Merry Christmas

What would Christmas be for me without my annual posting of the tipsy Kim Wilde and her brother on a train to Cockfosters (school boy snigger), singing Kids in America and a Christmas song. 

I recently watched a short doco about George Michael with a title starting with Wham. George Michael's Greatest Hits was the last CD I bought, in the mid noughties. It was only when I really listened to Wham's/Georges'  music, did I realise just what a great singer he was. I think his song Last Christmas is used as musak but it really is a great song, with George in excellent voice. 

The snow scenes in this clip were filmed near a village called Saas-Fee in Switzerland and it is a luscious location. I think the documentary I watched was made at Christmas last year and a non conventional but really cool statue was unveiled with attendance by Andrew Ridgeley and some others close to George, George having died in 2016. The villagers' sang along to Last Christmas with minimal instruments  to guide them. 

Merry Christmas to all and I will return in a few days after Christmas. 

Christmas Eve

Jackie in Toronto asked me if I had taken Christmas photos around town. I'd taken a couple but it was a bit hard to be enthusiastic about it for some reason. 

Still the paperwork comes and has to be dealt with. I had spent a total of 45 minutes in two calls to our motoring organisation and an hour with my bank in person, partly to do with the task in hand, to sort changing the car insurance into my name from Ray's.  I did not want to lose the benefits of his Gold level and the savings that would make. It was another twenty minutes on the phone yesterday and I was becoming concerned. I thought by starting the process in early December, it would be done by when the car insurance was due today. No!

Although there is a two week grace period after expiry, the bank back office does not return to work until the 6th of January, so still the estate account wouldn't be set up until after then. This also needed to be set up to get the mysterious $500 in Ray's bank account. I cleaned it out but I guess it was a last social security payment. On advice I visited the office of the insurer in the city yesterday after the phone call and it was all sorted out in twenty minutes. Online, on phone or in person. There is no way to know which is best, but I think in person seems to work quite well, if there is a person in an office to see. 

A few days ago, "Kosov, come. We are going to town to take photos and I will buy you lunch." 

"Yes, Andrewwww".

Royal Arcade. It is a case of a camera not really capturing the scene very well. It looked nice.

At QV. I suppose it is Christmas like

As we left the tram. 

Looking downstream to the Evan Walker Bridge. 

The Christmas tree in Federation Square, followed by more photos at Fed Square. 

Outside Melbourne Town Hall.

Steep hill. 

"Andrewwww, you missed a photo opportunity." 

"Andrewwww, I know of another thing. It's the street with trams."

"That narrows it down a little bit Kosov." 

Eventually I worked out he meant the Bourke Street Mall. 

Australian style Christmas flowers from Ray's three sisters were delivered. 

Our building's Christmas tree in the entrance foyer.

I rid the place of boxes of Christmas decorations, including the Christmas trees. Yes, more than one. I had no intention of doing any decoration. But, I ended up deciding a little tinsel would be nice, along with a few Christmas ornament. 

I ain't no style queen. My first Christmas alone is ok. I will do better next year. I feel guilty about not making more of an effort for the younguns, just giving cash. 

Monday Mural

No Sami mural this week, but here is mine, in a rather timely manner as controversial cartoonist Michael Leunig died a few days ago at he age of 79. 

If you remember, one of his cartoons caused great outrage.

His daughter Minna (You would not believe how much time it took to confirm that) paints murals and I like this one, even though it may have been commissioned by a department store. 

Caught up

I've been so busy being a retired person, along with answering blog comments and reading blogs, I haven't had time to write a post for today. 

Steve, finishing stressful work, with his partner recovering from surgery, and the elderly Olga dog in tow, with the company of a fresh pineapple in the car boot, Ubered to a coastal village for a holiday and still managed to blog. 

I've found a little more time to write. I have mentally made a message to Kosov before my return after a couple of days away at Christmas. 

'Kosov, please ensure the air con is on for my return home, and turn on the bathrooms' exhaust fan to pull cool air to my bedroom."

I really wish I am not like this and be a bit more relaxed about life. 

Late night shenanigans

Hey, it wasn't me riding the chair in the car park, but alcohol was involved. 

I had been to the building's Christmas gathering barbeque and took along a bottle of wine, as did many.

I returned home full of cheer and became annoyed about our building manager, a very handsome dark man with the most beautiful teeth displayed when he smiles, and he smiles an awful lot as he promises you the world and fails to deliver. 

To explain the background, we have four annual collection of hard rubbish, which we can put out for council collection. To prevent a messy pile, there is only one days notice of the collection, with a notice being displayed in the lift. I missed the notice and I needed to get rid of the old office chair and a badly cracked sheet of hard plastic that the desk chair rolled upon. 

After I missed the collection, I called the building manager about him storing the chair in an area for storing such things, and yes Andrew, of course. I will call you Monday. Two weeks later, no call. He called me about something else and again I asked him about storing the chair. I will call you next week. 

I was feeling cross and fuelled by the demon drink, "Kosov, we have a job to do. Come with me". I decided to just dump the chair and plastic sheet at the entrance to where such things are stored, and that is what we did.

"Andrew, there is no need to wheel the chair down the two ramps to the basement."

"Go for it, Kosov" and he did, down a ramp, feet propelled along the flat and then down another ramp.

I was supposed to meet the building manager today to get a new key fob, but he didn't answer my call, nor return the call. I'm in the sin bin. C'est la vie. 

An argument sorted too late

Ray: Where is the jar that was in the glove box that contained money for parking meters?

Me: I don't know.

Ray: Why do you have to answer so defensively?

Me: I've learnt to. You sounded like you were accusing me of doing something wrong.

Ray: I did not. Anyway, what have you done with the jar.

(At some point during lockdown, all parking meters became either pay by card or using a phone app.)

Me: I have a vague memory we did do something with the parking money when we bought this car. 

Ray: What?

Me: If I could remember, I would tell you. You clearly can't remember either. 

Ray: You always have to have the last smartarse answer.

Ain't love grand? There was always an underlying issue when he spoke like that. It was curious where the money jar and its contents went, and all too late, a few months ago the matter was resolved, but too late for Ray to know. What's this pocket thing here, I wondered. Voila! And I've only been reminded again that the pocket is there when I came across the photo. Did I leave the coins there? I will check the next time I am in the car, probably not until Christmas Eve, if I remember. 

It is very dark down there, and you can't see what is on the buttons without the car running or the lights on, and so the buttons illuminated. I know what all the buttons do, excepting the top far right button. 

There was an incident

I took Kosov for a ride on VLine train yesterday. I think he was soon satisfied by the journey. He enjoyed my excitement when the train cracked 160 km/h, 100mph. I mucked up the platform number and I think I know why. The problem is the ultimate terminus names. Large on screens should be Geelong, Ballarat, Shepparton and Bendigo, then in a smaller font, the ultimate terminus. Wendouree, Marshall etc is just hopeless. 

I was going to take Kosov to Sunbury but because of my confusion, we just missed the train. It was an hour until the next one so I thought we'd catch the next VLine service to Melton. None of the stations we stopped at along the way seemed to have shops, but at the Melton terminus there were some and we had some food and a drink in a bakery. The VLocity trains are quite comfortable if a little noisy from the motors. Unfortunately on our return, as a same looking train had terribly hard seats. My god, 40 minutes of sitting on such awful seats is enough. How was this allowed!

Anyway, I didn't really mean to talk about personal stuffs in this post. There was an incident, a serious one on the street below.

I thought of describing what happened to my readers and translating it for those who drive on the wrong side of the road. I got to with the translation 'You are travelling on the right hand side of the road, with a dedicated cycling lane on your right. You are going to turn right at the next intersection and the cyclist is riding straight ahead, so you must give way to the cyclist on your right who is riding straight ahead'. And then my brain failed about travelling at making the turn. 

I hope the injuries the rider suffered are not serious but it didn't look great. I met the neighbour who has cameras on his balcony about three weeks ago. He is nice. The incident happened about a week later. 

In the clip the incident happens in the first few seconds. Clearly the motorist was in the wrong, but I also think the rider was not looking after their own safety. The car's left indicator was on and its intentions were clear. Riders need to be alert to stupid motorists for their own self preservation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41NPLjAmn1E