Appears in the weekly Toxic Custard newsletter
Sunday! And so we get to the main excuse reason for the trip to Sydney on this specific weekend: the Doctor Who Festival. I’ve been to Comic-Con in Melbourne twice, but this was a different beast: 98% dedicated to Doctor Who, with little bit of Sherlock (which has many of the same producers/writers/crew members/fans!) getting ... [More]
(Back-dated. Posted 24/11/2015.) Booking hotels When I book hotels, I treat location as the highest priority. I’m aiming to make it easy to get around the city we’re going to without a car. For this trip, I was aiming for easy access to: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney CBD, and the airport. Anything else was a bonus. ... [More]
It’s important to have a long-term plan. PTV has one for rail which is published here: PTV Network Development Plan – Metropolitan Rail — I’ve blogged about this plan when it was released. Upgrades such as the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel and the new fleet of trains tie into this plan, and complement each other: ... [More]
Leaving aside current events for a moment, here’s yet another in my series of ten year old photos… On Saturday 5th November 2005, The Age got the scoop on a big report to be launched by the Metropolitan Transport Forum. The media was all over it, and caught me at Ripponlea station for a chat. ... [More]
A short trip coming up soon. Two nights away. Up on a Saturday at lunchtime, back on Monday evening. Options for getting to Melbourne airport and back, for the three of us: Train plus Skybus. About 70 minutes each way. Train fares each way $3.76 + 2 x $1.88. Skybus fares each way 3 x ... [More]
Here is about 70 people on a freeway. It was running at more-or-less full speed, though on the verge of getting congested. It was a Saturday, so vehicle occupancies were probably higher than average. And here’s about 70 people in a single train carriage. It wasn’t crowded, though certainly getting there. (The same number would ... [More]
Another in my series of photos from ten years ago: October 2005. This time around, they’re pretty much all personal. Ten years ago this month I moved into the house I bought in Bentleigh. Day 1 was friends and cars moving little stuff. Thank you sincerely, friends. All the computer gear, ready to leave the ... [More]
I’d love to post an awe-inspiring blog post this morning, but I haven’t got one. (There are some in the works). Instead I’ll just note some quick things: I’m speaking, with some others, at Idea Bombing Melbourne this Thursday night, the topic being: “Tapestry of a City”. Facebook event / EventBrite — it’s free, but ... [More]
This is an update of a 2010 post where I quickly compared the different types of trains then in service. Since then the Hitachi trains have been taken out of service, and I also thought I’d briefly describe where the names come from. (The Hitachi trains got their name because the design was by Hitachi, ... [More]
Once a year, the planets align, and I get hit by heaps of bills — often all three utilities, plus car rego and home insurance… It’s pretty much a consequence of having bought a house mid-year (in 2005) and bought a car mid-year (in 2008) as well. Plus other, quarterly, bills seem to arrive around ... [More]
Obviously the best camera you have is the one you have with you. Normally that’s my phone. Sometimes I’ll also have my ~4 year old Canon IXUS 115, which is compact, but takes some great photos. But for my birthday I treated myself to a DSLR, a Canon 700D (spotted on sale + cashback offer ... [More]
Another in my series of photos from ten years ago. Bourke Street (at Swanston Street) tram platform stops just being completed, it looks like. Note the old “The Met” tram stop sign — in a mix of brands with the then-new Metlink and Yarra Trams. The realtime display must have been pretty new. And of ... [More]