Saturday Satire

The Australian ABC TV programme Planet America is a mix of satire, news and commentary. Naturally it is about America and I thought this short clip I recorded from the screen was quite amusing. Pssst, don't tell the ABC. The show is presented by comedian Charles Licciardello and straight man John Barron. It is a very enjoyable watch and for Australians, it can seen on ABC's iview but is probably geoblocked elsewhere. Maybe not if you sign up to the ABC. But wait, there are clips on the programme's FB site. 

He is my own promo recording. The sound is poor, let alone my filming, but it's enough to see and hear. 

Friday Funnies

Which one, I can't recall but I know I nicked one from Bob who nicked it from someone else. 

Ageing

I am not that old in comparison to some of you. Some of you are of a similar age. Some of you are younger. 

Generally your health and physical condition really starts to deteriorate at the age of 60. In my case when I retired at the age of 61, my body began retiring too. At 67, should I live to 77, I think I'll be in wheel chair and being spoon fed. Ok, maybe not. I hope not. 

Your genes will mostly dictate your lifespan, and we all know clean living, diet, socialising and exercise can cheat the genes somewhat. Having a partner helps, along with keeping your mind active, but if you blog, your mind is active. 

I can't say my life has been clean, and still isn't but I do try in various areas. 

But what really pisses me off is those who reach a seriously old age and brag about their older person achievements, how fit they are, their wonderful pain free life. At 90, they are living a glorious life. Good for them, but for most people it is not like that. 

Your partner may have died, many of your friends have died, you may not have much money to spare, you may feel lonely at times, your health could be bad, making your life a constant struggle. You might be dependant on others, in spite of disliking that. 

So just before you brag about what a great life you are living when you are 90, this is not the case for most people, who probably struggle at the age of 80 onwards, or earlier. 

But you don't have to be too old , as you can even die at the age of 40 from the coded police words, "There are no suspicious circumstances".

It was very sad to hear of the deaths of two retired star Australian Rules footballers around the age of 40, one day apart, and there were no suspicious circumstances. One would think, they had everything to live for. 

Troy Selwood.

And Adam Hunter. 

There you go dear readers, I've cheered you up no end, but life is not all balls and skittles. 

The Grammys

Oh yes. You heard right. I am nothing if not a diverse blogger. Actually, I have no interest in the Grammys. I don't know how to describe Troye Sivan beyond him being an attractive young gay Australian man, whose on stage behaviour when singing, can be quite provocative and very out there. Good on him for rattling some chains. 

When I saw he attended the Grammys, I wondered what he wore, which sent me to the red carpet photos. Here are a few red carpet photos I saved, from The Age.

Troye Sivan. His Prada suit is ok, I suppose. The scarf is not.

We are left guessing as to whether Lucky Daye has a muscular chest or bitch tits. I've never heard of him. 

Avery Wilson was looking very gay in his colourful jacket.

But, who is this with his head in a castle? I may have clicked on a photo of Justin Bieber on FaceBook, and I was then flooded with his photos, then the algorithm stopped sending me Justin photos and thought Jayden Smith was more to my taste. Yeah, he is ok, with a pleasant enough face that doesn't need to be hidden in a box. His clothes are not normally as conservative, with or without a box on his head. 

At least I know who this is, Will Smith. His slap encouraged me to take some interest last year. His outfit is good. 

Olivier Rodrigo. I said pet, I said love, I said pet, I said love, by exposing so much, you have spoilt the mystery and desire. 

The very elegant Ingrid Michaelson was my pick for best dressed. The fabric is great and the pattern, stunning. 

My railway station, for now

With the opening of Anzac Station and the Metro Tunnel this year, South Yarra Station will be less used by me. 

To travel on the Pakenham or Cranbourne lines, I will use Anzac Station as those trains will cease to travel via South Yarra Station, diving underground just before they reach the station.

Anzac Station is a five minute walk for me, or one stop on a tram. I am not sure whether I will continue to use what will become less crowded trams to travel to the city, or use the train. Assuming the train has a very frequent clock face service, I will almost certainly use it to travel to the northern area of the city, using Museum Station, but only real life travel can tell me whether it will be better to reach the closer Town Hall Station. The slow part of the tram trip is once it reaches the city, with traffic lights very hostile to trams. 

Time will  tell. If travelling by train to areas west of the city, while it may take a little longer, I often catch  a tram to South Yarra, and then a train that runs through the city and out to the west. It seems when the Metro Tunnel opens, these through trains will revert to using the underground City Loop, although possible another line might offer a through service from South Yarra Station.

I quite like South Yarra Station, though it has changed a lot over a couple of decades, with the front rebuilt and opened up wider. Pre Covid, it was neck to neck with Caulfield Station as the busiest outside of the city stations. This will certainly change when the Metro Tunnel opens, with quite a substantial drop in patronage at South Yarra and an increase at Caulfield. 

Here are a few photos of South Yarra Station. There is lots of seating to the left of this photo, and the level boarding tram stops could not be any closer. If you look at my header photo, the station is just before the tall buildings. 

I think the modern timberwork works quite well. Until I looked at these photos, I had not noticed how nice the windows are. Gates are now plentiful and to the right of this photo is the ticket office. 

This screen alternates between displaying passing tram times and nearby Chapel Street trams.

These screens inform passengers with train information. 

This one generally displays 'good service' for all train lines, until it doesn't. 

Improvements to the station could be lifts for each pair and individual platforms as the rams are quite steep. Ray used to always moan about the steepness of the ramp. So much for the power of Baby Boomers. There has a been a lot of intensive apartment development to the north of the station, so it also now needs northern platform entrances. 

Monday Mural

Along with Sami and others, I am joining in with Monday Mural. 

Presgrave Place starts off as a normal Melbourne lane with a cafe or two, but then it makes a dog leg, and the area becomes disgusting, stinking of urine, no doubt from males who use it as a pissoir and a crazy amount of art. There are a few gems among the mess. 

It's all about the words

The longer I am a blogger with US blog mates, the more I learn but what I never expected was such difference in our common language of English. I knew the basics like tyre/tire, bonnet/hood, boot/trunk. Why are these so car focused? I can't remember the US equivalent of glove box. 

From blogging, I learnt mould/mold and various other different spellings. I even learnt about Sterno stoves yesterday, and what Sterno actually is. Most interesting and I don't know why we never had the ultra safe Sterno here. 

However, our grammar almost always matches, yet I've been jarred by one difference. Take a bow Steve. 

I am a poor old age pensioner, so the government gives me $450 a week to support myself. This is not enough. I need to inform our Prime Minister that this is not enough. I need to write the Prime Minister, and I will have wrote the Prime Minister. Do I have that right for how it would be written in the US?

No matter, whatever is written like that just smacks me in the head like no spelling difference ever has. I will write to the Prime Minister, I will have written to the Prime Minister and I wrote to the Prime Minister.

Given how US, UK and Oceanic English grammar matches, this is one mighty big difference. Steve is an American and was a professional writer, so I am quite sure he uses correct grammar for his US readers, but isn't it remarkable that this is the only grammar difference I've noticed. Aside from my own grammatical errors. Maybe you know more?

I think the New Jersey Boud is UK or Irish born? I hope I am correct about that. But she has difficulty understanding the speech in Downton Abbey. Their accents aren't mine, but I can understand them perfectly well. The world is a strange place in so far as the English language goes.

Last night I took Phyllis and Kosov out for dinner. They shared a pizza and ate some of my chips, and souvlaki bread. The bulk of the bill was my two glasses of wine and an affogato with Scotch whisky. If you don't know, affogato is strong Australian style coffee poured over ice cream and with whisky poured over the top of that. 

Kosov's English is quite good, but you may remember me mentioning the way he pronounced margarine, as marg, as in Margaret, arine. Given he has to drop his résumé into to many places to find work, I insisted on him learning how to pronounce resume. This night I've learnt the difference between resume and a CV, Australia, US and Canada are in agreement. But is does strike me as odd that we have a choice between French and Latin for a job application, and not English. 

My hearing aid batteries will be changed today, as I do every Sunday, but this Saturday night, one is already warning me, baddery and not battery.

I'm not done yet. With one day of 40/104 degrees, media warned us of a heat wave. One day of extreme heat is not a heat wave. Media shot itself in the foot, as what superlative can it come up with for a real heat wave, such as today, tomorrow and the next day, 38/100,  39/102 and 36/97?