Well, my husband and I have been living in the Dandenongs now for just over 3 months.  This is such a pretty part of Victoria, around 40kms south east of the city.

My absence has purely been because of our packing/shifting/unpacking and getting used to new surroundings. I have been taking tons of photos and plan to share more on our lovely city with you soon.

Just had a guy who said he was from AGL and showed me a badge. He wanted to replace my globes for free energy saving ones - I had heard there is such a promotion. But who’s going to let a stranger in the house to replace their globes for them? I’d have to spend time watching and waiting.  I told him he could leave the globes but he said he’s supposed to take the old ones away with him.  I told him ‘no’, I didn’t want him in my house.

I sent a message to a forum I run and immediately had others come back with information. One said it was a scam, a couple of others said they’d had men coming to their doors too but they turned them away.  One in another state said her electricity company wrote to them to advise this was going to take place.

I elected to ring AGL and query them whether they had someone coming around the streets of where I live and if not, I would call the police.

I couldn’t believe the response of their call operator.  She said they do have staff coming out to do this and they carry ID badges.  I told her he did flash one but I didn’t see it much and didn’t feel comfortable about letting a stranger in my house - especially since we had not been previously notified. She just said it was my perogative and I didn’t have to have him in. She showed no concern whatsoever about my need for confirmation or safety in the home.

Is this a reflection of the company itself? I hope not.  Given that it’s easy to create fake badges and flash one in front of people that was not sufficient evidence to me.  At least the company could have sent us a letter advising this was going to take place and when.

There’s a fast food advertisement being played on TV at the moment where a young man buys two meals at a really cheap price and then when he sets the meals down in front of his mate his mate tells him he only has $5.00. The first young man responds ‘that will have to do’ and pockets the money.

This advert is very poor - it’s teaching young people (and those others easily led astray) that it is ok to be dishonest and rip off people, including your mate.

I consider this to be very poor advertising and in bad taste - pardon the pun!

my apologies if the photos and the commentary didn’t line up!  I’ve just been looking at this blog in my Google Reader and it’s interpreted the photos in rows of 4 and not 3 so the captions I’ve written will be out of alignment.  But if you count 3 across from the left at the top and then in groups of 3 thereafter the captions will make sense.

I went into the city Friday afternoon and just randomly shot photos around our lovely city.  I wanted to share them with you here.

Above from the top row:L-R:

A man and his dog.  You often see people sitting around the city.

Two horses posing for their photo.  We have many horse drawn carriages for visitors to our city.

Another pair getting ready to turn at an intersection

Row Two: L - R

As with any major city we are a multi-cultural place now and sometimes you could wonder where you are exactly.

Our famous Flinders Street Station taken from my car whilst waiting at the lights.

A couple more horses with a carriage.

Third row: L-R

Banners for the forthcoming Moomba Fest which starts 6th March. I’ll be there to take more pics too!

A street artist in profile.

One of our many street cafes which are very popular these days.

Fourth row: L-R

There’s those two horses again - I wonder what the one on the right is saying to the other one?

The Red Circle Tram gives free rides around the circumference of the CBD area.

Peering in the Telstra Exhibition Street buildings - this pair stand there on permanent display.

All images are available at much higher resolution on request.