Wednesday on Friday

Phyllis and Kosov were supposed to take Jass for a fur trim. Phyllis had to work so it was me and Kosov who took Jass into town for her clip. Kosov, you are correct by calling her coat fur, but not correct to call the excess on her feet, hair.

Kosov tried to coax Jass into the box but she wasn't having a bar of that. I would have just picked her up and forced her into the box, but instead Kosov traumatised her by chasing her around and trying to pull her out from under beds.   

The strong cardboard box that Jass was originally used to bring the stranger Jass to her new home, and then used for two subsequent visits seemed less strong, and in spite of my complaint that a proper cat cage would take up too much space to store, perhaps we will have to buy a proper cat cage. I could see the box was not looking as secure as it once did. The repercussions of Jass escaping on a tram or on the street aren't imaginable. 

Jass took her first tram trip. Kosov was paranoid that people were looking at him while carrying the box. He was correct, they were, as they guessed a pet was inside the box.

From the tram stop, Kosov carried her to the grooming shop. Kosov said something mentioning the letter z, pronouncing it as zee. 

'Kosov, your former colonial masters would be appalled at you using the zee pronunciation.'

'Which is correct, Onndrew?' 

'Both, but in Britain and Australia it is zed. In the US it is zee. You are showing disrespect to your former colonial masters by pronouncing it zee.' 

The grooming was interesting. Our plan was to leave Jass there and find somewhere to eat. No, the groomer said in fractured English after she eventually understood what I was asking. One or you must stay. I went off and I was dying for something to eat and I had half an hour. I confess to visiting Hungry Jacks, Burger King elsewhere. I ordered a cheeseburger and I knew staff misheard me and repeated back to me a double cheeseburger. I did not correct her. Bad things happen.

Kosov had asked me to get some treats to reward Jass, so I found a supermarket and Kosov called me to tell me Jass was done.

While he waited for me to return, he had been looking at cat cages but the white one he found was marked but staff would not discount the price, so we left with Jass in her cardboard box. 

Kosov, are you sure you don't want the proper box, paint damaged or not? Ondreeww, this cardboard is sagging badly underneath. There was a grey one in perfect condition. Ondreew did roll his eyes at this point. We returned. I saw a cat cage for $110, and it had battery powered air conditioning, perfect for a hot pussy. But we bought the $42 model that is a a backpack that sits in front of your body, so I suppose you call it a front pack. Staff suggested we collapse the cardboard box and leave it next to a bin on the street, and someone would take it, so we did.

Onndreew, even more people are looking at me now. No Kosov, they are looking at Jass in the backpack through the diver glass porthole. 

I had intended taking the car out for weekly shopping but I was exhausted by the time we reached home. Jass doesn't seem too upset by her outing. 

It was not my idea to have her clipped and Jass looks awful. Ray and I never clipped a cat in the past. Ah well, they paid, the cat care and cage costing them $125.

I rallied and caught a tram to Malvern Vale Hotel for dinner with my long time Indian friend and his Asian partner of about three years. They seem to get along so well. The craic was good, although those thieving gambling machines took $20 from me and $50 from my friend.

Jass doesn't look so bad in this photo, but it is a very rough cut. We could have done the same at home with body hair clippers.

  

Defragging

Ah the memories, often associated in my mind with dial up internet.

I cannot remember Windows 3.1 but I certainly can remember Windows 95, which had a semi manual system for defragging your computer. I suppose I used to do it every few months, and with another system check, which I no longer remember. What is defragging? The proper word would be defragmentation, so it is correcting when everything is fragmented. It pulls together bits and pieces on your hard drive into a more orderly manner, hopefully to improve your computer's performance. 

I think we moved on to Windows 98 but certainly not Windows ME, which was and is known to be less stable than previous versions of Windows. The next was Windows XP and then Windows 10, which is what I am now using and have for a very long time.

I am being nagged by Microsoft to upgrade to Windows 11, and I guess I will have to bite the bullet at some point and change over. 

Now defragging happens automatically and you don't know what your computer is doing in the background, as it looks after itself.

Here is a nice clip of what you saw when you were defragging back in the 90s. I used to find it quite mesmerising and strangely relaxing. 

Beautiful sunny Australia

Emigrate to Australia where it's always warm and sunny! Miles miles of beautiful sandy beaches to take in the sun with lots of space to be alone. Err...

It is very interesting when a rain front comes in across the bay. I was dry, but not for long. The south west is where our prevailing weather and wind originates.

Another interesting photo with the heavier cloud sitting atop the rainbow. I did not notice this until I began making this post. It is quite a phenomenon. 

While looking east, I think this rain missed me. I can't remember rain ever arriving from that direction, and it is rare for rain to blow in from that direction. Seagulls seem alarmed.

For the third time we had to cancel a motorcar trip to Powelltown in  the hills because of the weather. We would have been driving into this. 

Monday Mural

Along with Sami, here is my Monday Mural post.

It is the oldest mural photo I have, taken in 2022. It was good to see a mural on a utility box, as there weren't many around four years ago

I suppose it is a representation of part of our Flinders Street Station Pran Central and while it is simple, there is detail within the mural. 

Just once...

Will there be a future when I won't wake up to listen to the ABC ten minute 7.00am radio news bulletin without it beginning with "US President Donald Trump...".

Sunday Selections

River and others participate in Sunday Selections. 

Did I mention I visited Barkly Square in Brunswick to see a Gillie and Marc statue? I think so, and its theft was a heinous crime.

This bicycle outside Barkly Square grabbed my attention for obvious reasons.

It is sad, and as far as I know, nothing has been done to Sydney Road to protect cyclists since, while much has been done in other Melbourne inner suburbs.  

I've definitely used this photo before but the restaurant name amuses me greatly.

I think this was once Victoria's treasury building, now the Hellenic (Greek) Museum.

 

Some but not all, as there has been great losses of beautiful historical buildings, have been nicely kept and restored at the western end of Collins Street within the city. 

Err, not this one, that unsympathetically does not blend with the historic streetscape.

And now for something completely different. With the backdrop of a tall building in Footscray, this flower clock in the inner suburb with a huge number of Vietnamese immigrants, is a larger version of what might be found on a wall at their homes. Yes, stereotyping. 

Dinner for Jass

Jass likes her dry food and not wet foreign muck (Who gets the Alf Garnett reference). She took a small taste and decided to not eat that night. 

I don't blame her really. 

Brand name Cachet. Mousse with lamb, spinach and feta. It sounds ghastly.

Jass went without dinner, and while I know a cat won't starve to death when any food is available (my mantra to Phyllis and Kosov), why do I feel criminally responsible for almost starving a cat to death?