Whoops. How could I forget, it was our fourth anniversary today. A speedily organised lunch and a bunch of flowers later, I think I got away with it. Must remember next year. If we were married, it’d be Fruit and Flowers this year. Though there are claims the modern gift equivalent for four years is ... [More]
Category: Consumerism
Categories
Freaking HOW MUCH?!?
Every so often, some junk mail will sneak past the No Junk Mail sticker, often in a kind of junk mail Trojan horse, such as a copy of the Bayside Weekly. Last week a Barbecues Galore catalogue snuck in. Now, I know that they stock a wide range of barbecues, including the modest type of ... [More]
Categories
Somewhere in the city
Some pics from the last few days… These people really really really really really like Sunkist. They bought probably about 50 x 1.25 litre bottles. (Why not buy bigger bottles?) They also bought over 100 Milo bars. Someone, somewhere is having a Sunkist and Milo Bar party. The checkout staff seemed quite bemused by it ... [More]
Categories
No more junk mail
I’ve gone cold turkey on junk mail. The sticker went on last weekend, and there’s been nothing since. Of all the junk mail I used to get (the record being a phenominal 28 pieces in a single day, but more typical being 100 per month), I would only read a fraction of it: usually I’d ... [More]
Categories
House prices in my neighbourhood
(Is there anything more dull than people talking about house prices?) Age (last Saturday, I think — can’t find it online) reported on the latest annual rise in median house prices around Melbourne — up 11.7% overall. Of the suburbs rising, many are those close to the city and/or with good access to transport and ... [More]
Categories
Wasting time
Despite having a silent number, and fiercely protecting it, I do get the odd telemarketing call. They are almost all from offshore call centres, and almost all during business hours, when I’m not generally home. Call centre dialling systems are meant to detect when an answering machine picks up. But evidently their systems think my ... [More]
Categories
Big advertising
You know those sandwich board advertising things? A-frames, I’m told they’re called. The IGA in Ripponlea has recently got one. It’s as big as a person. On the bright side, it’s unlikely to blow over in the wind. Though if it did, it’d probably kill somebody. Update: Speaking of advertising, I just added Google ads ... [More]
Categories
The housing market
Is housing really unaffordable? Sure it’s increasingly expensive in the inner/fashionable suburbs (I should know, I’m paying for it), but that’s all about choice. More and more people are choosing particular suburbs, driving the prices up. From yesterday’s Age: “While the family, now based in St Kilda East, could afford to buy a home further ... [More]
Categories
Origin Energy pack
After signing up weeks ago, my box of green goodies from Origin Energy finally arrived. That is, a card from the post office arrived, and I went down to collect it on Tuesday. As the lady dug around behind the counter to find it, I looked across. There must have been 7 or 8 Origin ... [More]
Categories
Supermarket stuff
Recycled tissues are back in the mainstream supermarkets, if my local is any judge. Naturale 100% recycled. I’ll stock up. Sadly the Continental brand chicken sauce I (and the kids) like seems to have vanished completely. It seems to have morphed from two jars into one, and adopted the dodgy-sounding brand name Indian Tonight. Last ... [More]
Categories
How to get rich (maybe)
Most days I take my own lunch into work. But if I’ve forgotten or not had time, and I’m not going out to lunch with anybody else, I’ll buy something. Sometimes it’ll be a burger. But most of the other times, I’ll go to a place in the Australia On Collins foodcourt which makes rather ... [More]
Categories
Hello AGL
Hello to my readers at AGL. I know they’re reading because earlier this evening someone from their customer advocacy team rang me up, saying AGL management had found the whole name change saga (Googling “AGL”, apparently) and passed it to him. He explained what had happened (old data used by a mail house). I understand, ... [More]