The non walking dead

 I had ideas for a post but I've forgotten them all now. Let me look at my unused photos. 

Ok, in early May Yorkshire Pudding took a walk in a cemetery. I like cemeteries. They are quiet and peaceful. By their nature there is little chatter and no need for small talk with occupants. So I took a walk in St Kilda Cemetery. There are many famous historical folk interned there but actually finding their graves in spite of maps is not easy. 

Now I remember one planned post, St Kilda or Saint Kilda. I can't write how to say St phonetically but if you give it is long pronunciation, it is as written, saint. I am now seeing our street written as Saint. I hate to see it written like that, and worse, I hate the way some say the elongated Saint (Kilda Road). This extends to the suburb where people are starting to call it Saint Kilda and not St Kilda. I want to slap their faces. Ok, I'll give phonetics a go. It is Snt Kilda, close sarnt but with a more i vowel. Sint might be closer.

The cemetery. 

Just working on memory and remembering that while my father's family seem to have been free settler immigrants, my mother's family on both sides was quite wealthy and important and William Cochrane was my great, great grandfather with a road in Melbourne's south east named after him or his family. His grave was a bit of a surprise to find. I had no idea.

"You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me". 

 

Albert Jacka was awarded the Victoria Cross after WWI. He went on to be Mayor of St Kilda and sadly died from war injuries at the age of 39. Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda is named in his honour.

We are away to the Bellarine for a few days. See y'all soon. 

My day

I wrote this a while ago and since I don't have anything to publish for tomorrow, this will do. It was written when we were extremely locked down at some point. We could go out for food and exercise, and a couple of other reasons.

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Rise at 6.55. Sit on balcony for a few minutes and make sure the 6.57 tram to West Coburg is on time, proving all is well in the world.

Get back into bed listen to the ten minute 7.00 o'clock ABC radio news. I leave my little digital radio on until R gets up and then switch on the mantel digital radio so we can both hear it. I tune in and out of radio depending on what I find interesting.

Because of my osteoarthritis I can't lie in bed with my tablet anymore. I sit in my armchair watching Youtube videos on my tablet. Revisit balcony. The 7.16 and 7.22 trams to Toorak are on time. I make a cup of instant coffee.

8am I turn on desktop computer and and answer emails, answer blog comments, look at new blog posts by others and comment. I also check other social media. I take medications at 8.30. Sitting at the desktop might last until 9.30.

8.30 I hear R's phone alarm go off. 9.10 R gets out of bed.

Sleep well hon? Yes. You? Yes.

There is no rush to do anything. We manage to be showered and dressed by 10.30. I've had some cereal for breakfast. R doesn't eat breakfast.

We drive to the big green hardware shed. We buy some sealant for R's shower tap and a tree for Mother for her birthday. At 87, she is optimistic about a seeing a tree grow to fruition. 

We drive on to a supermarket and I find chilli fish tins on special for $1.25 so I buy two tins. We buy pre made sandwiches at the supermarket and drive further on to a beach side cafe where R buys coffee and we find a lonely sheltered seat to eat our sandwiches and drink out coffee white staring out to sea. What is that boat? Ah, I have an app. I found out what it was.

Home and I empty dishwasher. R alternates between napping and watching tv in his bedroom between 1 and 3. I go out to see something, walk somewhere or travel somewhere.

This day I caught the 58 tram to South Yarra Station, the all stations stopping train to Laverton. and then the express train back to the city from Laverton.  There were a few interesting people on the trains but none of real note and none to fall in love with.

Home by 4 and attend to matters of the internet and watch some more Youtube train videos. 

Plan a holiday inspired by a Youtuber. 

Left over roast lamb with vegetables for dinner. Watch some tv while on the desktop. Bed around 11pm.

Charge yourself

For the first time today I used public transport after our most recent two week severe lock down. As each week passes and it seems like COVID is again under control, we are freed up by degrees. 

As far as I can establish this is a free phone charging service. I've seen one at Flinders Street Station in the city and now there is one at South Yarra Station. It is easy to see there are multiple leads inside each cabinet to recharge your device.  How many years ago did I hear about a universal plug for all devices? 

Nevertheless, I think this is a great thing for young people who don't charge their devices overnight and run out of battery the next day, and if they are heavy users, they won't have a charging pack with them. 

I've seen my phone battery get quite low after all day usage, but I have never run out of charge. Why is these charging stations necessary? Should we be piling on irresponsible young people who don't charge their phones overnight? 

Conversation to Hippie Niece:

Aunty Andrew, my phone is flat.

Why did you not charge it last night?

I was using it and I forgot. Aunty Andrew, do you have a plug for my phone?

So you forgot your charging plug too? No we don't. You are an i person and we are Android. Never the twain shall meet.

I can't remember how, but she did find a way or a plug or something to charge her phone.

Monday Mural

Thanks to Cathy and Ian a Melburnian in New York, I know of a trove of murals in Footscray. I caught a tram to the city and then a bus to somewhere to take this photo. It is a nice enough mural.

And nearby was this COVID pop up park with this rather nice mural. 

A Mother Visit

After returning from  Sydney to Melbourne we were in lockdown. Lockdown has been eased now and we drove along the big wide multi laned road to see Mother today. She put on her usual performance of being a shaking and quivering mess to becoming quite cheerful by the time we left. We took her out for lunch to a shopping centre cafe and had a nice meal. 

We then shepherded her into the Big Trouble You department store to buy greeting cards for July family birthdays. She bought a huge toy for her two year old great grandson, an aeroplane with a rotating propeller, lots of flashing lights and music. I think Little L will love it. Mother quavered between being concerned over the $70 it cost and how much cash she has at the bank. I keep saying to her, you have the money, spend some of it, and she did.  She gave me $20 to pay for her lunch and I did not work out how much less her lunch cost. I'll get the $100 she borrowed from me over time and did not repay back and subtly. 

So we went on the card department and bought what she needed. Mother is 87 and I noticed there were 90 year old age birthday cards.

Mother would dare not speak sharply to R, but on the way back to the car, she stopped and said loudly and aggressively, 'I don't know where I am'. Some poor passing man heard the aggression in her voice and thought he must have knocked her walker, and apologised for his non offence. This ain't gonna get better.

She was so cheerful by the time we left, distracted from her medical problems and medications. I said to ABI Brother as we left and within Mother's hearing, I saw some 90 year birthday cards in Big Trouble You. Do you think buying one now would be a good inflation protection investment? I must have gotten the tone right as there was much laughter, including from Mother.

This photo appeared on FB recently, of Mother when she was in the rehab hospital and Tradie Brother. I really like it.

Going rogue Buddhist

My Sunday Selections are normally quite a mixed bag of photos but I have a focus this Sunday. You can see what River and Elephant's Child post for Sunday Selections too.

I like Footscray. It has good and well patronised public transport. Most of its residents who shop in Footscray are either South East Asian or of black African heritage. The black men can be very tall and slim. In years past it was known for its open drug dealing but in the couple of years I've been going there, I have not seen any of that. It is not an area of wealth and has an edgy feel to it. There are white people there of course and those with mental issues are quite obvious and as per usual, loud but harmless. While R being less used to the area is not so relaxed, I feel quite safe there.

Maybe a year or more ago I sat at the same cafe as below and a handsome young black man gestured if he could sit at my table. He wasn't one of the tall ones. No reason to say no his request. He sat at a 90 degree angle to me. He was wearing very stylish jeans, bought deliberately threadbare on the legs with the flesh of his legs showing. He was one very sexy and stylish bloke. It was clear his English was poor. He gestured to his exposed legs and said sorry to me. And there gentle reader we enter what I should have said and not what I did say. I did not tell him how sexy he was, or that I wanted to have his babies. I just said 'fine, no problem'. I think about it every so often and I can never decide if it was an offer of a commercial transaction or I read too much into it.

Anyway, back to the outing.

If I had to choose a religion, Buddhism would be high on my list. It is such a peace loving religion. No? Burma? Army? Ah yes. There are always folk who spoil things.

Nevertheless for years seeing only the back view of a Buddhist temple and the large Heavenly Queen statue from the train line to the west was getting up my goat.

I bribed R with the offer of a bacon and egg brunch sitting outside in the cold wind at Maples Cafe in the Nicholson Street Mall in Footscray to make the trip by car. I even offered to drive. It was a little complicated to get there from Footscray so we followed 'Missy's' directions. She was wrong. We used instinct when we left and it was much quicker and easier.

The temple was quite lovely. It is not finished and I can't wait to see the Chinese garden to be built around it. 

You can see where the train runs behind Heavenly Queen. She sits on an island in a lake and best you look at the HQ website to get a context of how large she is by clicking through the photos.

It was a heavenly experience and I am pleased we made the effort.

I was quite impressed and whatever these figures are on the roof, how cute.