A fine birfdy

It was not a significant birthday, but one people might make jokes about. I was told not to plan anything for the day by Phyllis and Kosov, so I didn't. I did go out earlyish for coffee and to collect some medications before they arose, and for the rest of the day I relaxed.

HH had left me a gift on the doorstep, a terrific little guide book about the laneways of Melbourne.

The lads went into town and returned with gifts for me aplenty.

An Italian sauvignon blanc from Calabria, with a French accent over its name. I was so excited! Alas, I noticed the name Marlborough. It is from New Zealand, but that is ok.    

My preferred brand of scotch. 

Chocolate cake. We took a large slice down to HH, and stayed half an hour chatting. 

And flowers.

Be ready to go out at 6.15, they told me. We caught a tram to town, and then another to Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Phyllis made us wait on the street as he had confused a twenty four hour clock with a twelve hour clock and booked us for 17.00 (5pm) rather than 7pm. Up we travelled in the lift. 

Oh wow, a rooftop bar.

It was cool, so the overhead heating was welcome. 

I featured this mural in the past, but I didn't notice the ghost sign above. I need to decipher the sign.

Looking down on another rooftop bar at what may have once been called The Bullring.

Slightly challenging but what a cool venue name, Naked for Satan. 

The rest are just photos I took from the rooftop. Naked for Satan is a great venue and I highly recommend it. 

You did well, my lads.

The sads

I had a case of the sads yesterday. At times I wonder if I should have had a couple of sessions of grief counselling in  the months following Ray's death. Mostly I am fine, but sometimes things trigger me to have a sad day, and it should not be the day after a great birthday.

This morning it was after reading JayCee's post about receiving a new passport. You'll have to introduce yourself to her if you don't already read her blog. Her post spurred me to take a look at Ray's passports. Here is a photo of his English passports, correctly called United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 

The first two have a very solid hard cardboard cover, like a hardback book. He left Australia twice before he became an Australian citizen, once to England with a Singapore stopover and once to Bali in Indonesia, so there are stamps from those various countries, along with the important permission to return to Australia stamps, even though he was permanent resident.

Once he became an Australian citizen, that was no longer necessary. With hindsight, what a waste of money the last passport was, not used having arrived in February a few months before he died. Note the change to the European Union after the hardcover passports,  and then the disappearance of Europe post Brexit.  

And here are his Australian passports. They look progressively more modern, with the third one dabbling with a silver coat of arms, but then returning to gold in the last. You may wonder about why the need for both? While there were advantages to him by using his English passport, the advantage disappeared as he had to wait for me with my Australian passport at any point we crossed secure borders. 

He was cross questioned at Belgium's Midi Station after we arrived by Thalys from Amsterdam and changed to Eurostar for London. He was asked why he was travelling on an Australian passport when he had an English one (the immigration person knew he had an English passport). He explained it was because of me using my Australian passport and there being no advantage, and then the official asked why we weren't together. I don't remember why we weren't, and I've no idea why it might have been a concern. Ray was not my keeper. 

The reason he kept his English passport was that he could return to England to live if he wanted, and by default, I could live there too. We did even think about it a couple of times, but my family being here made it a non starter.

So yes, his optimism in February 2024 to get a new ten year English passport and dying two months later made me feel sad.

But there was more. I don't think it was until the 1980s where we first saw the English tv series 7Up in Australia, and I expect soon after we would have seen 14Up. Every seven years we would tune in to watch the next in the series and this year it was time for 70Up. I thought it was excellent, although I've yet to watch the second part. In its early days, questions were asked and presentation decisions were made that now would not pass the sniff test, and 70Up seemed to recognise this. The show is quite sad at times.

Even if you've never seen the former episodes, and they are available to see in Australia, just watching 70Up includes enough of the older series for it to all make sense. In Australia you can see the programme at SBS On Demand, but I think just watching 70Up is enough. Apparently there won't be a 77Up, which is a shame, and who knows if I will live to my mid seventies. Ray did, but no longer. We would have enjoyed watching 70Up together very much.  

Deflation

I didn't post yesterday, the 14th, as it was my birthday and so I was a bit busy.

A year older and I'm even more certain that whatever goes up, must come down.

Infuriating

At the beginning of this month businesses were no longer allowed to charge customers bank debit or credit card fees for a purchase or service. Good, very good. 

But oh how small businesses are bleating so loudly in protest. To use the Federal Government's conservative Opposition Party's phrase, 'the government is sending small businesses broke'.

Really? The seven cents that was added to my cup of coffee is the difference between the success or failure of a business? I have several thoughts, and so I will state them.

The price on the menu or product or service is what you pay. We don't want to go down the American road of all sorts of things being added when you pay. The price you see is what you pay.

It is cheaper for businesses to use electronic payments than cash, so why would they want to indulge in the complications of using cash when an immediate electronic payment goes into the business bank account? 

The reason is tax. They can't hide electronically transferred income like they can with cash. Your meal out costs $35, multiplied by by say 20 diners for that sitting equals $700. If all pay with cash, the business owner whips $100 out of the till and sticks it in their pocket and it won't be taxed. They are still making a profit but only $600 will be taxed, somewhat lower after business expenses are also deducted.

If business owners can't manage to work out what bank fees cost them over however long their budget predictions and need to add a separate charge, where will it end? Council rates, water usage, electricity added to your bill? Why shouldn't they all be surcharges on what you pay? 

This also goes for weekend and public holiday surcharges. Businesses need to work out their costs in advance to set your prices to cover everything. It ain't so hard. It has been done for hundreds of years, without surcharges. Number of public holidays, multiplied by the the cost of the number of staff needed including wage penalty rates, then add to the pricing structure. Not hard.

Let the wannabe tax cheats bleat away. Consumers are very happy to have these surcharges removed, not because of the cost, but the opaqueness about what you pay. 

Monday Mural

With Sami in Perth, here is my effort for Monday Mural. 

This mural is huge hence the two photos. It sits at a prominent Preston intersection near to the New Preston Tram Depot, once known as Preston Workshops (for trams). As you can see, it is quite political. 

Sunday Selections

Along with River and others, here are my Sunday Selections, mostly of the Victoria Harbour area looking towards Docklands. 

Jass is pausing her teararsing around the apartment, in pursuit of the unknown.  

Not sure how these two photos will look like live. It is a difficult sculpture to photograph.

Outside a cafe where I bought coffee is a non working water feature. Never a nice look. 

See the fence to the right to exclude the public? The pier decking is collapsing and remedial work is being undertaken. 

I am inclined to say this is some wankery art, but it is quite interesting.

Meanwhile back home, at times I see a heat haze coming from the ventilation system at the building next door, but every so often another system kicks in to remove the warm damp air caused by humans out into the cold atmosphere, with clouds of condensation mist being pumped out.

Normally you need a screwdriver to tighten up a worm drive clip, but not with this one. Great, but what on earth did I buy that needed such a clip! I know I didn't use it.

Kosov likes to keep his eggs symmetrically arranged. I like to mess up his arrangement, as I've done here. He takes his revenge by leaving a kitchen cupboard door slightly open, a serious offence to me. 

Not Cat Photos

Click here to see some great animal photos at The Guardian.