Monday Mural

Sami and others join in Monday Murals. What do I have stored up my sleeve? 

Time to clear some old ones. Ok, the last three taken in 2023. They are all great, in my opinion, with the second clearly being a commissioned work. 

Sunday Supplement

Daylight saving has begun, with Jass being happy to be fed an hour earlier. In this electronic age, I had to correct two bedroom clocks, the microwave, the oven, the weather station, the digital wall clock and the mantle clock.

Monday morning on the balcony is delightful as I view all the sad sacks having to go to their employment, but even nicer is Sunday evening when the white noise reduces, with the loud Harley Davidson and Royal Enfield motorcycles, along with the Maserati type cars with loud backfiring, spluttering and roaring exhaust noises, rather like an out of tune Austin 7 without a muffler, return to their outer suburban homelands. 

Trams still glide past but it is so peaceful, with only a very faint hum of electric bikes and small motor bikes delivering food to the lazy.

I pondered how I would occupy my time if I lived in small country town or on a farm and didn't live in a big city. If I had an internet connection, I suppose I would survive. A gay farmer is quite desirable by certain folk, as their imaginations work overtime. An old gay farmer, yes well....

Gloved up, at least my fist could remove a calf from a cow with a tight passage. 

Sunday Selections

River and others participate in Sunday Selections and here is my effort for the day.

Kosov loves making models, ships, dinosaurs, trains, trams and Phyllis makes buses. I allowed them some shelf space but not enough to fit all the models, so they rotate them.

Spirit of Tasmania IV was berthed at Station Pier. There is a SoT V too. I am not sure what is happening with them and I must investigate because it is assumed I know about such things. 

I wonder why the name was changed and did the lane lead to a synagogue? AI is kind of helpful. Changed to Little Queen Street in 1868 as the lane had become disreputable. 1909 changed to Bourke Lane. It did run alongside the Melbourne Synagogue before the Melbourne Synagogue moved to Toorak Road, it being the domed building in my blog header photo. It was changed back to Little Queen Street, but I can't easily find that date. While at least the sign references the former synagogue, I would like to see the Synagogue Lane put back. 

The homeless are doing quite well, at the Elizabeth Street Metro supemarket.

Steve asked about the game Phyllis and Kosov were playing with their friends, and this is it. 

Goog luck buying public transport card here if it is raining. The rain pours off the shelter right where you need to stand. Back of the classroom, that boy.

All cats like a box and Jass is no exception. I can't remember what was in the box, maybe my new monitor.

What was she looking at?

This homeless person sleeping next door doesn't have his own shelter. 

A friend visited Calcutta and sent me a few photos. 

This is the tram driver's cabin, complete with free standing stool. There is probably asbestos inside the controller unit, hence the do not open sign. 

Isn't a mobile library tram such a great idea. 

Friday Funny

The late John Clarke as the spokesperson and Brian Dawe as the interviewer. The first is the straight clip and the second is of an American living in Spain watching the clip and commenting. 

Who has the biggest?

Someone recently asked if walk in robes, or closets, were common in Australia. While I don't like new homes much, so I don't look at them, I think most would have WIRs, but they are a recent thing. Unless retro fitted, most older homes will not have WIR. This is the layout of HH's apartment, and from her bedroom, she has both an ensuite and walk in robe. She has a huge balcony, but she rarely goes out onto the balcony. These plans are not to scale as a comparison. 

We are not sure who had the biggest, because mine is a very different layout. The spare room is close to the living area and kitchen. The next bedroom used by Phyllis and Kosov is more isolated, and me in the west wing, much more isolated. I prefer my layout and HH thinks mine is better, but I don't have the walk in robe that she has. While the apartment walls are pretty well soundproof, the interior walls are not and I would not like a bedroom directly off the living areas like HH's. 

My apartment block is unusual for Australia in that it is about 75% three bedroom, 20% two bedroom and 5% two bedroom plus a study.

I'm not opinionated, but...

Petrol prices: Without doubt petrol companies are profiteering during this world wide oil problems, solely caused by #47. The 'outrageous prices' of the Biden era don't seem so outrageous now. The retailers and the supplying companies are making a bomb, and no one is talking about that.

Lachie Neale: Creepy Australian football player who on camera punched another player in the guts. He was suspended for one match, but it was the Grand Final match, so naturally a way was found to let him play. For mine, he should have been charged with assault by the police.

A US AI company attacked an Australian medical system to seek information. Another AI company took that as being an ok thing to do, so it attacked too. Bring back the old days when there was only Google and Wikipedia. Matters of the tech have never scared me, but they are starting to now. 

'Ave a good one', (day). Suddenly English as a second language supermarket staff are using such slang as you thank them after paying. I don't mind it, but is clearly coming from management, with the hope that they are seen as dinky di Australians. 

Data centres: Massive buildings that from within consume huge amounts of electricity and water. Every year before summer we are warned by doomsayers that there will be electricity blackouts over summer because there won't be enough electricity to power our cooling. I think it did happen once in the teen years, but that was I think due to coal power station failures. One data centre can use as much power as a town with 127,000 residents. This is a huge issue to be addressed. And so is the water consumption, when in times of drought and water restrictions for households. There will be a huge pile on against the data centres and governments if the use of resources is not addressed and ensured they are renewable.

Electricity supply for data centres: Nah, we're not paying for underground cables. We'll, just put enormously tall high voltage power poles down your quiet and leafy suburban street. They did in one street and after another street saw that happen, they blockaded their own street by parking cars to stop the works. Already dug holes have been filled in. Who knows what Plan B will be.

A terrorist plot in England foiled by a farmer returning home after being at a party? Well done that girl, but was it? Much to the dissatisfaction of #47 and his bitch boi Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, the accused have been released on bail. I would assume the English authorities know what they are doing and such a decision wasn't taken lightly, and they don't need interference from across the Atlantic. 

Miss Manners in public: No one wants to hear your phone videos playing on public transport (young people), and no one wants to hear your phone on loudspeaker with what should be a private conversation (old people). 

The weekend visit to Daylesford 2

Mount Franklin is a popular brand of bottled water in Australia, well Victoria at least. Apparently the real Mount Franklin does supply some spring water to the bottlers, probably owned by the giant Coca Cola Amatil. 

"Andrew, do we have the time to visit Mount Franklin?" "If you don't muck around, yes. We do have a train to catch." I had ordered the motel breakfast for $10, consisting of cereal, inadequate light milk and toast with butter and spreads, with me toasting the bread to make the toast. I had brought some chopped fruit and psyllium husks to add to the cereal. 

It was a lovely twenty minute drive to Mount Franklin, with such pretty scenery. There was nothing to see there that I know of but it is a popular camping ground. Camping?? Quell Horreur. 

We descended down to the carpark shared by those travelling on the vintage train and those attending the adjacent Sunday market. It took a little time to find a parking space but I thought we were there in plenty of time, fifteen minutes before departure. This three wheeler was parked as we walked to the station.

How did the station staff know my name? Now I surmise because I was the last person who had booked and arrived. The train was almost full and the seats weren't reserved.

 

Oh, what a beauty. A Walker Rail Motor, mostly used on country branch lines, since closed after the Beeching Report rationalisation of Victorian railways in the sixties and seventies. The Walker is two passenger carriages, in this case one first class and one second class, with another centre non passenger carriage where the two diesel motors and associated workings are located. There was little intrusion into the passenger carriages by engine noise as we climbed from an elevation of 616 metres to Bullarto at 735 metres, a quite steep rise of 1 in 50. Bullarto is the highest operating railway station in the state. 

A travel poster at the Bullarto Station. 

With a ten minute turn around at Bullarto, it was back to Daylesford, making it a perfect one hour trip. We only had two seats for three people, so Phyllis sat on Kosov's legs for the whole trip. 

We found some food at the Sunday market to fortify ourselves for the journey home, with Kosov driving to the motorway and then Phyllis for the rest to home. Some more luscious scenery along the way.