Mog's Christmas Greetings

In this final blog of the year I thought I would take the opportunity to wish everyone that I haven't caught up with, a good Christmas and New Year. 

Also I have a few more final observations for the year (that I haven't had the opportunity to document before)... 

The Trip Back from South Australia

I caught a bus from Mount Gambier to Warnambool, then a train to Melbourne. Short break in Melbourne and then train and bus to Bright. A long trip - it involved 12 hours of travel. But of course fellow passengers provided free entertainment on the way. On the way to Warnambool there was one passenger who could not stop talking. telling a stranger (across the aisle) the intricacies of her personal life -  she always had one story better than her fellow traveller. The stories were getting more incredulous by the moment. Thank goodness it stopped when another passenger got on and sat between them. Then there was the person that kept taking pictures of the road - I'm not sure whether she was positing these pictures to her social media network, or what, just to keep them updated on her whereabouts, the important person she undoubtedly is. Regardless, she sure spent a lot of time on that phone. Apparently in Portland they don't have toilets but "amenity rooms". In Melbourne I had an appointment and when I got out (this was Friday) there was an absolute downpour and I had a train to catch. Needless to say I got completely drenched - the umbrella didn't make a lot of difference and I had to wade across streams which were formerly gutters. I have never seen it rain as hard in Melbourne. But I made it in time. However, the train into Wangaratta was late (as usual) and then we had an extra 20 minutes on the bus trip to Bright as we couldn't take the usual route due to a washed out bridge. In the end we were 40 minutes late getting into Bright. When I returned, the daddy long legs had taken up occupancy in my house, again, in my absence. Some of them are quite smart, they hide when I come and only emerge a few days later when they think I'm not around. It was good to get into my own bed - hotel beds are usually hard, roll around because they are on wheels, and/or difficult to get into as they seem to staple the sheets to the bed.

Trip to Melbourne

Before my South Australian trip I went to Melbourne for a few appointments.  The trip is never boring. On the bus to Wangaratta we went through Porepunkah. There I saw a car on platforms (not ramps) in someones driveway. Don't know whether they have a problem with car theft or what. I just don't know how they got it up there. On the train to Wangaratta an older woman (sitting next to me) had her suitcase at her feet and so I asked whether she wanted me to put it up in the luggage rack for her. She said no as she needed access to it. Five minutes later she put the suitcase in the luggage section at the back of the carriage and didn't go near her suitcase again. She also kept standing up at each station and checking the timetable. I am not sure whether she was an undercover ticket inspector or just afraid she would miss her stop (Southern Cross Station).
When I was in Melbourne the entertainment continued. In Hoppers Crossing I saw a person sitting in his driveway in front of an open garage in a deck chair reading a book. Must like the sun but has a shady backyard
In the city itself I was walking behind a couple and I thought one of them was on the phone as he was quite loud. Wrong, they were just Americans. 
I am a bit concerned with those people that carry around a 1.25 litre bottle of Coke. They surely have a bad sugary drinks addiction. 
Another person I saw in the city, had a carnival mask on his forehead. No idea why you would need this at lunchtime in city unless he was part of the Myer window display. I went to Melbourne Central and saw a shop selling freshly shaved ice. Apart from the shaved ice thing, is freshly shaved ice discernibly different from stale shaved ice? More disturbing was getting an email, shortly after, from Melbourne Central thanking me for my visit and asking me to do a survey. I hadn't even bought anything there. I hadn't (purposefully) logged into their free wi fi). So much for privacy.
While I was in Melbourne I went to the soccer. I was caught in a classical wedge. In front of me there was a group with marginal interest in what was going on on the field. Just before kick off two of them got up and went somewhere, they returned 18 minutes into the game. Then, 10 minutes before the game finished the same group stood up and started saying their goodbyes to the others with kissing and the whole lot, while I am still trying to watch the game. The group of teenagers behind me were just as bad. One kept repeating the same inane fact over and over and one of them didn't know whether Melbourne Victory's star player was Japanese or Chinese.

New Phone
I bought a new, bigger phone, because as you get older your eyesight deteriorates and you develop fat fingers.

Telstra
I have had ongoing issues with Telstra. However, its difficult to speak to them as they do everything possible to avoid talking to people (probably because all they get is abuse): they have online chat, online forums (crowd support), help pages. They now even have a virtual assistant, i.e. an automated voice recognition robot that tries to work out what you want and then provide a response. Unless you say the magic words which it can understand then you are likely to be led down the garden path as I was. I had to do a Google search to try to find the telephone number for Telstra to talk to a real person because it certainly wasn't on their website. On another occasion I was told to go to a Telstra shop to resolve my problem. Now that's ironic.

Random Thoughts & Tales (2nd Edition)...Available Now with a 20% Discount
My recently published book is now available with a 20% discount. Just type the discount code TWENTY18 at checkout to get the discount. Order by clicking on this link: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Mogbooks

Photos
In case you are interested, the first photo is of the Adelaide tree, the second Melbourne and the one at left is Bright's Christmas tree.