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. 

Let the theremin rip

My first experience of the musical instrument called theremin was at Melbourne's Southbank, where there was a huge operational theremin, a few metres squared and perhaps a metre tall. It operated by moving around the instrument. I think I only photographed it at the time and I did blog about it sometime in the 2000s. 

I brought it up again in the twenty teen years (help me express those years better) and below this video you can read the comments at the time. I remember first hearing the term 'pensioner porn' from a blogger, but who knows which one. The term refers to tv perennial tv programmes like Doc Martin and Midsomer Murders, avidly watched by many older people.

I find the instrument quite fascinating. 

Wow, so many former bloggers commented, and some current ones. A different MC commented back then.

11 comments:

1. 
   diane b7:52 am

   You learn something new everyday from blogging. Midsomer Murder is Bill's favourite show and Gattina another blogger.

   Reply
2. 
   smudgeon10:04 am

   Theremins are fascinating instruments. I have one in kit form, just waiting for me to pick up a soldering iron (yuck) and put it together.
   
   "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys is another good example of a theremin used well.

   Reply
3. 
   Andrew11:18 am

   Diane, some knowledge you can sprout as the opening credits roll on Sunday night. I like the show especially for the scenery and the buildings.
   
   And then Smudgeon, you have to learn to play it. I am surprised that I had not heard of it. I just listened to the BB track and I can hear it clearly.

   Reply
4. 
   Rubye Jack12:08 pm

   Oh, I've seen these before - somewhere. Simply lovely.

   Reply
5. 
   Hels5:06 pm

   I too had never heard of the Theramin, as the first electric music machine ever made or as an instrument making sound tracks for horror movies. But it was and is totally brilliant.
   
   How old is the film footage, by the way? I loved hearing the Russian...it tapped right into my family's collective unconscious :)

   Reply
6. 
   Andrew9:33 pm

   Rubye, note that any pretender who like to conduct an orchestra would have great fun.
   
   Hels, Theramin invented it in the late twenties, so I imagine the film is not much newer than that. It is a cool and weird instrument.

   Reply
7. 
   River10:04 pm

   Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory has a Theramin, that's where I first heard of them. it's an interesting sound.

   Reply
8. 
   BlissHill9:02 am

   I have never heard of one either! If you close your eyes, the sound is very close to a wavery soprano. What a great little machine.

   Reply
9. 
   Andrew11:36 am

   River, good that it is in popular culture.
   
   Bliss, it is something I would like to play with. It is very high pitched isn't it.

   Reply
10. 
    Middle Child2:52 pm

    Wow - thannks for that - you learn something new every day of the week some weeks...now How can I slip that into my conversation? Maybe wait till i hear one in a theme track and say, "Isnt it amazing what a well played Theramin" can do"
    
    You are a fount (or is it font) of knowledge

    Reply
11. 
    Andrew3:11 pm

    MC, I just heard a tiny bit about it and forgot the name. The rest I found on the net.

    Reply

 

Politics and our Kylie Minogue

It is interesting to observe former politicians, especially but not only the conservative ones, who suddenly become reasonable once retired. Former Australian conservative politician Joe Hockey seems to be such a person. From his ridiculous rants while on the floors of the parliament and once retired, he went on to be appointed Australian ambassador to the United States, 2016 to 2020. His speaking on tonight's tv seemed quite honest with his views of US politics, and the corruption within.

It isn't a good idea for bloggers to mix up subjects, but here you go with snaps of the tv screen when Kylie Minogue performed ahead of the Australian Rules Football Grand Final. 

She put on a fabulous twenty minute spectacular, and the 100,000 crowd loved her. 

An evening out

It seemed curious to have a dinner party on a Monday night. I say dinner party, but it was five of us who were invited, and I was the only guy. The invitation came from our Tasmanian friend's ex partner, our friend who is here for her annual check on her heart transplant, now 20 years ago. How traumatic the time was, but she had the best care possible at St Vincent's public hospital in Sydney where the transplant was performed. The heart of a young man killed in a car accident saved our friend's life.

My Hairdresser Friend came too. I was going to catch a tram and then walk, and she had made a desert, so thought about driving herself. I asked Phyllis if he would be free between 6 and 7 to drive us and he was, so that worked out well.

The mother of the ex of our friend lived in what was then the tallest building in Australia, I think called Q1 on Queensland's Gold Coast. When her husband died, she moved back to Melbourne into her daughter's home, our friend's ex. The mother was becoming very old and began to behave strangely. She saw a gerontologist, who discovered the huge number of pain killers for arthritis she had been prescribed were affecting her brain. She improved after the pain killers were reduced, without a noticeable increase in levels of pain. But eventually her care became too much for her daughter and she went to live in a care home almost across the road.

The home of the ex is a thirty year old three bedroom unit, and very nice it is too. She has such good taste and has renovated what she didn't like, and had a pergola built at the space at the side. The slat angles and lighting are all controlled by remote.

 

Before a traditional home is built, women should have the say about where power points are located and how many there are. Maybe some men could plan well enough.

In the side garden and the front garden were heaps of clivia in full bloom. 

We had nibbles and drinks and chatted away. The dinner was snapper fish fillets, doused in an overpowering tamarind sauce that killed any taste of the fish, with rice and a dressed tossed salad. 

Over the dining table hung a single pendant light bulb in some kind of rattan cage. It looked nice enough, until I noticed the actual light bulb was filthy. My eyes kept going back to the filthy light bulb. Maybe you know the feeling of when you want to straighten someone's wall picture frames. I wanted to get some chemical or hot soapy water onto the light bulb and make it crystal clear. 

The ex made a cheesecake from scratch, nice enough, and my Hairdresser Friend made a rather curious dessert from scratch that was quite stodgy. We did have a nice night, in spite of talking about periods and 'putting in the rags'. I was very complimentary to the ex for her nice home, for dinner and her very cute dog. If only that light bulb could be cleaned... 

Phyllis had messaged me to ask how we getting home. I replied, 'By cab or Uber, unless you are free to pick us up'. He did come and take us home.

I knew I was not in a good state once home. I felt very hot before I got into bed, and sure enough, something I had eaten had not agreed with me. I slept for ten minutes and woke up, boiling hot. Repeat the same until about 5.00am and I then fell into a proper sleep. I experienced the same years ago when we used to dine at cheap Chinse restaurants. I have no idea what triggers what is clearly food related.