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Something lighter today.

Most cruise ships don't have a lot of external hull decoration. We were surprised to see this rather colourful ship in Mykonos earlier this year.

I saw a similar ship recently at Port Melbourne's Station Pier. I believe the one above is the Norwegian Star and the one visiting here was the Norwegian Jewel.

There really do look terrific. They are all displayed without further clicking at the company website.

Unwanted attention

I can only say he was very forceful and I did not want anything to happen. After a while, I just gave up. You can only fight back for so long. I suppose I could have stopped him by making a scene or
punching him, but I didn't. Aside from being about ten years older than me, he was not in any position of power over me.

I could list all the names, but I won't bother. Men who abuse their power over women for sexual purposes are scum. I expect we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

The Lord Mayor of Melbourne has been accused of sexual misconduct and abuse of power and has taken a break from his role while investigations are underway. In spite of him being from the conservative side of politics, the general public thought is that he has been a great Lord Mayor. Call me ageist, but I just don't fancy Doyle at all. If I want an old man, I have one of them at home, along with myself. Nevertheless, I too think he has been a good Lord Mayor of Melbourne with some areas of conflicts of interest being of great concern. But there will be no recovering for him. The allegations are out there and there is no going back.

But whoa! It is a whole different kettle of fish when it is someone who you like is accused of sexual misconduct of a different kind. I don't think I've been so disappointed since learning of former ABC tv and radio personality Andy Muirhead's online pedophile activity.

I am quite shattered to learn of the allegations against the Australian actor Craig McLachlan. He was so hot looking. So charming. Now if what is said is true, he is just another ageing sleazebag who abused his power over others. So disappointing.

This is not really about sex, nor about flattering someone or indicating to them that you are very interested in them in whatever way. It is about power of one person over another, and much more often than not that of men over women. The revelations about men abusing their power over women over the past year will lead to improvements. Men will think twice, and so they should.

Da Linga

Words and language fascinate me. I am monolingual, as are most long term Australians. I learnt French at school for six years, so I have a little understanding of French, but I have forgotten most of it.

Remember the past bloggers the Hattats in Budapest? When we met Jane and Lance, I could tell she knew a good bit of Hungarian, enough to communicate. Both she and Lance had taken language lessons, which is what you should do if you commit to another country, learn the language.

I know the Americans in France, Ken and Walt, are fluent French speakers.

Which brings me to Gattina in Waterloo, Belgium. I hope I get this right from what she has told me and what I know.  Gattina of German birth speaks German, French, that is the local Waterloo language, English and understands Dutch but cannot speak it. Her Italian born husband speaks Italian, French and I think perhaps English.

Her son speaks French, English and Dutch. Her daughter in law, Dutch and a little English. Problem there, as Gattina and her daughter in law don't really have a common language.

Her son's young son Toby, Gattina's grandson, speaks Dutch and English, but not French, however, he is learning French.

We should feel guilty, I suppose, but least if we had to speak one language only, we ended up with the right one.


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Famous Five

Not done with Christmas yet, here are couple of late gifts. Sister gave me this book. Is she trying to tell me something?  I have read a little of the book. It began with the now adult Famous Five who are in a shared household going to what they thought would be a tame New Year's Eve party. The party was forecast to be boring, so they decided in advance to leave just after midnight. Next morning they all woke up with massive hangovers and little memory of what happened the night before. Apparently Julian signed up to join a choir but had no memory of it until a follow up phone call. A pretty girl was involved.  Remember the tomboy girl named George? I quote,  "For her part, George was also grappling with shame at having snogged someone. Also a boy, which filled her with shame for different reasons.

Tradie Brother asked Mother what he should buy Little Jo for Christmas. Mother consulted with R, who has a list of Little Jo's wants. R suggested a Pokemon poster. Mother did not pass this on to Tradie Brother and decided it was a good gift for herself to buy for Little Jo. Mother asked us to track down a poster. I called several likely places but no poster seemed to be available. We looked online. Bingo, plenty available for about $15 including postage. We ordered it on the 12th of December, with a suggested delivery date of the 22nd of December. No parcel tracking. I did not know where it was coming from. Apparently the US, as it did not arrived until 6th of January. So, this is a gift we bought for Little Jo that was to come from Mother. In the meantime Bone Doctor somehow managed to procure a different Pokemon poster, and whispered to Mother that she should give it to Little Jo from herself. Mother, rightly confused, asked how Andrew and R got the poster from us to Bone Doctor. Much confusion. The upshot is Little Jo will have two Pokemon posters to adorn her bedroom walls. This is just a photo. The posters are terrifically vivid and bright.

Chilly in North America

For you, including River, who cannot imagine cold like that which freezes Niagra Falls, there are things in place to ameliorate extremely cold weather.

A second post featuring Toronto in Canada and I haven't even mentioned Jussy once. Well, I am now. Look at his goatee. Jussy is going grey! My written offer to be a Prime Ministerial mister-ess has gone unanswered. His loss.

It was hot when we were in Toronto and it is hard to believe how Toronto can be covered in snow, but if you look at Jackie's post, there is snow aplenty. Ditto in New York.

But what clever Torontons. They have built underground walkways, known as PATH. PATH is not an acronym, and only means...path. 

I have just learnt that beyond being useful in the winter to avoid snow and cold, they are also good to avoid heat in the summer. I wish we had known that, in some ways. Toronto has a lot of lovely old buildings that we would have missed if we used PATH. 

Maps, I love them but it really is hard to post a map here that shows the extent of PATH. This one may be readable, because I have chopped off the northern PATH. You can see a good one here. 

Here is my effort. Not sure how clear it will be when published. We stayed at Royal York and the bottom of the PATH map, and arrived and departed by the Pearson Express train from Union Station, near our hotel. 

Musical Monday 3, original or cover. The end, I think.

I rather like Pink for a few reasons, which I have now forgotten.  She was the first performer of  Let's Get the Party Started and it was quite good and perhaps is what made her so famous.

It is a great song, but Shirley Bassey brought the proverbial house down when she performed it at Glastonbury Festival in England. Although it is a terrible recording, I prefer the Glastonbury version to the official recording as it is so much more fun. Shirley has such a powerful voice and did the song great justice and her live performance cheers me no end if I am feeling a little down in the dumps.

Pink official

Shirley official video

Shirley at Glastonbury

I was also a little entertained by Shirley performing at Prince Philip's 80th birthday, which you can see here. 

Better today

The apartment did eventually cool down more today without the air con on. I feel for those in the north of Victoria who are still experienced 40 degrees today, and those in Sydney who experienced 43 degrees and those in the western suburbs, 45 degrees, 113F. 

Hooking up

I see that mega rich skanky tart Paris Hilton has become engaged. At least she is more interesting than any kind of Kardashian creature. What's his name??? Ah yes, a bit of the foreign in him by his name Chris Zylka. His last name is probably Smith, but doesn't Zylka sound so much more interesting. He bought her a very expensive engagement ring. Did he get a loan from a bank, with his forthcoming marriage as security?

I don't have rules, but my general inclination is towards to tall, dark and handsome, just not to hairy. I am not alone. Madonna, another skanky old tart,agrees. Jesus, wasn't her Jesus handsome. But he is yesterday's man and was rather hairy.

But I must admit, Chris Zylka is very very nice looking. Quite delicious. Oh, he was once interviewed by Out Magazine. Well, we will read nothing into that. C'mon, you have to admit he has a nice smile.

PS Further research on this most important subject tells me his family name is not Smith or Zylka, but Settlemire. I hope Mr and Mrs Settlemire will be very happy together.