Month: June 2006

Listen up customer ‘service’ at AirRoad couriers. If I say I didn’t receive a card from your driver, I didn’t receive one. There’s no need to insist that I did and thereby insinuate that I am lying to you. You were rude, there’s no other way to describe it. Unfortunately I don’t use courier services but if I did I’d take great pleasure in not using you in future.

I don’t like change. Well, that’s not really true. I like new and different things, but I like the familiarity of old patterns and places. This is probably why I’m not happy with what they are doing to ‘my’ market in South Melbourne.

I first discovered the South Melbourne Market in the late 80’s when I lived around the corner in a wonderful terrace share house at 8 Fishley St. I’d walk around there on Sunday mornings and spend my Austudy payments on donuts and cheap books. Almost 20 years later many of the same stalls are still there, although the book shop disappeared a fair while ago. Now, however, they are smartening the place up. Gone are the old dodgy store fronts that face on to Cecil St, replaced with roller shutters and stainless steal bench tops. It’s still chaotic inside but the feeling is that this is changing too. I suppose it’s better for the stall holders but for traditionalists such as myself it’s sad to see the introduction of matching stands at the fruit stalls, lock up shops and just too-fancy-by-a-shade deli stands.

Maybe I’m feeling it doubly so today because another important change occurred this morning – I swapped over my tatty old wallet for a brand new one (bought from the market). It’s always a momentous day for any guy when he changes over his wallet – lurking behind old photos of me and Phee I discovered the first given to me by Rae of herself. I’ve managed to prune out some old cards, found a MasterCard that I should cancel and organised my existing cards a little better. This wallet is a little slimmer too, but that may just be because I have no spending money left.

Another change, but this one a very pleasant one, came yesterday when I did my annual ‘clear out the business account at the end of the tax year’ purchase. I’m typing this now and watching it on a spanky new ViewSonic 19″ wide-screen LCD monitor. It looks great, seems easier on the eye and has built in speakers that sound pretty crappy, but the rest of the package more than makes up for it. Now my old 17″ is sitting forlornly to the side. I think I may try adding another video card to get two monitors working at once on this PC. Now that’s a geeky change, and one I’d be more than happy with.

10:40 am.

Yet just a few kilometres up the road the sun was shining on a glorious Melbourne’s winter day.

I did break my toe. And at some other stage I’ve fractured bones in my foot. And I’ve damaged a tendon. And my toe nail fell off.

I don’t like my left foot very much, but some orthopaedic surgeon out there will shortly be able to put their next child through a very expensive private school.

That’s how ‘warm’ it is outside at 11.17am. 7.2 degrees. Explains why the heater is on on full, why our gas bill will be through the roof this quarter and why I have to return to work soon, whether (weather?) I want to or not.

Time to catch up on some bookwork now, time and the ATO wait for no man. Bert’s sitting in his high chair next to me snacking down on a late morning tea, still in his pyjamas ’cause he’s so snug and warm and undressing him in our bathroom today would be just plain cruel. Besides, my fingers are so numb I’d probably drop the poor boy.

What a great day. Perfect weather, great company, good food, movies on the couch and presents – who could ask for a better birthday?

After presents in bed from the kids, Rob and Nana arrived and we all traipsed off to the The Coat for a leisurely (and massive) breakfast. Then we got to read papers in the sun before a stroll around Yarraville where we ran in to Daniel‘s sister and her hubby taking in the sunshine too. As the clouds rolled in we retreated to the couch to watch Munich. Now my love is making me chicken parmas for dinner – what a day.

Oh, and I was incredibly spoilt. Rae found a copy of my favourite painting and had it framed for me so some time this week Jeffrey Smart’s ‘Cahill Expressway’ will be hanging on our wall.