Tram/bus/train and a car crash

It is interesting that it is quicker for me to visit the Bunnings hardware store in West Footscray by public transport than it is to visit my local Port Melbourne Bunnings. 

Drive time to Port Melbourne (Saturday evening, so little traffic), 13 minutes. Drive time to West Footscray, 18 minutes.

Tram and bus to Port Melbourne, 44 minutes. Walk and Metro Train to West Footscray Bunnings, 30 minutes. 

In ways I never guessed, the new Metro Tunnel train has changed how I travel around our city.

Some years ago when drying the car after a car wash, I noticed a bump and a mark on the side of car. Ray had not noticed it. It was very minor, and I think by a shopping trolley. I showed Ray how the mark was most likely made. 

Kosov has an Indian car driving licence and his parents paid for lessons and the test, yet like Phyllis he did not know which way to turn the car steering wheel. Unlike Phyllis, he is not picking up driving nearly as quickly. I would have liked him to spend a couple more times driving on the roads around Albert Park Lake, but alas, the roads have been closed because of the Grand Prix. We tried residential Port Melbourne, but the streets there are so narrow. He drove home from there on big roads, and he was ok.

Cat litter was needed, so I pushed Kosov into the deep end, driving along Queens Road, and he struggled to stay in his lane.

With my constant guidance, we entered the St Kilda Aldi carpark, and all was well, until we left. It was a very tight turn to the exit ramp and Kosov didn't go far enough to the right to line the car up for the tight left turn. But I thought it would be ok. Time slowed and then sped up. By the time he reacted to my stop command, he has already scraped the side of the car on the wall. 

I couldn't get out because of the wall next to me so Phyllis took over, and just made it worse. I told Phyllis to get out and I clambered over to the driver seat and reversed with the correct steering wheel action to get the car off the wall. 

As you can imagine, I was not a happy chappie, but Kosov was under my guidance and I was too slow to react to what he was doing, along with I should not have expected him to make such a difficult manoeuvre. I take the blame. 

My insurance excess it $1200, that's out of my pocket before insurance kicks in. I will take the car for a repair quote this coming week. If the cost is more than $1200, I will have to think of the impact of making an insurance claim against perhaps a higher insurance cost. 

This is a bit of a downer, when others are posting Sunday Selections. Let me add some balloon photos in the memory of the late Sue. 

Viva Gibb Photography

Is that Blogger/Compose "Paragraph" drop down menu new? Hang on, the whole menu has changed, I think. Interesting.

Some of the exhibitions at the Town Hall City Gallery are excellent and some not so excellent. This one I thought was in the former category, and I loved it.

Of course no one has taken such photos better than late Rennie Ellis, but he was very well known. Viva Gibb isn't but deserves to be with her photos mostly of people she came across in the streets where she lived. Such folios are easy to create in our digital times, but are they being now? The ordinary needs to be on the photographic record. 

While clicking on the photos creates opens the photos at a larger size, if you right click and open the photos in a new window, that will give decent sized photos.

In my opinion these two photos are brilliant, and perfectly lit.

A brief search finds a good photo of Viva, and some information. Is that a joint she is holding in her hand?

"Working with a Rolleiflex medium format camera and a 4×5-inch Graflex Speed Graphic, she developed and printed all her own work."

The Big Screw

While I've seen buildings being constructed from my home, I've never actually been able to look down on the work site. It seems once the old building has been destroyed, dirty soil mixed with chunks of concrete are removed and fresh clay looking soil brought in. I'm sure the front end loaders just move the fresh soil from one place to another and then move it back again.

Meanwhile holes are drilled, full lengths of circular reinforcing steel inserted into the holes and then concrete is poured down the hole. Most interesting.

Here is the long drill.

And look!

The whole screw is now underground.

For some reason I've always confused the German and Aboriginal flags, when they are really aren't alike at all, although the three same colours are used. The first is the Aboriginal flag. During my skinhead/mohawk phase, I wore a military like jacket with a German flag patch. I now understand how that didn't send good signals. In my defence, I had no idea about the patch on my jacket. I hadn't noticed it until someone remarked about it.  

On the barrel of the concrete mixer you can see the Aboriginal flag.

On the opposite side of the barrel is the Australian flag. The other flag represents Piave, the concrete supplier based in Port Melbourne and has been around since 1993.

Flights

I confess I am not great with a camera, still or video. I did capture this video of planes on Australia Day.

Then there were plane flyovers for the Australian Grand Pricks Prix.

With a plane making a roll over.

Relief and rant

Ray's relatives left yesterday morning. As lovely as the couple are, it is a bit of a relief, but also very sad as it is unlikely I will ever see them again. I had three dinners out with them and took them out on two long day trips, and they were very appreciative, and I heard about all the people I know in Ray's northern English city. They have flown to Bali, and four days later supposed to fly via Bahrain to England. Their flight has been cancelled, and alternative arrangements will be made.

A huge security guard company recently collapsed and the owner has fled overseas. We are told they underpaid security immigrant and student workers, insisting the students work more hours than they are allowed. There were many who were not paid. Superannuation was not paid, the responsibility of our tax department, and a huge amount was owed in unpaid taxes. There was sexual harassment of staff and eyes turned blind by the companies that used the security company. 

"Has collapsed owing tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands/millions in tax payments to the government", is a phrase we almost hear daily, well maybe weekly. This is an absolute disgrace. It is money lost that will have to made up by all taxpayers. There is really something seriously wrong in our tax department when it lets go unpaid tax and unpaid workers' superannuation for long periods. Never mind that the owner of the company should have had his passport blocked. He won't return to face the music.

I will shop on Thursday before a dental appointment in the afternoon. Otherwise, nothing more this week until Sunday when it will be a great niece's 12th birthday celebration. Ray's and Mother's used to be celebrated at the same time. 

A friend is just about to clear from a Covid infection. It is ages since I've heard of anyone having Covid, but the beast is still with us. She was well vaccinated and so her symptoms were mild.

Why does one Yarra Trams tram driver ring the gong seven different times when passing by (to warn flying bats I guess) and the next driver does not ring the gong at all? Yarra Trams provided an excellent service for attendees at the Grand Prix, but bugger the locals. It was awful to try to get anywhere by tram. Thank goodness for the new Metro tunnel train. 

The Chinese cult 'religion' Falun Gong has a performance called Shen Yun happening around Australia, in Melbourne at a place I didn't know, but what we call Jeff's Shed. I am bombarded by advertising for the show on YouTube. But let me tell you the organisers, if you want to advertise in Australia, at the very least use Australian voices to promote the show, and not American. I can wear American car advertisements with the steering wheel on the wrong side as the cars travel along beautiful coastal roads, because there is an Australian voice over, and I know the the ads cost a lot to make.  It may be an urban myth, but I remember a remark from Germany. 'If you want to buy something from us, we speak perfect English. If you want to sell us something, sorry, we don't understand English'. Not using an Australian voice over for Shen Yun really pisses me off.                                                                               

Hopefully something less whiny tomorrow.

Sadness

Sometimes a public death really gets to me, as has this one. It is rare that anything like this happens but once is still too often. 

Aidan Becker was an off duty security guard who intervened when a 14 year old lad was being attacked by four young males at a train station.

Aiden walked the boy away but it is alleged that the gang of four followed and attacked Aiden with knives and simply stabbed him to death. 

A good guy killed after helping someone who was being attacked. That really is fucking shit.

Dear Aidan, your wonderful character dictated your actions and there is no more to be said. May the full weight of the law be imposed upon your murderers. 

Monday Mural

Along with Sami and others, here is my contribution today.

It is a mural but on a hoarding, so it will disappear at some point. A repeat of nice panels works well enough, and I think the artwork is good. 

On the very left is a blue fairy wren, a delightful bird that hops and flits around, galah a raucous bird of the parrot family, then a wattle bird, your early morning wake up call, and in breeding season if near their nests, they will swoop down at you, making a clacking noise, but not make contact with you. Yes, I have been swooped by one. Lastly is a rainbow lorikeet, noisy and a very colourful parrots