Beating a child

After Ex Sis in Law and I two days ago looked after the her twin boy grandchildren, my just on four year old great nephews, for about five hours, I've become a firm believer in 'spare the rod, spoil the child'. 

Ex Sis in Law parked in my spare space but Nephew's wife called me about parking? FFS, didn't you work this out before you came. They could have done a drop off and gone on to guest Government House parking. I suggested some all day paid public parking about 300 metres away, and that's what they did. I tried to tell myself that guest parking is not my problem, but I was already stressed, adding to that, there was some furniture to be delivered to them here, adding to that, they had my apartment number wrong and a neighbour on my floor let them in, added to that the delivery apartment number was wrong, with a timeline of 7am to 7pm. I had to visit my neighbour to tell him what to do if a delivery person called him

With their own toys, it took me time for me to realise they had taken Phyllis' toy bus assembly partly apart. Kosov entered the scene and remarked, I don't know where the assembly instruction are. I stopped the bus disassembly but they continued to just 'play' with pieces, 'putting in back together'. Fine, kids will be kids. 

Jass' natural curiosity soon passed and she opened my bedroom wardrobe door and took refuge there. Twin L is quite loving. Twin R is more distant and thoughtful. 

After Fire Fighting Nephew and his wife went off to Government House for him to receive his award, we took the boys on the tram to the Arts Centre, to change to a number 1 tram to Albert Park Beach. We found somewhere for lunch, and then walked to the sand park, a kids' playground on the beach edge. L disappeared while Ex Sis in Law was dealing with work matters on her phone. It is a secure park, but I felt the need to follow L. He was on a rotating platform, standing in the middle. We needed to return to the others but when I asked him to get off, he refused and defiantly crossed his arms and stared me down. Such insolence from a nearly four year old towards his great uncle. Eventually I turned my back on him, knowing the area was secure, and found a comfortable seat to look out to sea, where I saw a long distance swimmer's head bobbing past and a woman throwing a stick into the water for her dog to fetch. Mysteriously was a Spirit of Tasmania ferry sitting at Station Pier.

Ex Sis in Law drifted down to us with boy R in tow. We went back to the other end where they played with with a water flow feature. A man was clearly checking risk assessment at the park, shaking play equipment to test the soundness.

L kept putting his sandy shoes on the tram seat on the way home, with me telling him that I would chop his feet off, was ineffectual. 

Once back home, on the way them being subdued by a very packed tram home, L went off the edge. Even Nanna, whose grandchildren know if she says no, she means it, could not control him. It ended with him lying on the floor screaming and banging his fists. His twin brother looked on with  benign expression.

This is the same as what one of the now nine year old cafe latte twins once did at the same age, and just what now 18 year old Jo did at that same age. 

I say, bring back smacking badly behaving children, to shock them into obedience and be fearful of physical punishment.

Eventually they were all gone and I had a mental breakdown. "Kosov, see that bottle of Scotch? That will be empty by the morning". "No Onndrewww. I will hug you and all will be better".  

Later, a message to Nephew's wife.

Low level stress: "Dear Uncle Andrew. Favour to ask. If you have time next week, would you be able to pick up a flat pack at Ikea for us?" "While I am busy doing old retired person things, no problem. Old people like to find reasons to go out each day, a sense of purpose. It's even more exciting to go out in my new motor car to collect a package. Phyllis and Kosov like going to Victoria Gardens. We will have lunch there, but not Swedish meatballs. They can carry the flat pack." Low hanging fruit, and you would have saved the delivery fee. You should have just asked.

Nephew with his wife and then nephew with his mum on a very special day.

The new nothing too special car

I spent a couple of months looking on the web at new cars to replace my not terribly old car. I thought I would buy a hybrid car. EV would be good, but I can't charge one at home, so that was a no.

What I discovered during the search, what I already knew really, is that the latest model Mazda is not so different to my old car. Same body shape and exterior, with the interior being very similar. There has been some refinements to various features. 

But I wasn't looking to replace my car with the same newer model. I used the web browser Duck Duck Go, which ensured I didn't get a gazillion new car emails, FaceBook, YouTube, and Google ads. DDG doesn't track your activity and is not connected to the big tech companies. 

I looked at so many hybrid cars, their features and prices. Even a hybrid Lexus costing $10,000 more but couldn't match the power and features of my old car, let alone the current model Mazda. 

Decision time was coming, for no real reason other than I was now convinced a new Mazda of the same model was what I wanted. I was surprised, in spite of the body scratches, that the trade in value of my old car was much better than I anticipated.

If you want to look at the finer detail, the car is a Mazda CX30 G25 Skyactive petrol Astina front wheel drive 2.5 litre.

Exterior photos of the new non binary Perl, as against the old girl Pearl.

Perl is certainly not going to turn heads on the street, but it is attractive enough.

It doesn't look like it but the new car, second photo has a bigger screen than the old.

The centres look identical, don't they. The old...

The new.

The Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) controls are ever so slightly different, with the on/off button moved, but I would have to look closely at the two photos to see what is where it was. 

In the top photo of the old car, in front of the gear stick is a flap to press to open up the coffee cup holders and in front of that is a tray to keep keys, that is car remote, parking bollard remote and garage door remote. The new car uses the the key area as a phone charging pad and there isn't a lid on the coffee cup holders, so the remotes can easily be dumped in there. In the console with its lift up lid, not in photos, Pearl had a USBA port, an SD slot for the navigation system card and a cigarette lighter socket. Perl has two USBC ports but I am not sure about the cigarette lighter socket.

But really, to you, it will all look the same.

The dashboard display looks the same, but there are some subtle differences. Some of the buttons on the right down below are different. 

So what does Perl have that Pearl didn't? An electric sunroof, more attractive wheels, a larger display screen, a larger engine, USBC ports, a better mapping system, but also instant connectivity to Google maps from your phone, a phone charging pad. In general all the tech has been upgraded and is better, yet as my preference, most controls are still manually operated, rather than by distracting touch screens which seem to have gone a bit too far, and are a serious driver distraction. 

It is quieter than the old Pearl, but not much. There is still work to be done there with road noise. With a larger engine, it is slightly less economical. Time will tell with my own driving but the difference is supposed to be less than 1 litre per 100km. As I've said, I would have liked a hybrid but one would only halve the petrol bill, at best. Besides, Phyllis and Kosov pay for the petrol now.

The questions are am I happy with buying a new car and am I happy with the new car, and obviously the answers are yes and yes. 

Leadership women

This post probably needed more work, but I am sick of looking at it. 

This is Heidi Alexander, Secretary for Transport in England. At the launch of unveiling a livery for trains taken back into public ownership after years of private operation has been proven to be a failure, she was at Brighton Railway Station to launch the new livery of Great British Railways.

If you are in the US, Canada or Australia, this is not how a woman in public office would appear in public. That's perhaps so for most countries.

Politicians and spokespersons need to be super groomed, with tailored clothing, good hair and good makeup, men and women both. It's not that Alexander can't glam up if she wants.

Heidi was none of those at the media occasion. She is a good speaker, clearly passionate about her role and spoke sensibly. In the US #47's leading women, past and present are super groomed but frankly talk a lot of crap, spitting out lie after lie. Yes, Leavitt, Bondi, along with dog killer Noem.

I care more about the spoken honesty from Alexander rather than how she is dressed or made up.

Later edit: Just as the press do, I used an incorrect photo for Ms Alexander. I have removed the photo and replaced it with a correct photo. Thank you YP for pointing out the error. 

Monday Mural

Along with Sami and others, here is my mural for this week. I found it in an obscure end of a city lane. I think it may be associated with the Fitzroy Football Club that went on. with much sadness by supporters, to move interstate and become the Brisbane Lions.