Sunday Selections

I'm linking to River for Sunday Selections, and joining with others.

These dawn photos are interesting for this reason. The first was taken at 6.54 and 23 seconds.

I swung the lens maybe 15 degrees to the north and zoomed in and this one was taken at 6.54 and 49 seconds, 31 seconds apart. It looks like a totally different sky.

A three wicked candle. Things come and go into the highrise. 

The tall building on the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel St is on the site of a former tramway cable engine house, with the cables running under road pulling along the trams running on Toorak Road and Chapel Streets. The building, Capitol Grand LK Tower, even when almost enveloped by fog, still dominates. The Capitol name comes for the business that took over the building after cable trams were replaced by electric trams, Capitol Bakery, and remained so into my younger years. It then became Johnny Rockets, a kind of American diner specialising in burgers. It was also used for Gayskate, gay guys gathering to roller skate around a track. AFIK, no funny business happened when gay men were on skates.

Two unidentified dinosaurs have attacked dear Pteranodon. 

"Kosov, why have you kept sweet potato peels?"

"You will see, Onnnndrew".

He fried them and they were a delicious snack. 

At the corner of Carlisle and Acland Street, I remember the days when this was a corner milk bar, then a sex shop, selling adult toys and such paraphernalia, with a sex on premises venue upstairs, for men only I suppose. After a long period of closure, the building has been very nicely renovated and is now what I would call an Australiana shop. 

I could tease you with some words about its former use as a SOPV and my experience with the building, but it wasn't related to the upstairs goings on. When the shop was empty, the area at its rear with room for a couple of cars to park, was a mess. With a large double gate open, I stepped in for a a sticky beak. As I walked out a belligerent woman, without taking a breath told me as owner of the property, I ought to be ashamed of myself for allowing such a mess of junk and rubbish to accumulate and being exposed to the street. My character is that I think of all the clever are smart arse answers later, but gee I wish I was guilty as accused and owned the building worth a million dollars plus.

HH's daughter grew these chillies on her small farm, and I believe they are called Habanero chilli, possibly the hottest in the world. There is the obvious question as to why she grew chilli that she could never use, and why give them to HH? Perhaps they were meant for Phyllis and Kosov. HH gave dire warnings about using gloves when preparing them, and to stand under the range hood fan to extract the fumes. 

While I was waiting for Perl to be serviced last week, I took a rather long walk for me, and among the high rise buildings, factories, offices and commercial buildings, I came across this electricity substation. How great that it is kept, and for all I know, is still functional.

The little tower atop is cute. Somewhere on this wall is a door. It does still seem to be a working building, with modern signage. But can this substation deal with the vast electricity demand in the area? 

It seems not. Around the corner, this is where the magic happens.

I can't stop ranting

Tommy Robinson, not his real name, is a far right activist in the UK. I remember lunching at a pub in Whitehall as a protest march passed by, with buses diverted, which I think is quite common in Whitehall. It seemed to be a protest about a certain Tommy Robinson being gaoled. I had no idea who he was. 

More than a decade later, I now know about his far right politics and he has served five prison sentences, for assault, threats, harassment, fraud and contempt of court. He became a bankrupt after racking up a lot of gambling debts. He was sentenced to a community service order of 150 hours, and a three year ban from attending football (soccer) matches.

In August 2025, Robinson shared a video on Twitter of a black man and his brother playing with his white granddaughters in a park in North Yorkshire, falsely accusing them of paedophilia, which resulted in the family being racially abused with false paedophilia accusations. Labour MP for Redcar Anna Turley had to write a reference letter of good behaviour after the victim was suspended by his management. Turley stated that there was "no place for hate in our town" and said she was "heartbroken" for the family "who've been targeted and abused because of Tommy Robinson's poisonous lies"

Nice dude hey. No! A nasty piece of work. He's maybe as bad as #47!

Not my business? It is when an Australian became involved, one popular morning tv host, Karl Stefanovic. 

In a vodcast, Stefanovic became Robinson's best mate and not at all interviewing him in a normal journalistic questioning manner, and ignored Robinson's past. It was all very lovey dovey. From other areas, it seems Stefanovic has become hard right, even though his father, a Serbian, was an immigrant to Australia. 

Stefanovic has been sacked from his television gig and for many of us, is a disgraced person. Public figures may softly indicate where their politics lie, but if they follow extremism, they will accordingly 

be judged. 

My Politics #101

Labor Australia, Labour UK, Democrat US, Liberal Canada.

All of the above have manual worker beginnings, as downtrodden and abused workers came together and demanded decent pay and rights. The right for workers to strike became entrenched, and I must say abused at times. But the only thing protecting basic workers rights was that they collectively would decide on a course of action against their exploitive employers, and it worked. Pay increased, working conditions improved, and best of all safety for workers in their workplaces improved immensely. From this arose the above listed political parties. 

Liberal Australia, Conservative (Tory) UK, Republican US, Conservative Canada.

These are parties built by rich people and wealthy business people. They are anti worker, anti union, anti progressive society, such as gay and trans rights, no care for the disadvantaged in society, anti free public health care and public school education, anti taxation of rich people to improve society, anti big government control, anti regulation of safety in all kinds of areas. Anti tech regulations, anti public transport.  Also anti environment over profits, and anti renewable power. Anti brown people, unless they are factory fodder. These parties are anti everything that makes modern society better. 

But then we now have far right parties, so much worse than the conservative parties. In the UK, Reform Party, in Australia, One Nation. The US Republican Party has crossed over from being conservative to extreme far right, up there with One Nation and Reform. 

To quote the leader of Australia's One Nation, "There are no good Muslims". This from she who said thirty years ago, "We are being swamped by Asians". She has also been heard spouting anti African immigrant comments.

I have my opinions on immigration and how it could work better for Australia, one being don't take too many at once from one country. There are refugees all over the world, and many well educated possible immigrants. Many of our successful immigrants are those who came here as students and received permanent residency before becoming citizens, my hope for Phyllis and Kosov.   

I could never vote for conservative parties simply because everything they stand for goes against my values. And OMG, voting for the felon, war monger and pederast, the Orange TACO, aka the 47th President of the United States. You just can't.

I'll try to be less ranty at the weekend.   

A good blog but beware of tour guides.

Frogdancer travels rather a lot, and her blog is a good read as she writes with wit, humour and some self deprecation. As I write she is about to visit Machu Picchu by train.

During a recent tour she posted about something a guide told her group. A quick Google and AI check definitely says this is untrue, in spite of how cruel the Spanish were.

The Inca men had long ponytails down to their hips. The Spanish would tie the men’s hands behind their backs, then tie their ponytails to their testicles. Then they’d castrate them.

I can't remember the 'fact' we were told on the open topped New York hop on, hop off bus, but I was suspicious and I checked and it was totally wrong.

This photo taken from the top of the bus, and I don't know what the statue is about, probably in lower Manhattan. Of course I could Google it, but maybe one of you already know. 

Rottnest Island, Western Australia, to paraphrase the tour guide, "We don't have an electricity connection to the island from the mainland, so we generate all of our electricity here on the island, and any excess goes back to Perth (mainland)". I guess that is by osmosis. 

Quokka barrier at the Rottnest Island supermarket. 

What to write?

I find somethin'.

Last Wednesday, I lunched with my neighbour HH. We drove in Perl to a Port Melbourne bakery. She ordered a vegetable pastie and I ordered a curried egg sandwich. I asked for half on a plate and half to take away in a paper bag, as I used to do with Ray at the same bakery. 

HH talked and was slow to eat her pastie, and eventually I opened the package and ate my other half of my curried egg sandwich. I then went up to the counter and ordered a fruit tart and coffee. 

I asked if HH minded if I bought a packet of frozen mixed vegetables, requested by Phyllis, and a 2 litre container of light milk at the supermarket. HH waited for me inside the supermarket and had spied a bottle of sweet chilli sauce to buy for herself. 

Do you mind if we visit the florist for a bunch of flowers for home, HH? The flowers were so expensive, I suppose because it is winter here. I didn't buy any. 

Do you mind HH if we give Perl a wash on the way home, HH. No problem, so I went through the car wash.

Once home before parting, HH said, I would like to take you, Phyllis and Kosov out for dinner to thank you for you kindness and care over the last few weeks after I had my fall. 

It was no big deal to help her, and she never really asked. She gracefully accepted offers of help and meals cooked by Phyllis and Kosov.

I went out again in Perl in the afternoon and it was an absolute disaster, mainly because I forgot my phone. from basic paying, to not have store cards, to paying for parking without my phone app, for buying the wrong thing and having to have money refunded, to extraordinary key and remote juggling because of recent changes. I just should not have gone out again, and my phone is as essential to me to go out as my car keys.

Jass, be safe

Someone, or more than one, mentioned about Jass on the balcony. We, that is Phyllis, Kosov and I were incredibly cautious when Jass first went on to the balcony, ready to grab her or pull her back. 

She would stick her head under the glass to look at the birdies nesting on the balcony below. Her body could have fitted under the glass. If she stuck her neck out too far, we would just call her name and she would pull her head back in.

She has shown no inclination to jump on the balcony, though she is an expert jumper, and only rarely sits on my balcony seat. She mostly just sits at floor level and watches. I just sit on a seat and watch, so I get that. Well, she did in warmer weather. She doesn't like the balcony in winter.

 

I see it as risk assessment, as you might do with your children. Yes, there is a risk to them if you let them out on their own, but I must say, young children who used to be let out on their own to learn the ways of the world, are now so mollycoddled and supervised, I doubt it does them good. 

Segueing, Neighbour HH is so stressed about her 23 year old granddaughter staying in her apartment while HH is in New Zealand, her son had to bring HH back to earth. 'Mum, she has travelled all over Europe, stayed with strangers, and had a wonderful time. She will manage without Nonna being there'. No, HH is not Italian and it's a long story why she is called Nonna, which I forget. 

Nevertheless, I will let the granddaughter into the building and show her where the key and fob is hidden in HH's  apartment, as I have access to HH's apartment. For id purposes, HH sent me a photo of her granddaughter, who I think is 23 and very attractive. There are already some written instructions pinned up in HH's apartment for her granddaughter. Lordy, HH is more of a control freak than I am.

In other news, I did not know Australian mudlarks swoop people, and I was swooped. Apparently they go for your eyes, but in this case one just bumped on my cap twice. I never saw the bird. I've been swooped by wattle birds who don't make contact, with just making a clicking kind of sound as you feal the flutter of their wings. I've not been swooped by the worst, Australian magpies, that are very different to magpies elsewhere in the world. My horror is encountering a drop bear, but as an inner suburban dweller, I am safe. It's just when I leave the city environs that I'm at risk. You just at times have to take your chances.

Every few days we give Jass a wet meal, that is tinned food. She doesn't really like it but we persist and she eats some of it. But oh my, aren't the ingredients such wankery, bought by Phyllis at $4 a tin. Jass, did not eat the long grain rice, and whatever else she left in her bowl was probably spinach, spinach being part of normal cat's diet. No? 

Monday Mural

With Sami and others, here is my Monday Mural photo. 

To me he looks like a well read older intellectual Jewish gentleman. What is your opinion?