GOR Pt 1/3

GOR, Great Ocean Road, a world famous tourist attraction, and for good reasons. The sights are amazing.

I checked the accommodation, including at the usual booking sites and then called the place directly. It was pointless as at some point it became clear the site's personal booking was done through booking.com. I paid $1 less than booking online. The automated system they use is quite good, but even so it is monitored by a human, so when I was asked about our arrival time, anytime from 3pm onwards, I curtly replied that we will arrive at the standard Australian check in time at 2pm. 

The morning of our arrival later in the day, I received a message about parking, where to walk and the code to a keysafe to gain access to the apartment. For my recent breaks away, I've been very conscious of price. This time I decided to stay somewhere a bit nicer, although a fifteen minute drive from a town rather than in a town. Compromise on location and you get a better standard.

We stopped off at a services along the way. Kosov is amused by my joking about his hollow legs. Do I have to explain that? His legs were more than well filled by more food than I could imagine eating in a day. But then in my teenage years I was accused of having hollow legs.

The next stop was Anglesea for coffee for me. Wow, the coffee was $6 and horrible. I had to wait a while as an American tourist had returned with her coffee and asked for some syrup to be added, like at Starbucks, she added. I exclaimed to her with a laugh,  'Not Starbucks' and held my forefingers as crossed swords. She replied with with a smile and, yes I know that already.

Meanwhile Phyllis' hair had been become entangled in his hair band, and Kosov was trying to free the knot from the stretchy band. Phyllis was wearing some lethal looking nails and could not do it himself.

I don't know what it is about Phyllis at his girliest best, but he seems to cast relaxation and friendliness from even very straight guys. Older women are absolutely charmed by him, and one woman waiting for her coffee offered to cut his hair to free the band with scissors from her handbag. Kosov did free his hair, so it wasn't necessary to attack Phyllis' hair with scissors.

As we were leaving the town I spotted a lookout sign and quickly remembered Ray and I had stopped off there. "Swing right Phyllis", and he did. The views are great. 

The next stop was the official beginning of the Great Ocean Road, which I think was where the original toll booths were. The sign has been destroyed by fire twice.

Far above the monument sat these houses. We had already passed the Pole House.

 

Great Ocean Road was essentially carved into cliffs by WWI returned soldiers by hand and dynamite as gainful employment for them. Many died during the huge construction project of 243 km/151mls. They slept in tents, in the cold, in rain and in heat.

 

After a brief toilet stop in Lorne, we drove on along the constantly curving road. Oh wow, we arrived at our accommodation and the view from both the living area and my bedroom was stunning. 

The sea was just 100m/328ft away.

Then we began to find issues with our apartment.

To be continued.

Kosov's birthday

We headed into town to brunch at the Melbourne Central Pancake Parlour. Even though they both work part time in different Pancake Parlours, I am not sure the Melbourne Central one is the best example. Where they both work are much busier and lively. My meal was rather average. 

I headed for home while they went off to a painting cafe. I didn't ask questions. They returned home a couple of hours later, very pleased with their painting efforts. They painted some figures, but they had no evidence of their efforts. They rested for a couple of hours, and Phyllis had let me into the secret next outing, because he needed to take Perl. 

Phyllis took Kosov to a shooting range in Springvale. "Phyllis", I said, "you need a shooting licence". "No Andrew, it is a package." They shot at targets with .22 rifles, five rounds of automatic ammunition at a time. Kosov would have liked a Glock pistol, but they were three times the price. They went on to catch up with a couple of people for dinner before returning home after I had gone to bed.

I arrived home after shopping for some essentials after our short time away and a few minutes later Kosov appeared, with a cardboard bag. I thought he had been to the mailroom to pick up a delivery but him wearing a jacket seemed odd for a mailroom collection. From the bag he extracted two cat sculptures.

"What do you think Eandrew?"

I often make Kosov laugh by speaking very formally. While in my head I was thinking, Jesus, what shit has Phyllis bought, I slowly and pompously said, "I will refrain from stating my opinion, lest I offend".

"Eandrew, we painted these at the cafe, and we left them to dry, and then they were glazed."

So, he had been into town to pick them up, hence him wearing a jacket when he returned, and the painted figures as a work of love were suddenly very likeable to me...almost.

Guess who painted which cat?

Before you vote

Me commenting on elections if a foreign country may not be acceptable in normal circumstances, but the evil Trump has made his rule the business of the world. 

A young American journalist who is an intern at our respected local newspaper wrote that Americans don't quite realise how much President Trump's second reign has damaged the United States in the eyes of the world. 

They don't realise how much coverage Trump gets overseas for his absurd and nonsensical behaviour, let alone his social media posts. Perhaps what puzzles me and many people was that he was elected a second time.

I am not sure the US will ever recover from his reign. Canada was the biggest trading partner with the US, and it is now finding alternatives. The US has lost well over one third of its Canadian tourists, maybe up to a half. Tourism is well down from all countries.

There is saying about going for he hip pockets, or wallets if you want to get voted in. That is partly true, but some very ignorant people will still support Trump, in spite of the war he began for no obvious reason having sent the world and prices into chaos. Do Trump voters realise how much his tariffs have hurt his citizens?

The world has a hate on the US and it is down to Trump, his acolytes and those of his party that allowed his free reign. I add to that the piss weak Democrats, although I expect they are playing the waiting game of Trump's self destruction without them needing to do anything. 

And god save us from those bleeding hearts who are now in such difficulties because of Trump policies, yet voted for him. He was know quantity and stated what he would do. 

No one in their right mind could vote for a such the spineless Republican Party led by the criminal Trump.   

Away

Yesterday was Kosov's birthday but as it hasn't happened yet as I write, I can't tell you about it. My birthday gift is a trip away for a few days down the Great Ocean Road. It is a present for Phyllis too, and a present for myself. They are good company and we have had quite a number of breaks away in the two years they've lived here. 

As I write this Tuesday evening, tomorrow I must spend some good time planning. I have our accommodation booked. The photos look great, but keep in mind, mostly a cold southerly wind will be blowing in from the open ocean of the notorious Bass Strait.

I am not spending money on grand overseas holidays as I would be should Ray have lived longer, and I really enjoy these short breaks away. 

So the triumvirate is off now, in my non binary Perl(sic).

Ciao babes. 

March Flood

https://fromthehighrise.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-flood.html

A snip from a subsequent post.

I, rather my apartment, is slowly drying out. Fans and dehumidifiers are still roaring away and my daily electric bill has risen from $3 to $30. I will attempt to claim from owners' corporation insurance, but I don't fancy my chances. I could always ask the apartment owner for compensation, but I would add more than just the cost of the electric. Last resort, as an old age pensioner, plead for sympathy from the electricity company for this unexpected event and offer to pay back $20 per electric bill to eventually cover what will be an extraordinary bill. 

I had nine industrial fans and two dehumidifiers roaring away 24/7 for eight days.

Finally we dried out.

https://fromthehighrise.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-flood.html

Not Do Si Do

Maybe it is just me, but does the square dance do si do sound a bit like Deux Chevaux. The latter name translates from French as two horses, that is the 2 horse power Citroen Deux Chevaux, more commonly known as 2CV.

I've never been up and close to one, let alone ridden or even driven one. I wonder if there are ever Citroen car displays. I must check that.

Prototypes were being built in France before the second large disagreement, WWII and were hidden before Germany invaded France in 1939. Work on the car began at the end of the war and the specifications for the car were as follows:

• The suspension had to be soft enough to drive a basket of eggs across a freshly ploughed field without breaking a single egg.
• It needed to be able to carry four people, a 50kg bag of potatoes or other farm produce, or a small keg of wine (how French). 
• It must have enough height for a farmer to comfortably wear his Sunday church hat.
• It had to use no more than three litres of petrol per 100 kilometres. 

I understand the engine was air cooled, no water radiator needed, it could reverse as fast as go forward, and the boot lid folded down to make a picnic table.

They were primarily aimed at French farmers and between 1948 and 1990 when production ceased, over 5 million were sold. The first model took 42 seconds to reach its maximum speed of 40 km/h, 25 mph.

I just happened to take a photo of one recently. Quite stylish for its time.

But she's back!

This time as a electric battery powered vehicle. Photo from Carwow.

Or it could look more like this. Ok, this was a speculative photo from a few years ago. I prefer the above more original looking new 2CV.

They probably won't be suitable for autoroutes but with suggested pricing at £13,000, €15,500, AU$25,000, US$17,300, it would be a good town car.

But wait, I'm wrong. The car can travel up to 130/80 with almost respectable acceleration of 0-100/60 in 11 seconds, so it is essentially a not so fast normal electric car with some retro styling. 

Life

I was out for dinner last night with a couple of friends. My message to my dead in bed neighbour HH.

Later edit: HH is not dead. She refers to my morning text message as her 'dead in bed' message. There is an appropriate plan in place if she doesn't respond to my message. I set this up soon after Ray died and before Phyllis moved in, so it was mutually beneficial. HH's mother wasn't found dead for over a day, so HH is concerned that she could slowly die at home alone without being found. I apologise for the confusion caused by your inability to understand  my very poor wording. 

Good morning.

I have four appointments for the paint repair after the flood damage. I didn't have a clue why fire services were involved, but they are here this morning to block off sprinklers before the next date where the painting prep will be done in November, then the actual painting, and the fire services return to unplug the sprinklers. Talk about loading up the cost of a paint repair job. We wonder why our insurance premiums are so high. I had a nice enough meal last night with R and N at the Malvern Vale Hotel, with a free bottle of wine on Monday nights.

Funny thing, B H's daughter was in the lift as I left. She asked where I was off too and I told her dinner with friends. She was going out and mentioned she hated going out after work. Duh, for most of my life we went out after either or both of us had finished work. The young are so weak. I walked to catch the 72 to Malvern, and she went the other direction. There was a free seat behind the driver cabin, where I sat. It felt cramped there, so once a seat further back became free, I moved, facing the back of the tram, and there was aforesaid neighbour at the other end of the tram. We pretended we hadn't seen each other but we did. She was still on the tram when I left at the stop before Tooronga Road.

I'm meeting with S at the Swiss Club Wednesday night and then myself and P&K are away on Thursday.

Jass will look forward to your visits. I'll leave $20 for you to put on the the building's barbeque evening cup sweep as we obviously won't be here.