Going to Brisbane soon. Have some plans, but suggestions welcome, especially teenager-friendly places to have dinner or near the CBD. (Very disappointed to be missing the Emulator retro games exhibition. Ah well.)
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Month: September 2011
Things I learnt when we lost power: Take-away pizza by torchlight a bad way to have dinner. A Smart Meter won’t keep the juice flowing if there’s problems in the local distribution network. I don’t have enough torches. At least one per person would be good. The Dolphin mini LED torch I got recently is ... [More]
After much procrastination, I got a new camera. It’s a Canon IXUS 115, to replace the old Canon A70 I got way back in 2003. The old one still just about works (with minor problems), so I figured Canon was deserving of my loyalty. (My 4-ish year old Canon MP610 printer/scanner is going strong too.) ... [More]
The CBD (to be precise, the Hoddle Grid) has just about every business imagineable, except one. Petrol stations. At least, as far as I can tell from searches of Yellow Pages and Google Maps, though the latter incorrectly identified one at 114 Flinders Street. To fill up a car, you have to go to Victoria ... [More]
Speaking of City Loop safety issues, is this what’s keeping the signalling system working? Bits of sticky tape and wire? Hopefully this is just something temporary. (Pic snapped this morning thanks to a stop-start trip from Richmond to Flinders Street)
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In the good old days
One of the persistent myths is that in the “good old days”, before trains and trams had locked doors, nobody ever fell out. When the old VR ran the suburban network trains, and stations were manned and had barrier gates, trains had a lot of doors and it was never a problem. Nobody fell out ... [More]
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Qantas: nasty or nice?
Is it just me that thinks this Qantas ad looks a little like the Q bloke is being a meanie, hiding the teddy bears from the kids?
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Nine carriage trains – could they work?
Today’s Herald Sun raises an issue that has been pondered for some time: 9 carriage trains to relieve overcrowding. This would seem like a good opportunity to dig out my Bargearse remake video. The reasoning behind adding carriages is that it’s close to becoming impractical to add more trains in peak onto the busiest lines, ... [More]
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In the background
You’d always hope that if your kid was in the background on the news, he’d behave himself… and preferably didn’t pick his nose and then eat it. (Channel 10 news, 17/9/2011)
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The gamble of fixed interest rates
In October 2007 I switched to a fixed interest rate of 7.85% for five years. It turned out to be a terrible punt. The Global Financial Crisis hit the following year, with interest rates dipping to record lows. I shudder to think how much money I might have saved if at that point I’d locked ... [More]
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Who’s meant to give way?
The law says that motorists turning into a street must give way to pedestrians crossing that street. The law also says that motorists turning in or out of a private property (such as a carpark) must give way to pedestrians. So why does the signage always imply it’s the pedestrian that should be the one ... [More]
This billboard is still on display up high above Flinders Street, opposite the station, roughly across from the centre entrance*. It seems to refer to the 20% emissions reduction by 2020 pledged last year by Labor, and matched by the Coalition, though some say there are indications the Coalition will drop the target. Perhaps it’s ... [More]