Air Conditioning and Other Things

I have finally, finally, finally got around to having my air conditioning unit installed.  I only bought it last May. You can't say I was being hasty about its installation! It was sitting in the study, in its two boxes, more or less being used as a shelf.

I had asked the bloke who installed the dishwasher if he happened to have a friend who installed split system air conditioners. He said that he and his brother did them, quoted me a reasonable cost and we arranged a time for them to come around and do it.

And now - I have a fully functioning, split system, reverse cycle air conditioner at my place. It means that the house is now, more or less, completely electric. I do still have gas connected, and the gas stove is still operational, as is the gas central heating. However, I don't use either of them. The wood burner and the new air conditioner render the central heating redundant and I haven't used the gas stove top for 18 months or so. I have two portable induction cooktops covering it and am more than happy with them. Eventually I will replace the gas stove with a permanent induction stovetop. And I expect I will have the gas disconnected eventually. I will get very tired of paying $40 or so a month for the pleasure of a service I never use. But it will cost $1000 to have the meter removed and, just at the moment, I can think of many other things to do with a spare $1000.

I took this photo at the Ballarat Tramway Museum
last January

While they were here, the electricians pointed out that my gutters needed clearing. I knew this but when I had someone out to quote to do it, they quoted $800. I don't have a spare $800 to have the gutters cleared - and anyway, it seemed like an extortionate amount to me. My air conditioning blokes agreed. They said they would expect it to be around $200 or $300. Had I tried using Hipages or Airtasker? I had used Hipages, that was where the $800 had come from. So while they were sorting out the air conditioner, I downloaded Airtasker. And someone quoted $250. I took that offer, and a bloke is coming today to do the gutters. If it stops raining!

I do wonder if the $800 would have been quite as extortionate if Jim had been here. Or Ian. Or any other adult male. I would not like to cast nasturtiums at the tradie who said it would cost that much. It would be unfortunate to think that he might have been trying to take advantage of an older woman who he might have assumed lived alone. But I am not stupid and I knew that it would not take a whole day to clear the gutters. 

Lindsey and I went to the Zoo Drive market on Saturday morning,. We also went to the Saltbush Kitchen, a small shop which used to be in Bunninyong and is now in the city, and which sells spice mixes, dukkahs, oils and other things, using native ingredients. We dropped into Aldi and went out to the Mushroom Farm. On Sunday we went to the Ballarat Spring Fest, which was along the top of the lake. The weather was cool and damp but this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the local population who turned out in force. There were LOTS of stalls and LOTS of shoppers. 

We didn't check out the food area. It looked very busy. We went to Websters for Brunch instead

Brandy is intrigued by the air conditioner. I  had it on yesterday evening for a short while, to put a bit of heat into the house. I didn't leave it on for long- it was a bit chilly rather than properly cold.  But I think it will be a good sidekick to the wood burner during the winter

Magnificent Mystery Box

Lindsey called into Wilson's last Saturday and bought me one of their mystery boxes. She took it to her place and put it in the fridge.

I picked it up on Monday.

There are no photos of it. Monday was a busy day for me and I brought it home and unpacked it in between doing a number of other things and didn't think about photos.

I should have taken a photo though. It was a magnificent box. It had a small mountain of tomatoes. Some mushrooms. A green capsicum. There was a quarter cabbage and a half cauliflower. A bunch of coriander leaves and a green chilli. A bunch of Dutch carrots. There were two different chunks of pumpkin. And then there were apples, white and yellow nectarines, white and yellow peaches, a pear, a lemon and a kiwifruit.  

I chopped up the tomatoes and mushrooms and put them in a stockpot with a leek I happened to have lying around. I had some of the resulting stew with Monday's dinner and on Tuesday put the rest in the blender, passed it through a sieve and ended up with a delicious soup/broth/gravy base. I chopped up the nectarines and peaches and added them to some mango I already had. I've been eating that for breakfast. although I might lightly stew what's left to extend its useful life. By the time I got to the box, the kiwifruit was well past its best. It did not go to landfill though; it's in my compost bin. The apples and pear are in the fruit bowl. I've chopped up the cabbage and cauliflower ready for eating. The pumpkin and capsicum are in the fridge, waiting their turn. The carrots are in the veggie bowl, along with some tomatoes that I held back.

I do love Wilson's mystery boxes. They are such good value for money (usually $9 or $10) and such a fun challenge. Here is what I've got. Now - what am I going to do with it?

I'm eating well this week. Although I seem to have run out of potatoes. This is a very unusual circumstance

Have a random photo of Rupert, snuggled up to one of the new teddies that Lindsey bought last week. It's unusual for Rupert to snuggle the teddies. He isn't usually particularly bothered by them. Hugo, on the other hand, absolutely loves them!

Tribeca

I was working on Friday and Saturday so stayed in Lindsey and Ian's flat overnight on Friday. The flat is in the Tribeca complex of apartments, part of which, many years ago, was one of Melbourne's large breweries. It is made up of privately owned, privately rented and serviced short let apartments.

The company which ran the serviced apartments went, somewhat abruptly, into liquidation recently. This meant that holiday makers plus various workers, who rented the apartments on short term contracts while they were in Melbourne, suddenly and without notice found themselves without accommodation. People who were expecting to come over the Christmas and summer holidays are having to make alternative arrangements. 

I am surprised that the business has folded. It survived the lockdowns and the complex is in a prime location in Melbourne, close to the CBD, the hospitals, sporting facilities. It should have been a goldmine. I think it must have been well used - the car parks were much emptier than they are usually and not all of the permanent residents can have randomly decided to go away for the weekend.

It was a lovely evening on Friday. I bought some fish and chips from the shop in the plaza and then sat out on the balcony of the flat with my dinner, a glass of wine and my laptop. In the past, this would have been accompanied by a hum and buzz of merriment from down below. People frequenting the wine bar, the pizzeria, the fish and chip shop and, on pleasant evenings, sitting outside while they ate, drank and chatted. On Friday night there was a strange silence, broken only by people passing through the plaza, and a couple of kids messing about. I am worried about the future of the little businesses in the plaza.

Lindsey tells me that some of the permanent residents, on a social media group, are pleased that the serviced apartments have closed. They didn't like the short term visitors.  I think they should be careful about how pleased they are. Lots of jobs have gone with the closure of the business. And the residents of places popular with tourists are often more economically dependent on the visitors than they realise.  They might not have liked the visitors but they may miss the fish and chips, the pizzas and the mezze with wine if they close for lack of itinerant customers.

Shopping

Stella sometimes complains that we never take her shopping. She likes shopping. She quite likes window shopping but she very much prefers actual shopping.

Mostly, she likes shopping for clothes. She disagrees with me vehemently when I suggest that she should adopt a one-in-one-out policy towards her clothes. You can't, she says, have too many clothes. She is even resistant to me taking her winter clothes and putting them at my place, or at Lindsey's place, on the grounds that you never know when it might turn cold again. (She's not wrong about that!) As a result, her wardrobe is stuffed full of clothes. There is no room for any more. The carers sometimes just pile the clothes up in a heap rather than trying to hang them up because there is no room and no clothes hangers. (I was allowed take her bulky winter jackets to my wardrobe at Hill House. But that has been it. So far!)

We did not take her out shopping on Saturday. Lindsey and I went to the market, where the stall holders were shivering and slightly blue. The Bureau of Meteorology had forecast a sunny day with a top temperature in the mid 20s. At 10:00 by the lake it was overcast and a touch on the chilly side. We went from the market into town and visited the kitchen shop, the "scoop" shop (where you buy things by the scoop so can buy as much or as little as you like). We went to the supermarket and to Wilson's.

And then we went home, all shopped out.

The sun had come out by now and it had turned into a lovely late spring, very early summer afternoon.

Stella was pleased to see me when I called in to visit on Saturday afternoon. I had taken with me a small tub of broad beans (amongst her favourite vegetables), which I had bought at the market. I also had with me a box of fresh raspberries and a box of fresh cherries, also from the market. And I had a pork pie, which they had in Woolies.  She likes pork pies and doesn't have them very often. 

I also offered an invitation to go shopping on Sunday!

Not clothes shopping, but a trip to the plant nursery at Avalon.

She was definitely up for that.

So on Sunday morning, Lindsey, Stella and I drove out to Avalon, where Stella bought many more trays of vegetable and herb seedlings than you might think she would need, given that she doesn't have a garden, nor even a balcony. We stopped by the cafe where she bought a cupcake, a muffin and a scone, plus a milkshake and two hot chocolates. We went back via Coles, where she bought custard and bananas to go with her raspberries and cherries. She bought a pumpkin salad to go with her pork pie. She might also have bought some Baileys chocolate truffles. And some cat food. Not that she has a cat, but I'm sure we can find some cats to benefit from the trays of Dine.

So no clothes. Even so, she enjoyed a couple of hours of retail therapy, in amongst the plants and the groceries. She likes that kind of shopping as well.

There are flowers on Jim's lime tree

and some teeny, tiny peaches on my dwarf peach tree.
I am not expecting them to ripen this year.
It's only a baby tree.

Cup Day Weekend

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day, which is a public holiday in much of Victoria. Lots of people take the Monday off as well, including some of the schools.

The weather was lovely.

Lindsey wasn't available to play on Saturday. She and Ian took Emily to the airport as she began her journey back to Canada. I couldn't be bothered going far, didn't bother with the Bridge Mall market and did some tidying in the garden.

On Sunday I went to Geelong, to Irene's house, where Gillie, Chris and John also gathered. Chris and John report that the foreshore was very busy with lots of activities and lots of people engaging with the activities. We stayed inside and ate asparagus soufflés, roast pork, and rhubarb cake. We caught up on all the chatter and generally whiled away  a very pleasant late spring afternoon. And played ball with Flora 😀

On Monday, a bloke turned up at 7:45 to install my new dishwasher. I was expecting him early, if not quite that early, so I was up and dressed. I am usually up early, but not necessarily dressed for the day. By 8:30 he had finished, cleared up and gone away, taking the old dishwasher with him. The new dishwasher is white and seems to make the kitchen much brighter. The sun was shining brightly on Monday morning and the solar light in the kitchen was also shining brightly. The light was reflecting off the white door of the dishwasher and rebounding around. I hadn't realised how much the silver door of the old dishwasher was absorbing the light.  (Looks speculatively at the (silver) fridge/freezer, then decides against replacing it Just Because!)

On Tuesday, the actual public holiday, Lindsey and I went out to find a pop up Christmas shop, which was advertising itself on Facebook. We found the address but couldn't see any signs of Christmas Festivity. Just an ordinary house with an ordinary driveway and an unadorned gate. So we went away. Lindsey sent the person a message to say we had been but couldn't see a pop up shop. Apparently it was around the back in a shed, decorated with elves and Santas. I don't know about you, but I am not wandering around people's gardens searching for elves and Santas. I feel that at the very least some sort of festive decoration on the front gate might have been encouraging.

Anyway, we went to the Stockland shopping complex and pottered around there. We went to Kmart and House. Lindsey had a quick haircut. Then we went to Bunnings. We went out to the mushroom farm. I visited Stella. It ended up being quite a busy day.

And the weather broke overnight. There were 20 ml of rain in my little rain gauge when I looked yesterday morning.

The traffic around Melbourne was cray-cray-crazy yesterday morning. Pretty much everything was crazy. One of the main mobile phone companies had gone down, nationwide. Around 10 million people's mobile phones, internet and internet-based equipment were out of action. So too, in Melbourne, were the trains, hospital telephony,  EFTpos machines, bluetooth equipment. Chaos and mayhem all around. I managed to get to work more or less on time, where our machines and internet were unimpeded by the outage. We use a different company.  

I left at 2pm and went to East Ivanhoe to see Jane the Optometrist. I had somehow managed to destroy the lenses of my computer/reading glasses by smearing them with alcohol solution or hand sanitiser or something that the lenses didn't like. Fortunately her EFTpos machine and other equipment were also unaffected. I now have new glasses on their way. The traffic was also crazy on the way home. The trains were running again but, of course, all the people who had gone into work by car instead of by train in the morning were now going home again by car. Plus there were random intense rain storms. 

I got home eventually. And went early to bed.

Revisiting My Dissolute Youth

Actually, I don't suppose my youth was particularly dissolute. I married quite young and had a child at 21, so there wasn't much opportunity to be properly dissolute. But I did spend quite a lot of my 20s and even part of my 30s in and around Carlton, Parkville, North Carlton, Brunswick. And Lygon Street was a favourite haunt when I was an undergrad.  

I was working on Thursday and opening on Friday, so I stayed in East Melbourne overnight. I was due to meet Freyja and Simon in a pizzeria on the corner of Lygon and Elgin Streets at 7:15 on Thursday evening. So I had a bit of time to spare after work.

I caught a tram into town and went to Daiso. They didn't have any of my favourite mints. Where they usually are, there were Christmas decorations. They did have other tempting things, though. 

Then I took another tram to Lygon Street and went for a walk down one side and then back up the other side. When I was an undergraduate, Lygon was pretty much 100% Italian. All sorts of pizzeria, pasta places, coffee shops, gelateria. And a few other things, like toy shops, kitchen shops, Readings, the bookshop. But mostly, Italian food shops. I think there was an occasional Greek one, but not on the main strip. Apart from the souvlaki shop on the corner, where we would go if hungry in the evening for souvlaki and chips.

Now you can get absolutely any nation's cuisine that you could possibly want. And still pizza and pasta and plenty of coffee

I met Freyja and Simon in the pizza and pasta shop on the corner of Lygon and Elgin. We had a vegan pizza, a vegetarian pizza and a meaty pizza, together with a glass of wine each. Then Simon suggested that we head to a wine bar for an after pizza drink. And we went to a back bar at Jimmy Watsons, where I don't think I've been for 35, perhaps 40 years. It was never a regular haunt. If we were going drinking we usually went to one of the nearby pubs. But we did go when we were feeling flush, or had an occasion to celebrate. Or whenever.

And it's a lovely place. You can see why it's survived. Lots of little bars and courtyards and terraces. And friendly, chatty but not obtrusive staff. "You haven't been here for 35 years? Welcome back! But why not? Where have you been? England? Ballarat? OK. I guess that's a reasonable excuse!"

I was, however, reminded that I am not, in fact, in my 20s or even 30s anymore when it was time to get up on Friday morning! I had a 7:30 start so needed to be up by 6, if I were to have a gentle slide into the day. Getting up was not high on my list of favourite things to do at 6:00 on Friday morning!

I can't remember now if I mentioned it, but when Lindsey and I were in Japan in March we visited the Sekigahara Battle Museum and I bought Stella a Samurai teddy bear in the museum shop. Alas, at some point someone stole it from her bear cabinet. We suspect one of the casual staff. If it had still been in the facility someone would have found it and I don't think any of the permanent staff would have nicked it. If they had light fingers, I think they would be gone by now. Anyway, it doesn't matter who took it. It was gone.

Ross was recently in Japan and he went to Sekigahara. Austin selected a replacement bear. I e-sent the money for it. Austin purchased it. Ross brought it from Japan to Ballarat. Lindsey brought it from Ballarat to the surgery. And today, I took it to Stella's place in Mount Clear. It was, I'm sure you will agree, an excellent family venture!

We have not put it in the bear cabinet. Let us not tempt fate. We have put it next to Tony's memorial bear and with the little "Stella" teddy Stella was given when she first moved in:

And Austin sent over a bag full of my favourite Japanese mints, so it didn't matter that Daiso didn't have any.