Long boring retrospectives
I can’t quite believe the year is over already. 66 blog posts this year (plus this one). The most viewed, if I’m reading the stats right, were all transport posts: Also top of the pops were the home page, a 2018 post about what the rail map will look like with the Metro tunnel open ... [More]
Not a transport post, but if you haven’t seen it, the PTUA State Election scorecard is out now. My paternal grandmother was born in Townsville to Chinese immigrant parents. My paternal grandfather was born in China but emigrated around 1900, prior to the White Australia Policy. So that they could travel overseas and be admitted ... [More]
For those of us back in lockdown, hope you’re doing okay. Let me tell you about the best thing this past week. (No transport content here; if that’s what you’re after, you can skip this post.) In 1928, Gurney Slade wrote Lovers And Luggers, a novel set in Broome amongst pearl divers. The movie rights ... [More]
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. This is especially so for school reunions. My eldest son is pondering whether to even go to his – the people he wants to stay in touch with, he does via Facebook. Fair enough. I however do go to my school reunions. Melbourne High School has an active ... [More]
Friday night concert! I was sold on Things Of Stone And Wood – though my compradres were really going for the support act, Club Hoy. It might be cruel to call TOSAW a one-hit wonder, though none of their efforts charted as well as Happy Birthday Helen. But the song was on an album called ... [More]
I used to love The Bill, way back when it was a cop show with a sense of realism, rather than a full-on soapie. The episodes I enjoyed the most, season 4 (from 1988) are currently airing on the ABC, in the middle of the day (around 3pm, and again the next morning around 5am). ... [More]
It’s the end of the phone call that I remember the most. Before she hung up, she said: “Drive safely”. I’m sure it was a standard line, but I’m equally sure she meant it. She was a nurse; the last thing she’d want having communicated the bad news would be the recipient having a crash ... [More]
Warning! No transport content! If you only want to see transport blog posts, you can use this URL, or sign up to the email alerts! My first recollection of the ABC Shop in Melbourne was a small space in their then Lonsdale Street radio HQ, which was where the County Court is now — on ... [More]
Five years ago today I posted this video: A Day on the Trains. The footage for it was gathered over the space of a month or two in the dying days of the Connex Melbourne Empire in late 2009, and it was designed to capture a few scenes I thought might be changing in the ... [More]
In the days before home video, we had to resort to other means to re-live movies and TV shows. Novelisations of productions were common. I knew people who had hundreds of Doctor Who novelisations — virtually every story had a book published. I had perhaps a dozen. Other books made it into publication — scripts, ... [More]
Sometime one morning in 1983 (I think) I was walking through Elsternwick Park on my way to the bus stop to go to school (year 7), when I saw a hot air balloon at low altitude. On the basket appeared to be a Penrose triangle — the logo for Infinity Limited, the ABC’s science show ... [More]
This is very cool. Similar to tools Jarrett Walker often talks about that show how far you can get in X minutes on public transport, here’s a map prepared around 1925 or so (I’m guessing) by the Melbourne Town Planning Commission showing how long it takes to get into central Melbourne from various suburbs by ... [More]
The Steamrail Open Day a couple of weeks ago was good fun, though in some ways very similar to the previous one in 2012… But I’ll post some pics anyway. This is a Tait train (“Red rattler”) — dating back to the 1910s, and very common when I was growing up, but phased-out in the ... [More]
M+J were clearing out some old cook books, and found this gem. It’s not dated, but it does have a decimal price, so it must be post-February 1966. Perhaps not far after though, judging from the style. Much of it is in black and white, but here are a few choice colour pages… And one ... [More]
I was 25 when I first had kids. One outcome of this is that my eldest son’s education is running 25 years after mine. The dates don’t match up completely — the main event, the English exam, for me was on 7th November 1988. For this year’s VCE, it’s today. Good luck Isaac, and all ... [More]
The weather on Friday night wasn’t favourable, but I think we all had a good time at the 25th school reunion in any case. Amusingly, it clashed with the year 9+10 social in the main building. When I first arrived (wearing a black suit) I was asked if I was with Security. It was a ... [More]