Personal Bits

The zed/zee battle with Phyllis and Kesav is ongoing.

It has become a bit of a joke about Kosov visiting the rest room. I now wish him well with his visit to the rest room, which can be half an hour, and later ask him if he enjoyed his rest. Their is a bucket and scoop in the toilet, so I guess some washing happens. Both of the lads only shower about every third or fourth day, and that is when they wash their hair. They are always perfectly clean and wash their hand appropriately. 

Is it not enough that we seem intent on destroying our own planet, now we are starting to destroy the moon too, with one of Musk Rat's space craft crashing into the lovely Mr Moon, with a huge ground explosion. Scumbag. His daughter hates him so much, she changed her surname, and effectively called him a racist Boer. 

Friday, neighbour HH is taking us out for dinner, and Phyllis has chosen an Italian place in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. We will catch two trams to travel to the popular, rather grungy and alternative area. I said to HH, "Eighty year old Nonna will be able to brag to her children and grandchildren that she has been for dinner on the 'wild side'". 

I thought the twin boys would be last in my life time to be born in my immediate family, but no. Hippie Niece is pregnant with a boy. The mother of the now nine year old 'Cafe Latte' twins had a terrible pregnancy and horrible post natal depression, which became ongoing psychiatric issues. She was hospitalised for a time in a mental health unit, she wasn't to be alone with her daughters and was provided with a daily carer for some hours each day. She is now in a stable relationship, with two step daughters of a similar age to hers, and manages well enough. The whole family were dreading this happening, yet we've all decided to be very positive about the impending arrival of her son. At the age of 34, she is older and more mature, and I think she will be ok. So, I will have five great nieces and four great nephews, my youngest brother being their paternal grandfather, and Ex Sis in Law being their maternal grandmother.

I put it to Phyllis and Kosov, what should I do next at home in the way of renewal and improving my home. I gave alternatives, new modern overhead lighting? Replace the 20 year old plus lounge room furniture? Have new floor tiles put over the top of the old ones in the kitchen, toilet and bathrooms?  The vote went for the new tiles. 

I saw an ad on tv featuring a gay male couple with a baby. Kosov, I asked him, if you and Phyllis adopted a baby or child, which sex would you prefer? He said, either, but Phyllis would like a girl. I replied, 'So he and your daughter could share make up and nail polish?' The discussion went on about child adoption and I asked him if he would consider adopting a child in India. He emphatically said no, which seemed odd. Why so? 'If it was a he, he might turn out to look one of the three guys who raped me at school. Every time I see someone who looks like one of them, I just hate Indian men so much.' Well, that rather sent me sideways. 

We had a gay Anglo Indian friend from about 1980 to 1995, and he was raped at one of Calcutta's most prestigious boys' school, but in his case, he said he quite enjoyed it, and really fancied one of the guys.

I don't know any detail. There could have been violence or not involved. Warren already knew he liked guys and Kosov identified as straight then. Oh what damage men do.

Monday Mural

Sami and others participate in Monday Mural. 

Phyllis went to an optometrist in Clarendon Street, South Melbourne for an eye test. Eye tests are free for me, but he had to pay $100.

The way overseas students are constantly slugged financially by the Australian government is in my opinion, a disgrace. Yes, they should pay their way, but they are contributing far more than just paying their way.

As Phyllis and Kesav returned, they came across this mural and took photos for me. On the far left, above the monkey's head it says, "Happiness is a quiet revolution". 

Nice, but at times a revolution cannot be quiet. Good luck to young people of the Indian Cockroach Janta Party, with their protests against government corruption. The party and protests has already seen one government minister resign in disgrace.   

Friday Funny

It's not really funny, but a bit amusing. It has just been added to our national sound archive. 

Damn thieves

I'll call the guy who is doing the actually work by placing fans etc, Bruno. 

Bruno took four fans from his van, left two on the footpath and carried two to the car park building entrance door. He returned to get the other two, to see someone walking away with them. Bruno was very masterful and went after the thief, who tried to explain that he thought they were left out as rubbish for a council hard rubbish collection. Bruno made the very apologetic guy carry the fans back to where they were, and noticed two small boxes with equipment missing too. 'Hand over the boxes', commanded masterful Bruno. The thief could only stammer, 'So sorry. Sorry. Sorry', as he extracted the boxes from his backpack. 

I think the thief had noticed the van and hung around to see what he could grab. This is quite surprising, because while it sounds snobby, some people on the street around here are immediately identifiable as 'you don't belong here'. I've never seen anyone in our lane behind our building like that.

I was told about this Monday morning as more fans were delivered. Then I ran into the building manager. He lives in middle distance suburb from the city with a very Noble name. He had parked his car on the street outside his home Saturday night and when he went to his car to attend church on Sunday morning, it had been broken into and the building manager's work phone had been stolen, along with some paperwork and his personal keys, for his home, spare car keys and his sister's home. I hope he gave himself some 'thoughts and prayers' at church.

While he is so hot, sexy as, he is fucked in the head for leaving such things in his car and on the street in the very noble suburb, or anywhere. 

CCTV revealed two unidentifiable young male teens riding up on bikes, slipping something down the glass side window and the car was unlocked. It took them about about one minute, and they were orf.

Everyone seems to have problems in life. Sigh.

Soulful Saturday

Tom Dula, pronounced Dooley, in North Carolina murdered a woman and was hanged for the crime. 

A live performance of the song by Kingston Trio in the 1950s has poor audio. This audio only recording is good. 

Sadness

Sometimes a public death really gets to me, as has this one. It is rare that anything like this happens but once is still too often. 

Aidan Becker was an off duty security guard who intervened when a 14 year old lad was being attacked by four young males at a train station.

Aiden walked the boy away but it is alleged that the gang of four followed and attacked Aiden with knives and simply stabbed him to death. 

A good guy killed after helping someone who was being attacked. That really is fucking shit.

Dear Aidan, your wonderful character dictated your actions and there is no more to be said. May the full weight of the law be imposed upon your murderers. 

Not very princely

You will have all seen the photo of Andy Mountbatten slumped in the rear of the police car. Andy is no longer a  prince, and instead of being prince like, sitting up straight and looking straight ahead, he thought he could outsmart the best paparazzi in the world, providing great grist to the media mill worldwide. It just proves what a tosser he is. 

One commentator said he was the first royal to be involved with police since the Princess Anne dog biting incident. I seem to remember Princess Anne being intercepted by police for speeding in her younger years, let alone Prince Phillip's car crash where he was at fault, and stripped of his driving licence.

I made a comment on someone's blog that I had a rethink about and concluded I was wrong. My thinking was maybe Andy Mountbatten might be caught out by providing information to foreign sources. Kind of like Al Capone was caught out by the US tax department. He went to gaol, but not for many other crimes he committed. If Andy Mountbatten goes befores courts and receives a conviction for some corruption issues, does it matter if he is convicted and serves gaol time, just not for the other crimes he might have committed, with the suggestions those could be trafficked and underage women.

I conclude it matters big time. From US #47 to Andy Mountbatten, and all those others who took advantage of Epstein's and Maxwell's 'hospitality', investigate them and charge them with crimes they have committed, starting with #47 but don't leave Mountbatten out. 

In other news, I gave Kosov a driving lesson today, and he drove on big roads and busy roads and while there is a long way to go, he didn't do too badly.

Phyllis was emptying the dishwasher and broke my port decanter. At least is wasn't my Waterford crystal sherry decanter. He was so upset and sorry, and I was pleased that he took on total fault at his carelessness and did not try to blame anyone or anything else. We'll find a new decanter in a charity shop, or I'll just guzzle from the bottle.

He also repainted my fingernail, so that it looks nice for when Ray's nephew and wife arrive next week. Two coats of quick drying polish, with a slow drying protecting kind of coat on top. That with my pedicure today makes me feel rather good. 

 

A visit to Switzerland

I've read two or three Agatha Christie books, and of course they were ok. But I absolutely loved the tv series Poirot, based on her books. My favourite episode was called The Labours of Hercules, which I believe is the name of a work of art.

The scenery, Series 13 Episode 04 was lavish. The hotel where it was filmed was lavish. The story line was excellent, the acting faultless and I haven't finished watching it yet. But oh the scenery, and a funicular, and my long time readers will know I do like a good funicular. 

If you are still reading my blog, thanks to the person who pointed out Daily Motion to me to find older films and tv series, and there I found a not so good copy of the episode. I am not paying, so I cannot complain. The stills I took are far from illustrating the lavishness of the series, but you'll get your idea. The name of the uploader is oddly called Deaddogsdam.

Ok, here we go. A bit of research work will be needed.

The journey to the resort begins with the funicular. To appraise those who don't know, funiculars are rail vehicles that can climb steep hills by the weight of a connected descending car. Power is still needed but not much.

Ready to board below the mountain resort.  

 

A passing loop, before the car enters a tunnel. Spoiler alert, there is an avalanche whereby the tunnel is filled with snow, making the funicular inoperable. 

 

The view from the car looking upwards. The interior of the vehicle is a prop built in Pinewood Studios, London. Hey, and aren't we worried about AI?

The car creaked, squeaked and groaned as it carried its passengers to the ascent destination.

Perfectly safe.

Here's the hotel on the horizon.

Exiting the funicular. 

The hotel was for very swank guests. 

What wondrous views. 

The denouement: While the setting was Switzerland, it wasn't actually. Le funiculaire de Saint-Hilaire du Touvet is in France and was built to service a sanatorium, which is used as the hotel. Who knows where the hotel interior scenes were filmed. 

Slapping the missus and breast cancer

Written some time in 2024.

A random statistic I heard, one in seven Australian women will have breast cancer. Yes, even within the small circle I move in, I've known a number. In spite of much better treatments and results now, it is still a hell on earth treatment. And I complain about a three centimetre incision.

Unrelated:

Hey mate, how was your night?

Not great man. Things weren't good at home. I fucked up and gave the missus a rough time. 

What, you gave her a slap? 

Yeah, a bit more than a slap. 

Maaaate, you can't be doing that. You've got to get some self control.

Yeah, I know, but she deliberately pushes my buttons and then starts nagging. I have a couple of beers and I get so angry. She really provokes me, like she does it deliberately. 

Maaaayyyte, you are fucked in the head. You need to talk to someone, a professional, or at least one of those help lines. 

Yeah, I know. I hate myself for it, but I just can't help it.

Rinse and repeat, and in which country in the world does this not happen in some form. 

The Australian problem with Jewish

I lunched with my neighbour HH yesterday. She has a close friend who she has known for over sixty years, and this friend is Jewish.

I broached the subject of the recent racially based massacre of innocent Jewish Australians, and a couple of people from overseas. HH, gave me the Jewish perspective as described by her friend. She said she felt fear, she felt isolated and threatened, with nowhere to turn aside from her own Jewish friends. She felt threat from Australia, which of course was never there.

As the week subsequent to the massacre went on, she was overwhelmed by the public support and love from Australia and Australians themselves.

I further questioned HH. Have you ever heard any multi generational white Australians like us be anti Jewish? No. We concluded we were just not really that interested in who among us are Jewish. Ray and I lived in the suburb of Balaclava for about nine years, surrounded by Jewish people. No one ever told us they were Jewish, but we know many were. There were the funny men a train station along in Ripponlea who walked around on Friday nights in tall black hats and strange clothing, but so? 

While the attack may have been by radical Muslim men targeting Jews, in my view, Australians have reacted with the appropriate sympathy and support; seeing the massacre more as an attack on Australians by radical and fanatical religious terrorists.

Our quite strong gun laws have been found to be wanting. The laws are old and have not been updated for a long time. Guns have moved on to be faster and smarter. New South Wales, where the event happened is going to reduce the number of guns owned from six to four. What a laugh. Two guns, maximum. A single shot rifle and a shotgun is quite enough. There is a polling result with 80% of Australians wanting stronger gun laws. Bite the bullet PM Albanese and take advantage of the situation to restrict guns a lot further. 

Joining a gun club or sporting shooters club seems to be a way around restrictive gun ownership. This needs to be strongly addressed.

The tv broadcast of a memorial one week later was brilliant. I had no intention of watching it, yet I was mesmerised. How this first class memorial, broadcast by tv, was put together in a few days was truly amazing.  Well done, that girl and boy. 

We now need to move on and allow consequences take their course. 

A terrible crime

I feel compelled to say something. I consider myself to be a decent person who is horrified by the death of many people at a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach. Did I read somewhere that Muslims are not a good fit in Australia? Perhaps someone analysed  crimes committed in Australia by race. Hmm...I think Jews would be quite low on the scale...Muslims, maybe not so much.

We need to remind ourselves that the majority of Muslims in Australia are peaceful people and are pleased to live in Australia, and become Australian citizens.

It only took hours for our conservative opposition party to start to pile on to our ruling Labor Party for not doing enough to protect Jews. I am not sure whether Australia has done enough. It has done plenty to protect Jewish Australians, but was it enough? I don't know, but it is way too early for the so called Liberal Party to attempt to take political advantage. Fuck off Opposition Leader, Ley. 

But what about that fucking cunt arsehole, the corrupt Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, with the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands, lecture Australia about protecting our Jewish citizens. How dare he!

Thursday Thoughts

No matter how much many despise MAGA, what it stands for and what it preaches, no one should be killed for their political views, and they are entitled to voice their opinions in public, as long as it isn't hate speech.

From what I can understand the victim, one Charlie Kirk, was a preacher of hate speech. As he was shot, he was talking about transgender people being guilty of more mass shootings than??? I know this 'fact' has been well and truly debunked. So, I suggest he was talking hate speech. That of course doesn't make him in any way a target for murder.

It disturbs me that such a preacher of hate is allowed to speak on university campuses, and if he holds strong MAGA views, that automatically makes him a chronic liar and distorter of the truth.

What further disturbed me was that a man in the crowd who was interviewed by media, had brought along his three year old daughter to hear lies and hate. I think MAGA and #47 are so bad, letting children hear the vitriol they spout, it is a form of child abuse. 

What is obviously happening in the US is not democracy at work but an extreme abuse of power. The country has turned into one where political differences can no longer be ignored to keep society polite and workable, but of two different sides venomously hating each other. I think this began with #45's presidency, exacerbated by Covid and the planted doubt about the result of the 2021 election leading to criminal behaviour as the White House was attacked. 

Murder is wrong, but don't expect me to shed any tears over Kirk's death. 

A Melbourne Melee

In the English speaking world, there are troubles. The US is a nightmare. Canada and the UK both have their far right issues, and we in Australia cannot take a holier than thou attitude. We have our own issues.

Sunday past in Melbourne, anti immigration protesters gathered in our city streets, joined by white supremacists, anti vaxxers, sovereign citizens and nazi sympathisers, all fervently waving Australian flags and crying out the most original chant they could think of, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi.They need advice from English football teams about chants.

They clashed with anti right wing protestors, whose number was soon bolstered by the usual pro Palestinian marchers. Now there is a coalition to do any Jewish person's head in.

I was travelling to Prahran by tram last week when someone with a mental illness boarded and started ranting about Asian immigration. Of course there were Asian people on the tram, and two very close by to the mouse of a man. I just wished I was younger and fitter and said something to him, and be able to defend myself if he attacked me. He left the tram.

I left the tram at the next stop as did the two young Asian females. I smiled at them, pulled a face and gesticulated towards my head, indicating crazy, and then offered them my upturned hand. That might sound weird, but it worked. They smiled at me and nodded with understanding.

Sunday after returning from the west end of town, I dared not go to the centre or east where the fracas was happening, at South Yarra Station I walked towards the door to the front of me to be closer to station ramp, as did a young couple. There were two older white women with Australian flags draped across their knees, clearly having left the protest to go home for a Bex and a lie down after their exertions. The man said to the woman, 'Something smells really bad in this carriage', and their heads spun around to the women with the flags. I didn't initially understand, and turned to see what they were looking at. I just said 'Yeah'. 

The numbers of immigrants and where they come from should be an open debate in Australia but these pro white Australia supporters add no value to any kind of debate and cause hurt to people.

Later: It became a whole lot worse the next day when it came to light that neo Nazis had attacked the  original inhabitants at a culturally significant meeting place in the Kings Domain. 

Is there anything funny in this? Maybe. As the 'pro white Australians' broke up, they headed off for  banh mi, a curry, or a kebab or maybe even an HSP, a Halal Snack Pack. They may have then caught a train, bus or tram home, driven by a 'brown' immigrant, or caught an Uber, also driven by a 'brown immigrant'. Maybe they waited until they reached home, too exhausted to cook after their anti immigration protests, so ordered in food, cooked and delivered by two different 'brown' people.

There is much good to be said about Australia, but I am not feeling it after the weekend past.  

The cults within

I learnt this evening from a friend who I dined with that Pancake Parlour is a Scientology business, its founders all being of the faith.

I already knew that the happy clappers, the born agains, the Hillsong Church, is behind the coffee shop chain, Gloria Jean. Who would drink their crap coffee anyway? 

The Plymouth Brethrens is no more than oppressive cult, dressed up as religion.  

Yet, our government judges them as proper religions, as they receive tax exemptions etc. 

Will such benefits be handed out to Sovereign Citizens?  It is another cult, made up of people who don't believe in the organisation of modern society, and don't recognise the laws of Australia, nor its governments. It is odd that the word sovereign is used, since they clearly don't swear allegiance to our king.

The organisation's views are extreme, with a couple of police officers being killed a few years ago by a 'sovereign citizen', and now close to home, two more cops have sadly been allegedly killed by a 'sovereign', the murderer as I write, not yet being caught.  

In both cases, the police were doing their duties. It is just too awful. Ingrid, note, one of the police killed was Belgian born. Cops are not perfect, as older and more recent media shows. But generally they do a very difficult job, mostly quite well.  

It seems that for police to safely deal with these sovereign state nutters, is they need to go in with all guns blazing, in a metaphorical sense, or maybe not metaphorical.

My life experience has taught me to have little respect for 'organised' religion, but they are now mild compared to those I've mentioned above. Should I connect the cult religions to those sovereign state types? For sure I should. They are all fucking nutters. 

Just focus on building a better society. 

Later edit: Hels has written some detail and background about the Sovereign Citizen movement.

Kinda back

I am not making my splendiferous return to the world of blog. I just want to write a little rant, after hearing weirdness on one of our commercial tv news bulletin. I call it the car crash news, and there was ripper tonight whereby many cars were damaged and the driver of an unmarked police car accidently gave the miscreant a bump with the police car, with him receiving multiple bone fractures, and he is under police guard in hospital. 

The incident was also covered by the 7pm ABC TV News, somewhat less sensationally than the Channel 7 news. 

Then came the pre ad promotion for a following story by Channel 7 newsreader, Peter Mitchell. 

How to reduce your risk of dying by 40%! 

The 40% odds for perpetual life is quite good. The detail was made clear in the story. I calmed down, until this...

Reduce your mortality by 25%.

In spite of my poor lifestyle choices, isn't that something for me to grasp at too?

PS For those who follow Elephant Child's blog, I am sure we are all wishing her well as she recovers from serious surgery. I think she is the most caring person I've come across on the internet, and that is quite a statement. Be well, EC.   

The Horrors of War

As I read, listen to and watch the news, the horrors from around the world I half hear wash over me. Truly awful things happen to humans and animals that are so horrific, it is hard to imagine, especially when those involved were directly targeted innocents, one of the latest in Vancouver. Yes, it all washes over me. What can I do? I can only vote in my country's elections, and Australia is not a large and powerful country, nor is it very influential. 

But some times I hear something that catches me as being so horrible, I have to take a very deep breath and then something unintelligible comes from my mouth, and this morning was one such occasion, just as I was about to get in the shower.

The Israeli Defence Force targeted an apartment block in Gaza. You've all experienced death of a family member and it is sad and long may we grieve for our loss. I think a boy in the apartment block is seven, note not past tense. 

The bomb blew him out of his home and onto the roof of a neighbouring apartment building. Amazingly he was relatively unscathed, physically at least. His mother also survived, however his mother's husband, the boy's father did not. Nor did her five daughters survive, nor did her mother, her father, her brother and her sister.

The family doesn't seem to made up of Hamas members. Let's see. That's a score of innocents killed in one family at 10/12. Nice work IDF. Take some pride.

It is within the power of the Middle Eastern and Western worlds to stop this, yet neither will. 

I doubt the word distraught is an adequate enough word. Quote from ABC Australia. 

Ali's mother, Nuha Mahmoud Shatouh, is distraught. She lost her husband, her five daughters, her mother, father, sister and brother in the strike. She'd been cooking for the family when the missile hit.

Sadness and anger

In 1998 the horrific details of the homophobic torture and slow death of Matthew Shepard in the State of Wyoming, slowly emerged. As hardened as I already was to humans mistreating other humans, this case really upset me, and it still does. very much. 

Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis, have been activists ever since against homophobia, with Judy awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden.

In act of despicable pettiness, within a couple of days of #47 being sworn in, a statement on The Whitehouse website was taken down, which had marked the 25th anniversary of Matthew's death by President Biden praising the work of the Shepards. 

What bastardry. 

You can read more at the Star Observer website.  

PS I came across this later, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/12DETqfTC7Q/ In brief, photos of former LGBT...whatever,  war veterans were removed from a public area at a veterans' hospital. 

Hopefully something a bit cheerier tomorrow.

This is London calling

I've picked bits from Ian Visits, London Weekly News for this morning's post.

This one is from the BBC so it should be accurate. 

A woman missed her footing when boarding a train at Clapham Junction resulting in serious leg injuries. The warnings about Mind the Gap are constant on London's train system, by staff, by recorded announcements, by live public address announcements and painted on platforms. Yet still they still happen. Nearly 40 million people boarded or alighted at Clapham Junction in one year and of those, 29 people were injured in some way. Clearly people do mind the gap, but oh my. What a gap! (Even though this is from the BBC, I am not sure this photo is reliable. Surely it can't be like that.)

I thought there might have been other bits of interest to write about, but it seems not. Well, there was a man who was gaoled for nine months for exposing his genitals and bum on a station platform, West Ham Station to be precise. The Standard published the photos......well, one of his face and it is an uninteresting face. No photos of what caused such offence to fellow commuters. Typical of media. They never give the full story. 

Yes, I know I should not make light of a serious offence. If I was wearing pearls, I would be clutching at them. But really, nine months gaol because people briefly saw men bits? If it wasn't to their taste!, they could quickly avert their eyes. Regular users of public transport around the world probably come across people all the time with mental health issues. There are far worse things than seeing a todger at a railway station. 

The bottom of the barrel has been scraped. I thank you. 

I didn't expect this

I can't say we've ever sanded before we painted. It probably showed under close scrutiny. By golly did the painter pair sand today. Consequently everywhere except my bedroom is covered in white dust, including me (lucky lead in paint was banned a long time ago). I've wiped down the screen here, the keyboard, mouse and mat, along with my lounge chair and the kitchen benches. It is pointless to do more as only half the sanding is done. By golly, the two guys really know their stuff.

A couple of you expressed concerns about the security of my belongings. The painter has redecorated many apartments in the building and has a list of apartments waiting for his services. As I said to someone, the building is getting older and apartments are needing renovations and redecorating. The organiser lives in the building. They have very high reputations which I am quite sure they would never risk by petty pilfering. This is our fifth large renovation in our lifetimes, well my lifetime, plus many other tradespeople in our homes and we've never had an issue with any tradesperson so far as theft goes. The only thing that was ever stolen was in our East Malvern house when it was open for inspection for prospective buyers before sale, and someone nicked our wash basin plug. Although the plug was a bit special at the time, in retrospect it was gauche. It was probably the real estate agent. 

These painters know I can't do much due to arthritis and at the moment, temporary back pain. They are just getting on with it. Aside from a little clean up dusting, I've done nothing all day, except from going out twice and loading the car with op shop donations.

They are thorough. 

The living area.

Spare room. 

Linen press.

Ray's bedroom. 

The dining table. 

 Totally off topic, I just saw a news story about a woman whose car was stolen as it was sitting in front of her house warming the interior for her children before she drove them school. It may have been 5-10/40-50 degrees. I don't think I need to say any more. 

A lovely neighbour Pt 2, the gay barrister

I wonder if there are gay baristas? I can't say I've ever come across an obvious one. We have plenty of hipster baristas. 

Oh yes, if you missed it in a comment, the reason there isn't an apartment ending in four in our building is that originally apartments were marketed to Chinese investors, and four is an unlucky number for them. 

I recounted to my neighbour Ronnie the previous history of his apartment, and not long after we moved here in 2002 we held a bit of a house warming party with quite a number of friends (we had them back in those days) as guests. Meanwhile the gay barrister who lived where Ronnie now lives had brought (bought probably) a piece of rough trade home. The rough trade was upset about something and was kicking and punching holes in the plaster board on our landing and he was really very violent and out of control. Our guard came up and then two off duty policemen who lived two floors below. They restrained him and he was removed, and the wall was soon repaired and repainted. 

It wasn't a great look for our house warming party visitors. What kind of place have we moved to, full of drug using gay for pay lads? 

That was the only incident on our landing. The current residents are all very nice and if one brings back a rent boy, no one knows about it.  While we were not personally affected, a young male resident entered the building at 4am and wrecked the Christmas tree in the foyer. I wonder what was in his mind? An hour later, he returned to the tree and tried to repair the damage. He failed and it was all captured on cctv camera. He wrote an apology to the body corporate and also placed it on the noticeboard. He avoided a tenant breach notice. 

As for the gay barrister, we got to know him. He was a quiet and shy type until he had a drink and he was then everyone's best friend. He moved up to a higher level and we once went up there for drinks and had a very nice time. 

I am away for a couple of days, on the Bellarine Peninsula cat sitting for Sister. Sun, sand and surf....nah, rain, wind and cold fronts, apparently.