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.   

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. 

Tram/bus/train and a car crash

It is interesting that it is quicker for me to visit the Bunnings hardware store in West Footscray by public transport than it is to visit my local Port Melbourne Bunnings. 

Drive time to Port Melbourne (Saturday evening, so little traffic), 13 minutes. Drive time to West Footscray, 18 minutes.

Tram and bus to Port Melbourne, 44 minutes. Walk and Metro Train to West Footscray Bunnings, 30 minutes. 

In ways I never guessed, the new Metro Tunnel train has changed how I travel around our city.

Some years ago when drying the car after a car wash, I noticed a bump and a mark on the side of car. Ray had not noticed it. It was very minor, and I think by a shopping trolley. I showed Ray how the mark was most likely made. 

Kosov has an Indian car driving licence and his parents paid for lessons and the test, yet like Phyllis he did not know which way to turn the car steering wheel. Unlike Phyllis, he is not picking up driving nearly as quickly. I would have liked him to spend a couple more times driving on the roads around Albert Park Lake, but alas, the roads have been closed because of the Grand Prix. We tried residential Port Melbourne, but the streets there are so narrow. He drove home from there on big roads, and he was ok.

Cat litter was needed, so I pushed Kosov into the deep end, driving along Queens Road, and he struggled to stay in his lane.

With my constant guidance, we entered the St Kilda Aldi carpark, and all was well, until we left. It was a very tight turn to the exit ramp and Kosov didn't go far enough to the right to line the car up for the tight left turn. But I thought it would be ok. Time slowed and then sped up. By the time he reacted to my stop command, he has already scraped the side of the car on the wall. 

I couldn't get out because of the wall next to me so Phyllis took over, and just made it worse. I told Phyllis to get out and I clambered over to the driver seat and reversed with the correct steering wheel action to get the car off the wall. 

As you can imagine, I was not a happy chappie, but Kosov was under my guidance and I was too slow to react to what he was doing, along with I should not have expected him to make such a difficult manoeuvre. I take the blame. 

My insurance excess it $1200, that's out of my pocket before insurance kicks in. I will take the car for a repair quote this coming week. If the cost is more than $1200, I will have to think of the impact of making an insurance claim against perhaps a higher insurance cost. 

This is a bit of a downer, when others are posting Sunday Selections. Let me add some balloon photos in the memory of the late Sue. 

A very happy divisive day

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

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

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

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

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

It must be Friday

Phyllis brought home Bahn Mi for me for tonight's dinner. He heated it in the oven and it was delicious. I don't do things at night, except for watching tv and sitting here in my computer chair but Phyllis is running around with the vacuum cleaner, changing and is washing his bedding, sorting out his bathroom cupboards and making lots of banging noises in his bedroom. Ah, the energy of the young!

I subscribe to a Facebook group called Gay Family Values. It is mostly posts of photos of gay couples who have been together for a long time, and at times with their children. This photo just did not seem right to me. At the extremes of possibilities it could be a Sikh couple in England, all dressed up for the photo shoot. But no, apparently it is A/I generated. I am not sure I am liking A/I too much. 

I hope this is not A/I generated. Three D things like this do my head in. 

Please, don't use A/I to write your blog posts, unless you mention it. I need to know it is really you. 

India

Happy Indian Republic Day to all. 

Today celebrates the enaction of the new Indian constitution post independence from Britain. Generally Indian immigration to Australia has be a wonderful success. For some reason, the 'towel heads' as Sikhs may have been called in the past, seem to fit in exceptionally well and their organisational abilities to provide charitable food and care during times of disaster has been amazing. One such Sikh leader was up for last night's Australian of the year award.

Stuff the British Stole

I wrote this subject line two nights ago after watching the brilliant Marc Fennell's tv show. He is a consummate tv presenter, radio broadcaster and podcast presenter for SBS TV,  ABC TV and ABC Radio. 

But let us go back further to when our beloved Queen died. Well, loved my millions, if not all. A friend with Indian heritage sent me this picture. It is something I intended using on my blog at some point.

That is what Fennell's latest tv programme Stuff the British Stole focused upon. I believe he has already made radio programmes about the same and Marc does have Indian heritage. The first tv episode focused on the Kohinoor Diamond and long after it was 'stolen', its ownership is disputed by many countries. Best it stay in safekeeping in Britain in my opinion. 

In a remarkable coincidence while having coffee after shopping yesterday, Friday morning, who should walk past us and stop at a bench nearby to sort out what he was carrying, but Marc Fennell. I saw him walking towards where we were sitting, but I did not click. R is better at celeb spotting than I am and he saw who it was as Marc paused at the bench for a few minutes. I first got to know of him from ABC Radio National's Download This Show. Most celebs we see are to be noted but I was quite chuffed to see someone who I admire so much.