Mister Brisbane: Fly guy
Am I at the point of no return with my loyalty-card obsession?
My name is Brett and I’m a pointsaholic. It’s been two days since I bought something I didn’t need just so I could add to my FlyBuys tally. I know this is a problem, but I can’t help myself — every week I get an email from Coles telling me how many points I can earn if I spend a certain amount of money. This past week, I spent over $200 in one shop — which is an insane amount for a single person who lives alone to blow at the supermarket.
I’ve tried to convince myself that I will get around to using all the extra things I’ve purchased — cleaning agents, tissues, canned foods, even a USB stick. That may be true, or I’ll be throwing many of things away at some stage. In any case, excessive consumption is a real problem. And then there’s the fact that I am sometimes buying inferior products — I can get better fruit and meat at the greengrocer’s and the butcher shop, but I buy them at the supermarket just to get the points.
The challenge is to stop buying things I don’t need or I’ll be like the dog chasing its own tail in the pursuit of frequent-flyer points which, let’s be honest, aren’t especially useful at the moment. (Yes, I know they can be used for other things, but my primary use for them is to upgrade on long-haul flights.)
P.S. I just discovered that the USB flash drive I bought to make sure my spend was over $200 was more than three times more expensive than a slightly better one (3.0 v 2.0) from Amazon.
Tune in to the Mister Brisbane radio show on Reading Radio at 1296AM and on DAB+ in Brisbane at 6.30pm on Tuesday nights. It’s also available as a podcast. Just search for “Mister Brisbane” on your favourite player or follow this link.
BI-COASTAL
Last week, on social media, I referred to a visit I made to “the Goldie”. It received this response from Jeff: “When did the Gold Coast start to be referred to as Goldie? And when did Sunshine Coast start to be referred to as Sunny Coast? I, born in 1968, always referred to those places as the South Coast and the North Coast.”
As I replied, I, too, used to refer to the South and North Coasts when I was very young, but they’ve been the Gold and Sunshine Coasts for most of my life. Why did I use the word “Goldie”? Because it’s a term I hear all the time — from other people and from the media — and it seems fashionable. Was I right or wrong to use a term I wouldn’t normally use just to appear “with it”, as we used to say? Your thoughts, please …
TEA TIME
When I was growing up, we always ate the evening meal at 6pm. And my Dad called it “tea”. To him, the meal I now call “lunch” was “dinner”, which is, of course, what I call the evening meal. I still tend to eat early.
And on the subject of tea, I just brewed up a pot of Earl Grey using loose leaves for the first time in ages. Given how hard the tea leaves were to find at the supermarket amid all the bags, I guess not a lot of people do this any more.
CUP FEVER
I discovered this trophy recently — the one I received as an 8-year-old for playing (or, more often, avoiding playing) in the Under 9s team at Golden Valley Australian Football Club. The GVAFC didn’t last for many years — quite probably because my contemporaries at the very end of the “baby boom” and there were fewer kids to join Aussie rules teams in the 1970s and 80s. I wonder how the other Brisbane junior Australian Football clubs — and, indeed, those in other codes — are doing now, numbers-wise. Are more or fewer children playing sport? Does anyone have any insights?
SILLY SALES
Near why I live, there is a local shop called the Local Shop. It sells lollies and drinks and basic groceries, and offers ironing and 3D-printing services. Now that may seem like an odd combination, but I can only assume that the owners have responded to some kind of demand or discovered a niche that other businesses are not fulfilling. Unable to compete against the big supermarkets, small retailers have had to think outside the box to stay in business. Convenience alone isn’t going to do the trick.
Most newsagents these days sell much, much more than newspapers and magazines. I suspect most of them survive on the sale of scratchies, lotto and crappy last-minute gifts. And post offices have the most remarkable array of products, most of them with no logical connection to what’s supposed to be their core business. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen for sale in incongruous surroundings?
STATS ENTERTAINMENT
According to Tweepsmap, I have Twitter followers all over the world, but nearly one-quarter of them (so that’s about 1,000) are in Brisbane. Overall, 62 per cent are in Australia, followed by 15.7 per cent in the United States (Hi, y’all!) and 7.9 per cent in the United Kingdom. I’m also biggish in the Middle East (2.8 per cent in the UAE), and I have about 75 followers in Canada, 50 in Thailand and India, and 25ish in New Zealand, Malaysia and Ireland. I also have at least one follower each in Iran, China, South Korea, Japan, Zimbabwe, Iceland, Portugal, Vanuatu, Gambia and St Lucia (the Caribbean island, not the Brisbane suburb, where I hope I have several).
FEEDBACK
On changing your address, Evan says: “I found the only way to get off the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes (did anyone ever win those?) mailing list was to tell them I was deceased. Return to Sender never worked.”
On the subject of my cancelled cruise, Matt tweets: “Nice read again thanks. Could a resort like Daydream Island be the cruise substitute you seek?” (My reply: “I’d be happy if they just moored a boat in the Brisbane River and pulled up the gangway for a week.)”
Steve says: “Great column ... sadly, it doesn’t sound like to much has changed in Ipswich. When I was at the QT back in 2004, I remember tearing into Toowong on a Friday evening for afterwork drinks because no one stayed in the Ippy CBD outside office hours — and even then, it was half empty.”
From Royce: “A very good Mr Brisbane newsletter from @debritz this morning — I’ve often wondered the same thing about the Ipswich CBD.”
On the subject of city living in general, Katherine says: “A big factor is convenience. No lawn to mow, but nice parks a block or two away. Walkable grocery shopping and other amenities. Basically, shared, walkable, convenient common spaces.”
Peter, who recently moved to inner-Brisbane, says “rumours of the demise of the CBD may be slightly exaggerated”.
MEANWHILE…
The Lifeline Bookfest will return to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on June 26. It will be run over nine days, and there will be more than four kilometres of books available to choose from each day when the event, which had to be cancelled due to COVID last year, returns.