Often when toilet blocks get renovated they sometimes get fancy murals painted on the outside in lieu of just a quick coat of paint. We came across these on a drive through the Pioneer Valley in a place called Marian about 25kms from MacKay. Fun to look at sadly no name to say who painted them.
The Ladies section was empty ….or so I thought….and being the city girl that I am gave a little squeal of surprise (to put it mildly) when I saw these in the bowl.
During cooler and drier months, the green tree frog can often be found hiding in toilet bowls across Australia, source
Checked the other stalls – same again – and as there was no way I could have lasted until the next place up the road learnt that where there’s a will there’s certainly a way. I now know I can pee almost standing up…..with trepidation and difficulty 🙂
Do you know you can find a toilet block online? I was trying to place where these were in relation to Dame Nelly Melba’s house…..there in Marian not here in Coldstream…and discovered a site called ‘The National Public Toilet Map ‘- A project of the national continence program – and each block has a number. So if you’re travelling in Australia and ‘need to go’ that’s where you can find the nearest one to where you are.
But look what else I also found on the site. The mural is no more – it’s reverted to plain paint . Don’t laugh but I felt a little disappointed…and sad that it had gone.
I’m beginning to think that as I get older I’m becoming more intolerant of change. At one time I’d have just shrugged my shoulders and not thought anymore about it. The weather up there decides a lot of things and it was probably due for a repaint anyway.
I’m not slow to accept change if it’s needed but it’s what seems to be the change for change sake or to benefit others I’m starting to get crook at…..those doing the change will probably ague their case (oh no it’s not money/profit related) but it’s things like rearranging supermarket layouts….knocking houses down to build units….resizing products. This week three of our utility plans have been scrapped – ‘new plans suited for us’ will give us more…..but if you actually read the fine print will cost a little extra in some way or another.
So that’s what I’m thinking about and trying to get my head around this Monday morning – are there ways to accept that which you have no control over….apart from taking a deep breath and sighing each time you think about it (or moving to new providers). Am I mourning a loss, is this just the result of months of ‘you know what’, the slow change of our season…..proper constantly warm spring seems to be a long time coming …..or am I just becoming a miserable moaning old woman!
On the bright side, there’s one thing I do know about the new look at the supermarket…..I’ll be able to add a few more steps to my daily total walking the aisles trying to find where they moved things to 😊
How about you? Is it just me or does anyone else feel like this?
MondayMurals is hosted by Sami at Colourful World.
MondayMusings is hosted by Corinne at Everyday Gyaan
Still Waters 
It is not just you. I don’t understand change for merely for the sake of change. The charge to get the latest iphone (why?) or replacing a car that is perfectly fine. It seems that we live in a world that races to keep up with the latest, the newest, as if those things will make our lives better. They don’t, not to my way of living. And I will never understand rearranging stores. It wastes my time.
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Certainly does take more time to do the shop. As well as that the managers are betting on you buying products you just ‘happen’ to notice in places you didn’t notice them before.
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It seems to me that things only change when someone makes some money from it. Things that need to change to benefit people generally do not.
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Often it’s only after ‘big stink’ happens that the benefitting begins.
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Changing just for the sake of changing is a P.I.T.A. And supermarket lay-outs only change to have us use more time and hence money in there. I once read about the ideal supermarket layout – seen from a customer’s view (I agreed) – and am sad to say that not one supermarket lives up to this. This is nothing new in my head at least, so not old and grumpy, merely grumpy over things wasting otehr peoples’ time.
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Shop the edges is what they say…..only you do have to go up and down a few aisles to pick up other bits. And it’s often ‘the other bits’ that get moved around.
I’d be interested in seeing/reading that information you have about the ideal layout (from shoppers POV.
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Seeing those frogs would have spurred me into learning to go standing up myself! I am still worried in new places by my mother’s horror story of encountering a rat in her school toilet! As for change, I would love to change my isolation for a nice road trip!
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I’d love a road trip Elizabeth…..any road will do…..and further than our allowed (at the moment) 25km/15miles radius. That’s one restriction change I wouldn’t complain about 😊
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I wonder what is important about 25 km. Have they said?
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I don’t deal with change well – and loathe and detest change for changes sake. I hope blogger is listening in.
A friend of ours had a resident frog in this toilet for years so I learned that dance – but always felt guilty about the poor frog.
And I loved the toilet mural and would have joined your mourning.
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EC I’d been warned about tree frogs and their liking for toilet bowls but just wasn’t prepared enough when I actually came across one….or more than one in this case. What surprised me was they just hung on/didn’t move when the cistern water flowed around them
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Oh gosh! I’m happy to say I haven’t seen frogs in our toilets… yet. I really liked the mural on the bathrooms though. What a shame they painted over it.
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They are real frogs? Not painted on ones. Change in retail products rarely benefit the consumer.
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Oh they were real alright Andrew. They moved!
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this morning, was supposed to be “have made a word document file” and it will be a piece of cake – within 2 boxes I was faced with “this file is unrecognisable…but we will accept these 12 other programs” – and then apparently my pictures were “still too big” … by the time I had finished with dozens of “boxes” – I couldn’t even fathom out if any of it made sense. And the things I couldn’t make into “correct files” have been sent by email to the organisation!
And now I couldn’t care less if I got the scholarship or not…why do programmers who put these things together, assume we all have massive of $$ to spend on branded software, which we hardly ever use nowadays!
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I read your blog entry about your traumatic experience caused by change Cathy….and felt for you. Was there a ‘note’ on the site about needing this that and the other to be able to complete the application.
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there were guidelines and rules about the scholarship – and during the application you couldn’t move to the next section until “upload took place” – that included where you had to “tick an option” – neither of them suited so in the end just clicked on one…
I did complete it all but it was odd because the part where I couldn’t finish the referee upload it allowed me to go on…
I’m looking forward the rest of this week going better….
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Fun mural 🙂 And fond memories of MacKay…
Love the toilet map, too! Times are a changing for sure.
And I do think “age” is a word without meaning. Since years and years the “new” ads on TV drive me plain nuts, and that´s just one example!
We always had to walk the mountain upwards in 3 meters of snow to go to school back then 😉
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Hello Iris. Lol did you get to school on time (with no shoes on either).
Sometimes we need some fun and the public toilet site certainly is one
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Change has always occurred, but I think change has changed during our lifetime.
Change has speeded up, gone into warp speed, lost any semblence of accountability at a local level, become a video game for the greedy.
Just my opinion. I don’t know if this level of constant profit based changed is sustainable. I do know it isn’t healthy for humans.
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Maggie yes has business has become greedy or should I say greedier than ever before.
This is the year of big changes….that are going to affect all of us not just me. I know my whinges about something as minor as trying to locate oxo cubes that mysteriously aren’t in the same spot as they were when I shopped 4 weeks ago are nothing compared to changes in family life because of restrictions due to the virus.
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Love the murals, with a pity they’ve been painted over!
I would have run out of the toilet if I had spotted the frogs in the toilet bowl, and probably go and pee behind some bushes, lol.
There seems to be more and more changes to our lives, and I think the older we get the less tolerant we become to changes to our routine.
Thanks for contributing to Monday Mural Cathy.
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Lol Sami….there weren’t any bushes nearby!
Knowing what the climate up there is like maybe the paintwork didn’t weather too well …they’ve had a few cyclones since then as well. Possibly the council thought, while we’re doing a clean up we’ll clean this up as well 😊
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Buen Mural, con unos buenos dibujos, para hacer que los aseos tengan una bonita decoración.
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Hola Antonia. Gracias por tu comentario. Me alegro que te haya gustado el mural. Los pollos fueron un diseño divertido de ver.
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Just when I become used to the location of everything at the grocery store, they change it up! Ugh!!! I love the bathroom murals. I live in the US and I have never seen them before. I should begin a movement to paint them here. So much prettier than just plain cement block.
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Lots of ‘things’ get painted down here Laurie. If you’ve get the time and the aptitude I’d say go for it. See if you can find any street artists willing to ‘give it a go’
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I always find change a challenge – I like all my ducks in a row! But what I learn is that fighting it just stresses me more, accepting it and looking for the positives always makes it easier. I dread becoming a cranky old woman, so I do everything I can to look for the sunshine and rainbows (or the silver lining if it’s cloudy!) Enjoy those extra steps each time you shop (and PS I think the toilet block looked better with the mural too) x
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99% of the time I’m fine Leanne….just every now and again I get riled up about it. You’re right about trying to find good in everything but sometimes…….
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Hahahahaha! I had to laugh at the frogs in the toilet! That was a regular occurrence in the cabins at the resort on Hinchinbrook Island that I managed. Often I had to explain to the visiting guests the frogs were harmless, as were the geckos! 🙂
Out of consideration, I’d have a staff member go and remove the “dangerous”: little critters, knowing full well they would return as soon as their backs were turned…but it set the minds of the guests at ease. 🙂
I know Marian well…I travelled that road often on my way up to Eungella when I was living and working in Mackay. I’d slip away for a couple of hours on a Sunday, when possible to enjoy the peace and beauty of the trip, and Eungella…and the well-known old chalet up there.
I hate change!!!!
Take care, Cathy. 🙂
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You were a darling or should I say a considerate host to look after the guests the way you did, that was the way things were doin those days wasn’t it.
We certainly enjoyed our day out, driving that twisting turning road was ‘fun’ didn’t see any platypus though but had lunch at an old pub – The Pinnacle Pub I think from memory right beside some cane fields
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I’m happy you survived those frogs – I’m certain I wouldn’t have!
Being an army kid made me very accepting of change – a new school every couple of years not to mention a new town and another house! But I’m not very happy to see changes in landscape and old and beloved buildings being razed to the ground to make way for another mall or an apartment block.
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I had a similar life as an airforce brat Corinne, like you I feel that early grounding in altering situations as well as marrying a serviceman has helped accepting change (especially in these Covid times)….it’s just every now and again I get riled up over things that at one time wouldn’t have bothered me at all…..that’s when I wonder if it’s my age that’s making me feel that way.
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I love murals and I loved your surprise guests 😉 It made me chuckle because I have a gecko that lives in the kitchen and he usually runs out when I come in. The other night though he ‘hid’ under the toaster but didn’t realise his tail was sticking out. I could almost imagine a child covering its eyes – if I can’t see you then you can’t see me. hahah. But otherwise, yes, I agree that change for the sake of change is sad and can be frustrating. One of the core lessons from mindfulness, that I’m admittedly still working on, is ‘acceptance’. Easier said than done at times but I often remind myself why the change bothers me. It’s usually the relationship I have with the change that causes me suffering rather than the change in itself… hopefully that makes some sense 😉 let me know your thoughts. #everyday gyaan
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Change is the only constant thing isn’t it ? And we all fear it ..you are not the only one. Over the past few years I had stuck to a toxic workplace just because I knew it in and out.
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