Braybrook Shopping Centre

Braybrook Shopping Centre is my favourite, maybe because Central West down the road seems to attract more people so I'm rooting for the underdog here, or maybe it's because I hate shopping at Coles. Anyway Braybrook Safeway* sells brioche which can't be said for many supermarkets, and the Chicken Station has excellent hot chips

*It was actually branded 'Safeway' until late last year in case you were wondering

Abandoned eggplant

I have been sleeping really badly lately - as in, I can't get to sleep until well after 6 am. I bought this little doover and hopefully it will help*. I have been so tired/incapacitated by brain fog this week that I've been fanging for a third and fourth coffee by 4 pm and 7 pm respectively. No more of that in the era of light box

*I don't know because it could be my sleep apnoea getting worse, which a light box wouldn't help. My ENT gave me these cool little plastic things to wear but I am a really restless sleeper and I keep waking up without the thing in my nose and instead it's on the bedside table or the floor

Anyway I feel like this abandoned eggplant on the side of Irving St

Really unfriendly cat in Preston that just totally ignored me and walked away

Approaching storm

During the storm

What a good storm

The tile detail on this building is very cool

Airbus A380 flew overhead which is a good omen

Cat wants bird

When your phone vibrates from receiving a message at the same time you take a photo, this happens

The photo I was trying to get but the magpies flew away very quickly so I was disappointed

I thought this was funny ok

Discount lion safari

Yes, that lion park - the shoddy-looking Rockbank one. I have driven past this place so many times over the years. As a child I was always annoyed by the fact that they left an enticing advertisement (the words "LION PARK" painted on a toilet block) within viewing distance of the highway, even well after the park's closure - reminds me of how I felt when, after years of pestering my parents to take me to Wobbies World, we drove all the way out east only to find it had shut

Some background: A short article in the Sydney Morning Herald (22 Feb 1970) said a 'Mr Stafford Bullen' owned a range of these parks along the eastern seaboard - he was a 'circus chief' who got lucky playing the sharemarket for twenty or so years, and then branched out into public investments and mining leases in New Zealand. Apparently the Melbourne lion park was to open in May of 1970, costing $500,000, and a lot of people were mauled there in the following decade because they opened doors or windows while driving through the exhibits

Bizarrely enough there was another lion park further down the highway past Bacchus Marsh, owned by the Ashton family who were also in the circus business (see: backstory of a stuffed lion). Both parks shut down in the mid 80s once people realised how wrong it is to import animals for this purpose

I could write something more comprehensive but I only wanted to provide a brief preamble and not a fully-fledged piece of research, which could actually be possible given the wealth of information on this particular brand of car-dependent zoo. So, on that note, I am sorry to say I forgot the date the following advertisement was published. I know it was The Age though. And since when do people use miles instead of kilometres. It doesn't even matter. Just enjoy the cute animal drawing

Australia Day 1943

A bad day for the humble potato. Image from The Age

Helping a cat

There was a lot of commotion coming from a family of myna birds in the street so I went out onto the balcony to have a look and saw a limping cat disappear behind my car. After about 10 minutes the myna family started up again so I went out again and caught this cat trying to jump onto the brick ledge where Egg used to sit. His limp was particularly pronounced but he kept walking so I met him on the corner for a closer look and this time the cat followed me back into the building where we hung out in the hallway for a while. His breathing was funny and he'd walk 2-3 meters before flopping down - poor thing had a twisted foot and a weird posture, kind of like when a cat arches its back in anger (or irritation, or any other general cat emotion). I was about to take him to Lort Smith when I realised there was a tag/number on its collar for the National Pet Register, so I gave them a call and they put me in touch with the owner who picked him up soon after.

Apparently the cat is called Winston and he loves to roam, and was born with hip dysplasia that gives him a slight limp but nothing this bad. He probably got into a fight and lost, hopefully with another cat and not a car. The owner told me Winston travels as far as the railway yards which is a really frightening notion and makes me glad we kept Egg as an indoor cat, except for the times she got out to sit underneath warm cars, which still worried me a lot and I don't condone this kind of behaviour at all.

Anyway I got to brush a cat and feed it butter so this has been a great Friday night so far and I hope Winston isn't too injured. Also I want a pet cat now

Three days worth of content

Kram z literami

This book was way too complex for my tiny 3ish year old brain so I don't recall reading it so much as just looking at the pictures (which are excellent)

This book is from 1987

I don't know what I tried to draw inside the book but it looks like fire? and a banana on a stick (a crescent moon?)

Down with reading

This is probably my favourite picture from the whole book because I doubt they licensed the likeness of Donald Duck and tried to get around it by taking away his hat

Indoctrinated with a love for pelargonium since a young age which is why I now have 4 of these plants on the balcony. They are the best

There is no V in the Polish alphabet (so yes, if you un-anglicise it, I'm Wiktoria) and I evidently tried to add it... in the wrong place