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.

Biometrics

There was a bit of a discussion a few weeks back about the use of biometric data for security purposes.

In particular, a Facebook engineer, Gregg Stefancik was quoted  as saying that he "hates biometrics" because, once such data is compromised, it can't be amended.  He means that a person's fingerprints, retina or voice pattern can't be changed, whereas other forms of authentication like a password can be reissued.

However, the "Biometrics Institute" (not quite sure what this is or who is behind it)  apparently think that this overstates the case. They say,  "that biometrics offers far greater security than passwords and can’t be stolen because they are physical features of a person."

Well, perhaps biometric data they can't be stolen from a person, but what about at the other end?   Surely the data has to be on file at the bank or wherever, so that when the individual logs in, it knows what to look for?   And of course, we all know that any organisation that stores data about you is quite capable of being hacked (for example, eBay).  EDIT - and cloud storage also seems vulnerable.

The essence of the the Institute's  argument appears to be that you don't use biometrics alone.  Err, what's that?    So you do have to have a password or PIN as well?  Kinda defeats the purpose, I would have thought.....

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but at this stage, I remain to be convinced about the utility of biometric data!

Possum

For weeks now, we've heard the possum(s) chirruping away during the night in the flowering ironbark tree close to our bedroom window.  

But on opening the front door one evening recently, we saw that  one of the noisy little guys had come to pay a closer visit!

The Flag

What happens to the Union Jack and even the Australian flag if the Scots vote for independence   (and here)?  There was an article in the Australian about this (sorry about the paywall), but the essence was that if Scotland became independent, then logically the St Andrew's Cross would be removed from the Union Jack.    Then the issue would arise as to whether a consequential change would be made to the Australian flag.    Of course, this is all entirely speculation at present and involves several layers of "what ifs" ......

The article in the Australian suggested that the Australian flag could end up looking like the flag on the far right.  Well, maybe, but doesn't the blue background come from the St Andrew's flag?    Why would this be retained?   The stripped down Union Jack - assuming that this came about - would presumably have a white background because the two remaining components,  St George's cross and St Patrick's cross, both have white backgrounds. 

One possibility would be to take the opportunity to change the Australian flag, but the big question is, to what?   Please, let's not move away from the present flag until we know what we'd get instead.   And for the record I don't much like the design being promoted by one group (left).

The Memorial Service

We attended a memorial Service for a long-standing member of the Church congregation.

About 150 people attended, and although the setting and format were traditional, many elements were, as happens these days, characterised as a celebration of her life, complete with reminiscences, grandchildren playing the cello and singing as well as Frank Sinatra recordings (and others) being played.  And then the refreshments afterwards spilled over into the worship space. 




All somewhat different from the orthodox tradition.

PINs

I'm still getting letters and text messages from the bank reminding me that it's "PIN-only" from 1 August (because the banks want it that way).   It's all very annoying - especially the text messages.   ANZ in particular is getting quite agitated that I haven't used the PIN on my ANZ credit card.   They don't seem to have noticed that I haven't used the credit card at all......
Seems to me that the people that the banks need to be talking to are restaurants!    In my albeit limited sample of restaurants over the last few weeks signing is still very much alive!

But what about overseas card holders and other people who don't have a PIN?

I see that the Dementia Institute has taken up the issue and apparently it will be possible to have "sign only" cards.   So maybe things won't be entirely "PIN-only" after all.

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.

Forbidden Fruit

I don't comment on every book I read, but I thought I ought to post something about Kerry Greenwood's Forbidden Fruit.   I can handle Kerry's Phryne Fisher (here, for example), but the "detective" in this book is Corinna Chapman.   I haven't read any of the previous Corinna Chapman books (I see that Forbidden Fruit is the 5th), so it took me a while to get up to speed on some of the context of this story.  Even allowing for this, I'm sorry, but Corinna is just too over-the-top for me.  Yes, there are some familiar place names, but there's too much food stuff, too many way-out characters, too many pets (sorry, "companion animals"), too much over-done description of Melbourne's (largely imaginary) "street scene".

Perhaps there's an audience for all this, but I ended up skimming the pages looking for the "story" - such as it is.  The story meanders down numerous seemingly irrelevant byways and involves highly implausible characters.   The trials and errors in the making of making of glacé cherries seem to get as much attention as the search for the runaway kids......and anyway, there's a recipe for glacé cherries when (nearly 300 pages later) you get to the end.

Pomen

Baba's 40 day pomen took place on Saturday.   It was in Melbourne to enable those who had been unable to travel to Canberra for the funeral to be present.  However, a contemporaneous service at the graveside also occurred. It was advertised in a couple of the Serbian-language newspapers.

This is an important service.  Literally, "pomen" means "memorial service", but the significance of the 40 days is that the Orthodox Church teaches that there are two judgements. 
The first, or “Particular” Judgement, is that experienced by each individual at the time of his or her death, at which time God will decide where the soul is to spend the time until the Second Coming of Christ.  This judgement is believed to occur on the fortieth day after death.

The second, General or “Final” Judgement will occur after the Second Coming.





Candles were also lit for Baba on the day by family members at this small church in Montenegro.

ATM fees

It seems that ATM fees are very unpopular.   The Age (and other Fairfax media) ran a report about Galaxy Research's finding that people don't like ATM withdrawal fees when they use a "foreign" ATM.    It was mentioned that the typical fee seems to be moving up from $2 to $2.50.

But I'm sorry, I don't see any reason for indignation (at least, in relation to domestic ATMs).  Why shouldn't people be charged a fee when they use an ATM that's not operated by their own financial institution?   To me, it's a bit like walking into McDonalds and asking for a KFC product, or asking Qantas to sell you a Virgin ticket.

I think it's excellent that, if necessary, you can withdraw money from just about any ATM, but what's the problem if you have to pay when you use another bank's machine?  

It's said that people will drive to the other side of town to get petrol a few cents cheaper, so what's wrong with walking a few metres up the street to to get to an ATM operated by your own bank?  Although there are exceptions (small towns and airports come to mind), ATMs tend to be a bit like bananas - they bunch up.    Chances are that where there's one brand of ATM, several others won't be far away.

The use of  linked networks is sometimes overlooked, too.   The NAB and Redi ATM networks can be used interchangeably without fees, as can CBA/Bankwest and Westpac/Bank of Melbourne/St George.  I've seen a few Bankwest machines in 7/11 stores.  Another option is to use EFTPOS and the "cash-out" facility.    But of course the simplest option is just to plan ahead (albeit a little out-of-favour in our "instant gratification" world).