Fremantle - I went, I saw, I survived After I waffled on yesterday about all the photographic negatives I have, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a scanner - another scanner - I have an Apple one I bought about ten years ago at great expense, but it is of another technological age and it doesn't work on the Apple computers I now use.
The shops don't carry many scanners these days, which is strange. With all the baby boomers going into retirement I would have thought there would have been a steady demand for them to digitise family photo collections.
Have you noticed how much negative press there is about baby boomers lately. That's those of us who came into the world at the conclusion of WW2? We are fast being regarded as a good excuse for euthanasia by younger generations X, Y, and Z.
I did a little online research on scanners. I liked the idea of Epson brand because the one which is in use here now is an Epson, and it has been very reliable, but there is no film scanning capability.
Turns out Epson have two new models which do film. The V100 with a recommended retail price of $249 and the V350 at $399. Naturally the latter has more bells and whistles.
The Epson company website lists quite a few retail businesses in this area. It's obviously a one way partnership. I know from past visitations that these businesses don't don't carry Epson Scanners, or much else of the brand. At least two of these emporiums have recently become defunct. Nevertheless I trolled into Fremantle yesterday afternoon to double check the others.
The first thing I noticed was that the two-story Woolstores carpark which has been free for as long as I can remember has been changed to pay-parking. There are now mechanised sentinels standing guard over a suddenly empty car park. Yes the morons in the Fremantle City Council have decided the best way to kill off all the struggling shops in daggy Fremantle is to remove the last incentive in the place to go there.
There has been quite a lot of other negative publicity about predatory parking inspectors in recent weeks. Many letter writers to community newspapers are vowing they will never shop in Fremantle again.
The argument is, why bother to pay to shop in Fremantle when we can all go to nearby Garden City or Phoenix Park for free. We don't need to be economically mugged. Obviously the council's scheme is working - the huge Woolstores carpark was virtually empty.
A added disincentive to go to the port it that it has become the stamping ground of petrol sniffers, itinerants, skateboarders and other socially exempt individuals. Only two weeks ago I heard of a case where an alleged Aboriginal woman had bound a Fremantle florist with duct tape in broad daylight. Yep, even florists get robbed. Fremantle is also fast developing an onerous reputation as one of the most violent nightspots in Western Australia. A place where taxi drivers fear to go after midnight.
There is currently a great row going on between the mayor and sidewalk cafe owners who want the right to sell wine as a casual beverage to their customers. Reportedly the mayor has an ownership interest in one of the main hotels, and apparently other central precinct properties. According to press reports, he is vigorously opposing any such trading concession.
I heard that the Harvey Norman electrical goods store was closing down. They have had a gutful. They've been quitting all their stock over the past week at 30 percent off. I found a vacant parking spot nearby and left my wife and youngest daughter in the car to watch for a parking inspector while I nipped inside for a quick look. The place was a mess, not much stock left at all. At least not much to interest me, and certainly no Epson scanners.
As we departed Fremantle-central there was a weak fire alarm going off in the town hall complex. People were spewing out the front door and milling about. I had a look for smoke but there was nothing of such photogenic interest. We kept going to the Fremantle History Museum arts complex near the John Curtin High School. The parking is still free there, as is entry to the museum.
It was a quiet day for the arts complex. It's housed in colonial stone buildings once used as a women's asylum, and in WW2 as a US military headquarters. The feminists seem to be in charge. They try not to mention Fremantle's war.
There was an exhibition of art prints - for the most part really crappy boring ones. But nevertheless, some goose took off a big prize for his pretentiously boring crap. Here's a tip. Go find a book with a title something like
Print making for dummies and you can win a big art prize too. I think it was about $8,000.
The museum itself was extremly quiet. We only saw three other people inside as we wandered about the two levels. Currently the best part is a display relating to TV, radio and recording history in this state. There are lots of hands-on aspects to it. Our daughter enjoyed trying them all out - especially a "What the butler saw" machine. I should add that in this case, the butler saw nothing particularly erotic.
So the long and the short of yesterday is that I went into Fremantle and came out again unmugged, and that I didn't manage to locate an Epson Scanner.
© MMVI Paul R. Weaver.
About the writerCheck out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a million words.
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