Now into the 2nd week of the three weeks of horror Sally's sores continue to spread at an ever quicker pace with seemingly no end in sight. It has been an intense weekend.

Today I was at the mall spending Sally's pension check, needing a few items of groceries, and was given permission to get myself some new underwear. To me I see clothing purely as a means to an end and somewhat of a necessary evil, to help abide by society's laws and morals, and at this time of year, to help keep warm. I therefore rarely buy clothes for myself as I find it positively boring. Since my childhood I never liked receiving clothes for my birthday or xmas. I'd get excited at unwrapping toys, etc, but when it comes to clothes I'd be somewhat disappointed. And so even through my teens, and now long into adulthood, I never buy clothes for myself unless I really have to. Underwear least of all. But as my current supply of underwear slowly dwindles due to normal wear and tear, to the point where I have only a single pair and it too developing holes where it shouldn't, I still refuse to spend the money on any new pair. When Sally queries it, I say we spend too much money on bandages etc and so can't afford it. Now Sally orders me to go buy new underwear with her pension check.

Now Jews traditionally do not purchase new clothes of any sort during the three weeks. But I don't necessarily follow Jewish traditions. I simply follow my own set of rules based on personal experiences, such as, never making any purchases of electronic or mechanical items and never doing my tax return during the three weeks. However I don't necessarily have a problem with buying new clothes, certainly not new underwear during the three weeks. I do not belong to the Jewish religion, indeed I don't belong to any religion. I never liked religion with all its rules and regulations, which is why I spent half my life drifting from church to church. I could never reconcile my personal spirituality with the rules and regulations imposed by churches, especially where what one church deems as "evil" another church deems as not only desirable but indeed necessary to be truly "saved" or at least "better" or "more spiritual" than members of the church down the road. I am way over all this kind of crap!! As a saying goes, "religious people are those afraid of going to hell, spiritual people are those who have already been there!!"  And those knowing my life story will know I have already been to "hell" several times over!! Therefore I prefer to consider myself "spiritual" rather than "religious".

Anyway I arrived at the mall during my lunch hour and at first I needed to get some cash out of the ATM. First sign of trouble, my bank's ATM was out of action!! So I went to look for the ATM of a "partner" bank, what I can use to withdraw cash without attracting the fee that is normally charged when accessing the ATM of a "foreign" bank. However the ATM of that particular bank was also out of action!!! Two ATMs of two different banks being the two I needed to use both out of action while every other ATM of other banks were working normally only that to use any of the others would attract a transaction fee, it is only $2 but I consider it a rip off. Banks here in Australia are a law unto themselves, they rake in huge profits and can charge whatever fee they wish to charge. It does NOT cost $2 to access what is essentially an internet connection to access the data associated with my account and then to effect the transaction, indeed the real price is only a few cents. But like in everything else the banks way overcharge on everything hence their huge profits. But on this occasion I needed to use a "foreign" ATM and hence wear the $2 fee, its either that or starve, as I needed the cash to purchase my lunch!!

But that was not the end of the problems. I then went into Target to get a particular kind of underwear that I had gotten from that very same store at the very same mall before. I wear only a particular sort of underwear, am not prepared to go into details on this public blog site! But for reasons which I am also not prepared to reveal on this public site I will wear only that one sort of underwear and absolutely none other. So I went into Target only to find they no longer sell this particular kind!! They had it seems every other kind of underwear EXCEPT the one that I wear. By then I had no time to visit any other department store as I needed to be back at work, and am not likely to be back at the mall until Thursday when I get the privilege of spending my own pay check!!

The football tipping and 7 seems to be my number of choice as once again I managed to score 7 points out of a possible 9. Both my beloved Magpies and also Essendon doing their bit for me!!