2021-2025

The five years since my last autoblography instalment seem to have gone by fast and yet what happened during that time? I will try to cover some of that here.

2021 was much like the year that preceeded it - dominated by pandemic. One effect of that experience on me is a sense that any home like mine that includes some yard and closeness to both shops and parkland is worth feeling satisfied with. But once lockdowns ended they left a lingering sense of nothing much happening. Just sitting and watching had become seductive.

It took a while to get back out and I had always chosen friends who are more interesting than exciting. Our naturally sedantary ways were accentuated by recent events and that was frustrating. I wanted to get together more and in larger groups. But maybe I cannot blame the times because we are also getting older. Besides which, a quick look over records says that plenty still happenend in the last few years.

Sensitive to the concerns of others, I divided a big celebration of mine into two somewhat smaller events to mathematically reduce the potential number of infectious connetections. But we have gotten more self-assured since and, in any case, most events tend to be small. I marked an anniversary with high tea at the Windsor. Saw some quirky art in the refurbished Flinders Street Station Ballroom. Witnessed the wonder of our own triceratops skeleton at Melbourne Museum. Wandered Lightscape at the Botanic Gardens. Camped at a farm. A key household in my life hosted Solstice gatherings. I revisited things that I had been missing - billiards and bowling and karaoke. And along the way some old connections have been maintained.

And then there was a return to some travel. I went both interstate and overseas. One thing I notice from those journeys is that it takes more than a week of intense contact in a tour group for me to form friendships. It can take several months or more but that has been happening in two unusual ways for me.

One has taken the form of getting to know some loocals via a favourite cafe. That venue has now closed (the operators wanting a change of pace) but the connections have persisted for me in the form of a continuing D&D campaign hosted by another operator in the same set of shops. Our game group is refreshingly intergenerational and works surprisingly well.

Another is that I now do recreational things with a few workmates. This is partly because we have a decent 'culture fit' and partly becuase I have been working in the same course now for a while. Those classes in general adult education draw on a mix of backgrounds and ability levels in a way that is both challenging and rewarding. But back to those workmates - we have been sampling different cuisines and taking train rides to regional towns during holidays. Thus I have new human connections even if I still wish for more of the old ones.

There are things in life other than friends and family however. I still try to be both creative and civic. This involves bite-sized chunks of involvement in whatever project or cause. The smallest campaign I was involved in may also have been the most successful. It turned the 800 Bus (the same one I took to uni way back at the start of adult life) into a more frequent and longer-running service that extends to Sundays. I still use that bus now and I'm happy to see this small boon for so many commuters.

Getting off a bus can sometimes be a bit jarring to my joints. This is one of many reminders that I'm getting old. I try to keep active and well and connected but it is an effort. I supppose writing like this is also an act of self-preservation. And I still wake finding I look forward to something every day. Continuity thus persists alongside change.

If however I somehow perish short of the next instalment then the moment has been prepared for. Ages ago I blogged on what sort of funeral I would wish to have. I will hold that in abeyance for as long as I can.

The Shoes

I'm house-sitting right now and had imagined it allowing me to work on a rather complex short story concept I have been mulling over for months. But all the change-of-scene has done is disturb my routines. The next best thing is transcribing a very old and short snippet of creative writing I found recently in my concertina file...

Damn, these new shoes hurt. The first step I take is always the worst. It feels as if my Achilles tendons are being torn apart. Each successive step is a bit more tolerable, till about the sixth, from which the pain is barely noticeable. Every time I stop, at a busy road for instance, the whole process starts again. I suppose it's a bit like life - the pain is still there but one grows accustomed to it with time.

They are new shoes, which is why they hurt. I'm breaking them in, but just now it feels like they're breaking me in! Problem is, dead leather don't feel, but flesh does. Anyway, these shoes will provide me with months of leak-free walking, but to gain that I must first suffer. Anything new can hurt. Change can hurt.

As one gets older, life does not get better or worse, it just gets bigger, more complicated. What I'm carrying tells me that. A few years ago it would have been a small bag with a few exercise books in it. Now I wear a large backpack full of folders and books and I also carry my saxophone case in one hand. Today I had two essays returned to me. I get an A for Literature but only a C for Economics. There was a time when I got straight Bs. Oh well. There are more interesting things than study just now anyway.

Had band practice today. We are still a bit rusty, but it's fun, and we get out of classes for it sometimes. The bassist is really cute and we seem to get along well. We only meet so far in band practice. I need to do something about that. But how? I've never asked anybody out before. Maybe I could do it covertly and get the whole band together socially to go to the cinemas or have a picnic or something.

Or maybe I could phone once I get home. I can take off my shoes, have a cool drink, and take my life into my hands while letting my fingers do the walking. Hope that doesn't hurt too much.

I wrote those few paragraphs (very barely edited here) in my twenties but - as you can tell from its content - the character is a teen. At the time I only shared it with a few uni friends. Much of the experience described is familiar to me and yet I have never played the sax or been in a band. Maybe the genesis of my imaginary band Encore is hinted at here. One thing I'm thankful for is how I barely if ever need to wear leather shoes these days.

Telecom Anecdote

A few years ago I wandered impulsively into the National Communications Museum housed in an old telephone exchange building in Hawthorn. I had been working in the area and must have had a long lunch between shifts.

My understanding of machines is very limited but I enjoy the look and action of them. Form follows function in a way that produces interesting shapes. Moving parts can be exciting. I was a bit wistful to realize that the last moving part in my personal music playing device (a spinning data disc) had been replaced by solid state chips. But in this telecommunications exhibit there were lots of moving parts.

Visitors saw telephone exchange desks with all these plugs on cords like those seen in old movies. There were banks of computers to fill a room. There was a progression of telephone hand-sets from over the decades. Anyone my age will feel a burst of nostalgia on seeing an old rotary dial interface and there were plenty of those. But into more recent times there was also a mock Internet cafe in one corner. I still wish that was the era we lived in - immobile Internet was the best kind of Internet for a balanced life.

The most impressive thing by far was a show of human skill. The tour I took was conducted by an old volunteer who had worked for Telecom. He knew a lot but then he took us to one corner of the exhibit in which an even older volunteer sat. This elderly man had once worked in telegraphy for the Postmaster General (which preceeded both Telecom and Australia Post). He had sat in a telegraph exchange transcribing messages and had the best party trick (albeit one that required a lot of clunky machinery).

The tour guide asked me to write my name on a piece of paper which he looked at then pocketed. He went over to a keypad and typed in my name. With every keystroke we heard a 'click-a-clack' and, for the telegraphy worker, each letter made a distinct sound. He had been staring into a corner away from us and, as soon as the typing was over, he announced my name. We were duly impressed by this fantastic display of learning and memory.

The museum was closed for a while but now it is back in operation with a flashy new look. I'm happy it is back but saddened that it lacks the old telegraphy trick. I need to share more anecdotes like this - things that I experienced but neglected to record at the time. That too is a form of communication.

Pluralism

I have written many paragraphs concerning the meta-ideology of populism so it is only right that I do the same for pluralism. This for me is the only meta-ideology we have for maintaining the best aspects of representative democracy. Pluralism recognizes that a society of any size will inevitably encompass a plethora of opinions. None of them will have a monopoly on the whole truth and many of them must be factored into political decision-making.

Pluralism involves turning towards close rivals while curbing the influence of ones own more dogmatic political relations. This could be dismissed as mere centrism but it is better understood as a dispostion rather than a position. It can be shared by several distinct ideological stances as long as they are prepared to accept one another. Pluralism then is centripetal and prefers integration over seperatism.

In my old politics test any of the first seven positions described here can work well within the context of pluralism. These constitute the 'hub and innermost ring' of my model (described under Big Picture). The 'intermediate ring' is best handled with care but may serve as a pressure valve for those whose temperament would hamper practical politics. Finally the 'outermost ring' is to be shunned in all instances. The dogmas promoted by political cults must be rejected while offering those drawn into them a way back into a shared civic life.

Engagment is important. Paying attention to what someone is truly saying matters. Knowing the difference between an extremist and someone whose utterances simply anger you is a worthwhile skill. Too much curbing of discussion only lets cultish thinking grow in isolation. A framework of respect allows for robust interactions and productive discussions. Recognition of complexity brings one incrementally closer to grasping the reality beyond simplistic narratives.

The term 'pluralism' originally descibed the political processes of numerous pressure groups engaging with the two big tent parties in the United States. Any number of interests and demographics could organize to lobby members of those two oversized combines. I have qualms with a two-party model and note that the same process works well or better with several parties. Too few parties result in overly generic policy platforms half-heartedly promoted by much-fragmented camps. Too many parties result in a dizzying array of narrowly focused causes and interests and ego-projects that would work better as pressure groups. The option of several parties each defined by a distinct ideology that can intereact in shifting and changing alliances offers both clarity and flexibility to voters and the politicians that serve them.

This indeed exists in much of the world and seems like the most mature framework we have. It can be bolstered by particular electoral methods (consider proportional representation) alongside an inclusive civic culture. There is a problem however - both parties and the many non-government organizations that define pluralism have been losing members for decades now (something I discussed here). What can be done?

I will admit to more than a hint of nostalgia here. But history is characterized by both trends and counter-trends. We have been drifting into populist ways for over a decade now but if we experience too much of that then we could swing back the other way. Even now there are hints of that in elections and parliamentary re-alignments across the world. But it is all very much in the balance. Balance seems like a worthwhile thing till you are told that what you are teetering over is a precipice. Practicing those aspects of pluralism we still have (and there are plenty) is my only suggestion for now.

Three Course Adventure

In a local fantasy game I made passing reference to a three course feed served to a large group of adventurers that suddenly burst in on the small inn of a tiny village. It was a fixed menu so that surprised staff would cope and drew on basic ingredients the village could provide at short notice. More recently I decided to prepare these home-made dishes and see whether they were even remotely tasty. In designing them I was influenced by my past involvement in both role-playing and medieval recreation clubs. Here I will describe those dishes and whether they worked for me.

* * * * *

The first course is a bowl of mushroom soup with toast. I lack a blender so had to do this by grating and slicing. The bulk of the mushroom was portobello for its size and tastiness. This I carefully grated and mixed with seasonings and water. Next I sliced a bunch of button mushrooms in profile. This provides a well-known shape signifying mushroom to anyone seeing the resulting dish. I stir-fried these in oil flavoured with a hint of truffle. Then I poured in the water-and-mushroom mix on top and cooked it all till boiling. The end result looks very different from canned mushroom soup puree. The water and mushrooms are still distinct components - this is a dish of textures as well as tastes. I enjoyed it with hot lumpy toast.

The second course is roast turnips slathered in cottage cheese. I lack experience with roasting roots and bulbs and am re-thinking how to do this. I peeled three smallish turnips so that they had flat bases. While mixing some seasoning into the cottage cheese, I threw the turnips into boiling water. Next, I scored them with crosses to expose some of the insides for cooking then poured melted butter over them. Finally, I put them in the oven which had been heated to 200 degrees celcius. Initially I roasted them for 20 minutes but then extended that for another 10 minutes. Finally I prised them apart into barely connected quarters and dumped the cheesy curds over them. These roots were still firmer and more fibrous than I was expecting. They also tasted more 'garden' than I am accustomed to. I suppose this is because I was comparing them with potatoes. I ate it all but next time I will slice them into separate disks to allow for greater cooking.

The third and final course is simplicity itself. I just mixed together some almonds with raspberries (and then decorated them with some fresh grated mint). The only problem with this is how to serve it. The nuts are hard and crunchy but the berries are soft and squishy - does one eat with hands or spoons? Maybe I will see if blackberries are a bit firmer.

* * * * *

Fantasy can be anything. Recently published Dungeons & Dragons cook books present thoroughly modern cuisine masquerading as something stranger by use of medieval fantasy names. But if you did want something that felt just a bit more medieval then a few self-set limitations may be useful.

Using simpler technology results in less processed ingredients (such as my variably textured soup). A more significant limit is to only use ingredients from the Old World (Afro-Eurasia). This gives you a lot to work with but does omit some things that are ubiquitous today. Excluding maize, potato, tomato, capsicum, pineapple, avocado and various beans can be difficult to imagine. But there is numerically far more foodstuff with an Old World origin. In my recipes I cooked and seasoned with garlic, ginger, mint, coriander, basil, olive oil, butter and parmesan. And finally using some surprising combinations of flavours can get away from modern conventions of separating savory and sweet.

My efforts I hope produced dishes that are rustic and hearty in character. Maybe I should serve them sometime at a mediavel fantasy themed gathering or game session.

Encore

Was there ever anything you had to do that you turned into something you wanted to do anyway? This has often been true of me. Way back in the mid-90s my teacher-training included designing some exercise demonstrating the value of diversity. At that time I was also delving into the history of popular music. The result was an activity in which students would put together the most diverse and therefore best band of musicians.

The play-test of this activity had a luke-warm reception from a group of teens. The teacher-trainers felt similarly. Feedback however was vague - teacher-trainers only sometimes practiced the constructive criticism they advocate. I can guess at a few things however. One is simply that adolescents are difficult to engage from the position of having never met them. Another is that even then youngsters were less into bands than they were solo performers or dance groups. Also maybe I was mistaken in thinking musicians are remotely as engaging as the music they produce. As for the adults in the room? Possibly they felt that the diversity I was show-casing was too functional - mixed skill-sets offering consumers something enriching was possibly too pragmatic for my idealistic mentors. And then there was my production values.

All that is left is a set of basic sketches of an imaginary band called Encore. I came across them in my concertina file and decided to share them here. They contrast with my AI-generated Sub-Culture Kids Action Figure Selection. They are basic but I feel they convey what I imagine is a band I would enjoy following. Encore is indeed diverse in gender and background and with my vague grasp of fashion I also suggested a mix of musical influences within the group. But most importantly for me is a selection of instruments that will each sound distictly even once played together. I think I need to go to more gigs.

Crossing The Streams

I feel like streaming is a new part of my life but, if I cast my mind back, I have been using the Internet to access television programs for well over a decade. Here I will trace my use of it and make some observations of TV from the comfort of your lap.

It may have started with YouTube and focused on old TV shows shared by fellow users. It has been a wonderful if patchy way of finding old stuff to discover or re-discover. All that culminated in me collating these lists for friends. Another old show I have since watched was Man About The House (70s share household comedy that was comfort food during lonely lockdowns). Over time my use of YouTube has shifted away from TV and towards original user-generated content (albeit some of it celebrating those old shows).

Another kind of streaming I moved into was using the websites of free government TV stations ABC and SBS. There is a lot of worthwhile stuff to find there and has included Upstart Crow, Beforeigners, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Death In Paradise, Wellington Paranormal, Cavendish, Whiskey Cavalier, The Orville and Vagrant Queen. A diverting mix of mystery, comedy and speculative fiction can still be had for free at any time. That free aspect of the experience is important because all my life TV had been free. That was even true for the commercial channels.

Sure you can tell me that I was supposedly 'the product' because TV stations were selling advertising space to attract my custom. However advertisements have never had that big a draw on me. A fast food ad was as likely to send me to the kitchen to have some toast. So all my life TV was free and hence I resisted the big concept in streaming - paying for ad-free content.

I did spend some money now-and-then on renting specific items on Apple. This was just an extention of purchasing songs online and the concept of buying separate things is nothing new. Subscribing to a service that just sits there in the ether was something I resisted. But the pandemic changed that.

Everyone had been talking about the many cool shows that could now only be seen on these boutique services. Here is an exception to the power of advertising because peer groups are powerful. And I knew what they were telling me was true because the odd video night with friends would demonstrate what I was missing. I was stuck in my room and could easily transfer some money to access these cornucopiae of entertainment. But I have standards and set a limit of paying for between zero and one streaming sevices at a time. I will stay with one for a month and then have nothing for another few months and then dip into the next. So far I have mostly rotated through Disney, Prime, Paramount and Netflix.

Disney drew me in so I could see what was happening in the Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universes. Once there I would stay for random things like Only Murders In The Building and Burn Notice. But what of the big effects-laden shows that drew me there? So far I have most enjoyed The Mandalorian (among Star Wars programs) and Loki (among MCU fare).

Prime is home to a few things I return to every now-and-then. The misguided but visually stunning Rings Of Power is one. Gritty yet engrossing The Expanse is another. And the Legend Of Vox Machina is vulgar animated fun in a roleplay-inspired setting.

Paramount is the home of Star Trek and so far the version I feel stikes the best balance between gravity and levity is the retro yet fresh Strange New Worlds. I'm sure I enjoy other things there but one problem with all these services is keeping track of who serves what. None of them have a particularly firm station identity in my mind.

I am however aware that Netflix is the oldest and biggest of popular streaming services and it is one I will return to soon. I was suprised how much I enjoyed the remake of Lost In Space. Likewise The Witcher is way more fun than I expected for something that looks that gloomy. And I get why Stranger Things is such a sensation - while I was enticed by its mix of nostalgia and horror I truly did become attached to its characters.

This is all part of my media diet and I try to limit its use. Of an evening I will watch one episode each of a few distinct programs. This works better for me than binging an entire season of one show. I also have a hunch that slowing a story helps one remember it better. I reckon that the days of seeing just one episode a week very much helped memory. Mind you I was much younger then.

PostCorona

In a conversation sometime during the pandemic, friends were wondering how long it would take till things got back to normal. I pulled the guess of 'five years' from my arse. It is five years since I discussed the pandemic here so this is an excellent time to revisit the topic. My wild guess was both too optimistic and too pessimistic. Too optimistic in the sense that Coronavirus and its many consequences are still with us. Too pessimistic in that the successive lockdowns necessarily imposed were over within two years for Victorians, while the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the global emergency over within four years.

Once we had vaccines, an amazing human achievement in speed of development and implementation, the path back to a 'new normal' was forged. Covid shots are now a standard like flu shots. Along with these, we have the everyday normalization of mask wearing and hand sanitation for those who choose to employ them. Personally, I felt that restrictions could have been lighter yet longer, but the prudent among us can enact that in our own life practices. I have long since developed and refined my own protocols and many others do the same thing. I reckon they have resulted in me having fewer common colds than in the past. Also, I now suspect that the times I feel like I'm starting to get a cold are often just overexposure to cat dander, dust and dairy.

I'm remembering behaviours from the time of that global emergency. Profiling came naturally to many of us. For my part I noticed that both the young and the old were tardy with things like safe distancing and proper mask use. However the elderly rapidly improved and I wonder how much of that was from loved ones suddenly suffering dire infection.

Much was made of the contrasting behaviours of different community groups. For instance, it is hardly surprising that Chinese-Australians rapidly adopted practices that 'back home' had been the norm due to other pandemics in recent memory. However I noticed something subtler than this. If a sufficient number of residents within a suburb adopted proper practices then locals of all backgrounds were more likely to do so too. Locality rather than background became a better predictor of behaviour as I was out-and-about (sometimes even with a document to show I was allowed to attend face-to-face work).

Another factor I noticed, one that looking at demographics misses, was the difference between lone individuals and groups. The former were better at keeping a distance than the latter. Hardly surprising since our companions command our attention while we are with them. It is a pity then that individuals often fell between the cracks of consideration for a variety of recognized groups in society. I'm still appalled by the news story of someone sitting alone in a park eating a snack and getting charged by police (because at the time we were only supposed to be exercising outside of the home).

There was plenty of online talk of 'Covidiots' and for sure there were many who never gave a damn for risk of infection. However I also noticed what I called 'Covigilantes' - those who adopted the pose of restriction enforcers with zero understanding of personal circumstances. I know of a student with a medical exemption to mask-wearing who copped so much verbal abuse from strangers that they wore a sign showing proof of that exceptional status. Frankly it all got a bit ridiculous and the pandemic had a way of exacerbating that. A consensus that had defined political responses to the emergency was too soon undermined at the grassroots.

I understand. Life was difficult even if in other ways it was strangely easy. Communications technology allowed us to stay at and even work from home. Rarely was I exactly bored because I'm easily amused by assorted lone pastimes. And yet there was an enervating listlessness that left its dull patina over life in general. We were facing the biggest change of our lifetimes and it was defined by an utter absense of change in day-to-day living. By the final lockdown of late 2021 I was turning rather scruffy. I also noticed locally that everyone was unilaterally choosing to act like it was over. I'm sure the state government was noticing this too and made sure that final lockdown was over a year before its next election.

What is the legacy of that time? Politically there were changes big and small. One innovation was the practice of Australian government leaders conferring regularly as the ad-hoc National Cabinet. From that time came more of a sense that government plays an important part in our lives. I recently walked past one boon of that attitude - a new messenger gene manufacturing facility for vaccines that will benenfit both Australia and our neighbours. There are a tiny few who look on this with suspicion but I will say nothing more here on that (except possibly for one anecdote I can share in comments below).

We all discovered our local parks and backstreets. The public golf course was closed for play and suddenly we were using it as another walking space. Our own neighbourhoods became the whole world for a short time. Since then I have noticed many more picnics happening than had in the past and more residents now use porches as alfresco spaces to enjoy a snack or drink. I still enjoy reading a novel while sitting in the front yard.

We also started using local shops more. One consequence of this was that those very long inner suburban shopping streets dwindled somewhat. Shops that had once served all the many visitors to those precincts suddenly closed so that only those the locals truly needed now persist. Old arcades like the Jam Factory in particular seemed to suffer. We shall see if they take the opportunity to refurbish and revive.

Of course some of these pandemic trends simply boosted the existing effects of things like globalized online shopping. Likwise the more withdrawn youths I observe now could be the product of forced home schooling during lockdowns but could also be the result of too much time spent online. Behaviour at shops and among pedestrians has likewise become disengaged. Work will have to be done to compensate for such changes. The new normal needs to be something that feels normal for those experiencing it.

For me a personal indicator that I have gotten back to normal was that I finally recovered the gumption to travel. I was pretty slow to get there and know others who stepped onto planes as soon as they were allowed. I did it eventually and 'getting on with life' is a lesson that is coming very slowly to me. The pandemic has impinged on many aspects of life and even just a search for the term lockdowns returns a surprising variety of posts here. Some of it even looks like it was fun, but I hope we are spared such experiences in future.

Pooled Queue To The Loos

I'm here to enthuse about a policy I have benefitted from recently. I say 'policy' in the sense of decisions made by both government and commercial organizations (rather than legislation specifically). The development to which I refer is the construction of new public toilets in various locales (including train stations and shopping centres). These innovative facilities are designed as arrays of toilets that are both private and unisex (many are also of sufficient size to accommodate a disabled person in wheelchair with carer).

Each door off of a well-lit public space is marked for the use of any gender. Each chamber is a proper room rather than a stall made of dividers. Each has a toilet bowl and usually its own bathroom basin too. These new loos have appeared (as far as I can tell) with neither fanfare nor controversy. And yet they deftly address a divisive issue. What ideology abstracts into contrary desires practice demonstrates can be something many of us share. Feeling someone of your gender is welcome at the loos is a common wish. Having some privacy at the loos is also a common wish. Many of us want both and these new loos give everyone that. And they offer one more thing too.

As a non-driver I have always walked long distances and sometimes suddenly needed to go to the loo. It can be difficult to find them in public. It was particuarly difficult back in the 90s. Many stations ceased to be staffed and so the loos were permanently locked. That was a desparate time. I sometimes even had to find parkland bushes to hide behind. Things got better this century with the advent of those automatic loos which talk at you and play easy listening piano. But I digress. The point is sometimes you are in a hurry to go.

A complete absense of loos is one issue. Too few loos in a busy locale is another. And this brings me to a problem that was once described in the context of banks. Studies showed that it is more efficient for three bank tellers to share one queue than for those same three bank staff to each serve a separate queue. Customers were served faster if they were in just one line or pooled queue.

Loos that are both unisex and private do the same thing for anyone busting to go. If you are next in line then you can use the next free loo. Contrast this with the situation of separate male and female bathrooms. There could be a free loo right now in that other room you cannot enter but you will never know. And (from my perspective) urinals are fine till such time as you have to sit down.

This useful side-effect of pooled queues to the loos reminds me of the curb cut effect. Sometimes it transpires that a solution to one problem is also a solution to another problem you never bothered discussing. Sometimes helping some in society helps others too. And sometimes there are win-win scenarios that should satisfy everyone. It will take time but my hunch is these will become the norm as amenities are updated.

Quests

I have never played a live-action role-play game. Or maybe I have. On a few occasions I ran a clue-laden hunt or quest and it seems like a fun thing to reminisce about here.

Dragon Egg Hunt

I adopted an old FOME tradition and adapted it into a Dragon Egg Hunt. We held it close to Easter back in the late 90s. It was played on campus and those gathered were separated into a few groups. We met and came back together at something that was demolished long ago. An art gallery stood in what is now the new education faculty complex. Behind it some steps overlooking an open courtyard felt like a pagan shrine. Anyway, the groups were given clues that would then take them to more clues. They cast campus locations in fantastical terms. I had some assistants who would follow the groups around and award them with small choclate eggs as they progressed. Eventually they were given much more impressive eggs as prizes.

My favourite clue (if I do say so myself) was inserted into my sig file (the text appended to all sent emails which would sometimes include a quotation or song line). Among Monash students this was called a plan (as in your joking personal scheme for world domination). One clue told them that 'I hide in the ether and have a plan'. They pretty quickly went to the computer centre to log in and see a message I had sent them that morning which included yet another clue. Pretty clever use of the Internet for one as technophobic as I.

A Yulemoot Quest

Some time later I organized a more ambitious quest as part of a Yulemoot. This was a FOME house party held close to Christmas. The host house was Stonedhenge and it was a shortish walk from the Scotchman's Creek. We started the quest at dusk in the Melissa Street Playground. The twilight combined with the festive consumption of that evening rendered some of our group rather open to evocative suggestion. Walking directly from this lot along the Huntingdale Road Basin took us to the creek. For one friend it was as if we had walked into another realm from everyday suburbia.

Back then it was a grassy boggy tract of land and was only more recently turned into the far more useful and inviting Huntingdale Wetlands. I had some assistants each playing a role of sorts scattered across this area. One sat on a log and offered the questers gold (chocolate coins). Across Stanley Avenue the next sat on a bench off a bush track and offered Frankincense insense sticks. The last two helpers were in fact fire-twirlers who were supposed to surround and scare the group once it had entered the creek tunnels under the freeway. Nobody was scared. Everyone just got a fun surprise and were given whatever we had for myrrh. I'm happy we managed to get a night walk happening from a house party. Friends since have become so much more sedentary.

Statue Quest

I held a picnic as part of OFTAM back in the 00s. At that picnic I offered friends the chance to partake in a short Statue Quest. They would simply walk around the small Queen Victoria Gardens and find the answers to the following questions.

1. What are the names of the two characters depicted by the busts at the entrance (coming from the City) to the Gardens?

2. What is The Genie made of?

3. What are the four virtues that are personified around the base of the statue of Queen Victoria?

4. In which years did Edward VII reign?

5. What are the two statuesque inhabitants of the pond covered with green growing stuff called?

Nobody undertook that activity. Everyone was content to just picnic. I suppose I had invoked rather hot conditions that day...

* * * * *

Most recently I drew a fantasy-themed map of the Brickmakers Park which could form the basis of some sort of quest along similar lines to the one held at the Scotchmans Creek. It could be more for parents and children and combined with a barbecue (which I have done there). I wonder if it would enthuse anyone these days.

Parkmore

I stood entranced by the automated puppet show in a coin operated display cabinet. Hardly surprising since everything is a novelty to small children. Only a few metres away were automatic sliding doors and they fascinated me too. At the time they were triggered by pressure sensors in a rubber welcome mat but later that will have changed to some sort of light sensor over the entrance.

This is a likely anecdote from my childhood in the 70s. I say likely because memory can be both very sharp and very fuzzy that long ago. I definitely was into both the mechanisms described but did I feel that way on exactly the same day? It hardly matters. Parkmore was my first experience of an enclosed shopping centre and there is plenty I recall from its original incarnation.

I'm surprised to discover that it is pretty much the same age as me. As far as I'm concerned it has always been there. Of course I know that such shopping centres are very much a post-war phenomenon but it opening while I was a baby is news to me. Apparently John Farnham popped into perform at its inaugeration and Santa flew down in a hot air balloon! All I can tell you is what it was like to visit for family shopping.



The centre was small by our standards now but you could still get lost in it. This was in part due to its asterisk-like internal layout. Several hallways radiated from an octagonally domed central hub. Shorter ones connected to the entrances while longer ones accessed the major 'anchor' stores of the centre. You could easily get those hallways confused. Archives say that originally there were clever colour-coded rows of lights in the ceiling to tell you which path you were on but nobody ever told me that. I just made use of store recognition to navigate (and if lost you could always just return to the hub).

The hub itself was most distinctive for three shops in the form of free-standing stalls. One sold ice cream and milkshakes so I could hardly forget that. Another I do forget but let us say it was something eminently practical like a key cutter. The third however was more than a shop - it was free entertainment in the form of a glass blower applying flame to glass tubes till they became glowing toffee and then shaping them into parts of various trinkets for sale.

Today the hub or an area close to it would be a food court. Back then however there was only a smattering of food stalls. The largest was the Red Balloon carvery and cafe. It had big red spherical hanging lamp-shades which dimly lit its space and provided a contrast to the far brighter lighting of the rest of the centre. It exists even now but the last time I went there it had lost its distinctive atmosphere.

Parkmore got a major extension and redesign by the turn of the century and to me was difficult to recognize. Gone was any semblance of the asterisk. Its growth was very much warranted by the expansion of the outer south-eastern suburbs but by then I had moved away and barely ever went there. I confine my recollections then to its original smaller iteration.

Time spent there may well have involved Mum visiting Venture while Dad visited Clark Rubber (at the ends of separate hallways). Venture was more interesting to me (it had a toy department) but Mum took way longer to browse things. Clark Rubber was less interesting but Dad got things done so then we had more of a chance to get an ice cream and sit on one of those circular plastic benches centred around indoor plants. Life got easier once I could wander off alone. Lukas and I spent time in Toy World. Other stores I recall were Brashes Records, Copper Art and the ominously named Liquidator (a store similar to the Reject Shop). By the 80s I think the centre had a small extension (possibly involving more fresh produce stores). Suddenly there was an escalator but it only went to a rooftop carpark. A visit would always end with gathering at Coles New World for foodstuffs to take back to the car.

I turn now to the brick-walled outside of Parkmore. Some stores could be accessed from its encircling footpaths and there was also one useful space for the community. Back then the greater Dandenong area lacked its own cinema so in school holidays movies would be played in general purpose venues. Parkmore had its own auditorium. I'm pretty sure I saw one of those slapstick action movies from Italy starring Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer there. Beyond that the only kind of outdoors you could enjoy were car parks. Parkmore indeed! Okay across the road there has long been a large park complete with playground and pond but that is thanks to the local council rather than the shopping centre.

I had originally wanted this post to be a more wide-ranging essay about shopping centres as sites for both commercial and community activity but realized all I felt like was reminiscing. I could do that bigger entry another time. For now I will throw in my proposed list of criteria for shops that also facilitate face-to-face interactions. They are variety and competition, shopping and other activity, indoor and outdoor spaces, the familiar and the novel, access and comfort. And there was one last criteria called 'right sized' which interacts interestingly with the others. The bigger a centre is the more variety it has but the smaller it is the better ease of access it has. I could try testing the old Parkmore with these criteria but possibly you can do that yourself by drawing on what I have described here.

Advice

Here is some advice for a major political party that has lost government and been relegated to an opposition role. Even solicited advice is only sometimes heeded so this entry shows I'm still an optimist. Or possibly I just want to record my musings since a recent foreign election of some significance. Here I go then.

1. Get better at having conversations with those who think differently from you. Chances are your leaders and representatives are okay at this but your rank-and-file members and supporters also need to improve in this vital political skill. Do they even recognize its importance? Do they ever get a chance to practice it? Do they mistakenly think that political engagement is a robotic exchange of slogans? All this can be difficult and so it makes sense to start small by practicing among participants in your own organizations and movements.

2. It is natural for your party to have a debate over how to do things differently in future. Such discussions can get rather impassioned. But a useful rule-of-thumb is this - the more public your internal debate is the more important it is for that debate to be a civil one. Voters are observing you. They will be wondering if prospective managers of the nation can even manage themselves. Your political rivals are also studying you and looking for ways of wedging your various factions or camps. Deny them that chance.

3. Use your imagination in deciding on any course-correction. Asking whether you should move closer to or further from the political centre is simplistic. Should that change apply to all or just some issues? Should it be a change in substantive policy or in what is emphasized? Will all your proposals work together if implemented? Should your platform serve a sufficiently large demographic alliance or can it be framed as of universal value to the whole electorate? If implementing your values matter to you then so should your chances of winning.

I have a hunch that the full-time campaigners in any major political party have a sense of all this anyway. The biggest challenge is how the part-time campaigners and ideological fans can develop such understandings. Culture is more difficult to intentionally change than institutions. Anyone got any advice for me on that?