I have so many feelings about Sydney. I shouldn’t, but I do.
Sydney to me, is a bit of a lawless place. The people are hard. The streets are difficult to navigate. It has a rundown field of it once you get out of the CBD, which only recently had some money injected into it to make it look a little bit better. Like many other big cities you can turn a corner in the atmosphere changes.
I could never live here. It’s far too humid.
Regardless, I am in Sydney. My plane was late. Not too late but late enough. My friend was waiting for me at the gate, she had just arrived from Adelaide. We’re going to the same meeting tomorrow.
She’s staying down the hall. I reckon she’s doing the same thing as me ironing a white shirt for tomorrow. Yes, we are going to look like hospitality workers. It’s okay it’s all part of the plan.
She was a bit worried about getting her masonic apron through the scanners at the airport. It wasn’t a problem. Mine didn’t set off the alarms either. It might be a bit drifting if you’re trying to get through a ceremonial sword. I wonder what the airlines think about getting those through. You definitely have to put them into the hold, if they let you take it at all.
We’ll get up in the morning, get some breakfast meet the third of our contingent and make our way to the Sydney Temple, which is set in an industrial estate in deepest , darkest Yagoona (It’s alright, I don’t know where it is either).We will do what we have to do then head back to the airport and get a plane home.
The hotel room is fine. The iron is very good even if the ironing board is tiny. I have ironed my crisp white shirt, noting that I have not worn a button down shirt for a very long time. You can thank Covid for that. My only gripe is that I cannot connect to the streaming services. Nevermind. The hotel room is spotlessly clean and the sheets are fresh, white cotton.
But, it’s 1130, and really it’s going to be a big day tomorrow so I have to have a shower and go to bed.
I can sleep away by differing feelings about Sydney.
I'm packing once again. Just an overnight trip, but I've got to make sure I've got everything I need for Saturday.
The list isn't too bad.
Travel computer and accouterments
Mason's apron
Mason's dress code wear (think waiter)
White gloves
Undies
Light change of clothes so I don't have to look like a hospo going back to the airport
Sponge bag
Charging cables
Meds
Book
Glasses / sunglasses
There will be a few other things that will get tossed in the bag before I go.
But my big habit. Packing and repacking the toiletries bag. With the travelling I do, why is it that small pocketknife always gets in there? How is it I always take two lots of eyeliner and mascara, but never a hairbrush? Why does it always take three goes to get it right?
I think I need to go to bed - I'm not feeling anything tonight.
I forgot to take my afternoon meds and I felt it. I think I should be setting myself up a reminder on the phone - I really felt not having it in me - and I craved sugar. And felt a bit all over the place.
I'm sick of my left ear ringing - I'm a bit deaf in my left ear - but it's showing some improvement.
Zadie Smith's first novel, White Teeth was first published 25 years ago. Argh.
Part if me can measure my life by Zadie Smith and her writing.
I remember reading it on a beach in Greece around the time wondering what the fuss was all about. Smith, born to one Jamaican parent and one white parent, the first person from her North London family to go to a university, and that university being Cambridge, she's inciteful, funny, deep thinking, up-to-date and culturally aware. She's great. I remember reading White Teeth and recognising a lot of the areas - having lived around NW3 and NW6 while I was there. She was relatable.
My other memory of Zadie Smith involves Andrew O'Hagan, a Scottish writer cut from a similar cloth. I was doing some driving for the Writer's Festival and we were stuck in traffic. He was texting somebody while we were chatting. The next thing he tells me is, "I'm having a chat with Zadie Smith. Told her I'm stuck in traffic with a woman called Panda who is also a writer who's driving me about."
That's my six degrees of separation story with her.
Tonight, she was in conversation with Benjamin Law at the Melbourne Town Hall. The stalls were sold out, the gods were half full. For an hour and a half, I got to be blown away by two people having a deep, fun, exploring conversation about writing, life, the joys of change, process and the extraordinary luck she's had (which you can clearly see has been set of with an extreme amount of hard work).
Both Smith, and by extension, Benjamin Law are very generous in their conversation. I get the feeling Law was a little star struck, just as Smith is down to earth.
Part of this talk was looked at her writing process, the ever-encroaching role of AI, what it was like growing up as a literary darling... the chat was as fascinating as it was fun.
A large span of the chat was spent talking about her new book of essays, Dead and Alive. Part of Smith's greatness is her ability to write fantastic non-fiction alongside of her fiction. And I agree with her, the great thing about writing essays is that you can finish them easily.
And then it was back onto the tram and home to the cat.
I do have one question, though. In the audience of around 2000 people, about 85% of the crowd were woman. I wouldn't call Zadie Smith a woman's writer. She's a literary writer. She doesn't write romance or chick lit. Nor does she write commercial crime novels. I was just a little floored at the lack of men in the crowd. Don't they read any more? Where are the men and why aren't they showing up to listen to ideas and engage in discourse about the world. Is this why there's a male loneliness crisis? Just an observation.
I've downloaded her book of essays onto my kindle. Looking forward to that.
If I'm honest, it's something I believe in and participate in as much as possible. I've got a large bag of aluminium coffee pods waiting to go back to Nescafe. My rubbish is sorted and put in the correct bins.
And today, for shits and giggles, I took two bags of cans to the recycling station just to see what it was like. The interwebs had been telling me of these new-fangled machines where you could recycle your cans and bottles. All they need is a recognisable bar code. Simples.
In the scheme of things, returning around 40 cans to a machine which will give me a voucher for returning them seems like a fool's errand, but I was curious. I drink a bit of fluids which come out of cans. My nightly Sodaly. A bit of coke Zero... why shouldn't I return my cans and get 10 cents back on each.
I also wanted to try the experience.
A public holiday is a good day to do this, making my way to the recycling station in Camberwell.
Things I found out.
Lots of people do this. When I left, there were five people waiting patiently to use the machines - most, like me, had two or three shoppers with them. There was no average demographic - a young couple, a woman my age, a dad and his two kids were in the line.
Well, there was a queue. I was first in the queue behind a family group who seemed to have five barbeques worth of bottles and cans in front of me. Also, there were two machines - one wasn't working. One was.
It was a nice day, and a ten-minute wait with my audio book and some good pokemonning make the time go quickly.
Finally, it was my time. I scanned the app. I put my cans and bottles in once at a time sending them down the scanning conveyor. Took all of about 5 minutes, a couple of cans came back - most went through on a second round - and at the end of it, I got a voucher that can be redeemed at Coles for about $4.00.
Is this a worthwhile activity, collecting cans so that every few weeks I can go run them through the machine for a few buck - possibly not, but I like that I get my money back on the cans and save the funds, after a while, I could put the pin money towards something.
I just think it's a worthwhile thing to do. The cans can live in my car boot until I send them on their way - and if I'm honest, coming from a state which has always had a 10 cent refund on cans, I never could work out why more places haven't done this to try to get more glass, aluminium and plastic back into the recycling arena. But as much as we've had this scheme, finding places to recycle has always been difficult and time consuming.
I think I'll keep doing this, even if it's a just for me thing.
I got scammed yesterday. Thankfully, they got away with nothing, the debit card has been cancelled, and my accounts are secured again, I've not come across this scam before - and I'm just happy that I spotted it and rang the bank immediately as soon as I realised. And that nothing was taken. Still, may they have a 1/100 chance of stepping on a Lego brick every time they take a step.
So, here is the anatomy of a scam. Learn from my mistakes.
1) List some things on Facebook Marketplace. I've done this hundreds of times with no issue.
My adds are fairly non-descript. Pick up from the Inner East or post at the buyer's cost. I use postage satchels. I also have the big words, PAYPAL preferred. No bank accounts, no other information given other than an email address. I've not had trouble with this before.
2) Somebody contacts you about the item. Appears legit. The intended buyer asks if this is the item. Yes, I say. And what about shipping. I explain that I'm using postage satchels and will not be able to give tracking numbers and postage until Tuesday. They get irritated by this. First red flag. Most of Australia is on a Public Holiday on Monday - but they kept on. Okay - a bit strange, but I leave it.
I must also preface this with the fact that I was in the hairdresser's chair at the time and I've not been feeling great for the last few days thanks to an ear infection. So rundown and distracted. Still, there is no excuse.
3) Next thing I know they say they've paid me through some AusPost app. I explain that I'd prefer them to use PayPal, because at least with PayPal, things are anonymous and secure and no account details are shared. They keep at me that they've paid me and tell me to look at the link. I said this wasn't how I did business, but they kept at me.
A message came up with an AusPost Banking link. Looked real on first sight. Maybe the post office had a banking app now?
I've done enough scam training. Things weren't sitting right. But stupidly, I clicked on the link and entered some details.
4) The buyer was keeping at me. I kept telling them to hold their bloody horses. I asked if they could cancel this payment and use PayPal. They were most affronted by this, saying that they'd spend all their money and if they cancelled, they wouldn't get all their money back. They also wanted postage details. I'd explained - public holiday. Post Office isn't open until Tuesday. This chick is pissing me off.
I call bullshit. What do they say about this? Create a sense of urgency? Yep. Alarm bells are ringing. My darling hairdresser keeps working on my mop.
5) Then I get a text. Somebody called Jessica Gonzalez has added their details to my ING account. They want me to clink another link and verify that I was going to put $689 into some Crypto account. What the! Shit. Scam.
Here is where my luck came in. The details they received were for a debit card which has about $50 in funds sitting on it, so they wouldn't get any funds. Secondly, without the verification number, nothing was going to be authorised - I've got secondary verification set up. I got onto the app, cancelled the card and then immediately called the bank.
And I felt like an absolute fool.
In the meantime, I let the scammer rant away at me... may as well let them think they're getting something.
6) The woman on the phone at the bank, Rebecca, was fantastic. I was also wandering around Aldi checking out crap as I was doing this. She was ordered, kind, conciliatory and very thorough. My pin numbers were changed, a new card ordered, extra security put in place, the banking app deleted, my phone checked for malware, and as for Jessica Gonzalez, her details were wiped from my contacts.
The scammer was still ranting at me to accept the payment over Messenger. I used a patient tone saying I'd get to it when I was home from running my errands. They didn't like this. Sucks to be them.
7) Once my banking was completely sorted, went back to Facebook Market place, blocked the scammer, reporting to the powers that be for what they were, and the dress went back to being available.
Phew.
Yes, hands up, I was distracted and foolish - NEVER CLICK THE LINKS. It's the first rule.
Secondly, I'm vigilant with regards to monitoring my accounts. It's done daily and it takes a few seconds. I've picked up scams on my main credit card quickly. It was also good yesterday when asked about items on the card I could say what they were and when they were - and that all of this palaver had happened in the last hour. There are people who don't see this stuff for weeks and have their accounts drained.
Thirdly, trust your instincts. If a buyer is acting pushy, going against your boundaries (I said PayPal! You don't have it - get it or find another seller to harass.) cut them off. Which in hindsight, I should have done immediately.
I'm feeling lucky. Stupid, but lucky.
Lesson learned.
And to the scammers, may the fleas of a thousand camels nestle in their pubes.
I'm counting my blessings. I got scammed today. Thankfully, I caught it quickly, stopped all my accounts, cancelled the compromised card and lost nothing - but I'm still angry - more with myself, but I'm pleased that all is in order now. Still, may the fleas of a thousand camels nestle in the pubes of the scammers.
So, it's nice to have something better to write about. COOKIES!
Allegedly it's National Oreo Cookie Day. Hand on heart, Oreo's aren't a big thing in Australia and I find them very boring. We have far better biscuits here. Seriously, American's don't know what they are missing.
1. Are you able to pass by a plate of cookies and not take one or are you a bit of a "Cookie Monster?"
I used to be a cookie monster. Now, I try to stay away or just have one. There's too much sugar in them for my liking.
2. Tell us about your favorite cookie. Have your tastes changed since you were a kid?
I'm going to talk Australian biscuits (cookies) here because we have a completely different culture.
My favourite biscuits are my grandmother's recipe Yo Yo biscuits, also known as Melting Moments. Butter, icing sugar, custard powder, a bit of flour and vanilla, held together with some almond icing. They are the bomb.
My next favourite are Anzac biscuits, but they have to be very thin, crunchy on the outside and a little bit chewy ion the inside. I had a colleague in Darwin who made they and they were life changing. I still think about them.
Of packet biscuits, I'm a big fan of Arnott's Venetian biscuits.
Though the lemon crisps are very good too - a little salty, a little sweet.
And if I can find them, The Cookie Man's Harlequin biscuits remind me of my grandfather.
3. Enquiring minds want to know if you are a dunker and, if so, do you dunk in milk, coffee, or tea?
Yes, I'm a dunker. Preferably in milky hot tea, though I can do a Tim Tam Slam with coffee. I used to get told off for it when I was a kid.
Then there is the Time Tam Slam. Tim Tam Slams, you ask. Tim Tams are an iconic Australian chocolate biscuit. What you do is you bite off opposing corners of the Tim Tam and then suck your coffee through one corner. It's a very Australian thing. It's good. You need to demonstrate one to get through your Australian citizen ship test.
4. It is that time of year and they are selling them on every corner and in front of every store! Do you buy Girl Scout cookies and if you do, which is your favorite?
Alas, girl scout cookies aren't a thing over here. They used to have these really good plain ones when I was a child, but I've not seen them in decades.
