What I've not heard

I've never heard anyone say 'I hate Art Deco'. I am very fond of the architectural style. 

This is a flat block in Middle Park. With its flat roof I suggest it very late art deco.

With a hipped roof, I think this one looks better and older. I think the roundabout below was where Mercedes driving famous cricketer the late Shane Warne was involved in an incident with a tram.Shane had forgotten to 'Give way to trams at all times'. 

This grabbed my attention as I passed by in the car. It is so heavily vegetated, it is almost invisible. But then I saw what was next door.

I returned by tram another day to take photos. Just wow. What a stunner, in Hawthorn Road, Caulfield. 

YouTubers

I found a new YouTube channel to subscribe to. Yorak Hunt. His first name sounds foreign to me, maybe Eastern European.  I then realised you need to very carefully enunciate his name, He has 37,000 subscribers, so he is clearly successful. https://www.youtube.com/@yorakhunt69 

While I expect some people subscribe to YouTube channels and then never watch any of the posted videos, the subscriber numbers astound me. 

Drain cleaning is surprisingly popular.   

Penetrator, a drain unblocker in our state of  Queensland, https://www.youtube.com/@penetratorblockeddrains 41,000 subs.

Drain Addict in Sydney has over 600,000 subs.

The most successful transport, mostly trains, YouTuber seems to be Kuga in Japan with 320,000 subs. 

Simply Railway is a bit behind with 240,000 subs.

John with Plainly Difficult (from a quiet and (insert weather) corner of South East London) has 916,000 subs.

Former narrowboaters Foxes Afloat had a big change of lifestyle and became Scottish crofters, 150,000 subs.

Tom Scott will soon retire from normal YouTubing and he has over 6,000,000 subscribers.

There are many others who I follow but aren't as popular. That's not to say their work isn't good.

I find watching YouTube creators productions generally more entertaining than tv.

Jo performs

Jo spreads herself a little thinly being in two performing arts groups, so she is often relegated to minor roles, as she was in this show at Hawthorn Town Hall. However she did a lot of writing of the quite good original musical. Two weeks late in her other school performing group she had a bigger role.

I was so impressed by the lighting of the town hall.

And if you take away the squiggly stage lighting from the ceiling, it wasn't bad too.

I'm not so keen on the art deco interior lights being blue. 

Moving on tomorrow

Thanks for all of your nice comments on my last post.

The funeral went well and for AU$10,000 so it should have. Don't worry, Mother will pay. Well, actually it comes out of our inheritance. 

Our Hair Dresser Friend came with us for support. It was nice to have some glam with us and she is very kind.  

There were tears and laughter. Some of my speech was covered by others and so I had to adlib. R seldom gives me praise, but he said I spoke really well. I thought I did and I have little experience of public speaking.Tradie Brother spoke so well and on behalf of ABI Brother. He cracked a couple of times.  Sister being a school teacher knows how to speak to an audience. She did become a little messy but continued on. Firefighting nephew had us in stitches as he spoke about his grandmother on behalf of his siblings. He cracked up badly but recovered. The photo slideshow was terrific. 

Two of Step Father's children spoke well and it was nice that his side of family were there.

There were quite a number of Mother's cousins there, who I did not know but I did my best to mingle.

We returned home to a box of flowers left at our front door by a neighbour. I was emotionally exhausted and mentally drained. I forgot to take my phone to bed to charge and so missed the alarm going off and I slept later than usual. It was a good night's sleep but I felt terribly flat the next day.

It is weird but my dominant emotion is a feeling of being alone. It's not like Mother had any say in my life from my age of 16. It's not like she had money to give to me and for me to be obliged or dependant. I just feel so alone. Common sense tells me I being ridiculous but you cannot control your emotions.

 

A tin  to keep her Marie biscuits. They are a rather boring biscuit and not sweet enough for kids or even me. However, any dog she had company with loved her as she surreptitiously fed them a biscuit or two. Lavender spray helped her sleep and she used it elsewhere to stay calm. Oh lordy, the talcum powder, everywhere. The dog was Pooch, She loved all dogs but I think Labs were her favourite. A tin of barley sugar, that insured her sugar levels bounced all over the place. She loved chocolates and antiseptic Savlon would cure any skin problem. When she spilt a boiling hot casserole over my two year old brother and then smothered the affected area with Savlon, the doctor praised her actions. Not even scarred. Her tea cup. Clearly ABI Brother doesn't have a dishwasher. Her make up bottle. Cotton balls for her ears if there was a breeze and for as long as I can remember, she used Oil of Ulan on her face.

More flowers, as we arrived home. 

The day has come

Today we make our final goodbye to Mother. All of us have had our moments and she has been constantly on our minds.

R's sisters in England sent a beautiful bunch of flowers which R managed to squash into a vase. Later he separated them and rearranged them. They arrived while we were out shopping and returned home with our weekly flowers, that day a bunch of yellow roses

One bunch divided into three.

The Tuesday after R lunched with a former workmate and she gave him this small metal bucket of viola. So we've had flowers galore.

Mother's birthday present for R in March was a rather nice jumper. He has worn it a few times. Our last Christmas present was the guide dog calendar. Mother always kept us well supplied with guide dog tea towels, until they began making them overseas. 

With a little editing to protect the guilty and innocent, here is my speech for today's funeral. I've read what my brothers will say at the funeral but not Sister. I thought to lighten it all with a bit of humour and I will perhaps be able to get through this without cracking. 

-----

My memories of my 89 year old mother will remain strong, but my memories of a much younger mum are not forgotten.

I was seven years old when Mum rode our Christmas present, a new scooter down the long hallway of our farmhouse singing, “From Mummy and Daddy to A and G”.

She wasn't called Nanny Fud without reason. Once she mistakenly opened a stranger's car door and sat in the passenger seat while waiting for L (Stepfather). She rolled down Venus Bay sand dunes and another time careered out of control as she rapidly descended a hill and crashed into bushes at the bottom.

Her incident with the Pizza Hut soft serve icecream dispensing machine not stopping and her filling cup after cup with icecream was a classic (Very Lucy Ricardo).While we rolled our eyes so often, Mum's antics did make us laugh. These things could only happen to my mother.

She was a loving mother and at times gave each of us wise advice and comfort. I treasure the memories of my fun, stylish and vivacious mum.

Bye bye Mum. Travel well. 

Sunday Selections

I'm joining with River and Elephant's Child for Sunday Selections. Just random photos taken when I've been out and about.

Apparently death cap mushroom attempt to destroy your liver. Three people have recently died in Victoria and a fourth needs a donated liver. If it doesn't look right, it probably isn't a safe mushroom.

An interesting building and I don't know where it is. 

This was left in our recycling area in our basement. I was tempted to take it home but I knew I would get wrong from R. When I showed him the work, he said I should have taken it. I can't win. 

What a nice look at an apartment below. Why?

I had to think for a while to work this out and it is Australian Knitting Mills and is a historical sign. The full name faces the railway line at Richmond.

My quest to travel on every tram route since my retirement in 2019 is nearly complete. I ticked off route 70 to Wattle Park and had a lovely cake and coffee at a bakery at the terminus. It is such a nice trip between Camberwell Junction and Wattle Park. Still to be done, most of route 48, half of route 75 and the very end bits of routes 3 and 67. 

I hope this building is just being renovated and not taken down. 

I think this location for the dog with the pig snout is the third, now outside Melbourne Town Hall.

It won't be too long before this view will once again burst into green. This was taken from our balcony and is clearly taken last summer or spring. As we move to spring, I know some of you will be lamenting as you move to autumn/fall. 

Our view over Albert Park and the waters of the lake, along with Port Phillip.