Real estate agents earn a fair amount when they get a sale. Often they’ll give a gift of some kind when the sale is complete. When I picked up the keys on Thursday, they gave me a gift, just a token of their appreciation, they said. I wasn’t expecting anything. What was it? Not a ... [More]
Category: Melbourne
Melbourne stuff
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Stuff from the past week
Stuff from the past week: My arch nemesis, Big Ears/Darrin, often hangs out with his mates having a coffee outside the Collins Street (Paris End) McDonalds on weekdays about 9:30am. I wonder if I can bribe the McPeople there to do the same thing to him as he did to me? After much hunting, last ... [More]
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Gog and Magog
A few plugs for things spotted recently… Gardens A while back I was getting a couple of enterprising students, Keith and David, to do my mowing. They’d turn up with their dad driving a stationwagon full of gardening implements of destruction, and do the gardening. But a couple of months ago they bowed out, saying ... [More]
Yesterday morning. The crowd stood there, in front of the old Treasury building, holding their banners aloft. “Viva the revolution!” the banners proclaimed. I looked closer. Nobody was moving. No shouting. No cops. Just a lone security guard. A boom mic loomed above them. A car was in the middle of the crowd. A shout: ... [More]
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At the park
On Sunday I took the kids for a walk to the park. When we got there, there were the white families, an African family, an orthodox Jewish family, one or two Asian families and a kid in a wheelchair. It was like somebody had gathered people for a photo promoting community diversity. And we all ... [More]
I was told there was a good article in this week’s Big Issue. So I went looking for it this morning on the way to work. Normally I pass at least two sellers on Collins Street, plus another at the Parliament station exit. Do you think I saw any of them today? Nope, not a ... [More]
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Have you ever seen?
I was watching an episode of the West Wing last night where one of the characters sees the body of a homeless man. And I recalled something I saw years ago. I was on a train going to work out in Burwood, standing by the door. Mine was the next stop. There was an announcement ... [More]
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Seconds from death!
Some people really manage to re-define “bloody idiot”. As we were walking on Saturday afternoon, a tray truck with those stupidly big tyres came around the corner and along the opposite side of the road. He must have taken the corner too fast (from a standing start mind you), and was skidding all over the ... [More]
A couple of weeks ago we were having dinner on a Saturday night in Bourke Street. Something was wrong, and we remarked as such: it was about 7pm and Gaslight Music wasn’t open. For years, Gaslight has been a haven in the eastern end of the city, particularly when waiting to meet someone on a ... [More]
Oh. Just found this rather similar picture from 1997 to compare to:
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Hot bodies
A mass of bodies. Up close. Pushing together. We move as one. Moving faster… faster… don’t stop, we’re almost there… Man this train is crowded. Update 9pm: Rather too prophetic. An incident at South Yarra concerning a “trespasser” at about 5pm delayed a whole bunch of trains by 20+ minutes, resulting in more sardine-like conditions. ... [More]