What would you do with an empty department store?

How would you fill such a store if money was no object? Why would you do it that way?

There was a question asked in our local media about what should be done with the department stores which are closing now that the oldest chain is closing most of the stores they had in shopping centres. The one in the city will remain. Another in a very big centre some distance to the north will remain. The rest will be vacant and there will be space to fill.

The answers people came up with were interesting. The vast majority of them suggested filling the space with a similar arrangement. One person wanted a hardware store but there are nearby hardware stores. Another wanted a "mini" version of the infamous Swedish store.  

There was one person who suggested turning the area into "flats" or "units". Their concern was housing people. It is a concern of mine too but I do not think it would work. This is a shopping area. The rest of it closes at night.

I very rarely comment on items but I did comment on this one because I could see something which would be good to have. It is unlikely to happen. I am not sure it would actually make a lot of money but it may save some money in other ways.

What if we had a place which was given over to toys, games, puzzles, paint, paper, pens, pencils, fabric, yarn, musical instruments, books (especially craft and other activities)? What if we had a place where people could go to learn about a hobby, buy the materials and perhaps attend an occasional workshop? Would it work? Would parents and grandparents take their children and grandchildren there at the beginning of the long summer holidays and say, "We are going to get something you can do, do instead of looking at a screen."? What if the basement had a simple gardening area where you could find out how to first grow things in pots? What if there was an area with cookbooks and implements and lessons suitable for children and teenagers?

And we would need a whole floor devoted to books.  

It won't happen of course. I am not even sure those spaces will be filled with mini-shops. We have changed the way we shop. I am guilty of buying things on line. It is much less effort for me than getting the trike on two trains to get to the big shopping centre - and then two trains back again. If what I want is there on the screen and often delivered "free" or at the same price as a shop then I am afraid I will do it. 

Is that a good thing? Probably not.   

Life without Microsoft

was interesting - for some. It was also frustrating. 

Above all it made me realise that we are far too dependent on "things working", most of all the internet. It is just over twenty-five years ago that I started to communicate with most of my work colleagues using an "email" address. That address has gone the way of the company which provided it. I have been using other addresses since then. 

My personal email has remained the same. My work email addresses have expanded and contracted in number according to the levels of availability in other parts of the world and the levels of security required. One of them is a very ordinary "Outlook" address - ordinary until it failed. 

I could not log in at all. The page kept coming up with an error message. As the other things I needed were working I assumed there was something wrong at the other end. I went to look at the news site I keep a background eye on and saw it was indeed a problem at the other end.

There were messages that needed to be sent. This required thought. In the normal way I could transfer some information and send it via another account but nothing about what I do is particularly "normal". People do not open email from addresses they do not know if they are in the middle of a crisis situation. They will not take the risk of being shut down completely because someone has hacked in to their accounts.

There was someone in a refugee camp in Somalia who was trying to locate someone else. That someone else might be able to help with something which would allow something else to happen which would eventually end up bringing in some hospital supplies. Yes, I thought I knew where that person was because I had provided some words and symbols for him recently. 

There was a civil engineer in Nepal who was waiting to find out the name of an interpreter who had helped in the past. I had been in touch with the interpreter. Now they needed to get in touch with each other. Bridge building saves lives. 

There was a doctor in Israel who is doing something I can say nothing about. All I can say is that I admire her courage and commitment to the most severely traumatised. Waiting for the systems to come up was not an option in that instance.

So I sat there and thought and tried not to worry. There would be a way around this. I tried to think it through from the other end. How would they get a message to me? Could this give me an idea of how the reverse might work. Who else did I know they might know? Could anyone I could contact get a message to them? 

In the end it was quite simple. I realised "X" was working. My colleagues use "X" to send brief messages to each other. It is reserved largely for emergencies. There are good reasons for that. It is not something anyone wants to abuse. Yesterday was different. I looked at the messages going through and saw several people were thinking the way I was thinking. 

Getting the first message through would mean a tiny number of vital hospital supplies would get to their destination. Getting the second message through meant that something vital to constructing a bridge could be put in place before the engineer needs to return to his home country. The final message went through a different route but I found myself in the unusual position of silently thanking X instead of cursing it. 

They were little things perhaps. They may not matter much to other people but for those involved they do matter. It is also the way the world usually works now. 

It is often said future wars will be fought over water. They will be but they will be fought not just over resources but our ability to communicate with one another. Shut down the internet resources of your opponent and you will win the war.  

  

The "Moto GP" should

not be held in the park lands. There is no reason to hold here at all. I would go so far as to suggest it should not be held anywhere. I see no point in any sort of motorbike or any other sort of vehicle race. 

This is coming from someone who is all too well aware that two of her nephews have been involved in racing go-karts for many years. Their father has provided thousands of hours of engineering expertise to it all. Youngest nephew is a national champion and I should be proud of him. I am - but wish it was for something different.

At least the go-karts are raced on a dedicated racing circuit well away from city streets. The Moto GP will not be. It will be held by blocking off city streets, denying access to some and their businesses. There will be many others who will have difficulty getting to and from their places of employment or need to work from home.  It will be noisy.

We are told the circuit is "safe" and that it has been "approved". I just hope that is correct and that nobody is injured or, even worse, killed on the track. One motorcycle cop, trained to the nth degree, has told me he has doubts about the track. He also wishes the whole thing was not taking place, "Because it gives idiots ideas about the sort of thing they can do." 

And then there is the other thing that bothers me. This circuit is going through the park lands which surround the city. Those park lands were never intended for that sort of thing. They were designed to surround the city's central business area. It was done a long time ago now, done before we even had cars or motor bikes. They were supposed to be a place where people could walk and relax. 

Over the years that has changed. There are "sports fields" on the park lands. A racecourse, now abandoned, was built. A circus has come and gone on occasions. There have been fetes and fares and festivals too. Most of these things have had minimal impact on the area. They have managed to leave the trees there. 

Taking away so many trees for a short term motor bike race is not what we need. All the claims about the race being good for the state's economy are nonsense. It will be a very few who will benefit. There will be many more who will not. Some will even be financially disadvantaged.  Their businesses may have been there years before. They have previously endured car races and the related financial impact. 

This time however things could be very different. The economy has changed. There are too many businesses clinging by a thread. It is not simply because of poor business practices. It is because the economy has changed. 

I know of one person who is "retiring" as a result. He could not sell his business. Nobody wanted to buy in that location. His landlord would like to sell the building but doing it right now would mean an immense loss. I am told they both doubt there are enough people with discretionary income to make the money the state government is hoping to make. 

"The Premier was warned about LIV golf and he is being warned about this. He isn't listening," the person retiring told me, "And we are losing the park lands because of it."

It would be good if the money the Premier says will be made was returned to the upkeep of the park lands, more trees and seats and playgrounds for the children. All that is going to happen is that we will lose more trees. It is not what the designer of this city intended. 

Yes, you should stop for a minute

when the bugle sounds.

I had to be out and about yesterday. It was an opportunity to observe people observing Remembrance Day.

There were a few people wearing poppies. I had spoken to a woman as we were waiting for a train. We exchanged patterns for knitted poppies and thoughts about the importance of the day. 

I went into one of our biggest shopping centres. It still has a bank there, one where there are actually ATMs and you can get actual money. I needed some actual money, not a card, for another purpose. 

I was about to go into the bank when the warning for the minute's silence came on. As is my custom I stopped instantly. A man coming towards me asked, "Is it eleven?" 

"Just on," I told him and he joined me. Around us many people kept moving. One or two more had stopped. A girl asked, "What's going on?" 

"Remembrance Day observance," I told her. She looked startled but stayed where she was. Opposite her a mother with two children of around nine or ten stopped and told her children to "stand still. I'll explain in a moment."

The Last Post sounded and then the Ode. I looked at the people around me. Yes, some of them had stopped but others were moving on as if nothing was happening at all.

Those who had stopped were quiet, even the children. One of them was looking uncertainly at his mother. The other seemed to know something important but not alarming was going on.

It was all over very quickly, just that moment to pause and reflect. 

The man who had asked if it was eleven o'clock gave me a nod and went on. I heard the mother explaining to her two children what had just happened. I wondered why they had not been taught about this in school but at least their mother knew and cared enough to stop.

I wondered about so many other people there who just continued shopping or were sitting drinking coffee as if nothing was happening at all. Yes, there were some people from different ethnic groups there but there were also many people who almost certainly would have had ancestors who had actually fought in that war, in other wars. 

Is it really too much to stop for a few minutes and think you might not be there at all and thank those who made it possible?

Free coffee?

No. We are paying for the "free coffee" being hand out at the COP conference in Turkiye. The reported cost is $32,000 for the coffee being handed out to the delegates.

It is not even coffee we have grown ourselves. We grow around just one per cent of the coffee consumed in this country. 

Those long lines of people lining up for their free coffee would be amusing if it was not for the cost to them and to us. The conference goers are paying to be there, either out of their own pockets or out of someone else's pocket. The climate is paying too. If the conference goers had all stayed home it would have saved quite a lot of fossil fuel.

The real concern however is that it has cost the taxpayers of this country millions to co-host the conference. The cost of the coffee is just small change. What are we paying for then?

People do not know who "that person" is, the one with the supposedly powerful position at the conference. Downunder's "climate minister"? Who is he? What has he managed to achieve? No idea. Is Downunder doing a good job? No idea. What are they doing? No idea. Some sort of "renewables" push? Must be I suppose because that's what it is supposed to be about but don't they export coal and gas...?

There can be few things more ridiculous than Downunder lecturing the rest of the world on fossil fuels and climate change, renewables and solar panels or wind turbines. We export fossil fuel and import the solar panels and wind turbines made with the fossil fuel. We export uranium and yet refuse to have nuclear power. (It is "too expensive" as well as "dangerous".) 

Over there, in another country, we are being told we are reaching our renewable target. We are being told it is "more than fifty percent", that "power prices are coming down". It is not true but it sounds good and, if you avoid the awkward questions, it could even sound true I suppose. 

According to some economists, the sort who do get to sit on the boards of banks, power prices are set to double within five years if we continue with the only renewables strategy. If that really does happen then we will be in even more dire financial straits. We will not be able to manufacture anything but that will only be part of the problem. We will not be eating because we will not have the energy needed to grow the food we need in order to do the manufacturing. We will not be able to move ourselves or anything else around. Life will come to a standstill perhaps? 

It was a relief when Downunder's bid to host the COP conference here failed. That would have cost us even more. It would have been for no benefit at all. 

Taking care of the environment cannot be done by pursuing the current strategy.  It is seen as an easy solution, easy to sell and implement. That it will not work is not a concern. There will be excuses and then the Digital Duty of Care Bill will allow them to suppress any criticism of what is going on. It will all be our fault of course.

Could someone please capture "that man" and make sure he and his boss do not get on a plane back here? The rest of us might need to rethink renewables.  

 

 

The Salvation Army is leaving

"aged care".  The announcement did not surprise me. They were small players in the field anyway. There were only around one thousand five hundred residents in nursing homes and two thousand getting "in-home" care. It is these two groups who will be most affected by any changes. There are others living in "independent" accommodation in units who will need to make, or have others make, arrangements. 

The Salvation Army's excuse for leaving aged care behind has been the cost and the increasing rules, regulations and other red tape around running such facilities. Given what I know about all this it is quite extraordinary that anyone would be involved in such places and even more extraordinary that anyone would believe they can make a profit out of such places. 

There are alarming stories coming out of aged care and into the media at all times. There are places which now allegedly charge for any sort of entertainment including having your own television set in your own room. They will charge to have your mail delivered to your room, for your medication to be administered and more. 

Looking back I know we were fortunate the Senior Cat was alert and articulate. Perhaps he was also fortunate we were very regular visitors. He had other visitors too. I was all too well aware that some residents never left their rooms, that nobody visited. The level of care they received was barely adequate. There was no attempt to provide any sort of stimulation for them.  Good care is expensive. It is very expensive. You cannot provide good care and make a profit. You cannot provide good care and even cover all the costs. 

The Salvation Army had a facility here. It went by the name "Sunset Lodge" which in itself says a lot. The SA divested itself of the place years ago. It has been replaced by another organisation and given a different name. I have been in and out to visit over the years. It is perhaps marginally better now than it was under the SA. For them it seemed to be a business to be run as efficiently and at as low a cost as possible. I was also aware of subtle, and sometimes not quite so subtle, pressure placed on residents and their relatives to leave substantial gifts and even an entire estate to the SA. 

One very elderly and still very alert resident told me how she was "advised" about what was "expected".  Her response to me was, "The young staff are mostly nice but I don't really like the management dear. They all expect to receive as well as give."  It was by no means an exaggeration and no doubt happens elsewhere as well.

My mother's parents died relatively young but my father's parents lived to a great age. Too frail to care for themselves even with help they eventually lived in a small hospital that had a half a dozen beds for the aged. Although he lived more than an hour and a half away from the city by car my father went to see his parents every weekend. Had we lived in the city he likely would have gone more often. I was away on the other side of the world by then but my mother told me my father never saw it as a burden to visit. It was simply the right thing to do. All I could do was write letters for him to read to them.    

Good aged care will always be expensive. It is the price we should be willing to pay. We are living longer and often working longer. It is too easy to see the frail elderly as a financial "burden" but they too had their elderly to care for, often at even greater expense. Aged care should not be about cost or benefit to others. It should be about caring for those who cared for us when we could not care for ourselves.

 

School uniform is under

discussion elsewhere at present. Apparently someone objected to buying the right sort of socks for their child to wear. 

The article does not say what sort of socks are required or what sort of socks the child was wearing but I suspect the child was wearing something that stood out. That is not the point of a uniform.

I have no problems with the idea of a school uniform. I have never yet heard a parent or guardian complain that they are not a good idea. Most people I have discussed the idea with over the years have greeted the idea of a uniform with relief. It saves discussion, arguments and much more. There is much less in the way of competition. Going to and from school it tells you where the more senior little darlings attend school. If they start to misbehave then it is much easier to find them. Ask anyone who works in the local shopping centre or on the rail service and they  will tell you that students in uniform are more likely to behave. They know that serious misbehaviour will lead to a report to the school.

I remember an occasion some years ago when a couple of likely lads from the local high school were foolish enough to do something silly and dangerous at the local railway station. Unbeknown to them they were seen. The damage they caused was recorded. Their uniforms told the police where to look. Come Monday morning the police were at the school and the two boys found themselves in serious trouble. They were no longer heroes to their mates. Yes, uniform has uses.

There was a uniform in every school I attended. As "the head's kids" we had to wear it and wear it well. I went through the usual range of box pleated tunics and at least five different colours of blazer. There were cotton dresses and then cotton/polyester dresses in summer. The smallest school I attended had a uniform. It did not get worn all the time because of remoteness and the impossibility of obtaining one but everyone wore the same style of "school jumper" (sweater/pullover) on an excursion. We wanted people to see where we came from.

Much later I was involved with a school for children with physical disabilities. It always interested me that it was the students of that school who asked if they could have a uniform. They were, rightly, very proud of their school. They wanted a uniform to show the world where they attended school. There was no sense of shame or isolation about attending a "special" school. They wanted people to know how good their school was and they saw a uniform as a way of saying it.

Uniform does not have to be complicated or expensive. In many places it just consists of clothing the chosen colour and a t-shirt or sweatshirt with a logo. When a parent argues with that then I suspect they argue with other things as well. Are they doing their child any favours?