If you have a national day to celebrate the country, and not everyone feels included in that day, no matter how you feel about it, how much of a national day is it really?
Surely a national day should be for everyone.
How much does a flag really represent a country when it has another countries flag on it?
Australia has so much more going for it than another county's flag.
Lunch in the city, Indian. Melbourne Central has these faux laneways, so we take the dogs in. I've seen other people do it too.
Like taking your dogs in Chemistwarehouse.
It was much cooler today, lovely really.
The city smelt of smoke all day from the bush fires burning in the state. I guess that is probably only going to get worse Tuesday with extreme heat predicted.
I wonder how may people will lose their houses before the summer is over?
I wonder how many of them voted conservative who don't believe in climate change?
40 degrees today, what can I tell you?
We took a walk early, as did half of our suburb. There were lots of shirtless men jogging. Then we spent the rest of the day inside.
I remember once when 39, 40 degrees was reported as a hot day, not a day when we're all potentially going to die. When, exactly, did we make that change?
It's going to be hot for the next few days, with Tuesday be 40 degrees.
Brun and I walked to Bunnings, damn home maintenance needs to be done, apparently. The sun shone. The sky was blue.
Brun mastered the escalator like a fucking champion.
I had to get a flexible hose for the bathroom hot tap. I actually replaced it kind of recently, but I managed to buy one with some kind of emergency shut off, and the stupid thing has shut off 3 times, I think it has been.
So, I chose carefully this time. Brun spread himself right out across the isle, so the tradies had to step over him, not a care. No Bunnings sausage on offer, other than what Brun may have looked up and noticed.
Not that he was looking up.
I rummaged through all the flexible hoses so I was sure not to get one with an emergency shut off, or anything of the sort.
We had a quick trip around the nursery dept, Brun pissing on the plants right in front of the cute nursery guy.
"Sorry," I said. "He thinks he is now outside."
"I think you may have to buy it, now," joke the adorable Bunnings Boy. I felt for a second that he was flirting with me, but no, I think it was just good humour.
As we landed back on the footpath ready to set off for home, I could read the look on Brun's face, 'what? You mean we have to walk all the way back too?'
"I feel the same way, Bud," I said. "But, it's got tone done."
So, you know, with a little cajoling and we setoff back up the hill. 😁
The sun shone, the day was perfect.
I looked at the Porsche's in the Porsche show room and wondered about my lotto win.
I re-watched Heated Rivalry for the afternoon. You know why I wanted to re-watch it? I kept seeing short clips on Youtube shorts and I kept think I wanted to watch more of that short clip.
I haven't fixed the bathroom sink yet.
I should have got some rust converter for the guttering, but how much can you carry home when you are walking?
At least, I now have the flexi pipe to fix the bathroom sink, whenever it feels right to do so. You don't have to rush these things.
I lay on the couch all day with my laptop watching YouTube. that was all I did, it was glorious.
I enjoyed watching the Australian conservatives implode. Good job. Apparently, they can't support hate speech laws because they feel it could encroach on their ability to run political campaigns. Yes, that is what it means.
I watched Grandpa Trump slur his way though his Davos - the Whovian in me so wants to call it Davros - speech, calling Greenland Iceland 3 times. Then his pathetic press secretary came out and said he didn't confuse the names, he was referring to the Greenland being an ice land. Seriously?
Sam made me beef bulgogi for lunch, bringing it to me where I lay. And he was working.
I watched an adorable American guy, Jessie, resurrect a 1962 Chrysler 300 and drive it almost 1000 miles back to Missouri, before it caught fire near home and had to be put on a trailer.
You have got to love Thursdays. The sun shone.
There were many things I could have been doing, you know, around the house, fixing the bathroom tap, rust proofing the now rusting gutters, sweeping up the back yard, but I didn't.
I watered all my plants, though. I have a lot of plants, and they are not going to water themselves. My house is full of plants, so it takes some time to water them all.
I fell asleep on the couch for some time in the late afternoon, exhausted from the day I'd had, before Sam woke me to take the dogs for a walk.
End of my busy 3 day week, and a long weekend, Invasion Day, er, Australia Day, so I now have 5 days off. lovely.
And then after that, I work 2 days. It's kind of like the inverse of the week, 5 days off, 2 days on. Bloody lovely.
I'm sucked back into I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, not really sure why?
Julia is so bad, she is good. Robert is just a bit too earnest, and his dialogue is still kind of Disney drama speak.
How much of a celebrity are these people when my honest response after being introduced to them is, who?
I can't help but think, my time on the D list for some of them.
I don't really know why I watch it, but I do every year.
Shrug.
I guess it is like shopping at Kmart, or having a wank, it is just a momentary pleasure that really hurts no one.
It is the only reality TV show I watch, though. Oh, and MasterChef. And anything with Mary Berry in it, but that's just because of her hair, of course.
Our dopey arse manager in charge of HR now a days, The PonyTail, uses 'may' in her emails when she really means 'could' or 'can' and it is just weird. It always grates with me. (a bit like the author of the emails) I so want to say something.
"Did you drop out of school in year 7, or what?" Or something of the sort. Oh, could you imagine? Oh, I so want to.
Well, guess what? As if the world was so completely unfair. Oh, which it is, er? Um? One of her HR minions, Taylor Swift, is now using 'may' in the wrong context in her emails, now, as well. Grrrr!
I drew in breath, immediately I read the email. I immediately started to formulate a reply in my head. That is not proper grammar… um, I knew that I couldn't, no, I couldn't. Was this karma for all my HR bitchiness? I laughed at myself, at the turn of events. Well played universe. So, even if The PonyTail exits the picture, Taylor Swift is there to carry on the, er, what would you call it? The annoying bad grammar?
It is, of course, a direct example of the stupidity of HR spreading like a virus, you cannot deny it. No, you can't.
One bad apple, rots the rest, isn't that what they say?
It was a gorgeous day, what do I care about international politics. Nyr! Who cares about Politics. It is the equivalent of a reality TV show. Or is that a car crash. You just can't help but look.
The dogs got a bath, then we took them out in the sunshine to dry. A bit of shopping. A chicken curry for lunch.
It was a beautiful day, the sun shone, it was near on perfect. It was everything a Sunday should be.
Pork for dinner. Then house renovation shows on the teev.
And life is good.
It is a gorgeous summer's evening.
And it all ends, my time off, and I have to feel a little sad by that. Work tomorrow. I hope, if I keep my head down, no-one will bother me and I can just get my stuff done and then sign out.
That it the best I can hope for, left alone, do my work uninterrupted, sign out at 3pm. Now, there's a work day for you. Wish me luck.
Trump said he would intervene in Iran if they executed protesters.
But, we know Trump doesn't care about protesters being executed, because he doesn't care about his own people being executed.
So, what does he really want?
We also know that Trump is a compulsive liar.
So, it is always hard to know what he, actually, wants.
Hopefully, the threat of impeachment from his own party will stop him invading a Nato ally.
How many years to go of this disaster for the American people?
I feel it is going to be a long 3 years.
You have to wonder if the world will survive him.
His legacy is secure, though, America's worst president.
Boris has been kind of weird since I got back from leave. She is just letting people walk all over her, which really wasn't her before.
I reckon she has got a bad review, because she is just rolling over on her back and saying, lick here, to everyone.
And the Big Poo did say to me some time ago, She gets things wrong though, doesn't she, which I thought at the time was kind of naughty of him.
So, I'm just adding two and two.
It's frustrating though, as she's just letting every other department walk all over us.
“I'm now wishing my HR nemesis' kid dead. In fact, I'm put the kids name in the freezer.”
David laughed and then said, "Oh, is it that bad?"
"Oh, you know, the usual crap, but it makes me laugh."
David laughed.
“Hocus Pocus.”
David laughed again.
"Imagine the little bastard with dead eyes, and her crying hers out, it cheers me up."
"Oh Christian."
"Don't worry, I don't really believe I have any power over anyone, let alone that bitch and her sprog, but it does cheer me up."
“Oh well,” David said. “I’m all for being cheered up.”
“You know, action in a totally without consequence kind of way; no strongly worded emails to come back at me, no terse phone calls after which she goes squawking to the Big Poo saying I've been mean to her, just something to cheer me up in my own head.”
“Well, that’s lovely,” said David.
“Anyway, what do I care, I've got Aretha Franklin singing Find Me An Angel. Which again made me laugh, being ominous for the kid's future.”
“Ha ha,” said David.
“There is a bit too much of the thanking of the Jesus, though, with Aretha. So delusional. Jesus!”
I was waiting for David to respond, as he believes in the universal, non denominational higher power of some sort.
And you know, I reckon it is kind of the same thing, the oppressed believing in fantasy to get them through their day. That’s what black people did with racism, it’s what I’m doing with HR. You know, kind of. 😀
I’m still putting the kid’s name in the freezer, it will make me chuckle every time I see it.
Why are teenagers committing crimes at allegedly greater rates than ever before?
Is this the failure of parenting that is now coming to affect us all? This century it has become not only very popular, but de rigour to spend 6 months looking after a baby and then shoving the kid into child care?
Is this when the babies who were not looked after by their parents, who were shoved into child care as babies so both parents could resume work to keep up on the social ladder, and now these neglected babies are causing havoc?
Is this the ultimate result of paying parents to have kids?
What do you think?
Underage kids can't be tried as adults because they are kids. They are still under the parent's responsibility and super vision, so kids that are committing crimes are by this logic a failure of their parent's guardianship, so, shouldn't we charge the parents for their failure and neglect?
We constantly hear 14, 15 & 16 year olds committing crimes. Why aren't their parents looking after them?
I don't know. I do know that no-one seems to have any other answers to the problem.
First day back at work. Nyr? What can I say? Head down, bum up, just how I like my guys. No one disturbed me and I got everything I had to do done. One day down for this year. Tick.
Everything I am doing is for the end of January, so it is already kind of feels like January is over. You know, suddenly it will be as if time accelerates and it will be Easter, Kings birthday, Melbourne Cup. Then someone will say only so many days to Xmas. And our heads will spin.
"WTF!"
The years go so quick. Whoosh!
Are we spinning faster? Some days it just feels like we are, don't you think? Time just gets away from us.
I felt exhausted today when I was finished, I really did. My eyes have been dry and sore, something screens don't help.
I'm trying to write something, but Otto is insisting I play with his ball with him. Sunday night, the TV is off. I barely get a minute to think of something to write and he has pushed his ball towards me with his nose and then got that expectant look on his face, staring me down until I throw the ball again.
I'm not getting a moment to think of something. I'm not sure what I have got to say either. Look, he is back already.
We've been out for lunch both days of the weekend. Japanese Saturday in the city which was nice, but ridiculously expensive for lunch. Indonesian today.
I have to go back to work tomorrow. Sad face. Grrrr. Oh, I don't want to work anymore. Damn you Tattlotto. But, everyone else should have been on holidays, company mandatory shut down being what it is, so while I'll have plenty to do for the next few days, I've actually done everything I could ahead of time before the break knowing how the first week back often goes.
Anyway, Otto is panting on my leg, pushing his saliva covered ball into my thigh. The problem is that to start with he gets the ball and gives it back to me to throw, but eventually, like it has become now, it changes and I have to try and wrestle the ball away from him before I can throw it again.
Up at Sebastian's over New Year. The weather was gorgeous, just right for a few days in the country.
I think anything they do is adorable, so you'll have to indulge me. 😀 They are always together, so often cuddled up. I love it about having two of them. They are like a set.
I was surprised when I saw this photo recently, I don't know who this guy is, but he is the spitting image of my school boy crush, David.
This guy looks so much like him.
David and I started on the same day in grade 4 at our private boy's school. I had a 'thing' for him from that day until we graduated year 12.
We were friends, we had that camaraderie of starting together at the school the two of us. It gave us a bond, which I loved, of course. I never told him, I just fancied him quietly, to myself.
He was also a really nice guy. We were mates, yeah, sure, maybe he didn't have all the information.
We used to swim together. Pfffffff. Those blue speedos he used to wear.
I remember when something went wrong with a school camp we went on and he and I had to share a bed. We were, I guess, 17. I can still picture him in those olive coloured jocks as he got into bed next to me. I can still feel his heat beside me. I can still remember sliding my hand slowly towards his hip as I lay there until I stopped myself. Shook my head to myself and rolled over and went to sleep.
I was well into fucking Alex by then, anyway. David and Alex played on the football team together, and while I got to perve on both of them in their footy shorts, at least I got to slide my hands into Alex's.
Just after I finished uni, I was in the Bourke Street mall when some guy said, "hello Christian." I didn't know who he was and he looked a little hurt that I didn't recognise him. It was David, maybe five years after school, and he'd lost all of his hair. His father was an imposing bald man, chrome dome on top with hair around the sides and back, and David now looked just like him.
My memory was that I couldn't have been more awful to him, as I was crushed and shocked and, I don't know, kind of speechless.
There was my beautiful David unrecognisable.
Funny all the memories an image can evoke.
8am. I watered the garden before it gets hot. Forty degrees today. Of course, all the news services have been apoplectic about extreme heat and that we’re all possibly going to die. Naturally. That's what news services do in the modern age.
8.25am. I take the dogs for a walk before the heat.
Lots of good looking guys in shorts out and about. You've got to love the summer.
The sun is already blazing in the sky halfway around our walk. There are still plenty of shadows to walk in though.
9.20am. We get home and it is already 32 degrees.
My new Rolling Stones Cd has finally arrived, plus a gay movie DVD Astronaut Lovers, are waiting on the door step when we get home.
I switch on the fan. Sam is working upstairs. I might stretch out on the couch and watch movies… while the world, potentially, burns outside. Well, that's what last nights news suggested.
I watch Astronaut Lovers and forget about the heat.
We walked to a Japanese Lunch. It was a lovely sunny day, the sun shone, the sky was one giant unbroken blue tile over our heads. We sat in the street under a tree. People came and went, the place was busy.
I feel like I am on holidays, well, I am on holidays, of course. It feels like a never ending Saturday. It's nice. It is my preferred state of being.
When we head out to lunch, I can't quite get my head around some people having a normal working day.
Poor saps. Get yourselves better jobs, people, with Xmas and New Year breaks, I couldn't help thinking.
We didn't do much else for the rest of the day, and it drifted away just like that.
Sam watched IT. I watched YouTube.
Haircuts, for the new year. Get 2026 off to a, well, I guess, it would be, neat start, huh.
So we walked into town with the (4 legged) guys. It wasn't so busy, so that didn't take very long. Both the walk and the cuts.
We ate Indonesian in a place that Sam had just read about in LaTrobe Street, it was nothing special.
It was a lovely day, though.
I was really feeling exhausted by the time we walked home again.
So, then I slept all afternoon on the couch with the sun streaming in the lounge room window, waking just in time for the 6pm news letting the world misery back into our lives.
Erg! I guess now we might get endless Venezuelan protests on our streets, let's hope not. The middle east manage to export their hate to all corners of the world, in the last couple of years, let's hope the South American's don't do the same thing.
Anyway...
We watched the rest of And Just Like That. When we started watching it, I messaged David about how bad the scripts were, and he essentially said, 'buckle in, the writing only gets worse.' I thought it got better as the series went on, but it's been cancelled now so what does it matter.
I'll miss Carrie Bradshaw's fabulous fashion, I'm not ashamed to admit it.
I was feeling just as poorly this morning, as I have been feeling the previous few mornings. Something had happened to my left shoulder, not sure what. I don't recover as quickly as I used to.
Sam told me I had to take the dogs for a walk and have lunch, and after we set off, I forgot all about feeling poorly.
It was a gorgeous day walking through the park to Carlton.
A nice couple sat on one side with a rescue dog, that seemed like it was going to have a problem if we sat next to them, but that couple said it was okay, and we did, and it was okay.
A nice couple, with a handsome husband, and what appeared to be two albino sons sat on the other side. He told us all about his Bull Arab he once owned.
We walked home in the sunshine and I felt fine, back to normal.
We watched And Just Like That, season 3.
We lay on the couch feeling poorly and recovering all day. We did very little.
I caught up on all my YouTube car reno shows. It is amazing how quickly they pass by when you have a few days off. And I watched US political news, of course, as much as Trump that I could stomach, of course.
Sam binged watched The Last of Us, second season which just seemed to go on and on and on, it was almost as if they just didn't know how to finish it.
I woke up at 6am with Otto on the bed with me. It was a bit of a palaver getting him off the bed, it woke Sam.
Then Brun was barking at the Kookaburra's laughing, so I took him out for a wee, and he started barking at the rooster crowing at the day breaking.
Then Sam was standing next to me. He told me how difficult I was when he had to put me to bed. I remembered nothing.
Adriana got up and we sat and smoked as the sunlight came up.
Sebastian didn't get up until Adriana was leaving at 2pm.
We left at 2.30pm.
We bought fish burgers and chips on the way home from the 'in' place to buy them in North Carlton. People were lined up in the burning afternoon sun.
I fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV.
We drank champagne at midnight. We all partied all night. We took party things. Oh wow, what didn't we do? Jesus! It was like the old days. Two of Sebastian's neighbours came over and partied with us. They took party things too. She was really lovely, we had a good chat. He was lovely too, we also had a good chat. We all danced the night away.
Apparently, he had some drama as they walked home, across the paddocks, about her embarrassing him, sheesh, you never know how people are going to come down, now do you.
Adriana and I were up last, 6.30am, when the sun had come up. We sat up smoking and talking shit.
I got up again at 9am. We did more party things around the pool. We swam. The weather got warmer every day, it was great.
I conked out late afternoon and went to bed and slept until the next morning.
