Just nice

Firefighting Nephew lives in perhaps a five storey block of apartments with I think 13 apartments. Buying off the plan gives an advantage of not paying stamp duty on the property to be built, only on the land. In many cases people overpay for their yet to built apartment but in the case of FFN, they have done very well with property value as they are on the beach front, a short walk to the shops and property prices and new housing around them has exploded.

The twins will be cut out in two weeks time, I believe. That is more than a month early. I am sure doctors know what they are doing. FFN and his wife get along well with other people in their apartment building and a whip around (collection) was made by fellow residents and enough was raised to pay a cleaner as a gift for a month for their apartment. With an eighteen month old daughter and freshly baked twins, it is a great idea.

Isn't that just such a lovely and practical gift by nice and caring neighbours!

Ageing and bits

I am not the svelte 20 year old weighing in at 58 kg anymore. I don't have thick luxurious hair like someone close to me does. My eyes need help to see and focus. I have the body and face I deserve at my age given how little care I have taken of both. At the age of thirty five I was horrified to notice hair growing in my ears and nostrils. 

It really began to go downhill at the age of fifty with reading glasses and my stomach was no longer flat, also a fuzz of very light hair over the same. Once they appear, they don't seem to get any thicker or visible. At my last work medical I was told I would probably need glasses to pass the next medical. Not long after I retired in 2019 and straight away I realised I needed distance glasses when I could no long properly see a hot looking man on the street. 

All part of ageing and I don't have a huge problem with most things. But what I really hate is the deterioration with my skin. I had incredibly smooth and generally hairless skin but that has gone and I really miss my smoothness. I can only console myself with that I did have smooth skin and while my skin now is not what it was, in comparison to most men my age, it probably still is reasonably smooth.

As if the bother with a new desktop wasn't enough this week, R went out and bought a new tablet today. It was a bargain price and he is ever so pleased with it. A Samsung A8, if you know what that is. Of course being the lazy type he is with tech matters, I had to spend some time assisting him to set it up. 

Vote often 2

What should be a safe Liberal (conservative party) seat in a north shore Sydney electorate Warringah, was where former Prime Minister Tony Abbott lost his seat to independent Zali Stegall. Abbott was a nasty bible bashing sexist homophobic piece of work but I know little about Stegall however Abbott's enemies are probably my friend.

Stegall is on her way to retain her seat against Liberal Party (conservative) candidate Katherine Deves. Deves is as is described a Captain's Pick for the seat by Liberal Party Prime Minister Scott Morrison. But oh does she come with baggage, anti transgender, anti parent surrogacy. While voters in Warringah are conservative, they are also socially progressive and she is not a good fit. I expect Stegall will be re-elected and Morrison's choice was a terrible mistake. New South Wales is what it is and I don't have great knowledge.

Let's have a closer look at my home area and firstly the seat of Kooyong, once a golden seat of the Liberal Party and one of the most wealthy electorates in the country but now becoming marginal and this actually puzzles me. In the last election I think The Greens vote was very high and put the seat in danger. This time it is not and never will be the Labor Party who threatens the Liberal Party seat, and probably not The Greens this time but 'a teal' independent candidate. I am not sure where the word teal came from but it seems to cover people who are not Green but care about climate change, the environment, social fairness, the environment and corruption. Well, that sounds like Green to me.

Sitting member is the very posh, rich and eloquent Josh Frydenberg. He is perhaps a future leader of our country, and it could be worse than him. Well, it is currently worse than him.

I know nothing about the independent candidate for Kooyong, one Monique Ryan yet it seems she is in with a chance. A couple of years ago the son of former Liberal State Premier Ted Baillieu came out as gay and has now stated he cannot support the sitting federal Liberal candidate Josh Frydenburg and has been campaigning for the independent Monique Ryan. As an heir to the Myer/Baillieu empire, Rob has turned his back on conservative politics and perhaps his inheritance but as an army man, he will have good superannuation.

Monique Ryan, teal independent for Kooyong. 

Will the election results be like football reporting...in a huge upset... In a shocking loss...  Just one more seat to mention in the next post.

It finally arrived

Our new computer was despatched from Sydney on the 22nd of March and was delivered today, the 3rd of May. Couriers Please put the new PC on the back of a tortoise and told it to follow the Hume Highway and here is the Melbourne address. I guess the courier company is very cheap. Had we had not had good experiences with the computer company in the past, I might have been worried.

Mid afternoon the intercom rang and the delivery person asked me to open the building front door. I did and I said I will be straight down. Even though on the box it had a sticker saying 'Customer must sign', the delivery person had gone, having left the box out of street sight and in view of CCTV. I expect the delivery person was under great pressure. That has never happened before with a delivery.  

I've backed up everything (I hope) on the computer to an external hard drive late this afternoon. I function better in the mornings so I will leave it to then to plug the new machine into the power after removing the old one. The hardest part will be all the logins and passwords. Well, maybe the hardest thing will be me down on the floor unplugging and plugging in stuffs. 

You may or may not hear from me on Thursday. 

It was a bit of a crap day. R was snappy. We drove to Acland Street. I pointed out he needed to be in a left lane as the lane he was in became a right turn lane. Shut up, I know how to drive. Just trying to be helpful. Then he was lost when he pulled into the carpark. There a number of spaces. I said nothing and eventually he asked where he should park. Near the entrance, where there is a nice wide space. The warning beeps the car gives when you are close to something or there is a hazard stress him unbelievably and he threatens to turn them all off. 

After a bite to eat we shopped again for my Covid isolating acquaintance. I bought some mandarins and R noticed liquid stock at half price. We only had one bag and so put it all in together. Once at the car boot, R sorted it out into two bags. I wanted to check that he had it right and he normally would but given his testy mood I didn't. I should have as he left the ISO's tomatoes in our bag. He was full of self recrimination once home and all I could say, it is not the end of the world. I'll deliver the tomatoes later today or tomorrow. 

I should not have involved R, who insisted on taking the car. I could have caught a tram, shopped for the ISO person on my own and delivered them on my own and I would be quite relaxed. I am still learning relationship lessons.

I should be feeling a bit excited about the new computer but I just feel so flat tonight. Don't worry, I will be fine in the morning. Busy busy, things to do, places to go...

A park visit

I'll get to the proper post about Booran Reserve with photos in time and I don't want it to be spoilt by this. 

We were in Booran Reserve and a woman and her young say four years old son were nearby. There was a bed of flowers I did not recognise, flowering late autumn but looked like a spring bulb flower, with the classic shape of a hyacinth. 

Blatantly she picked say eight blooms by the stems of the flowers. The son picked one. She had finished with her theft and they were about to leave when the child whined Mummy, I only have one flower. He proceeded to wrench blooms from the plants and not carefully pick them as she stood watching.

We were about three metres away and we stood stock still staring at them for perhaps a minute as the child went about his picking. The woman had to be aware of us two older men close by staring at them with no one else around. 

My mind was going psycho. I started to open my mouth but nothing came out and I had a great awareness of R standing next to me and I knew he would not be pleased if I said anything. Can I call police or the local council? Of course not. Don't forget the serious stuff in life like the Russian madman. I was full of anger at this fucking bitch stealing public property grown for the pleasure of the reserve visitors. Only a few flowers. But what if everyone had her attitude? 

I didn't argue later with R at the tram stop when he said he too was angry but it wasn't our business. 

No, it is our business and I wish I gone full on aggressive towards her. As a ticket inspector turned to me and told me once when he was waking a sleeping drunk on a tram, you go in hard and aggressively initially and later you can be nice. They need to know you won't take s***.  I also once observed a very effeminate gay acquaintance start with being so rude to cafe server and then later charmed the socks off them.

I don't think like that and it is not how I treat people but maybe I should speak out a bit more in life.

Perhaps I should have used some cutting wit but I am too slow. A bit of suburb snobbism? "Welcome to Glen Huntly and thanks for coming so far on a bus, train and tram to admire our flowers." It is rather hard to believe that a local resident would so brazenly do this. 

Or, sotto voice to R, "Where did she get those awful shoes and that cheap and nasty hair dye. Glen Huntly is not what it used to be".

So, what would you have done? I really regret not challenging her some manner. 

Monday Mural

Joining in with Sami for Monday Murals.

Aren't these great fun murals. At times I know of murals. Other times I may glimpse them from the car, a train, a tram or a bus. These were a total surprise when I visited the suburb of Canterbury, Maling Road in particular. R asked me why? Because I wanted coffee, view a few antiques in shops and because I can. I won't put Cathy to bother this week. The artist is Hayden Dewar.

Minty and greeny

While I know the larger Melbourne streets quite well I still find plenty of places within the city boundaries to discover. I looked down a lane and saw this old wall which I thought was worth a photo and a later investigation, which I haven't done. 

While to me I walked down a lane, it is grandly named Sutherland Street. A walk down the lane led to the surprising Guilford Lane. Wow, it's lined with pot plants. Along the lane was a line of people waiting outside a building and I noticed a lot of locksafes on the same building (padlocked boxes securely locked to a fixed feature and inside the box will be keys to individual apartments). I guess the young people were lined up to secure accommodation.

There was a cafe nearby too. What a pleasant find.

The lane ended at Queen Street and so it was a short walk to William Street to catch a 58 tram directly home. Oh, just missed a tram. I will have a look at this old building. It is former Royal Australian Mint building. 

What lovely gates.

Which I doubt have been closed for many years.

The Queen's coins must be guarded of course and a guard house remains, now used as administration offices.

That was the southern guard house. The northern guard house is a bar and restaurant. The main building, fourth photo above itself houses offices and the Hellenic Museum, a place on my list to visit. 

The Royal Mint opened in 1872 to manufacture gold coins. Coin production stopped in 1968, it's last production being copper one cent coins, featuring an Australian possum.