We went into town today. Our often place to go, the QV shopping centre is undergoing renovations with the promise of a fabulous new food court, except being a bit on the posh side, they don't call it that. It isn't a great place to be at the moment, with hoardings everywhere.
Instead we visited a nice cafe at the corner of Bourke Street and Hardware Lane. Its chicken and coleslaw sliders are delicious and such good coffee.
Our reason for to visit town was to buy some sticky tape for the dispenser (we used to call it Durex but that eventually led to confusion) and a marker pen for our shopping list whiteboard. R decided we needed a pen colour change to brighten up our lives, so we bought a blue pen to replace the black one. My writing is distinguishable and you can see the new blue pen's work.
Our small desk top calculator is about 25 years old. It is solar powered and battery powered, but it has never seen sunlight and never needed the battery replaced. $12 for a smart new one, why not. We can afford that.
Look R, I proclaimed about our new calculator. It has a back button so if you type $65 and you meant $66, you can just press the back key to delete the last number. That is a useful feature. As I placed the old calculator where e-waste is stored until disposal, I noticed there was a back arrow on the old model, but we'd never noticed. Sadly when I do household expenditure sums on the new calculator, it goes into the negative, just like the old one. It gives me no different numbers. No tech improvement at all.
Yesterday there was a terrible tram crash in our street when a tip truck illegally tried to make a U turn in front of a tram. The tram hit the truck and derailed. There were long delays, with trams rerouted. The truck's fuel tank must have been punctured as I could smell diesel as we passed by the location today.
I was rather pleased to see at the big blue office supply shop a recycling wall, with one opening for old pens. I have saved our old marker pen to deposit in the future.
We were going to war about future holidays. I am not cruising anywhere on a ship unless very local discussing a future holiday and I suggested R look at the video by Canadian Mike Downie and his partner taking a first class flat bed train trip from Brisbane to Cairns in our state of Queensland. Twenty five hours and it looked pretty good. R is interested. One problem is the train arrives in Cairns at around 8am and Australian hotel check in time is not until 2pm. I haven't looked at the trip in detail yet. Very early days of planning but it would be nice to be away from home in warmer climes for our coldest winter months, maybe a four week Queensland holiday.
Lordy, it is February. How did that happen.
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Your recycling does you credit. That holiday seems an interesting one and travelling in comfort. As I said before I've no plans for a big holiday this year (yet). I was fed up last week so booked 3 nights in Oslo, Norway in March. This will.be a solo trip which I am looking forward to.
ReplyDeleteOnly three nights Marie. Change your booking and stay longer. They are wonderful countries, although expensive.
DeleteFour weeks in Queensland during the winter months sounds pretty good. Here, I have already had enough of our winter and it is only just the end of January.
ReplyDeleteR said he would like to stay there for three months of winter. Now he is not even keen on four weeks. We argue more about holidays than anything else yet we always have good holidays.
Deleteyou don't want to be in Queensland too long, they have cyclones and floods.
DeleteQV is seemingly so glittering that is only reserved for window shopping in my view. I would definitely try that cafe for breakfast in Hardware lane
ReplyDeleteRoentare, we use Woolworths, Big W, Officeworks and Dan Murphys, at times. We brunch there at times and ignore the posh shops that come and go.
DeleteSome hotels will let you leave your luggage whilst awaiting check in time. I think 4 weeks in Qld sounds excellent.
ReplyDeleteYour shopping list is interesting. Tin fish? Tuna?Salmon?Sardines?
I can see why you need more T paper.
Merlot, we've left luggage many times.
DeleteThe tin fish was my need. John West chilli tuna.
Last week, no washing detergent at Aldi. This week no lamb shanks and something else we needed. Toilet paper roll cardboard was bent for every eight pack. Clunk, clunk it goes as sheets are pulled down.
Drivers who come in the path of the tram should be really careful. They should realise that trams can't apply sudden break
ReplyDeleteHaddock, that is quite true. Trams have to be expected and respected. They carry far more than single occupant cars.
DeleteGees. It seemed like January lasted about 112 days on this side of the planet.
ReplyDeleteWell, if the numbers won't come out differently, I guess I'm not going to waste my time on a new calculator either.
It seems like it lasted 12 days to me Debby. The new calculator has done nothing for our financial situation, but it is easier to read.
DeleteWhy is Australian hotel check in time so ridiculously late? doesn't make sense to me. What time do they have for guests checking out?
ReplyDeleteMy newish calculator is a Woolies cheapie at $5.
The train trip sounds sort of interesting, I'd like more detail on the accommodations and comfort levels though.
River, you got a bargain calculator. Did it give you more pleasing figures? 10am checkout, 2pm check in gives time for staff for to clean the rooms. I expect the cleaning time is often not needed and some places will let you check in early but I wouldn't expect 9am without an extra payment.
DeleteI don't use it for budgets, I use it to determine room sizes in floor plans.
DeleteI still call sticky tape Durex. I didn't know it was problematic.
ReplyDeleteHels, Durex made condoms and the word Durex somewhere in somewhere in the world means condoms.
DeleteYou should go for 3 months holiday in Queensland in the winter Andrew, you would get a good rate at some accommodation apartment for that lenght of stay. That's what we used to do when we drove up by car. You could hire a car if you go on the train, sounds like a good trip.
ReplyDeleteOh how I remember Durex sticky tape of course!
Margaret, I would get homesick if I went for three months. I expect we would need to hire a car at times.
DeleteMargaret has the right suggestion - 3 months - 12/52 is the way to go😊. But if you can only manage 4/52 then so be it. What’s that saying- something is better than nothing.
ReplyDeleteHotel check out is 10am - check in 2pm only gives housekeeping a small window for turnaround duties. You could strike lucky with a vacant room though, and as others mentioned there’s usually a luggage hold room near reception.
Not for me Cathy. I would get homesick. A 9am check in for a vacant room would be pushing our luck. Yes, we've used baggage rooms all over the world without a problem.
DeleteHow nice to be planning a holiday.
ReplyDeleteSticky tape called Durex? Durex is something else here.
Ah JB, so it the English who use the name Durex for prophylactics.
DeleteThe hotel check ins are always between 2 and 3 pm, but you can leave your luggage there. In England, Germany, Italy etc. I suppose they clean the room after the previous guest. Sometimes when the room is ready they let you in. Even in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco it was like that.
ReplyDeleteGattina, yes, we know how to store luggage and all has been good with that. We've never pushed about an early check in, but maybe we should.
DeleteLast year we had an early arrival after an overnight trip, I arranged an early check in with the hotel, I think it cost $100 extra or something, but the room was ready and waiting at 8:00 AM when we arrived at the hotel. We often don't sleep well on overnights, and being able to take a nice nap when we arrive is very helpful.
ReplyDeleteTP, if times don't work out I expect that is what we will do. Does anyone ever get a proper night's sleep on a plane?
DeleteI've never headed south for the winter warmth for longer than 3 weeks and that was enough to help me get through the whole winter.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the streetcar barns. They built larger more extensive ones just a short distance away from the ones I showed. Plus now our streetcars are much bigger than the old ones were.
Pat, yes it doesn't take too much to warm the blood to hold you over. We have similar issues here, with longer trams taking up more space.
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