Bright Tales

Hello, I have been back for a while spending time cleaning up the garden and writing (as you do). Off on my first trip next week...to South Australia.

However, in the meantime, plenty of observations:

Festival Season
It's festival season in Bright currently. We have had the Autumn Festival, Oktobefest (picture below), the Rod Run (with all the noise, tatoos and black t-shirts that brings - I stay away from the centre of town), the Great Victorian Bike Ride, and next week is the Tour of Bright cycle race. 
In between those we had the Spartan race. Incredibly 6000 people came here to kill themselves racing through obstacle courses. I'm not sure whether it's just a fad sport or a masochists' convention. Either way, apparently. you need a lot of loud music to participate and it involves a lot of shouting.

Doppleganger
When I went to vote they had a few difficulties finding my name (there are several variations). In the course of this I found out there is another Mick Ogrizek who apparently predates me (i.e. he is a lot older, which means he is really old). I don't know what the chances of that are as we are only aware of one other family (unrelated) of Ogrizeks in Victoria. It looks like this other Mick Ogrizek has been keeping a very low profile all these years. More likely it's some mix up with their records....I hope.

Interesting People
I saw a person the other day wearing what I initially thought was a grey hat. As I got closer I realised that she had just dyed the top of her hair grey. I am not sure whether she just ran out of dye or what.

Phone Scammers
Scammers can't even bother ringing you personally anymore. I got an automated call from "ABN" to sign up with them for the NBN by pressing the number 1. You can't even get any pleasure anymore by hanging up in their ear.

Animal Farm
The animals continue to take over my property. Found two blue tongue lizards trying to add to the population in my vegetable patch, and another one was licking the window near my front door. I also spotted what I think was a rabbit the other day. I have no idea how it got in. The ants got in the house the other day apparently attracted to the fresh bed I baked (no need to panic - I use a machine). They weren't interested in any other food.

New Shop
A new shop has opened in Bright calling itself a "juice and sanga bar". It took me a while to work out that its just a sandwich shop.

Public Transport
Things are bad when I am watching a TV programme on the Indian Railways (who have a 90% punctuality rate) and wishing we had a train service like the one in Mumbai.

Verbage 
A TV reporter, reporting on bushfires, said people had "self-evacuated". Is this opposed to being forcibly removed?
Labelling all sorts of things "organic" is all the thing now. Even stuff for the garden like potting mix and pea straw is now organic. I don't know what they were putting in it before. All I know is that "organic" is another way of saying "more expensive".

Milk
I have given up on the packaged milk and gone back to fresh milk. One thing I have noticed is that they must put some heat inhibitor in UHT milk as it is very difficult to boil compared to fresh milk. I guess it is at least safer.

Shrinking Packages
Increasingly, some companies instead of increasing the prices of their products, just decrease the pack size. They should be congratulated for keeping inflation down and helping to reduce the obesity problem in society through this initiative. I guess it's just coincidental they also increase their profits.

Random Thoughts & Tales (2nd Edition)...Available Now with a 35% Discount
My recently published book is now available with a 35% discount today only. Just type the discount code CM35 at checkout to get the discount. 

Order by clicking on this link: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Mogbooks

Random Thoughts & Tales - the New Editon

I have just published Random Thoughts and Tales - Grumpier edition - the second, expanded (over 244 pages), edition, of my original Random Thoughts & Tales book. As in the previous edition, it incorporates a lot of my previous blogs and emails but also includes a lot of new stories and observations. The quote from the back page blurb says it all: 
"The book is an odd combination of storytelling, observation, reflection, rambling, whinging, ranting, philosophising, memoir, and autobiography written by someone that has nothing better to do with their time now that they have retired. In particular it details the exploits of stupid people (knuckleheads) witnessed by the author on his travels and in day to day life. It's supposed to be funny (satirical) - but that depends on your sense of humour."

You can order the book from print on demand publisher lulu.com (Australian Store). More information available by clicking on this page: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Mogbooks. In addition, lulu.com usually has discount codes. To get the latest discount code, check https://www.lulu.com/home.


Enjoy!

The Trip Back to Australia

Hello, I arrived late Tuesday night. So far my record for a night's sleep is five hours. 

Anyway, on the way back I went the same route: taxi to Venice then flight to Dubai, change of plane, then direct to Melbourne. It was a good time to go as it was already raining for two days in Piran, and it only got worse in Venice. It didn't start off well though, as I thought I booked the taxi for the wrong place.- It turned out that we just had to change to another taxi shuttle in Trieste. The trip back is never really fun. It's just the other people that make it entertaining.

Venice airport is very modern and clean - you wouldn't know you were in Italy. It has excellent shops and the Chinese were running around like they have never been in a shop before. It's probably the only airport that has its own port - with water taxis and ferries (see pictures). Surprisingly, security is very strict: requiring shoes and belts to be removed. Why don't they just ask us to strip naked? It would be be quicker and more thorough. People are funny. They were lining up to get on the plane 30 minutes before they even started boarding - must have thought they wouldn't get a seat. 

When we landed at Dubai people couldn't wait to get off, starting to get their hand luggage from the lockers even before the plane had stopped. At Dubai, four Italians switched on their phones as soon as they got off and then were glued to them through the security checks. They must have had very important business to transact - tthat required the taking of selfies. At Dubai, somehow I managed to go through a security clearance twice and when I got to the gate there was a further (hand) search of cabin baggage. When I got to Australia, zero security checks. We are more concerned with the security threat that food poses than munitions. An interesting variation on the bidet was in evidence in Dubai airport. Rather than seperate bidets, that just had a hose in the toilet cubicles. Very practical.

We had a delay in taking off from Dubai as a couple of passengers had to be overloaded due to "medical issues". I think that's a airline speak for "plastered passengers". At Melbourne airport, there was the usual efficiency. I clearly waited in the wrong passport queue and expected the airport to be empty by the time I got to the baggage carousel, only to find half the plane still waiting for their bags.

A couple of pictures from Venice airport...