Just one more day

I seem to be writing all very personal stuff, and this post continues the theme.

5.30 this morning I sensed Jass jumping off my bed and my door creaked as she opened if further. She has no set sleeping place. The night before, it was with Phyllis and Kosov.

A sound intruded into my slumber. I had to get up to find out the new smoke detector outside our bedroom doors was doing a flat battery beep. There was nothing I could do about it without making a noise and disturbing Phyllis and Kosov.

Little did I know the sound began at about 4.30 and Kosov timed it at every 38 seconds. I couldn't return to sleep with the beep still happening, so I was up at 5.30. At some point after I arose at such an absurd hour, I closed their bedroom door and Kosov went back to sleep. 

AI told me to remove the battery, disconnect the hard wiring and press the button to discharge the capacitor. I knew if I called the electrician who installed the detectors, they would come immediately but I bided my time until the lads woke.

It was then that I heard about Kosov's experience. Phyllis snored on. Kosov pressed the button on the detector and he thought it worked to kill the sound No Kosov, don't put the steps away yet. Sure enough, the chirping restarted. 

We could not work out how to open the detector but eventually Youtube helped us. Kosov removed the battery and we waited a minute or so and put the battery back and all was well. It seems we had fully drained the detector's capacitor. 

My car needed a wash after our trip to the country, with quite a number of smashed bugs, along with dirt and dust. Removing bug smatterings from your windscreen is not successful at an automatic car wash, so it needed a hand car wash, much more expensive.

I told Kosov I was taking the no good filthy non binary whore Perl to be cleansed and he was hysterical with laughter. My delivery of the words must have been good. 

Perl was sparkling after her good cleansing. I won't say how much it cost. I might use the service twice a year, normally after a country trip.

Later there was another visit by a 'tradesperson' to give me a quote.

But let me tell you, Phyllis arose beaming this morning. Kosov has suggested a nice place they could go to eat on Tuesday night and they trammed to town and then caught a 70 tram along Flinders Street, which seemed odd to Phyllis, but he left Kosov in charge. Once they reached John Cain Arena, Kosov told Phyllis, we are getting off here. At this point Phyllis knew what was happening. Kosov had bought a surprise ticket for them to see a K Pop group perform to a huge audience. Phyllis adores the girl group. He was absolutely over the moon to see the group perform live. A little minimal usage of AI, not killing the planet, tells me the name of the group is Mamamoo.

Delicious spicy chicken drumsticks with a salad for dinner.  

Do you reckon my day ended there? Nope. At about 8.30pm I stepped out onto the balcony and I felt my socks get wet. Water was flooding down from somewhere above. I suspected the apartment above, the place where the hose burst last March and I hoped it wasn't a repeat of interior flooding. I went up the stairs and knocked on the door and it was answered by a lad who wasn't there in March. He was washing down his balcony with buckets of water. I pointed out the effect to my balcony and that body corporate rules prohibit any water falling from your balcony. He was very apologetic. 

But then there is the Fetch TV drama from the morning. That's worth a full post, and HH's daughter, OAM, having childish fun in London. 

Just a day

It was on my list 'to do'. That is have the smoke alarms replaced. The one nearest the kitchen is set off at times by Phyllis cooking, and it only makes a soft cheeping noise. Not enough to wake anyone from a deep slumber. The other is partly hanging loose from the ceiling. I assume it still worked, although I haven't checked it since I last replaced the back up battery. They are hard wired to the electric, with a battery backup.

I called the electrician this Tuesday morning to replace the smoke detectors. It is pointless asking for a quote. I know they do go a good job and charge a fair price by the hour. I s'pose I'll wait a week or two for someone to do the job.

I caught the tram to Prahran for a pedicure. I decided to speak up about the pedicure. I always say to cut my toenails short, but they are cut like I am a young woman who shows off her feet. No one sees my bare feet, so I am not concerned about appearance, so I told the woman to cut my big toenails shorter and more square. She stuck a very sharp blade into a hand held device and stripped away any dead skin on my feet. My skin fell like confetti. That was followed by abrasion.  

As my feet were being attended to, the electrician sent me a message, would I be home between 1.30 and 3.00. I will be, and the sparky arrived around 2.00 and half an hour later, the job was done. In days of old, I would have done the replacement myself. 

It is a bit hard to get excited by smoke alarm replacements, but they do look very nice and clean, unlike the 28 year old units.

Phyllis and Kesav were out having fun while this was happening, and once home forgot about the smoke detectors being replaced. After a couple of hours and Phyllis plating up a meals on wheels for me to heat in the microwave, went out again.

Quite a satisfying day really.   

The rent reduction

I reduced Phyllis' and Kesav's rent with a few conditions, the major one being that if either or both of them are home at my dinner time, they are responsible for heating it or cooking the meal. This worked well for a while until they weren't so often home at my dinner time, being busy working. 

Two days ago Phyllis did not tell me he would not be home, as he went straight from one job to another. Kosov left for work early, over three hours before my dinner time. Had I have known, I could have prepared something myself, one way or the other, mentally at least. Similar happened a couple of days earlier. I was not happy. 

I mentioned to Kosov that the recycling needed to be taken down, ages before he left for work and he did not. I noticed Jass' water fountain was nearly empty. I sent him a one line message, 'Recycling and Jass water'. 'Sorry Andrew, as soon as I am home'. 

At dinner time, Phyllis called and I ignored the call as I was picking up some takeaway across the road. He called again and I answered and he said he told me he would not be home at dinner time to fix my meal. He did not tell me such in advance.

They both arrived home from their jobs before I went to sleep, and my displeasure must have already been guessed about and discussed. In summary, I told them that they had to act like responsible adults, and real life was not all about Japanese Animae. Taking the recycling down to the basement is their responsibility, it used to be mine, and ensuring Jass has water is also their responsibility.  

They were both home the next day and after I went shopping for staples, we all went out in Perl for a Kosov driving lesson, and he drove on a motorway for the first time, to Williamstown and back over the Westgate Bridge. I am still not happy with his traffic checking at roundabouts, but he is improving each driving lesson.

As an aside, and I can't imaging why, but Coles supermarket in Williamstown is absolutely fabulous. What a wonderful variety of food, fresh and packaged.

I picked up some heated chicken drumsticks to eat sitting outside. Onnndrewww, you are hungry. Eat the the drumsticks. Kosov, I do not eat food while walking up and down supermarket aisles. I sit down to eat. Here Onndreww, eat. I did. I am so ashamed by my consumption of chicken drumsticks in the Williamstown Coles Supermarket aisle. I just thought no one would notice one, but then I ate another.

But we three had a lovely weekend away, which I will of course tell you about. 

Away

The triumvirate is away for a day or so. HH will feed Jass. Sister and Bone Doctor will use our car parking spaces in our absence. 

Looking west is not normally interesting, but is occasionally.

See ya all soon.

  

Me's upgraded my tech

Advertising leaflets were placed in our letter boxes, which is not allowed but it easy enough for someone to get to the mail room to stick leaflets in letter boxes. I look at whatever a leaflet might offer, and mostly they go straight in the convenient nearby mail room rubbish bin.

This one grabbed my attention, my own internet supplier offering deals for new customers. I noted that once the bonus sign up discounted period ended, they would be on a better plan that I was.

I was paying $85 per month for my internet connection, with the modem spreading the signal to the whole of the apartment. Tvs, my desktop, phones, tablets, laptops, a few lamps, and Rover the vacuum cleaner all use the internet. My speed was 100mbs, and truly, I find that quite adequate and I was actually getting that download speed.

But for new subscribers, they would eventually end up on the $80 plan and get 700mbs download speed. I was outraged that I was paying more for less. 

It was time to talk to someone in the Philippines about my internet. 

Oh Sir, you are on an older plan.

It would have been nice if you informed me that there was a better plan for me.

I am sorry Sir. Our website clearly shows our plans.

Well, I will take the $80 plan and have a 700mbs service, thanks.

Sir, I have made the changes to your service. It will take some time to change and someone will call you.

Weirdly I was shuffled between various people on the phone but it wasn't too bad taking about 15 minutes. 

My expectation was that some buttons would be pressed somewhere and I would have an upgraded service. 

A few days later someone called to make an appointment. Ok, between 8.00am and 12 noon. I normally shower at 8.00, so I showered earlier on the day of the appointment. At this point I though the tech person might have do something in the basement or my floor's service room. I would just let him in.

He called about 8.30 and said he would arrive at 9.00. I let him in and he was a pleasant and competent man. He had to install a new box next to my modem. Lordy what a mess of wires. I had forgotten the name, and now I am forgetting it again. I think it was a LAN cable that connected this new box to my modem. I was told I don't own the new box, but as a homeowner, it wasn't that relevant. The LAN cable was bright yellow. That won't do at all in a public area of my apartment.

I've just remembered it is an ethernet cable, not a LAN cable.

Well, now I am connected, I should have 700mbs download speed, a huge increase from 100mbs.

Mr installer, 700mbs is an amazing speed. 

Sorry Sir, your building is old, your tech installations in the basement were early models and the wire from the basement to your home is copper. You won't get 700mbs but let me check. 

Sir, you are getting 365mbs download speed. If your building had newer equipment, and a fibre cable to your apartment, you might get 700mbs. 

After he left I went to JB HiFi and bought a grey ethernet cable and tidied wires and plugs as best I could, and that made the rat's nest, like Sybil's hair, look better. You only see the mess of the wires when at the end of the kitchen but they aren't really visible to visitors.

The black thing is the modem and the new white booster thingie sits flat on the bench.    

The end result, I have noticed a much higher speed for some things I might download, but for general computer business, such as blogging, there is no difference. It was hardly worth the bother, but then I am saving $5.00 a month. Did I mention I know how to look after the pence? 

Exit the Famous Bearded Media Person

That is how I used to refer to fellow resident Derryn Hinch if I mentioned him.

He lived in our building for around as long as I have, some 24 years. He was always friendly and chatty when we engaged in lift conversations, and expressed his condolences when he knew Ray died. 

His publicly aired opinions were strong and often controversial, and I did not always agree with them. Nevertheless, he was a neighbour doing his job as a media person, just as I did my job. I didn't question him about his and he didn't question me about mine. I thought of him as an essentially a decent person. 

He served gaol time, for contempt of court, and one of home detention (he was allowed to leave his apartment to use our pool and gym), perhaps for the same reason, after naming yet to be convicted paedophiles as a warning to the community. 

He travelled the world in his media role, was a radio broadcaster, tv presenter, charity donor of time and money, made fortunes, lost fortunes, owned a winery and was married five times.

As was said at his funeral, he loved media, women and alcohol. He was a huge drinker of wine, I heard a figure of six bottles a day as a minimum, and this caused problems. Here on his balcony late at night he would burn papers in....... I can't remember the name. It was Japanese outdoor thing you could burn stuffs in? Hibachi? The smoke used to annoy his next door neighbour who liked to have her windows open. The then the body corporate became involved in the neighbour dispute and he was warned more than once.

His drinking also led to liver failure and he received a liver transplant about the same time as our late friend's brother in the Austin Hospital, so they got to know each other. The brother of our friend, a non drinker, is still going and I exchange occasional messages with him. His lovely wife now sadly has dementia.

Derryn owned a ground floor apartment but lived in a rented apartment on an upper level. His PA, and general everything who sorted out his life lived in the apartment he owned, and he eventually bought the apartment where he lived.

He was married five times, twice to the same woman, the famous actor Jackie Weaver. His animal activist girlfriend, Lynda Stoner, from the eighties became his last partner. While he lived here  he met and married Chanel. I knew her rather better than I wanted to, as I, she and the building's cleaner were stuck in a lift for an hour or more in 2009 when a bushfire burnt through a major electrical cable in the north of the state and most of Melbourne lost power. She was pleasant, very glam and to use an old fashioned phrase, of a nervous disposition. She recognised a couple of old queens, Ray and myself, as cool guys, and while aloof with most people, she was over the top friendly with us. She owned a private detective agency. 

They did not live together though. She lived in another apartment, and her parents moved into yet another apartment. Although Derryn once drove around in a Rolls Royce, while he lived here he owned a huge converted to right hand drive black American Cadillac. The carpark in a large building behind the Highrise used to have a car wash facility and Derryn used to have the staff there come and collect his car, clean it thoroughly, and return his car. One staff smashed up his car, and it was off the road for months as parts were hard to obtain. He stopped driving many years ago.

His physical deterioration was quite rapid, and rather sad to see. There was nothing wrong with his mind and he continued to write up until the day before he died in his sleep.

Up until about three years ago, he used the Italian restaurant opposite as his office in the afternoon. With his laptop, he would dine, work, socialise and drink moderately for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The restaurant closed, and so he would be seen less often going out.

After numerous falls and leg infections, he died in his sleep. 

Yesterday he was honoured with a State Funeral, and it was broadcast around the nation by commercial television. At two hours, it was a long watch and I skipped through the music as I watched in a little delay. I seldom praise commercial media, but Channel 9 made it a terrific coverage, without ads. 

My eyes wetted up when Jackie Weaver spoke via video, and his very emotional PA spoke, who obviously I know from lift encounters. Also mentioned and was a pall bearer who was the local resident who organised my repainting and recarpeting two years ago. In the last year or so he put in a huge effort to look after Derryn and his PA.

Oh, I haven't mentioned that he formed his own political party and became a politician in Victoria's upper house, as a member of the the Legislative Council.

Nor did I mention he published 14 books.

Nor that in the early noughties when he was reported in the media, he was described as living in an exclusive St Kilda Road apartment building, which quite amused us and fellow residents who live in the cheap seats of St Kilda Road, but it wasn't always.    

Eras end, and so has another. Vale the Human Headline, the Mouth from the South and Beast from the East, Derryn.

Life snapshot

Wednesday shopping. Phyllis drove. He is competent at driving, quite good really, but I still had my foot on the passenger side imaginary brake pedal at times.

After shopping, Kosov drove with his learner plates displayed. Kosov did drive a car in India, and has an Indian driving license, 'bought' by his parents. 

He was a left foot braker in India, which really isn't the right way to drive. I don't think our driving test people would accept that now, although I know it still happens with local drivers born overseas. It can be easy to tell as they ride the brake with their left foot as they drive and their rear brake lights are lit. I am seeing this less than it used to be. 

Kosov's driving has steadily improved. He is far from competent yet, but doing much better. I had prepared myself to compliment him, and so build his confidence.

I don't fully understand what happened, but when it came to turning into our carpark entrance, he went past where he was meant to turn and then went up onto the footpath. I yelled 'stop', and he did. I told him to get out and I would reverse the car back onto the lane and drive to our building's garage. 

I now know he confused his left and right feet, and was braking with his left foot and accelerating with his right foot. Before he should have turned, he was already getting the turn wrong. There was chatter about when to press the button to open the carpark gate. Maybe that distracted him. Look, his speed was only about 10 km/h but had someone been standing on the footpath...

More driving Thursday, and it was clear the experience yesterday had rattled him, as he drove less confidently. While at about 20 km/h, I warned he and Phyllis that I was about to test the electric handbrake It worked well enough, and I can stop the car with my intervention. He did make a serious mistake today, but without consequences, and nothing like yesterday's. I do feel preparing him for a driving test is going to be a long haul.

Naturally he was mortified, and kept apologising. Phyllis kindly said nothing at the time. What my mind was occupied with was what happened and how to ensure it didn't happen again. 

Not too much has happened this week. Ex Sis in Law and her husband flew off to Bali this morning, and had to leave home at 3am. 

This afternoon my Indonesian neighbour invited me out for coffee, he being the father of his daughter who has twice locked herself out their apartment, and called on me for help. 

He grew up in poverty in Indonesian Borneo, with an abusive father and an uncaring mother. Somehow through sheer will and being smart, and some luck, he ended up being a being a highly desirable employee, working in the tech area of public transport and other areas and became a rich person in Australia. In the last few years he spent time working in Indonesia. He is very handsome, for a fifty one year old. There came an opportunity to ask him if he had Chinese heritage. Indonesia has a population of Chinese heritage people but mostly a native Moslem population. His heritage is Chinese. Sorry if this offends you. It is the way my mind works, and I established that he is not circumcised. Wouldn't mind seeing it.

He has a house too, in an expensive outer eastern Melbourne goes up for auction today. I need to do some searching. Maybe it's a middle suburb now. What were outer suburbs seem to have become inner suburbs.

Whatever nonsense I've written, it was a nice catch up with my neighbour. He was kind to me when Ray died.

Of an age

Driving, drinking alcohol, voting, having sex, watching adult media content, smoking, having your own doctor. Most countries have laws in place about such things. The kiddies can't do certain things until they are of a certain age. 

But don't they also have to learn what to do as they become an adult of a certain age? Like turning off lights in rooms they aren't using? At what age do they discover the wonder of saving money by turning off unused electric appliances and lights? 

The third time they have to pay an electric bill? Cast your minds back to when you became conscious of the need for 'turning things off' to save money. 

My lads aren't bad but the unoccupied bathroom light was on for half an hour today, and I turned it off. The clothes on the drying rack in the spare bedroom were dry, so I turned the overhead fan off. I then closed the door as there is no point in heating an unused room.                         

OMG, the new clothes airer is empty, and the pile of dry clothing has been removed from the bed.

So just to reiterate, at what age did you become conscious of saving money by reducing household energy  consumption? 

Modi Matters

India's Prime Minister Modi is visiting Australia to a hero style welcome by the Indian diaspora. He is only visiting Melbourne, probably because 40% of the Australian said Indian diaspora live in Greater Melbourne. 

Modi is a man of the people, especially if you are Hindu. He is not so popular with Sikhs, Moslems and southern Indians, the latter as I am informed by Phyllis and Kosov. India has the largest population in the world, so it is kind of important. 

I don't really follow Indian politics but I've picked up that Modi is a rather autocratic leader who has pushed through some great things for India. India now stands on the world stage, and I think that has been Modi's doing, partly by modernising the country, fixing some issues, but not poverty. And also making world alliances, as he is doing here in Australia. It seems his general popularity will ensure his party will continue to be elected to government until he retires, or is assassinated, as a number before have been. 

My workplace in my young years had many Anglo Indian staff. As time went on, there were more Indian Indian employees. I developed a friendship with a gay Anglo Indian who was educated in one of the best schools in Calcutta and spoke with a very posh English accent in a nice baritone voice. 

We were friends for some twenty five years before he had a mental breakdown (AIDS related I think), cut himself off from all his friends and acquaintances and moved to the country. Ray and I at the time felt it was a very hard rejection but in time we came to understand his mental health issues. 

Through him over those years and even after his breakdown, we became part of Melbourne's gay Indian community and also that of Chinese type Asians, and the good and bad of it all. We got to know many people, some of who I still know.

So Ray and I did know quite a number of Asian and Indian gay guys. On a whim I just thought, I wonder what an ad on GayShare might bring up? A quiet and studious Asian guy student or a young and out there white gay guy? An older white guy? My thought was to offer cheap accommodation to a gay overseas student. 

The guys I could see online were prepared to pay quite high prices. I felt financially insecure at the time, wondering if I could afford to continue to live here without Ray's contribution to half of the costs. 

Within a few hours Phyllis answered the ad and I arranged for him to visit. Renovations were soon to start, so he could not move in immediately, but before works were finished, he was desperate and had paid a substantial deposit. Then his 'straight' friend moved in too, who absolutely adored Phyllis, so not so straight. I think in less than five years, they will marry. 

Indians seem to be my destiny, or at least around for most of my adult life. Little did I know how our lives would become entwined. This is a photo Phyllis may have used on GayShare. I am not sure now. I found it somewhere. 

Jass, be safe

Someone, or more than one, mentioned about Jass on the balcony. We, that is Phyllis, Kosov and I were incredibly cautious when Jass first went on to the balcony, ready to grab her or pull her back. 

She would stick her head under the glass to look at the birdies nesting on the balcony below. Her body could have fitted under the glass. If she stuck her neck out too far, we would just call her name and she would pull her head back in.

She has shown no inclination to jump on the balcony, though she is an expert jumper, and only rarely sits on my balcony seat. She mostly just sits at floor level and watches. I just sit on a seat and watch, so I get that. Well, she did in warmer weather. She doesn't like the balcony in winter.

 

I see it as risk assessment, as you might do with your children. Yes, there is a risk to them if you let them out on their own, but I must say, young children who used to be let out on their own to learn the ways of the world, are now so mollycoddled and supervised, I doubt it does them good. 

Segueing, Neighbour HH is so stressed about her 23 year old granddaughter staying in her apartment while HH is in New Zealand, her son had to bring HH back to earth. 'Mum, she has travelled all over Europe, stayed with strangers, and had a wonderful time. She will manage without Nonna being there'. No, HH is not Italian and it's a long story why she is called Nonna, which I forget. 

Nevertheless, I will let the granddaughter into the building and show her where the key and fob is hidden in HH's  apartment, as I have access to HH's apartment. For id purposes, HH sent me a photo of her granddaughter, who I think is 23 and very attractive. There are already some written instructions pinned up in HH's apartment for her granddaughter. Lordy, HH is more of a control freak than I am.

In other news, I did not know Australian mudlarks swoop people, and I was swooped. Apparently they go for your eyes, but in this case one just bumped on my cap twice. I never saw the bird. I've been swooped by wattle birds who don't make contact, with just making a clicking kind of sound as you feal the flutter of their wings. I've not been swooped by the worst, Australian magpies, that are very different to magpies elsewhere in the world. My horror is encountering a drop bear, but as an inner suburban dweller, I am safe. It's just when I leave the city environs that I'm at risk. You just at times have to take your chances.

Every few days we give Jass a wet meal, that is tinned food. She doesn't really like it but we persist and she eats some of it. But oh my, aren't the ingredients such wankery, bought by Phyllis at $4 a tin. Jass, did not eat the long grain rice, and whatever else she left in her bowl was probably spinach, spinach being part of normal cat's diet. No? 

Adjusting the furniture (not a code phrase)

I generally believe there is right place for furniture, which are very obvious in my bedrooms by power point placement. The open area of my kitchen, lounge, desk and dining area is not so fixed, well actually only the dining table. 

The table and dining chairs are very old, dating back to about 2003. The hard chairs do not encourage diners to linger at the table, which brought them closer to leaving, such a good thing in my opinion. 

The dining table always sat as it is in the second photo, but after the new carpet was laid, the forgetful layers put it back with a 90 degree rotation. I quite liked the new position, and kept it.

But then the new lounge chairs arrived and while I got rid of one old lounge chair, I decided to keep one of the old chairs after moving it to the dining area. 

Lounge chairs were moved forward and the dining table reinstated to its original direction. The sideboard was moved to left, and after looking at this photo has been moved to the right to line up its edge with the edge of the Miro wall print. The old chair sits perfectly at the wall and is a very popular seat for all, including Jass. Just rotating the table, adding the chair and rearranging a couple of things seem to have it turned in into a cosier space. I like the new arrangement, and there it all can stay. 

My boring life

Hairdresser Friend's birthday was last Friday. We had tried to make an arrangement to catch up and kind of settled on the following Monday, but Friday morning she called me and asked if she could come for a drink and maybe have a meal across the road that night. So we did at Gentleman George, and I invited neighbour HH to join us. It was a really nice night together. Phyllis and Kosov were at work.

Phyllis had asked a week earlier if he could use my car on the Sunday to visit Healesville Sanctuary and I said yes. They packed up an Esky with food at 8 o'clock and set off. Instead they drove on to Marysville where we stayed a couple of nights last year, so they could see the avenue of honour of poplar trees in autumn colours. Nice. 

Tuesday, with Phyllis having the car for work, I decided we desperately needed a can of gas to fill stove lighters, used here to light large deep candles. Don't ask. Carless, I decided to go to the big green shed in West Footscray, a quick trip thanks to the new Metro rail. However, I stopped off at Footscray first for coffee at Maples Cafe. As I walked along the street I passed a cigarette shop, paused and backtracked to the shop, and sure enough, it had cans of butane. No need to visit the big green shed. 

I was just finishing my coffee in Footscray when neighbour HH called. On her way to Morning Melodies at Hamer Hall, she had fallen over and hurt herself. She limped in and sat through the performance, then afterwards a first aid person on duty strapped up her foot and she made her way home. She asked if I could take her to emergency at The Alfred, and I replied I would be home in half an hour and would do so. Thanks to a bit of luck with the Metro train and a tram, I was home within 25 minutes. Phyllis had my car at work, so I drove her in her car to The Alfred and dropped her off. Some detail has been left out, but no matter.

We messaged back and forth and she had to stay in overnight for a full round of scans and tests, as they would do with an 80 year old. 

Kosov and I were just heading out the next morning to shop for girlie pants for Phyllis for his birthday when HH called to ask if I could pick her up. Sorry Kosov, and I drove my car to pick up HH. She had a chipped bone in her foot and a hairline fracture of one rib. She should be pretty well ok and out of any pain by the weekend. I offered her food and shopping, but she had all she needed in stock at home.

Today Kosov and I did go to the city, to a shop called Valley Girl to buy pants for Phyllis. Kosov knew exactly what he wanted. I assume the name Valley is a reference to the valley in California and not our industrial Latrobe Valley or Brisbane's 'interesting' Fortitude Valley. Valley of the Dolls was quite enlightening book to read for a rather young Andrew.

Oh, it is hard to write for an international audience and keep track of today and tomorrow, when as I write is today and tomorrow is my tomorrow but could be your today. 

Tomorrow I am meeting up with Ex Sis in Law for lunch in Elwood, after I shop for Vim and topping up the cellar supply. 

I have not heard back for the second quote for my car repair, but I have almost decided to buy a new car. I have not heard back if I will receive cash to compensate me for the extra electricity used to dry my apartment out after the flood, and today I submitted a painter's quote for paintwork damage for consideration by the Owners' Corp manager to forward to the insurance company. 

Cooking can happen anytime in my kitchen, just not by me, and it is utter chaos. This evening the rice cooker was bubbling away, the range hood roaring, the microwave singing its tune regularly. Voices were loud as the pair bitched at each other, and a lovely meal was prepared for them to eat immediately and for me to eat later. Jass sat watching them and then after eating they both went to work. Jass looked quite desolate at the end of entertainment and the disappearance of her two fave men, with silence reigning over the apartment and just boring old me at home. She sat near the door, hoping they would soon return, but they won't until after midnight.

The electricical

The spelling of the subject line is as Eva Gabor used to pronounce the word in the tv show Greenacres. I thought this post might be of interest to those overseas who haven't experienced our power plugs and outlets.

Our sockets and plugs are known as Type 1, and used in Australia, New Zealand, PNG and some Pacific Islands. Oddly, they are also used in China and Argentina. These are to carry 240 volts, unlike the North American standard 110 volts,  and Japan's 100 volts. The history of the use of 110v versus 240v is very interesting, and 110v seems problematic as at times things need a higher voltage. 240v is much more dangerous than 110v. You'll be very quickly fritzed.  

These are the original overhead lights in my apartment. I have two incandescent 100 watt bulbs in each, which totals 400 watts of electricity when they are on. That is an extreme amount, and worse, they don't actually light up the room that well. They are probably only used if one drops an earing and needs to find it. As they are so rarely used, it makes no sense to change to LED.

I am thinking of replacing them with fan lights. At times all you need is a bit of breeze, rather than air conditioning. 

The lights are on a dimmer though, which we had installed. 

I was going to use my own photos but there has to be as mix. This is the typical Australia socket. Generally people do use the on/off switch. I always turn power points off. I don't want the the electricical leaking out. The angled plug outlets are for the positive and neutral and the vertical for the earth plug. Tourists who aren't accustomed to turning switches on and off can find their phone has no juice when it should be fully charged. 

You can get very fancy power sockets but I think they look rather gauche. 

The prongs are partly plastic coated and once the full plastic is shown as you remove a plug, the prongs are no longer in contact with the socket. That is really the only safety aspect to our plugs, unlike English plugs that are incredibly safe but very bulky. 

As you can see the normal plugs is not very bulky.

And this one an earthed plug. My washing machine has an earthed plug, and I think the dishwasher, but not much else now. 

Browsers

I updated the desktop from Windows 10 to 11. It was quite painless, but there are some changes that I will adjust to in time. The first evening as I moved the cursor to shut the computer down, the button had gone. How do I turn it off, safely without just pressing the physical on/off button? 

I found its very discreet placement, but I wonder what was the point of changing its placement.

I was at my pharmacy today to buy my drugs. I used my last Covid test kit when I came down with this cold. My goodness, the kits now test for RSV and flu types A and B as well. The wonders of medical science. I don't have to test to know I have a common cold. 

The news today from Hungary was joyous to hear. The extreme far right leader Orban has been voted out of office. Restoring Hungary to its former progressive status will take some time, and I don't know enough about the new leader to offer an opinion beyond what I have said. Graphs indicate it has in many ways performed poorly against its comparative counterparts.

Can you believe about two months after my car had a punctured tyre that was a slow leak, I now have the same tyre punctured with a slow leak. This time I can see a piece of wire protruding from the tyre. If I pull it out, I am sure the tyre will quickly deflate. I have to fix that today. I am sure Phyllis picked up the metal somewhere in the outer areas when I allow him to take the car one day a week for work. He was prepared to take the car to get the tyre repaired, but the tyre repair place said they could not fit that in. When I had the last puncture fixed, I wasn't charged. I wonder if Phyllis would have been charged, although they probably have the record of my car stored in a database. So, yes, I wonder if young dark guy would have been charged when the old white guy wasn't. Believe me, if the job was the same and he was charged, I would make it rather uncomfortable for the Australia wide chain. 

While I didn't think doing anything physical today was a good idea, I did manage to wash my doona cover and put it back on the bed. My doubled over summer sheet that I use instead of the doona from about October to April was washed, dried and put away. I washed it with the doona cover and it balled up inside the doona cover and did not dry properly, needing another half an hour of the washing machine drying cycle. 

Photos improve blog posts.

Sunday night chicken soup for dinner, guaranteed to cure a cold. It didn't but it was rather nice and did no harm.  

Kosov is trying to make Jass into a lap cat. I don't think she ever will be, but she does love him.

Lacking energy on Sunday while I was dying from a common cold, I still managed to have a wander at the Sikh festival at Federation Square. Ah, the mysteries of southern Asian men wearing turbans. There was even a display showing how to put one on and wind hair into the scarf. 

 

Ignore the subject line. I never got around to talking about web browsers. However, I put yesterday's mural post into AI and I am informed it is a Banksy work, in Park Street, Bristol. Yeah, nah. 

Kindness failure

The post I wrote for today bored me, and it would bore you too. Instead, this Friday evening. 

One of our residents bumped into our carpark gate, in fact hit it so hard it will be out of service for a week. The last time our carpark gate stayed open, thieves entered the carpark and broke into some cars and stole a bicycle worth $4000. We now have a permanent guard stationed at the car park entrance until the gate is fixed.

Sister will park here today in my car parking space and beforehand I will give the guard a note with her car identification and registration plate.

The poor guards, with sitting for hours without anything to do but scroll on their phones. I guessed the guard this evening would be Indian, and I was correct. Hindu, Moslem or Christian, they can all eat chicken, so I heated a leftover cut of spicy chicken, with some spicy green beans and kale, not heating the latter, to give to the guard, with a serviette of course. 

Thank you so much, he proclaimed, but I am vegetarian. Sometimes I think I get nothing right in life. I give up on kindness to strangers.

Later today I look forward to eating some spicy chicken, cooked, chilled, reheated, chilled and reheated. 

I've dried out

The dampness camera and the moisture probe showed my apartment had dried out, so the nine fans and two dehumidifiers were removed and I have so much space, and I won't he kicking furniture that's sitting in the wrong place. I could get away without repainting anything but given the building's insurance will pay, I will get it done, after a bit of luxury of having no tradespeople visiting. 

Someone mentioned my new lounge chairs, and the damage was repaired with a very satisfactory job.

They are nothing special, just black leather but I am excited by what they can do, sadly though not pouring a drink and serving it to me.

The controls, with the centre button to put all back to normal, and a USB A and USB C charging ports. Buttons are each side. 

This a a phone charging pad. I can't work out the purpose of the recess at its edge. Note the little button on the lower edge.

Which electrically opens and retracts the drinks holder. 

Inside this storage area are another USB A and USB C socket. 

The reading lamps, with the flap of leather concealing where the screws failed. 

Not quite completely flat, but very comfortable. I haven't fallen asleep on it yet at night time and woken up at 2.30am, but give it time.

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. 

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.

The Flood

I woke at 6.30 to the sound of dripping water. It was landing on the closed toilet seat lid in he main toilet. I opened the lid for the water to fall into. The floor was flooded, including Jass' litter tray. In my brunch coat without a skerrick of lippy, I knocked on the door of the apartment above, but without a response. I went down to ground level and called them on the intercom. After the third call, someone responded and let me in up to his floor, who walked from his bedroom across squelching wet carpet to answer. Then another lad appeared, and then a third, the last being bare topped but that did not distract me. I forget the exchange but he asked if I could help. In the service room in the stairwell, I showed him how to shut off the water. 

I knew exactly the problem. A flexible hose had burst and given it was hot water, it was under the basin of bathroom. A few decades ago, as a cost saving measure, a man, and I know it must have been a man, decided flexible pipes connecting to fixed copper pipes was a good idea, and they have been very widely used. But they have a shelf life of a very cautious five years to ten years or even fifteen years. I expect the hoses were original, so they have done well, lasting for 27 years.

I had hoped the water was just localised and once it stopped dripping into the toilet, all would be well Then I noticed some water running down the wall of my ensuite, then some drips on the cornice in the kitchen. Oh dear, the kitchen floor was wet.

I attempted to call the building manager several times but I didn't think he started until 9.30. He eventually called back, explaining and apologising that he was late as he wasn't well. 

Then things began happening, and the next two hours were a whirl of people, phone calls, text messages, emails, and a building flood specialist visited, needing authorisation to to begin work for me. Being Saturday, many people weren't working but did help out this damsel in distress in an emergency situation.

At some point Phyllis arose and remarked that he had heard dripping when he was half awake but saw his window was wet and assumed it was rain. He stepped out of bed later onto wet carpet. There is wet carpet in the spare room too.

I can't remember what I was going to do on Saturday, but whatever, it didn't happen. By 2 o'clock there were two industrial sized dehumidifiers blasting away, along with four industrial sized air circulating fans, with three more to be added this morning. These will be blasting away for seven days. Imagine the noisiest range hood fan multiplied by seven running non stop in your home for seven days. We can turn them off at night, but they are fine running in the living area, just not in the bedrooms at night. 

As I understand, correctly the Owners' Corporation, informally the Body Corp's insurance will pay for the drying out and repainting where necessary. I am assured as a side benefit is the carpets will dry out too, but if not, it is classed as home contents, not a building issue, so it is down to my home contents insurance, which I nearly didn't pay last year as we've never made a claim, but I am glad I did pay it (I had to check to make sure I had), being a back up for the carpet. 

So to put it concisely, life is shit and will be for the next week, and perhaps longer. Sunday I took a long train ride to Upper Combuctor West, just to get away from home and the noise. I did stop off for a bite to eat and coffee at Footscray, and for the first time as I sipped my coffee, I felt uncomfortable there, with many people around with mental health issues and some distant shouty person.  

Yesterday would have been Ray's 77th birthday. We always faced crises together. Now it is all down to me. Mind, Phyllis and Kosov have been understanding, and cleaned up a heap of wet cat litter that Jass had flung about, but they are barely more than kids.

Rationalise Andrew. I am not a victim of Cyclone Narelle. I am not getting bombed. There isn't a threat to my existence, so there, I feel better now. No, I don't. 

 

Bits

I visited the car repair shop today. Photos were taken and I will be called with a quote for repair. The business was personally recommended to me by two different people. Because I live in the inner city, I know the price will be higher than if I was in outer suburb. 

An electric notice went up in the lift, wishing all a Happy Labor Day, or is Labour Day? I didn't see how the lift lighting killed the photo, but I can assure you, the top says Labor and the bottom says Labour. Australia has a bob each way with this. Our Labor Party represents the labour movement, for workers rights and care for the less fortunate in society. Most good public policies such as our public health system, decent conditions for workers and social security has come from the Labor Party.

Our misnamed Liberal Party is socially very conservative, anti worker, anti union, anti gay, anti trans pro big business profits and eff the less the fortunate in society. Historically it is pro immigration of labourers to work for peanuts and break down Australian workers' rights. 

Ah well, off on a tangent I went. The Labor Party  has used the spelling since the early 20th century, in a time when both spellings were acceptable. There was some influence from American unions at the time, but I put the alternative spelling down to be wanting to seem progressive with the new world of the Americas, rather than old Mother Britain.

I've just checked and the public holiday is spelt Labour Day. 

Bone Doctor, sister's wife, will arrive here at 11.30 tonight from Queensland where she attended the funeral of her 101 year old grandmother. I will be asleep and I meant to leave a dram of scotch in the bottle to help her sleep after such a big day. Alas, I finished the bottle. There's some port on the drinks trolley, and one medium strength beer in the fridge. We'll probably have breakfast out in the morning. 

Phyllis is working a cleaning job. The job is not bad, but a long way away and the dust is affecting him. He is wearing a mask now. Today the first job was to clean a massive modern two storey house in the outer northern suburbs and the team called the boss. It was in such a disgusting and cluttered state, they could not do the job, and it wasn't.

Sunday was lovely, with a birthday party for Oldest Great Niece who has turned twelve. So Fun60, your granddaughter must be 12 too. Or do I have the terribly wrong. 

Much sympathy to River whose cat Lola has died.

A snip of an exchange between me and neighbour HH.

Hi H. Is it just me? Two consecutive weeks of aggressive looking white football players in the lift display, and this week a very aggressive photo display of Jimmy Barnes who is performing in Melbourne. Do residents want to see photos of aggressive looking men in the lift? Maybe it is just me.

She replied and had not really noticed what I observed, but she understood my point. I remember this from the time many years ago.

Your thoughts remind me of some years ago when I had to make an official complaint about men travelling in the lift from the pool without tops on, I didn’t want to see that either.

I replied, 

I appreciate your point about topless men in the lift, but I rather liked seeing them 😛

She replied with hands over eyes emoji. 

It's raining, a nice soft steady rain, not like the floods in northern Australia. As we southern Australians always say, 'we need the rain'.