Sydney Day 6

You simply can't visit Sydney without a ferry trip to Manly and finding somewhere for some nosh. Fusion Cafe is our usual choice and it didn't disappoint. 

Circular Quay has pedestrians, ferry wharves, cafes and other useful place at ground level and is also the terminus  of the L2 and L3 light rail lines. Above are train lines and above those, cars whiz by. There are good arguments to demolish it and start again but it works quite well in my opinion. 

The old Customs House Maritime Services Building, from the Quay. 

Oh my. He has a big board.

This dude who photo bombed my picture looks like he would crush you. Gosh, I hate to think. 

That's better.

Manly is so beautiful. 

This fellow ferry passenger was very entertaining as he sang an operatic version of Rod Stewart's Sailing. He was so good, without backing music. 

We easily walked down the steep hill to Bill and Toni's Italian restaurant in Stanley Street for dinner and it was good, if somewhat noisy. Not so easily, we walked back up the steep hill to our digs. We are from Melbourne. We don't do hills. There is usually a tram to deal with steep hills. R said it is the last time he will tackle the hill. Good luck to him to get a cab or Uber to travel 100 metres. One of those electric old person scooters might be good. They can be hired on the Costa del Sol where R's closest sister is now visiting. 

Musical Monday

To whet your appetite, a twelve second clip. Oh my, can they sway their hips.

From the ashes of the punk band Joy Division rose a new order called New Order. Was New Order  New Wave or New Romantic? I think its origins were punk and New Wave but in the 80s became New Romantic. 

First released as a 12" single in 1983, it was re-released with this version in 1988. I bought a couple of 12" singles, one being a Liza Minelli collaboration with Pet Shop Boys called  'Losing my Mind'. The music is still as good as ever. The other was the rather obscure Drac's Back.

An old DJ said, back in the time Blue Monday was track to get people on the dancefloor, and went on to say, forty years later, it still is, rather like B52's Love Shack. 

New Order with Blue Monday is almost the music of my yoof. I love it and I've been humming away all day. 

Lazy

Well not lazy but being a retired person, I have vey busy days and I don't have time to compose a blog post.

When there is nothing on the calendar to do for the day, there is the usual conversation. 'What do you want to do today?" "Dunno. What do you want to do today?". "Dunno". Eventually one of us suggests something and today it was for R to suggest buy a pasty each at Elwood Bakery while I would buy coffee at the cafe opposite the bakery. We will drive to the nearby beach to eat our pasties and drink our coffee at the back of our car, while watching all the hot men the passing parade of people pass by on foot and wheels. We used to do this weekly when we were Covid locked down, for our exercise. It was only a few metres beyond our 5km 'exercise limit'.   

Wow, the popular cafe has closed, so we bought coffee at the bakery, inferior but ok. The pasty was delicious, the cinnamon doughnuts R added to our order too. The beach was nice.

I did go out on a 58 tram in the afternoon to buy a metaphorical pint of milk. I don't care to patronise the not so convenient convenience shop opposite us. The only thing of interest were two twenty year old or so lads sitting on seats across the aisle from me, sprawled out, legs wide apart and resting their feet on seats. They had private school voices yet weren't familiar with the area as they were counting tram stops. I love hearing what young people talk about, as I liked when I was young about what older people talked about. My conclusion was after listening to the lads, young people talk a load of meaningless shit.  

Household Management refused to cook an evening meal, so it was across the road to Nar Bangkok for a delicious meal. It was good to see it quite busy. 

Being oldish, we like to be at home in the evenings, and so we were by 7.30, with all old person medications taken. We're living the life to the max. 

Oh Jesus. The tv is telling us that a random mass stabbing has happened in a Sydney shopping centre we have been to. Eight people dead, including the assailant who was shot dead by a policewoman. I just want to cry. Our Prime Minister had personally called the policewoman to offer comfort and praise for her action. 

I expect our opposition party leader will tomorrow bang on about crime, law and order is out of control under the NSW state Labor Government, totally lacking sympathy for anyone. Peter Dutton is a nasty piece of work. Ah, he has already made a public statement. Here is a clip. Prayer won't help them Dutton. A good public medical system will, yet your government wants to go to down the road of private health care. “We pray for those who have been rushed to hospital with injuries. We are thinking of all those families whose loved ones have been caught up in this attack,” he posted.

People disappointment

I was catching a tram towards South Melbourne. I have to change trams to do that and while there are plans to to connect trams passing us to South Melbourne, somewhere might be very cold before that happens. 

About ten ticket checkers were at our stop where they were checking tickets as people left trams rather than getting on trams. I was there for about four minutes and I reckon I saw nine people nabbed for not having paid a fare.

I changed trams from the 58 to the 1 to get to South Melbourne Beach and on my return, as far as I could observe, I was the only person who validated their card. There are people who don't validate cards because if they have already paid the daily fare, that is taken two trips in more than two hours, it is pointless and they are not fare evading. Maybe the Myki Pass alternative means it is pointless to validate as you have paid in advance. But still, I think many people were fare evading, from young to old, to public housing types to private home owner types to tourist looking people. 

Some weeks ago, Indian born neighbours boarded the same tram as us and they did not validate their Myki cards. Disappointing if they were fare cheating.

A queer thing happened when I caught the 58 tram from our place. I saw a neighbour, European born with a Chinese wife, with them both being friendly and nice long term neighbours on our own floor, leave the tram I boarded at the stop after our stop where he should have left the tram at Anzac Station.. He would have to walk back one stop to get home. He is not the type to be engrossed in his phone and miss his stop. Yes, I was guilty of that once.

I don't believe they have a car and they use public transport all the time, so they are quite familiar with how our public transport works. What I suspect is he hadn't paid his fare, saw the ticket checkers and correctly guessed they would not get on the tram and so not to be caught, travelled to the next stop.

It is all so disappointing. They think they may be cheating a private company, or the government, but they are cheating we taxpayers, their fellow citizens. We pay more tax to cover their fare cheating or there is less money the government has to spend on services. 

I cast my mind back several years when we caught a tram to the city with Hippie Niece and her then partner. They were caught on the tram for not paying their fare. Our cards were not checked. I suspect one of the ticket checkers might have recognised me after the cheaters were caught. 

I was both angry and subsequently embarrassed that she didn't pay her fare. That wasn't how she brought up. I'm very glad she was caught and would have had to pay a fine of over $200. She is now very good about remembering her Myki card and has set up via her phone automatic Myki top up for her and her two daughters. 

Another older upstairs neighbour didn't pay her fare on trams. She now has serious dementia but she didn't ten years ago when she fare evaded. 

I plan to say something quite subtle to our neighbour when I next see him, but he will understand. I just hope R is not with me. 

It is a bit of x over y divided by kind of question. If you are watchful and understand how ticket checkers work, you will be miles in front by not paying your fare, as against the occasional fine you may receive if you are careless with observing.

Paying your fare rather depends on your character, and I am not liking what I am seeing about people's characters.  

Gone to the dogs

Sister and Bone Doctor have an aged dog, to the point where they can't plan too far in the future as Fuzzy Cocoa approaches the end of her life. She is some kind of poodle cross. Several years ago, after a severe fur trim. 

 

Oldest Niece has Charlie, a smallish dog and it too is quite old. 

Ex Sis in Law has two pugs. I'm afraid it is not a breed I like. I hate the noise they make when they pant. The noise they make is just horrible, and how anyone thinks they are attractive, I don't know. Sorry if you have one.

Mother's dogs were Socks and Pooch, medium sized dogs. Father's favourite dog was Cindy. There were other child hood dogs, Red, who was killed by a trailer behind a car. He was a tyre chaser. One dog was kill by wild dogs. Awful, but there was one dog permanently chained up as he would immediately rush off to chase cattle in a mindless way. 

My grandparents had a Collie dog when I was just past toddler age called Joffey. He too was pretty well permanently chained up. 

Our dogs were Toby, a medium sized mongrel bitzer mixed breed dog with cattle dog instincts. He was terrified of thunder and alerted us to when it was approaching, and fireworks. I vividly remember his last walk in Alma Park, as we lifted him out of the car for him to stagger around the park for a bit, Pretty well blind, with collapsed claws. From there we took him to the vet for the last time. We sobbed and the vestiary practice sent us flowers the next day. 

Jessie was a pure bred West Highland White Terrier. She was a lovely dog, always so close to us but apparently she barked a lot when we weren't home. We didn't know as we weren't there. She had so many medical problems, from hip dysplasia to bowel problems. I can't remember why now but she went to our now late friend Arthur who lived at the foot of Victoria's Mount Elephant. At a youngish age for a small dog, she died of throat cancer a year or so later. What I already knew about pure bred dogs, proved to be true. Photo of Toby and Jessie from about 1990. 

We had the privilege of looking after the small mixed breed white Jack E Boy, here in the apartment so many times, the dog of our friend who now lives in Tasmania. He was great and we loved him as our own. But he died of old age a couple of years ago. 

And then there is Tradie Brother with his deaf dog, Dog. He has tried to let her off leash at contained parks and at the beach but it is quite hopeless as she doesn't hear calls back to her master. I admire him for taking on a deaf dog, but I think he was foolish. His last dog Cobber died at a premature age. Dog is is a big white dog and should she jump up onto you with affection, she could knock you over. But worse is she slobbers. No big deal on my shirts as they are only worn for three days, but I only wash my jeans every two months. Dog slobber means an immediate wash.  

Sydney Day 5

Firstly back to  Day 4, as JacCee put it, (Mr) S Lut, the word on the bottom of the mirror was to advertise a brand of Vodka, Absolut, and a few letters had been removed, no doubt by patrons of the hotel. I am surprised no one picked that up. 

Today was R's actual birthday, a special one but not ending in zero but a five. We decided to visit the lovely Coogee Beach, with Coogee being the first place R lived when he arrived in Australia for a as a ten pound pom some fifty years ago, and he stayed beyond the required two years. The 373 bus trip to get there was fun with lots of curves and hills.  Coogee was quite busy, but also so quiet and peaceful.

I think everywhere we visited in Sydney, we could have done so by tram in the late 1950s. How much nicer that would be nowadays rather than buses. I was a bit surprised that there weren't many electric buses, but still noisy diesel buses spewing out their noise and filth. 

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There was plenty of quality seating for old people, and for us. 

There are lots of places to eat at Coogee but R had noticed a kiosk as we arrived on the bus, and we had a nice brunch there with surprisingly good coffee. If the local council is responsible for the beach frontage, a first class badge to it.

OMG, the guy on the left of this cropped photo was smoking hot. He and a mate sat together on the steps below us. Everything about him was so stylishly cultivated, yet not a hint of being gay. Famous sports person maybe? I was too slow with my camera. Sometimes it is best to just admire nice artwork.

I know how to give R a birthday dinner with style, a bus and a hamburger. C'mon lovey, we'll catch the 311 bus to Woolloomooloo. I had booked the restaurant a few weeks earlier. Being a Friday night, so many places did not take bookings, but this one did. We were joined by our two friends in Sydney and it was a lovely evening. I did concede to catching a cab back to our hotel. 

Finger Wharf is comprised of a wharf for very expensive looking boats, with the building on the ground floor hosting restaurants and above some very expensive apartments. 

With city views.

The restaurants were very busy.

One person chose something else but three of us chose hamburgers. We all agreed they were the best hamburgers we'd ever eaten. The hamburger bun was black but let me put it delicately, the burger led to a green output the next morning. 

Rounded off for R and myself with an affogato each. Ice cream, with strong coffee and Frangelico poured over. Elements was good. Did it cost a bomb? Yes. Was it good? Yes. Did R enjoy his birthday? Yes. I tried really hard to be a person who would say, 'It's only money'. 

Personal stuffs

This coming weekend there will be a birthday celebration for Hippie Niece's twin cafe latte coloured daughters. If I do say so myself, the are very pretty and after a difficult upbringing in the early years, have become quite delightful. Thankfully Uncle Tom Cobley and all won't be coming. A great niece turned ten last month and this month the girl twins turn seven. Old, we are feeling. 

I think Fire fighting Nephew, his wife, their four year old daughter and 18 month old twin boys will be there, which will be great. Their mother posted on Instagram a short clip of the boys running riot in a the big green hardware shed, with the comment, they will from now be in the pram until they are 16. Well before she had her children, she said in aside to me when other great nieces were running around with some visiting children, 'And he wants me to have one of those!' Not so long ago she asked me, 'Can I nail them to a wall?' She turned out to be a wonderful mother and manages with a little black humour. 

We are renovating, well about to. We are having the apartment painted from top to bottom, having the bathrooms regrouted and the carpet replaced. Bedroom blinds will be cleaned and living room blinds replaced. We repainted the apartment well over a decade ago but not the trim. We are too old to do it ourselves now. The colours now look so old fashioned, as does the carpet which is quite shabby. We can barely afford it until settlement of Mother's will. It's been a long time since we've had a credit card debt, but that may become so if Mother's estate is not settled soon. 

On Saturday evening I made the suggestion to go for Bahn Mi in Smith Street, Collingwood on Sunday. I'd heard about a certain place I wanted to visit, but the weather wasn't kind, so instead we took the car to visit the big green hardware shed to look at paint colours. We partook of the charity fund raising sausage sizzle before we entered. As usual, my onions squeezed out of the roll and fell to the ground. As per the great controversary a couple of years ago, the onions should go on top. R is still learning about my hand shakes. He shoved the roll into my hand, my hand shook and spillage happened. I needed to pick the roll up from his hand. There was a choice of tomato sauce, barbeque sauce, or mustard. We chose the barbeque sauce. It was nice enough but messy enough for us to visit the toilet to wash our hands. We went to the beach for coffee. It was pretty cold and we were underdressed. How typically Australian. As old people do, we sat on a bench with a good backrest and stared out to sea, only at times distracted by a hot guy walking or jogging past. Ah, the memories. 

Last minute, Brighton Antique Dealer called to as if we were free to meet her and her toy boy for a pub dinner. We did, and once again I proved how gambling can make you an income if you are sensible. My imposed rule saw me double my money and take it. I put in $5 and came home with $10. It was a nice catch up.

The weather was to deteriorate on Monday but the morning was bright and sunny so we did tram to Smith Street for Bahn Mi, but the place is called Joey Bun Mi. It may be Vietnamese but we had a great German sausage in a crisp roll with other stuffs in the roll. 

Tuesday was a doctor's appointment for me and I was ordered to have a coloscopy, and R had a haircut in Prahran. Our not so healthy brunch was a bacon and egg toasted sanger with the obligatory coffee. We separated after brunch and after my appointment I took a long way home, via Chapel Street tram, a walk along Swan Street in Richmond, a City Loop train to Flinders Street and a tram home.