Melbourne stuff
Remember a month ago when I noted the tree planted in the middle of the taxi rank next to Bentleigh railway station? The tree forced taxi drivers out into traffic to move up to the front of the rank. Today I noticed the local council has fixed it, moving the tree back to between the ... [More]
Because you can never have too much redundancy redundancy. (During last Friday’s Grand Final parade.)
The kids and I set off for the Show on Tuesday morning. It had been about a decade since I’d been — ditto for Isaac, who went with a childcare group some years ago, and we’re not sure if Jeremy had ever been before. Tuesday turned out to be a good day to go. Despite ... [More]
Recently they’ve done some work on the streetscape in my local shopping centre, Centre Road in Bentleigh. Now, I may not know much about road design, but I think this, at the taxi rank next to the station, is a bad layout. Why? Because when the front taxi gets a fare, the others in the ... [More]
The stations between Malvern and South Yarra are colloquially known as the MATHS stations. Malvern Armadale Toorak Hawksburn South Yarra The first four of them (that would be MATH) also match architecturally. I’m assuming they were all built around 1915 when the line was quadruplicated. I can’t think of any other station group names of ... [More]
Tony spotted a hot air balloon above his house this morning. I spotted one in Collins Street at about 9:15am: I wonder if it was the same one?
Most unexpected question from the media pack at 1 Treasury Place this morning: Should Premiers Lane have a possessive apostrophe? (That Brendan is a joker.) I gave a mock answer for that one, which wound up proceedings, and a quick discussion followed on the merits or otherwise of punctuation in street signs. As it turns ... [More]
Where is that damn train? Flinders Street Station, 1920s (or maybe 30s?) (From the Public Record Office Victoria) Flinders Street Station, 2007 Yeah the angles don’t match, but I reckon it’s not bad given that I took the new picture last year, before seeing the older one. AND it’s exactly the same platforms in shot. ... [More]
Race is a funny thing. I think gradually (at least in the bit of society I inhabit) attitudes are changing. It seems common for people of my parents’ generation to refer to someone’s race. It’s not necessarily anything negative, just a reference. That Jewish man. The Chinese doctor. The Indian lady. When I talk about ... [More]
Some things never change. Colliers International researchers found that in December last year, house prices for suburbs near trains and trams hit an average of $526,000 – with top rail suburb prices soaring by up to 57 per cent in the year. — Herald Sun, 24/7/2008 (See also a similar article on
I went to see the Art Deco exhibition at NGV International last Friday night. I would have gladly paid, but happily went when invited as part of a corporate thing, which was great, as there were no crowds. I’ve long liked art deco, and there’s some terrific pieces, highlighting that the style influenced not only ... [More]
Winter is really upon us. I can tell without checking the weather reports that it’s been cold overnight. Monday night/Tuesday morning was probably the coldest night since I’ve moved to Bentleigh, based on the evidence: The heater switched on in the middle of the night to warm up the house. It’s got a pretty low ... [More]