Pauline (Bjelkie, Donald, Nigel) Hanson

As has happened around the world, Australia is dangerously close to a swing to the extremist far right, with our political party One Nation. The party is led by Pauline Hanson who has been in and out of politics for decades, with little success. Her fame first rose in the 1990s and put fear into recent immigrants as she gave permission for racist views to be expressed.

One would think that with her long time political partner and sorter of everything, James Ashby, that she would be pro gay rights and gay marriage, but no. 

Her views are very Trump like, pretty well anti everything about progressive society, along with being anti renewable energy. 'Build more coal fired power stations', she cries. "Let's look at nuclear energy".

Her speech at the National Press Club was very revealing. Let's have a look at what Hanson's policies are and could be implemented if she was in a position of power if her extremist party should have enough members elected to influence government policy.

Our multicultural society must become a monocultural society. The ship has sailed on that one, honey.

As she stated in her speech, Australian must reduce immigration, and the party has now released a policy that would see more people leaving Australia than arriving to Australia. That's a decrease in our population. To those with simple thinking may think this is a good idea. Instead think, geez, there will be no one to wipe our arses in our old age care homes. 

Before any public event speech, there will be a welcome to country, often performed by an elder of our Aboriginals, but not always. Some can be too long in my opinion, but she will ban the Welcome to Country speeches. 

She will shut down our multicultural tv broadcaster SBS, and make our ABC national media broadcaster subscription only for metropolitan users, but still free for country consumers of  ABC. Ah, she does not know how pro our public media ABC supporters can come out in force when our treasured ABC is in danger. 

She stated only late term abortions were acceptable, if the mother's life was in danger. Back to the mid twentieth century with dangerous backyard abortions for the poor, and richer women having obliging and expensive doctors.

It seems she thinks Australian workers have too many rights, are lazy, don't come to work, spend too much time on their phones and don't deserve pay rises. Bosses can't sack workers (they can't unfairly sack workers. There is a process). She wants a complete overhaul of industrial relations, no doubt to the disadvantage of average workers. 

In there 1990s the fish and chip business owner's cry was, we are being swamped by Asians. She was then gaoled for electoral fraud and dishonestly obtaining electoral funding  Now her cry is we are being swamped by Muslims. My old school racist mother's favourite nurse was Muslim. 

Australia's richest woman, the execrable Gina Reinhart, bought Pauline a rather smart aeroplane, and the party headquarters will move into a building owed by Reinhart. Reinhart has also donated $$$ to the party. She made her money by building on her father's mining business, plus other ventures. Do you think Reinhart won't want payback should Hanson be in a position of power? Reinhart is revving up to mine more of the Amazon.   

Then her party brought in a former conservative politician, Barnaby Joyce. He was interviewed here a  couple of weeks by a respected ABC Melbourne radio broadcaster, and his incoherent blustering was unbelievable. He is an old bloke who not so long ago ended up falling down and staying down on the footpath when very drunk in Canberra, our national capital city. 

The finances of Pauline's party, One Nation, seem very obscure and I would not be surprised if it is later discovered that there has been some illegal funny business going on.

I conclude with is god help us if Hanson's One Nation party wins enough votes to be in any kind of position of influence in my state and in Australia.  

Friday Funny

The late John Clarke as the spokesperson and Brian Dawe as the interviewer. The first is the straight clip and the second is of an American living in Spain watching the clip and commenting. 

Alert but not alarmed

We were all very alert, and very prepared to be alarmed as we had been warned that at 2pm our national emergency warning system would be tested, with a siren blaring or blasting or ear splitting (the media were full on with their use of a thesaurus), out from our phones for ten seconds, along with a message to ignore the alert.

I was in Bay Street, Port Melbourne at 2pm with Phyllis and Kosov after a driving lesson for Kosov and a need for bahn mi for both of them. Kosov has a dry cough so they went into the supermarket to buy chicken meat to make a restorative chicken soup. I was sitting in the pleasant little park just metres away from the main street. As 2pm approached, I moved closer to the street to see how people would react to the siren.

Remember Big Ears and Noddy of the children's book fame? Noddy drove a car which when he sounded its horn, made a parp parp sound. Does that sounded like a horn blasting a warning. Parp parp.

That is how I'd described the alert. No one in the street seemed to react. An older woman wearing huge earmuffs tried to engage with a couple of young girls walking past, who acknowledged her but kept walking. I was a stationary target. She had a heavy accent, I guess Italian, as she told me told me her granddaughter said to her 'Nonna, don't go out as you will be scared when the siren on your phone goes off'. Nonna insisted she was going out. 'Nonna, take my ear muff headphones then', and she did wear them, and heard nothing. Had I have had my phone in my pocket, I probably would not have heard the 'parp parp' either. 

Nonna liked to talk. Her husband died eight years ago, her daughter of cancer two years ago. Her granddaughter is too choosy about men.  Her grandson was engaged but broke it off. 'He is so handsome, always looks neat and wears nice clothes, and is so funny. He is very kind to me, he works at a prison and has his own house, but he lives in another house with his friend.' Hmmm.

Where on earth are Phyllis and Kosov to save me.

The bastards eventually arrived and walked past me to stand about five metres away. I must have a word with them about what to do in such situations, where the default is to save me. I gave her a couple of pats on her puffer jacket enclosed upper arm and left her midstream talking.

Then they told me they has already engaged with her, as she complained about the toilets in the supermarket walkway being closed for two weeks. 

Did your phones sound an alert, I asked them? No Onnndrew. Mine is on silent, but I saw the message. (the alert comes through regardless of whether your phone is on silent). No Annndrew, I didn't hear anything. I think it probably did work for them but they didn't hear the parp parp.

It seems the alert worked for 94% of the population the phone towers and for those who it did not work for, perhaps a very old phone or a local tower was closed for maintenance.

ABC Radio uses an excellent alert sound when there is a fire or flood threat warning.

It was an alert, but hardly a sound to make you alarmed or even alert. Perhaps they should look at the sounds of older technology. 

                                                                                                             

Just once...

Will there be a future when I won't wake up to listen to the ABC ten minute 7.00am radio news bulletin without it beginning with "US President Donald Trump...".

Our ABC and the personal

While our ABC is very similar to the BBC, a publicly funded independent media broadcaster, the funding is quite different, with the BBC's funding coming from tv and radio? licences paid by all, in theory. Our ABC is funded from general taxes gathered by our federal government. I don't know how Canada's CBC is funded, but I know some Australian ABC programmes are broadcast by CBC, for which it must pay.

ABC staff have been on strike, and while I am sure their demands are worthy, it is not a great experience for ABC viewers or listeners. I heard the ABC was to use some BBC news content, but I never heard any. It already uses BBC content on News Radio station. I tried to listen to the commercial alternative to ABC Melbourne radio, but it was cringeworthy. 

Being a unionist all of my working life, I judge it as poor management skills when staff are driven to strike and lose pay. I won't win friendship with a certain blogger, but I believe like many organisations, public and private, management is very bloated. 

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 knew it wasn't right, in spite of me providing all information as requested. The company who sort out my old age pension warned me last year of this. My pension was overpaid $9,000 in 2024 by our government organisation, Centrelink. That was soon after Ray died and I turned 67, and I inherited a small amount from Ray, and my mother's estate was eventually finalised. My finances were complicated at the time, but as I said, I supplied all information as required.

I am now on repayment plan of $20 per fortnight deducted from my pension. 9,000 divided by 20 equals 450 fortnights, equals 900 weeks, equals 17.3 years. My age, 68 plus 17 equals 85. My arithmetic is probably wrong, but I think the debt will die with me. Will the balance come from my estate? That won't be my problem.

Three weeks ago I visited my cardiologist. All good, but have a precautionary CT scan, see you same time next year. Following that I visited the dentist, teeth are ok, just a clean. Annual full blood tests across the road earlier this week after delaying breakfast to fast, all good. A visit to my GP for script renewals, and an eye test with new glasses ordered, kaching.

Socially, nothing since English family departed and my great niece's birthday, although today I had lunch with Ex Sis in Law. 

I've put a new photo of myself on my profile. I am not sure if I like it or not. It was the most flattering I could find, and there aren't many photos taken of me. I am normally the one who captures moments. 

There is a fierce southerly wind buffeting outside, coming in from the Antarctic, our first really cold evening since summer began. We are heading into the cold, but our cold never restricts me like our summer heat does, never mind that we only had a couple of days over 40/104. I am not sure what the stats say, but it seemed a mild summer to me. 

Dollars and Personal

When governments, or even private developers, used to talk about the cost of projects, they once, and it seems like just a few years ago, spoke of millions of dollars or hundreds of million dollars. Nowadays such projects are spoken of in billions of dollars, and I think we are now conditioned to hearing billions of dollars and no long gasp for air in shock.

But what is a billion dollars? Billions was an unimaginable amount to me as a child and teeenager. Apart from the obvious that it was a massive amount of money back then, the definition changed. 

When I was young, a billion dollars was a million million dollars. Unknown to me, Australia changed to the US billion dollar definition, a thousand million dollars. I think I discovered that in the eighties. The world followed the new definition but there wasn't a date announced for the change. It was a slow dawning. 

I can't put a photo of a billion dollars laid out with notes, more is the pity if it was mine, but can I write one billion dollars in numerals (I just amused myself by accidently typing numberals). 

One million is $1,000,000. One billion is just an extra zero? $10,000,000? No, that is ten million. One hundred million, two zeros. $100,000,000. One hundred million equals one billion. That must be correct. I is a maths genius. 

What a boring post. I continue to be surprised at how long it takes to get from street level to the platforms of our new Metro Tunnel train. I had plenty of time today at Town Hall Station today after getting my hair cut, with an un asked for eyebrow trim, but after holding a lift for a woman, her two young children and their dog, and again gesticulating to her for the lift to travel to the platform from the concourse, I just missed my train, and so did they. She spoke Spanish to her children and her dog, and was carrying a crudely drawn Aboriginal flag on a piece of cardboard. Spanish speaking woman had been supporting Aboriginal rights and indoctrinating her children. I liked her. I went back to the street to what I could see. With another plug for our ABC TV, and the government of NSW, what a terrific music concert from Sydney Harbour, as I am about to hit publish. 

The pro white Australia march had broken up earlier as I observed in Elizabeth Street, carrying their flags wrapped around their sticks, trying to hide their symbols of white power. I stared into a number of eyes, in a stupid attempt to get understanding. They all had dead and unseeing eyes, staring straight ahead. 

With another plug for our ABC TV, and the government of NSW, what a terrific music concert from Sydney Harbour, as I am about to hit publish. 

Today I must go out in 43/110 degree heat for a medical appointment. The obvious is to catch a a tram, but there is no guarantee of one with aircon. I will drive, after calling reception to get the car park access code.

A very happy divisive day

Happy Australia Day, and as is my wont most years, also happy Indian Republic Day. Thankfully the overt jingoism that occured in Australia for several years seems to have toned down since Covid lockdowns. The genuine celebrations of our country's achievements and what it is to be Australian are wonderful, but protests become louder. I've long thought the date should change to reduce friction.

It's not such a happy Invasion Day for Australia's indigenous population.

The new ABC tv programme Always Was Tonight is quite challenging satire to watch, and it's been a while since the ABC has made anything that upsets conservative types. 

Those usual types are on the warpath, aided and abetted by the the conservative Murdoch media, The Australian and Daily Mail.  

The white head coverings in this clip are called spit hoods, and I don't necessarily agree with not using them. Staff who work in these places don't deserve to be spat upon, unless their own behaviour has been bad.

Hey Hey. It's Saturday

Hey Hey It's Saturday began as a children's programme broadcast Saturday morning. It went a bit further than just being a kid's show and gathered an adult audience. The show was moved to Saturday night and became very successful. There were some terrific moments in the show over the years. It eventually fell out of favour and was cancelled, and a revival attempt several years later did not succeed. 

It was often entertainment in the background for us as we primped and preened ourselves before going out Saturday night at around 10pm. Yes, kiddies, we went out early back in the olden days, not at midnight. 

One of our favourite segments was Media Watch, no connection to the current hard hitting ABC Media Watch now broadcast, with it's focus on poor media and journalism.

Typos, poor grammar and poor punctuation have alway been with us. I had a good laugh at the not so subtle humour. 

Dear ABC TV

I am tired of seeing Kevin McCloud documenting rich ***** ever so special home buildings.

 

When McCloud was in Australia, his management laid down the law to then Melbourne ABC morning broadcaster. Jon Faine was not a broadcaster who avoided asking hard questions, so when Faine asked McCloud about where he lived, McCloud was very pissed orf, and replied that it was not an appropriate question for interview.. McCloud could have joked the question away but chose to go hard back at Faine for asking the question. That was the beginning of my dislike of McCluod. Should describe him as a pompous git? I am not sure, but I am moving on.

Moving on to another wankery tv show about gorgeous Spanish gardens. Sorry Monty Don,  but you bore me and while the gardens are lovely, how many lovely gardens do you expect Boomers to admire.

How about a tv show about renovating a two up and two down? Maybe a show about greening England and some environmentalists?

I am in a foul mood after my procedure this morning, being up at 4am. I just need a good night's sleep. I am ignoring official advice to not write or sign anything for twenty four hours. 

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. 

Wednesday sadness

It was my Uncle Peter's funeral today. I watched online and there did not seem to be any family and only the person conducting the funeral spoke. No mention of my father, his older brother was made although there was of his youngest brother. There are sad and joyous funerals, but this funeral was really just sad. I was under the age of ten when I last saw Uncle Peter, when he then disconnected from family. 

A couple of weeks ago as I had a couple of minutes to kill before catching a train back to town from Victoria Park Station, I snapped this poster. There are always missing person posters around but for some reason this one struck me enough to take a snap.

Sadly, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-20/vic-isla-bell-alleged-murder-caught-on-cctv-court-told/104626702 

Water and War

I listened to the podcast linked below and if our ABC is similar to the BBC, you should be able to listen to it anywhere. The podcast is is made by the RN radio programme Rear Vision and discusses the disastrous privatisation of the water and sewerage system in I think, England and Wales. I am not sure about the other countries in Great Britain. 

The privatisation was initiated by late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (she without empathy) and has been an utter disgrace, so if you want your blood to boil in fury about sewerage flowing into fresh water and governmental permission to rip off the people of the aforesaid countries, take half an hour to listen to the podcast. It is very enlightening. 

Sadly ABC no longer allows direct downloading as it wants everyone to use the ABC app, which I believe you can use overseas. You can listen online though. 

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/rearvision/water-privatisation-in-england-and-why-it-s-failed/104238770

In other matters, for months the Australian government has been warning its citizens against visiting the Middle East and over the past several weeks, it has been urging Australians to return to Australia before things really kick off in area. Well, it seems kicking off is pretty close to being underway. 

Now the government is talking about emergency evacuation flights and ferries. If my government was urging me to return home, I damn well would have at the first serious warning, promptly. I suppose there are some citizens of Australia in the Middle East who would be reluctant to uproot their established lives there, but at least they know the situation and can make educated judgements. Wouldn't it to be better to be safe than sorry? I do not like the idea of Australians or anyone being put at risk to evacuate those who were too stubborn and could now be screaming help. Of course down the track our government will receive bad press, by leaving all those, 'innocent and desperate people overseas who are innocently caught up in a war'. 

Yes, I am in a bit of a grump tonight. 

Words #397

I pronounce words so differently to many people in Australia. I don't know why. It is just how I speak. Here are some  examples.

Integral. I put the emphasis on int, but mostly people put the emphasis on teg, inTEGral rather than my  INTeGral. 

I say KILOmetre. Most here, even in England people, say kilOMetre. I recall then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam telling us of the correct pronunciation when the metric change occurred, and that's how I've pronounced it ever since. 

I pronounce secretary as SECretry. Most say SECreTARY. 

I say REPortarge as a French word, which it is, but others say rePORTage. I was far from being young when I first heard the word, and the way I say it is how I first heard it said by radio broadcaster Elaine Canty. I don't think I've ever heard said the word aside from in media.

ProTESTors and not PROtestors. ProTESTors do PROtest.

Your suburb might be Reservoir and you pronounce it as Reservor, and I happily do the same. Your suburb, you have the right to pronounce it how you like. But if you have a body of stored water in Reservor, I will call it a reservwha in Resevor. 

None of this is intentional on my part. It is just how I speak. I would guess I had some strong influence at a young age from someone or something. I am too old now to change the way I speak.

I've not finished yet, sorry. My hearing aids speak to me with a very limited vocabulary. I think I've heard them say, Maximum volume. I am not sure. I can't make them say that now. But the other word it says, and I've heard this a number of times when one of the batteries is exhausted, is battery. Except it is pronounced baddery. They are two very different sounding words. Where would that come from? It sounds so weird. What other words are there with double t between an a and an e? Cattery. Caddery. How amusing.

The times are a changin'. During AM this morning, ABC radio's thirty minute current affairs programme, the host was talking about period bleeding, 'a new treatment for women and others who suffer from excessive bleeding during their periods'. I don't have a problem with 'others' and I just thought it was interesting to note as a society and media marker. 

Seriously old

On the sixth of this month, Lorna in Bordertown, South Australia, turned 110. Gee, she looks good for her age, is somewhat of an understatement. 

You can read the ABC story here. 

I expect better from our ABC

The Department of Transport spokesperson, one Brad Arnold, espoused on ABC Melbourne radio, that there would be hundreds of extra train services to cater for the Taylor Swift concerts, (my words now) each evening catering to crowds of 95,000. This was repeated in ABC news broadcasts. 

Our evening peak train system pretty well runs at maximum capacity. With a 6.30 concert start, I can't imagine where all the extra trains, drivers and track capacity come from to add hundreds of services. 

Governments and the Department of Transport will pump out their propaganda. But it is very wrong for our ABC to pump out such outrageous nonsense. I call our ABC into question for what I see as lies, and I did.

What makes the lies worse is that our train system seemed to work quite well to clear the crowds after the concerts. There may have been an extra train or two.  

Lodge a complaint

Thank you!

Thank you for contacting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Happy Holidays

I've already complained to Yarra Trams about public announcements and now I will complain about our ABC national broadcaster, tv, radio and the internet about the use of Happy Holidays instead of of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

There is the blindingly obvious that many people are not on holiday, as you who are are served by someone in a restaurant or pay at a petrol station for your fuel. Happy Holidays is such a middle class wish, taking no account of those who serve you and collect your rubbish while you are having Happy Holidays. Lordy, in Australia there are poor and or lonely people who have a miserable Christmas and certainly no happy holidays.

After forty years of workplace Christmas parties with Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and Hindus and their children, I don't think any had an objection to the Australian cultural celebration of Christmas. Most Australians are not religious and Christmas fun is just our culture. 

Yet ABC with the political correctness (I hate using that term) of Happy Holidays, the ABC also has dinosaurs like McNamara who see no future for electric cars and questions whether electric storage batteries actually work. 

Jesus effing christ. It does my head in. Maybe I need to change to ABC Classic (music). Perhaps there I will be wished Seasons Greetings, which I will be quite happy with. 

Style at our ABC

We can be quick to judge what female media people wear, even if we say nothing, we still notice things. Or is that just me? 

Men in figure disguising suits (like #45 with his girdle and suits that almost disguise his bloated figure) have it much easier. That's nothing against big people, it's just about him. 

But some men in media really get style right. I won't mention his extremely white teeth or his suspiciously black hair but local and most excellent ABC weekend newsreader Iskandar Razak really hits the mark.

His well cut jacket is perfectly teamed with a white shirt. The red tie, red kerchief and red watchband break the conservative look.

Some men paint their nails because they like to and good luck to them but I expect Iskandar's single painted nail is in support of "Nailed It, an organisation to raise awareness of physical and sexual violence against children, and that's not a bad thing.

I am sure you are relieved it is a brief post today. Ex Sis in Law stayed last night before surgery at St Vincents Hospital today, as I have another hole cut in my neck at the Alfred Hospital. Eventually the Herman bolt with fit through. 

Local troubles and troubles to our west

We've returned from a great short holiday in Sydney. I will tell you about it soon. I am always slow to restart blogging after a holiday. There always seems so much to do when returning after even just a week away, never mind sorting through photos.

Two matters of great concern occurred while we were away and the most obvious happened in the Middle East. What Hamas did is unbelievable, that is a direct and personal attack on people of Israel. It was brutal and how I hope those who were abducted by the Hamas animals are safe. It is just so wrong to target people for being no more than what they are and where they live. If they live on contested land, that is because their government approved the occupation. It isn't their fault.

I will die with bad feelings towards the Kremlin (Russia), and now Hamas (Palestine). 

But we have to remember that it is not the Palestinian people who did this but its extreme government which I am sure never told the citizens of its war plans before being 'elected'. 

Naturally Israel will respond with great anger, and that is hardly surprising. However Israel also must remember the innocent people as it responds. I hope not to add the Knesset to my bad feeling governments. The world is watching you Israel and you will be judged by your humanity. An eye for an eye has a bad ending.

It is all really so sad and I am sure to become even more so.

The second.

The no vote for our indigenous voice to parliament was also sad, but not unexpected. I think it has been proved that Prime Minister Albanese made a political mistake with this referendum. It has been so divisive and the best line was 'If in doubt, say no'. The opposition party and many commentators told outright lies, yet our ABC gave so much air time to absurd 'no' arguments. The ABC's own highly respected gave some truth to this. The evil Murdoch media empire did exactly what one would expect. 

I wonder when you are old, how will you answer your children and grandchildren when they ask how you voted? "Grandma, did you vote yes in the referendum for something that could improve the life of Aborigines by giving them a say in laws that affected them?" I hope you are proud of how you will be judged by your descendants.  

I can proudly say that my parents were among the 95% of Victorians who voted yes in the 1967 referendum.

Voters were asked whether to give the Federal Government the power to make special laws for Indigenous Australians in states,^[1] and whether Indigenous Australians should be included in official population counts for constitutional purposes.

Retiring for...It's Time

Last week Victoria's State Leader, Premier Daniel Andrews resigned. He was a can do Premier responsible for a lot of building of infrastructure and carried us through the worst of the awful Covid times with a reassuring daily press conference. His lockdown of citizens was severe but goodness knows how many lives were saved and no doubt there were many.

Could it have been done better? Of course yes, with hindsight but we were in a deep unknown territory. He has been divisive leader with many loving him and many hating him. 

But note, his first electoral victory nine years ago was close. At both the next election and the following, the Labor(sic) Party increased its majority and the conservative opposition party was almost demolished. The haters are very loud and vocal, especially the so called 'freedom' folk. I am not going to do a Hillary and call them the Deplorables however... He has left us with a large state debt, partly due to Covid, and the investment in infrastructure. Over my lifetime I've come to realise that government debt in our rich country is pretty meaningless. 

Our new Premier is Jacinta Allen, formerly Deputy Premier. With a healthy electoral margin, she may even survive the next election if not thrive. She's a very experienced politician who had been in politics for 30 plus years, from her teen years. 

ABC Melbourne's radio breakfast presenter is the very talented Sammy J. The morning after Andrew's resignation, he had already come up with this. Actually, I think he may have done a good bit of work on it already and it just needed an update. 

His tribute to Andrews has so many many local references that most of you won't understand but nevertheless I think it is worth a couple of minutes of your time. As far as I can see, it should work everywhere and you don't need to have an Instagram account. If not, there is not much I can do about it. Google it and you may find a working link. 

To the tune of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. 

Sunday Sod It

The drive to see ABI Brother yesterday wasn't too bad. R hates freeway driving and prefers not to. I hate freeway driving for different reasons, mainly people in the two right hand lanes not driving at the speed limit, or worse, varying their speed so much. 100/60 is not too challenging, surely.

I sold my old phone to ABI Brother and he is not particularly interested in the phone. I sorted a couple of things out on his phone and added two apps, the AFL, football app and the BOM app, Bureau of Meteorology. 

R was in a bit of a mood but we only stayed at ABI Brother's home for an hour. We discovered that he already has Mother's death certificate and the cause of death was aspiration. She vomited and breathed it into her lungs. Who would have thought that was the way she would go. 

We discovered ABI Brother is a little confused about the $10,000 he withdrew from Mother's bank account to pay for her funeral and then put the payment on his credit card. We discovered that he will continue to receive the carer's pension for thirteen weeks after Mother's death, around $500 a week. We discovered that, I guess as part of Mother's aged care package, he received a cheque for $6000 for Mother's funeral from whatever government department. 

I wrote down some arithmetic for him, $10,000 for the funeral, less $6,000 from the government equals $4000 divided by four siblings. So he owes us, including his share, each $1000. Actually it is a bit more than that but I can't remember why now.

We discovered he is going to sell his house and move to a retirement village. We took a drive around where he wants to move to and it all looks very nice. Every place looked occupied so maybe there is a waiting list. But then I think the company probably ensures every place look occupied. 

We discovered the gardener who Mother employed as part of her aged care package will continue to tend to his garden and he is now paying for that himself. 

We discovered the cleaner who Mother employed as part of her aged care package will not continue. I used his toilet. He needs a cleaner. 

R and I lunched at the Great Australian Bakery, very nice. Mother did not like it as she caught her hand in a toilet door there and refused to lunch there again. 

We were back home by 2pm. At 7pm ABI Brother rang. He had recalculated  things and he now owes us a couple of hundred dollars. Bro, what about the $6000? He was unsure. He is going to call the company who he employs to deal with social security tomorrow for clarification. Good luck with that Bro. It will be Sunday. 

Once home, I read blog posts that I hadn't gotten around to this morning. The clip posted by Yorkshire Pudding amused me greatly. It's lucky that Spike died before Charles became king and could say 'off with his head'. 

I've posted this before but it was some time ago. Spike Milligan was subsequently banned from studios by the ABC, our publicly funded national broadcaster. Aside from the humour, the newsreader's speaking voice is so interesting. The ABC was on the cusp of great change, from being a BBC imitation to having a truly Australian identity. I saw the newsreader out at gay bars a couple of times in the 80s and once I sidled up near to him to hear how he was speaking to mates, and there was nothing false about his level above educated Australian speech. That was how he spoke and it sounded nice in person.

Anyway, here is the two minute audio clip that had Spike banned.