Buying a new microwave

should be a relatively simple task should it not? 

I need a new one. The fan has failed on the old one. It is not worth getting it repaired. It is likely the part would not be available. The cost would be more than a new microwave. 

I do not like this. I do not like the "throwaway" attitude of it all. I remember the toaster my paternal grandparents had. The spring had gone in the door and my grandfather "repaired" it by propping it shut with a block of wood. It worked. Eventually the Senior Cat found a new spring for it and fitted it on and the toaster went on toasting and burning the toast because it was not "automatic" the way it is now. Grandpa would forget to watch.

But, the microwave? My grandparents never had one but Middle Cat was given one by her parents in-law when she married. That was over forty years ago. The magnetron in it failed within a couple of weeks but it was replaced. The microwave still works. It is not quite as efficient as it once was but it does work. So, why does mine not work after less than two years?

We investigated. Replacing the fan was not an option. I spent a lot of time on-line investigating. Middle Cat investigated. My BIL investigated. Middle Cat and I went shopping yesterday.

We went shopping...and came up with another problem. Nobody had mentioned this. It would not matter for most people but I could not open the door of most of them without far too much effort for it to be safe. The "push button" sort of panel appears to be a thing of the past. The idea of having to "pull" the door open is simply not safe where I need to put the unit. 

Middle Cat and I looked at one another. We looked at other brands we did not like. They were too big or had a very poor reputation. I stood there in the middle of the huge shop and wanted to let out a yowl of frustration. 

I must have looked upset because a passing employee finally stopped and asked if they could help. We explained the problem. She smiled knowingly and told us very nicely that it was not just me. She showed us one that was hidden away. It was the brand I wanted. It was a size bigger but I can accommodate that. It had the right sort of door. "They still have a few in stock. It is an older model. They make the doors differently now but they might need to rethink."

Yes, they will need to rethink. For me the issue is basic disability induced clumsiness but there are a great many much older people who would have difficulty with new doors. I am wondering how it managed to get past those designing doors. 

Middle Cat will get a text message when my new microwave comes in. In the meantime... it's a good excuse to go and see my refugee friend who runs the tiny coffee shop in the shopping centre. She knows exactly how I like my hot chocolate.   

Does it matter where you went to school?

The state newspaper is running a series of articles by staffers who do not normally write any sort of "column". This is happening only because one of the regular columnists is on extended leave - and no doubt wondering why he chose to move to Spain for the duration of that leave. (I would quite like to move to Spain for a few months but not right now when they have so many fires.) The on-leave columnist is usually political. The other columnists are writing about things which irritate them.

Today's column is about a question the writer seems to think is peculiar to this state. "Where did you go to school?"

Yes, it is a question I have been asked. Yes, I have been asked it more than once. Does it matter? Actually yes, perhaps it does.

My answer to the question is usually, "Where would you like me to start?"  This is because my "school history" is much more complex than that of many people. My parents were teachers. They were moved about the state at the whim of the Education Department. (If you were employed by the Education Department they had the right to send you anywhere in the state at any time. The Senior Cat was given the short straw more than once because he was considered to be a "trouble shooter". He was sent to sort problems out before moving on to the next trouble spot.)

But with other children the answer was often much simpler. They went to one "infants", one "primary" (junior) and one "secondary" or high school.  These would be the geographically closest. If you were Catholic then you went to the local parish school until the end of primary and then, if your parents could afford it, on to the nearest single sex school for the rest.  A much smaller cohort went to fee paying schools run by other churches. 

Some country children came to board in the city for their post primary schooling. Some of these went to schools their parents had attended. They often came because this was how they managed to get any secondary schooling at all.

There is still some of that going on I suppose but there is an even greater variety of choice for some. If you happen to be Muslim you can send your child to an "Islamic college". If you have indigenous heritage and you want your child to be immersed in indigenous culture and language you can ask for them to be accepted at one of the schools which only accept indigenous students. There is a state primary school which runs a "French language" stream. There are schools which cater for other minority religious groupings or specialist sporting, agricultural or music interests.

A neighbour called in yesterday. He will be away for a week and left a set of keys with me. We chatted for a bit and he mentioned how his youngest child was taken to a pre-school centre recently. Her mother has been checking some out and seeing where their child might best fit in. This particular pre-school begins each day with a "welcome to country" and refuses to fly the national flag or celebrate Christmas. Apparently it is what some parents want for their children. 

So, has the question of where did you go to school ever mattered? Does it matter at all now? Should it even be asked? Is it just a casual means of opening up a conversation with a stranger? 

I suspect the answer is more complex than any of us would really like. Does it matter? Yes, it might...and then it might not.  

The new "alarm" system was tested

yesterday. We had been told about it in advance and people should have been prepared for it.

It did not "fail" if getting those three short and rather quiet beeps was all that was intended. The question of whether it was a success is yet to be answered.

I had explained what would happen to a number of very elderly people I try to keep an eye on. They have phones. They have mobile phones. I have insisted. They can use them to make and receive calls and that is about it. This is the group who are not as active or out and about. They are largely confined to their homes. They do not wish to leave them. The phone is a security measure.

I checked after the test had been made. Seven of the eleven did not hear it. Yes, hearing is failing in the group but it was more than that. The other four heard it with excuses like "but only because I was waiting like you said to". 

The test was, I believe, considered to be "mostly successful" but I believe it needs to be improved, adjusted, reconsidered...something. Human beings do not react to three short, relatively quiet "beeps". Someone I know went to see if the fridge door had been left open. She is an intelligent, able person who is younger than I am. She had forgotten about the test. Would she react in an emergency?

People are not always aware of impending danger even when they are aware of a wildfire in the distance or it has been pouring with rain and the water is rising. They may be distracted by other things even when they are aware of a potentially dangerous situation.  

The alarm needs to be longer and louder. The very least it needs to be is three short beeps repeated three times. That is technically possible and very easy to do. Making it louder may be much more difficult but it needs to be done. Yes, it does go out as a vibration too but it needs more than that. 

We also need more alerts in public areas. Once this would not have been considered important but we no longer live in a relatively "safe" world. There are "incidents" even in this country, even in spaces that were once considered absolutely "safe". I am more likely to look for exits to buildings than I once did.

So yes, test the alarm. Good, it seems to work. That is not the end of the matter though. We need to be alert for each other, not just ourselves.  

Going out to dinner

may well be a regular occurrence for someone like a Prime Minister. It is possibly all too regular. It would certainly happen often. There would be those lunches and breakfasts and "coffee" as well. (Why is it never "tea"?)

It is not the fact that they go to these things. It is where they go and with whom they associate. Those things do matter.

My parents had to face this problem many times. They were part of "the floating population".  It was a term used to describe the people who were there for just a year or two by right of their occupation. They included occupations like teaching, banking, law enforcement and pastoral care. They were people who, by virtue of their occupations, were privy to confidences and a great deal of confidential information. 

In a small country community who you associated with mattered. Of course you talked with everyone but to whose homes did you go? It must often have been very difficult for my parents. It was sometimes difficult for us as children too. We were expected to be "friends" with everyone but not too friendly with anyone.  I am also aware I knew from a very early age about the need to keep quiet about all sorts of things. It was inevitable I would hear concerned parents talking to Mum or the Senior Cat. I was "not to say anything". Since then I have been privy to many more matters of concern than I care to think about. I have signed more than one document requiring me to remain quiet.

I have been thinking about all this as the media has been discussing a dinner attended last week by our Prime Minister. Questions have, rightly, been raised about it. Why did he accept an invitation to a meal at the home of a Chinese businessman whose father has been under review for tax fraud? Where was that very large donation actually coming from? What does the host want in return? 

Yes, there will be something they want in return. People do not donate large sums of money to anything without expecting something in return. It is particularly true of people in that position.

The Prime Minister is using an "I am/was not aware" sort of defence in relation to his attendance. That is nonsense. Prime Ministers have "minders". They are the staff employed to ensure that Prime Ministers and others like them do not accidentally or, worse, deliberately associate with someone who will embarrass the government. Past associations can be dealt with up to a point but the present ones matter. 

I would go so far as to suggest the present one does matter more than people realise. A million dollars for an evening's "work"? It will buy a lot of advertising come election time. It might not even appear like that in the donations list because it will have been divided among the other attendees. 

It is what they will want in return that we need to be concerned about. Yes, they will want something. Nothing is "free" in politics.  

  

Why do they make jam jars

long and skinny now? 

I bought some raspberry jam this week. I do not buy jam very often but a friend wanted "raspberry jam tarts". These were my contribution to the afternoon tea she was having as a fund raiser. 

I am sure my friend thought she was doing me a favour. "All you need to do is buy the jam. S... is buying the pastry cases and she can put them together."

I actually bought both the jam and the pastry cases. The pastry cases are very good being made from real butter. There is no point in trying to make them. S... is "not really a pastry cook" and I am absolutely hopeless at that sort of thing.

The jam? I stood there in front of the jams on the supermarket shelves. There was the cheap jam I remembered from my childhood. It comes in a much smaller jar now. Mum used to tell us that the pips in it were wood chips and we were never allowed to have it at home. I cannot remember eating it anywhere else either but I suppose we must have. Mum made jam but she never made a lot of it. Time and money would have prevented too much jam making.

I ignored the cheap jam from childhood. It would not have been right for the occasion. There was still a choice. I looked. The woman standing next to me looked as well. We looked at each other and she asked me the question I was thinking.

"Why do they make such long, skinny jars these days? Those little round pots looked so much more comfortable."

She was right. The little round pots did look more "comfortable". It is the way jam should look.

"I have to dig it out with a knife," the woman told me, "You end up with it all over your hands. It's a messy business."

It is. It might be another reason I do not often buy jam.  

 I worked out the unit price and the likely quality of the other three brands. One brand is made in the hills behind us. It was "on special". That does not mean much at all of course, or not in the usual way. Right then it meant it was only slightly more expensive than the other brands. I know it is highly regarded and I thought "buy local" and put a jar in the trolley along with the milk and the broccoli and the environmentally friendly bags I put my household rubbish in. 

In the "fast" checkout queue the man behind me, someone I know slightly, said, "I saw that jam is down in price this week but why do they have to package it like that. It's so hard to get at by the time you get near the bottom."

That was two people saying what I was thinking. There must be more people who think the same way. What are the jam makers thinking? 

Happy endings are not always

the best ending to have.

Brother Cat called me last night. We speak to each other on an irregular but reasonably frequent basis, usually around once every two weeks. The other week he will speak to Middle Cat. 

This is not the way it was when the Senior Cat was alive. There were very regular weekly calls on Sundays and, thankfully often, there would be a call sometime during the week as there was something they wanted to share. They did not write letters to each other the way Mum wrote letters. Neither of them felt the need for that.

Now we "keep in touch". Sometimes it is a quick email but we also talk. It is Brother Cat's preferred means of communication. 

He has not been well lately. Part of it is a litany of ageing but some of it has been the side effects of a severe infection he picked up following ankle surgery.  It was more serious than either he or his partner realised and Middle Cat was of the opinion he was lucky not to lose part of a lower limb. Yes, that serious. He has ongoing medical issues. It is a happy but not perfect ending. We may not like it (I certainly do not) but it is life. 

So, we talk...I mostly listen but that is the "big sister" role. When I can get a word in I will ask about his two children (doing well) and his five grandchildren (also doing well even if three of them are sports mad). It is two of the grandchildren who have just been in a youth theatre production of Hans Christian Anderson's "Little Mermaid".

"You know the story?" Brother Cat asked me, "They changed it of course."

Yes, of course they did. You cannot have unhappy endings in a Disney based production. Really you cannot have unhappy endings in anything. It is "just not done". It is "wrong". 

I suppose, for the most part, I agree. We go to the theatre, to see a film or read a book to be entertained...and to be given some hope. The ending does not need to be perfect but if something has been dark then we need some light. 

It is when we do that and change the message of the story that I start to be concerned. In our library I look at the books for children on a regular basis. "Happy endings" are all over the place there but they are often unrealistic endings. It is no exaggeration to say most of the fiction I see will have a "happy" ending. I looked at eleven new books recently, all fiction. All of them dealt with "social issues" and all of them had the obligatory happy ending. They were also designed to make the person with the "issue" the winner and the rest of us feel "guilty".  

Are such books really about "happy endings" or are there for another purpose? Perhaps we need to start thinking that happy endings are not always the answer to everything.     

The Labor party is having their

"gabfest" here this time. The place is being over run with their supporters. I saw a few passing by yesterday. 

These things happen on a regular basis. The "good" and the "great" of the party get together to decide on changes to their "platform". Speeches are made. Decisions are made. Arguments okay, tempers rise and fall. It is all, supposedly, "democratic".

Being "Labor" the union movement is there. The union movement is there in a very big way. It might even be said that "Labor" is still the union movement itself.

Union membership is down dramatically in this country. The old days of compulsory union membership have gone. People are no longer required to be members of any union. There are some areas where not being a member of a union means you might not get employed or you will be under constant pressure to join but this is no longer legal. There are other ways and other means of ensuring your employment is fair and legal now.

The union movement, particularly the more militant sections of it. seem not to have recognised that. Their demands are still strident. The leaders seem to believe they have the right not to simply ask but to demand or even dictate policies across many areas. 

The "Manufacturing Workers Union" is making many such demands. They want a "republic" of course.  The referendum failed "back then" but apparently it would pass now and that is reason enough to do it again. They want the "Union Jack" removed from the flag. It is apparently a "symbol of oppression". They want all the "colonial statues" removed from public places. These are a reminder of our shocking past apparently.

Their demands have gone on from there to changing the date of our national holiday. That is an issue which has been made contentious by activists. We are told it should be a "day of shame". 

The same people want the failed "voice to parliament" revisited. That it failed to get up at a referendum too but apparently we should do it again. It apparently should have got a "majority of people in a majority of the states".  It is a pretty high bar to pass but they think they can do it. All this is couched in high sounding language about indigenous recognition and rights and how the rest of us are "racist".

There are also calls for the "recognition of Palestine" and those who control it. This may actually be impossible under international law but why let that get in the way? 

There is "climate change" of course. Apparently we should be spending a great deal more on that than we are.  It should not be difficult to do.

They want a four day week for the same pay as they are now getting for a five day week. At the same time they want "better working conditions and increased wages". They want "the rich" taxed even more than they are now. 

These things will apparently come up for discussion at their meeting today. They may well get adopted.

Membership of unions in this country has risen slightly since I last looked. It is now around 13.1% of the workforce. It is around 14.0% for women and 12.0% for men. Among the younger generation, those in the  20-24yr group the figure is 7.3% and about 3.7% below that. The AMWU numbers are even smaller of course.

Yet it is these people who will dictate the direction in which the country goes. It seems they are not concerned with the dire state of manufacturing in this country. They apparently believe in some sort of utopia which would be possible if everyone else did as they demand. 

Even in my idealistic teens I did not believe in "communism". Socialism still does not appear to work but they believe it will. I wonder where that leaves the rest of us...and whether they would like it if what they demanded actually happened.