Strandbeast

2012, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia. More at the creators website.

It is Friday night, once a going out night, later becoming a stay at home night, and to use a great American expression after a glass or two of Scotch, Ray and I would 'shoot the shit'. Sometimes a significant plan for the future came out of such a conversation but mostly not.

I am excited about tomorrow's Australian Rules football grand final match, because the pre game entertainment will be performed by our own Kylie Minogue and I'll be glued to the tv to see her. Say a bad word against her, you will be sent to a prison at Port Arthur. My favourite Kylie song....not sure. My favourite video clip, this one. She is enough to make a gay man straight.

Friday Funny

Je suis does love Kitty Flanagan. 

Just one more day

I seem to be writing all very personal stuff, and this post continues the theme.

5.30 this morning I sensed Jass jumping off my bed and my door creaked as she opened if further. She has no set sleeping place. The night before, it was with Phyllis and Kosov.

A sound intruded into my slumber. I had to get up to find out the new smoke detector outside our bedroom doors was doing a flat battery beep. There was nothing I could do about it without making a noise and disturbing Phyllis and Kosov.

Little did I know the sound began at about 4.30 and Kosov timed it at every 38 seconds. I couldn't return to sleep with the beep still happening, so I was up at 5.30. At some point after I arose at such an absurd hour, I closed their bedroom door and Kosov went back to sleep. 

AI told me to remove the battery, disconnect the hard wiring and press the button to discharge the capacitor. I knew if I called the electrician who installed the detectors, they would come immediately but I bided my time until the lads woke.

It was then that I heard about Kosov's experience. Phyllis snored on. Kosov pressed the button on the detector and he thought it worked to kill the sound No Kosov, don't put the steps away yet. Sure enough, the chirping restarted. 

We could not work out how to open the detector but eventually Youtube helped us. Kosov removed the battery and we waited a minute or so and put the battery back and all was well. It seems we had fully drained the detector's capacitor. 

My car needed a wash after our trip to the country, with quite a number of smashed bugs, along with dirt and dust. Removing bug smatterings from your windscreen is not successful at an automatic car wash, so it needed a hand car wash, much more expensive.

I told Kosov I was taking the no good filthy non binary whore Perl to be cleansed and he was hysterical with laughter. My delivery of the words must have been good. 

Perl was sparkling after her good cleansing. I won't say how much it cost. I might use the service twice a year, normally after a country trip.

Later there was another visit by a 'tradesperson' to give me a quote.

But let me tell you, Phyllis arose beaming this morning. Kosov has suggested a nice place they could go to eat on Tuesday night and they trammed to town and then caught a 70 tram along Flinders Street, which seemed odd to Phyllis, but he left Kosov in charge. Once they reached John Cain Arena, Kosov told Phyllis, we are getting off here. At this point Phyllis knew what was happening. Kosov had bought a surprise ticket for them to see a K Pop group perform to a huge audience. Phyllis adores the girl group. He was absolutely over the moon to see the group perform live. A little minimal usage of AI, not killing the planet, tells me the name of the group is Mamamoo.

Delicious spicy chicken drumsticks with a salad for dinner.  

Do you reckon my day ended there? Nope. At about 8.30pm I stepped out onto the balcony and I felt my socks get wet. Water was flooding down from somewhere above. I suspected the apartment above, the place where the hose burst last March and I hoped it wasn't a repeat of interior flooding. I went up the stairs and knocked on the door and it was answered by a lad who wasn't there in March. He was washing down his balcony with buckets of water. I pointed out the effect to my balcony and that body corporate rules prohibit any water falling from your balcony. He was very apologetic. 

But then there is the Fetch TV drama from the morning. That's worth a full post, and HH's daughter, OAM, having childish fun in London. 

Just a day

It was on my list 'to do'. That is have the smoke alarms replaced. The one nearest the kitchen is set off at times by Phyllis cooking, and it only makes a soft cheeping noise. Not enough to wake anyone from a deep slumber. The other is partly hanging loose from the ceiling. I assume it still worked, although I haven't checked it since I last replaced the back up battery. They are hard wired to the electric, with a battery backup.

I called the electrician this Tuesday morning to replace the smoke detectors. It is pointless asking for a quote. I know they do go a good job and charge a fair price by the hour. I s'pose I'll wait a week or two for someone to do the job.

I caught the tram to Prahran for a pedicure. I decided to speak up about the pedicure. I always say to cut my toenails short, but they are cut like I am a young woman who shows off her feet. No one sees my bare feet, so I am not concerned about appearance, so I told the woman to cut my big toenails shorter and more square. She stuck a very sharp blade into a hand held device and stripped away any dead skin on my feet. My skin fell like confetti. That was followed by abrasion.  

As my feet were being attended to, the electrician sent me a message, would I be home between 1.30 and 3.00. I will be, and the sparky arrived around 2.00 and half an hour later, the job was done. In days of old, I would have done the replacement myself. 

It is a bit hard to get excited by smoke alarm replacements, but they do look very nice and clean, unlike the 28 year old units.

Phyllis and Kesav were out having fun while this was happening, and once home forgot about the smoke detectors being replaced. After a couple of hours and Phyllis plating up a meals on wheels for me to heat in the microwave, went out again.

Quite a satisfying day really.   

The rent reduction

I reduced Phyllis' and Kesav's rent with a few conditions, the major one being that if either or both of them are home at my dinner time, they are responsible for heating it or cooking the meal. This worked well for a while until they weren't so often home at my dinner time, being busy working. 

Two days ago Phyllis did not tell me he would not be home, as he went straight from one job to another. Kosov left for work early, over three hours before my dinner time. Had I have known, I could have prepared something myself, one way or the other, mentally at least. Similar happened a couple of days earlier. I was not happy. 

I mentioned to Kosov that the recycling needed to be taken down, ages before he left for work and he did not. I noticed Jass' water fountain was nearly empty. I sent him a one line message, 'Recycling and Jass water'. 'Sorry Andrew, as soon as I am home'. 

At dinner time, Phyllis called and I ignored the call as I was picking up some takeaway across the road. He called again and I answered and he said he told me he would not be home at dinner time to fix my meal. He did not tell me such in advance.

They both arrived home from their jobs before I went to sleep, and my displeasure must have already been guessed about and discussed. In summary, I told them that they had to act like responsible adults, and real life was not all about Japanese Animae. Taking the recycling down to the basement is their responsibility, it used to be mine, and ensuring Jass has water is also their responsibility.  

They were both home the next day and after I went shopping for staples, we all went out in Perl for a Kosov driving lesson, and he drove on a motorway for the first time, to Williamstown and back over the Westgate Bridge. I am still not happy with his traffic checking at roundabouts, but he is improving each driving lesson.

As an aside, and I can't imaging why, but Coles supermarket in Williamstown is absolutely fabulous. What a wonderful variety of food, fresh and packaged.

I picked up some heated chicken drumsticks to eat sitting outside. Onnndrewww, you are hungry. Eat the the drumsticks. Kosov, I do not eat food while walking up and down supermarket aisles. I sit down to eat. Here Onndreww, eat. I did. I am so ashamed by my consumption of chicken drumsticks in the Williamstown Coles Supermarket aisle. I just thought no one would notice one, but then I ate another.

But we three had a lovely weekend away, which I will of course tell you about. 

Away

The triumvirate is away for a day or so. HH will feed Jass. Sister and Bone Doctor will use our car parking spaces in our absence. 

Looking west is not normally interesting, but is occasionally.

See ya all soon.

  

Friday Funny, not funny

Women might be good at multi tasking, but unlike men, they are lousy at anything practical. 

Yes, I've done the head spin but always managed to stay on my feet...so far. 

The rights and the wrongs

Three years ago the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked very innocent Israeli musical festival goers. Many died, many were taken hostage, and then dying. It was so awful to comprehend. 

Israel then attacked Palestine itself, with far many more innocent Palestinians killed, and those that weren't survived with great deprivation of food, housing and medical care.

Being so personally directed, the attack on Israelis seems worse to me than instantly dying by an Israeli bomb or bullet. A moot point really. Israel has just gone too far, and as I see it, Israeli settlers moving into Palestinian land and targeting resident Palestinians and being allowed to do so by the the government of Israel is a disgrace.

So, now a rapper in the US, as a support act, seems like he has brought down a tour by British musician Ed Sheeran. Although with a history of being anti Israel, he spoke a few words at a concert concluding with 'Free Palestine'.

He was banned from future performances by the owner of the venue, who owns other venues, and he was banned from them too. So much for the US First amendment, mentioning freedom of speech (I am not a great one for the absolute right to free speech). 

Subsequently other support act musicians have withdrawn for Sheeran's tour. What a bloody god damn disaster.

It is disappointing that the very rich Sheeran is sitting on the fence about the matter. In a more minor way, similar has happened here in Australia. 

I am not anti Jewish, as you long time readers will know. But I am very anti the extremist right wing Netanyahu Israeli government. Rather than my rant, you read about it here at The Guardian. 

Big Africa

The world has a new map, a more realistic map for actually showing the size of various continents, and while I know things in African are big, very big, the continent is much larger than depicted on the old Mercator Map.

Wow!

West Timor

I have my reasons for checking out West Timor as a friend is there doing good works, that is volunteering. 

In the 1980s I was an activist for independence for East Timor. I lobbied, I wrote letters and attended protest meetings. Members of the Indonesian Army who controlled the island killed five Australian journalists in cold blood, as they were reporting on the battle for an independent East Timor. The five journalists became known as the Balibo Five. The Indonesian army was ruthless and lawless.

I kind of of have a personal connection to Shirley, the widow of one of the murdered journalists Greg Shackleton, who was helped in her older years by Ray in his volunteer role. She was a great activist to bring the murdering members of the army to justice, and as a advocate for an independent East Timor. 

I don't know why the island was divided. Under Portuguese rule then later Dutch rule, the island was Catholic in East Timor and Protestant in the West Timor. Indonesian independence in 1949 saw the central Indonesian government take control of the whole island, but those in the east weren't having a bit of this and fought for its independence. Many died in the battle and at one point Australian troops and others were there as a peace keeping force.

In 1991 we were living in our house in Glen Iris and with Ray at the wheel after a night out clubbing with friends, we had nearly reached home and I turned on the car radio for perhaps the 1am news, and I learnt that Indonesian troops had massacred at least 250 mostly young people at the East Timor Santa Cruz cemetery.

The massacre was witnessed by two American journalists and filmed by another from Yorkshire, England. The film was cunningly smuggled out from Indonesia to Australia and free for the world to see, and it was shocking.

It took until 2002 for East Timor to become an independent county, and later claim a share of the oil revenue from the Timor Sea.

Shirley Shackleton, widow of Greg, died in 2023 at the age of 91, and with a tribute from the President of East Timor.

After news of death came at the weekend, Timor Leste's President Jose Ramos Horta posted: "God bye Shirley. Thank you forever. Forever we will remember you. Your soul rests with us in Mt Ramelau". If you are interested, you can read this newspaper OB. 

So now East Timor, Timor Leste is an independent country, and Shirley was awarded The Medal of the Order of Timor-Leste. While she has won plaudits for her writing etc in Australia, oddly she hasn't received a government honour, such as a Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM. The Australian government covered up details of the deaths of the Bilabo Five, and still does so.

Err, this was supposed to be about West Timor, but I became side tracked with memories.

West Timor is marked as Indonesia, which of course it is. There is an odd little bit of isolated East Timor displayed on the map, and I have no idea what that is so. I will investigate when I do write about West Timor. 

Here is the location in relation to northern Australia, quite close.

Monday Mural

With Sami as the host, here is my Monday Mural effort and as I said in advance, they are murals in Melbourne's Hosier Lane, a popular place for topical murals, with few lasting very long. 

The LA Rams mural seems like a last minute effort. Oddly most of the murals in the lane at the moment are in black and silver. Within an hour after the game the team was at Melbourne Airport, ready for home. The team was here for barely twenty four hours. LA has never seemed like a place I would like 

Good point.

The mural for the San Francisco 49ers is terrific. 

Sunday Selections

Well, here we are, another week gone and it's time for Sunday Selections again with River at the helm. 

Mine aren't random this week but show an impressive sound and light show I saw at Melbourne Town Hall. I was there for about thirty minutes in total. The action was on the main floor of what I guess is the Town Hall ballroom. As I was leaving, the door person asked if I enjoyed the display and I said yes, and she then directed me to the stairs to climb to the balcony. I've been up there before. She asked if I could manage the stairs, and there our relationship cooled, as I felt like slapping her. I exaggerate, and there was a lift which I noticed later.  

From the balcony I had an overview of the display. But first a photo of Jass I took around the same time. 

I am not sure which photos were taken from above and which were taken at ground level. No matter. You get the idea. The music was themed to whatever the lights were doing. 

The music was loud, and it needed to be to create the atmosphere.

It was a little unsettling at times, as I heard the sound of Martian laser guns that I remember from the 70s or earlier.

Slipped in was some music from the movie ET, a film that made me cry. I just searched for ET and a question people had asked, 'Is the movie ET a true story?'. God help us. 

The ballroom is quite lovely.

Melbourne Excitement

It was hard not to get excited this Friday as in front of 100,000 spectators the Los Angeles Rams lost to the San Francisco 49ers, and without knowing the scoring system, it sounds like a score 7 to 27 is a decisive win to the 49ers. A trouncing perhaps.

This made Melburnians very happy. The US football team, the 49ers had been in Melbourne for several days before the match, acclimatising to the weather, around a cool but ok daytime average of 15/59 this week, and of course the time change. The team made itself popular by being out and about around town, spotted my many. Melbourne chalked up great respect for the team.

This contrasts with the LA Rams, who arrived the day before the game, and we never got to know them. All about hearts and minds, and don't forget that.

I suppose it was a coincidence that the match was played on 9/11, or 11/09 here, probably 8/11 in the US. Now that vile creature #47 is claiming he was carried from the site by firefighters, without any trace of evidence that anyone can find. But he is not spoiling my post. 

The match was a great spectacle for our city, although there are only guesses about what it cost our State of Victoria, AU$15 million to AU$45 million. It is, psst, commercial in confidence. I have the view that taxpayers are entitled to know. 

Sister and Bone Doctor arrived at 3pm the evening before to stay the night. They went into town to soak up the atmosphere, and returned at 5.15 for drinks and nibbles and I had invited HH up to meet them for the first time. They were super impressed to learn about her son who was an international Australian Rugby Union champion player, and her daughter's son being a worker at Hobbiton in New Zealand.

I had invited HH to join us for dinner in town but she had tickets to see the stage show musical Pretty Women with a friend. We three dined at the Swiss Club in town and soaked up the atmosphere in the city.

Next morning was an early start as they needed to be at the football venue by 9.00 and we went out for breakfast first, at around 7.30. That totally turned my normal morning upside down, and my arthritis kicked in with a vengeance. I try not to take painkillers, but I did Friday morning.

Eventually by midday I felt ready to go out again, where I visited Hosier Lane to check out the NFL murals. I'll post them Monday.

A woman boarded the tram as I did, with two young boys. She looked familiar. Here is an edited text of what I sent to HH. The woman on the tram was our neighbour for a couple of years.

I boarded the tram below to travel to the city today and a woman got on at the same stop with two young boys. She looked familiar. I thought is it or isn't it? I was guessing the age of the boys and it added up. I was going to get off at Flinders Street to take photos of the NFL murals in Hosier Lane, but they left at the Arts Centre. I made a last minute decision and jumped off too. I still wasn't 100% sure, so with her back to me I called out S. No harm if it wasn't her. She spun around and sure enough, and funny that we mentioned her the other day, it was S and her boys R and D. She has lost weight and looked pretty good. I had a chat to her for a few minutes and then the boys began to get restless, so they went off to visit the Gallery and I caught the next tram to Flinders Street. She and T are living in Mount Martha, and he is working in Emergency at I assume, F Hospital. He was at the NFL match, having caught a bus from F at 7.00 this morning and they were all staying a couple of nights in the city, perhaps nearby. Of course she didn't know about Ray's death so I filled her in but there wasn't much time to chat.  

Anyway, it was a nice little catch up.   

After the match Bone Doctor went back to Geelong Station by train, to take Jo's car home. Sister arrived back here around 5.00 and Jo is in town with friends as I type and she will come here and then Sister and Jo will drive home.

Phyllis has cooked butter chicken, rice and Kosov is heating some roti for dinner and there is enough to share with Sister. 

I suppose we all know a bit more about NFL now, and what we used to call Gridiron, has been a great success. Probably just a one off though, although we will remain 49ers supporters if we ever hear any news about them.

Photos from the evening before:

Flinders Street Station.

               

A shiny new thing

I found a new barber and the shop looked quite smart. It would be $5 more for a haircut, but I am an adventurous soul...in some areas. Alas, it is popular and was booked out.

I returned to the one I had been going to for a year or more, which wasn't bad when I first visited but it has deteriorated. I never see the same barber twice, and the last two different guys have been quite rough with their buzz cutting machines. 

As I was looking into the mirror in front of me, watching the reflection of the passing parade of pedestrians outside the salon, I spied something unusual about a passing tram. Was it our sole new operational G Class tram? 

With the reflection confusing me about direction, I did eventually work out it was travelling one more stop to the Flinders Street terminus. 

My unsatisfactory haircut finished and as I left the salon, the tram was starting off from the terminus. I can still walk briskly if a situation requires it, and so I did and caught the tram. I rode the tram to Victoria Market, and caught another tram back.

There isn't a figure available for how much a new tram costs, in this case 100 new trams bundled in with a new depot, maintenance facilities, etc. The figure for 100 new trams and the aforesaid costs is AU$1.85 billion.

So, what did I think? Just wonderful. It was smooth, quiet and felt quite luxurious. It is better insulated from the tracks, the aircon noise wasn't noticeable, the internal passenger information displays were very well thought out. The only fault I noticed was some internal panel rattle as the tram crossed other tram tracks at right angles. 

Some trivia for you, in spite of spinner Adam Chandler (I'm disappointed in you Adam) fronting a video suggesting Melbourne has had a great mix of tram lettering numbering, not really. In order from the early 20th century, we had V Class, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, and we skip F Class, to G Class. OK, there was an L Class thrown in too, but really, it does not need super intelligence to guess why F Class was omitted. The thing is, had Yarra Trams or Department of Transport just admitted it wanted to avoid F Class for the obvious reasons, it would have been refreshing honesty, we'd have a chuckle and move on.

Externally it is a bit weird looking, but we'll get used to it. I took these photos after I left the tram. 

For the more nerdy of you, modern trams pull a lot of electricity from the substations via the overhead wires. These trams have batteries which the tram uses to uses to even out power draws. New substations were not required for these trams. 

The Fluff

We missed Jass' birthday, and we have missed the day she found her home with us by four days. Jass' idea of a great birthday celebration would be no food for the day, just treats. We have reduced the treats because she kept nagging for them, in the way that cats do.

She is a strange cat, but perhaps not as strange as I think. While experienced with cats in past, they could come and go as they pleased through the cat door. I can't even if I remember if they slept inside. They found the radiant lounge room heater very attractive, as did our dogs, and during winter, at times they would all be curled up in front. Cats like the radiant heat and don't appreciate the overall warmth that air conditioning gives. Jass is obviously a fully indoor cat, although she can spend time on the balcony but at the moment, she finds it too cold. 

Anyway, when she arrived last year, there was no superfluous shedding of fur. This year, she is dropping huge tufts of fine and soft underbelly fur. Individual hairs float around everywhere. 

If trodden into the carpet, Rover struggles to pick it up and a manual vacuum is needed. There might be five clumps daily. 

I gather is this is a winter coat of soft underbelly fur that is shed. But isn't it curious that she didn't have such underbelly fur at the same time last year, given she was probably in a colder environment than she is here being warm for 16 hours a day, and hardly that cold for the other 8 hours.

Here is Jass displaying her soft underbelly fur, welcoming a belly rub, but at your peril. The claws and the teeth will immediately become active. You can see a bit of her fluff on the carpet on the bottom left of the photo. 

Anyway, all good and no regrets. 

Bullion Bother

The is scary, especially for US citizens. The gold was removed by secret flights in unrecorded and unidentified planes. Only a small amount was removed from Ottawa, it being collateral damage. What on Earth has that Orange McNugget done to the world?

This comes from a Substack called I ***king Love Australia. Please do not ask me what a Substack is, nor Discord. I do not know. The former requires and age check here, and Discord confuses me. I am just getting to understanding Reddit, quite a useful site but also one that should have age restrictions. Actually, I think it does.  

Experts also say the recent spike in bond yields reflects rising concerns about the immense levels of debt across the developed world and, especially, in the United States.

The American government is spending more money on servicing its US$40tn debt pile than it is on defence. In fact, net interest payments of US$1.2tn a year make it the second biggest spending item in the US budget.

Nobody thinks the Americans are about to default on their debt, but the developed world’s borrowing burden is chipping away at trust in governments’ capacity to manage their budgets, and bond investors are demanding a higher interest rate to account for that.

the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank) recently finished moving 86 tonnes of gold out of North America (the US and Canada) to the Bank of England in London. [1, 2]

The operation concluded in August 2026 after several months of coordination. [1]

Why the Gold Was Relocated

Crisis Preparedness: The Dutch central bank explicitly stated the move was made to handle "increasing geopolitical unrest" and ensure the country is better prepared for severe global crises. [1, 2]
Market Liquidity: London hosts the world's largest over-the-counter gold market. Keeping the gold in the Bank of England vaults allows the Netherlands to buy, sell, or trade the bullion much faster if an economic shock happens. [1, 2]
Strategic Shift: This matches a broader trend of European nations pulling assets out of the US; France similarly removed its gold reserves from US soil earlier in the

Monday Mural

Late today, I know. Sometimes life gets in the way, in this case I was out carousing having a quiet Sunday afternoon drink with friends at a pub and then a light dinner. 

Late as it may be, I'm still joining with Sami and others for Monday Murals.

I'd better set these free from 2024. Actually, I think I may have used the large green one before. The first is rather friendly looking.

Sunday Selections

River and others post Sunday Selections. Here is my bloomin' lot this week.

There are saucepan lids for my forty year old saucepans. No need to use my best china.    

Phyllis, what have you done to my gleaming and sparkling saucepans?

Yes, just what you want to see as you open your fridge first thing in the morning. Is it Julius? 

Cats prefer running water as it won't have bacteria that still water might have. Think creek as against stale water in a puddle. 

In the living/dining area, there are fourteen seats of various varieties, yet these two often choose the floor. Kosov has had a head shave since this was taken and looks much better.

When entering my apartment, tradespeople offer to take their shoes off. I say, don't bother. It's fine. That's a polite way to act. Truth be told, just check for shoes taken off at the door as a guide, as Phyllis's and Kosov's guests did. 

Another photo of the old and the new, taken on my return trip on the 58 from the zoo.

Today I will go to town to buy some new more comfortable walking/daily shoes. Mine look ok, but they aren't comfortable even after adding an insole. Yes, I went for the cheapest. This time I won't. Later I am meeting my Indian friend who is the same age as me, and my Hairdresser Friend at a gay hotel for a Sunday afternoon drink. We may kick on for some Asian food in Victoria Street, Richmond.

I suppose I am still alive as I do keep doing things.    

Saturday Train Arithmetic

There is a ridiculous situation of the Laverton train, travelling via the Altona Loop, is only partly recognised. In some areas it is a separate train line, but often is lumped in under the Werribee train line. It needs to be a properly listed train route. I know how the line works, but god help a stranger.

Nevertheless, with a welcome change, the Sandringham train line no longer stops at its former gloomy platform with one set of escalators, sometimes switched to up, sometimes switched to down. The off peak daytime service has been increased from 15 minutes to 10 minutes, which is terrific. 

And now, instead of the above mentioned gloomy platform, the train stops at a through running normal Flinders Street platform. The train goes on to provide a twenty minute service to Williamstown, Laverton and Werribee. 

As Sir Les Patterson used to say, 'Are you with me'? Probably not. 

I really have to be in a certain mood to start checking timetables, and I am not there yet. I caught a train from Laverton via the Altona Loop travelling to Sandringham. 

Simply put, a train from one end with a ten minute service can provide a twenty minute service to two destinations at the other end, not three. I never imagined Laverton would be included, and I have no idea how it all works. I guess I will have to edjicate myself, or someone will know.