Rich ****ers don't give two hoots

I recently read about a Melbourne Irish pub closing to be redeveloped, as a new Irish pub. A snip from a news report about the closing pub, "showcasing traditional music, poetry, dance and food and sponsoring a Gaelic football team". I don't get why the successful pub has to close, with the leaser kicked out and it being reinvented. Well, I do know. It is about money. 

I am reminded of the visit to my doctor last Friday, with my hopes of him being able to ensure I didn't expire from sepsis in mind. I had a spare ten minutes and went into Prahran Market to buy some notepads from the shop where we have bought notepads for over 25 years. 

I thought about my return home and Phyllis asking why I bought such cheap and dull notepaper, so I lashed out an extra 50 cents and bought bright white notepaper pads. I had forgotten Phyllis had put some brightly coloured notepads in my stationary drawer. He reminded me after I proudly displayed my new bright white notepads, seeking his non forthcoming approval. Oh well.

I was reminded of our city hairdresser closing, when the building owner increased her rent to an impossible amount, and she tearfully told Ray she was closing. A new hairdressing shop opened there and lasted a few months, perhaps a six month lease. 

The aforementioned stationery and paper shop in Prahran market has been operated by the same Australian Asian couple for 39 years, as she told me. The market has decided to not renew their lease. Just like that, their business has been taken away, with no goodwill to sell. It will become a food place, she told me. Gosh, I felt sad for her, and sad for our wider society that business avarice dominates our society. Of course Prahran Market has to be a profitable enterprise, beholden to the local council who owns the site and the building. Perhaps City of Stonnington could be a bit more interventionist to ensure the market is not just about food. 

Signed,

an ageing man who is becoming increasingly grumpy about what happens in our society. 

Growing the grass man

We have a lot of tall grass on what was once a beautiful boulevard where we live. The grass is very long. The road is under the control of VicRoads, our road authority but it did contract out the median strip maintenance to the City of Melbourne on its side of the street and City of Port Phillip on our side of the street. Something has happened and there seems to be a stand off between VicRoads and CoPP. That's all very well but the grass was last mowed roughly slashed by VicRoads in March. 

I have contacted VicRoads, our three ward councillors, a former and retiring state politician and our current local state politician. Only the retiring politician properly responded with some information about the situation. Absolutely nothing from our local councillors. I am a bit cross with them. I am a person of the written word, not the spoken, nevertheless I may well call their offices on the dreaded telephone machine. 

Photos tell the story. Would local councillors Marcus Pearl, Heather Consolo and Peter Martin tell me what is going on? 

What a disgrace. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands are being spent on the installation if separated bike lines, of which I do approve.