Moaning Minnie goes on

I caught our shiny new train and then a tram to Brunswick to see and photograph a sculpture at a shopping centre. I could not find it and distressingly Guggling informed me it had been stolen in 2024. Worth $60,000, I would guess it has been melted down for the bronze content. Nevertheless, I had never visited the Barkly Square shopping centre and it was interesting enough, being small and local.

I received the quote for car body repair and fainted. I remember discussing with Ray that given we hadn't made a car insurance claim for a couple of decades, we would reduce our premium by increasing the excess that must be paid before the claim to $2,200. The repair quote came in at $4,200 and possibly an extra $500 if the alignment wasn't right, whatever that means. However, pay cash and the cost will be discounted to $3,600. This is a large chain company, yet so ready to cheat on tax by receiving cash payment. SHEEsh. As is said, I am considering my options.

The roar of the fans goes on. Bone Doctor will stay tonight. Her mother with rapid onset MND, has deteriorated rapidly. She was transferred from her South Gippsland home to the Alfred Hospital. I will find out more when Bone Doctor arrives, and she has already stated she will need a stiffie. A strong drink she means, not as some of you thought. The disease is not treatable, so I expect the end is nigh.

Phyllis, Kosov and I are taking a road trip tomorrow, which is rather irresponsible by way of using up petrol when there is a shortage, thanks to Fuck Face #47. The trip will do a power of good for our mental health, and worth every cent of the inflated petrol price. Someone is making a lot of money out of the rise in fuel prices, but a definitive answer by experts seems to be impossible. I know someone knows.

For local tram nerds, in Sydney Road I saw a D1 pass by as I walked to the tram stop to travel home, against what Tram Tracker was telling me, I could see the headlights of a Z tram approaching. Well, this was rather convenient, a number 6 tram approaching in Sydney Road that will take me all the way home without changing. It was a diverted tram as something wrong must have happened on its normal route.

Viva Gibb Photography

Is that Blogger/Compose "Paragraph" drop down menu new? Hang on, the whole menu has changed, I think. Interesting.

Some of the exhibitions at the Town Hall City Gallery are excellent and some not so excellent. This one I thought was in the former category, and I loved it.

Of course no one has taken such photos better than late Rennie Ellis, but he was very well known. Viva Gibb isn't but deserves to be with her photos mostly of people she came across in the streets where she lived. Such folios are easy to create in our digital times, but are they being now? The ordinary needs to be on the photographic record. 

While clicking on the photos creates opens the photos at a larger size, if you right click and open the photos in a new window, that will give decent sized photos.

In my opinion these two photos are brilliant, and perfectly lit.

A brief search finds a good photo of Viva, and some information. Is that a joint she is holding in her hand?

"Working with a Rolleiflex medium format camera and a 4×5-inch Graflex Speed Graphic, she developed and printed all her own work."

A hexibtion

The Melbourne City (lending) Library is rather marvellous, and during the gay month of Midsumma beginning with a huge carnival, followed by a dance party and culminating in Pride March on Sunday, there has been a huge number of other events, from films, to art exhibitions...well all sorts of things.

Hairdresser Friend asked if I wanted to go to Pride March, and I kind of would have. We used to form large parties of up to twelve people to lunch on Fitzroy Street with a few drinks and watch the parade. But I think my years of participating in such events has passed, besides, it is hard to get to without walking over one kilometre from a tram stop, unless I go into the city and out again on a different tram to the normal direct tram.

While it is a bit of a tenuous connection, N & B are considered part of the family and they came to Ray's memorial celebration. B is Ex Sis in Law's step daughter. N & B have a three year old daughter and a one year old son, and his birthday will be celebrated on Sunday, so no Pride March for me.

I can't totally ignore Midsumma though, so I visited the photo exhibition at the aforesaid City Library, and it was pretty cool for about twenty minutes. The curator of the exhibition was there and I overheard him saying and showing on his phone a visitor of the only photo in the collections that was definitely Australian. I assume most photos are of American lovers. There were more couples in military uniform than I would have expected. 

It is interesting that is was presented by the European Union to the Midsummer event, with a message from the EU Ambassador to Australia. Are our connections to Europe already becoming stronger as we slide away from the US?

Here are a few photos.

Town Hall Trippy

I think the 'experience' was open for three or four days, and it was a few minutes of my time, and obvious to me, a few minutes of the time for others. 

I'd forgotten that Melbourne Town Hall is such a wonderful place.

If I say anything about the massive organ, it will trigger some people. 

I had to edit this video because as I went to turn the camera off, I hit the button to switch to the front camera, capturing some old bloke whose visage did not impress me. I trimmed it off. I also forgot about turning your phone sideways for a wider view, does not translate well as a video clip. 

Revisiting

I'd forgotten the name of this animal during our visit to Werribee Zoo and it is an oryx. Sami wrote that the Arabian oryx is Qatar's national animal.

The Buddhist cafe my neighbour and I visited today was busy, full of white middle class people, in East Brighton. The staff were a mix of south east Asian and white staff. It was vegetarian, which will please my Friend in Japan who is now....I am not sure what to call her now...., Wombat will do. The food was nice but nothing special. I ate my Middle Eastern meal but I felt like a sweet after, so we both had a small and delicious passionfruit cheesecake. Cafe Bliss is in a suburban street, with a Buddhist meditation centre and gift shop next door, opposite a lovely park. 

After lunch once I was home, at about 4.30 my phone rang, displaying HH's son's name. He lives in Queensland and although I had seen her a couple of hours ago, I was worried. 

We spoke on the phone for a minute or so, and created a plan. He was in Melbourne. I let him up to my floor and met him. I called HH and said there was a delivery guy in the foyer and he has a parcel for her, but didn't have the right apartment number. She said she would go down to collect the parcel, but in the meantime I let her son down in the lift to her front door, and as she was opening her front door, there was her son with a huge bunch of flowers for an early Mother's Day gift.

Oh dear, this morning I took my evening medications in the morning, which meant I also took my lunchtime medication that is in with my evening medication. This evening I took my morning medication. Some are the same, but a couple are not. I need to concentrate.

It must be fifteen years since I first hear the phrase 'plating a meal', and when the mushroom lady trial began, it is without dispute that she plated up meals, perhaps full of death cap mushrooms. But one reporter let it slip, and I am not sure how a young reporter would know, but food used to be dished up onto plates. "Dinner is nearly ready. I am dishing up." Phyllis plates up meals. I would just dish them up.

Remember the Arts Centre tour I recently took with HH? I could not remember the name of this painting.

My immediate research revealed nothing. Guugle was not helpful. A few days later, I had another crack using the normal easy search methods, but nothing. 

Two days ago, I was annoyed with myself for not finding it and tried again and I found it on the Arts Centre website. It is called Gloria Swanston's Last Silent Movie. I love it. 

The artist who painted the work is Noel Tunks, and I've never heard of him but my goodness, what a diverse artist he was. He lived in country Victoria and was just an amazing artist. Look at some of his works here. How have I lived so long and not known about him and his art? How come Hels has never written about him? 

The backside

Sorry for the click bait headline. No I'm not. It was deliberate. 

With my neighbour HH at my suggestion, we took a paid back stage tour of our Arts Centre, which includes Hamer Hall and the larger building without a name, known as the Arts Centre. It needs a proper name. Before Hamer Hall was named thus, it was the Concert Hall. 

The tour, hosted by staff, one at the front talking and one at the rear to make sure we didn't wander away into the bowels of the earth, did not start well. Later HH and I agreed we were worried because she was hard to hear as she introduced herself inside Hamer Hall.

We walked outside and paused to hear her talk about the Arts Centre Spire, and she was marvellous, with her voice well projected and very easy to hear. 

Some of what I heard during the tour I already knew, especially about the construction difficulties but there were things I did not know and were very interesting. 

There is an excellent book called 'The Place Across the River', which covers the totality of the Arts Centre area and the history of what was formerly there. 

I've always enjoyed such tours of buildings and places, and this was no exception and well worth taking. We were given a a coffee voucher to use at one of the Arts Centre food venues, so HH and I had lunch, but I forgot to use my voucher. I can use it any time in the future. 

HH is a good talker and the time passed quickly. She turns 80 this year, but she won't tell me the date. Every second Friday she volunteers at the tourist Melbourne Information Centre. She is socially quite busy and has quite a large family who all live a long way away. Her son was a famous rugby...union? player and her daughter is a high achieving business woman, with a social conscience, and has received awards for her charitable works. Lol, HH says her daughter is so smart, she is scared of her. 

Anyway, here are a few photos I snapped.

I've forgotten about this painting, so I Guggled it and who would have thought? Up popped a photo I had taken of the same painting a number of years ago when we attended a concert. There are more of my photos there, I assume lifted from my blog. I didn't easily find out about the painting, so I gave up. I don't mind my photos being used but I should receive a credit for them at least. Marcus Wong wrote a very interesting post about the use of his photos and those of others, and how they brought down the company who stole their photos to use. 

https://wongm.com/2025/04/taking-down-a-profiteering-photo-thief-from-facebook/

Thousands of marbles are imbedded in a polymer surface. 

Food, food, glorious food

I'll begin with a couple of photos taken at the City of Melbourne, City Gallery. The themed displays are changed a couple of times a year, or maybe more often. You don't need much more than ten minutes to check it out. The current theme is Melbourne's relationship with food.

I think I would have quite liked to attend the Lord Mayor's dinner in 1921.

But the seating looks a bit a tight, and you would have to be very social too.

Pray tell, where are the salt and pepper shakers? Bottles of wine? 

I've half been looking for a new dinner set. My old one is missing pieces, broken, and some things are chipped. I don't want anything too weird, but a bit more than plain white. I quite liked this one, until I learnt it is Corelle. I don't know what Corelle is made of. It doesn't quite seem like plastic but nor does it feel like china. It is also quite expensive, yet maybe it is good value because it doesn't chip or break very easily. 

These are are my meals on wheels, rearranged and improved by Phyllis. This roast lamb, I think.

 

Crumbed barramundi fish with chips and vegetables added by Phyllis. 

Spicy chicken with my supermarket bought potato salad and a fried egg. Very satisfying. 

Lamb sliced and seriously rearranged. 

Now on to meals cooked by Phyllis. 

He experimented with baking muffins.

He bought an icing bag and made some overdecorated cupcakes.

Mini quiche were delicious. 

Crumbed prawns with rice and salad were good. 

A kiss is needed before we hoed into nachos. 

After my afternoon rest, which means me lying on my bed and staring at my tablet screen, when I arose at 5.30, I found this note. I didn't hear Kesav go out. 

Oh what a doll

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

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

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

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

Just another day

This was Wednesday, meant to be published Thursday, but today is Friday.  I intended writing a brief post about my day like Steve does, with an economy of words, but I failed. 

Hippie Niece's daughter needed a dental check at the Dental Hospital in Carlton. I met them for coffee and cake at a rather good cafe in Lygon Street, called Cyrus Artlounge. There is a gallery upstairs and the great niece has been there before and dragged me up a steep spiral stair case to see the tasteful nude female paintings. The cafe hosts 'life drawing' evenings. You know what life drawings is a code expression for. 

It was a nice catch up with Hippie Niece and her daughter, H, who with her twin sister and father have recently travelled to New Zealand for the two girls to meet their father's family. They had a wonderful time, and their father's mother, who is quite strict, loved the girls and spoilt them. H told me she didn't like the plane trip, had a headache and was sick. Just a bit sick?, I asked.  No, very sick. You didn't projectile vomit did you H? Yes, four times. I made a big mess.

Merlot, you may recall another projectile vomit situation at a theatre by another of my great nieces.

Hippie Niece had met the family in New Zealand when she was with her Maori partner. She recounted how his now late grandmother just stared at her with malevolent eyes as she ate a mango. Hippie Niece had been travelling in Europe and Britain just before she and her Kiwi partner got together, and she did think the twins might be red haired and Scottish looking. 

It was a nice catch up with them. On Sunday I've been invited to Ex Sis in Law's home to meet her husband's daughter's second child, a month or so old. He is a nice looking baby named Winston, and there is a joke going around that it is Wynston. I was warned when I was invited to not mention anything about Wynston with a y. The parents are over the joke.

It was a hot day, so I was happy to return home to the cool. Kosov! Attend me. Yes Andrewww. 

We will look in the crate in my wardrobe to see what is there and get rid of what I don't want to keep. I will help you Andrewww.  

Forty plus years of theatre programmes from all kinds of shows, some possibly valuable. The oldest I believe is from the 1980s when we saw Debbie Reynolds perform at The Palais. Some work paperwork, which I should have gone through. A stack of of public transport timetables, from the 1990s I think. Several maps. 

There was one single piece of paper with some Hungarian printed writing on one side and a handwritten address on the other. Cogs turned, gears engaged, and I remembered. When in Budapest (wow, 11 years ago) we met up with Jane and Lance Hattat and Lance wrote down the address of the rather good restaurant Spinoza in the Jewish quarter for us to catch a taxi to meet them later for dinner. We had a lovely evening, with the only  problem being the fun couldn't kick on as we had to be up early to be ready to board our Danube River cruise boat. Lance had offered to escort us to a gay bar where there was a special leather party night. Ray was so annoyed with me that I insisted on being responsible and returning to our accommodation and not go off to a gay bar. I think that was my beginning of me being an old man. 

In behind the crate was a gift from our friend Danny in Malaysia. He has a coffee sales and coffee machine business, as well as a barista training school and he gave us this 2002 Lavazza Coffee calendar. The were very popular to being hung in mechanics workshops and male building workers' lunch rooms. You get the idea. This calendar was never used and only opened once. I just checked and there is one the same on Ebay for about AU$180. I believe Lavazza collaborate with top photographers from around the world to produce the annual calendar. Duh, of course the calendar must be annual. 

Keeping in mind I had cleared this crate out a few years ago, ridding it of most travel brochures, tickets and all sorts of things associated with travel, we just put everything back in the crate. So as Swedish death cleaning, that was a bit of a fail. I expect in a couple more years I will again wonder what is in the crate, and repeat the process. 

There is a smaller crate that I need to check. It is marked 'Diaries and IT'. In the early days of IT, I wrote things down. I'll leave that for another day.