Give me a head with hair

Well, no not me. My hair is thin and I am balding, although there hasn't been progression with that for many years. My hair is best kept short with a number 4 buzz cut on top and a number 2 buzz at the sides. It was a bit hard to remember the buzz numbers as it has been a long time between haircuts. 

R has great hair, a full head of wavy blondish and grey hair. His already being longer looks fine uncut for many weeks. He kindly said to me, it is just as well you can't see the back of your head and hair. Well, I can actually and the curly fluff sticks out from the back of neck and I can see when looking directly at a mirror. I've began to brush my hair back behind my ears rather than straight down. That looks marginally better and R approved.

It seems like next Thursday hairdressers may open, if not, Friday. I said to R, fuck shopping day. If we can't get our hair cut on Thursday, we will forego food shopping on Friday and get haircuts, and perhaps starve to death but with well groomed hair. 

We know our state government has decided to let Covid rip among the community once we reach certain vaccination rates. The worst effect will be to the unvaccinated. They will mostly be the ones in hospital ICU with tubes shoved down their throats. I can't remember if was an Australian or Victorian forecast, but vaccination rates will rise to 96 percent. The four percent who won't and don't have a very rare medical exemption will just stay home. They won't be able to go anywhere, see anyone or do anything, and nor they should be able to endanger other people. Social and mental health experts suggest not turning anti vaxxers and government conspiracy types into pariahs but I quite happily do so. 

Prahran Square

A very ugly three hundred car space asphalt car park serving customers for two large supermarkets and numerous other businesses was turned into a four hundred space underground carpark with a plaza above. Initially Prahran Square looked a bit bare but it has been adjusted over the couple of years since it opened and plants and trees have grown. We are there at least twice a week under lockdown, for food and medical matters. We both agree it is shaping up very nicely. 

Three sides have raised areas, bleachers, a steep lawn with small gum trees and where we had not been before, a hilly walkway with lots of vegetation, sculptures and a small playground. It iss really quite lovely. Below is the scene, with the last photo looking 180 degrees at the Grattan Street Gardens. 

Ouch

How on earth has this happened to me? What did I do to deserve it? Still, it's better than the alternative.

Workers are revolting

Sydney has three tram light rail lines. L1, L2 and L3. L1 opened in the 1990s, the latter two just last year.

The lines I believe are government owned but a private company Transdev runs the three services.  

L1 tram drivers have been taking protected industrial action to the extent that Transdev has contracted buses to run the L1 service and cancelled the tram services for an extended period. The industrial action is refusing to do overtime (because there is clearly insufficient drivers), not answering phone calls from management when off duty and not answering radio calls until the tram is stopped. 

But what is their beef? Although they and L2 and L3 drivers are all employed by Transdev, the L1 drivers receive less pay, less chance of promotion and worse working conditions that the L2 and L3 drivers. On the face of it, that just seems so wrong and I can't imagine how it could be justified. Same job, same company, less pay and worse working conditions. Way weird.

Meanwhile Transdev has lost its large number of contracts to run Melbourne buses after a scandal a couple of years ago because their buses were poorly maintained (gaffer tape holding things together) and many were dangerously unroadworthy. 

Transdev seems to be a disgraceful public transport operator that is hopeless at the basics of vehicle maintenance, passenger safety and industrial relations. I hope you don't have Transdev stock market shares.

It's part of our story, the Northern Territory

Someone recently wondered in a comment about Australia's Northern Territory. I replied to the comment without too much knowledge. I am correcting my comment here. South Australia has little to do with Northern Territory but I think there may be some history. I think NT may have been under the control of SA in the past. 

So at the map in this post, the orange bit at the top, you can see Northern Territory is a large part of Australia but in our last published census has only one per cent of our population and over half live in its capital city Darwin. 

The north, or top of NT is tropical with monsoonal rains whereas the southern part is hot, dry and cold at night, like a desert. 

I think it was 1970s when the Commonwealth, if you like the  Federal Government of Australia, handed over most of its powers to the single house governing NT parliament. 

Via the Northern Territory Administrator and not a State Governor, Her Majesty still rules (I had no idea. How extraordinary!). Day to day governing is performed under the Chief Minister, it being equivalent to state Premiers.  

The Federal Government probably still has some powers over the Northern Territory that it does not have over the states but to all intents and purposes, it functions like a state of Australia. 

Here is a photo of the NT Parliament House in its capital city of  Darwin, taken by Fritz Hiersche. In my very earliest days of blogging we visited Northern Territory and one Clare Martin was Chief Minister. It was a terrific place to visit as we learnt to move slowly in unseasonable tropical heat. 

Grandpa Acid turns 75

Gay bars in Melbourne had podium dancers. Naturally the dancers were hot young men. But there was one podium dancer who was not so young. 

I can't even remember what the drug acid was and nor how Grandpa Acid got his name. If you went to mainstream club venues in the 1980s and 1990s you would know Grandpa Acid, the older dude dancing on a podium. He was oldish but his chutzpa was admired. When Kylie Minogue visited the gay club Three Faces, she and Grandpa Acid danced together.

It is many years since I have seen Grandpa Acid, the last time when he was selling a golf ball printer in a sound deadening wooden box at South Melbourne Market. 

Grandpa Acid is alive and well and is celebrating his 75th birthday.  Richard seemed like a nice bloke to me. Happy birthday to him.

Take down

I am going to have to kill this post with 58 comments, aside from the one's I have deleted. I am not doing so because of what I wrote but the comments which I believe I am liable for. I'll leave it up for a few hours yet and then pull it.

http://highriser.blogspot.com/2020/06/got-to-feel-sorry-for-antony-hampel.html

Later: As Steve suggested, I have hidden existing and turned comments off. Shame, but there you go.

Monday Murals

I keep doing this, that is put aside mural photos and they may sit there for months and I then forget where I was when I take them. This pair of photos of a very large mural is sadly a bit spoilt by stuffs and was in one of the main east west streets in Richmond, but I can't remember which one.

This side seems land based and the bird on the left is an Australian cassowary, the world's most dangerous bird to humans and dogs. Just for the benefit of those of you thinking about a nice holiday in Australia, even our birds are dangerous. If our magpies don't swoop you and peck your eyes out the cassowary might get you.  

Everyone loves a sea dragon but not so much jellyfish. My Tradie Brother was once stung by jellyfish tentacles when he was a teen and was screaming in pain.  Australia's borders are pretty well closed to tourists. You should be grateful. Your life is saved.

Clarity from Facebook

The takeover over of Newcastle United by Saudi Arabians is complete. I couldn't understand why there wasn't a pushback. This tells a story.

Sunday Selections Fail

Andrew is unwell today with Covid Lockdown Malaise. Normal broadcasting should return tomorrow.