Mr Mascellani's Musings

See you in a week. I'm on vacation.

An Old Photo

You go to a secondhand book shop. You buy a book. You take it home.

As you read it, an old photo falls out. It is a holiday snapshot of a beautiful woman at a beach.

You look at it , at her, at the surroundings.

You look through the book to see if there is any indication who the previous owner was.

Was it her? (the woman in the photo) or, perhaps, it belonged to the photographer.

But, no, the book is without any trace of prior ownership.

There's not even in a solitarily set of penciled in initials.

So, you have a mystery on your hands. You look at the photo again.

You like the woman's smile and her olden day swim suit which simultaneously hides and accentuates

beauty of her body. You don't recognize the beach, but its waters are calm. The cloudless sky is blue

and the sun is shining.

The photo makes you feel happy, sad, nostalgic. It makes you think. It inspires you to write.

The phone rings.

Savings And Other Such Things

There seems to be some variation to Murphy's Law that governs savings. It doesn't

affect everybody. But it does affect me and others that I know and have me.


It goes something like this:


If you mange to save $X then something will happen in our life that will cost you $X.


E.g: You save $X, Some louts throw a a brick through your window. A new window costs you $X


Very frustrating.


Another frustrating thing is coins. I mean is there anything worse than having no money in the

bank,nor in your wallet or purse, and two or three hundred dollars worth of coins in some sort

of 'piggy bank'?


A packet of cigarettes, in Sydney, costs about $9.00, that's 180 five cent coins. And don't

shop keepers just love being paid in 180 five cent coins?


In short, have two or three hundred dollars in coins is like not having money. At least not until

you get to a bank and stand in line for a few hours to deposit them.


But, of course, you only look to your coins when you have an empty bank account, wallet/purse

and that generally tends to happen only on weekends. A cruel irony. What could be worse?