This is Flagstaff station yesterday at 8:50am. It’s not a once-off occurence, but happens regularly. As patronage has grown at Parliament and Melbourne Central, more gates have gradually gone in… fitting more in at Flagstaff is probably a challenge, but one that will have to be looked at, perhaps in conjunction with the conversion from ... [More]
Eight days until Movember. So, what will I look like with a moustache next month? Well, thanks to this handy dandy kit that Marita provided, perhaps we have an indication. I tried each of them out… here are the results…
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This year, I’m doing Movember
I’ve not been organised early enough previously to do Movember, but this year, I’ve signed-up. For those unaware, Movember is an annual event when blokes grow moustaches to raise money for charities, chiefly associated with men’s health and mental health. One starts off cleanshaven on November the 1st, then starts growing the moustache, for sponsorship. ... [More]
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Brisbane day 6 – heading home
Thursday 6th October Alas, the day came to depart Brisbane and head back home. Perhaps it’s inevitable these days that travelling interstate pretty much requires setting aside most or all of the day just for the journey. I suppose it’s a consequence of modern air travel, which requires getting to and from airports, and lengthy ... [More]
The supermarket war of Coles versus Safeway/Woolworths has heated up, with roast chicken. First, Coles went to $10. …then Safeway/Woolworths struck back with… $9.88. These posters were prominently displayed en masse around the Bentleigh Woolworths last night. “Why pay $10” “Only $9.88”? TWELVE CENTS DIFFERENCE? Or to put it in percentage terms, Woolies are 1.2% ... [More]
Some people got just a little too hysterical last week when news of a security vulnerability in Myki came out. The story broke on Monday, but it wasn’t until Wednesday that the mainstream media got hold of it, with the Melbourne Times running it first, spreading rapidly to The Age, AAP, 3AW and others — ... [More]
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Brisbane day 5 – Surfers Paradise
Wednesday 5th October The first job was to return the hire car. Similar to the circuitous route filling it up the night before, due to the one way streets, this involved a 750 metre drive (Google Maps estimated time: 4 minutes), and then a 170 metre walk back (estimated: 2 minutes). Turning out of Raff ... [More]
(Actually there have been real, major Blackberry outages this week.)
General Motors’ campaign in US college newspapers: (via Bike Portland) Seems to be implying that driving is cooler than cycling. Pretty funny… to a lot of the younger generation (including Americans, at least in cities like Portland), there’s nothing cool about driving a huge truck. Anyway, here’s Giant Bicycles’ comeback: (via Justin Haugens) GM have ... [More]
Tuesday 4th October It was time to go bush. We picked up a booked car at Europcar (around the corner from the hotel, though it turned out Thrifty was also close-by) and after some negotiating of central Brisbane’s one way streets, found the Pacific Motorway. One way streets don’t affect one as a pedestrian, but ... [More]
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Brisbane Day 3
Monday 3rd October Day three in Brisbane, and it was time to get to the whole point of the trip: to visit my Dad’s memorial bench at the University of Queensland. After waiting for my Uncle Frank (Dad’s last remaining sibling) to arrive (his bus was delayed), we headed down Adelaide Street to find the ... [More]
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Brisbane day 2
Sunday 2nd October We started off with a walk around Brisbane’s CBD, heading down and around Queen Street Mall to look around the shops (nothing staggeringly surprising). Being the PT geek that I am, I guided us down into one of the underground bus stops I’d encountered on my only previous visit to Brisbane in ... [More]
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Brisbane day 1
Saturday 1st October It’s probably almost inevitable that when leaving on an interstate holiday, you will head for the airport and reach the point of no return before remembering some vital thing you’ve left behind. In my case, it was medication — sitting on the bedside table at home — which is prescription-only and for ... [More]
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Queensland’s Go Card vs Myki
I’ll get to writing up our Brisbane trip in full excruiciating detail in due course, but first what everyone wants to know: How is Go Card compared to Myki? First impressions Go Card seems faster; more responsive. On buses, ferries and railway stations we consistently seemed to get sub-second response times when touching the card ... [More]
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My usual stations (part 5)
Murrumbeena/Carnegie, 2003-2005 The move to Carnegie in 2003 gave me two local stations, because the house was almost equidistant between them. It was slightly closer to Murrumbeena, so I usually used that. But Carnegie had better access to shops, so that got used sometimes too. I’ve mentioned Murrumbeena already. Carnegie hasn’t changed much recently, but ... [More]
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My usual stations (part 4)
Hawthorn, 1993-95 When I finally moved out of home, it was to Hawthorn. Initially I was still working in Burwood East, and the commute was an easy tram ride, from the flat we rented which was midway between there and the city — which became useful once work moved into town. Cutting through the back ... [More]