A fine birfdy

It was not a significant birthday, but one people might make jokes about. I was told not to plan anything for the day by Phyllis and Kosov, so I didn't. I did go out earlyish for coffee and to collect some medications before they arose, and for the rest of the day I relaxed.

HH had left me a gift on the doorstep, a terrific little guide book about the laneways of Melbourne.

The lads went into town and returned with gifts for me aplenty.

An Italian sauvignon blanc from Calabria, with a French accent over its name. I was so excited! Alas, I noticed the name Marlborough. It is from New Zealand, but that is ok.    

My preferred brand of scotch. 

Chocolate cake. We took a large slice down to HH, and stayed half an hour chatting. 

And flowers.

Be ready to go out at 6.15, they told me. We caught a tram to town, and then another to Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Phyllis made us wait on the street as he had confused a twenty four hour clock with a twelve hour clock and booked us for 17.00 (5pm) rather than 7pm. Up we travelled in the lift. 

Oh wow, a rooftop bar.

It was cool, so the overhead heating was welcome. 

I featured this mural in the past, but I didn't notice the ghost sign above. I need to decipher the sign.

Looking down on another rooftop bar at what may have once been called The Bullring.

Slightly challenging but what a cool venue name, Naked for Satan. 

The rest are just photos I took from the rooftop. Naked for Satan is a great venue and I highly recommend it. 

You did well, my lads.

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. 

Let the theremin rip

My first experience of the musical instrument called theremin was at Melbourne's Southbank, where there was a huge operational theremin, a few metres squared and perhaps a metre tall. It operated by moving around the instrument. I think I only photographed it at the time and I did blog about it sometime in the 2000s. 

I brought it up again in the twenty teen years (help me express those years better) and below this video you can read the comments at the time. I remember first hearing the term 'pensioner porn' from a blogger, but who knows which one. The term refers to tv perennial tv programmes like Doc Martin and Midsomer Murders, avidly watched by many older people.

I find the instrument quite fascinating. 

Wow, so many former bloggers commented, and some current ones. A different MC commented back then.

11 comments:

1. 
   diane b7:52 am

   You learn something new everyday from blogging. Midsomer Murder is Bill's favourite show and Gattina another blogger.

   Reply
2. 
   smudgeon10:04 am

   Theremins are fascinating instruments. I have one in kit form, just waiting for me to pick up a soldering iron (yuck) and put it together.
   
   "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys is another good example of a theremin used well.

   Reply
3. 
   Andrew11:18 am

   Diane, some knowledge you can sprout as the opening credits roll on Sunday night. I like the show especially for the scenery and the buildings.
   
   And then Smudgeon, you have to learn to play it. I am surprised that I had not heard of it. I just listened to the BB track and I can hear it clearly.

   Reply
4. 
   Rubye Jack12:08 pm

   Oh, I've seen these before - somewhere. Simply lovely.

   Reply
5. 
   Hels5:06 pm

   I too had never heard of the Theramin, as the first electric music machine ever made or as an instrument making sound tracks for horror movies. But it was and is totally brilliant.
   
   How old is the film footage, by the way? I loved hearing the Russian...it tapped right into my family's collective unconscious :)

   Reply
6. 
   Andrew9:33 pm

   Rubye, note that any pretender who like to conduct an orchestra would have great fun.
   
   Hels, Theramin invented it in the late twenties, so I imagine the film is not much newer than that. It is a cool and weird instrument.

   Reply
7. 
   River10:04 pm

   Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory has a Theramin, that's where I first heard of them. it's an interesting sound.

   Reply
8. 
   BlissHill9:02 am

   I have never heard of one either! If you close your eyes, the sound is very close to a wavery soprano. What a great little machine.

   Reply
9. 
   Andrew11:36 am

   River, good that it is in popular culture.
   
   Bliss, it is something I would like to play with. It is very high pitched isn't it.

   Reply
10. 
    Middle Child2:52 pm

    Wow - thannks for that - you learn something new every day of the week some weeks...now How can I slip that into my conversation? Maybe wait till i hear one in a theme track and say, "Isnt it amazing what a well played Theramin" can do"
    
    You are a fount (or is it font) of knowledge

    Reply
11. 
    Andrew3:11 pm

    MC, I just heard a tiny bit about it and forgot the name. The rest I found on the net.

    Reply

 

An evening out

It seemed curious to have a dinner party on a Monday night. I say dinner party, but it was five of us who were invited, and I was the only guy. The invitation came from our Tasmanian friend's ex partner, our friend who is here for her annual check on her heart transplant, now 20 years ago. How traumatic the time was, but she had the best care possible at St Vincent's public hospital in Sydney where the transplant was performed. The heart of a young man killed in a car accident saved our friend's life.

My Hairdresser Friend came too. I was going to catch a tram and then walk, and she had made a desert, so thought about driving herself. I asked Phyllis if he would be free between 6 and 7 to drive us and he was, so that worked out well.

The mother of the ex of our friend lived in what was then the tallest building in Australia, I think called Q1 on Queensland's Gold Coast. When her husband died, she moved back to Melbourne into her daughter's home, our friend's ex. The mother was becoming very old and began to behave strangely. She saw a gerontologist, who discovered the huge number of pain killers for arthritis she had been prescribed were affecting her brain. She improved after the pain killers were reduced, without a noticeable increase in levels of pain. But eventually her care became too much for her daughter and she went to live in a care home almost across the road.

The home of the ex is a thirty year old three bedroom unit, and very nice it is too. She has such good taste and has renovated what she didn't like, and had a pergola built at the space at the side. The slat angles and lighting are all controlled by remote.

 

Before a traditional home is built, women should have the say about where power points are located and how many there are. Maybe some men could plan well enough.

In the side garden and the front garden were heaps of clivia in full bloom. 

We had nibbles and drinks and chatted away. The dinner was snapper fish fillets, doused in an overpowering tamarind sauce that killed any taste of the fish, with rice and a dressed tossed salad. 

Over the dining table hung a single pendant light bulb in some kind of rattan cage. It looked nice enough, until I noticed the actual light bulb was filthy. My eyes kept going back to the filthy light bulb. Maybe you know the feeling of when you want to straighten someone's wall picture frames. I wanted to get some chemical or hot soapy water onto the light bulb and make it crystal clear. 

The ex made a cheesecake from scratch, nice enough, and my Hairdresser Friend made a rather curious dessert from scratch that was quite stodgy. We did have a nice night, in spite of talking about periods and 'putting in the rags'. I was very complimentary to the ex for her nice home, for dinner and her very cute dog. If only that light bulb could be cleaned... 

Phyllis had messaged me to ask how we getting home. I replied, 'By cab or Uber, unless you are free to pick us up'. He did come and take us home.

I knew I was not in a good state once home. I felt very hot before I got into bed, and sure enough, something I had eaten had not agreed with me. I slept for ten minutes and woke up, boiling hot. Repeat the same until about 5.00am and I then fell into a proper sleep. I experienced the same years ago when we used to dine at cheap Chinse restaurants. I have no idea what triggers what is clearly food related.

Sunday Supplement

Daylight saving has begun, with Jass being happy to be fed an hour earlier. In this electronic age, I had to correct two bedroom clocks, the microwave, the oven, the weather station, the digital wall clock and the mantle clock.

Monday morning on the balcony is delightful as I view all the sad sacks having to go to their employment, but even nicer is Sunday evening when the white noise reduces, with the loud Harley Davidson and Royal Enfield motorcycles, along with the Maserati type cars with loud backfiring, spluttering and roaring exhaust noises, rather like an out of tune Austin 7 without a muffler, return to their outer suburban homelands. 

Trams still glide past but it is so peaceful, with only a very faint hum of electric bikes and small motor bikes delivering food to the lazy.

I pondered how I would occupy my time if I lived in small country town or on a farm and didn't live in a big city. If I had an internet connection, I suppose I would survive. A gay farmer is quite desirable by certain folk, as their imaginations work overtime. An old gay farmer, yes well....

Gloved up, at least my fist could remove a calf from a cow with a tight passage. 

It is Friday night, once a going out night, later becoming a stay at home night, and to use a great American expression after a glass or two of Scotch, Ray and I would 'shoot the shit'. Sometimes a significant plan for the future came out of such a conversation but mostly not.

I am excited about tomorrow's Australian Rules football grand final match, because the pre game entertainment will be performed by our own Kylie Minogue and I'll be glued to the tv to see her. Say a bad word against her, you will be sent to a prison at Port Arthur. My favourite Kylie song....not sure. My favourite video clip, this one. She is enough to make a gay man straight.

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.   

Sunday Selections

Well, here we are, another week gone and it's time for Sunday Selections again with River at the helm. 

Mine aren't random this week but show an impressive sound and light show I saw at Melbourne Town Hall. I was there for about thirty minutes in total. The action was on the main floor of what I guess is the Town Hall ballroom. As I was leaving, the door person asked if I enjoyed the display and I said yes, and she then directed me to the stairs to climb to the balcony. I've been up there before. She asked if I could manage the stairs, and there our relationship cooled, as I felt like slapping her. I exaggerate, and there was a lift which I noticed later.  

From the balcony I had an overview of the display. But first a photo of Jass I took around the same time. 

I am not sure which photos were taken from above and which were taken at ground level. No matter. You get the idea. The music was themed to whatever the lights were doing. 

The music was loud, and it needed to be to create the atmosphere.

It was a little unsettling at times, as I heard the sound of Martian laser guns that I remember from the 70s or earlier.

Slipped in was some music from the movie ET, a film that made me cry. I just searched for ET and a question people had asked, 'Is the movie ET a true story?'. God help us. 

The ballroom is quite lovely.