Oh what a doll

Phyllis' parents sent this with Phyllis as a gift to me when he returned from his visit to Chennai late last year.

I've spoken to Caroline, Phyllis' mother on the phone, and Kosov's younger sister. I think both families know the lads have good accommodation and a caring old aunty.  

So this was a gift from Caroline and her husband, a Kathakali dancing doll. Such dolls are all over India and have many different names but this one is special, and given what it cost, I think it is handmade and bought at a local village not far from Chennai. 

It has a rollie poly base, with a male and female body and face. I often give it a push to make make it rock back and forth as I walk past it. I am quite fond of it. 

Thoughts about words

I am not sure where I was going with this old post draft. 

About twenty years ago while driving Mother somewhere on one of our motorways, a driver did something bad in front of me and in the presence of Mother, who had slapped me as child for saying bloody, I dropped the c word. You c***. It is not a word I normally use. I can't remember using it since. I immediately apologised to Mother, who continued on telling me about her medical woes without seemingly to notice. Nearly twenty years later, Mother was correct and her medical woes proved to be fatal, with a lot of medical woes along the way.

While I've never mixed among the lower classes in England, apparently they use the c word without abandon. The word becomes boring with overuse and loses its effectiveness. But like gay men embraced homophobic terms, so too are women embracing the c word. I recall a beggar calling me a fucking old poof. He stated the obvious. His insult was a fail.

I am never sure if is appropriate to describe a black American as being black. I think the preferred term is African American. That's fine with me. Whatever. But I laugh when I hear stories of Americans who visit England describe black English people as African Americans, even though the black English have no connection to America. In Britain, you are British, and your colour and racial heritage is not so publicly important. You are British first. The plight of disadvantaged African Americans in the US is the equivalent in Britain of the plight of the disadvantaged British. 

It is a queer thing that so called African Americans, many who have been in the US for far longer than their British counterparts have been in Britain, yet they need to be distinguished as Afro Americans, and not just Americans. 

Whatever, black American, black British and black Australian, they all face discrimination. It is just not so in your face in Britain and Australia, and there are programmes to promote an inclusive workplace. That has just disappeared in the US. This Afro American term is very queer. The first black slaves arrived to America in the early 1600s, yet they need to be name qualified beyond just an American by the colour of their skin. I am not naïve enough to suggest your best mate is a black person, yet here, I do see socialisation between the Indian immigrants and white Australians, through work, neighbours and of course food. 

The leader of Australia's His Majesty's Opposition Party is one Peter Dutton, an extreme conservative, and he would like to do many of the things that #47 has been doing in the US. I gave some thought to a insulting adaption to his name and the best I could do is Duttrump. Yes, the wrongly named conservative Liberal Party leader is Peter Duttrump. 

A quickie

I took Kosov for a job interview today. After months of job hunting, this week he has been offered two jobs by a respectable food chain company, different locations, and has to choose which. While one is closer, the other is easier, simpler and quicker to get to by public transport. 

It will be good for him to have regular employment. I don't know what he does for money. I think Phyllis may be supporting him. It's not my business. 

Oh jesus, at 9.30 this evening there is a foam ball gun fight going on. I was grabbed to be used as a shield. 

Trams are remarkably safe

Trams are very safe, and even if you are motorist and hit by one, the tram driver will have probably already applied emergency brakes. It is rare for the tram driver to be at fault when trams and cars collide. I assume it is still in the road laws that you must give way to trams at all times. 

I would guess most tram versus cars/vans/trucks happen when a motorist makes a 'U turn' in front of a tram. The plaintive wail will go out, 'I didn't see the tram'. Yeah, right, this great big vehicle carrying up to 200 passengers. What happened was they did think to check if there was a tram travelling along tram tracks. Who would have thought?  Next crash results might be failing to give way to a tram at a roundabout.

I've never been a passenger on a tram where it has been in an accident. 

Maybe I've used some of these photos before, but no matter. I want to clear the folder. It would be nice to credit the recent photos, but they just appeared at some point without a credit.

McMahons Point, Sydney. This was a bad one, as I recall. People were deaded. 

Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne. A brake failure, as I recall. 

Taylor Square, Oxford Street, Sydney. It's a bit busy.

While in black and white, it is not a very old photos. 

Gold Coast, Queensland. The motorist drove onto tram tracks for some reason. Such an action caused issues. 

Nothing to see here, except for a tram on fire. I think our fire department are taught how to deal with train and tram fires, needed because of the electrics. 

Yep, as I said, a U turns. 

Oh, trams hitting trams is not good. St Kilda. 

Tram only signs completely ignored did not result in smooth city driving. 

Just the one, too many

One should not be so cruel but sometimes people deserve a dose of cruelty, such as Sydney celebrity socialite Vanessa Jacobs Fennell.

It us alleged she had a few too many drinkies, and was doing blockies in Bellevue Hill, one of Sydney's prestigious eastern suburbs, in her black Range Rover, sporting at least two shredded tyres. 

She side swiped four cars, one seriously, parked outside The Grumpy Baker. And wow, it was added to the story that one of the damaged cars was a Tesla. I can see the price of used Teslas plummeting, regardless of this incident.

She was breathalysed, with a positive reading but was refusing to go to the police station. She was arrested and then tried go the biffo with the police, so she was also charged assaulting a police officer. Into the slammer she went, but was bailed later that night.

I expect when hit by the cold harsh light of the day the following morning, what she will be most upset about the news reports is her unflattering photo in the media. Photo by Rhett Wyman

Monday Mural

Kosov asked if he could borrow my shopping trolley. While I would pay $2 or more for a kilo of onions, perhaps, they can buy ten kilos of onions for $10. He needs the trolley to bring them home by train or bus and tram. Tomorrow I have to give him a shopping trolley lesson, lol. Actually, that is not as silly as it sounds. The clip that keeps it in the folding position is vulnerable to falling off. The best way to pull the loaded trolley is at an angle whereby it kind of balances itself. Heavy items need to be placed near the big wheels.

On to the mural, or murals in this case. I think both photos were taken in Fitzroy.

Sunday Selections

Updates: Kosov is fine, but now seems to have a cold, and is complaining of a sore arm, the one where he was injected. He was given a prescription for antibiotics, the very old but I am sure effective, Amoxicillin. 

Me, the antibiotics worked and my arm is fine and my finger is is improving. A layer of skin flaked off, so the new skin is pink but will soon look normal.

On with the show of Sunday Selections, joining in with River and others. 

Photos from last year first. I took this photo of the back of the tv before it was disconnected for the painting and carpeting. It was no help at all. Phyllis moved in the day after the work was done and I made a temporary tv connection, but it was two weeks before I asked Phyllis for help to get the wires all plugged into the Fetch Box, the DVD player and the sound system (it is no kind of sound system by modern standards). There were many redundant wires, which we marked with tape and sorted it out. I was so pleased to have something back to normal, but there was still much to do.  

These are before photos. The carpet doesn't look so bad but it had gathered in a couple of places, was badly oil stained at the desk where the desk chair had leaked fluid, and not great where it met the kitchen floor tiles. It was blue, although it doesn't look like that in the photo, which looked so old fashioned. 

Yes, the furniture is old fashioned, but we had vaguely looked and we could never see anything that would work as well. 

I think this was at Moreland Station, an honour public library. 

At the top is now where the train runs and the train platform. 

Sometimes I buy flowers, sometimes Phyllis and Kosov buy flowers. 

Brunch before last, I took neighbour HH to Acorn Nursery to buy a plant for my balcony. I liked this water feature sculpture. 

The Lego train set is growing. 

I didn't do anything for Valentine's Day, but this was nice from Phyllis and Kosov. 

Young people's stuffs. 

The Royce Hotel almost opposite me was once a Rolls Royce dealership. I remember seeing petrol bowsers on the edge of the footpath in front of the building. The building was subsequently used by the Australian Army and then became a hotel with a bar and I expect a restaurant. The rear was extended and elevated to a higher level for more rooms. 

Substantial renovations during Covid times saw it looking very upmarket, which I personally found threatening. We occasionally had a drink or coffee there but it is now too intimidating. I would guess this car might be used to pick up extra special guests from the airport or wherever. Wouldn't it be so nice...