Bad Bunnings

In blog posts I refer to it as the big green shed. In reality it's the Bunnings hardware chain. It has pretty well killed small local hardware stores because the sheer number of products it has in its very large stores.

There is no problem visiting Bunnings if you are in a motor car, but if you visit Bunnings in West Footscray by foot, it is dreadful. I visited the store yesterday by train for the second time, the store being right next to West Footscray Station. I stopped off at Footscray for a bite to eat and coffee. 

The store is easier to visit by public transport than my local Bunnings in Port Melbourne. Last visit to the store, I ended up walking through the underground carpark to enter the store. This time, I was determined to find the main entrance. I did find an entrance from street level, but as I walked towards the sensor triggered electric doors, as I guessed they did not open.

The only way to enter was via the carpark. There weren't any indicators to pedestrians of where to enter the building. I looked at where people were moving in the vast carpark and worked out that those very distant figures were headed to the entrance, with a travelator to take you up to the store. 

As I said, the car  park is vast and was far from full, so cars travel very fast in the carpark. There aren't marked walkways for pedestrians.

The store has a railway station across the street, three bus routes with a stop near the station and there is lots of housing nearby, yet without a pedestrian entrance.

To not have a pedestrian street entrance is a disgrace, let alone one near passing public transport stops and the station and I am not sure how this was allowed. Did the local council, City of Maribyrnong,  approve of this when the Bunnings store plan was presented?

Happy fourth of July to my US readers.

Friday Funnies

I found these funny and maybe you will too. 

If you are a regular public transport user of rail, you will know the nightmare of rail replacement buses. It's the conclusion of this short one that makes it brutally funny.

This longer one made me laugh too.

LGBTIQ

There are some things in the world I am not meant to understand. 

I am now up to Q in LGBTIQ. Q really keeps you guessing about someone, which I kind of like. If they are male, are they available to guys? Yes, I know more letters have been added. I saw the following on BBC, so it must be true. 

I don't understand a male transitioning to female and he/she has become a lesbian. Isn't that a full circle? I suppose if you pull it apart, he was a straight man who wanted to be a woman, and now he is a she, she still has the desires she always had as a straight man, that is for women. I'm pleased to have clarified that for you all.

It was so much simpler when it was just girls doing what they do together and guys doing what they do. 

Perl is out and about

Last week Phyllis asked if he could take Perl to a party in Box Hill. He hasn't asked to use the car for over a week aside from one trip to Aldi to buy bulk cat food and cat litter, so cautiously I said yes, where are going and what time will you return.

They met up with friends in South Yarra for a meal, returned here (I quickly turned on the full living area lamps to impress, but not the overhead lights), and they were here for an hour. The friends are a couple, she of Indian heritage and he of Asian heritage. Translating for English people, she is Asian and he is Chinese, except he isn't from China.

From my computer chair, I at times chipped in with a witty remark, as best as 68 year old can do with twenty year old's. 

They piled into Perl and off they went. I am pleased I have the front and rear dashcam. I looked at it today to watch what happened when my car went into for new car service, one month later after purchase. Jeez, all the motor mechanic staff are Indian. When you think about restricting immigration, be very careful what you wish for. Didn't we learn that post Covid when there were no staff for cafes, shops and other businesses? 

I don't like Perl being out late at night, and I've warned Phyllis and Kosov that if there is incident and they are under threat from a road rager, to not put the car into Park whereby the doors will unlock, but into Neutral and apply the electric handbrake.

The next time I drove Perl, all floors were covered in sand. Phyllis or Kosov, or both, will take the Dyson V7 Tiger with its short attachment to vacuum the car floors. I wonder where they went that was so sandy? Not my business. 

Later: Phyllis worked today, Tuesday all day at one job and asked if he could take Perl. It is a decent walk from the train station, and it was wet, so I said yes. Later he messaged me to say he was going to work at his other job, so the car is out for ages today, 10am to midnight. 

I am lunching with HH later today after she returned from New Zealand, and she may want to go somewhere that is easiest by car, so I checked and yes, the sand has been vacuumed out. 

The cult of celebrity

As I observe from afar:

It is funny that all I can remember about former PM John Major is that he tucked his shirt tails into his underwear. Former English PM Boris Johnston had lots of charisma, until he became too absurd and too broken. He had taken over from the rather dull May, solid and dependable but hardly exciting. Former PM Cameron dressed smartly and had something about him, rather like former PM Blair.  Nowt to say about the Truss disaster. The exotic Sunak was not a rich old white bloke but a younger rich brown bloke. I struggle to remember anything he did.

Then came Sir Keef Stammer, with a landslide victory, which was not won but by a decisive rejection of the governing Tory party. Sir Keir was not inspirational, and while not Scottish, he came across as a dour leader, without any charisma whatsoever, perhaps like Gordon Brown. He speaks with a posh accent, and I don't really know how this goes down with those who don't speak thus, but it must be a disconnect. But I can't remember leading political figure in the UK with a regional accent.

I really don't think anyone would be electable in Australia now if they spoke was such an accent. It is too loaded with wealth and privilege. 

Sir Keir, I'm sure a decent and honourable person, who did get some some good legislation through to improve the lives of the English citizens. But no one could say he was inspirational. If only he attacked the rich...practically and verbally, which is what a Labour leader should do. 

Which brings us to his replacement, Andy Burnham who does seem to be inspirational, with good political credentials. I've yet to hear him speak, so that will be something interesting. Burnham picks up the huge majority of parliamentary seats from Starmer's Labour Party, and he really must take advantage of this to improve the lives of the average English citizen in an obviously public manner. A bleeding heart about immigrants will not cut to the chase. The loud citizens of England have made this clear, and I think it goes deeper.

This is rather like Australia. Most people know we need immigration to sustain our country, but it needs to be very controlled. The perfect example was immediately post Covid when there weren't enough workers in the country to staff businesses, and then there was a flood of migrants. In my opinion, too many refugees from one country doesn't work. Take in refugees from all over the world but not huge numbers from one country. Apparently assimilate is a bad word, so I suggest less numbers from one part of the world with a careful monitoring of numbers, will mean better integration into Australia. 

Monday Mural

Along with Sami and others, here is my Monday Mural. The whole work is in a short laneway just a couple of hundred metres from home.

                    

Sunday Selections

I'm linking to River for Sunday Selections, and joining with others.

These dawn photos are interesting for this reason. The first was taken at 6.54 and 23 seconds.

I swung the lens maybe 15 degrees to the north and zoomed in and this one was taken at 6.54 and 49 seconds, 31 seconds apart. It looks like a totally different sky.

A three wicked candle. Things come and go into the highrise. 

The tall building on the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel St is on the site of a former tramway cable engine house, with the cables running under road pulling along the trams running on Toorak Road and Chapel Streets. The building, Capitol Grand LK Tower, even when almost enveloped by fog, still dominates. The Capitol name comes for the business that took over the building after cable trams were replaced by electric trams, Capitol Bakery, and remained so into my younger years. It then became Johnny Rockets, a kind of American diner specialising in burgers. It was also used for Gayskate, gay guys gathering to roller skate around a track. AFIK, no funny business happened when gay men were on skates.

Two unidentified dinosaurs have attacked dear Pteranodon. 

"Kosov, why have you kept sweet potato peels?"

"You will see, Onnnndrew".

He fried them and they were a delicious snack. 

At the corner of Carlisle and Acland Street, I remember the days when this was a corner milk bar, then a sex shop, selling adult toys and such paraphernalia, with a sex on premises venue upstairs, for men only I suppose. After a long period of closure, the building has been very nicely renovated and is now what I would call an Australiana shop. 

I could tease you with some words about its former use as a SOPV and my experience with the building, but it wasn't related to the upstairs goings on. When the shop was empty, the area at its rear with room for a couple of cars to park, was a mess. With a large double gate open, I stepped in for a sticky beak. As I walked out a belligerent woman, without taking a breath told me as owner of the property, I ought to be ashamed of myself for allowing such a mess of junk and rubbish to accumulate and being exposed to the street. My character is that I think of all the clever and smart arse answers later, but gee I wish I was guilty as accused and owned the building worth a million dollars plus.

HH's daughter grew these chillies on her small farm, and I believe they are called Habanero chilli, possibly the hottest in the world. There is the obvious question as to why she grew chilli that she could never use, and why give them to HH? Perhaps they were meant for Phyllis and Kosov. HH gave dire warnings about using gloves when preparing them, and to stand under the range hood fan to extract the fumes. 

While I was waiting for Perl to be serviced last week I took a rather long walk for me, and among the high rise buildings, factories, offices and commercial buildings, I came across this electricity substation. How great that it is kept, and for all I know, is still functional.

The little tower atop is cute. Somewhere on this wall is a door. It does still seem to be a working building, with modern signage. But can this substation deal with the vast electricity demand in the area? 

It seems not. Around the corner, this is where the magic happens.