Spotted last Friday night: Well, it’s one way through the traffic. He got up to a fair speed zooming down Elizabeth Street, too.
Year: 2006
Categories
The pros and cons of savings plans
Years ago an Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) fund was established for the kids. It seemed reasonably convincing at the time; that you’d put in a bunch of money each month and it would accrue interest and pay out when they went to uni, to pay for their expenses. But after some years in it, I’m ... [More]
Okay okay, it hasn’t really been that bad. But I had to laugh when seeing about five of these signs in a row going up St Kilda Road the other week. One really did say “Avoid inner suburbs.” See also: Blame the Games A day at the athletics (Note March 2016: originally this was a ... [More]
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Tropical cyclone Larry
Amidst the awfulness of the impact of Topical Tropical Cyclone Larry, one of the side effects will be the impact on bananas. Apparently about 80% of the crop has been wiped out, perhaps causing prices to double, and a dire shortage expected for the next 9-12 months. In my family we chomp our way through ... [More]
Goodnight and Good Luck — A dramatised version of the campaign against Joe McCarthy by 50’s CBS programme See It Now, but with so many modern parallels in today’s climate of terrorism, fundamentalism, secrecy and censorship. Beautifully shot, and compelling. My eyes didn’t waver from the screen for the full 90 minutes. On a couple ... [More]
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GO KERRYN!
Australia’s Kerryn McCann says she was prepared to be beaten in the women’s marathon, until she heard the roar of the MCG crowd. — The Age Such a thrilling thing I haven’t seen in a long time. She didn’t know it, but 76,500 of us in the MCG were watching her progress against Hellen Cherono ... [More]
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Music meme
Tagged by Rae: Seven songs I am listening to right now and a lyric or two that sounds good New Mistake, by Jellyfish — I have no idea what this song is about, but I like it. Got hooked on this band after seeing the music video for it (which is just as confusing) on ... [More]
So the other week I opened up the Good Weekend A2 (Saturday newspaper colour magazine). I ask you, does the world really need another profile of Barry Humphries? I’m not asking for him to go and die or anything, and I find Dame Edna as amusing as the next person, but this continuing fascination for ... [More]
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The blame Games
Ahhh… the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony… the flying tram… landing on a giant Melway. You know what, if I had designed the opening moments, that’s probably how I would have done it. Didn’t understand the juxtaposition of ballet dancers and trail bikes though. … I noticed in a city drycleaners the other day a sign ... [More]
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Wonka and Tropfest
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — OMG, it’s Johnny Depp playing Michael Jackson playing Willy Wonka. Deep Roy (who 30 years ago played Mr Sin in Doctor Who — The Talons of Weng-Chiang) must have worked hard on this, playing all the Oompa Loompahs. All in all, enjoyable, and thankfully the spectre of the old ... [More]
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Queen’s baton relay
Yesterday the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay went past my mum’s house. So we decided to go and have a look. My mum got some chairs out and we sat waiting on the nature strip. After a few minutes, some police motorcycles and a support vehicle arrived to drop runners at the appropriate spots, clear ... [More]
The next time you hear the government making excuses as to why they can’t extend train and tram lines, and how they have to provide a “balance” between freeway and public transport expansion, keep this in mind: (Current and past ten years dollars spent on freeway expansion: $7.2 billion. Rail/tram network expansion: $225 milion. Full ... [More]