Sunday Selections

I'm joining in with River and others for Sunday Selections, and here we go.

Jass has a new water fountain, which can be washed in the dishwasher.

This Victorian mansion remains but it might not be seen from this angle for many decades. The built to rent apartment buildings in the three high rise towers, yes three, are close to completion, but the mansion front can still be seen from Queens Road.

I've shown this sculpture at Middle Park Beach before and it's called Tommy's Story. If your Google is broken, let me know and I can help you find out about the sculpture. This amused me, "At one stage a local wag made a sign that read: BACK IN 5 MINUTES, and propped it up next to the boots."

 

We don't get fogs (or frosts) in Melbourne like we used to as the heat in the city now wards it off.

The real point of this photo is the man on a unicycle juggling while balancing a soccer ball on his head, but the billboard ad is interesting too, blood orange sparkling water? Maybe Jackie's husband John would like it. I can't work out the last word in the brackets. It looks like tall, but that makes no sense. Later: It must be tan.

My typical view looking down below. There are three air conditioned articulated B Class trams to be seen, the first appearing on the rails in about 1985 and a smaller Z Class built in 1979 - 1984. Taking out air conditioning, the most comfortable is of course the oldest, so quiet and so smooth. I've only ridden our newest once, the G Class, and my first feeling was that it might match the 40 year old Z Class for quietness and comfort.

 

I've never seen this bus before.

Interesting clouds.

And clouds with a moon.

Jass lying on her sunning shelf. Only her nose is at risk of skin cancer and being dark, not much risk really. After three melanoma surgeries, and a couple of risk areas surgeries, along with numerous dry ice burning of sun damaged areas, I've just had a Basel cell carcinoma removed from inside my left ear. I was never a great one for the sun but I did get minor sunburn a couple of times when I was young and I did sunbathe a bit in the 1980s. The Australian sun is a killer, and it is not great that Australia leads the world with skin cancers. From my skin doctor saying that looks suspicious, to surgery was one month. Hospitals know there is no time to waste, and I was treated well by our public health system at no direct cost to me, as you would be in almost every civilised country in the world, bar one. 

20cm or 8"? Call me.

I cannot smugly sit here in Australia saying we are fully metricated. In fact we have gone backwards.

There is some reversion to pounds for baby weight, but none of us would know what we weigh in pounds. Hectopascals for tyre pressure has gone and we are back to PSI. Calories are back for energy intake rather than kilojoules. I knew tv screens and my waist and leg measurements in centimetres, but those have now reverted to inches and I've forgotten my stats in metric, aside from the obvious that eight inches is twenty centimetres. 

I remember writing about our conversion of a 44 gallon drum to 205 litres, and there was confusion until I realised we used the UK imperial gallon, not the American gallon. What a mess, but not quite as bad as the UK. I was freaked out when driving in England and saw a sign with yards where I had to turn. Yes, I know a yard is a bit less than a metre, but in a stressful driving situation, my brain could not compute the yard distance.

This video is a bit amusing but there are errors. 

GOR Pt 2/3

Phyllis and Kosov don't quite roll their eyes yet, but are amused when I say, "You know I am not the type of  person to complain, but...."

"Hi C. While in many ways we love our unit 9, there are some deficiencies, mostly lighting. The stair light does not work nor the mezzanine bedroom overhead light. The ceiling fan does not work. The bathroom heat lamps don't work. The decking light doesn't work. The range hood lights don't work. Only one of the two lights in the standing living room floor lamp is working, and to wrap up the the bedroom balcony door lock is seized up and can't be locked. We will be out for most of the day, Friday. Perhaps these issues could be addressed in our absence."

She replied with that neither housekeeping staff or guests had reported these issues and she was unaware of the problems. She would send someone on Friday.

Upon our arrival, the gardener was busy making a noise on a ride on lawn mower, then whippersnippering and then used a leaf blower. I guess he was in his thirties and the sleeveless top he was wearing displayed his golden tanned muscular arms with a sheen of sweat  glistening in the sunlight. I ran into him later and he was very friendly and chatty, and with a knapsack on his back was off to do some weed spraying, so he was wearing a mask and I couldn't see his face. That may have been a good or bad thing. Even so, my imagination was working. Later he walked along the lawn in front of our balcony while I was standing inside looking out at the sea. He waved, I waved back and he gave me an extra big wave. My Trip Advisor review, go for it YP, gave him compliments.  

My bedroom. I thought the sound of crashing waves would disturb me and I did wake a couple of times, but fell back to sleep immediately, loving the sound of the waves.

The decking from my bedroom.

Late afternoon rest on my bed.

The kitchen with P&K's mezzanine bedroom above.

The kitchen included a washing machine.

The living area, with an old Indian lady wrapped in a blanket sitting on the decking.

The mezzanine bedroom. Kosov managed to find two bibles in the accommodation, pretty well unheard of these days, and no, they weren't Gideon. 

Yep, always conscious of the joe blakes.

The gas fire made the place cosy the first night before it became too hot, so I switched it off. The heat rose to the mezzanine bedroom, too hot for Kosov, and he brought out his rechargeable bedside fan with a misting facility. 

The games room where Kosov had just made a killer shot. I sat for a couple of minutes and noticed a pile of dirt in a corner, but I no complain. 

Phyllis had brought chicken biryani for us to eat that night. Tasty enough.

The next day was going to be a big one, with lots of driving.

Political Colours

That was an interesting result in the US election. Even more interesting will be seeing a lame duck president trying to rule when he does not have the numbers in both houses of parliament. 

US politics are difficult to understand, made worse by colours.

US, conservative red, liberals blue.

Canada, conservative blue, liberals red.

Australian, conservative blue, liberals red.

UK, conservative blue, liberals red.

Just one more area where the US is out of step with the world. 

Around the western world the parties pro big business and private profit for rich people use the colour blue and the pro worker, average person and a caring society use red. But not so in the US where the opposite is true.

Did the Republic Party never hear of the red communist menace, or the term 'reds' for communists? Reds under the beds?

I guess there is probably a long history behind the US colours, maybe back to the Civil War.  

GOR Pt 1/3

GOR, Great Ocean Road, a world famous tourist attraction, and for good reasons. The sights are amazing.

I checked the accommodation, including at the usual booking sites and then called the place directly. It was pointless as at some point it became clear the site's personal booking was done through booking.com. I paid $1 less than booking online. The automated system they use is quite good, but even so it is monitored by a human, so when I was asked about our arrival time, anytime from 3pm onwards, I curtly replied that we will arrive at the standard Australian check in time at 2pm. 

The morning of our arrival later in the day, I received a message about parking, where to walk and the code to a keysafe to gain access to the apartment. For my recent breaks away, I've been very conscious of price. This time I decided to stay somewhere a bit nicer, although a fifteen minute drive from a town rather than in a town. Compromise on location and you get a better standard.

We stopped off at a services along the way. Kosov is amused by my joking about his hollow legs. Do I have to explain that? His legs were more than well filled by more food than I could imagine eating in a day. But then in my teenage years I was accused of having hollow legs.

The next stop was Anglesea for coffee for me. Wow, the coffee was $6 and horrible. I had to wait a while as an American tourist had returned with her coffee and asked for some syrup to be added, like at Starbucks, she added. I exclaimed to her with a laugh,  'Not Starbucks' and held my forefingers as crossed swords. She replied with with a smile and, yes I know that already.

Meanwhile Phyllis' hair had been become entangled in his hair band, and Kosov was trying to free the knot from the stretchy band. Phyllis was wearing some lethal looking nails and could not do it himself.

I don't know what it is about Phyllis at his girliest best, but he seems to cast relaxation and friendliness from even very straight guys. Older women are absolutely charmed by him, and one woman waiting for her coffee offered to cut his hair to free the band with scissors from her handbag. Kosov did free his hair, so it wasn't necessary to attack Phyllis' hair with scissors.

As we were leaving the town I spotted a lookout sign and quickly remembered Ray and I had stopped off there. "Swing right Phyllis", and he did. The views are great. 

The next stop was the official beginning of the Great Ocean Road, which I think was where the original toll booths were. The sign has been destroyed by fire twice.

Far above the monument sat these houses. We had already passed the Pole House.

 

Great Ocean Road was essentially carved into cliffs by WWI returned soldiers by hand and dynamite as gainful employment for them. Many died during the huge construction project of 243 km/151mls. They slept in tents, in the cold, in rain and in heat.

 

After a brief toilet stop in Lorne, we drove on along the constantly curving road. Oh wow, we arrived at our accommodation and the view from both the living area and my bedroom was stunning. 

The sea was just 100m/328ft away.

Then we began to find issues with our apartment.

To be continued.

Kosov's birthday

We headed into town to brunch at the Melbourne Central Pancake Parlour. Even though they both work part time in different Pancake Parlours, I am not sure the Melbourne Central one is the best example. Where they both work are much busier and lively. My meal was rather average. 

I headed for home while they went off to a painting cafe. I didn't ask questions. They returned home a couple of hours later, very pleased with their painting efforts. They painted some figures, but they had no evidence of their efforts. They rested for a couple of hours, and Phyllis had let me into the secret next outing, because he needed to take Perl. 

Phyllis took Kosov to a shooting range in Springvale. "Phyllis", I said, "you need a shooting licence". "No Andrew, it is a package." They shot at targets with .22 rifles, five rounds of automatic ammunition at a time. Kosov would have liked a Glock pistol, but they were three times the price. They went on to catch up with a couple of people for dinner before returning home after I had gone to bed.

I arrived home after shopping for some essentials after our short time away and a few minutes later Kosov appeared, with a cardboard bag. I thought he had been to the mailroom to pick up a delivery but him wearing a jacket seemed odd for a mailroom collection. From the bag he extracted two cat sculptures.

"What do you think Eandrew?"

I often make Kosov laugh by speaking very formally. While in my head I was thinking, Jesus, what shit has Phyllis bought, I slowly and pompously said, "I will refrain from stating my opinion, lest I offend".

"Eandrew, we painted these at the cafe, and we left them to dry, and then they were glazed."

So, he had been into town to pick them up, hence him wearing a jacket when he returned, and the painted figures as a work of love were suddenly very likeable to me...almost.

Guess who painted which cat?

Before you vote

Me commenting on elections if a foreign country may not be acceptable in normal circumstances, but the evil Trump has made his rule the business of the world. 

A young American journalist who is an intern at our respected local newspaper wrote that Americans don't quite realise how much President Trump's second reign has damaged the United States in the eyes of the world. 

They don't realise how much coverage Trump gets overseas for his absurd and nonsensical behaviour, let alone his social media posts. Perhaps what puzzles me and many people was that he was elected a second time.

I am not sure the US will ever recover from his reign. Canada was the biggest trading partner with the US, and it is now finding alternatives. The US has lost well over one third of its Canadian tourists, maybe up to a half. Tourism is well down from all countries.

There is saying about going for he hip pockets, or wallets if you want to get voted in. That is partly true, but some very ignorant people will still support Trump, in spite of the war he began for no obvious reason having sent the world and prices into chaos. Do Trump voters realise how much his tariffs have hurt his citizens?

The world has a hate on the US and it is down to Trump, his acolytes and those of his party that allowed his free reign. I add to that the piss weak Democrats, although I expect they are playing the waiting game of Trump's self destruction without them needing to do anything. 

And god save us from those bleeding hearts who are now in such difficulties because of Trump policies, yet voted for him. He was know quantity and stated what he would do. 

No one in their right mind could vote for a such the spineless Republican Party led by the criminal Trump.   

Away

Yesterday was Kosov's birthday but as it hasn't happened yet as I write, I can't tell you about it. My birthday gift is a trip away for a few days down the Great Ocean Road. It is a present for Phyllis too, and a present for myself. They are good company and we have had quite a number of breaks away in the two years they've lived here. 

As I write this Tuesday evening, tomorrow I must spend some good time planning. I have our accommodation booked. The photos look great, but keep in mind, mostly a cold southerly wind will be blowing in from the open ocean of the notorious Bass Strait.

I am not spending money on grand overseas holidays as I would be should Ray have lived longer, and I really enjoy these short breaks away. 

So the triumvirate is off now, in my non binary Perl(sic).

Ciao babes. 

March Flood

https://fromthehighrise.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-flood.html

A snip from a subsequent post.

I, rather my apartment, is slowly drying out. Fans and dehumidifiers are still roaring away and my daily electric bill has risen from $3 to $30. I will attempt to claim from owners' corporation insurance, but I don't fancy my chances. I could always ask the apartment owner for compensation, but I would add more than just the cost of the electric. Last resort, as an old age pensioner, plead for sympathy from the electricity company for this unexpected event and offer to pay back $20 per electric bill to eventually cover what will be an extraordinary bill. 

I had nine industrial fans and two dehumidifiers roaring away 24/7 for eight days.

Finally we dried out.

https://fromthehighrise.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-flood.html

Not Do Si Do

Maybe it is just me, but does the square dance do si do sound a bit like Deux Chevaux. The latter name translates from French as two horses, that is the 2 horse power Citroen Deux Chevaux, more commonly known as 2CV.

I've never been up and close to one, let alone ridden or even driven one. I wonder if there are ever Citroen car displays. I must check that.

Prototypes were being built in France before the second large disagreement, WWII and were hidden before Germany invaded France in 1939. Work on the car began at the end of the war and the specifications for the car were as follows:

• The suspension had to be soft enough to drive a basket of eggs across a freshly ploughed field without breaking a single egg.
• It needed to be able to carry four people, a 50kg bag of potatoes or other farm produce, or a small keg of wine (how French). 
• It must have enough height for a farmer to comfortably wear his Sunday church hat.
• It had to use no more than three litres of petrol per 100 kilometres. 

I understand the engine was air cooled, no water radiator needed, it could reverse as fast as go forward, and the boot lid folded down to make a picnic table.

They were primarily aimed at French farmers and between 1948 and 1990 when production ceased, over 5 million were sold. The first model took 42 seconds to reach its maximum speed of 40 km/h, 25 mph.

I just happened to take a photo of one recently. Quite stylish for its time.

But she's back!

This time as a electric battery powered vehicle. Photo from Carwow.

Or it could look more like this. Ok, this was a speculative photo from a few years ago. I prefer the above more original looking new 2CV.

They probably won't be suitable for autoroutes but with suggested pricing at £13,000, €15,500, AU$25,000, US$17,300, it would be a good town car.

But wait, I'm wrong. The car can travel up to 130/80 with almost respectable acceleration of 0-100/60 in 11 seconds, so it is essentially a not so fast normal electric car with some retro styling. 

Life

I was out for dinner last night with a couple of friends. My message to my dead in bed neighbour HH.

Later edit: HH is not dead. She refers to my morning text message as her 'dead in bed' message. There is an appropriate plan in place if she doesn't respond to my message. I set this up soon after Ray died and before Phyllis moved in, so it was mutually beneficial. HH's mother wasn't found dead for over a day, so HH is concerned that she could slowly die at home alone without being found. I apologise for the confusion caused by your inability to understand  my very poor wording. 

Good morning.

I have four appointments for the paint repair after the flood damage. I didn't have a clue why fire services were involved, but they are here this morning to block off sprinklers before the next date where the painting prep will be done in November, then the actual painting, and the fire services return to unplug the sprinklers. Talk about loading up the cost of a paint repair job. We wonder why our insurance premiums are so high. I had a nice enough meal last night with R and N at the Malvern Vale Hotel, with a free bottle of wine on Monday nights.

Funny thing, B H's daughter was in the lift as I left. She asked where I was off too and I told her dinner with friends. She was going out and mentioned she hated going out after work. Duh, for most of my life we went out after either or both of us had finished work. The young are so weak. I walked to catch the 72 to Malvern, and she went the other direction. There was a free seat behind the driver cabin, where I sat. It felt cramped there, so once a seat further back became free, I moved, facing the back of the tram, and there was aforesaid neighbour at the other end of the tram. We pretended we hadn't seen each other but we did. She was still on the tram when I left at the stop before Tooronga Road.

I'm meeting with S at the Swiss Club Wednesday night and then myself and P&K are away on Thursday.

Jass will look forward to your visits. I'll leave $20 for you to put on the the building's barbeque evening cup sweep as we obviously won't be here.

Monday Mural

Along with Sami and others, here are my mural photos for this week, going back to 2024. Rather than randomly choosing each week, I think I will post in order. Here are two today, because neither is particularly wonderful.

I've shown a photo of another of Minna Leunig's work before, using the same style. It took me ages to establish that she is the daughter of her rather famous late father Michael.

This one has an Aboriginal feel to it. 

Sunday Selections

Along with River and others, here are my hopefully previously unused photos.

This was a bit of a mystery but I've worked it out to be a 1958 Fiat 1100 Millecento. I don't remember even hearing about that model, let alone seeing one. They were sold in the UK, and is quite an attractive car for 1958. There is much work to be done here.

In keeping with the heritage appearance of this building, isn't that the most discreet McDonalds' signage you've ever seen. Just a single small yellow M (I found in another photo there is another discreet M).

Maybe one of these bricked up openings of the former warehouse was a hay loft for horse food.

The sign reads www.dutchcargobike.com.au. Perfect for transporting your new born. 

Milk bars here were what you now might call a convenience store. I think in New Zealand they were called a dairy. Amy?

I quite like visiting Werribee by train. The train flies along at 115/71 at times, the maximum speed for suburban trains, for ten kilometres between Newport and Laverton Stations

What is in behind the shops in the main street? A river, a rather green river.

Guess what the river is called. Would you be surprised if I said Werribee River.

Work by Phyllis. There is a Tap sign on the kitchen tap because you would never guess it is a tap. I've never heard it called snail tape. Calling it Durex fell out of favour for certain reasons. I call it sticky tape.

An underground public toilet in Carlton, now closed and I assume filled in.

Perhaps the classiest stink pipe you will ever see, used for the toilet's ventilation. 

I wish the Minster for Public Transport would get out on trams a bit more and she may experience the worst examples of all over advertising. Fortunately it has been banned on trains, and should be banned from tram and bus windows.