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.

  

Less Serious

This post is kind of like a Sunday Selections. I haven't posted many photos of late. 

The tram approaches the tram stop at New Preston Tram Depot stop from the distance. Once out of the city, trams only stop if someone wants to get on or off. If you sit on the seat within the shelter, you can't see the tram coming and if the driver can't see you as they approach, they could go straight past. Meanwhile, the other end of the shelter is clear glass. A Yarra Trams advertising slogan once was 'Think like a passenger', for their staff. Perhaps Yarra Trams should have thought like a passenger at this tram stop. Idiots, idiots and imbeciels. . 

Jass with her friend Amber. 

Stomach unprotected and eyes closed. She trusts us.

They could do with a repaint, but I do like these Russian style dolls. 

Monday was a dramatic sunrise. 

And there was more drama below where a motorist got in the way of a tram in an unimaginable manner and they bumped together.

 

It was all over in ten minutes, I guess details quickly exchanged. The car driver was wearing a full length overcoat while driving, far too restrictive for driving, in my opinion. You know, cars do have heating and can make you very toastily warm.

Incompetents abound. 

Musing about life and death

Twenty seven months after Ray died, how do I feel and how is my grief level?

I still  think of Ray every day. We fell into a vey comfortable relationship in our older years, unlike our passionate and adventurous younger years. We did our own things, and joint things. He cooked meals, I washed clothes. Each of us would do our own thing at home, Ray watching tv and playing on his tablet, while I composed brilliant blog posts. You might say the perfect older couple, a well oiled machine. We knew our roles and what to expect from each other.

Along with buying a new car, our apartment which became my apartment is somewhat different inside, with many things updated, and more to do. I didn't try to erase memories at home, but it seems I have done so quite a bit.

After being together for forty five years, Ray's sudden death was a terrible shock, not just to me, but to everyone who knew him and loved him.

For some time after he died, I wondered if I was grieving in the correct way. Is there a correct way? There were plenty of teary moments in the first few months, and one could not foresee what would trigger them.

Ray died in April, at the time of the year where I had just changed to wearing winter long sleeved shirts. I decided after washing my shirts, I would not iron them, but just hang them carefully on hangers to dry. Ray used to iron my shirts. I became used to unironed shirts.

Come the warmer months, it was time to change to short sleeved summer shirts. Phyllis wasn't home. "Kosov, come and look". I proudly displayed my row of summer shirts to Kosov, ironed by Ray a week before he died, and then burst into a sobbing mess on Kosov's shoulder. What an interesting but unwanted experience for a young man. I apologised the next day, and the reply was, "No problem Onnndrew".

There has only been one moment since when I almost became teary, but I am living a new life, on my own now. I have full control over my life, more confidence because I'm doing on my what both of us used to do, and doing it well enough. Decisions I have made on my own have been good. 

There are so many things I want to tell Ray, but he has gone, and I guess I have adjusted to my life without him. 

Ray's sister is a nice looking woman, with medium length straight 'blonde' hair, slim and a stylish dresser in that northern English way. Her doctor has never prescribed her medication aside from an asthma inhaler. She smokes and drinks a lot, really a lot, and I've just realised she is about to turn 75. A month after Ray's 75th birthday he died.

Who of my current readers met Ray? Obviously occasional blog commenter, our friend Bunyip who we've known for decades, and of course the lovely Fun60 in London, who we met with three times.

As is said, time is a healer.  

Beautiful sunny Australia

Emigrate to Australia where it's always warm and sunny! Miles miles of beautiful sandy beaches to take in the sun with lots of space to be alone. Err...

It is very interesting when a rain front comes in across the bay. I was dry, but not for long. The south west is where our prevailing weather and wind originates.

Another interesting photo with the heavier cloud sitting atop the rainbow. I did not notice this until I began making this post. It is quite a phenomenon. 

While looking east, I think this rain missed me. I can't remember rain ever arriving from that direction, and it is rare for rain to blow in from that direction. Seagulls seem alarmed.

For the third time we had to cancel a motorcar trip to Powelltown in  the hills because of the weather. We would have been driving into this. 

Ten years ago

Almost ten years ago, that is.

These were quite interesting clips, the first in Alaska, the second in Minnesota and the third in Toronto. The post may be a little slow to load. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20160219012656/http://highriser.blogspot.com/

And, happy Valentine's Day. Luv youse all. 

Balloons pass by

I had forgotten about these balloon photos. I don't like to boast but they aren't too bad at all. The balloonists that morning had a great show.

"Sun arise, bring in the morning".

The big waters in the centre

I can't guarantee the accuracy of this but I've heard that soon one sixth of Australia is soon to be underwater as South Australia's Lake Eyre fills with water from flooding rains in Queensland. If you combine the land area of France, Germany and Italy, you will have the approximate size of the Lake Eyre Basin. Or for you less European types, five times the size of the UK.

Australia is a large country and it is hard to imagine 1/6th of the area underwater.

The lake receives water once in how ever many years or even decades and only after large and often destructive flooding.  

On average the lake fills completely only three times a century, so it is quite a remarkable event. The last filling of the lake was in 1974, although it has received quite a bit more than usual water this century. Meanwhile in my state of Victoria and much of South Australia, parts are close to drought conditions.  

The main tributaries are the innocuously named Cooper Creek, the Diamantina River, the Georgina River, the Bulloo River and the Paroo River, all flowing from the north east and turning the normally dry salt flats into a green oasis. Along the way it fills many natural water reservoirs and helps to replenish Australia's underground Great Artesian Basin.

This map by ABC Australia shows the extent of Lake Eyre Basin.

Don't think of the water as fast flowing rivers, rather wide expanses of flooding water creeping slowly along and downhill to the lake sitting 17 metres below sea level. This photo clearly shows how the water progresses from Queensland to the lake over a number of months. The rains that fell in Queensland in March are just reaching the lake bed now, in late June.

Over spring the waters will begin to evaporate and will almost disappear in summer with temperatures up to 50/122 degrees.

The creatures hidden away in dried mud for years come alive and birds locally and from overseas somehow know the lake is full of water and visit. And you know what happens when conditions are so good and food aplenty for creatures great and small? Yes, breeding. Some birds fly in from as far away as Siberia. How do they know it is flooded? I don't know. Get your Google busy.

It is a truly remarkable event in Australia, but certainly not a new one.

Strawberry? Kind of...

We are supposed to have a strawberry coloured moon tonight on the 11th. It looks very white to me. But two nights ago, I saw the moon with a strawberry coloured halo and naturally I took photos. I also used the camera but I could tell the phone photos were better. 

Commentary and clouds

Once having a Tesla car was a bit of thing for we more common folk to admire. Now, owning a Tesla is a badge of shame, and the richest man in the world has ruined his public image, although I must say it was already ruined by him calling one of the brave divers a paedophile, a man who rescued children who were trapped in a water filled cave in Thailand. Don't we just want to spit at Muskrat. Bloody Boer. 

--- 

"I'm off to work, Andrew" said Phyllis at 9.30. "I'll be home early". 

He wasn't and arrived home at about 8pm. I said to him that my day was not great. Why? You said you would be home early, and that was part of it, and you weren't.

Sorry. When would you be worried? 

When I told Kosov to call you and you didn't answer.

When.

Maybe 10pm.

What if no one knew where I was and I had disappeared?

Fuck off Phyllis.

---

Birds are behaving strangely. I've never seen so many birds flying past the High Rise. They seem so busy with their flying with intent. Could it be related to the Queensland cyclone?

Here are some not so calming cloud photos. Whatever chaos we folk on earth cause, clouds go on.

A wee shower

Rain from a storm cloud fell on Melbourne last Sunday. I knew the weather wasn't looking good when I went out, so I was armed with a humberalla. 

I didn't really need the humberella, as I was eating a roast pork sandwich and drinking my, small long black coffee 2/3 full please, indoors as the 'monsoonal rains' fell. As I stepped outside, the rain was still falling but less so. I took photos and videos in Prahran.

One woman found an island.

Such downpours are quite unusual in Melbourne. I cleared a couple of non draining drains with my foot, my umbrella tip and a stick. That was fun.

Phyllis messaged me. Lordy, he is awake already at 12.30. Red bell pepper (he is a foreigner, so capsicum in my lingo) and spring onions if you can Andrew. Sure. 

I had been warned some special meal was afoot. By gosh, it was so nice. Scrambled eggs on sour dough toast, a beef sausage nicely cut up by Kosov, wilted mixed green leaves in garlic and yep, a butter sauce, with a homemade salmon patty topped with a garlic sauce. The effort they put in to cooking is extraordinary, with almost everything fresh and rarely anything commercially prepared beyond the very basics.

 

I generally forget my phone has a stylus. I pulled it out and noticed I could write on the screen without opening the phone. Phyllis insisted I add my own small A to the centre of the heart after I drew the initial image to show Phyllis and Kosov with a heart in between. "Take a screen shot, Andrewww', so I did. 

Hot in Australia

Australia can become very hot, less so in southern Australia where I live, but I have experienced a day of 44 degrees in I think 2009. The hot northerly wind comes in, blowing very hot air from central Australia to the south, even to our island state, Tasmania, in the extreme south. Generally the very high temperatures don't come with humidity. It is a hot dry wind.

The melting thongs in this clip are a slight exaggeration, but I've certainly walked on asphalt that had become sticky in the heat. I've experienced all the rest. 

Travelling east Part 1

The four hour drive to eastern Victorian seemed interminable. I stopped off along the way to check out the two houses I lived in as a teenager and for some lunch. The houses are modest but still existent. The second, a brick veneer, was built by my father. After we moved in, Step Mother wanted a dishwasher. It was not plumbed in to the sewerage system as it should have been but into the storm water drain because there was less digging and cost. That is bad, meaning the untreated caustic dishwasher water went into the nearest river. Not great work, Father. 

I pressed on. At Bairnsdale my body needed a break from sitting in the car, so I stopped for a wee time (go for it YP) and and took a street walk. A few spits of rain began. I set off and then the rain pelted down. The traffic slowed. There goes my nice clean car. Trucks sprayed water everywhere and I could see it was dirty water. Amazingly when I arrived at the home of Pants, my car looked clean. It was not to stay that way.

It was lovely to see her and after a short time we quickly fell into nattering away like old friends, as we are. I should have taken my luggage out of the car when I arrived. I went outside to do so and again the heavens opened. I sheltered in the carport. The next day, locals reported they had never seen such rain.

Pants had bought a posh bottle of veuve clicquot from Aldi and after chin chin, we ate her delicious fish curry and then watched an easy film called The Fall Guy. Ok, I did kind of watch it mostly because lead actor, one Ryan Gosling, was quite attractive.

The next morning, what a view and blue skies. 

 

Pants had also bought me a special cereal for the next morning, which with lots of fresh fruit and home cultured yoghurt, was very tasty. She gave me the remainder to bring home. Vogel, or something like that, and I ate some more the next morning.

Then we were out to meet blogger Sparkling Merlot for coffee at a rather interesting cafe come chocolate shop. Merlot was exactly as I expected, lovely, personable and interesting. I say the cafe was interesting because the owner can be overly friendly or quite rude. I think it might be his business schtick. A few weeks earlier a friend, who like me drinks black coffee, was asked if he wanted cold milk with his black coffee. He thought this was highly amusing. FYI, it is brought in a separate little jug. I was inclined to agree with him. 

But one of morning tea party wanted cold milk with her coffee, and Pants dutifully asked for a black coffee with cold milk. The owner replied, 'Can you make up your mind? Do want black coffee or not?" Process of elimination will inform you who wanted black coffee with milk. Each to their own. I do kind of get black coffee with milk on the side, that you can add to your own taste. It really was lovely to meet Merlot, who was a local near where many of my family live and now is a resident of where Pants lives. 

We parted ways long after we finished our coffee and Pants got on her telephone and booked us an afternoon cruise of the interconnected salt water lakes. But first, at my request, we went up to a lookout point, which Ray and I had visited in the past. It has now been very organised and no longer patchy grass and mud. It was still a bit raw in looks but it will improve. A sea eagle flew above. 

The distant sea gap is the entrance from Bass Strait to the lake system.

Infrastructure!

In the manner of the best stalkers, we drove past Merlot's newly built home with its feature rocks. I'll tell you about the lakes cruise in my next post. 

Train walking

I was going to travel to Sunbury on a regional VLine train for the most important reason that I could. It was a twenty minute wait at Sunbury before a return VLine train arrived to return me to So Cross Southern Cross Station, enough time to buy a take away cup of coffee. I've been there before and the more astute of you may remember when Ray and I visited and brunched at The Jolly Miller. 

Oh damn, why didn't I check on my phone app. The train is leaving from Platform 2B. I would have left the 58 tram a stop later, had I known. Now I had to walk 300/1000. The train was sitting there but people were standing around outside the short train's doors. I stood with them and they clearly knew something I didn't. I noticed the door open button was illuminated so I pressed it and the door opened. I was quickly told I could not board by staff. 

Staff, then public announcements, then screens said the train is defective and a substitute train would leave from Platform 5A, which meant another 300 metre walk back, plus about 100 metres to the train door at Platform 5A.

It was clear to me that the train would now leave 15 to 20 minutes late, thereby meaning I would miss the planned train back to the city. 

I did not want to walk another half a kilometre and hang around in Sunbury for an hour because of a missed train and said to myself, damn it. This was supposed to be a pleasure trip and it is not turning out to be pleasurable. I am going to Corner and Bench in Bourke Street for one of its delicious warm chicken sliders with coleslaw, along with a nice strong cup of coffee. The more I use Southern Cross Station, the more I am hating it. 

I have so many photos to use for posts, but I just keep writing. I like writing.

Phyllis returned on Monday evening. I told him that it was not acceptable that he had not paid his rent and that I hated having to mention money, and that I don't want to have to mention it again. At 9.30 the external door closed and he was off somewhere. He returned with noodles and the rent money at 10. I will guess he went to the new Woolworths Metro supermarket that has opened near. I have checked it out and it is almost as large as a normal supermarket. Brilliant, but I guess it will mean the closure of one of the two IGA small supermarkets nearby.  I went to bed at 11 and Phyllis was busy cooking away. There is now a huge bowl of cooked noodles in the fridge now but as it is nearly 10pm, he has not returned from work. 

9.45 Phyllis has returned and immediately the gas hot plates went on, and it was pasta not noodles that he cooked last night and he is very busy making some kind of pasta dish. I tasted it and it is very spicy. 

While I'd like you to focus on my writing, we had a fabulous rainbow here a couple of weeks ago, so if you are bored with my writing, this is your consolation prize. 

Guggling

This is written on the evening of the 21st, so when you read it, it could be today for you or yesterday. 

Is there an autumn equinox? Yes.

Is there a winter solstice, like a summer solstice? Yes, and we've just had one today, the shortest daylight hours of the year. Our shortest Australia day has a sunrise about 7am and sunset about 5pm. The  summer solstice, without a daylight saving adjustment is sunrise at 5am and sunset at 8pm. 

There is a full moon tonight in our eastern skies. 

Does a full moon coincide with a winter solstice? It has this year, but no. It happens about once every two decades. 

Do I have moon photos to make my post more interesting? Yes. 

The Easter that was

Boring Good Friday, everything was closed, except they weren't. Cafes were open and R took me to cafe he knew at Fishermans Bend. Once home I did do some serious cleaning on the balcony, a bit of a follow up after the air con remediation. 

Saturday morning we trammed to town to buy Easter eggs for kiddies and had a cafe brunch along with very unexpected good coffee, with a 15% pubic holiday surcharge. I used to think that this was ok, as staff are being paid extra for working on public holidays. I no longer think the same. Public holidays are a known thing and extra public holiday wage costs should be built into the budget forecasts for the business.

Sister, Bone Doctor and Jo were in town Saturday in the afternoon to see a Melbourne Comedy Festival performance. They went on to see the Titanic exhibition at the museum and we met them at The Oriental Teahouse in town for a nice dinner. Sister and her wife are both just post another bout of Covid, with Sister having caught it on a school camp. They happily returned to rest at their hotel while Jo came back with us to stay the night.

Sunday morning after a very small breakfast at the Scottish restaurant opposite, R and Jo made sandwiches and we drove to the suburb Oakleigh for a family gathering organised by Sister. Sadly Fire Fighting Nephew was on duty, and his wife, five year old daughter and two year old twin boys were staying with her mother at her apple orchard. 

Guest list:

Myself and R. 2

Sister, Bone Doctor and Jo, 2 adults/1 child.

Tradie Brother, his Ex Wife and her husband. 3

Oldest Niece and her partner and their three children, 2/3

Hippie Niece, her twin children, her partner and his two children. 2/4

ABI Brother. 1

Ex Sis in Law's husband's daughter and the daughter's luscious partner in his early twenties with a lean body and a perfect camera smile, and their daughter, 2/1

No one mentioned the missing person who would have been ninety years old. It was all about children and renewal. 0

So, fourteen adults I think and nine children. 

The picnic was at Brickmakers Park. We secured a table under shelter and had a lovely time. Walks were taken, the extensive play equipment was well used, trees were climbed, left over brickmaking equipment was explored and a walk to the nearby Scotchmans Creek undertaken. There was food aplenty and the obligatory Easter egg hunt. 

It was a very successful family gathering, the first really after scattering Mother's and Step Father's ashes. It was nice to not have to drive for an hour for a family gathering too.

Don't we all love a nice duck or two. 

Don't ask me, aside from a wind vane.

I could see two of the strange coolie hat like structures, but I can't in the photo.

A small and neat rotunda can be as good as a large one, can't it?

Another strange structure or something functional. 

I'm on steps to nowhere, just into a swamp.

It's a pity the grass is not irrigated and has turned brown. The next day we had 56mm or rain, say over two inches. This broke a weather record, as did the driest March for over a hundred years or something like that. Weather records just continue to be broken in great haste, but of course it is nothing to do with climate change. The grass will be green by the time this is published.

Some brick making machinery was left in the park. The sign in centre of the photo says no climbing on machinery. 

This boy was too young to be able to read the sign. Get down Lucas!

I've reduced the size of these photos compared to what they normally are as taken at a ridiculous size of around 6mb. Does it make a difference to you?