Allium

The Livingroom is no more, now it's Allium.   I read on the website that Livingroom has been around since 2007, but the owners redecorated and re-launched it earlier this year.

Allium?  It's Latin for garlic and apparently is the name for the onion family!     The dining space has been broken up with a curtain, and this, along with carpet on the floor in the lower area, has softened the atmosphere.   The menu continues to be interesting.  The prices don't seem to have increased;  in fact, they might even have dropped very slightly.  

I liked my entree which (I quote) was "Jerusalem Artichoke Entree with Pickled Shiitake and Mandarin", and the steak that followed was good too.   Favourable reports were also heard about the rolled lamb shoulder.  For desert  we shared a "Parsnip parfait".   Interesting use of a vegetable, and quite effective actually, but I don’t think I could picked it if I hadn't read the description first.  There are some good pictures here. 

The shade sails

I was a bit surprised, a few weeks back, to see a number of large poles (11, I've been told) appear in the  playground in our local park.  Clearly they are intended to support shade sails.   Oh well, I thought, even though there are probably better uses for ratepayers' money, the park user group has perhaps decided that these are a good idea.    Since I haven't participated in the user group, who was I to complain?

Weeks passed.  Then, a few days back, we were approached by a neighbour in the street.  Would we sign a petition saying that the residents don't want shade sails?   They'd be too big, too intrusive, unnecessary for many months and would collect leaves, and the user group is opposed to them - as are the 70 locals who had already signed the petition.

It was explained to us that although the park user group suggested about 5 years ago that more tree plantings would be nice to provide some shade, no-one had  suggested shade-cloths and the poles were erected without any consultation.  The user group had no idea they were coming, and apparently even least some of the local ward councillors were said to be unaware that they were being erected!





Why am I not surprised to hear that the council bureaucracy appears to be on a mission of its own here?

We signed, and I shall watch developments with interest.

Auction technique

Every real estate auction is different, and - apart from knowing what your upper limit is - there's no one rule for bidders that's invariably applicable.    However, as a long-term observer of the auction scene, I do know that agents' usual advice to "bid strongly" is not necessarily the way to go.  It seems to me that often it just communicates to the auctioneer that you're interested - with the risk that the price might drift upwards before the property is put on the market, and that this is likely to more than off-set any possible effect of "scaring off" other bidders.

Be that as it may, we recently attended a nearby auction, where there were two bidders, both quite diffident.  True, it was an executor's sale, but successful purchaser impressed me.  She dithered in her bids, asked for time to consult her husband, suggested a coffee break and generally gave every indication of being indecisive.   Perhaps she was - but I wondered if it was all an act?   Because the upshot was that the auctioneer put the property "on the market" at what I considered to be quite a low figure, and the consensus amongst the neighbours (who watch these things very closely!) was that eventual sale price was very reasonable.

I still don't know whether the "strategy" was by accident or design....but I came away impressed.

Restaurant "attitude"

I guess this post belongs in the "letting off steam" category, but just the same....

We went for a casual meal at one of the newer restaurants in our local shopping strip.  It was a wintry week night, and there weren't many people about.  In fact, when we got to the restaurant, there was only one other table occupied, with two people on it.   But where were we seated?   On the table immediately adjacent to them, almost shoulder to shoulder!    This is a restaurant with perhaps a dozen other tables (I'm guessing), none of which were occupied, but apparently it was felt that the groups of two had to be placed at the tables most suitable for that number (all of the others seemingly seated 4 or more people).

Lots of restaurants around!

Perhaps we ought to have said something, but we made the best of the situation.    It was the attitude that "got" to me.   Why cram people up so that the small groups sit on the smaller tables just to "save" the larger tables for larger groups "in case they arrive" - which needless to say, they didn't.

The food was nice, but running a middle-of-the-range restaurant in our part of the world is a highly competitive business.


Another issue is that we weren't allowed to BYO wine, on the basis that they had a "full bar".   Errr.....yes, the bar structure was indeed nice, but there was no wine list, just a couple of choices in each category. Well, that's the restaurant's decision, but in this part of the world, BYO is nearly universal.

I won't mention names but in a strip where restaurants regularly open and close and even some of the more established places seem to have fewer customers, I'm not sure that the people running this one fully appreciate that little things matter when it comes to customer service.

Yellow bins

We're used to  wheelie bins of various colours, for recycling, green waste and general waste.   Actually, the colour coding doesn't seem to be consistent across different municipalities, but perhaps that's another issue.   But, around here, we have a few all-yellow bins  in our shopping strips.

Looking more carefully, and we noticed that these are located outside newsagents and are lockable.    We saw the other night that they were being used to provide a secure place for after-hours deliveries of magazines.

Travel agents

Our local shopping strip has lots of cafes, hairdressers - and travel agents.    I suppose that says something about the demographics of the area.

The new arrival

Recently, another travel agent has opened.  I wondered if the people behind it knew what they were doing - until it dawned on me that it was another brand operated by Flight Centre!  So I assume that even though the new shop is just down the road from the existing Flight Centre, they know what they're doing.

So many travel agents

The latest to arrive is just another Flight Centre brand

On a related note, I have used a particular consultant at the local Flight Centre branch on a number of occasions in recent years.






It seems that it was fortunate that she was available when I walked into the shop on the first occasion, as she is obviously experienced. I regard myself as a reasonably "informed" customer in that I have a fair idea of what I want before I walk in, but there are still issues on which I like to obtain a second opinion.   However, in a recent email, she informed her clients that she was moving to "Travel Associates" (yet another Flight Centre brand), which I thought was fine until I read on the website that this brand is  "a boutique travel agency dedicated to offering discerning travellers the ultimate in experiential [sic] travel and tailor-made itineraries".  Hmmm, I wonder if that's for me?

Autumn leaves

Well, I know it's winter now, but the autumn leaves in our area were, as usual, quite attractive (although they have since fallen). 



















Not so attractive were the leaves of the plane trees which cluttered up the area for a while.  Eventually the Council came along with a team and cleaned things up, doing quite a good job I must admit.

Seniors' parking

An interesting idea, reserved spots for "seniors" near the access ramps in a local shopping centre.  These positions were close to the spots for the disabled and the parents with children!

But, is this enforceable, as (at least, to date) seniors don't have a card to display?   Perhaps the idea is that it will be self-regulating!    After all, who wants to admit that they're unable (unwilling?) to walk a few extra metres?  I for one didn't have the courage to occupy one of the spots! Of course, getting a small discount at the coffee shop is a different matter since that's an opportunity not to be passed up.

The Library renovations

The Council did some renovations at the local library a couple of months ago.   As I said in my earlier post, I'm not quite sure what was achieved (apart from the expenditure of ratepayers' money).  The service desk is now smaller, and a temporary table has been placed beside it to provide an additional position. The revised layout has involved the fiction area being swapped with the non-fiction area, and the newspaper/periodicals area being swapped with the children's area, but frankly the layout doesn't appear any more functional than previously.

But most notably, the previous higher  shelving in the fiction area has been replaced by shelving that is significantly lower.   Because there's been no increase in the total area area occupied by bookstacks, the result is that the library's capacity has been reduced.

No more than 4 shelves, please

Why has this occurred?   I guess that there's some standard for libraries that requires every book to be accessible to a child?    If so, the logic appears to be, well, if the result of having higher bookstacks is that the books on the highest shelf won't be readily accessible to a small percentage of users, then it's better not to have the books at all.   Put another way, unless 100% of users can reach them, then the 95% of users who can reach them can't have them either!  Is this really what "equal opportunity" (or whatever) is about?

What next?   I see that tactile banknotes are on the agenda.   And if it's impracticable to implement these, do we abolish banknotes?

"Dear Neighbour...."

It's quite common to get a little note in our letterbox, along the lines of, "Dear Neighbour, we're having a party, we won't make much noise, but apologies if you do hear something....". 


All very nice and civilised I think.   But never an invitation to join in!

Getting back to normal

After all the plastering and painting, we had to get the house back to normal.  This involved cleaning and dusting everything, and moving various items of furniture, some of which were fairly heavy.   We'd had some help from the tradesmen when they first arrived in moving them out of the rooms they were working in, but of course the workmen were long gone by the time we'd cleaned up and were ready to move back.
Still, we managed.   The trickiest was the bed, which had been dismantled in order to move it.   Putting it back together involved fitting the base on to both the head and the foot while at the same time placing a mid-beam (which had to go under the slats) into its slots.   All a bit complex, and a bit of juggling was required to align everything at the same time, but we got there.

Then there was some rain, and we were pleased that the annoying little leak in the verandah had been fixed.

Painting

After the plastering comes the painting.  Maybe I was premature in commenting on the quality of the plasterers' work in my earlier post, because the painter, who asserted he knew something about plastering, was critical of some aspects.

Perhaps it was partly our fault, we said, because we had chosen that parts of the cornice be patched rather than replaced.  Be that as it may, the painter said that he wanted to do some extra preparation (not covered by the quote), to which we agreed.  We also noted his point that he had drawn our attention to the issues, and that if these resulted in aspects of his work being slightly less than the standard to which he would normally aspire, we would not hold it against him.

All this work is very intrusive and we've got things scattered in temporary positions all around the house, so we'll be glad when it's finished.

Eating Lebanese

We went for a casual meal at a fairly new, local Lebanese restuarant (Zikrayat).   We hadn't been here before, and we liked the food and the service.  The unexpected bonus was that at 8.30, the belly dancer appeared.

Not a great photo, but you get the idea!

We hadn't expected this, but she was very good and soon had a number of the guys (and even some of the girls) up on the floor!

The parking permit zone

A section of our street has been changed from 2 hour parking to "permit parking only".   It's at the end closest to the shops, and, yes, shoppers do (did) park there.     But what's wrong with that?  Of the dozen or so houses fronting the street in this section, almost all have driveways and off-street parking.    Have we reached the point where the rules can be changed to accommodate people who just don't like to have cars parked outside their houses?

I wonder about the motives of the Council.  It's obviously much easier to fine someone for parking in a permit zone than having to come back 2 hours later to check whether they've over-stayed the limit.  The Council seems to have form in this regard.

Most houses in the affected area have driveways

The ward meeting

I'm not sure that I know why I seem to be drawn to attend the Council's ward meetings.  They're painful affairs, characterised by grumpy residents expressing strong views about matters that little can be done about.  Attending seem to be an exercise in self-inflicted pain!  Who'd be a local councillor?

The venue was at Prahran Town Hall

However, I suppose it's interesting to hear about the things that are concerning people, even though the issues are familiar, and the thrust of the answers is much the same. There are a group of matters where the Council tends to say, sorry, but it's out of our control.   Planning matters feature prominently here.  The answer always given is, it's out of the Council's hands, because VCAT overrides us.   Noise issues are sometimes mentioned (here, the EPA's rules prevail over anything the Council tries to do).   And traffic lights that seem to be set wrongly are the fault of VicRoads.

Then there are complaints about roadworks, such as about planter boxes having been installed in the street (in the particular case, years ago), to which the answer is, these are what a majority of residents in the street wanted, so speak to your neighbours.   And then's there's traffic management:  please make it hard for everyone's car except mine.  At the most recent meeting, I'm sure that the essence of one comment was, yes, I want traffic humps in the street, but please put them outside my neighbour's hose, not mine.

One interesting bit of information did emerge.    One of the ward councillors in the last council was Tim Smith who aspires to move into State politics.  Now it seems that the Greens councillor (Sam Hibbins) aspires to follow in his footsteps at the next State election.   I'm not sure that I like the ward being seen as a stepping stone into politics.

Plastering

The time finally came - it just had to be done.  We've put up with cracks in the plaster for quite some time, on the basis that, even if you fix them, they re-appear.    But you can only take so much, so we've called the plasterers in.

Work in progress

It's messy (very dusty indeed), takes time and it's not cheap, and while the work is still in progress, from what we've seen so far, we're happy with the quality.

It's very disruptive

The auction scene

Some time back, we took a friend from interstate who was staying with us to a nearby Saturday morning house auction.  It was something a bit different for him, and he appeared to enjoy it.   The problem is, it becomes a bit addictive and, for me, attending local auctions on Saturdays is quite a regular occurrence.

I'm not the only one, it seems.  On a recent weekend, I exchanged views with another attendee about the Council valuation of the property concerned, and then at the next auction, got into quite a discussion about a couple of other sales that had occurred that day.  These views related to quite specific issues such as, "the auctioneer really ought to have put in the vendor bid to kick the auction off at a lower figure because he didn't get any momentum", and "it would have been better to put the property on the market rather to pass it in and rely on post-auction negotiations".  

Obviously mere by-standers such as us don't know all the facts (including "minor details" such as the vendor's instructions!), but after observing a few, the locals certainly develop opinions!

In the park

I didn't like to take a photo of the one-on-one personal training occurring in the park, but it often occurs.

I suppose parks are there to be used, but I admit I had to pause for a few moments to think about where I stood on the issue.

Although you need a permit in Stonnington to have a wedding ceremony in a park, there doesn't seem to be any requirement to obtain a permit to undertake other activities, including wedding photos (unlike the Botanical Gardens - even in the driveways!)

Power outage - and Big Brother?

It was 8.30 in the morning and, click, just like that, the power went off.    In the past, the core balance device has occasionally tripped, but this time it was fine.    A neighbour was in his garden so I asked if their power was also out, but no, their power was fine.  And likewise, there was no problem for neighbour on the other side.

Thoughts of an expensive callout charge by an electrician on a public holiday crossed my mind.  But on closer inspection, there was no display on the smart meter.   So I rang Citipower, who told me that there were no problems in the area, but, yes, they could see that the meter wasn't functioning.  It seems that they can tell just what's going on at your meter.   Talk about Big Brother!

Hence, they sent their person around who fixed the fuse on the main line (where it's attached the house).

So, it seems that there can be some benefit in having Big Brother keeping watch.....???.

Kew - and being geographically footloose

I see that Tim Smith has won Liberal endorsement for the State lower house seat of Kew.  Hmm, until not so long ago, he was on the Stonnington council.  In fact, the that he is a former mayor of Stonnington is often mentioned as one of his credentials.  True, he did serve a term on the Council and he was mayor for one year during this time.  I think it's fair to say he is remembered as being reasonably effective and he was certainly high-profile.  He was (is) young and it was openly said of him that he had political ambitions.

But we read a little while back that Tim Smith has now been "locally active" in the Kew area and is president of the Canterbury branch of the Liberal party.

At Stonnington, he was a councillor for South Ward (Wikipedia still records this!).
 
Now, political ambitions are all very well, but most candidates in Stonnington find it necessary to assert a close interest in the local area.  I can't remember just what Tim Smith told us about his connection to the South Ward area, but Canterbury is quite some distance from Windsor, and no part of the Kew electorate is within kilometres of Stonningon's South Ward.  Perhaps geographic loyalty isn't all that it seems to be? [Edit] Or has he really moved house?