Mister Brisbane: Time to travel?
Also: I remember Rocktober and the Fantastic Plastic. Do you?
I had a hunch about a fortnight ago that it might be a good time to renew my passport. It wasn’t imminently due for expiry, but it was almost full of visas and other stamps (none of them from the past two years). So, on Tuesday last week, I went to the post office and lodged my application, and paid my money. By Friday, The Australian was reporting that the passport office was expecting a rush of applications now that overseas travel seemed an actual possibility.
The report said that two million people had allowed their passports to expire during the pandemic. My hope is that I’m at the front of the queue. As to where and when I’ll be able to take an overseas holiday, well that’s still a matter of uncertainty.
Update: Yesterday (Monday), I received an SMS from the passport office saying that my new passport was on its way by registered mail.
JUST THE VAX
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m double vaxxed (I was offered AstraZeneca, and I took it gladly), and that I encourage everyone else to get the jabs (unless there’s a real medical reason why they can’t). So, I’m disappointed to hear that many people remain hesitant or are simply unwilling to have the vaccine — especially now that, at long last, three different vaccines are readily available. I am also fully supportive of businesses, including the one that employs me, to insist on vaccination among staff members and visitors to its premises. And I expect that the companies I do business with have the same policy.
But I’m in a position to talk to a lot of people, on the phone, in person and online. And it disturbs me that there is still a significant number of anti-vaxxers out there. They don’t just have opinions about vaccination, they have “facts”. But their “facts” fail to stand up to the simplest scrutiny.
As we get closer to “normality”, I just hope that the misguided, the idiotic and the selfishly arrogant are very much in the minority.
ROCK ON
I recently encountered, not for the first time, the phrase “Hallmark holiday”. Basically, it disparages the increasing number of occasions that we feel obliged to acknowledge by spending money we wouldn’t otherwise spend. Normally it involves giving — or “gifting” as we are now peer-pressured into saying — cards and presents to people in our family, friend or work ecosystems.
Anyhow, thinking about them got me thinking about my Canadian friend and former colleague Brian, who thought he was using a fictional example by citing “National Pickle Day” in a work conversation, and we all laughed — until we discovered that it’s a real thing. (It’s on November 14, so there’s not many sleeps now.) From days, I then began to think about weeks and months. And that’s where I realised that, if it were a few decades ago, we’d now be in the midst of Rocktober.
Rocktober was, as far as I can tell, the invention of a radio station. So was was my Fantastic Plastic — a card that may have provided discounts but certainly, briefly, added some cachet to those who had one. And, going further back, I remember being a member of the “Happy Wanderers’ Club”, sponsored by a petrol station. I think it was Ampol, the brand that has only just been relaunched. I don’t suppose they’ll be bringing it back.
FEEDBACK
My item about saying thanks to the bus driver resonated with a lot of people.
Trina says: “We had a lovely community on the 340 bus (outer northside to city). Almost every person said good morning to the driver and thanked them on the way out. Not been using the bus of late but the fact people are boarding and alighting from the rear door might have changed things.”
Christine says she’s an “habitual thanker”, and Lisa says: “I always say thanks to anyone who provides me with a service — unless it’s really bad.” Julie and Pippa agree, as does Lee, who says: “I love that in Brisbane, almost everyone else does too.”
Philip: “In Canada I do. Elsewhere, depends if I actually see them or not. For example, in Thailand they are walled off from passengers.”
Walter: “Always thank people who do a good job. Bus drivers, cooks at Coffee Club, the crew at anywhere I eat out for that matter, resort staff when you holiday. It’s a common courtesy and not a hollow one.”
PHOTO FINISH
Spotted in Wynnum recently. There has to be a story behind this …
