On November the 14th I wrote about the juvenile perfumes that are on sale here in Australia. Apparently, these weak lolly water essences are directed towards the pubescent girls who are mad about Justin Bieber and Little Boy Bands.

Coincidentally,  on the following day,  Robert Gottliebsen, who is a famous economist,  wrote an article in “The Australian” newspaper entitled  “Marketers ignore the over 65s, the only age group who have money and want to spend.”

It is a lamentable fact that retail spending has declined and Gottliebsen blames the retailers who have ignored the only demographic who can actually afford to buy.

Retailers have been hoping that Christmas shopping will help them out of this decline,  but,  in my opinion the anticipated splurge by unfunded shoppers  will only lead to more personal debt among the younger age group.

If only the retailers would provide goods that would appeal to the richest group in our society, the cashed-up over 65s, then these retirees would not have to do their shopping on overseas trips or online with overseas businesses.

I’m sure that they would much prefer to contribute to the Australian economy instead of sourcing their goods,  such as adult perfumes,  from other parts of the planet.

Just when you start to wonder if there is any good service out there,  along comes Richard at the Brother Solutions Centre.

He was was so pleasant and helpful this afternoon that I feel compelled to sing his praises. He spent a patient 40 minutes helping us set up our Brother Printer after we had a bit of a problem with a previous WiFi connection.

Methodical, kind and oh so easy to understand,  Richard should not remain an unsung hero,  so thank you Richard for your help.

How I wish there were more people like you !

I realise that in the German language as well as in other European languages it is acceptable to refer to someone as “My dear…whatever”.

In Australia, however,  this sounds patronising and sarcastic.

Our Australian culture is much more casual than the German one and even irreverent at times. We don’t bow and scrape and act obsequiously even when we are courteous.  So being called “”Dear Customer” is strange to our ears, especially when the announcement is “Dear Customer we are closing Checkout 2. We  are opening Checkout 3”   and you feel like clicking your heels together  and saluting  “Jawohl”.

Dear Aldi, you can always simply announce that you are closing a checkout by saying  “We are now closing Checkout 2 and opening Checkout 3. Thank you.”

I continue to be amazed by the Australian obsession with sport.  This is to the detriment of other fields of endeavour such as academic achievement,  culture,  business prowess,  for example.

Football, tennis, swimming and cricket take up half the news broadcasts.  Yes, it’s nice to be active and run and jump fast or whatever, but that does not make a nation great, in my opinion.  After all, these are just games and yet in Australia they take the place of  all other achievements.

In fact, if someone is talented in medicine or learning, then that success is disregarded. But if that same person can score a few runs in cricket, then he or she is venerated. This explains why so many  “Australians of the Year” have been sportsmen and women.

The disappointing feature of all this obsession is that there is lots of scandal and drug cheating with performance enhancing products,  so that it becomes  difficult to respect and trust the whole business.

Moreover,   if a sportsman behaves abominably then he is forgiven whereas if that same person were to behave like that in the business world he would have been fired.  I’m referring,  of course, to some of our footballers and currently to some of our better known tennis players.

In my opinion,  Bernard Tomic and  Nick Kyrgios bring shame to our country.  They may play tennis quite well but what a couple of spoilt brats they are!  They are short on sportsmanship or dignity in their playing.

What a contrast to the tennis players of the past who made us proud and did not embarrass our nation!

In all seriousness,  I am so disgusted by their lack of character that I barrack for their opponents whenever they play a match.

For crying out loud,   sport is sport and life is something else,  but when sport adopts the mantle of religious fanaticism,  it becomes ludicrous.  I hope that one day we will value the important fields of human achievement more than some foolish bugger’s ability to kick or catch or chase a ball.

It does remind me of Emperor Vespasian’s dictum that one should keep the masses amused,  hence the Colosseum