It's a big one missy

Australia is a geographically large country.

How big? This big, with Europe easily fitting in. I think there would be room for Ukraine and other countries but we won't add Russia. 

I've told this story before but when Ray's parents visited from England in the 1980s, as their plane entered the north west coast of Australia, Ray's mother got up to refresh her makeup. Five or more hours the plane reached Melbourne on the south eastern coast. 

We can do better than the above. Let's cram the countries in. If it isn't clear, the large orange bit in the centre is South Africa and I think the arrow on the right without a name is pointing to Ireland. While the main focus is European countries, the map manages to squeeze in the US states of Maine and Ohio, along with the South and Central American countries Ecuador and Nicaragua. It is unclear what the orange central chunk is to me. Surely not South Africa. 

I am surprised a little by the large size of Spain. Are you surprised about any of the countries? Your own?

I would use this in a separate post if it was a readable size. I believe it shows Australia's tribal Aboriginal regions. It does give you an idea of the complexity of tribal life. 

I no understand

Transport for New South Wales, TfNSW, is changing its in train announcements. There was only mention of three I read about in the Sydney Morning Herald but there could be more. It could be argued that the change would help some tourists with very limited English, but I doubt there would be many. Often train and general noise is too high to hear the in train announcements anyway.

"This train terminates here", (sorry if you don't understand that) will be replaced by "This train ends here" (what brought about the train's demise?). The former is apparently technical railway jargon and not clear enough for public consumption. Really?

If there is a train disruption of some kind, you will be advised to, "Allow extra time", rather than "Allow additional time". That one is not such a bad change in my opinion.

This last one is just plain ugly. Customers Passengers will no longer be advised to "Alight here to change...", but "Get off here to change...". GET OFF!

Maybe even young people educated in Australia don't understand the words 'terminates', 'additional' and 'alight'. 

Maybe I'm just an old grump. Who  cares? By the hundreds of comments on the newspaper article, many do. 

W'dya reckon about the changes?

Hmm, two weeks today since....

It's all about me

I've always liked this phrase and I wouldn't have a clue about its origins, the phrase being 'All over the place like a mad woman's breakfast'. That's how I feel. I seem to be forgetting the most basic things. I am so fearful of locking myself out by forgetting my keys when I go out, I am carrying them permanently in my pocket. I go to one room to get something and forget what it was. I sit down here on the computer chair to do something and forget what it was. I am not completing things. I seem to be in a permanent state of distraction.  

I am doing ok with eating. Sister has made me meals and there is still one in the freezer. I can't tell what it is now until I thaw it. Today I went by train to Katrina's Kitchen in Murrumbeena and bought four frozen meals. I've not been having enough fresh vegetables, as I would not call the vegetables in frozen food terribly fresh. I will address that. Years ago I used to prepare vegetables by cutting them up and throwing them into a very hot wok with Hoisin Sauce.

I've looked at delivered food options and Kylie's suggestion of Dineamic looks the most promising. Now I am getting Dineamic ads galore on YouTube. Maybe four meals a week would do.   

There were two steaks in the freezer, with one cut in half being enough for us. I will cook half of one tonight with frozen potato chips and I've already made a Greek salad which looks to be enough for two. There were fetta cubes in olive oil in the fridge but firstly I came across fetta in the freezer, so I thawed that out earlier. I took it out of the fridge today and it is very crumbly, clearly for sprinkling. I thought if it reaches room temperature, it won't crumble as well so I put it back in the fridge until I put the salad together. I don't know if I am right about that, but it made sense to me. Too much salad won't go to waste. I suppose I can cook simple food but I don't want to. I am not interested in cooking and it is so time consuming. Ray cooked for us most of our years. He was a terrific and instinctive cook and his food presentation was excellent. S'cuse I. I just remembered Ray used to rub olive oil into the steak before cooking it. Done.

Some packet pepper dipping sauce for the steak, frozen chips, cooked of course, a nice salad dressing and ground pepper. I will keep cooking until fresh and frozen food are used up. The steak cooked in the air fryer was great and the salad was fine. The chips could have done with a minute or so less. Presentation, poor. Tasty, filling and a normal home cooked meal, tick. I am not going to make a habit of it, but I have more steaks to eat.

I am not sure about my financial situation. Ray had much less in his superannuation where his income stream account to top up his old age pension than I thought. When we would send a child $50 for their birthday, it cost us $25 each. Now, it will cost me $50. I know a lot of you know this already. I will have to pay all the bills on my own now. We had paid about $10,000 as a deposit for recarpeting and repainting and I just don't know if I can do it my own, let alone the cost, double the deposit. Emptying book shelves and other shelves would be too hard for me on my own. Maybe I could get a packer. Organiser man was sympathetic and said, in your own time and we'll work it out. He's a nice guy and lives in our building. He asked me to visit him and have a drink. Closet gay? Maybe but I'm sure he not after me and I am not after him. 

Monday Mural

I'm joining in with Sami and others for Monday Mural. 

These might be the oldest murals I have in my mural photo folder, 2021. They must have been taken within our Covid five kilometre 'exercise' boundary. The first one is a bit interesting. 

Sunday Selections

I'm joining with Elephant's Child and River for Sunday Selections. Just my usual random selections of unused photos.

I see my spam mate Rajani Rehana has returned. Two comments were published and one caught as spam. Meanwhile your legitimate comments also go to spam. I normally check twice a day.  

Someone likes snooping in other people's cupboards. I planned a series of photos of kitchen cupboard contents, but here is one. I will take photos before, well if I am empty them of ingredients I will never use. 

The bottom shelf far left is curry powder. Ray always bought a large packet, along with satay powder  from an Asian grocer in Richmond. Behind the Vegemite is honey and peanut butter, topped by a powdered stock. The ornate tin is for tea bags, which I ordered on a whim from England in 2012, celebrating the Queen's Silver Jubilee. The take away plastic container has my psyllium husks. Sprinkled on my cereal, they help with cholesterol and matters of  'digestion'. 

This doesn't happen very often but my RRS feed failed. I use this to read blogs but I have to go your blog to comment. There are other things in my RSS feed.

The rather nice Westgate Park, but not a quiet Westgate Park with the heavy car and truck traffic crossing the bridge to get across the Yarra River. 

Très cool. 

Care for a little gin? Yes please. I don't know this brand. 

I bet none remember my post about the service lights being left on at the building next door, perhaps two to three years ago. The fluoro tubes are still burning brightly. 

Well, thanks for the warning. I am not sure where I could stand to not get burnt. 

It was part of a lighting display event on the river.

Houston, we have a problem. 

I think we were out or away and I then took this photo once home. A cool change had arrived but the aircon wasn't on and it was hot inside.

I am not sure if she was unwell or had done a Barnaby. 

The units in ABI Brother's new retirement look dated but they are well maintained and very nice inside, assuming you like lots of white. 

I am not sure where I found this photo.

Mid March the plane trees are saying, 'We've tired and have had enough of summer. We need to rest. We will just wait for less warmth and light and then drop our leaves". They certainly are now. 

I was driving so I asked Ray to take the photo. 

I think it is a Hillman Imp. They were dreadful little cars. Sorry if you had one and loved it. 

The moon makes an appearance. 

Rather strange mist rising from the ground. 

The synagogue lighting is just perfect now.