Sunday Selections

With River and others, here is my Sunday Selections using random photos.

Later edit: I don't believe what you can read at our public broadcaster is geoblocked, so if you are interested in Australian news, abc.net.au 

It is underground and I don't notice the train travelling past my building, but this on the first day of opening of Melbourne's new Metro Tunnel pleases me. Next stop, Anzac Station. I am so wowed by the new Metro train line, even if I can't  see the train as it travels past my place beneath the roadway.

An attractive old Melbourne scene, but to me it is immediately obvious that it is fake. AI, if you like, and not a good effort.

Who had lovely blue hydrangeas? I can't remember.

Jass, your 'butter won't melt in my mouth' vulnerable appearance does not deceive me. 

En garde.

An eerie evening light.

Phyllis bought Kosov a 3kg bucket of Nutella in October. In spite of my entries to avoid eating the brown stinky muck, he has, and there are only scrapings in the bucket now.

A few days after Jass arrived, she hid under my bedding. Two days ago, again I saw a lump in my bed. She was only there for an hour.

Oh yes. The elephant in the room. Our terrible bushfires. Fire Fighting nephew's mother in law's home and apple orchard is under threat as I type. She and the rest of the town's residents have been evacuated to nearby safe  places. Marysville where I with Phyllis and Kosov recently spent a couple of days has been evacuated too. As an Anon commented yesterday, the Friday night sunset was amazing, and full of fire threat. 

This Saturday afternoon, outside you could inhale the equivalent bushfire smoke of a full packet of Benson and Hedges.

It is disturbing to read how Australia's gun lobby is planning to fight back against more restrictive gun control after the terrible Bondi massacre.

I don't have a credit for this wonderful photo of a tram at its Elizabeth Street terminus, with Melbourne Flinders Street station clock tower dominating the photo.

I can't remember where but after sorting things post Ray's death, I came across this old $10 note. It doesn't even look green.

As predicted

As I type, the full extent of the destruction caused by bushfires in my state is not known. Many houses have been destroyed, including that of my neighbour HH's daughter. It is her second home, mostly used by her husband when teaching in the area, and not their principal residence now. 

Ironically, for her work during the 2009 fires that affected the same area, along with with her volunteer lifesaver work, the daughter was awarded an OAM (Order of Australia) , well deserved in her case, going far beyond her hospital job description; just napping in her office for two weeks straight without stopping her help to victims of the 2009 fires. Now her house in the same area has been burnt to cinders. 

The full extent of the destruction will become apparent in the days to come, but we already know many animals, pets, livestock and native animals were killed. There hasn't been any confirmation of lives lost, yet.

A man visited this morning to quote for new lounge room venetian blinds. I went across the road after he left for coffee and it was quite cool. Maybe 20/68 degrees. I then caught a 58 tram for two stops to the local Woolworths Metro supermarket. I bought a sandwich and a pastry. I forgot about the pastry, and it is still on the kitchen bench. By the time I reached home, the temperature had risen by over 10 degrees. 

The new aircon unit coped very well, and next to the external part of it, the hot air blasting out felt like it was burning my skin as the temperature reached 43/110. Inside, thermometers said 23/73.

Another blind man visited in the afternoon to give his quote. As he was here, the quote from the morning man arrived to my desktop email and he noticed it was from another company. What fun!

The hard sell from the second bloke began. Pay a 50% deposit today, and that will be $100 less. I did not as I await another quote. The two quotes I received are the same in dollars, but I know I can beat them down. 

Jass found it too hot outside on the balcony, but at carpet level, I think she found it cold.

When the new lounge chairs arrive in March, Jass will lose her refuge under the chairs and no longer will be able to show her pink bits.

Non gleeful Glee

I'd forgotten that this was an original Gotye recording, a music video I rather like. 

However, I came across this recording I believe is from the tv show, Glee. And by golly, does the guy sing with such passion. While Gotye sounded so sad, the character Blaine Anderson comes across as angry, hurt and very emotional. The character Blaine is played by Darren Criss. I thought his performance was terrific, and Cooper, Matt Bomer, was rather good too. 

I hate the way at times instructions like 'must watch to the end' are inserted in video clips, however in this case the performers who seem like lovers are not, and you need to watch to 2.45 for the connection between them becomes clear, but there is also a rather obvious hint at 1.30.

Pranks

Potted petunias become lanky quite quickly. One year I cut them right back and the plant did regrow and flowered again, but recovery to full bloom took about six weeks, and by then the weather was cooling and its time was soon coming to an end. 

This year I've tried a different approach, by cutting off the longest flowering stems back to a tiny leaf at a branch. I might take two stems off each week and it seems to be working. New flowering stems are growing where they were cut back. 

For no real reason, instead of throwing the newly cut flowering stalk off the balcony, I put it in this pot, and if i can remember what River said, the plant is a crown of thorns.

My action reminded me of my Tradie Brother who used to visit Mother and put a plastic or silk flower in her garden plants. Mother was amused, and I was caught out at times, absently minded noticing the odd flower and then later wondering what this strange flower was in a bush. 

Tradie Brother was and still is quite a prankster. Many years ago he had a piece of wood about 1.5 metres tall, say a few feet. Think of a very fat garden stake. It was painted with blue and white horizontal stripes, looking a bit nautical really. Evenly spread notches had been cut into the stake. Quite mysterious. "Bro", I asked, "What is this stick for?" And another notch was cut into the stake.

The Argus, aka my battery soldering building

The electronic shop where my bollard battery wires were soldered was within The Argus building. What is The Argus, you may ask. Well, The Argus operated out of this very handsome building, purpose built in 1926. 

In the late 90s or earlier 2000s it was abandoned, although obviously still owned. That is when my nephew and a couple of mates 'investigated' the building. One night they reached the top and took photos and perhaps put them out on whatever social media was around then. 

The Argus was a Melbourne morning newspaper, first published in 1846 and closed in 1957. It's main competitor was  the very conservative The Age. The Argus was less conservative and became quite liberal at some point in its life. You can read more about The Argus at Wikipedia. 

Who owns the building now? The Melbourne Institute of Technology is a private education company. Here is a snip from Wikipedia. We can be quite grateful to Mr Ghale for the renovations and recreating it as a viable and I assume profitable building. At street level there are many different businesses. I might just venture inside the main building one day, if I can. 

In 2004 La Trobe University bought the Argus Building for $8 million with the intention to redevelop the building to house its legal and business schools as well as a ground-floor shopping precinct.^[6] Owing to the high estimated cost of renovating the building, La Trobe University sold the site for $15 million in 2010 to Shesh Ghale, owner of the Melbourne Institute of Technology, who converted the site into its Melbourne campus which re-opened in October 2016. 

All links in this post were my work. While I was a little impressed by the Blogger's linking feature, you can't single click to remove the links. You have to do so link by link yourself. 

A fail

The bollard in my car parking space failed. The rechargeable lead acid battery had worn out. I just could not get my bollard up. As I mentioned to the company, it only lasted five years. As they mentioned to me, five years for the battery is a good innings. 

A replacement battery would cost about $85 including postage. I was mulling it over and then I received a generic email that the company would be closed until 12th January. This cost was a good bit more than we paid five years ago. But prices have risen with everything.

I went into town to Jaycar, where I know the staff are very helpful. They had the appropriate battery but without the wires to plug it in. The battery was only $30. If I could solder, I could connect the wires myself. I saw my father solder, and the first thing you need is a soldering iron, which I don't have. I think you brush the soldering area with spirits of something and then drop the molten solder onto where you want to join.

Jaycar man suggested a company called AMT, and it was short walk away in the old Argus building, where Fire Fighting Nephew once did some urban exploration when the building was abandoned. That company did not have the battery and suggested I visit Jaycar. I explained about the battery and staff said he could solder the wires onto the Jaycan battery, so back I went and bought the battery and returned to have the wires soldered to the battery. I thought it would cost $10-$20, and stupid old man did not ask the cost of soldering earlier. I forget the soldering cost, about $60 I think. Anyway the cost ended up being about the same as I had just ordered it originally online from the bollard company. 

I felt like such as stupid old man. Then it got worse. Phyllis' father is an electrical engineer and Phyllis said, Andrew, I know how to solder electronics. You could have bought the cheapest electric soldering iron and I could have soldered the wires. 

There you go. Me after a lifetime of being frugal with money tried to save some money with quite a bit of effort, and I absolutely failed. I could kick myself. 

This evening it is very cool out on the balcony, with a fair breeze and my arms have goosebumps, although the weather bureau says it it 18/65. It's hard to believe in two days time the temperature will be 41/106. I guess I won't be going out on that day.

Monday Mural

Along with Sami in Perth for Monday Mural, here is a repeat posting of this mural in Melbourne's Collins Street. It is a new and better photo and I decided to do some research this time.

I should have realised but I didn't, that it is a mosaic. It is based on a painting by a young man who had to learn how to paint with his left hand after his right hand was blown off while fighting in WWI.

The quote is by Puck in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, referencing fast travel. 

The painter Napier Waller, also created this mosaic. I had not heard of him but he deserves great recognition for his various works around our city. Hels has mentioned him in various posts, including one of my favourites about Melbourne's coffee palaces. But I can't see that she has posted directly about Waller. 

Look up in our cities, folks.