The Aussie Pension

There is some detail I will leave out to keep this simple. The Australian old age pension is for eligible Australians who are permanent residents or citizens who have lived in Australia for a certain period, are retired and are 67 years old or more. There isn't a retirement age in Australia but 67 is thought of as a de facto age. 

The pension is paid by the government from its general revenue, taxes if you like. Generally, wages and pensions are paid every two weeks. 

The maximum pension is about $600 a week. The pension comes with other benefits, such as cheaper electricity, gas and water, along with local government rates and medications, the latter mostly costing no more than $7.50 per prescription.

The pension is asset and income tested, but with your owned home and personal effects such as furniture, jewellery....and perhaps expensive art work hanging on your walls, are all exempt. Your motor car is not exempt, so if you take money from your bank account to pay for a new car, just because you have a lower bank balance, that means nothing. But your car is an asset that can be devalued, quite a lot as soon as you drive out of the car showroom. My new car was immediately devalued by $9,000. So at each pension review, your car's value will be part of the consideration as to what you are paid. When my next pension review happens, that will be taken into account.

I think the old age pension cuts out when you have around $720,000 in savings or in private superannuation, the figure including the value of your car. 

Superannuation, that is a scheme to provide you with money for your old age is a contribution from you and your employers to a private profit making organisation or a workplace/union based not for profit. The latter generally perform much better. Your employer may pay around 10% of your wage into super, with you paying perhaps 5% or more. You can also put in extra money, say a lump sum from your savings or whatever.

So, say you have $500,000 in superannuation, from which you draw an income of $1,000 each week, you will still receive the government old age pension, of about $115 each week.

If you have minimal money, you will receive the full pension amount of  $600 per week, plus if you rent in the private market, an extra amount.

If the dollar figures seem high to people overseas, remember Australia is an expensive country to live, and the wages quite high, with the minimum wage now being about $1,000 a week for a full time 38 hour working week. 

AU$1000 = US$700 = GB£530 = €610.   

Thursday Theatrics

I don't have time to muck around with this, so all there is a link to a production of Romeo and Juliet performed in Poland Türkiye whereby an incident happened during the tragic scene of the just dead Romeo. I'm sure many of you will have seen the clip already.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZmgCVKJrid/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Just a day in the life of...

Monday night Phyllis came from one of his jobs with a bottle of Shiraz, given to him by a friend who was returning to Sri Lanka. He checked the value of the bottle online and it was $130. We checked the big green liquor outlet and it was $60. Phyllis poured me a glass in a wine glass and it was very nice, and I'd pay about $15 for the wine.

I normally drink wine from a tumbler because of my unsteady hands, and when I took the proper wine glass out onto the balcony, sure enough, I knocked it over. I expected lights to turn on all over the building at the sound of the wine glass smashing, but they didn't. 'Phyllis, Kosov, help me', and they cleaned up the glass and mopped the balcony. 

Of course last night it was dark, so next morning I finished cleaning up. 

Tuesday morning , Kosov appeared dressed for work. Have a lovely day K, and take care. Onnndrewww, I am coming home. He slept form 9am to 4.30pm. 

I got rid of many medication blister packs at the chemist, an embarrassing amount, but hey, they keep me alive. They had built up. I picked up a couple of prescriptions I ordered on the app. I know now to order them the evening before to be sure they are ready. 

I ate a sandwich from home in Prahran Square along with bought coffee, and I devoured a bought Portuguese tart at my table.

I shopped for a couple of litres of milk, some tomatoes and salad leaves. I needed some potato salad and coleslaw, but the tram was four minutes away, so I stopped searching. 

Once home, my new shirt had arrived in the post. I made a mistake when ordering the shirt, rather click and collect, it was delivered. I made another mistake as the shirt doesn't have a pocket. No wonder it was a bargain, but it looks ok. Sadly my image doesn't match that of the male model who was wearing it in the online catalogue.

I sorted out the new car things with the company who deals with my old age pension. Although I lost around $9,000 dollars car valuation, from my pocket, as soon as I drove it from the car sales place, my pension will reduce by $2. Oh, the pension mysteries. 

Phyllis took the car to a workplace today, and it fills me with dread if he calls me, as he did around noon. I think he may have smashed up my new car, but instead he asked if I was going out, could I buy half a kilo of diced beef. Ok, and the nearby smaller Metro supermarket had the coleslaw and potato salad I needed. I added a tiny packet of bacon flavoured potato crisps...$2 only.

I physically abused Jass today, giving her a whack as she clawed the back of my desk chair. She stopped but seemed unoffended. 

Dinner by Phyllis tonight was a big fail. 

What a drone

Drone bees are male used for sex and then discarded. Not that unlike some humans really. 

Is there a parallel with drones of the skies?

In the noughties Ray and I were on a grassed area at St Kilda Beach, Melbourne, when I heard a noise and looked up and saw a drone aircraft, and it descended to land right next to us. This is a public safety issue, said the State Government and banned them in some areas.

Skip to the teen years of the 21st century and I thought from my balcony I could see a hovering bird over the streets of South Yarra. We don't have large hovering birds. I realised it was a drone. I watched for a very short time and went inside to get my camera to take a photo, but it had gone by the time I returned. The drone operator was certainly in breach of laws.

Now, they have become skilled surveillance cameras, weapons that can hunt down and kill people with precision, can be armed to attack sites and suicide bombing devices.

Their abilities are quite scary, but they can be used in very useful areas too, for surveying and mapping, to check inaccessible areas and to fight against crime. 

They are topical here because they are used at Sydney beaches as shark spotters. Sadly at Coogee Beach a female swimmer was recently attacked by a shark. The beach is one of the popular few that doesn't have drone coverage because of Sydney Airport flight restrictions. Duh, how high do drones fly compared to planes? The authority has now temporarily allowed shark spotting drones to fly over the sea at Coogee Beach.

Over the summer periods, Sydney beaches are often netted to stop sharks coming close to shores, but this has a huge impact on sea wildlife, with many creatures getting caught in nets, including dolphins, whales, stingrays and turtles. Drones are a far more effective way to prevent shark attacks and don't have the impact on creatures of the seas. 

After all, aren't the seas the province of sea creatures. Humans enter at risk.

There is a natural predator for drones, as this Australian wedge tailed eagle shows. (PS. If this post seems very unedited in someway, that's because crazy things are happening around me) 

Monday Mural

Sami and others post Monday Murals. This is a bit interesting.

In other news, Kosov let Jass out onto the balcony, and left the door open.

"Kosov, never mind the cold draught on my legs, think of of the extra power to heat the place with door ajar. Besides, she has a personal servant to open and close the balcony door at her whim, like me".

Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey, like Jass having me to open and close a door for her, and I end up being a servant.

Sunday Selections

As usual, River and others, often along with me, participate in Sunday Selections.

I've never thought much of Crocs, thank you John Gray of Wales. But two pair arrived at The Highrise, a pink and a blue pair. I tried them on, and nah, not for me. They are probably not real Crocs either. 

I try, and this is encouraging.

Jass can go into very sound sleeps, and like with dogs, you can see signs of the brain still working, perhaps a version of dreaming. I don't mind Jass sleeping next to me on the bed, but I really, really need my beauty sleep and she should walk to the end of the bed to get down, not walk over the top of me when I'm asleep. 

While Ivy can be a very bad girl if left to roam unattended, so to can Wisteria, as beautiful as she can be.

Jass, like her so called Master, gets bored easily, even with mice running around on tv. Scratching at the tv screen becomes tiresome too without mouse entrapment. Finding a bug to torture and consume in 6.30am darkness on the balcony, and she is in a happy place. None of our former cats had her extreme hunting instincts. 

Should I turn the taps on and quickly shut the door? There is nothing more miserable looking than a wet cat.

Phyllis is an excellent cook, but not a tidy cook at all. If Kosov is home, he does the cleaning up as Phyllis cooks. 

An interesting morning sky.

Zoom in a bit and raise the camera, it looks even better.

The same day, about twelve hours later, best enlarged. 

Occasionally Ray would buy ham steaks and a tin of pineapple rings and he would normally serve them with mashed potatoes, carrots, peas and broccoli. I found these at the Austro/Germo supermarket and Phyllis did an ok job, with bought potato salad, and he made a nice mustard sauce.

The beautiful game

It is World Cup time, football, or soccer as we, NZ and north American know it. The World Cup is this time spread over three countries, the US, Canada and Mexico. I suppose it was the US who bid to host the Cup. Our male team is known as the Socceroos. 

The last World Cup was held in Qatar, and was criticised for its exploitation of migrant workers and anti gay laws, with this Socceroo bloke Jackson Irvine who I just found out about today, being very critical at the time, and stood up and said so. Note his rainbow armband. 

Because of #47's antics, tourism to the US has dropped significantly. Canadians were the main tourists to visit the US and the numbers of them have dropped anywhere between 20% and 50%, depending on your biased source. The so called Snow Birders, that during the Canadian winter fly to Florida and other warm states, has tumbled, and they are selling their US properties. The threat from #47 to make Canada a state of the US rather upset Canadians, as it would. Imposing and increasing tariffs upset them further. 

I could go on, but I'll hand it over to Jackie in Toronto, where some games will be played. Some will played in Vancouver too. Montreal wisely said no to the games, and won't incur the huge cost of hosting games. 

Jackie posted this. 

Astonishingly, people who have been granted ESTAS, an agreement to be able to enter the US, somewhat like a visa, have subsequently been denied entry, either when arriving or a day or two before they were due travel, having paid for tickets to the game, accommodation and of course flights. I hope they have good travel insurance.

 

Over to this post by Jackie in Toronto. https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2026/06/fifa-world-cup.html