Pauline (Bjelkie, Donald, Nigel) Hanson

As has happened around the world, Australia is dangerously close to a swing to the extremist far right, with our political party One Nation. The party is led by Pauline Hanson who has been in and out of politics for decades, with little success. Her fame first rose in the 1990s and put fear into recent immigrants as she gave permission for racist views to be expressed.

One would think that with her long time political partner and sorter of everything, James Ashby, that she would be pro gay rights and gay marriage, but no. 

Her views are very Trump like, pretty well anti everything about progressive society, along with being anti renewable energy. 'Build more coal fired power stations', she cries. "Let's look at nuclear energy".

Her speech at the National Press Club was very revealing. Let's have a look at what Hanson's policies are and could be implemented if she was in a position of power if her extremist party should have enough members elected to influence government policy.

Our multicultural society must become a monocultural society. The ship has sailed on that one, honey.

As she stated in her speech, Australian must reduce immigration, and the party has now released a policy that would see more people leaving Australia than arriving to Australia. That's a decrease in our population. To those with simple thinking may think this is a good idea. Instead think, geez, there will be no one to wipe our arses in our old age care homes. 

Before any public event speech, there will be a welcome to country, often performed by an elder of our Aboriginals, but not always. Some can be too long in my opinion, but she will ban the Welcome to Country speeches. 

She will shut down our multicultural tv broadcaster SBS, and make our ABC national media broadcaster subscription only for metropolitan users, but still free for country consumers of  ABC. Ah, she does not know how pro our public media ABC supporters can come out in force when our treasured ABC is in danger. 

She stated only late term abortions were acceptable, if the mother's life was in danger. Back to the mid twentieth century with dangerous backyard abortions for the poor, and richer women having obliging and expensive doctors.

It seems she thinks Australian workers have too many rights, are lazy, don't come to work, spend too much time on their phones and don't deserve pay rises. Bosses can't sack workers (they can't unfairly sack workers. There is a process). She wants a complete overhaul of industrial relations, no doubt to the disadvantage of average workers. 

In there 1990s the fish and chip business owner's cry was, we are being swamped by Asians. She was then gaoled for electoral fraud and dishonestly obtaining electoral funding  Now her cry is we are being swamped by Muslims. My old school racist mother's favourite nurse was Muslim. 

Australia's richest woman, the execrable Gina Reinhart, bought Pauline a rather smart aeroplane, and the party headquarters will move into a building owed by Reinhart. Reinhart has also donated $$$ to the party. She made her money by building on her father's mining business, plus other ventures. Do you think Reinhart won't want payback should Hanson be in a position of power? Reinhart is revving up to mine more of the Amazon.   

Then her party brought in a former conservative politician, Barnaby Joyce. He was interviewed here a  couple of weeks by a respected ABC Melbourne radio broadcaster, and his incoherent blustering was unbelievable. He is an old bloke who not so long ago ended up falling down and staying down on the footpath when very drunk in Canberra, our national capital city. 

The finances of Pauline's party, One Nation, seem very obscure and I would not be surprised if it is later discovered that there has been some illegal funny business going on.

I conclude with is god help us if Hanson's One Nation party wins enough votes to be in any kind of position of influence in my state and in Australia.  

Infuriating

At the beginning of this month businesses were no longer allowed to charge customers bank debit or credit card fees for a purchase or service. Good, very good. 

But oh how small businesses are bleating so loudly in protest. To use the Federal Government's conservative Opposition Party's phrase, 'the government is sending small businesses broke'.

Really? The seven cents that was added to my cup of coffee is the difference between the success or failure of a business? I have several thoughts, and so I will state them.

The price on the menu or product or service is what you pay. We don't want to go down the American road of all sorts of things being added when you pay. The price you see is what you pay.

It is cheaper for businesses to use electronic payments than cash, so why would they want to indulge in the complications of using cash when an immediate electronic payment goes into the business bank account? 

The reason is tax. They can't hide electronically transferred income like they can with cash. Your meal out costs $35, multiplied by by say 20 diners for that sitting equals $700. If all pay with cash, the business owner whips $100 out of the till and sticks it in their pocket and it won't be taxed. They are still making a profit but only $600 will be taxed, somewhat lower after business expenses are also deducted.

If business owners can't manage to work out what bank fees cost them over however long their budget predictions and need to add a separate charge, where will it end? Council rates, water usage, electricity added to your bill? Why shouldn't they all be surcharges on what you pay? 

This also goes for weekend and public holiday surcharges. Businesses need to work out their costs in advance to set your prices to cover everything. It ain't so hard. It has been done for hundreds of years, without surcharges. Number of public holidays, multiplied by the the cost of the number of staff needed including wage penalty rates, then add to the pricing structure. Not hard.

Let the wannabe tax cheats bleat away. Consumers are very happy to have these surcharges removed, not because of the cost, but the opaqueness about what you pay. 

Bullion Bother

The is scary, especially for US citizens. The gold was removed by secret flights in unrecorded and unidentified planes. Only a small amount was removed from Ottawa, it being collateral damage. What on Earth has that Orange McNugget done to the world?

This comes from a Substack called I ***king Love Australia. Please do not ask me what a Substack is, nor Discord. I do not know. The former requires and age check here, and Discord confuses me. I am just getting to understanding Reddit, quite a useful site but also one that should have age restrictions. Actually, I think it does.  

Experts also say the recent spike in bond yields reflects rising concerns about the immense levels of debt across the developed world and, especially, in the United States.

The American government is spending more money on servicing its US$40tn debt pile than it is on defence. In fact, net interest payments of US$1.2tn a year make it the second biggest spending item in the US budget.

Nobody thinks the Americans are about to default on their debt, but the developed world’s borrowing burden is chipping away at trust in governments’ capacity to manage their budgets, and bond investors are demanding a higher interest rate to account for that.

the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank) recently finished moving 86 tonnes of gold out of North America (the US and Canada) to the Bank of England in London. [1, 2]

The operation concluded in August 2026 after several months of coordination. [1]

Why the Gold Was Relocated

Crisis Preparedness: The Dutch central bank explicitly stated the move was made to handle "increasing geopolitical unrest" and ensure the country is better prepared for severe global crises. [1, 2]
Market Liquidity: London hosts the world's largest over-the-counter gold market. Keeping the gold in the Bank of England vaults allows the Netherlands to buy, sell, or trade the bullion much faster if an economic shock happens. [1, 2]
Strategic Shift: This matches a broader trend of European nations pulling assets out of the US; France similarly removed its gold reserves from US soil earlier in the

The Aussie Pension

There is some detail I will leave out to keep this simple. The Australian old age pension is for eligible Australians who are permanent residents or citizens who have lived in Australia for a certain period, are retired and are 67 years old or more. There isn't a retirement age in Australia but 67 is thought of as a de facto age. 

The pension is paid by the government from its general revenue, taxes if you like. Generally, wages and pensions are paid every two weeks. 

The maximum pension is about $600 a week. The pension comes with other benefits, such as cheaper electricity, gas and water, along with local government rates and medications, the latter mostly costing no more than $7.50 per prescription.

The pension is asset and income tested, but with your owned home and personal effects such as furniture, jewellery....and perhaps expensive art work hanging on your walls, are all exempt. Your motor car is not exempt, so if you take money from your bank account to pay for a new car, just because you have a lower bank balance, that means nothing. But your car is an asset that can be devalued, quite a lot as soon as you drive out of the car showroom. My new car was immediately devalued by $9,000. So at each pension review, your car's value will be part of the consideration as to what you are paid. When my next pension review happens, that will be taken into account.

I think the old age pension cuts out when you have around $720,000 in savings or in private superannuation, the figure including the value of your car. 

Superannuation, that is a scheme to provide you with money for your old age is a contribution from you and your employers to a private profit making organisation or a workplace/union based not for profit. The latter generally perform much better. Your employer may pay around 10% of your wage into super, with you paying perhaps 5% or more. You can also put in extra money, say a lump sum from your savings or whatever.

So, say you have $500,000 in superannuation, from which you draw an income of $1,000 each week, you will still receive the government old age pension, of about $115 each week.

If you have minimal money, you will receive the full pension amount of  $600 per week, plus if you rent in the private market, an extra amount.

If the dollar figures seem high to people overseas, remember Australia is an expensive country to live, and the wages quite high, with the minimum wage now being about $1,000 a week for a full time 38 hour working week. 

AU$1000 = US$700 = GB£530 = €610.   

Wikipedia A$

I have donated to Wikipedia in the past and I just received this email wanting a recurring monthly donation, which I thought about doing but this got under my skin. A couple of dollars a month is cheap for how often I use Wikipedia.

But I am really pissed orf about the suggested amount.

What is A$? Is it American dollars, and so should be expressed as US$. Or is it Australian dollars, expressed as AU$? US$ and AU$ are very different amounts. US$2.75 is AU$3.83, plus bank charges for buying foreign currency. And isn't there another country that could use A$? Like CA$, Canadian dollars?

The sheer arrogance towards the rest of the world that comes from the US at times is gobsmacking. I wonder if this is a deliberate ploy to make Australians thinking they are paying in Australian dollars, when I think they are probably paying in US dollars. Whatever, Wikipedia is not receiving a donation from me in the immediate future. 

By supporting Wikipedia, you're standing up for something simple but profound: that knowledge should belong to everyone. A recurring donation of even A$2.75‍ a month helps Wikipedia thrive today, tomorrow, and for the next generation.

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. 

The dollars and the pence

No one wants their house to burn, and I do feel sorry for the family, but...,

the fire was started in the two storey house by an electric go-cart. Now I am making assumptions but if you can afford a two storey house in Eltham, to breed five children and afford an electric go-kart, you can probably afford home insurance in case of fire, yet they did not have such cover. Naturally a gofundme has been set up.

At my great niece's birthday weekend before last, there were quite a few families who came along and bought their lunches and for their children. From my observations, it would have cost a couple with three children north of $150, drinks included, say a jug of Coke. My two gin and tonics cost $26, and my meal $32. It is a nice venue and the service was good, but it wasn't cheap. 

With a friend whose birthday it was, we had coffee and cake and the total cost was nigh on $40, just in a cafe. 

I'm not crying poor but as people moan on about the cost of living, there doesn't seem much of a sign of it affecting their spending. 

While I'm on about money, just over 60 years ago Australia switched from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents. This clip to educate us about dollars and cents was released by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

An outing and home decoration

What to write about?

I had lunch today with neighbour HH. Her sister has returned to Sydney, I think somewhat to HH's relief. They are not at all alike. We chose a new cafe, where we had to drive to, Halcyon Days. It was not cheap but that staff were so nice and the food was good. Within ninety minutes, we had caught up on everything, and sorted out some of the world. I expect our basic political views are different but that is really just a guess.  

Phyllis received a very good pass for his English test, 7.5/10. I had no idea how difficult it was. Kosov is going to send me the sample paper test.

I was a bit surprised that the gubbermint has cut my pension by 2/3rds. I felt poverty stricken. Phyllis noticed I had received a letter from the gubbermint and I told him how was now in a state of poverty. I don't know how he so quickly picked it up but, "Andrew, you have too much money and that's why the government has cut your pension". I think I am repaying some money that I shouldn't have been paid after I received my inheritances from Ray and Mother.

Well, if I have enough money, I should spend some and get my pension back. I haven't spent money on a proper holiday since Ray died. 

Tuesday I booked the overnight sleeper train from Sydney to Melbourne. I had to book two bunks to get a sleeper cabin on my own, but there was a pensioner discount. I also booked a flight to Sydney and after a taste of business class when Ray I flew to and from England in 2023, via Sri Lanka, I decided I would do so for the single flight to Sydney, and so found a reasonable price with Virgin Australia. The trip will happen in October, for about eleven days. It will be a whole new experience for me to travel alone. I am full of doubts, especially the number of days I am away. Now I need to focus on accommodation. 

The two red cushions on the lounge room chairs looked grubby, without zip off covers, and misshapen. I wanted new cushions. As usual, I looked and looked, Myer, Big W, Kmart and Bed, Bath & Table. There was one I liked in Myer, and a possibility in BB&T. The Myer price was ridiculous,and the BB&T price not much better. I saw cushions for $4 in KMart. I looked again at the Myer cushions...yes, I liked them. I showed photos to Phyllis and Kosov, and they liked them.

Yay, on sale, half price. They were still expensive but I wanted them. I tried them on the chairs and they were ok, but then I thought to swap the smaller sofa cushions to the chairs and put the new cushions on the sofa, and they looked perfect. Happy, happy, happy. All done without Ray's advice and the consultation. I think I've made some very good choices on my own, getting the new carpet and the painting done, the new fridge and the new microwave. The holiday remains to be seen.

The lounge room is so old fashioned, but I like it how it is. The two single chairs are up for replacement, one with a broken spring and sagging and the other just sagging. Only visitors sit on the couch. 

BIts

As they cooked me Mexican barramundi fish tonight, 'The Children' were also playing with their growing collection of model cars. A New York City hop on hop off double decker bus is the newest addition. 

There are bad floods in New South Wales. One of the most stupid pieces of advice I've ever heard was, if you have not evacuated your home and you are under threat from flooding, move to the highest point in your home. Nah, not for me. I'll just stay at the bottom as I slowly go under water and drown. Even small brained animals know to go to higher ground to avoid flooding.

Speaking of home safety advice, at least this one seems to have stopped now. At times there are factory fires and what can be released into the air can be very toxic. Good advice, keep your doors and windows closed. Stupid advice, turn off you air conditioners. This may have been appropriate decades ago when people had in the wall or window air con units that could bring in a minor amount of fresh air, but nearly everywhere now has a split system, used for both heating and cooling and the internal part does not bring in outside air. I don't consider evaporative cooling to be air conditioning. 

Phyllis is trying to pass his learner driver permit, which is all online now with some rather impressive graphics. You are given thirty on road situations and the pass level is 27 out of 30 correct. His first attempt ended with a score of 26/30, so just a fail. He sought my help for his second attempt and his score was 24/30, a worse fail. A fat help I am.

I was taken back to school days where the question wasn't phrased clearly enough. I think Phyllis clicked one choice that he didn't mean to, but where did I go wrong? Illegal parking, one in a loading zone, two cars in a bus lane, and I missed the fact that the nearest car was too close to an intersection. Twenty metres is apparently the limit.

Bicycle laws, and I am not up to speed with those. I thought it was a one metre distance to pass by, but we got something wrong in the multiple choice.

Now this to me is very odd. The question was can you drive through a red light to allow a police car with flashing lights to get past. Apparently yes. But recently I heard the question asked of an ambulance worker, and the paramedic spokesperson said the opposite. That is, no. Don't do anything illegal or dangerous. We are trained to deal with traffic and congestion situations.

Later edit: What the law says: You must give way to emergency vehicles with flashing lights and sirens and may proceed through a red light if it's safe and the only way to make room for the emergency vehicle.  

Today was shopping day. Unlike when Ray was alive, the shopping is minimal. I now shop nearly daily for a few things when I am out and about, and aside from staples, Phyllis and Kosov buy most of the food. Nevertheless I was instructed to buy from the supermarket delicatessen a kilo of basa fish for no more than $10. I don't know the fish.

Basa fish, also known as Mekong catfish or Vietnamese River Cobble, is a farmer white fish native to Southeast Asia. It's popular due to its mild taste, firm texture and affordability. Basa is a good source of protein and healthy fats, but it's important to ensure it's cooked properly to avoid potential food poisoning risks

The supermarket didn't have basa so I bought a kilo of barramundi for $9. That sounded incredibly cheap to me. You can book a boat trip in Queensland to go barramundi fishing for a fortune. I assumed it was an expensive and prized fish.

I don't take my reading specs with me when shopping, and so I asked the obliging lad to read out the barramundi small print. "Sourced from Vietnam and Sri Lanka", the label said. Oh well, it tasted nice, and no ill effects yet.

Centrelink sent me a letter, our social security government organisation, asking me to update my financial situation. I wanted to reply, I am still living in poverty and I need more assistance.

Instead I handed the letter over to company who deal with Centrelink on my behalf, and charges me a fortune. Now that I do receive an old age pension and my affairs are now simple, I wonder if I couldn't just do it myself. This is the first time I've considered this. I will see what the company wants to charge me next year. 

I keep hinting to Phyllis that I and they need more green vegetables. Beans, peas, broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower, silver beet, spinach, but to no avail. I will keep going on about that. They barely eat anything green. Are onions considered green?

The Personal

I could say it is quiet here without Phyllis but he is often out and about. He is staying with a friend for two nights.

The Swedish Death Cleaning goes on. While it didn't all go in bags, I think I would have taken the equivalent of about twenty of the bags full of stuffs to the local charity shop. Just because you have space, there is no need to fill it. As you well know, I am not a person who exaggerates or is theatrical with detail, but I estimate that one tonne of oven trays and metal baking dishes went into recycling, and another half a tonne of ceramic baking dishes to the charity shop. Phyllis must have found the muller and put it in the bag. In a moment of disingenuousness, I can't remember what we used the muller for. The green thing is a Tupperware celery container. Next to the bags sits a draining board that came with our sink. I was reluctant to throw that out, until I thought about it and acknowledged to myself in nearly ten years since the kitchen was given its makeover, it has never been used. 

Aside from one jumbled bookcase in the spare room and bedding in the linen press, oh, and the filing cabinet, oh and photos, there is not much more cleaning required. 

What is this, asked Phyllis. I don't have a clue, I replied. I just picked it up, gave it glance, never used, get rid of it. It is car phone cradle, Phyllis proclaimed as he examined it. 

Ah, I thought, I will keep that, even though my car and phone connect for calls,  the sat nav is pretty awful to use and the voice controls can never understand what I am saying, usually an address. I still use Google Maps and while I can connect the maps to the car screen, I forget how and I can't be bothered checking, given how rarely I need maps in the car. YouTube helps again, with a short clip about where to place the cradle. At the moment I sit my phone upright in a coffee cup holder in the console, close to where this phone cradle appears to clip.

Swedish Death Cleaning can bring sadness at times.

I had promised R to see one of his sisters 'right' if he died first, and last week I received the balance of Ray's superannuation to my bank account. It wasn't six figures, but close. Today I sent the minimum five figure sum I could via my bank by electronic transfer. I followed every instruction so carefully and triple checked the account details Ray's sister had sent to me via the encrypted Whatsapp. It worked as far as I can see. I tried to check if the amount had left my account to be greeted with a message that I had been locked out of my account. I tried the banking app on my phone and I was locked out of that too.

I called my bank and eventually spoke to someone after twenty minutes in a phone queue, who then transferred me to another department with a short wait. This was the first time I had tried to transfer money overseas and the bank was concerned about the legitimately of the transfer. I was asked umpteen questions, and SNAP, the assumption was made that my late partner was female. Since Ray died I have become fed up with this assumption and I will later lodge a complaint. In spite of all my answers, the questioner kept coming up with more concerns, the killer being, if your sister in law's Whatsapp has been hacked, how do you know they haven't just looked at her style of writing and copied it? I could not argue against that. While I was on the phone I had missed call and a voice message from my bank's fraud department. 

What we need you to do is contact her and just verify the bank account details you have match hers. Please, it is 5am in England. She won't wake until at least 9am. I tried but WhatsApp doesn't allow you to hold a call and call another number using WhatsApp. I tried to call her normal phone number and received a recorded message that I wasn't allowed to do that. After checking later, when I cheapened my phone plan, it doesn't include international calls. Bank person was patient. She gave me the direct number for the banking fraud department and said as soon as you can get through to your sister in law, call us back and we can unlock your bank account and approve the transfer. I have called and called Ray's sister, and no answer. With a moment of exquisite timing, I realised this Saturday she was flying to Spain today for a short holiday. Just call me lucky. 

I do understand the bank's caution as they have come under heavy criticism after some people have been defrauded of hundreds of thousands of dollars by scammers and fraudsters.

Since Ray died, I think I've eaten two takeaway pizzas, and tonight after such stress decided to have my third takeaway hamburger. I ordered online, or tried to. I nearly completed the order and then it occurred to me that my bank account was locked, so I have to pay cash. This is why I do keep cash in my wallet but not much. I will message Phyllis tomorrow to ensure he gives me the rent money. 

Tomorrow Jo has a performance rehearsal in Melbourne and Sister's wife, Bone Doctor will drive her to Melbourne and wait while the rehearsal happens. She suggested we could lunch if I was free and I am. We will lunch at Ray's favourite plant nursery, with its quality plants and I will buy a new potted annual for the balcony, as the cyclamen sent to me by Ray's former workmate and friend when Ray died is on its last legs.

That is all. It would be nice to always be bright and cheerful when writing, but it would be false for me. I no longer have the energy to check this for typos or other errors. Publish and be damned.  

Later edit: Ray's sister called at 1.30am and we compared details and all was well. I quickly returned to sleep and at 7am I called the bank and soon my bank account access was restored. 

The Age Pension

I contacted the company Ray used that for quite a bit of money will take away all the paperwork pain of applying for the old age pension in October when I turn 67. 

Details were provided to the company over the phone with a document to sign and return, and a couple of other matters. 

It was easy, except I needed a Centrelink CRN, a Customer Relationship Number? I know nothing of this. I haven't had any Social Security contact since 1979 when for a couple of months, I received dole money. 

It didn't take too long for the call to Centrelink, our government social services department, to answer but I was not visible on the system. For the hour and a half I was on hold, with the pleasant lady checking in every five minutes to reassure me I was in her queue to identify me, eventually, it happened and I had my brand new CRN. 

As I was on hold I dusted most of the lounge room.

The good news is I will receive a part age pension and best of all, the concession card, giving me considerable reductions for so many things. Medications will all drop to about $6 per month, instead of the the maximum of $30 I now pay. Most of my medications are around $10 but one does cost $30. The savings by having the card are huge. 

I was feeling financially insecure but now, I feel a whole lot better now I know I can get the concession card. 

"Phyliss, why are you washing that crockery by hand?"

"I have the time Andrew and it will save you money by not using the dishwasher so often."

"Phyllis, the dishwasher has to operate every second or third day. Your crockery can go in the dishwasher. There is plenty of crockery in the cupboards. The constantly running hot water sink tap as you hand wash dishes costs me money". Lordy, I've experienced this before with an Indian friend who would not use a dishwasher. I feel dishes are cleaner if they have been washed in a dishwasher, rather than hand washed in a sink and then dried with a tea towel, or in the case of Phyliss, paper towel. My goodness, how he can go through paper towel and tissues. Neither cost much, so no real problem.   

Refunds

We should be in Cairns today, after a couple of nights ago travelling by sleeper train from Brisbane, where we had booked a few days. Cairns seems to be unseasonably hot now, so perhaps that I cancelled the holiday when Ray died was wise. We wanted winter warmth but for various reasons, we could only work it out for this month when the weather is better here than mid winter and as it seems, a bit too warm in Cairns.

I had cancelled the accommodation, nothing paid in advance. The train company gave me an immediate refund for our train tickets, but when cancelling the flights, Melbourne to Brisbane, Cairns to Melbourne, I was only given a credit. 

I thought the flights cost about $600. A few weeks ago, I checked and it was nearly $1,000. At the moment, I don't want to fly anywhere and I can't imagine doing so in the near future. I'd like that money, thank you very much. 

Webjet warned to not try to deal with the airline, Virgin in this case, but with itself who we booked with. It requested a certified copy of Ray's death certificate and my ID. I provided that, and it seemed like a refund would happen. 

A refund was attempted, but as I had already told the company, Ray's, who had paid for the flights, bank accounts are closed. Webjet said they will work it out and urged me to not put my bank account details in an email. 

Webjet then wanted a certified copy of Ray's will, so I contacted the company who drew up his will for that. Three arrived promptly, I scanned one and emailed it to the return eddress. I think that was last Friday. The following Wednesday, while I had been at home most of the morning, as soon as I boarded a tram, a representative of Webjet called. With my debit card on the seat beside me, I read out the numbers. The credit went through, said the person. A confirmation email arrived. Two to three days to appear in your bank account. I'm still waiting but I've been thinking, that could have been an intercept of an email and the person I spoke to was not from Webjet, and perhaps the money will go into a scammers bank account. 

I really don't think this will happen but it has made think about how I freely gave out my bank account details to an unverified person over the phone. 

Anyway, good job by Webjet. 

PS The money is now in my bank account. Oddly it is marked as going in immediately but it didn't show on my banking app until today. Such transfers used to happen immediately but they have been deliberately slowed to prevent what I described above. 

The train trip looked interesting, which is why we chose it. The overnight trip included three meals and wine with your meal. It isn't a conventional sleeper train but I thought it would be a good taste to see how we went sleeping on a train. There is no privacy of course but once lights go out, does it matter and what are you going to do that needs privacy.  I thought the fare, I've forgotten how much, was quite reasonable. 

Returns update

I returned my mistakenly bought card holder today. $30 was returned to my bank account and I was given a card to the credit value of $10 to use in the future. So, all is good. 

Saturday Extra

This is urgent and I need your help.

I am sure I can still do long division on paper and solve very basic algebra formulae. When explaining something financial to Ray, I would suggest that we both needed to out of pocket by the same amount, no matter what the calculations were.  

Today I bought something for $40 and I had a $10 store credit voucher on my phone, so it cost me $30. It was my mistake and the product is unsuitable for my needs. I will return it tomorrow. 

I think I should get back $40. While I only paid $30, haven't I lost my $10  credit if I only get back the $30 I paid?

I suppose you want to know what it was I bought. I don't use cash anymore, most of my cards are on my phone. I need one bank card to use if my phone won't work (that hasn't happened yet), my public transport card, because it is not a normal public transport card, my driving licence and my Medicare card. Aside from cafe coffee loyalty cards, that is about it, except I also want somewhere to put an emergency $50 note and a spare house key. 

So, I bought a leather card holder that I later realised just would not do the job.