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Far North Queensland 2024

Fruitbat Falls

Cool water, dusty roads, and the biggest ant hills you’ve ever seen.

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Health transport

Masks, and PT tweaks from Monday

Some things worth noting in PT this week. Masks now recommended On Friday, the Chief Health Officer recommended that Melburnians now wear masks outside home when it is not possible to stay physically distant from others – including when using public transport. Obviously this has been prompted by the current rates of COVID-19 community transmission  ... [More]

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transport

Transit Unplugged

I’ve been listening to the Transit Unplugged podcast for a while now on my (sometimes quite long) weekend walks. They typically interview CEOs and other senior managers from public transport systems in the USA, often small-to-medium sized operations. In recent weeks they’ve published a set of interviews with CEOs from much larger operations – and  ... [More]

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Toxic Custard newsletter transport

What, yet ANOTHER rebranding?

Although it doesn’t involve removing level crossings, the Mernda rail extension is being built by the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA). This LXRA tweet last week got some attention, and not just from those who have been long awaiting the project’s completion: A sign of things to come #Mernda 🚝🚝🚝 #transformingMelbourne pic.twitter.com/nUc8lt4ZiF — Level Crossings  ... [More]

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Europe 2017 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇧🇪🇸🇬

Epic bus ride to the end of the land

(Backdated. Posted 22/8/2017.) Unlike the budget hotel in Bath, this hotel in Penzance included a full English breakfast, of which we availed ourselves. Very tasty. We’d be spending the day in and around Penzance, but leaving in the evening, so we had to check-out. The hotel initially seemed a bit iffy about having the space  ... [More]

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Home life music Toxic Custard newsletter

TreatYoSelf: Sonosed

Brace yourself… a non-transport-related blog post. A couple of years ago I bought a Yamaha surround sound setup, which has been fabulous. I’d single out the sound track on Mad Max Fury Road in particular; very immersive. Heck, even later seasons of the West Wing had some subtle surround going on, adding to the viewing  ... [More]

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Toxic Custard newsletter transport

You can check your Opal card balance on a phone. #Myki? Don’t hold your breath.

Outside Australia, numerous public transport smartcard systems have apps that let you instantly check the balance of a card using a phone that uses Near Field Communication (NFC). Most such phones are Android, but the Apple iPhone 6 and later also has it. Because the “master record” for this data is kept on the card  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Proof that Skybus was intended to be on Myki one day

Got back from Perth last night. Had a great time, which you’ll hear about in due course, but first: something we spotted on the Skybus on the way home: Myki reader mounting points — and just like those that first appeared on trams a few years ago, they’re being used as brochure holders at the  ... [More]

Categories
Culture transport

Art on local stations

Some local railway stations seem to have gained a lot of art in the last few weeks. Patterson station’s road underpass got a mosaic mural, with local schools contributing to a project devised by Pamela Irving. There’s some quite good pieces: It’s all aimed at improving the look of the station and reducing graffiti. THE  ... [More]

Categories
Sport transport

The tram to Telstra Dome

That tram must be really old… it still says “Telstra Dome.” (Pic taken on Friday.) I wonder how much it costs to get the old pre-digital/dot-matrix destination rolls re-done. Or indeed if there are many people who remember how to do it.

Categories
Home life

Is it just me?

Is it just me that hangs up my laundry inside-out, so the sunshine fades it on the inside?

Categories
Home life

The plumber and The Machine

If there’s one thing you want to be working in your house, it’s the drains. At their worst, if there’s a complete blockage, you’ll end up with nasty smells and even nastier effluent in the house. Thankfully things weren’t that bad, but there was that suspicious level of water in the toilets, and some stuff  ... [More]