not in gaol?

Crime families. Not nice. Sadly Melbourne's crime families are of a quite plain appearance.

But wow, if we head north to Sydney, not intimating at all that they are a crime family, but just colourful identities, we have the Ibrahims.

There is John.


His brother Fadi

And John's son Daniel.


Personally I don't know what people see in them. Better dash, I seem to have saliva on my chin and I need a tissue.

I must have kicked a ........

Well, I certainly got the hat trick today.

1/ Chemist Warehouse. Waited ages for our scripts to be filled, and then they missed one of mine. We had a lot to do, and we just could not wait any longer. I will go back at a quieter time, like I normally do.

2/ Chemist Warehouse still. I go to pay with my card. No card. It is lost. I had another card to pay with or R could have paid. Called and cancelled the card. So long as it has not been used, no big deal really. I doubt I dropped it in the street anywhere. It will turn up, but is now useless. I always put it in the same place in my wallet and it is a real mystery to me as to how it has vanished from my wallet.

3/ I was reading through your blog posts and a virus alert popped up. Then several popped up. The virus checker dealt with them. I decided to do a full computer scan, and it went downhill from there. Eventually all I was left with was a bare blue desktop. Restart, half the icons are missing, some of the remaining ones are greyed out, but still work. There is nothing in the start menu programmes, but the programmes are still all there and usable. I have spent a several hours searching for info on the net, but to not much avail. I have managed to make the computer usable, but it is pretty sick.

Funnily we were discussing about getting a new computer. This one is 2 years and six months old. I decided to wait for three years. There wasn't anything wrong with this one that a Windows reload would not have fixed, but I think I would like to move on from XP to Windows 7 and have a nice new clean machine. R is struggling with $$$ at the moment. I will just pay for it myself.

Now, tomorrow. In a week's time it is Little Jo's fourth birthday. Things are planned and arranged, which don't involve us. Mother refused to travel down to the Bellarine for Little Jo's birthday and asked if we could just catch up here at our place for a modest celebration. It has rather gotten out of hand.

Me
R
Tradie Brother
Ex Sis in Law
Ex Sis in Law's beau
Ex Sis in Law's beau's two daughters
Mother
ABI Brother
Sister
Bone Doctor
Little Jo
Dreaded Nephew
Oldest Niece
Oldest niece's beau
Chainsaw niece

Sixteen! Worse, are normal Saturday night dinner out did not happen, so I said to friends, just drop in Sunday afternoon if you like.

Lordy. I think we have spent about $80 on food already, plus $30 on balloons and Sister will have probably spent $30. Sorry starving Biafrans, it is not your week.

I don't think we have had such a family get together since R's last significant birthday. Oh yeah, we have. For Sis in Law's mother's funeral.

Why do we bring such stress on ourselves?

El Alamein

I quite like the Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore. She is quite a progressive person and is pushing ahead full steam with bicycle lanes for lanes for Sydney cyclists against opposition from all the right wing shock jock radio hosts that seem so prevalent in Sydney, the NMRA, that is the motoring association, and the incumbent Liberal Party state government. She has long being pushing for light rail in Sydney City. God, how much does Sydney need a tram service from the Quay to Central.

Clover has long been a friend of gays and lesbians. Ask the youngest and most vacuous queen on Oxford Street, and he will know of Clover and know she is 'ok'.

I really do though question her wisdom at being a state politician and Mayor of Sydney. Surely either job is enough! I am with the Liberal Party on that at least.

But Clover made a mistake, well she and her cohorts at City of Sydney. I first visited Sydney in 1983 I think. I last visited it 2009. Sydney has changed a bit in the intervening years. One thing that did not change was the El Alamein Fountain in Kings Cross. Australia wide, there is no where like Sydney's King Cross. That is not to say it is an attractive place, but it is unique.

Clover wanted to completely redo the area in Kings Cross where the El Alamein fountain is sited. The locals fought long and hard against the redevelopment, and they won. The area is to smartened up, but not remade into something else.

The people were victors over a grass roots type politician. That has got to be good. Only about half a million dollars were wasted before the redevelopment was canned.

Now, who had their hand up for a well overdue ibis culling programme? They weren't there in the eighties.

Pull 'em up laddie

Something light on a Friday evening to precede the weekend. Let me find a photo. A picture tells a thousand words.

A sagger, one who wears their jeans very low slung. He looks quite nice, but if he was walking along the street wearing a shirt with his pants like this............well, no not him really. He is wearing his low slung jeans with style. Let me find another photo. Yes, this will almost do. I am hard pressed to find a photo of someone wearing their jeans in particularly ridiculous manner, hip hop style excepted. His trousers look a bit silly. I so want to tell young men of their clothing malfunction.

Excuse me young man. Your trousers are falling down. You need to hitch them up. No, not the token adjustment that you constantly indulge in, but pull them up properly. You look particularly inelegant when you run with your phone in one hand and holding up your jeans with the other. Allow me to hoy them up for you. There, now tighten your belt. See, you can reach things in your pockets now and even put your hands in your pockets and not just your fingertips.

Care needs to be taken in the US state of Louisiana where it was proposed that the wearing of jeans in such a matter should be illegal.

Here today, gone tomorrow

The Dalia Lama has been to Australia. The first time I recall him visiting Australia, VicRoads took control of their traffic lights and gave him a clear run. Never mind that I sat at a red light for five minutes. Even old Betty did not get such treatment from VicRoads when I saw her just but passing by. She had police at all intersections to clear the traffic and she didn't travel to Springvale like the Dalia.

The Dalia novelty seems to have worn off a little. He is an amusing bloke though, with such an infectious laugh. Melbourne's top rating breakfast radio announcer seemed to be a bit sceptical about the old Dalia and his marketing prowess.

Broadcaster Faine this morning queried our PM about gay marriage and her opposition to changing the marriage act. To his credit, he pinned her down to her saying it was not a politically pragmatic opinion, but a personally held belief. Well done Faino, but then he screwed up by suggesting that because she is LIVING IN SIN (my words) with a man, that her view on gay marriage should be different. I don't see the connection at all.

So, now I know where I stand with Julia insofar as gay marriage goes. I don't care about it, but a lot of fellow gays and lesbians do. I'm not the marrying kind.

Back to the Dalia. He is a religious bloke at the end of the day, but he does talk wisely. His politics are shaky though as he did not know our PM is a woman. Our PM did not meet him. I approve. The less we have to do with religion, the better, and ditto for her. I hope she remembers this should old Ratzinger visit again. Thankfully Jews and Muslims don't seem to have heads to visit and bother people. I suppose Betty is head of the protestant church? Certainly the Church of England.

PS I just remembered a very important Jewish leader visited and with Melbourne's main synagogue opposite us, that did cause some traffic problems. At least he did not preach to the non converted.