Going, going, gone.

Some quite interesting things happen before breakfast. Here's this morning's offering. The balloon was one of half a dozen floating across the sky and I'm fairly certain that this one planned to land in Jones Park.  Well, moderately confident it was at least on the list of possible landing spaces. Who am I kidding? They were furiously cranking the gas up as they were descending trying desperately not to land there! 

But there were no audible cries of panic or people taking up religion on the final descent. And a very gentle landing with the tiniest of bumps. Due to the lack of ground kissing and relieved we-almost-died hugs amongst the passengers, I'm guessing it went pretty much as planned.

But it still doesn't make me want to get up in one.

Lulu momentarily interested.  

Can't eat it, don't care.

 And there you have it. Neatly wrapped with Melbourne skyline in the background.

At peace with yourself

I like people to be relaxed at home or in public. But I have discovered my cut off point. I don't want people to be so relaxed that they pick their feet in public at train stations. Are you listening lady at Wolli Creek?

Birdy Party

The birds of the Merri Creek were going crazy this morning, Boxing Day, after the wild stormy weather yesterday.  I could hear them chattering and squawking much more loudly than usual - even before I got out of bed. They were all happily chowing down on bugs and seeds having survived the searing heat, rain, wind and  hail of yesterday. I listen to them every morning but I've never heard them so happy or so gossipy. It was a total birdy party.

Silver Wedding

OK so my my old school friend Allan and his wife Lynn had their silver wedding anniversary a while ago and they can STILL FIT INTO THEIR WEDDING OUTFITS !!!!!! I doubt there are many people who can do that. Here is the photographic evidence. I am only slightly disturbed by the existence of a giant wedding portrait on their wall.

Bigmouth in December

Thanks to Stephen and all the awesome performers last tuesday night in Northcote. What an excellent evening! Here's how rehearsals shaped up. Couldn't shoot event because I was singing but you get the idea....

Parsley and Time

Here's a hidden treasure. This has been parked against this railing since the parsely was a thin sprig. Think it's maybe been there too long. But even neglect can create beauty.

$100 notes

An attractive man came into the shop the other day.   He paid for his goods with two $100 bills. I commented that we don't see many of them. Mostly people pay in cash up to $50 notes and above that they use cards. He explained that he always carries $100 notes so that when he gets stopped for speeding, he can bribe the police. He demonstrated to me how it's best to always have a $100 note folded under your drivers license for when you get stopped.  You hand the license to the police officer with the bill. If they take it, you're good. If they refuse it you make excuses that it accidentally came out with the bill. Clearly he was well practised.

I made a suggestion. 'Have you tried not speeding?' He looked at genuinely perplexed. He told me 'You can't not speed.'
 He was a much less attactive man when he left.

Feeblemarket

Oh Woolworths in Smith Street, how can you get it so wrong? How can you not have ANY fresh garlic? I circled the veggie section many times, I searched with hope but could only find dried skins where the garlic used to be. I try to despise all supermarket chains equally.   But Woolworths, you are winning the race of unpopularity. By about a mile.  You add poor stocking of a basic item to your price gouging of both consumers and suppliers. I would post a photo but the point is, there is no garlic to photograph.

Nude Cycling

Ok who whizzed past me on Brunswick St yesterday? Yes, your first guess is right, 150 nude cyclists. I'm not sure what they were up to.. maybe a flash mob, mabye critical mass, maybe weekend naturists but they got a lot of cheers and smiles as the pedalled along. That's a whole lot of sunscreen required.

Insurance - the enemy

 I left my car at the mechanic to be repaired and it ended up in a freak accident. Apparently they were moving a car at the mechanics and the accelerator stuck. It rammed into my car which smashed into another car and that third car was still travelling with so much momentum it shot out of the mechanics and took out a fence on the other side of the lane. So it was a three car and one fence write off. And as I wasn't even there at the time I'm clearly not at fault.

My car was deemed a write off. My own insurance company - CGU, avoid them if you can - failed to do the right thing big time . And the mechanic's insurance company took forever to get me a cheque. 5 months, to be precise. But eventually I wrote them the following letter when they suggested I would receive my cheque  'shortly'. I got my cheque in 3 days.

Hi David,

Thank you for taking the trouble to get back to me.  You and Joy have both been very helpful so I wonder if I could trouble you further for some advice.   I am not fluent in insurance speak  and 'shortly' seems a very elastic period of time. I could benefit from some clarification and your considered insurance opinion.

Would you estimate 'shortly' to be:

a) more than a day but less than a week?

b) more than a week but less than a month?

c)  more than a month but relevant parties are reluctant tell me in case I adopt an understandably foul mood and start invoicing for car hire and generally creating a bit of a stink with the insurance ombudsman. 

d) After I die. Assuming average life expectancy for a female in Australia this affords Capricorn Mutual about 34 years to get me a cheque. If you anticipate this will be the case please advise so I can forward details of my next of kin.

I myself, even as an amateur and infrequent cheque writer, find I am able to write a cheque in under 4 minutes. This includes time taken to write slowly in neat cursive and fill in all the stub details. It also affords enough time to address an envelope and place the cheque inside it. It would not be unreasonable to assume then, that someone who writes cheques professionally might be able to do it in an even tighter timeframe.  This, however, appears not to be the case. 

The process of cheque writing is clearly more challenging than it first appears.  I would be most willing to give the person involved some coaching tips and encouragement if they are having difficulty with the more technical aspects of getting a cheque into the mail. I could even send a stamp  to Capricorn Mutual if you felt  that the lack of 60c might be the cause of the delay.

If you could kindly pass on the contact details of the person at Capricorn Mutual who is responsible for writing the cheque. I feel strongly that my contacting the person directly at the bottleneck might see the fastest resolution to the problem.

Best regards,

Carol