Saturday Extra

This is urgent and I need your help.

I am sure I can still do long division on paper and solve very basic algebra formulae. When explaining something financial to Ray, I would suggest that we both needed to out of pocket by the same amount, no matter what the calculations were.  

Today I bought something for $40 and I had a $10 store credit voucher on my phone, so it cost me $30. It was my mistake and the product is unsuitable for my needs. I will return it tomorrow. 

I think I should get back $40. While I only paid $30, haven't I lost my $10  credit if I only get back the $30 I paid?

I suppose you want to know what it was I bought. I don't use cash anymore, most of my cards are on my phone. I need one bank card to use if my phone won't work (that hasn't happened yet), my public transport card, because it is not a normal public transport card, my driving licence and my Medicare card. Aside from cafe coffee loyalty cards, that is about it, except I also want somewhere to put an emergency $50 note and a spare house key. 

So, I bought a leather card holder that I later realised just would not do the job.   

This is London calling

I've picked bits from Ian Visits, London Weekly News for this morning's post.

This one is from the BBC so it should be accurate. 

A woman missed her footing when boarding a train at Clapham Junction resulting in serious leg injuries. The warnings about Mind the Gap are constant on London's train system, by staff, by recorded announcements, by live public address announcements and painted on platforms. Yet still they still happen. Nearly 40 million people boarded or alighted at Clapham Junction in one year and of those, 29 people were injured in some way. Clearly people do mind the gap, but oh my. What a gap! (Even though this is from the BBC, I am not sure this photo is reliable. Surely it can't be like that.)

I thought there might have been other bits of interest to write about, but it seems not. Well, there was a man who was gaoled for nine months for exposing his genitals and bum on a station platform, West Ham Station to be precise. The Standard published the photos......well, one of his face and it is an uninteresting face. No photos of what caused such offence to fellow commuters. Typical of media. They never give the full story. 

Yes, I know I should not make light of a serious offence. If I was wearing pearls, I would be clutching at them. But really, nine months gaol because people briefly saw men bits? If it wasn't to their taste!, they could quickly avert their eyes. Regular users of public transport around the world probably come across people all the time with mental health issues. There are far worse things than seeing a todger at a railway station. 

The bottom of the barrel has been scraped. I thank you. 

My drawers

You may think it is over the top, but Ray and I liked the way our cutlery drawer was organised. What we didn't agree about was what cutlery should go where. I maintained it should be as you set the table, that is forks on the left, knife and then dessert and soup spoons on the right. Ray insisted his way was correct. It was not an argument worth my energy to engage in, so it was as Ray liked it. 

A few weeks ago I changed it to how I thought it should be, but then when emptying the dishwasher, I was putting the cutlery in the wrong place. I am used it now. I do not know why The Boarder needs his own spoons and teaspoons. He uses my cutlery at times, and I don't want his tinny cutlery in my drawer, with its nice solid and weighty cutlery.  

Ray's incorrect arrangement.

My correct arrangement.

The Boarder's cheap additions to the drawer. 

People of Gaza, Ukraine, Central Africa and Israeli hostages, I really wish you will have in the future something like this to concern yourselves with.  

The Boarder Report

So far, so good. He is a nice and polite guy. I don't find him sexually attractive, so that is also good, and lordy, I doubt he would find me so at my age.

I was strongly advised by various people to not let him move in until after my weekend away in Torquay, but he was desperate. I am an old gay man. I've done the lot and been around. I've known so many people from so many countries. My instinct was correct. Nothing bad happened. 

He bought an electric rice cooker and I don't want anything more on the kitchen benches. He found space in the linen press cupboard where rarely used appliances are stored. He cooks and then cleans up. Thrice he has left curries for me to eat, but the third was too hot to enjoy.

We have chats at times but he is away a lot during the day, working, studying and socialising. All care and no responsibility. 

What I did see was a huge spike in electric consumption while I was away. I could tell he had used the oven, and that will crank up the bill but I reckon heating, although he seems to like his room on the cooler side. I can't imagine being away in the near future, so that is a one off. I offered him a low power usage plug in heater for his bedroom, as he likes his door closed and so doesn't receive the normal apartment heat, but he decline and said he like the cool. 

For the first two nights his friend, with my permission, stayed with him. While I offered the spare room to the friend if he could make up the bed, he declined and they slept in the same bad...just as friends. Whatever, the friend was very easy on the eyes and he sent me a message a few days later thanking me for allowing him to stay. 

Yesterday I attended a clinic where my head wound dressing was removed and the skin graft had taken nicely. I just need to apply paraffin to the edges of the skin. What? Kerosene or something like that? A nurse (I trust nurses more than doctors with after care advice) said, 'Don't worry about it. I'll give you a tube of ointment to use', and she did. My thigh from where the skin was taken is still sore, and after the bandaging was ripped off (ouch), it look red raw and nasty, but everyone seemed happy with the progress. I'll be back there next week for more attention, but until then, I still can't shower. 

May I add that all my procedures, two colonoscopies, two melanoma surgeries eighteen months apart,    have been under our national health care system and cost me nothing at the point of use, and were generally done in a timely manner. I do hear stories of horrendous waits for things like hip and knee replacements, but gosh, the system works well for me. Because of various reasons my hernia surgery has been delayed after a scan where something else was discovered. Yesterday I received a pre surgery appointment, and as Deb pointed out today quite eloquently, I will be answering the same old questions, but I will be given a bit more information. 

In the afternoon I went in to town to see a daffodil flower display. I love that the heads of you northern hemisphere types are momentarily confused. I just saw on the tv news there were 26,000 daffodils. They are for sale in a plain vase and will raise 2.6 million dollars for charities. The daffs were selling like hotcakes and must be adorning desks all over Melbourne City.

The Boarder says he says hello to Ray Bear each morning. 

He arranges his muesli bars nicely. I've slowly been advising him about the best way to live here. He takes notice.  

He threw this jar and decorated it with a copy of a similar jar. He gave it to me. How sweet. 

He has a little collection of cars and wanted to display them somewhere. I suggested this shelf near the front door where they will be seen. He fiddles with them and adjusts their positions at times. 

Time away

I had a lovely time away at the Surf Coast town of Torquay (no, nothing like Basil's and Sybil's' Torquay).

At the last minute, well a day or so earlier, I added Tradie Brother to the accommodation I was paying for Ex Sis in Law and her husband. There were complications when I was checking in as adults weren't permitted to sleep on a top bunk. Much toing and froing and after a contact from staff to management, we were upgraded to a larger cabin with two sets of bunk beds, so TB and I would both have bottom bunks. It was their mistake and the park made it right.

Tradie Brother had brought Dog along. Management were straight on to it, and I don't know how, but Tradie Brother had to sign some kind of disclaimer. Dog slept on the back seat of his car with a leash long enough to get on to the cabin decking to check she could hear TB snoring. No wait, she is deaf. Whatever, she was fine. He left that morning to return home.

Ex Sis in Law had offered me a lift from home but I preferred to travel on my own in my own car. By three in the afternoon, after cabin check in, we were at great niece's 4th birthday party, just a few doors away from where the family lives. Gypsy Burger was a terrific venue for thirty odd people. Fire Fighting Nephew had made a 'Frozen' themed cake for his daughter. Sister joined us after travelling from The Bellarine. My goodness, is Sister a good talker. She connected so quickly with so many people with rapid and eloquent conversation. Football and sports was a bit of a theme.

We ate enough late afternoon to not need dinner. Put two brothers together, mix in Ex SiL's husband, we stayed up too late and drank too much.  

Oldest Niece was staying nearby in a different park, so the next morning we went to see their kiddies swimming and playing in the park water features. We drove on to Anglesea where we had a nice enough brunch, with Ex SiL's husband's daughter and her husband and their daughter who had stayed in a nearby motel. Sister had some sport training in Anglesea, so she joined us for coffee. 

We returned to the cabin, where Ex SiL and her husband napped. I went out in my car for a a drive. I got happily lost on dirt roads and ending up at Bell's Beach, the home of a world wide surfing competition beach. I am surprised Ray and I had never visited the beach. I am sure we hadn't as I have no memory of the beach. Did I see a hot surfer boy? Yes. Close up. Did I see a hot surfer boy changing from his wetsuit to his clothes, yes. Did I see the an old man surfer's fat bare arse, yes. Eww!

Pub meal that evening with Fire Fighting Nephew, his wife and the four year old birthday girl and the two year old twin boys. 

My wealth accumulation from gambling machines was an utter fail and I made a $30 donation to the Torquay Hotel, with Ex SiL and her husband also making donations.

We brunched early the next day somewhere nearby and then it was off home. It really was a nice weekend. 

Gypsy Burger was such a great place for a child's or anyone's birthday party.

 With bushland opposite, perfect for the Treasure Hunt. Every child won a prize.

This could be Torquay's main beach. It was very sandy down below. Torquay has a number of different beaches. 

I spotted this classic General Motors FB or FE Holden station sedan. Yes my father had one. I remember a warm summer evening in the early sixties being at a movie drive in theatre and being in the back as my parents watched Elvis in Blue Hawaii on the big screen. 

Then at the petrol station next to the park we were staying in, this XR or XP? Ford Falcon was being filled. I hung around to note it starting off. It was an automatic and as I remember, they were only two speed geared automatics.

Bell's Beach is world famous for it's surfing competition. 

A final view of the beach after brunch before we left.